Tag Archives: post-punk

Review: Wall, Wall EP

Posted on 2016/01/29 | Leave a comment

Wall, Wall EP (Wharf Cat Records, 1/15/16)

Wall are a 4-piece hailing from New York City, not that you’d need me to tell you that upon listening to their new, eponymous EP.  Each track feels like a glaze of detached, old school downtown cool stretched over the twitchy, black/white UK version of early “post-punk” (used in quotation marks, ‘cuz I’m not really sure what that means anymore) and new wave.  A no wave new wave, then?  Right.  I’ll just get my coat…

Who can be bothered over categories, really, when the songs are this good.  Upon first listen, several familiar sounds come through:  Slits, Bush Tetras, Gang of Four, Crass, Basement 5 (lead track, “Cuban Cigars” reminds of “Mind Your Own Business”), on through riot grrrl, and newer bands like Savages and Vexx.  Over tightly coiled arrangements, vocalist Sam York (duties shared with bandmates Vince McClelland and Elizabeth Skadden) careens between the raised fist delivery of lines like “fresh baked bread/keeps the pigs well fed” (“Cuban Cigars”) and the detached, shrug of the shoulders and flick of the cigarette towards the gutter malevolence of “those mistresses/they don’t just lay there/at night/they prowl.…” (“Milk”).  Closer “Milk” is a highlight, swirling all of the band’s various elements in a compelling symmetry.

The Wall EP is out now, on the great Wharf Cat Records label. Check the band – and their current tour dates – on their website.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

New Music: Savages, The Answer

Posted on 2015/10/21 | Leave a comment

Savages, “The Answer” (Matador, 10/21/2015)

A new Savages track appeared today, together with a release date for the band’s new album – huzzah!

Savages’ debut, Silence Yourself, played with tension and barely contained fury through a dark, post-punk glaze; cathartic spikes poking through in patches.  The songs caromed between slow burning intensity and raucous indignation.

With ‘The Answer’, the raucous is turned up to ten (eleven?).  Vocalist Jhenny Beth howls like Siouxsie at the center of a druggy, hypnotic maelstrom with hornet’s nest guitars and a driving rhythm that brings to mind psych/space rock, punk, metal, even early industrial.  This dizzy intensity matches the lyrics, wherein the ‘answer’ (in case you were curious) is love – a possessive, desperate love that leaves you panicky, insecure (“If you don’t love me, don’t love anybody/And you’re glad it’s you/…Love is the answer/I’ll go insane”).  Healthy?  Perhaps not, but many of us have had moments where the thought of getting to be with, or hanging on to, someone we desire is the only thing; alternatives too dire.  There lies madness…

“The Answer” will appear on Savages’ forthcoming album, Adore Life, due January, 2016, on Matador – and on this evidence, not a moment too soon.  It’s available for preorder now, through the band’s website.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Experiential Review: Girl Band, Paul

Posted on 2015/08/28 | Leave a comment

It’s hot; really, effing hot.  Sweat runs in rivulets down your back, sides, forehead; the back of your thighs.  The dank, still air of late summer envelopes you; a shroud, creating the sweat-stained outline of your human form in the soft pleather chair.

Outside, the urban thrum of car horns, jack hammers, sirens.  Closer in, a soft whisper comes from a box fan sat in the window on the opposite side of the room, it’s scant breeze causing barely a ripple in the heavy air.  Yet, this sound holds promise: the promise of moving air, however stale, however ripe with heat and the tang of perspiration and garbage, however leaden with asphalt and exhaust.

You inch closer.  Visions of trade winds; relief.  The fan’s soft purr becomes a drone, then a whirr; a building crescendo.  The once faint breeze now feels like a wind tunnel, buffeting your face as you lean in, closer…the sound now sending vibrations through your skull.  You smile, eyes closed, at the first patter of sweat beads on spinning blades.  The cacophonous wind – you let it wash over you, let it draw you ever closer, like a cartoon character floating on waves of aroma from a freshly cooked chicken.

