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New Music: CC Dust, Never Going to Die

Posted on 2016/05/13 | 4 comments

CC Dust, “Never Going to Die” (Perennial/Night School)

CC Dust is a project involving MaryJane Dunphy, lead singer of frabjulicious Olympia, WA punk band Vexx, and David Jacques.  With “Never Going to Die”, she brings the energy and passion of that band from the pit to the dance floor.

Dunphy here sounds a bit like a combo of Alison Moyet and Lene Lovich, croon-whooping over a long lost 4AD track, with Jacques weaving a Hooky baseline.  The deep echo and reverb overlay on the bass and vintage-sounding programmed beats cloak the song’s glistening new wave bedrock in a bit of a goth and early industrial chill – whatever you want to call it, it’s a well-crafted track as good for dancing to as it is for just being with.

As it is with Vexx, Dunphy’s voice inhabits the song.  Moving from gutteral to delicate and back, it’s physicality caroms around, over and through the melody in a way similar to Dunphy’s live presence (check the video below), further animating the already dramatic arrangement.

Recorded last year, “Never Going to Die” is taken from a forthcoming, 5 track 12” ep, due soon(?) from Perennial (US – preorder here) and Night School (Europe).  Speaking of Europe, CC Dust is playing dates therein (venues included where I could find).

June

5 – Osramhuset, Copenhagen (DK)
7 – Hamburg (DE)
8 – De Gym, Groningen (NL)
9 – Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam (NL)
10 – Au Picolo, Paris (FR)
11 – DIY Space, London (UK)
12 – Hope & Ruin, Brighton (UK)
13 – Undertone, Cardiff (UK)
14 – Tenterhooks, Dublin (IRE) 
15 – Barcelona, Sala Almo2Bar (SP)
18 – Valencia (SP)
19 – Logroño (SP)
21 – Leeds (UK)
22 – The Poetry Club, Glasgow (UK)
23 – Servant Jazz Quarters, London (UK)
24 – Soup Kitchen, Manchester (UK)
25 – Berlin (DE)
27 – Klub Famu, Prague (CZ)

https://vimeo.com/140188795

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Album Review: Empty Markets, Stainless Steel

Posted on 2016/05/10 | Leave a comment

Empty Markets, Stainless Steel (12XU Austin, 4/8/2016)

Churning, relentless, fantastic new hardcore/punk from Austin, TX three piece, Empty Markets.

Stainless Steel marks the group’s debut, lead singer/guitarist Drew Schmitz having previously been involved in bands like Cruddy and Hex Dispensers.  While there’s definitely a whiff of the old school – “Pink and Barren World” sounds like an interpolation of “Teenagers from Mars”, and the sonic energy recalls past masters like Black Flag, The Offenders and Die Kreuzen – Empty Markets, like other newer bands like Ex-Cult and fellow Texans, Institute, incorporate noise, post-punk and post-hardcore (think Drive Like Jehu) ambience into the punk template, elevating it past d-beat rehash or mid-tempo, street punk boredom.

Front to back, this is one of the best new punk records I’ve heard in years (coming from a somewhat jaded, ‘old school’ – like, early 80s – h/c guy).  The arrangements, as well as the playing, are both muscular and extremely tight throughout.  Schmitz’s guitar playing is inspired.  The rhythm section of drummer Jordan Rivell and now former bassist Wendy Wright create crisp, sharp rhythmic blasts.  Wright (replaced, since the album’s recording, by Stephen Svacina) has a driving, out front bass style that recalls folks like Mikey Offender, and her vocal interplay with Schmitz is a consistent highlight.  Loud.  Sweaty.  Cathartic.  Recommended.

Stainless Steel is out now, on 12XU, and can be purchased via Empty Market’s bandcamp page or the label’s site. Find out more about the band on their fbook page.

Highlights include: “New Religion”, “Pink and Barren World”, “Rash Decision”, “Bulging Affidavits”.

