Portland’s Lithics Sign to Kill Rock Stars, Have New Album Coming, Share “Excuse Generator”

Posted on 2018/03/08 | Leave a comment


The venerable Kill Rock Stars label recently announced the addition to its roster of PDX-based quartet, Lithics.  The band’s forthcoming new album bears the mental-image inducing title of Mating Surfaces, and they’ve shared lead track, “Excuse Generator” (listen below).

The track is a delicious soft-serve swirl of punkier, art-pop new wave and post-punk, seamlessly blending the insouciance of the former with the jittery agitation of the latter.  Kicking off along a “Teenage Lobotomy” intro, vocalist Aubrey Hornor recalls Patty Donahue if she fronted Bush Tetras or a more restive XTC.  This push-pull of the melodious and the discordant makes for an intriguing whole, placing them amongst the best of the current crop of bands that includes Omni and Shopping.

Mating Surfaces is due May 25 from KRS, pre-orders up here – get psyched for release day.  Lithics are also going on a US tour starting later this month, supporting aforementioned tgh faves Shopping on the west coast, followed by a swing through the midwest and east coast supporting Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.  You can also follow the band on instagram.

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Fire Records Announces “Ecstatic Arrow”, New from Virginia Wing. Listen to “The Second Shift”.

Posted on 2018/03/08 | Leave a comment

Over the course of their discography, London-based duo Virginia Wing have shown a dexterity for teasing a richness and warmth not always associated with psych-pop/motorik, Broadcast-style compositions, no less so than on 2016’s stellar Forward Constant Motion.  Tracks like that album’s “ESP Offline” and “Grapefruit” were musically expansive and shot through with a sunlight and playfulness not always associated with an oeuvre more icy stare than wink.

With the announcement of a new long-player, Ecstatic Arrow, and sharing of album track, “The Second Shift”, this expansiveness continues.  Opening along a sprightly, Ethio-jazz sounding saxophone melody and snappy rhythm not a million miles from ‘Dance Hall Days’(!), vocalist Alice Merida Richards sings of sharing the “key/hidden in my whole body”, while cosmic synths and almost raga sounds swirl in the background.  It’s beautiful, and more than whet’s the appetite for Ecstatic Arrow, due June 8 from Fire Records and available for pre-order here.  Virginia Wing will be on tour through February and March in the UK and EU with Hookworms – dates on their fbook.

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Fayetteville’s Ten High Announce Debut Full-Length, “Self-Entitled”

Posted on 2018/03/06 | Leave a comment

Ten High, Self-Entitled (Rare Plant Records)

Ten High are a new (to me) four piece based out of Fayetteville, AR.  To date, the group has released three EPs, played shows will tgh faves like Aquarian Blood, and have name checked as inspiration several others, including the Blind Shake and Ex-Cult.  Recently, drummer/vocalist Devan Theos was kind enough to pass along a link to their debut full-length, Self-Entitled (get it?), and I’m glad she did.

Self-Entitled finds Ten High tearing through an eleven-song set chock full o’ straight up r’nr, hints of psychobilly, 60s beat, hardcore, garage, psych – basically anything that sounds great played loud – all chewed up and spit out on a platter.  Primary vocalist Cat Owens’ shredded pipes recall Reverend Beat Man’s gruff screed, pairing like a fine ripple with the jagged-edged guitar and short/sharp drum and bass combination of Theos and Aaron Smith (as a former – terrible – bassist, I love the thick, rubbery bass sound).  Theos takes the mic sounding like a young Kate Pierson on the stomping “Skin Crawlers”, which comes off like a psychobilly take on Walk Among Us-era Misfits.

As with the best of so-called ‘noise’ rock, these tracks come based on infectious melodies residing dead center in the maelstrom.  “Royal Blood” employs a bit of blues boogie, while “Fakers” had my brain checking to Three Dog Night, for fuck’s sake.  Brilliant, even though I blame them for having “Mama Told Me Not to Come” for a full day…bygones.

Self-Entitled is available digitally and on cassette on April 5, courtesy of Rare Plant Records.  Ten High will be on Greenway Records’ upcoming showcase at SXSW, for all you lucky mallards heading to Austin.  There’s also a few dates before that, as well as a west coast US tour planned for the summer – check out the Ten High fbook for the dates.

Highlights include: “User’s Choice”; “Skin Crawlers”; “Fakers”; “The Trouble”.

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Mr. Airplane Man Announce New Album, “Jacaranda Blue”. Listen to lead track “I’m in Love”.

Posted on 2018/03/06 | Leave a comment

 

Mr. Airplane Man, beloved crafters of garage-blues finery, returned to the scene after a multi-year hiatus in 2014, clearing out the vaults to release two fantastic album’s worth of unreleased material (Lost Tapes and Bits and Pieces), a live EP (Geneva Session), and playing shows all over the US and Europe.  The promise of new material has hovered for a bit and, happily, the duo recently announced brand new long-player, Jacaranda Blue, due for digital release March 16.  This announcement was preceded by a single – “I’m in Love” – which also serves as the lead track/taster for the album.

