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Mission of Burma – The Obliterati (Matador)
This is the album that 2004’s comeback ONoffOn should have been. I liked that LP a lot (especially holdovers “Dirt” and “Playland” and new songs “Hunt Again” and “The Setup”), but the overall public reaction could be summed up by the title of track six on this successor: “Good, Not Great.” There will be no such hesitancy this time. The Obliterati is a smashing triumph, a completely consistent (ONoffOn wasn’t) statement, a maelstrom of music that comes after you like a police dog on a bloody scent. It’s flat out fabulous.
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Negative Trend – Negative Trend EP (2-13-61)
HENRY ROLLINS does us all a service by reissuing this classic, collectible 1978 7” EP originally on their producer’s one-off Heavy Manners label, with its original black printing on stark red background artwork (which was stupidly abandoned by Subterranean when they reissued it on 12” in 1982 as We Don’t Play, We Riot). These original scene San Francisco punk greats, unfairly known primarily as the group of bassist WILL SHATTER and drummer STEVE DEPACE before the later, so different FLIPPER, epitomized punk at the time.
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Sleepover Disaster – Oceanographer EP (Overcast)
This is the best shoegaze/dreampop MY BLOODY VALENTINE-ish record I’ve heard in eons, even better than the Fresno, California band’s LP last year. This should make my Top 10 for the year!
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Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You (4AD/Beggars)
For their fifth LP, Cornwall, England vets Mojave 3 have really shaken up the formula. There are familiar elements to Puzzles, like NEAL HALSTEAD’s breezy vocals—sometimes meshing with the voice of the sublime RACHEL GOSWELL, but way too rarely here) and folky guitar leads, and the overall sound itself (this time done for the first time in Halstead’s own home studio). But they often abandon the West-Coast U.S. singer-songwriter stuff they’ve been doing so remarkably. In its place comes an up-tempo power-pop-folk that dominates this surprising LP just by being so quick and insistent—like someone intentionally slipped your 33 RPM record on at 45.
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The Foundry Field Recordings – Prompts/Miscues(Emergency Umbrella)
Tired of unambitious copycats? Columbia, MO’s FFR may have released only one 7” single since 2003’s debut EP, Fathers as Robots, but they worked those 36 months meticulously writing and building this epic, impressive shoegaze-pop concept album (roughly, man’s response to the speed of modern life). Listening to it, you can sense every thorough, crafting detail. And yet, it also feels so spontaneous and airy.
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Pure Hell – Noise Addiction CD + DVD (Welfare)
I didn’t get any info with this double-disc, but I remember Pure Hell alright(!), from some shows at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. They only released one 7” single, a high-energy remake of “These Boots Are Made For Walking” b/w their own, hot “No Rules,” via their manager’s Golden Sphinx imprint in 1978 (which I think was even import only!). So the Philadelphia four have been unfairly unknown to most until now, other than occasional mentions as the “other” all-black punk rock band. And though the A-side was an odd marriage of New York Dolls, Sweet, and Ramones, the b-side’s unfettered punk attack registered big-time. And with this full retrospective appearing now, it’s fun hearing these other songs for the first time since live versions, what, 27 years ago? The crankin’ “Noise Addiction,” dismissive “American,” fun “Courageous Cat,” rollicking “Future,” and frank “I Want Your Body,” have held up fine, too.
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Jon Auer –
Songs From the Year of Our Demise (Pattern 25)
Such a beautiful debut solo LP by THE POSIES veteran, I just keep playing and playing and playing this! Really lovely stuff, not at all like his band, much as I love them too. This is what solo LPs are for!
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Nick Garrie – The Nightmare of J B Stanislas (Rev-Ola/Cherry Red U.K.)
Britain’s Rev-Ola does it again with another “soft psych” orchestral-pop delight. Little has been known about either this young French and British singer/songwriter of Scottish and Russian lineage or his debut LP, released by a French label in 1969. Garrie himself is surprisingly dismissive of Nightmare these days, contending that the 56-piece orchestra brought in swamped his organic folk vision in sentimentality. But I disagree.
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DulceSky – Lands (Eden’s Watchtower)
2004’s Media Luna/Half-Moon EP was no bum steer. The Lands LP it preceded, and whose quality it portended, is finally here, and the Salt Lake City quartet’s dreamy, gauzy, faraway rock stands up just as beautifully to the greater demands of a full-length work.
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Avengers, Mutants Flipper- Live at the Fillmore, April 8
Wow, what a show. The Avengers were brilliant, hot, tight, exciting, and as good as any band out there whether in their 20s or their 40s. Does it matter that their wildest songs, such as “Teenage Rebel” and “Car Crash” were written 29 years ago? It matters not. It only matters that they mean them as much as they ever did, and these songs kick every butt in town. Likewise, the more comical Mutants were great fun. Their lone 1982 album Terminal Tower didn’t really do their live show justice (having seen them at Danceteria in 1981), and that’s still true. They’re the perfect straddle between punk’s power and new wave’s weirdo strain. They haven’t lost a thing. Flipper is as much a nutball outfit as ever, and the art student disdain singer BRUCE LOOSE still has for the crowd, sauntering around the stage like it had land minds, and blowing out massive billows of cigarette smoke out up in the air, was priceless. And their music, part vacuum cleaner and part drunken tuning, still feels like a raging hangover. Lastly, the headlining DEAD KENNEDYS play well, but their acting singer JEFF PENALTY was booed when his name was introduced half way through the set, and that was deserved. If they’re going to play in their home city without JELLO BIAFRA—at best a truly dubious idea—they’ll have to come up with someone 100 times better than this guy—he’s just a bad hardcore cliche. Sad to watch, especially after the first three bands were so exceptional. Should old bands come back? Three suggested a resounding yes, the other was a flat no. As ever, the answer is “it depends.”
