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Top 10 November 25, 2012
NoTe: as always all of my top 10s are non-hierarchical!
Here’s a few random bits of awesome tunes I’ve acquired on cassette and vinyl over the last few weeks. Enjoy the playlist!
Earthquake Party! – “Let’s Rock, OK?” Cassette – (Mystic Steamship Co.)
This Allston based trio has a superfuzzed garage-y take on 70s punk, an offshoot of the Ramones, The Clash and Buzzcocks genome. Live they are loud, fun and as much a party as this awesome little cassingle suggests.
The Ketamines – “Spaced Out” Cassette – (Hosehead Records)
These guys are from Lethbridge, Alberta and are straight ahead garage psych that pretty much owns that musical corner on this release, apparently also available on vinyl. Drawing from druggy The Electric Prunes and Seeds riffs, also rides the new psych wave with poise and attitude. Gnarly riffs, dudes.
The Migs – “Summer Tour Tape 2012” – Cassette (Take A Bath!)
Young ‘uns from New Hampshire, I grabbed this little handmade puppy from The Migs at a basement show we were both playing at and I’m pretty stoked on it. Lo fi, reverb, yes all the trappings, but also ability and fucking energy.. opens with some surf, gets into sing along hooks and full on spooky rough party music. Something Lux & Poison Ivy would have loved.
Quintron – “Singing House Demo Vol. 1” Cassette “ – (Spirit Candle Tapes)
Keyboard hero, Drumbuddy inventor and top notch rock n roller Quintron ‘s clinical document of his newest musical invention: The Singing House. Basically an analog tone generator that’s modulated by the weather; wind, rain, temperature, even the light of the moon affects the sounds that emerge from the synth. Simple, aleatoric and gorgeous, the tape itself is more like documentation, but you get really lost in the tones after awhile. Everyone should get one of these installed in their homes!
No Babies – “No Babies” LP – (Upset! The Rhythm)
Oakland based atonal punks No Babies are a hard touring shitstorm of free-noise and spazziness. Joyous and mercifully short collection of tunes on sparkly red vinyl that carry the ghost of Captain Beefheart in their veins and takes all sorts of awesome twists and stabs and dissonant deconstruction.
Katalin Karády – “Katalin Karády” LP – (Pepita)
1979 compilation of Hungarian singer/actress Katalin Karády who has the most incredible, sultry voice and restraint, with a bit of Edith Piaf sprechstimme attitude. She was also active in the resistance against the Arrow Cross Nazis, saved many Hungarian Jews from death and was jailed as a spy for the allied forces where she was tortured and beaten nearly to death. After the war, communist Hungary had no use for her so she drifted around the world before ending up in New York, opening up a hat shop there in 1968. This album is a transportive one, for a time you never experienced and in a language you probably don’t know, but really the power of music is such that none of that matters, does it?
Ponctuation – “Lèche Vitrine” 7” EP (Independent)
Montreal garage duo and band of brothers. These dudes really know how to lay down a riff, thick and greasy, yelpy boogie. Bits of psych over a raw garage punk that worships at the feet of Bo Diddley and Thee Headcoates some of these tunes demand to be rocked again immediately. Great little 4 song debut!
Solids – “Fog Friends” b/w “Blown Out” 7” (Machette)
Solids are a new-ish duo from Montreal that unabashedly and awesomely bring back the sound of the mid 90s on this 7” as well as their new full length (which I’ll get to later on!). A side starts off like an Inbreds tune and inverts the beat with some unexpected and dramatic chords, some “wo-oh-OH-oh” chorus-es with epic instrumental breakdown at the end. It’s a blast and brings back the best of the golden era of indie rock, and manages to make it sound bright and new. Flip side “Blown Out” maintains the rolling tempo, adds some harmonies on the vocals and really goes for the glory, nice hooky drone-y riffs that push the limits of what a two piece can do.
Aphex Twin – “I Care Because You Do” LP Reissue (Warp/1972)
The last of *Aphex Twin*’s analog recordings to be put out before he came back to it on Analord , this has always been one of my favorite Twin releases and how could I resist picking up the vinyl reissue that’s just been put out on 1972. Intelligent dance music never had it so good. Squishy, dreamy and evoking whole worlds of aural dreamscapes, even thru the nightmare of “Ventolin” the collection of recordings here done between 1990 and 1994 are timeless and as most of AT’s output have aged better than a lot of the more idiomatic IDM of the era. Fave track: “Alberto Balsalm”.
Metz – “Metz” LP (Sub Pop)
Yep Metz, who’s star has certainly risen over the last few years, rising out of relative obscurity in Toronto and slaying enough live to have reached the golden ears of Sub Pop, who’ve released their self titled debut full length. Visceral, simple riffs and screaming that take you straight to the happy place. Grunge DNA (natch), they are a hypercharged and awesomely energetic and unhinged live.. dare we call this post-grunge? It’s great for them but maybe ultimately a pity they are on such a fraught label as Sub-Pop (y’know considering the LONG shadow of a certain N-named band) just because they’ll maybe always suffer the comparison. When they crank out their driving, hypnotic and balls out rock then any preconceptions cease to matter. Check out a great song from the new LP (though I can’t say the same for the video, sorry guys!).
