Mylets is a one-man math rock excursion by Henry Kohen. Using the power of loop pedals and a super catchy vocal arsenal, Mylets is a simple meets complex listening experience. A must for any fan of Tera Melos, Girlfriends, Boyfrndz, Monster Machismo, or Adebisi Shank.
I was surprised to see that Time is a Machine did not receive much attention after the large praise that Wooden Heart got a few years back. Still, Time is a Machine is not far behind where Wooden Heart left off and will certainly hold up in time for when people really start listening again.
2013 was definitely The World is...'s biggest year to date. From the raise of the shitty "mememo" terms to someone behind Buzzfeed figuring out there's still a genre called emo and it doesn't suck, The World is... seemed to be the front runners of a cool new thing. They have a really long ridiculous name and just as ridiculous lineup, why wouldn't they be the stars of the next "emo revival" generation? Hell, maybe next year The World is... will be on SNL!
Whenever, If Ever really is a solid album though whether you wanna believe the hype or not.
Serengeti's alter ego, Kenny Dennis returned this year with a bang when the Chicago native dropped his LP on the world. K.D.'s repetitive and sometimes incoherent rap style puts me in a hypnotic trance that makes me want to watch old NBA games and play Sonic on my aunt's Sega Genesis.
Favorite track: "Directions"
Along with Kenny Dennis's LP, Serengeti also released Saal, C.A.B. (a follow-up to C.A.R.), a single featuring a b-side about "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, and his Yoome project's (along with Renee Louise Carafice and Tony Trimm) June album.
Russian Circles just being Russian Circles. The groovy post metal lords even throw in a little number featuring vocal duties by Chelsea Wolfe which resembles a True Widow track that never was.
Favorite track: "Memorial (Ft. Chelsea Wolfe)" and "Lebaron" (for the more traditional RC experience)
Foxing - An Albatross
Toasted Plastic - June Highs
A Great Big Pile of Leaves - You're Always On My Mind
Phantom Glue - A War of Light Cones
One Hundred Year Ocean - Where Were You While We Were Getting High?
Rosetta - Anaesthete
The Reptilian - Low Health
Leveret - Infinity
Despite what my lack of posting may show, I actually listening to a lot of new music this year. So much so that a 69 list just ain't gonna cut it anymore and I'm going to have to whip out the 69 + 31 (that's 100!) list as I countdown all my favorite tracks this year. The list is in order best I could do, but towards the end it was more via what did I listen to the most kind of rating scale.
Clipping is hip-hop laced in harsh noise featuring members from True Neutral Crew. I thought I would like Midcity a lot more than a I did; not because I don't like the noise/anti-beats - that's actually what kept me listening - I just can't get passed the stereotypical rap lyrics. Still, it's a very interesting listen:
Simply put, Drumgasm is a 39 minute drum solo by Janet Weiss (Quasi, Wild Flag, Sleater-Kinney), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), and Zach Hall (a thousand other things). It's not an album for everyone, especially for anyone who doesn't like drumming, but it certainly deserves a spot on my most interesting albums of 2013 list. Drumgasm is also now a nice treat for myself since Zach Hill is so busy with Death Grips that he is not appearing in all sorts of supergroups and experimental tag team projects that he used to. Plus, this album is only drumming... so, we the listeners get to hear Hill's gloriously spastic drumming in full color.
Matt Cameron and Janet Weiss are great drummers in their own right, but let's be honest: if Zach Hill wasn't on this drum expose, there probably wouldn't be much to talk about.
Politically fueled by the ghost of German communist and antifascist, Karl Jungbluth, this post-hiatus Alpinist side project is a crusty hardcore battle cry. I'm not a big follower of politics by any sense but I have noticed how powerful of a tool it can be when it comes to making art and music... and noise.
All proceeds to Part Ache go to Anarchist Black Cross: Belarus - a group that supports anarchists and antiauthoritorian people (and other words I remember hearing in Amnesty club) that are imprisoned for their political beliefs and public activities.
