Les Savy Fav - Inches

Label: Frenchkiss

Year: 2004

I've been listening to the most recent Les Savy Fav record a lot lately, and if you don't have that one, by all means go get it, because it's great, but that made me think I should get something by the band posted up here. I don't want to upload their current record, because you should go buy it, but here's an older release to whet your appetite.

Inches is a compilation of 9 different 7"s released over the course of seven years, so it's a true career retrospective up to that point. The band has a reputation for releasing their best material via 7" as opposed to a lot of bands who issue their "non-album cuts" in the format. Consequently, this album holds together really well, all the songs work together as if they were always meant to be presented in this manner. The songs are presented in a reverse chronological order, so you do feel that the band has evolved over the years from a guitar-centric, punkish indie rock band (emphasis on the rocking), into a more sophisticated off-kilter arty post-punk ensemble. It's hard to label them, but the common denominator is that they write really catchy songs that tend to rock out, with top notch, inventive musicianship. I dig it, and I think you will too.

DL

Skullfuzz - Skullfuzz

Label: Hawthorne Street

Year: 2005 

This record might fit better on a blog liked Sludge Swamp, but hey, there's a lot of internet out there, and shit like this might otherwise fall through the cracks. So what you get is a stoner rock record as played by post hardcore dudes. Right? Sure.

The band is made up of Cache Tolman (Iceburn, Rival Schools, Civ), Charlie Walker (Split Lip, Chamberlin), and JJ Johnson (Walking Concert, J Majesty, New End Original), or I should say, "was" made up of those guys, because they broke up after this album. They got together to kick out the proverbial jams so to speak and ended up with a rock album that sounds nothing like any of their previous endeavours. Like, I didn't reckon the dude from Split Lip was capable of this Kyuss/QOTSA/Fu Manchu/B'Last/Soundgarden/The Cult/Danzig melange, but here it is. Listen for yourself. It's all fuzzy, groovy, smoked out, riff rock. 

I like it, and it flies under the radar, so give it a shot.

DL

Burning Brides - Fall Of The Plastic Empire

Label: File 13

Year: 2001

The best Mudhoney album ever released by a band that's not Mudhoney. 

Alright, alright, that's a cheap shot, and this record is definitely worthy to stand on it's own merits, but damn do they ever like Mudhoney. They have crafted a record of hard charging pop songs in the tradition of the grunge and stoner rock bands of the decade preceding, giving those jams a new sheen for the new millennium. Burning Brides co-opts a lot of different types of music to pull together what is basically a rock-n-roll record that appeals to a pretty wide audience. I haven't met many people who didn't like this record when they listened to it. 

After this album, they signed to V2 and put out another record with the drummer from Hot Snakes on board, and then he quit, and they got the drummer from Guzzard and recorded another album, and lately they put out their newest record which I haven't heard yet, so I can't vouch for it. Everything I have heard by the band, I like a lot, it's just catchy good-time rock. I mean, what the fuck, you don't like catchy good-time rock all of the sudden? What are you, goth?

DL

Archers Of Loaf - The Speed Of Cattle

Label: Alias

Year: 1996

Not real sure what the hold up was, not real sure what took so long to get some Archers Of Loaf up here, but the wait is over. The best indie rock band of the 1990s is finally represented on Shiny Grey Monotone, and to celebrate I picked the black sheep of their catalog, this collection of b-sides, demos, compilation tracks, and Peel Sessions. Probably not the best introduction to the band if you never hear them before, but you've probably heard them before...so get on with it.

As a tarheel state native I have a soft spot in my heart for all the bands that came out of the Chapel Hill scene in the early/mid-nineties, but Archers Of Loaf were far and away the best. They took really great pop songs and coated them in noisy punk, then topped them off with Eric Bachmann's gravelly vocals. He wrote lyrics that were funny, vulnerable, and self-deprecating, but unlike some bands of the time, they were never fey, the band always summoned up a muscular heft that set them apart from the others. Everything about this band epitomizes "college rock", you know what I mean?  

When the band first started, I was living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina singing in a straight edge hardcore band (yeah, deal with that.) and we went to record our first 7" at Jerry Kee's Duck-Kee Studio in Chapel Hill. I remember getting exciting seeing all the reels piled up in his studio marked "Archers Of Loaf", "Superchunk", and "Polvo", but the other members of the band I was in didn't share my enthusiasm and wanted to concentrate more on our gang vocal choruses. It was a good time for indie rock...even if you were continually wearing a hooded sweatshirt and waiting for that Face Value show next month.

Archers Of Loaf played a few times in my home town, and then when I went off to school in Athens they played a bunch more, even once as part of a "Chapel Hill Night" at Hoyt Street, which I found an offensive piece of marketing. Hot show though. I also caught them on their final tour while I was living in San Diego and they killed. Live, they were almost a different band some nights, they had the potential to play a really loud, fast, sloppy punk set, giving the mellow songs in their catalog new life. 

They broke up in 1998, one of the members joined up with Superchunk, one guy is making music as Spookie J, and Eric Bachmann started up Crooked Fingers, and also releases records as Eric Bachmann. Both of those projects are well worth your time.

By the way, I'm trying Sharebee for the first time since Mediafire doesn't want to "verify" any of my files. So, if you have any problems with the DL let me know in the comments.

DL

Gruntruck - Inside Yours

Year: 1991

Label: Roadracer

Hmmmm...I debated about posting this one, as I have mixed feelings, but then I was all, "fuck it dawg, it's a fucking music blog, and in the grand scheme of things not all that important". Then I was all, "did I skip lunch? holy crap am I ever hungry, i need to eat...like right now". And after that I was all, "christ does this dog stink. Cricket, you go outside and take care of that stench girl". 