“I’m in love” shows Mr. Airplane Man returning no less smoldering than when they left.  A trippy take on blues, sashaying along a slow-burn, ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ kinda groove, the track has a way of expanding and retracting in your head.  It’s a long-distance phone call to a love through a whiskey-induced fugue state, a rapturous profile in the glowing embers of a cigarette drag.  Margaret Garrett’s vocals – punctuated here and there with otherworldly coos and moans – emanate from somewhere down the other end of the line, faintly tethered by the gossamer light drumming of Tara McManus.  It’s a dizzying, seductive cut.

In addition to the digital release, which you can pre-order here, look for Jacaranda Blue on vinyl, courtesy of the mighty Sympathy for the Record Industry in the US, and on french label Beast in Europe.  Mr. Airplane Man – a live force not to be missed – have a few upcoming dates as well, which you can find on their website. You can also wander the woods with them on fbook.

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Girl Ray Return with New Single, “The Way We Came Back”

Posted on 2018/03/02 | Leave a comment

Girl Ray, “The Way We Came Back” (Moshi Moshi)

Girl Ray are Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss. We’ve previously genuflected in their general direction before, and here they go making us bow and scrape again with a new single, “The Way We Came Back”, to compliment last summer’s full-length debut, Earl Grey.

An early composition described by the band as, er, “[a] plump cow that needed to be milked”, “The Way We Came Back” bears the same well-worn elegance that has become a signature of the band’s short catalogue.  Quirky rhythmic changes jostle the more straight forward chord progressions.  Hankin’s wistful vocals, delivered with a resonance that makes her sound a less-Teutonic Nico (the timbre and accenting always has me thinking they’re Welsh), float over butterscotch smooth harmonies.  Lovely.

Watch the video for “The Way We Came Back”, below, and catch Girl Ray on tour in the US for the first time through the end of March, ahead of their first UK headlining tour beginning in April – all dates here.  The single arrives April 20 as a limited-edition 7”, available for pre-order from Moshi Moshi or the band.

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Wharf Cat Records Announces ACLU Benefit Compilation – Preview Two Tracks Now

Posted on 2018/03/02 | Leave a comment

ACLU Benefit Compliation (Wharf Cat)

Artwork by Emma Kohlmann

I often view compilation records in the same way I view most festivals – too often, you need to wade through so much flotsam to enjoy the treasure.  When the tracks on the compilation in question are culled from the roster of a label like Brooklyn-based Wharf Cat, however, they are well worth the effort.

Happily then, Wharf Cat recently announced the April 20 release of a compilation benefitting the ACLU ($30 from every $32 double-LP sold will go to the organization) — an ever-worthy cause, and no more so in these times of heightened, and increasingly naked, race baiting and attacks on civil rights under those tired dog whistles of ‘law and order’ and ‘national security’.  Or, as the label puts it, the “ongoing assault on the Constitution”.

The bands on offer include tgh favorites like The Men, Snakehole, Profligate, Trust Punks (represented by Joe’s new band, Cheerleader – can’t wait to hear that one) and Psychic Blood, as well as a host of other notable acts.  Wharf Cat has shared two tracks to whet your appetite (check them out, below):  the freewheeling ruminations of “Too Sensitive” by Dollar Band (featuring members of Gun Outfit) and the glistening psych-wave of “Hourglass”, courtesy of Alice Glass.

The ACLU Benefit Compilation is up for pre-order now, via bandcamp or the Wharf Cat site.

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VV Torso Charge Out of the Gate with Debut, VVLP

Posted on 2018/01/31 | Leave a comment

VV Torso, LPVV (Jurassic Pop)

Photo credit: Rachel Enneking

VV Torso, a four-piece hailing from Indianapolis, self-describe as a combination of post-punk, no-wave and (in one of those ‘damnit, why didn’t I think of that first’ moments) “regret-hop”.  I first stumbled upon the band courtesy of the mighty Post-Trash, who premiered their track, “Boy”, back in August.  That track served as both a debut and an appetizer for the band’s debut album, LPVV, released in October on the Cleveland-based Jurassic Pop label (home of past faves like TV Ghost).