Boston freak indie rock fueled by the ghost of Karl Marx.
Seriously though, Kal Marks is a classic last minute find from the always impressive record label, Exploding in Sound. No time like the present to get addicted to this stuff:
Probably my most interesting find this year has to be Botanist.
Botanist is plant-inspired black metal using only drums and a dulcimer. It's a one person effort by a man named Otrebor who plays this green metal of sorts from the perspective of The Botanist. The Botanist's mission in life is to return Earth back to its natural form before humanity moved in and destroyed everything. At first it sounds like a guy with an electrical voice box banging on metal and a marching snare drum, but it gets enjoyable in a weird way once you listen to it a few more times.
Calculator should not be new to this site. Unfortunately, as I look back in the archives to no other post of Calculator other than a mention, this is the first time I've posted anything by this band. It's a shame really because these guys are pretty sweet and deserve some recognition. Well shame no more, here's some Calculator!
This Will Come to Pass is Calculator's 2013 release packed with some great post hardcore and emo that flows very nicely and in a not so overwhelming manor. Calculator vocal duty also relies more on shouting than it does screaming, which is why I wouldn't necessarily write these guys off as typical 'screamo'. Nevertheless this is some cool material, especially from the instrumental stand point of things.
Highlights: "Gasping, But Somehow Still Alive", "Becoming / Whisperings in Sleep", "Permanent State of Daylight", "Reverie", and "Last Breath".
Similar acts/sounds: Ten Thousand Leagues, tongue, Innards, Jowls, Beau Navire, The Reptilian, Caust, William Bonney, and other stuff, I guess.
Special Explosion are the newest members of the Topshelf Records family. This release is a combination of pretty much all the material that Special Explosion have released in the past all rolled up into one great little record debut of sorts.
Want to bring a little darkness to your holidays? How about some crusty two-piece blackened metal?
Cara Neir's got you covered.
I was pretty surprised to see these guys make Spin's 20 Best Metal Albums as well as Stereogum's however many albums they want to put below Sunbather metal list this year. Hell, Cara Neir even made it onto a College Humor list and labeled as "...great for everyone who would prefer to be dead". I would not go as far as to say that this album would make you want to off yourself, but Portals to a Better, Dead World would definitely make it into my favorite metal things list this year if I had one (even though I wouldn't consider them straight-up metal).
From what it seems, Mares Got Strangled might be Captain Hollow's "final transmission for a while". As someone who has been following this Bangor/Portland band for a bit now, I'm surprised they haven't broken up yet. Then again, I probably say that every time they return to make one last album.
Mares Got Strangled is without question Captain Hollow's most experimental release. If you get passed the fact that this album is not serious at all, you can really start to enjoy its all-over-the-place-ness.
I also really appreciate the Pooty Tang reference (track 5). The world needs more Pooty Tang references.
This particular demo has been getting a lot of attention online, and for good reason. This is the best news we've heard about Macaulay Culkin in ages and just as good news for pizza, though I feel pizza had a pretty good 2013 - I mean, not Yeezy good - but pretty fair. So, what is it? It's Macaulay Culkin and his band playing some Velvet Underground songs a la pizza... It's The Pizza Underground!
The demo consists of one song that is made up of a few Velvet Underground-turned-pizza tunes such as, "All the Pizza Parties" ("All Tomorrow's Parties"), "I'm Waiting for Delivery Man" ("I'm Waiting for My Man"), the late Lou Reed's "Take a Bite on the Wild Side" ("Take a Walk on the Wild Side), and my personal favorite, "Cheese Days" (Nico's "These Days").
Through the discovery of the Italian screamo band, Øjne I was directed to another Italian band with a passion for post-hardcore type music. This is Shizune from Lonigo, Vicenza.
