Part Chimp - I Am Come

Year: 2005

Label: Monitor / Rock Action

Overlooked band from Glasgow, Scotland, and that's a real shame because they kill. They are completely fantastic, and this, their second album fucking slays. They are on Mogwai's label, and you may hear that influence on the opening track, but once you get on from there, it's just rocking, catchy, driving, quiet/loud, goodness. I think someone somewhere described them as "Pavement covering Black Sabbath", which isn't too far off. There's some crazy psychedelic metal in there, some pure pop indie rock, some creeping sludge, and some good old fashioned grungy noise rock. Teenage Fanclub versus Torche? Chavez versus Todd? 

I'm surprised this band isn't huge. Of course, I'm surprised I'm not huge either, but that's sort of another issue I suppose. 

DL

Shameless Self Promotion - Volume 2

Here we go again...Sonn Av Krusher is playing this Saturday night at the Drunken Unicorn in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia. If you live in the area, and like any of the music posted on this blog, come on out and peep it. Should be a great show, with a good mix of bands.

More music posts on the way soon.

Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys.

Glazed Baby - Karmic Debt

Year: 1994

Label: Red Decibel

Here's something you need in your life, what with the holiday's approaching and all. Something to turn on when you're ready for the guests to leave. Something to turn on when you need something suffocatingly heavy to pull you out of a nog fueled hallucinogenic fog. 

This band came out in 1991 in New Bedford, MA with the goal to be the heaviest band ever. They make a valiant effort. As a three piece they manage to concoct some pretty convincing sludged out noise rawk. Neanderthal drumming, squealing pig guitars, and a bass played as blunt force trauma. This is fucking gnarly music. Music for all those Mama Tick fans out there. Where my dogs at?

If it helps, members of this band went on to play in Unsane, Season To Risk, Shiner, and Every Time I Die (what?! can that even be right?) among others. 

If you like Mama Tick, Unsane, Melvins, Loudspeaker, dirty, nasty, distorted, mean music, you will like this. Promise.

DL

GoGoGo Airheart - Exit The UXA

Year: 2002

Label: Gold Standard Laboratories

I remember liking this band when I (and they) were residing in San Diego, and their wirey post-punk was a nice relief when confronted with a bill of four or more Locust styled grindcore bands all vying to tear your face off. It was pleasant to have a band with a little more rhythm, more subtleties, and panache. So then fast forward to me moving away from San Diego, and the band eventually petering out in 2005(?), and I had all but forgotten them. I came across this record in my collection the other day, and thought it was pretty good. Granted, there's more dub influence than I care to tolerate, but generally speaking, they deliver a pretty good English post punk meets American art rock conglomeration. Songs are thin and nervous, and tend to twist and turn when you least expect it. 

It's something a little different, but since we haven't been posting much lately, I figured I owed you all something. Peep it.

DL

Glifted - Under And In

Year: Martians Go Home

Label: 2002

First off, I must apologize for the lack of posts recently, but some unforeseen changes in my professional life have forced a shift in priorities as of late, and thusly I have not been very motivated to "blog" as it where.

But you don't care do you? I probably wouldn't.

So then on to Glifted. A duo consisting of Tim Lash of Hum, and T.J. Harrison of Lovecup out of Campaign-Urbana who produced the first piece of music to rival My Bloody Valentine, since the release of the watershed "Loveless". And I mean that. This is a true shoegazing monster in that My Bloody Valentine vein, hypnotic, pulsing, droning waves of thick guitars with the disembodied, distant vocals swelling over the music. It's sort of Hum + My Bloody Valentine + Mercury Rev. It's strange music, maybe not "rock" music per se, but it's definitely heavy, and it should appeal to followers of this blog. 

Let me know what you think.

DL

Worst Case Scenario - The Complete Works

Year: 1997

Label: Vermiform

In 1994 in the city of Olympia, Washington, there beget a hardcore band who striped all pretense from that genre and played it bare bones. Screaming, scratching, noisy, abrasive, and to the fucking point. People seemed to dig that. They released a few records in their short lifespan on the very popular labels, Troubleman, Lookout, and Vermiform. People seemed to dig that. The band featured Justin Trosper of Unwound / Young Ginns fame. People seemed to dig that.

