Putiferio - Ate Ate Ate

Label: Robot Radio
Year: 2008

Our Italian Bureau comes correct with another recommendation, this time the band Putiferio from...well....Italy. Padova to be exact.
We were sent their latest record, which is a relative term because it came out in 2012, but upon further listening, I like this one, their first one, better. It's got a bit more dirt under the fingernails, you know? It's seven songs, the first three aggressively building towards the album's centerpiece, the 13 minute "Putiferio Goes To War" which is an amalgamation of electronic music, off-the-wall grindy noisey, ambient soundscapes, and big hooky noise rock. Takes an investment to get through but I think you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor. The record then ends as it began, with three more tracks, one of which plays off the mellow electronic elements mentioned prior, the other two get back to the (more successful in my opinion) off-kilter noise rock attacks, albeit with detours into strange (interesting) territory.
I'm digging this one. Dig it.

DL

Towers - Towers

Label: Electric Human Project
Year: 2007

There's a million bands called Towers, and this is one of them (that I know of). They were from Philadelphia, and left this mortal coil back in 2014 for reasons unknown, but we suspect nefarious.
This Towers liked to get real up in your face, so you could smell the rancor of their hot breath on your own lips, the spittle bathing your cheeks. Thy tuned down, turned up, and proceeding with a blasting of noisy, off kilter, D-beat, blackened, aggressive hardcore. Bits of patron saints Discharge, bits of perennial touchstone His Hero Is Gone, bits of Neurosis, bits of Isis (which I get is a...bit...repetitive), and some good old fashioned hard work.
It's enjoyable the way scratching an itch until it bleeds down your leg is enjoyable. Most effective played at high volume in an open space whereupon free flailing is acceptable.
Yes, this record is slightly out of the usual genre highlighted on this blog. But let's be honest, as long as I'm the sole contributor to this hellhole for the foreseeable future, then genre concerns give way to "what is Gray listening to this morning?". Right? And c'mon guys (and that one girl), would I steer you wrong?

DL

Part Chimp - Cup

Label: Monitor
Year: 2007

Back from vacation, back in your pants.
I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to spend the next 44 minutes reveling in the grotesque beauty of Part Chimp, another of the "greatest bands nobody paid attention to" bands. Their ability to mask the music's true intention of pop glory under a diseased shroud of distorted glee was truly uncanny, and unmatched (sorry Torche...I still love you though).
This record collects a grip of (mostly) non-album tracks serves up all the Neanderthal stomp and punch drunk laughs that run the spectrum of Part Chimp's repertoire. Sometimes three's a Silkworm covering Melvins feel, sometimes a Teenage Fanclub covering Floor feel, sometimes a Grifters covering King Snake Roost feel....but...you're getting the feel, yes?
Play often and play loud.

DL

Volt - Rorhat

Label: Exile On Mainstream

Year: 2006

There are some folks out there who continuously and consistently turn me on to great new music that I would have otherwise missed. And in the age of the music blog, those people have turned out to be semi-anonymous or pseudonymed people far-flung across the globe. I guess that's just the way things are right now, it's sort of weird, but probably not much different from when I used to send letters out all over the place looking for demos, stickers, zines, or obscure 7"s, and remarkably, I would usually get something back in return that ruled in some way shape or form. The world is a lot smaller in this digital age, but the concept has stayed the same. Keep digging, and you'll find some pretty remarkable creativity still out there.

So, with apologies to my other favorites; Worried Well, Pinto, Fred, Cheeto, X-Angel, Mega-Leg, Lo-Res Viscera, Stormy, Batguano, our own Ipecac of course, and...well I don't want to forget anyone, so I'll just say "everyone else", I would have to nominate Arsonaut as the first inductee into the music blogging hall of fame. That guy (and I can only assume it's a guy based on the writing style and musical selections) has unearthed more and better music than any other one person I can think of. Where, or how he finds it, who knows? But I'm glad he's out there scouring the earth for more and better sounds, I'll always look forward to seeing his next post.

So aside from this being a love letter to some dude I will never meet, it also serves the purpose of reposting a record that Arsonaut first hipped me to a year or so ago on Lucidmedia back before that site hit the shitter.