When someone thinks about ukuleles, they probably either think about fat guys singing about rainbows, Spongebob, or Tiny Tim (the one with the ukulele). I, on the other hand, am haunted by the thoughts of summer camps and horrible Youtube videos. Luckily, Paul Newman and the Ride Home are neither summer camps nor really bad Youtube videos. They do however have a ukulele... but I guess it can stay.
But really, Paul Newman and the Ride Home are a pop punk band from Baltimore that just so happen to also have a ukulele. It's an interesting listen, no doubt. Give it a try:
On a more serious note, Northeastern shouters, The Saddest Landscape got in a pretty rough accident while on tour last week. Apparently the tires on their van exploded causing them to crash. Luckily, no one was too injured in the accident but their van is totaled and the tour is pretty much ruined.
The Saddest Landscape play some really cool screamo/early emo-inspired music that I've been enjoying for sometime now. If you don't know these guys, I would ask that you give them a listen and support them. Their newest release, Exit Wounded is a 5 track EP filled with uncontrollable emotion and incredible instrumentation. I'm going to leave a link to sample the album but I highly recommend that if you like what you hear to support these guys. And by support I mean give them your money.
Be sure to also check out their little split with My Fictions which includes an incredible 13 plus minute emotional masterpiece of sorts (more on that later though).
Since it's almost that time of the year again (you know, the end of it), it's probably a good time to write about some cool stuff that was released this year that I may not have already or was holding off on. So, here I go.
Portland, Oregon's Duck. Little Brother, Duck! are one of those bands you never know just what they sound like. I mean they have bits of math rock and noodling but they also have a wild array of duel vocals that could almost pass as skramz. You can't just call them math rock and at the same time you can't just call them post hardcore. Duck. Little Brother, Duck! might actually be their own hybrid of punk rock and math rock music that no other bands have yet to sound like. At least, not the way D.LB,D! sound like.
It's this unique mixer of awesome things all at one time that gives me both enjoyment and a challenge to listen to D.LB,D?. The challenge being that I must listen to their music on repeat for hours so I can really soak it all in and make certain that I don't miss anything along the way.
This year, Duck. Little Brother, Duck! sneaked a 7" out into the world in the summer while I was away. The 7incher is called, No Spitting On Cats During Plague Time and features two solid tracks about anteaters and deep sea fish respectively. The tracks are nothing short of what D.LB,D! are all about and pretty much an extension of where they left off with their wild and all over the place 2012 release, Don't Take Our Filth Away. My only gripe with No Spitting On Cats is the fact that it's only two songs and leaves me wanted more, and then I spend the next hour afterwards listening to their other albums (instead of writing my paper for school). I guess I really have no one to blame other than myself for that last bit.
Similar sounds/acts: Girlfriends, Toasted Plastic, Sirs, 1994!, Kidcrash, Natives, My Dad, X-Ray Press, The Reptilian, The Waldos, and a few others that are close.
Something about being from Europe always makes screamo sound that much more enjoyable. Øjne in particular are from the wonderfully non-English speaking country of Italy. Milan, Italy to be exact. I'm not sure if that makes the music even better as well, but it's definitely cool.
Øjne's sound here on Undici/Dodici is very reminiscent of early real screamo and other great screamo acts from Europe like Daitro and Sed Non Satiata, Raein, and La Quiete. That being said, those are some wicked bands to sound like if you are going to sound like anything relatively emotional and hardcore. These guys had me at Italian screamo. Seriously, that's all I really even need to say at this point.
Highlights: The whole shabang, but I'm digging the opener, "Glasgow" the most right now.
PS: Through my extensive research via Google translator, apparently "Øjne" means "eyes" in Danish. So, there's also that.
Just some solid math rock about farm animals, Foo Fighters, and the number 15. A follow-up to their debut, Christ Grenades from all the way back in 2007.