The song is “Paul”.  The band is thegrindinghalt.com fave and pride of Ireland (ok, we think they should be proud), Girl Band.  Taken from forthcoming, debut full length “Holding Hands With Jamie”, out September 25 on Rough Trade (available for pre-order here in the US and on Rough Trade’s UK webshop).  The video is above, and is fantastic.  If you haven’t (and why not?), check out Girl Band on Facebook or their website.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Review: Flesh World, The Wild Animals In My Life

Posted on 2015/07/01 | Leave a comment

Flesh World, The Wild Animals In My Life (Iron Lung, 6/2/15)

Debut long player from San Francisco-based Flesh World, a fave of thegrindinghalt.com (check out our review of their mini-lp here).

In the proud tradition of bands like TSOL, Lords of the New Church, 45 Grave, The Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Flatmates, Savages – bands grafting elements of other music onto a musculature of punk – on The Wild Animals…, Flesh World continue to push and prod at the edges of their sound:  goth, rough C86-styled indie pop and shoegaze shiver and shake together over rumbling punk and hardcore undercurrents.

The title track adds a glaze of shoegaze swirl atop Scott Moore’s jangly guitar line.  “Just To Tear Me Down” starts like a ramshackle take on “Under the Milky Way”, then morphs into a buzz saw goth/punk rocker, vocalist Jess Scott channeling Morrissey as she sings to someone who wants to “tear me up just to tear me down”.  “Strawberry Bomber” sounds like Dance With Me-era TSOL fronted by Mikyi from Lush.  Personal fave “Poolside Boys” recalls the JAMC covering “Everyday Is Like Sunday”.

Comparisons only go so far though – these songs live and breathe as a result of the band’s great sense of melody, pacing and energy.  Earworms abound here for the digging.  Dig in.

Gloomy and glorious.  Check the stream above and support the band here.  Also, be sure to go seek out the band at one of their upcoming shows (sadly, the halt exists in lands outside the current itinerary – *sniff*).

7/30 New York              Baby’s All Right
7/31 Philadelphia          Philamoca
8/1 New York                 Williamsburg Music Hall
8/2 Baltimore                Windup Space
8/3 Richmond               Strange Matter
8/4 Washington, D.C.  Black Cat

Highlights include:  “Poolside Boys”, “Strawberry Bomber”, “Shaved Head”, “Your Love Is Like a House”.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Spotlight Dance: Girl Band

Posted on 2015/06/30 | Leave a comment

I’ve been onto this band since last summer.  No excuse why it’s taken me so long to get ‘round to writing something about them, but my recent good fortune seeing them absolutely destroy the stage opening for Viet Cong had me at least attempt to get some thoughts on (virtual) paper.  These guys are a breath of wonderfully sweet, stale, fetid air drifting forth from a newly opened basement, and should be experienced.

Girl Band are a four-piece hailing from Dublin (Ireland, not Ohio) who make an insanely appealing racket.  The music is tightly wound, claustrophobic, often without a cathartic chorus or change of key to relax the mood – you sit there, fidgety yet transfixed, until it stops.  Noise built around chaotic rhythms tripping over words that start out mostly stream of consciousness and then dissolve into yelps, howls and shrieks; guttoral discharges often signifying much about the emotional impact of the songs themselves.

The Wonderful and Frightning World of…-era The Fall, Ideal Copy-era Wire, the Throbbing Gristle of “Discipline (Manchester)”, elements of techno, drone, no wave; newer bands like Prinzhorn Dance School or Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (RIP) – a swirling eddy melting through a cacophonous gloryhole of sound into your waiting brain.

Their earlier, self-released singles have been collected and released (cheekily, given the band was “founded” in 2011) as The Early Years on the fabled Rough Trade, which will also release their debut full length later this year (September, possibly).  Highlights include the churning, chugging “De Bom Bom”, “Lawman”, and their cover of Blawan’s techno slice “Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage”.  If you can still find a download of the singles, the b-sides (particularly “Heckle the Frames”, from “Lawman”) are also splendiferous, as are earlier songs like “Busy At Maths” from France 98.  Gotta catch ’em all!