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Review: The Monsieurs, “High School Star” 7″

Posted on 2016/05/05 | Leave a comment

The Monsieurs, “High School Star” (Goodbye Boozy Records)

https://soundcloud.com/goodbye-boozy-records/the-monsieurs-high-school-star

Following their crazy good (and, in parts, just plain ol’ crazy) 2014 self-tltled album, Boston scuzz-punk rockers The Monsieurs are back with a new double-a side single, “High School Star/Jack of Hearts”.

We here at thegrindinghalt wanted to give a glowing review of The Monsieurs (the album) but were, frankly, to busy listening to it and breaking shit to actually get around to writing one, so…if you haven’t yet experienced that aural Misfits/Ramones/Monks/Sha Na Na knife fight (actual knife fight, mind, none of that West Side Story or “Beat It” nonsense) do so, ok?  Great, thanks.

Anywho, “High School Star” continues the three chords and a cloud of dust assault of the full-length.  The band is at full strength here, piledriving their way through roughly two and one-half minutes of relentless rock.  Singer Andy California still sounds like he’s sing/screaming through a swarm of bees over a Hilken Mancini guitar slash reminiscent of “Wild Thing”, while Erin King provides the rhythmic stomp.  While I’m missing, a bit, the backup ‘sha la las’ so prevalent on the album, this still rages.

“High School Star” is out now on Goodbye Boozy Records, a label out of Teramo, Italy that is also home to other great bands like Sick Thoughts and The Husbands.

Check out The Monsieurs on fbook or the twit.

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Album Review: City Yelps, Half Hour

Posted on 2016/05/03 | Leave a comment

City Yelps, Half Hour (Odd Box Records, 4/22/2016)

After a few blistering singles and 2014’s Cheap Psych cassette, Leeds, UK-based City Yelps are back to delight us all with a brand new long-player, Half Hour.

City Yelps channel a whole host of bands in crafting their own take on skewed indie pop:  the woozy, lo fi psych-pop charm of Flying Nun and C86 bands; the wiry, spiky tones of Swell Maps, The Fall, even Half Man, Half Biscuit.  Singer/guitarist Shaun Alcock delivers wry lyrics with a withering sneer – amidst a maelstrom of detuned guitars, layers of reverb and snare shots that sound like a slap – sounding like the acerbic uncle who you not so secretly love to hang out with at the holidays.

What counts most, though, are the songs – and these are effing fantastic.  Tracks like “We Like the Hours”, and the raucous one-two punch of “Light and Classical” and “Making Noise”, twist, swing and sway like a punch drunk fighter who might be going down, but is taking folks with him.  Unwind the gauzy bandages of tape hiss and distortion and what you discover are strong, tightly arranged melodies, played with the righteous indignation of a group with courage in their convictions.  After spending a Half Hour with them (see what we did there?  Get on with it?  Ah, yes, ok…), you’ll be convinced, too; hell, you may even tell two friends, and so on.

Half Hour is out now, courtesy of Odd Box Records.  Order it now on the label’s bandcamp page, and check out the band’s newsletter page on fbook.  While you’re at it, hop on over to the band’s own bandcamp page and pick up a copy of Cheap Psych.  You know you want to.

Highlights include:  “We Like the Hours”, “Now”, “Light and Classical”, “Music for Adverts”.

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Album Review: Higher Authorities, Neptune

Posted on 2016/04/28 | Leave a comment

Higher Authorities, Neptune (Domino, 4/20/2016)

Higher Authorities is a side project of Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley, founders of Liverpool paranoid psych-rockers, Clinic.  Joined by ace dub producer Adrian Sherwood, the three have created a fantastic dub/psych meltdown in Neptune.

To put the paraphernalia on the table, then:  yes, the use of “higher” in the moniker is likely not a coincidence and, yes, the album was purposely released on 4/20.  Waiting to exhale, apparently, was rejected as an album title.