Greef is Pete from Portland, ME's favorite folk nightmare, Butcher Boy. Greef is also the name of this analog exploitation of fuzzy lo-fi. The best way to describe it really is to say it's less like a musical experience and more like a listening experience...
...Like finding a cassette on the side of the road that still works even with its tape ripped out.
Heccra ain't your average mom and pop screamo band. It ain't your average emo-because-Buzzfeed-told-me-it-was band either. Never would I have thought of calling a genre of music "mutilated" until I first heard Heccra's distorted and all-out exploded post-hardcore music, but that's what I would call Heccra.
None of what I just wrote right there might make any sense. If it did... you listened to The Last Weekend of Summer. If not... listen to The Last Weekend of Summer.
Future Death is my answer to a new Zach Hill project minus Zach Hill. With spastic drums, blazing guitar riffs and distorted female vocals, Future Death are mashing all sorts of sounds together and making it work. It's awesome!
For fans of Hella, Marnie Stern, Lightning Bolt, Caddywhompus, or Tera Melos.
Incredible new release from Jesus Lizard-like Portland, Maine noise rock outfit, CUSS. Heavenly is a bit more refined than their previous releases recording-wise as well as musically-wise now that they have An Anderson guitarist, Dan Smith on beautiful Slint guitar duty to add a little melody to the madness. Since I'm a better listener than a writer I would definitely recommend checking out the review of Heavenly in the Portland Press Herald with some kind words and an appropriate star rating (pronounced stah ratin', of course) for a local news paper judging a "noise rock" band. Just check it out.
Also, CUSS are playing a show real soon at Matthew's in Portland, but Alex their singer won't be there. They're still going to be playing but ask that if anyone wants to sing their songs step up and sing along with them.
The Body in the Kelp were born in 48 hours. These songs, they were born in 48 hours. Everything about this album, 48 hours.
Well sort of. The Body in the Kelp is a band made up of four musicians who, before participating in the 5th annual Portland Space Gallery 48 Hour Music Festival, had never played music together. See, the 48 Hour Music Festival is simple, you put a bunch of musicians together randomly and make them come up with a 20 minute set and a band name in 48 hours. Then they play said songs for a sold out crowd at the Space Gallery. The Body in the Kelp and this EP are just that; the 20 minute set the four musicians came up within 48 hours and played at the show. It's a bit more polished and re-recorded now, but the premise its still there: this is 48 hour music.
This EP opens with an amazing sample choice of Bert and I, a Maine humor classic, and then an ambient bassline leads in to rhythm guitars and drums before the vocals pierce through. From there we get more samples including a Martin Luther King speech along with more riffs, sliding guitar, doomy textures, and dirty rock 'n' roll vocals. Need I say more?
48 hours this stuff was thought up. Four amazingly original songs. Wickedly good stuff. Get it.
Sun Club are a hell of a lot of a fun. They noodle, they groove, they make noise, they ooh and ahh and, most importantly, they have a damn good time doing it. I've seen these guys twice now (just in this year) and I have to say that Sun Club are easily becoming one of my favorite bands to see live and hang out with. I actually had a sweet little post written about just these guys that I wrote a few months back (when I say them play at a show with Chalk Talk this summer), but that post got deleted somehow and I never got to share it. I guess it's alrighy though since that post was about their self-title, which they have since taken down off their bandcamp. Anyways, here's some Sun Club:
This 2 song 7-incher is just a taste of what Sun Club are all about. To get the full Sun Club experience, you have got to see them play right in front of you. Their music will make your legs quiver and your pelvis move in certain ways that you never thought imaginable; only in the best ways, of course.
After being super impressed by Sun Club when I saw them for the first time this summer, which was my first show as well as first day back from being on a tugboat for 60 days, I definitely had to see them again. Luckily, I didn't have to wait very long as they made their way back up to my neck of the woods to play a show at the University of Maine last weekend.