Volt is a German band who come on hard and furious (that's what she said), channeling the spirit of Keelhaul, Melvins, Colossamite, King Snake Roost, and a little bit of that ole chestnut, The Jesus Lizard. It results in something that you might hear from one of the newish UK bands like Shit and Shine, Kong, or Part Chimp, so in other words, godhead. This record destroys in every way, shape, and form. If you haven't heard it already, please do, and then, after you stand back up from the ass kicking you just received, go buy/order it here.

So there you go, cheers to Arsonaut, cheers to Volt, and cheers to you all. Didn't that make everyone feel just great?

*Originally posted 02-06-10, reposted 07-23-15. Going out of town again today for a little rest and relaxation in the mountains, so I wanted to leave you with this banger of epic proportions that has been offline for some time. Enjoy it loudly and frequently.

DL

Walter Schreifels - Walter Sings The Hits Live: 03-22-06

Label: Bootleg
Year: 2006

My unquestioning and unwavering love for Walter Schreifels has been well documented on this blog over the years, and I really needn't explain it, but in the off chance you're 12 years old or from some former Eastern Bloc country that missed the late 80's and early 90's, then just read this and catch up real quick.
For the initiated, may we present this live recording made at the Nighttime Theater in Rotterdam during the "Walter Sings The Hits Tour", which was a short run of shows in Europe at the end of a Walking Concert tour whereupon he...wait for it...sang the hits spanning his career from Gorilla Biscuits to Quicksand to Rival Schools to solo material in a solo acoustic format. Which, isn't as surprising as it may have sounded, as Walter has been known to pop up here and there to do these intimate acoustic shows playing NYHC classics and his own material. The format highlights Walter's ability to entertain as both a musician and a performer. He seems very well aware of his position "in the scene" and the credibility he's banked over the years in writing and performing some of the best music of the past decades, but there's an overriding self deprecating humor to everything he does which keeps his stories and anecdotes dare I say..."sweet". He controls the crowd very well, but he's the type of artist that draws a loyal (if not huge) fan base to his shows, so everyone there is stoked to be there.
This is a guy who could sing the fucking phonebook and I'd go see him. He's earned all the praise he could ever be given, and he continues making music true to his heart, which is really all you (we, us) can ask for. Love it.

DL

Barren Womb - The Sun's Not Yellow, It's Chicken

Label: Spartan
Year: 2014

On account of that Highway Cross post down there, I figured I'd go ahead and thro this one out there for your consideration as well as they share a certain similar strain of DNA.
In Barren Womb's case, they take raucous garage rock and run it through a series of distortion pedals in an effort to warp the melody just within comprehension, but certainly buried beneath a fog of thundering bass and feedback. They play it straight on occasion, which yields a particularly Scandinavian version of rocking hardcore. Like Refused, like Division Of Laura Lee, like old Hives, like some Turbonegro. But then they will drop the "fun" and take a turn into growling Botch-styled chaos-core. Rarely are they solidly on one side of that chasm or another, they mostly ping pong back in forth taking elements from either end of the spectrum.
Barren Womb are a two piece, drums and guitar, but they've managed a full, dense sound that belies their minimal demographic. It's admirable that they can economize such that you'll never "miss" any element that you would maybe think you would ("Dude, no bass? No noise rock." Yeah yeah).

DL

Highway Cross -Open Eyes 7"

Label: Cricket Cemetery
Year: 2015

I was impressed the last time I heard Highway Cross, which was not that long ago mind you, but it tickled my fancy enough to write about it here, so for the sake of historical context please feel free to go back and read that first. I'll wait.
Back? Great.
Well then, if you liked the post hardcore bluster of the last one, then I feel pretty confident you will be able to follow the band's slight directional shift into looser, more rocking and less hardcore direction. They still keep one foot firmly in the world of punk rock (the foot that's on the gas pedal), but the other foot has taken a step back (in time) to a more stripped down garage rock rave-up sound. You'll know it when you hear it. When I hear it, I like it.
Good, hard charging, no frills, catchy shit. Dirty deeds done...

DL

Lesbian - Power Hor

Label: Holy Mountain
Year: 2007

Instrumental (mostly), sludgy, post-rocky, aggressive, varied, epic, spaced, loud, blackened metal. Four really long songs worth of it. Four really long songs that tend to pull in you in and make you forget where or when they started as they progress from idea to idea. It's grounded in that peculiar strain of USBM that comes out of the Pacific Northwest, but only tangentially. Like, you could understand how they might do a show with Wolves In The Throne Room, or just as easily, Thrones. Or, if you imagined Godspeed You! Black Emperor plugging in and letting it rip, than you can imagine this (which, by the way, GY!BE was one of the heaviest, doomiest live experiences I've ever seen...sidebar). You know?