The link up with Sherwood as a production partner is inspired, with him raiding the Black Ark and adding his trademark foreboding atmospherics to every track, from skittery echo chaymbah vocal samples, squelchy keys, and burbling bong water (er, “found sounds”).  While dub and psych, while both constant reference points (see “Colours”, with it’s killer dub drum and bass rhythm), are not the only influences on show here.  Cheesy, lo-tech synth tones abound, with shuffling rhythms and typically mumbled vocalizations from Blackburn.  Tracks like “…and why not” are hazily dreamlike and pastoral, recalling not so much “Black Gun” as a tripped out take on gloriously cheesy 70s AM gold staple, “Loving You” – and it absolutely works.  “Monocle Man” strides along like some kind of demented cabaret number; “Abracadabra”, a lascivious, lost disco deep cut.  “Neptune” oozes, at around the 2:15 mark, into a middle tiptoe through the elysian fields; lovely stuff.

Overall, the album seems a bit less structured than the recent output of Blackburn’s and Harley’s main gig.  Highlights abound here, the overall sense being of musicians having a really freaking good time making music together.

Neptune is available now, on Domino.   While their internet presence is elusive, you can check out the band on fbook and their website.

Highlights include: “and why not”, “Colours”, “Neptune”, “Twilight (In the Luminous Lodge)”, “If”.

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New Track(s) Review(s): Amber Arcades

Posted on 2016/04/26 | Leave a comment

Amber Arcades, “Fading Lines”, “Right Now”, “Turning Light” (Heavenly Recordings)

Amber Arcades is the nom de la musique (is that a thing?) of Dutch artist Annelotte de Graaf, who is set to release her new album, Fading Lines, in June.  Lucky for us, three of the album’s tracks – “Turning Light”, “Right Now” and, most recently, the title track – have been released into the ether for your listening pleasure, each showing a slightly different variation on psych-tinged dream pop.

There’s a languid, partly sunny/mostly cloudy (eye of the beholder), gossamer-wrapped melodic quality to both “Right Now” and “Fading Lines”, with hints of C-86 jangle, and bands like Lush, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Trespassers William.  de Graaf possesses a light, somnolent voice that fits the mood perfectly, sitting dead center of the mix, accompanied by a loosely strummed, reverb-heavy Rickenbacker (de Graaf penned the tracks, and the album was recorded with musicians from Real Estate and Quilt, as well as Kevin Morby of The Babies).  The soundtrack to a wordless car trip through the countryside, shot on over-exposed Super 8 film.

“Turning Light”, while still light on its feet, gains traction through the use of a chugging, kraut rock drum and bass rhythm.  The vocal melody reminds me of Broadcast (in particular, “America’s Boy”) and comes off less dream pop and more something from label mate, Gwenno (who we are, admittedly, slightly obsessed with).  Train trip this time, then?  It’s an interesting twist and bodes well for sound variety on the full length.

Fading Lines is due June 3, on the always Heavenly.  Check out Amber Arcades on her website, fbook and SoundCloud.

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New Music: Trust Punks

Posted on 2016/04/14 | Leave a comment

Trust Punks, “Mother’s Veil”, “Leaving Room for the Lord”

Two new(ish) tracks from Auckland, New Zealand’s Trust Punks, each showcasing a different side of the band’s sound.

“Mother’s Veil”, released in November, shows a softer, wistful touch.  Narcotic, dreamy jangle psych-pop, reminiscent of the band’s Flying Nun countrymen, up through the quieter moments of Brian Jonestown Massacre and maybe even first album Shins.  Strummed guitars, an airy bassline and what sounds like tape hiss weave a lucid dream, sadly interrupted by the feedback alarm clock ending.  Heavenly.

Newer track, “Leaving Room for the Lord”, exudes a brasher, more dissonant and, er, “punker” sound.  Shades of early Killing Joke and PiL, plus some Jesus Lizard noise finds the band in a similar lane to Ireland’s Girl Band on this one.  Jagged, clamoring guitars, roiling drums and shouty vocals stagger and crash into each other drunkenly, setting a combative tone.  Satisfyingly brutish.

According to a post on the band’s fbook page, “Leaving Room” will feature on the band’s upcoming album, entitled “Double Blind”.  No further details at this time but, in the meantime, explore their earlier releases, including great 2014 release “Discipline”, on bandcamp.  Sadly, we missed that one first time ‘round, but are having fun playing catch up.