When Sun Club returned to Maine last week, they didn't come alone. This time out, Sun Club brought with them their friends from Baltimore, collectively named, Dungeon Kids. While I hadn't heard anything from Dungeon Kids until I saw them play, I knew they were gonna be impressive. They're friends with Sun Club, how could they not? Well, lo and behold, Dungeon Kids took to the floor of my friend's dorm lounge and played a solid set of garage rock meets indie pop-y goodness.
Even with the fact that Dungeon Kids are a new band that really just started to play shows with the current lineup they have now, this is still some great material. I hope to hear more from these guys along with more good music from Sun Club in the future. Hopefully I'll be around to see them again this summer when both bands make their return to Maine as well!
Last year I reviewed and sorted out some of my favorite episodes and films from one of my all time favorite childhood horror series, Goosebumps. It was a lot of fun and I was very proud of the outcome. This year I was planning on digging even deeper into the nostalgic pockets of my mind by searching for and reviewing my favorite Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes. Unfortunately, as I started to dig and uncover what was going to be the ultimate blast-from-the-past trip-out of the last quarter century, I realized that I not only forgot many of the episodes, I also had not watched Are You Afraid of the Dark? since the last reruns stopped showing back in 2000. I did end up watching a lot of episodes, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to make any lists or "best of" posts. Plus, there are sites out there that already have the most obvious "best" episodes alongside the ones with Ryan Gosling, Melissa Joan Hart, Jay Baruchel, and other special guests you may not have known were in the show while growing up.
So, just as I was beginning to lose all hope, I managed to remind myself of one episode. It was a very different episode than the rest of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? series and I could only think of one part to help me search for it. So, I did a little research and actually came up with a result. What I discovered was more than your average episode of a Canadian kids fright show that aired almost 15 years ago; I discovered Are You Afraid of the Dark?'s greatest tale ever told, a 3 part episode called, The Tale of The Silver Sight!
The Tale of The Silver Sight was the first episode(s) of the last season, season 7, and is unlike any other Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode seen before (or after). A normal AYAOTD? episode starts with the Midnight Society getting together around the open fire in the deepest part of the woods with one of the members setting the mood for a story they were going to recite that night. In The Tale of The Silver Sight however, the episode does not start with the Midnight Society, or even someone telling a tale; it starts with Gary, the former president of the society who went off to college, having a nightmare and then getting a call of bad news from his grandmother.
When Gary arrives at his grandmother's home, he learns that his grandfather passed away from an unexpected heart attack. Gary's grandmother then gives him something that his grandfather had left him; it's a broken piece of a record and a letter. As it turns out, Gary's grandfather was apart of the very first Midnight Society, where he and his friends conjured up a mystical artifact of some kind that helped them get anything they could ever ask for (because kids in the 30's had nothing better to do). The broken piece of the record is part of a guide that informs the listener just where this mystical object can be found and that the other pieces are with the original members who have not had unexpected heart attacks yet.
Gary, after reading the note his grandfather left him with his piece of the record, shows his brother and new leader of the Midnight Society meetings, Tucker what he has just received and informs him that he'll be visiting the crew tonight for a very special meeting. As the episode rolls on, it is revealed that there is not a tale being told that night, but rather, the Midnight Society is in their own tale as Gary introduces them to the broken record, what the silver sight is, and why it needs to be destroyed. The current Midnight Society then split up like good mystery teams should and go on a search for the original members of the Midnight Society, the members' pieces of the record, and to destroy the silver sight once and for all.
As Gary and his brother Tucker go on a search for a member of the original Midnight Society called "The General", Quinn has to go looking for "The Prom Queen" at the dump, and Megan, the team's residential preppy girl, finds herself in the sewers. Along the way, a young boy with raggedy old-timey clothes follows the Midnight Society around and seems to be helping them on their search for the broken record pieces... or so it seems.