DL

The Icarus Line - Black Lives At The Gold Coast

Label: Dim Mak
Year: 2007

The follow-up album to the criminally underrated predecessor 'Penace Soiree' which was posted here, but is most likely not there any longer. It marked the first Icarus Line record after Aaron North left the band to play with Nine Inch Nails (then Jubilee, then a real unfortunate downward spiral which I am hoping he has, or is, pulling out of, since he's super talented and creative it would be such a shame to waste away), so the primary songwriting goes to Joe Cardamone (also of Souls She Said) this time around. And while the signature anglophile signposts are still being followed, and the previously explored appreciation for Detroit circa 1970 is still evident, this record softens the edges a bit and opens up to more atmosphere and light. The venomous egos are in check, and some of the swagger has left the group, as if they had proved what they needed to prove on the earlier records and were now content to explore a slightly more accessible feel. Not that it's a pussy record by a log shot. There's still plenty of vigor and attack in most of the tracks, and they still play it loose and noisy which adds a "danger" factor to the whole affair.
The Icarus Line are unapologetic disciples of J Spaceman and Bobby Gillespie, and hey, nothing wrong with that, but if you listen up you'll hear shades of Rick Froberg's guitar style, shades of J Mascis' hazily cracking drawl, or some of the dark psych rock of The Warlocks (also direct descendants of Spacemen 3) filling in the gaps. It may not be as immediate a payoff as 'Penance Soiree' was (is), but this record stands up right next to it's brother and forges another corrosive scrawl across a formidable discography. It's insane that they haven't "made it" (whatever that would mean these days), because for  group this talented, this visionary, this reverential to the bedrocks of rock-n-roll, and this ballsy, success should be in their clenched fists.
Drummer Jeff Watson went from this record straight into recording another lost classic, Black Elk's 'Always A Six, Never A Nine'. Trivia for you.
Don Devore of Frail, Mandela, Ink and Dagger, Souls She Said, and a million other bands, appears for the last time in The Icarus Line on this record. Trivia for you.
This album (or possibly the Klaxons record that came out the same year) marks the last time Dim Mak messed around with rock music, and shifted to an all EDM (if that's what it's called) catalog. Trivia for you.

DL

Consular - Don't Cross The Swine

Label: Makeshift Origmai
Year: 2007

Southern Florida heaviness that brings the heat (and humidity). Taking the Cavity sound and running with it (into a brick wall and straight out the other side). Consular fit right in the mix with Capsule, Dove, House Of Lightning, Floor, the aforementioned Cavity, Black Cobra (1/2 south Florida...still counts)...all that.
If you like a wall of spiteful sludge with vocals akin to a sheet of metal being whipped by a tornado, then this is for you. Southern sludge the way only southerners can make it. Sounds like home.

DL

Motorhead - Motorhead

 

 

Label: Deadline
Year: 2005

This is the first Motorhead album. End of review.
(technical detail: this [much] later version [the fucking thing has been rereleased about 25 different times] has all six bonus tracks tacked on. Lot's of covers and shit. Play loud.)

DL

UT - Noise Deadening Barrier

Label: self released
Year: 2015

Straight from our Italian correspondent, Aaron Giazzon (yeah, I bet you didn't know we had an international bureau did you? Well, we do!), comes UT (not to be confused with the old NYC band of the same name) from Genoa, who you would swear were from DeKalb, Illinois or something. Total Midwestern noise rock a la Shellac, US Maple, Tar, Janitor Joe, Big'N and Colossamite.  
It pushes and pulls the way you want it to. Lots of wiry guitars picking and strumming over those rock solid bass rhythms that open into big, swinging grooves, and close back down on themselves into crunching chugs. You know what I mean.
There are bits and pieces that stand out to make this record more than just a throwback, UT manages to hide some legit melodies into the songs, complete with, dare I say, tasteful leads as well as some gut-punching twists and turns. Yes, it sounds like something you think you've heard before, but it's something really good that you think you heard before, and that's a good thing.

Thanks Aaron.