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New Music: Andy Stott, Butterflies

Posted on 2016/04/08 | Leave a comment

Andy Stott, “Butterflies” (3/30/16, Modern Love)

Like fellow traveller Burial, much of Andy Stott’s earlier work is characterized by a palpable sense of decay and loss – paranoiac dub echoes, muted sounds, imploding beats, signs of brightness struggling to be heard from under dense layers.  Both artists, since, have taken their music out from behind these gauzy curtains, allowing more and more light to penetrate.  For Stott, this process began with 2014’s wonderful Faith In Strangers (check out our write up, here) and continues apace with his latest single, “Butterflies”.

Taken from forthcoming new album, Too Many Voices, “Butterflies” features bent, glassy synths over an insistent, almost playful beat – the whipsnap snare even threatens to go “full banger”, but holds its fire; breathy, hushed vocals in the Sampha mode more prominent in the mix.  Sounds a bit closer to the kind of outré r&b offerings of artists like Jessy Lanza, and sounds positively, er, luxurious compared to tracks from Stott’s 2012 opus, Luxury Problems…and it’s fantastic.  Another notch in the belt, then, for M. Stott; bring on the new album.

Upcoming tour dates:

April 13, @Patterns, Brighton, UK
April 15, @Church of St. John-at-Hackney, London, UK
April 29, @Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA, US
April 30-May 1, @Further Future Festival, Las Vegas, NV, US
May 7, @Pappy & Harriet’s, Pioneerstown, CA, US
May 8, @Music Box, San Diego, CA, US
June 11, @Funkhaus, Berlin, GER
July 15, @Ferropolis, Leipzig, GER
August 27, @FYFest, Los Angeles, CA

Too Many Voices is released April 22, on Modern Love.

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New Music: Innerspace Orchestra, One Way Glass

Posted on 2016/04/06 | Leave a comment

Innerspace Orchestra, “One Way Glass” (Different Recordings, 3/4/2016)

Innerspace Orchestra is a group comprised of Rose Elinor Dougall (formerly of The Pipettes, as well as an established solo artist), Tom Furse of The Horrors, and Cathy Lucas of Fanfarlo.

“One Way Glass”, a Manfred Mann rework, is their debut single as a group, combining the cinemascopic, prog/wave lushness favored of late by Furse’s main group, with Dougall’s dreamy, psych-inflected, halcyon pop and Fanfarlo’s rhythmic sensibility.  The single swirls and sways through 3 minutes and change of pure bliss – from the shuffling, baggy drum intro, on through the raga sitar breakdown towards its completion.  A song with so many elements that it runs the risk of coming off bloated, instead feels effortless.

Dougall’s voice is as enchanting as ever, inhabiting the groove and melody from within – she’s an artist whose post-Pipettes body of work deserves a wider audience; here’s hoping she gets it.

“One Way Glass” is out now on [PIAS] electronic imprint, Different Recordings (under license from Smile Recordings).  Enjoy the trippy video, below, and follow the band’s musings on fbook and the twit.

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New Music: Synthetic ID, Ciphers

Posted on 2016/03/25 | Leave a comment

Synthetic ID, “Ciphers” (Castle Face Records)

Synthetic ID are a band out of San Francisco, who have been releasing music since 2012, but are new to us.  Don’t know how we’ve missed them up ’til now.

“Ciphers” is a brilliant piece of spiky, funky post-punk, in the vein of Gang of Four and 154-era Wire, with a soupçon of Crass.  The track features a lurching, hypnotic bassline and angst-inducing guitar stabs; shouted vocals talk of searches and receipt of ciphers with “missing words”, incapable of translation and decoding – messages received but not trusted.  The peculiarly modern sensation of interconnectedness increasing isolation on our Big (Brother) Blue Marble – who’s real and what isn’t?  Fever dreams of electric sheep.

Synthetic ID’s debut, Impulses, is out April 22 on the consistently bodacious Castle Face Records. Check out the band’s earlier releases on their bandcamp page.

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