Listen, if you like any of the following bands, you will at the very minimum find this interesting: Unwound, Nation Of Ulysses, Born Against, Antioch Arrow, Circus Lupus, Heroin, Universal Order Of Armageddon, Wrangler Brutes, Monorchid, The VSS...shit man, can I stop? You get the idea?

DL

Hum - Electra 2000

Year: 1997

Label: Martian Go Home

Huge, epic, massive, thick, gigantic, expansive...uh what else is really big? Titanic? Sure.

This second release out of Champaign, Illinois band Hum's catalog galvanized the sound that would propel them into Cadillac advertisements over a decade later. It was originally released in 1993 on 12 Inch Records, with a slightly different running order, and was then re-released in 1997 on Martian Go Home, which is what you have here. 

The guitars are blankets of sound, warm and enveloping, while the rhythms ebb and flow. The vocals are layered on in a smooth sheen, never competing with the forward progression of each song. If you took the emotional dynamics of Sunny Day Real Estate, and filtered it through the blissed out bombast of old Smashing Pumpkins, this would be the result. You've probably heard this band, so I'll leave it at that. If per chance you never caught them the first time around, do yourself a favor and get this. I haven't heard a band play like this since.

After Hum, the members went on to form a grip of bands in the Champaign-Urbana scene cannibalizing other local bands like Castor, 16 Tons, and Love Cup in the process of concocting; Centaur, Open Hand, National Skyline, Gazelle, Glifted, Balisong, and more one-off projects. Point being, if you like Hum, you can peep these other bands to hear the different elements of that band dissected and magnified. If anyone is interested, I have Glifted, and National Skyline stuff I could post.

DL

Die Kreuzen - Die Kreuzen

Year: 1984

Label: Touch And Go

We've referenced this band before on this blog, so I thought we should let you in on the real deal. First wave American hardcore that was an early proponent of melding the sped up punk attitude with some sped up metal riffs. They would later evolve into a slower proto-grunge (or is that post-classic rock?) rock band, but on their debut album they play it short and fast. 

Like most of those original hardcore bands, Die Kreuzen carved out a unique sound and approach to the genre, making this album easily identifiable versus, say, Circle Jerks, or DOA, or Big Boys. I'd say their closest sonic peers would be Void, COC, Feederz, Geza X and a touch of Black Flag. Good stuff.

I tacked on the 1982 demo for good measure.

I'm going to make this quick, and I'm gonna warn you ahead of time...this one won't be up for long. Do what you will.

DL

Non Compos Mentis - The Rats Know Him

Year: 1999

Label: Tortuga

Ah yes...ugly music. Sweet, sweet, nasty, ugly music.

Hailing from Burlington, Vermont this band was riding the crest of that "Hydrahead" sound of the late nineties. You remember that sound? It was the amalgamation of the mid-nineties screamo sound (Still Life, Mohinder, Angel Hair, etc) with jarring technical metal and it was made most famous by Converge. I think, and I believe I stated this opinion on this very blog earlier, that Converge are a bad Today Is The Day cover band. I only mention that, not to bag on Converge (and I doubt my feelings on the subject either way will effect that band's fan base), but to give a frame of reference, and assert that Non Compos Mentis are better than Converge, they are better than fellow Vermonters Drowningman as well. They compare to say, Cable. Does that mean anything to you? It's meant to be a compliment, as Cable were a great band. How about Deadguy? We all know Deadguy, yes? They have some similarities to Deadguy.

Maybe this is a bit metallic for this blog, and maybe it would have gone better on Colostomy Grab Bag, but I was already here posting the Pipe record, and frankly, it doesn't seem that CGB is getting the traffic that Shiny Grey Monotone is, so you'll have to contend with it here. Rest assured though, I feel confident you can handle it. I wouldn't have set it out here if I didn't. 

DL