DL

Worms - Worms

Label: Dark World
Year: 2013

Here's a good idea; take the snaking sound of Unwound, add in some lo-fi grit in the vein of those Sebadoh songs that are real vicious sounding (you, the songs when Lou Barlow screams and stuff, not the other Sebadoh stuff that isn't vicious), bake (pun intended) in the laconic heavy riffing of Dinosaur Jr., and fly under the blackened banner of the original Christian Death lineup (the goth inspired punk version, not the punk inspired goth one). That would be a good idea. A real good one.
And hey, look who's using their big brains and thinking up all these good ideas, Worms.
The band from Amherst, MA (hence the Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr comparisons...they're basically neighbors!) does a convincing job of channeling Unwound (which is a really hard thing to do...just ask around), and Unwound's subsequent offshoots; Young Ginns, Worst Case Scenario. It's a messy, noisy take on catchy songs, with the added elements of lo-fi sludge just to stir up the reprobates in the house. It's exciting to hear. I'm excited to hear it!
This band used to go by the name Whirl, but then changed to Worms, which a fair number of other bands have also decided is/was a great name. But don't be confused, this Worms is the best Worms.
Tip of the hat to Decibel Magazine for pointing this one out, otherwise, like most things in life, I would have missed it.
Highly, highly, highly recommended. I promise you will like this one.

DL

Starting The Week Not With A Bang, But Whimper.

Just a quick note in lieu of an actual music post. Been doing lots of vacationing and taking time away from computers when I'm not shackled to a computer for work, so things have been slower than they should be on this end. For that I apologize, I of course want you all to be happy and satisfied with your experiences here. So I'll work on it.

In the near term I have tons on tap to post, stuff that's been backing up for months, as well as new things that people have sent in. Which, by the way, feel free to send things digitally through the Facebook page (the email page goes to Ipecac who is currently indisposed) and I will evaluate them for possible posting. It's fun to hear new things, so please do shoot whatever you think would be a good fit.

So, until tomorrow, please enjoy this little taste of Depeche Mode for no other reason than we do what we do to please the ladies. Ladies are important, they make the world go around.

Taipan - 1002: A Rock Odyssey

Label: Supernova
Year: 2007

When Steve Austin speaks (or plays music rather), you would be well served to listen. That's a sort of "law of the land" type thing. Steve Austin brings the real deal with maximum prejudice pretty much every time. All the time. His contributions to music still go mostly unheralded, even though he's one of the best guitarists in his genre, he always surrounds himself with impeccable rhythm sections, and he has a unique voice, in both tone and content, of anyone anywhere.
So, when there's a band involving Steve Austin that isn't Today Is The Day, it's going to be worth checking into. I think we can agree on that. This particular band also includes one of his Today Is The Day cohorts, Chris Debari, and the drummer from Iron Boss, Patrick Kennedy. So far, so good.
Musically, you'll hear (early period) Today Is The Day bleeding through (or on depending on how you look at it) all the songs, especially vocally. But what you may not expect to hear are shades of Afghan Whigs swagger, some rollicking garage rock, some proto-punk messiness (including a partial Stooges cover mixed in there), some of that Caustic Resins by way of Neil Young laconic swing,  swamp blues boogie, Sonic Youth-esque indie rock, cock-rocking metal, and menacing murder ballads. It's a wide gamut, but Austin's voice and a general veil of sick darkness pull the album together (mostly, anyway). Apparently this record was recorded a full six years prior to it's release, but time has been kind, it still sounds fresh now, 14 years after the fact.
As Today Is The Day once said, "it's a sweet ride mama". It's weird and varied and often caustic, but...isn't that what makes things interesting? Seems so.
If you're a Steve Austin fan, then most definitely dive in. If you're on the fence or something about Steve Austin, then...not real sure what to do with you. But for sure, dive in anyway.

DL

Buzz Rodeo - Sports

Label: self released
Year: 2015

Two items to tackle before we can dive into this posting in earnest.
1. Buzz Rodeo is a rough name, it sounds entirely too much like some also-ran C Level 90's alternative band struggling to play a local stop on the 1996 Lollapalooza Tour (well after that tour's expiration date). I hate to get stuck on that, but I am. Sorry.
2. This is not a track by track cover of the Huey Lewis and the News album 'Sports', which I suppose is a good thing, although...no...it's a good thing.