Tucker is the first to find another piece of the record. Tucker retrieves the broken record piece when The General disappears from his home on Tucker's return to pick it up and instead has to play human chess like in the first Harry Potter book/movie. Then Quinn gets his piece of the record from the Prom Queen's unlucky true love (who now works at the city dump) by trading him a picture he made that The General stole way back in the day. This is the part where I should probably also mention that The General was the trader of the group and stole the Prom Queen from the dump guy but that's really not important in the end, so I'm just going to move on...
Then there is Megan, who had to go down in the sewer. Megan was looking for "The Tycoon" but instead discovers a family living there due to the silver sight causing them such misfortune. Megan even finds herself a nice sewer boy down there, but once she mentions the silver sight, the family kicks her out. Luckily, the boy knew where the piece was and told her to come back later to pick it up. When she goes to pick it up, the whole sewer home the family was living in is dismantled and some other shenanigans happens until Megan finally finds the record piece inside one of the boy's school books (even though he lives in a sewer).
Finally there's the scarred-y cat crew of Vange and Andy who must find the ring in the well - I mean record piece. Once they do though, the team just needs to put the record together and solve the riddle. Since the last piece is from the original member named "The Riddler", who happened to also own an amusement park, it was a safe bet to guess that the silver sight would be somewhere in the park. So, the team figures out that the silver sight must be located somewhere on the carousel (according to the riddle told from the record) and that's where they must go next.
Eventually the Midnight Society finds the damn thing. I'm not going to give that part away, but I will say that this part of the tale is what I remember most from watching The Tale of The Silver Sight a while back. The picture above is an example of the part permanently burned into my memory.
While this tale is about the Midnight Society themselves, it still follows a very similar theme that a lot of the tales told on Are You Afraid of the Dark? revolve around. The theme to most of the tales told have something to do with a spirit of a dead person, usually a kid, getting stuck in this life and needing the help of living people, usually kids, to get them to the other side/cross over to the afterlife by fulfilling some sort of task. This tale, while somewhat complex for such a simple kids show, was all about fulfilling what the original Midnight Society could not and that was destroying the silver sight for good. Once the silver sight was destroyed, the demon was vanquished and all the souls it had captured were set free.
Anyways, enjoy this long forgotten gem. Your Halloween will be that much better!
Here it is! The second volume of Portland DIY: CUT THE SHIT is complete and ready for our ears.
Featuring: An Anderson, Wood Burning Cats, Buddusky, Bath Salts, Conjjjecture, Older Men, Boyfriends, Haru Bangs, Purse, AFRAID, and Leveret (can be heard in the final snippit, "[OUTERLUDE]").
Read more about this project here or here or here.
Here's some new-ish music from the Boston doomed sludge brigade, Phantom Glue.
I saw these guys a couple years back when there was a good number of metal shows at the Space Gallery in Portland. It was a hell of a show and these guys really bring the noise in the essence of powerful Neurosis-like sludge metal. Phantom Glue might not be playing in my neck of the woods anytime soon, at least not that I know of, but they are currently playing shows around New England and elsewhere with some very cool bands such as KYOTY, Pelican, Wreck & Reference, and Sannhet. So yeah, that's still pretty sweet.
I've been on a huge metal/heavy/intense music kick lately, especially doom-y sludgy sloppy stuff, and Phantom Glue provides me with all those wonderful things. This album is an incredible 7 track banger that I would easily put on my best of 2013 metal list if I had one, which I don't. Not yet, at least...
Highlights: All of it! Probably digging "Bow in the Dust" the most right now though.
Similar acts/sounds: Ramming Speed, Razormaze, Sylvia, WARANIMAL, Kowloon Walled City, Pyres, Neurosis, Black Tusk, Raise The Red Lantern, and other cool bands that don't sound like Phantom Glue.
AFRAID has expended and now includes: Ryan Cutler (To The Barricades!), Jared Fairfield, Matthew Lajoie (Cursillistas, Herbcraft), and James Marcel along with the ghost himself, Jakob Battick.
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