I had a lot to say...to myself.

Back to the Gruntruck record though. They were one of those grunge bands that sort of crawled out of the metal scene, made a few quick records and were gone. This particular record, their debut, was first released by eMpTy Records a year earlier, and then re-released by Roadracer. What you got here is the re-release, and it has three tracks at the beginning of the album not on the original release. Phew. So, anyway, the band was made up of dudes who had previously been in Skin Yard, The Accused, and Final Warning..not bad huh? They formed in Seattle in 1989, and proceeded to sound a fair amount like early Sound Garden, with some Skin Yard, Prong, Mind Over Four, Tad, and even Kinghorse steez in their rocking (although I doubt Kinghorse was a direct influence...oh Kinghorse...). Honestly, it's Jack Endino produced metallic grunge from the early 90's, I mean, what do you want? That's pretty much what it sounds like. I hadn't listened to this one in a hot minute, and I'm sure it'll be another hot minute before I hear it again, but it's a good listen if you're nostalgic for earnest flannel-rock.  

Like I said, it's a music blog, let's not be uptight.

*Update - The file has been fixed to include all tracks...sorry about that.

DL

Guilt - A Comprehensive Guide To Anger Management Composed In Drop D

Year: 1998

Label: Nerd Rock

I promise I'll lay off the hardcore after this one, and get back to some more varied fare, but like I've mentioned, I'm trying to clean up my computer, and I'm finding these old records that I think should be shared before they are deleted from my hard drive.

Anyhoo.

Guilt were born of the fertile Louisville punk and hardcore scene and belong to the same family tree that brings us Endpoint, By The Grace Of God, The Aasee Lake, Enkindel, Elliot, and Ink And Dagger among others. This particular record is a compilation of vinyl and rare releases, although it doesn't contain the "Further" ep for whatever reason. It begins with the Stepdown demo from 1991 which is the straight ahead hardcore band that spawned Guilt as an Endpoint side project. It's pretty much by the numbers hardcore that really serves as a point of departure to gauge how far, or how much better, this band got as they aged. Once you get into the actual Guilt material, they pick up where Stepdown leaves off, but continue to spiral into more complex and interesting territory, taking cues from the Louisville scene elders, Slint and tempering the hardcore with math rock and big dynamics. Once you get to the halfway point in this record it's like listening to a new band, a much better band, a more evolved and sophisticated band. That being said, it's still heavy hardcore based stuff, but more interesting than a lot of their contemporaries. 

At some point I'll post the Bardstown Ugly Box lp and Further record, as those are the most fleshed out of Guilt's catalog, but for some good kick in the gut hardcore, this one does just fine.

DL - part 1

DL - part 2

Shameless Self Promotion - Volume 4

Here's another attempt to further my "career" as a "musician"...so if you live in or around Atlanta come on out and help me live out the dream. In all honesty, the show is going to be great, the lineup is one of the best one we've played, and if you downloaded the Atlanta compilation I posted awhile back you know that all these bands rule. Any fan of heavy music, noise rock, doom, or metal will do just fine this Saturday night at the Drunken Unicorn.

And if you do manage to come out, make sure you say hello, I'll be strangling the guitar for Sonn Av Krusher...the fat dude who's too old to be on a stage...that'll be me.

See you Saturday.

Fluf - Home Improvements

Label: Headhunter / Cargo

Year: 1994

When I was a younger, fitter man, I had one foot firmly in the world of punk rock, the other foot in the world of skateboarding. Two things that went hand in hand, things that feed off each other. So through skateboarding I got turned on to a few bands, and Fluf was one of them due to the presence of the Otis Barthoulameu, better known as skateboard photographer "O", as the singer/guitarist for the band. O had also been a member of quasi-band Titus Skate Rock Band who were made up of O, Lance Mountain, and Neil Blender and featured in the video Future Primitive, and the real band Olivelawn who were pretty decent riff-rock in the beginning of 1990. 

Fluf is kind of a strange proposition in that they effortlessly blend pop punk with some pretty heavy and distorted grungy rock. It's got moments of Tad, Seaweed, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Husker Du, Fugazi, Mudhoney, and Rocket From The Crypt, but doesn't really sound like any of those bands in specific. It really just sounds like the time in which it was released...early 90's alternative rock. Whatever that means to you. I dig it, I hadn't listened to this record in a long time, but it still rocks pretty well 15 years after it's release. Good stuff.

DL

Galleon's Lap - Themes And Variations

Label: Scorch

Year: 1991

This one is more historical artifact than anything else, as the band features Nate Mendel and Greg Anderson back when they were prone to rock straight edge emo hardcore. Don't forget, both of those dudes have long pedigrees that involve hooded sweatshirts and camo cut-offs; Greg Anderson was in False Liberty, Amenity, Brotherhood, Inner Strength, and Statement before dooming in and dropping out, and Nate Mendel was in Brotherhood, and Christ On A Crutch before helping to define emo in Sunny Day Real Estate. I'm sure they've both done the two finger point more times than they care to remember.

I got this record as a cassette demo back when it came out (as I was prone to buy anything straight edge hardcore related, sight unseen in those days), and I guess they pressed it on vinyl as well, but I've never seen that version. 

Like I said, musically it's not going to change your life, but if you ever liked early 90s hardcore, or you're a completist for one of the guys in the band then go for it. Melodic hardcore with some older Dischord Records influence, plus a little "chugga" (just a little), and no mosh parts. 

DL