Ok, with that out of the way, let's get into the music.
Start with 'Umber' era Bitch Magnet, then work in a less mathy version of Trumans Water, a less bass-y and staccato version of Shellac, some Six Finger Satellite, and give it a bit of that Midwest Big'n drive. It comes out very "nineties", but as a compliment, in so much as the nineties put a fine point on what post-hardcore music sounds like, with it's noise rock and math rock and indie rock, and rock rock and all that. Buzz Rodeo is a throw back for sure, but they've thrown back to a particular sweet spot in contemporary music, so I'm not complaining.
Very well played, very well balanced, and very enjoyable all the way around. Highly recommended.

DL

V/A - Jabberjaw - Good To The Last Drop

Year: 1994

Label: Mammoth

Originally this was a series of benefit 7"s to raise money for the Los Angeles venue/coffeehouse Jabberjaw featuring unreleased material from bands who had taken the tiny stage. The lineup is pretty impressive:

Girls Against Boys

Unwound

Hole

Hammerhead

Beck

Teenage Fanclub

Slug

Chokebore

Mule

Helmet

Southern Culture On The Skids

Karp

Jawbox

Surgery

Unsane

Seaweed

Inch

That Dog

Further

Plus, "Broken E Strings" might be the best Unwound song ever, and that's saying something. AND "Cleaning Woman" might be the best Hammerhead song ever, which is also saying something.

*originally posted 09-05-08, reposted 07-07-15

DL

The Goslings - Grandeur Of Hair

Label: aRCHIVE
Year: 2006

Try playing the following records simultaneously and at top volume: Melvins "Bullhead", Bardo Pond "Amanita", Butthole Surfers "Rembrandt Pussyhorse", Khanate "Things Viral" (Khanate's James Plotkin mastered this record, coincidentally enough), Earth "Earth 2", and Spacemen 3 "For All The Fucked-Up Children Of The World". See what happens.
Or play this album by itself. Also at top volume. Away from children or pets. It's a warm bath of all enveloping heavy noise, and it's fucking righteous.
On this record husband and wife duo Max and Leslie Soren augment their sound with a cast of drummers and additional guitars. Joined by Adel Souto (Timescape Zero/Hangman, Violent Deed, None Dare Call It Treason), Neddal Ayad (The Does), Brendan Grubb, and Paul Leroy, the band manage to humanize the pulsing overloaded drone of their music. With a lo-fi approach there can be no taming sounds this large and wild. Rough edges are not only encouraged, they become part of the instrumentation. Not that these are shapeless jams mind you, all of the compositions on this record harken back to distinctive musical mileposts, like riffs, refrains, and harmony. Noise is wielded over top of mammoth low end churns to amass the grit and grime into a vaguely recognizable blackened smear across your speakers. Pretty music twisted into a gnarled ball.

DL

Danzig - The Lost Tracks Of Danzig

Label: Evillive
Year: 2007

I have returned from vacation, which means I survived another year without being taken to my death in the mouth of a prehistoric killing machine (shark). Congratulations to me.

Today is Independence Day in America, and I can only assume, the rest of the world. And who better than Glenn Danzig represents the promise of freedom, liberty, and justice that this great nation stands for? Answer: mother fucking nobody, that's who.

In lieu of an inverted cross shaped Danzig box set, Danzig instead culled two discs worth of songs that were not included on studio albums due to "not fitting the feeling" of said studio album, and were otherwise left as potential b-sides, but mostly just laid around unreleased. Tracks that span from the 1987/88 Chung King House of Metal recording session for the Danzig 1 record, all the way through to 2003/2004 Ocean Studios sessions that yielded the Circle Of Snakes record. Good fucking tracks. Now, I'll grant you, the further away from AC/DC black boogie Danzig gets, the more polarizing his recorded out is, and I don't fault people for only really liking the first 3.5 albums and then only partially liking the next 2, and finally not really liking the most recent ones at all. I get that. I don't necessarily agree, but I understand. Personally, I'm riding with Danzig into the blood red sunset, waiting on the Samhain of our collective souls...but that's me. I do think that if you listen all the way through from top to bottom you may gain a new appreciation for the later material, as it's presented in smaller doses rather than full albums, but then again, the black mesh and rubber gloves could scare you away. Don't let it.

God bless America, and praise Danzig!

DL