Challenging, rewarding.  Not often you can say something is overly “unique” these days – this is one of those times.  If they’re playing out anywhere near you, do yourself a favor and go see them – footage (courtesy of Youtube) of them playing in-studio for KEXP below for your aural and visual pleasure.

Go like them on Facebook and support them on Bandcamp – now!  Website here.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

New Track: Taiwan Housing Project, Maintenance of An Application

Posted on 2015/05/29 | Leave a comment

Taiwan Housing Project, Maintenance of An Application (M’Ladys Records)

In a post-Memorial Day world, where ears often tune to vacuous pop paeans to partying, dancing, being hot for some girl, guy, Barbie robot, zombie sex god …there’s this sweet bit of dissonant, raucous, noisy relief from Philly’s Taiwan Housing Project.  A feel good hit for a different summer.

This is a gloriously disorienting, careening, mess of a song.  Peals of feedback screech, dive, swoop and swirl like so many banshees around the shouted vocals of Kilynn Lunsford, held together (just) by a steady, ominous rhythm – the aural equivalent of the psycho dude with the flesh mask and the power tool whose lurching, relentless pursuit is undeterred by gunshot, stabbing and/or burning.  Sweet dreams!

“Maintenance” is taken from a new EP, which gets a physical release July 28, courtesy the awesome (or, should i say, esteemed) M’lady’s Records out of Portland, OR – you can preorder a digital copy now on the label’s Bandcamp page (while you’re there, you can listen to another great, Sonic Youth-y track, “White Frosted”).

Go like the band on Facebook, and check out their other releases on Bandcamp.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

New Track: Dot Dash, Rainclouds

Posted on 2015/05/13 | 1 comment

Dot Dash, “Rainclouds” (The Beautiful Music)

 

This D.C.-based quartet has been releasing records since 2011 – though, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit to having missed the boat on these guys up ’til now.

The lineup is packed full of D.C. scene muscle, featuring vets of acts such as Minor Threat, Government Issue, Youth Brigade, Swervedriver and Julie Ocean. “Rainclouds”, taken from new album Earthquakes and Tidal Waves – out now on The Beautiful Music – arrived in our inbox from the band themselves (THANKS!).

The song cleaves a channel between the punkier side of power-pop and the woozy, post-punk take on pop of mid-period Wire (the band’s name is taken from the title of a Wire song, though not one from that period).  Lead singer Terry Banks sounds…go with me…a bit like a two-faced Janus – one side Colin Newman; the other, Robyn Hitchcock – fronting first album Cheap Trick, The Records or Hoodoo Gurus, throwing kiss-offs to a friend ‘neath a perpetual dark cloud: “summer breezes dancing through the trees/and you can put, the blame on me/your concrete shoes are giving you the blues/I’m footloose and fancy free”.  Throw in some sweet falsetto and you’ve got the makings of a breezy, yet muscular track.  Can’t wait to listen to more from the band.

Check the band out on Facebook and/or Twitter.  Earthquakes and Tidal Waves is available on iTunes or via the band’s Bandcamp page.

1 Comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Link

Review: Ex-Cult, Cigarette Machine EP

Ex-Cult, Cigarette Machine EP (2/17/15; Castle Face)

New from the Memphis, TN gang, wherein we find the band shifting gears with an ep chock full of cuts that will surely be in the running for “jam of the summer”, courtesy of your local Clear Channel, mind-control radio station.  Just kidding:  Cigarette Machine is a continuation of what Ex-Cult has been honing since their debut in 2012; all manner of punk goodness to soundtrack your next street fight.