Their label bio states, in part, that the band was originally conceived as a performance compliment to vocalist Natty Morrison’s poetry (Morrison is also a professional creative writer so, no pressure on, like, the words here or, um…).   On LPVV, Morrison’s spoken word/bark is pushed, stretched and provoked by his bandmates’ (Brent Smith, Gareth Ney and Tom Lageveen) propulsive, tightly-wound post-punk (think early Gang of Four and Killing Joke) into a 10-song set that’s simultaneously in your face and nonchalant.  Morrison’s tone is reminiscent of Protomartyr’s Joe Casey, and with his arch – sometimes baleful – poesies (closing track, “Giant”, includes lines like “he’s going to the war/with a violin as a weapon” and “he’s in an art museum…/he’s in a grass-roots rebellion against a free market economy”), he is become a kind of heartland™ John Cooper Clarke.  Smith’s guitar is a frequent scene-stealer, a dizzying combination of stabbed stutter, freewheeling improv and restrained melody that often morphs into a third member of the rhythm section.  It’s an exciting release, placing the band in line with fellow midwestern travelers like Pere Ubu.

Grab a copy of LPVV here, and check out all things ‘Torso’ on the band’s fbook page.  Album cut, “Blood”, also appears on the new Post-Trash comp, proceeds from which will benefit the Maria Fund for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico.  Why not both?

Highlights include:  “Success”; “Object”; “Wish Machine”; “Giant”; “Taper”.

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Album Review: “Rot”, by Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys

Posted on 2018/01/22 | Leave a comment

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, Rot (What’s Your Rupture?; R.I.P. Society; Agitated Records)

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys are a four-piece hailing from Sydney, featuring members of bands including Royal Headache and Red Red Krovvy.  Following on 2013’s great debut, Ready for Boredom, the group released Rot this past November, and it’s amazing.

Rot finds the band barreling through an 11-song, 30 minutes and change set of fuzzed-out power pop that recalls folks like Wreckless Eric or a punkier Replacements.  The combination of the raw, strained emotion in singer Joe Sukit’s voice over the grin-inducing melodies crafted by guitarist Ben Warnock is a potent one, and the band pulls off wry piss takes like “Expanding Horizons” and “Company”, and wistful reflections like opener “Away” and album highlight, “Device”, with equal aplomb.  As closer, “Turn of the Page” ascends to an extended call and response between saxophone and a crunchingly beautiful solo worthy of ‘Starry Eyes’, the album leaves you with a hopeful sense that, despite leaving some scars, its titular degeneration is clearing.

Rot is available now, courtesy of a trio of labels: What’s Your Rupture? (US/Canada), R.I.P. Society (Australia, New Zealand) and Agitated (UK/EU) – pick your fave currency and buy a copy.  The group also have a few tour dates coming up down under (sorry) – you can find them on the band’s fbook page.

Highlights include:  “Victoria”; “Away”; “Device”.

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Preoccupations Announce “New Material” (Literally); Share “Espionage”

Posted on 2018/01/17 | Leave a comment

Site fave Preoccupations recently announced that their new full-length – cleverly titled New Material – will release March 23, courtesy of Jagjaguwar and Flemish Eye (in Canada).  To tide us over until then, the band have also shared the Nathan David Smith-produced video (below) for new track, “Espionage”, which incorporates the album’s artwork, by Calgary-based designer Marc Rimmer.

The track itself feels typically unsettled, structurally calling to this mind a kind of industrial-edged Heaven 17.  The lyrics feel desolate (singer Matt Flegel has described the album as an “ode to depression and self-sabotage”), with a defiant call and response between lead and backing vocals rising to a persistent call for “change”.  Whether this defiance brings catharsis or is a mere kick out against the pricks is open for debate.

You can pre-order New Material now, and make sure to catch Preoccupations on one of their forthcoming tour dates.

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“LA Women”, from New Orleans’ Patsy, is a Fantastic Debut

Posted on 2017/10/11 | Leave a comment

Patsy, LA Women (La Vida Es Un Mus)


Patsy are a New Orleans-based quartet.  After a series of excellent singles over the past couple of years, the band recently released their debut ‘mini’-LP, LA Women.

Where prior singles tended to stay firmly in the hardcore lane, LA Women finds Patsy blending an inspired mix of surf, garage, 80s hardcore, skewed 80s new wave, and garage.  Their straight ahead hardcore jams – including a re-recorded version of “Nazis are so Plain” from their 2015 demo – bear a slippery quality that reminds of DKs, particularly in the woozy guitar work (see, in particular, album highlight “Society Ape”, which sounds melodically like a DKs/Damned mashup).  Elsewhere, tracks like the excellent “Heathen” and opener “Count it Down” bristle with a-go-go worthy garage energy.

LA Women is out now, courtesy of the ever-excellent La Vida Es Un Mus (seriously, check the roster).  Patsy have a few tour dates forthcoming, which can be found below and on their bandcamp.  Here’s hoping for more soon (including a date closer to thegrindinghalt HQ – *cough*).

10/11 Rochester
10/12 Montreal @ L’Escogriffe
10/13 Toronto @ Sneaky Dee’s
10/15 Detroit @ Help!
10/16 Chicago @ TCC Gallery
10/17 St Louis @ B Line
10/18 Memphis @ Murphy’s

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