For the label obsessives amongst you, the ep’s six tracks run the gamut from proto- to post-punk and even heavy psych, with a stray elbow here from post-Damaged Black Flag, riff-heavy west coast hardcore and even a cuff there from oi’s rhythmic chanting to round out the mix.  Chris Shaw channels Rollins with his propensity for placing emphasis on…The. Last. Word. Of. Every. Line – drummer Michael Peery and bassist Frank McLallen bring the hammer and nails for this well-stocked garage.  Bottom line: whatever the funk you wanna call it, it works.

On tour in May (dates below; taken from their fbook page) – check ‘em out live, and on their website.

May 8 DALLAS, TX @ THE FOUNDRY
May 9 AUSTIN, TX @TBA
May 10 EL PASO,TX @ MONARCH BAR
May 11 PHOENIX, AZ @ CRESCENT BALLROOM
May 12 SAN DIEGO, CA @ THE HIDEOUT
May 13 LOS ANGELES, CA @ THE SMELL
May 14 LOS ANGELES, CA @ SECRET RENDEZVOUS
May 16 SAN FRANCISCO, CA THE HEMLOCK
May 17 SANTA ROSA, CA @ TBA
May 18 EUREKA, CA @ TBA
May 20 PORTLAND, OR @ THE KNOW
May 21 SEATTLE, WA @ BLACK LODGE
May 22 BOISE, ID @ NEUROLOX
May 24 DENVER, CO @ THE HI DIVE
May 26 ST. LOUIS, MO @ THE JUICEBOX PLAYER’S PAD
June 9 MEMPHIS, TN @ HI-TONE W/ ICEAGE, LOW LIFE

Leave a comment

Posted on 2015/04/14 in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

New Track: Communions, Out Of My World

Posted on 2015/03/26 | Leave a comment

Communions, “Out Of My World” (Tough Love)

We here at thegrindinghalt previously sang the praises of Copenhagen’s Communions and their progression from insular post-punk to a larger, cinemascope take on ‘80s indie.  This new single is their most wide-eyed yet.

The title gives one a pretty good idea of what to expect.  I’ve no idea how old the members are, but this is the sound of crushing (noun and verb) love, in a way felt during a certain period of one’s life. Martin Rehof’s despaired vocalizing of lines like “you’re the queen of your scene/and I’m just watching through a screen” and “no boy or girl/has made me feel the same” runs thick with the salt water taffy (melo)drama of unrequited love/lust.  The largeness of the arrangement almost consumes the vocals, reflecting the wistful beauty of the strongest of emotions being left unspoken, or restrained within the four corners of one’s mind (or room); a love note labored over, but never sent.

The production is filled with ‘80s touchstones – from the shotgun reverb on the drums to the synthesized sheen over the guitars – and calls to mind everything from mid to late period The Smiths and The Cure, New Order at their more romantic, even OMD in their pomp.

An alternate Ducky’s theme from Pretty In Pink? Perhaps – maybe this one would’ve worked.

Taken from new, self titled EP, due June 1 in Europe and June 2 in the U.S. on Tough Love and in Japan on Big Love.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

New Track: Makthaverskan, Witness

Posted on 2015/03/20 | Leave a comment

Makthaverskan, “Witness” (Luxury Gbg, 3/3/2015)

New single from this Gothenburg, Sweden-based group, whose excellent album from last year, II, provided a lesson in loud, strident, angst-ridden post-punk.

The band recently unveiled new tour single, “Witness” (backed by an instrumental, jazz noir take on II track, “No Mercy”).  While certainly not short on the kind of raw emotion which permeated II, this track feels less like a screamed series of diary entries.  The band goes long on the Siouxsie and the Banshees-inspired aspects of their sound – the song could almost pass for a lost b-side from the Hyaena sessions – and it totally works.  Swirling guitars and tribal, kinetic percussion are whipped into a frenzy by the matured (but not blunted) vocals of singer Maja Milner, a force of nature in the vein Mme. Sioux herself.

Check out the band on their Facebook page, and be sure to go see them as they tour in the US for the first time – some dates were changed due to visa issues, so be sure to check their page for the most recent itinerary.

Leave a comment

Posted in Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , , ,