Originally turned on to Ferocious Fucking Teeth with last years EP Hounds, it didn’t take them along to follow that up with this here debut full-length on Safety Meeting Records. Although, it HAS taken me far too long to write about it. Bummer. Never mind that though, this record is pretty damn good. Definitely a bit different than what I originally heard from them on their EP, less straightforward rock/noise stuff being done here and A LOT more riffage going on. Good call, as it gets some pretty good mileage out of the two drummer set up they have going, which by the way is very well done here. It seems on record things can become a mess quick with this type of set up, but these guys have a pretty good understanding of what they are doing and the recording help of Steve Albini probably doesn’t hurt either. With that said, the bands self-titled debut sounds enormous, but in a way that doesn’t seem immediate. It’s slow burner of a record that lets the heaping riffs kind of crackle away in almost a drone fashion, letting the heaviness seep in slowly rather then overpowering quick punches to the gut. It doesn’t forget to rock though, there is a nice balance of both on the record. Reminds me a bit of Bullhead/Houdini era Melvins at times or maybe the less excruciatingly slow moments of Harvey Milk. Cool record, give it a listen.
Ferocious Fucking Teeth – Fuck on a Weeknight (stream)
For those interested in picking up the record, it’s available through Safety Meeting. It comes with a CD as well, for those without turntables.
As indicated by the title, Forkboy formed in 1993 and had a run of things in Finland for a handful of years before fading from obscurity into further obscurity. I say that since the band never really had an official release to their name, rather they had a series of 3 demos and an unreleased session towards the end of their time together. Now Finnish label Kaos Kontrol in conjunction with Arkisto Rekords has taken it upon themselves to collect all of this material into one nice tidy CD, all lovingly remastered. Granted, I can’t imagine their being a huge audience for this type of release, but like the Shiny Beast anthology that was put out not all that long ago, I find it rather endearing that small labels (profit be damned) take the time to dig up this type of archival material. Not all of it is certainly worth releasing, but if you’re being comprehensive then screw it. You’re releasing it anyway right? Done up in 300 copies, I think they are going about this the right way.
As to be expected, not all of this is grade-a material. But Forkboy, despite wallowing in relative obscurity, laid some fairly shining moments to tape before splitting up. Seeing as how I’ve written about current Finnish noise-rock/sludge purveyors Throat multiple times in the past, it’s interesting to hear a band like Forkboy who were doing a very similar type of sound roughly 15 years prior. Not that either were/are necessarily reinventing the wheel, but it’s a testament to how far and wide the AmRep influence reached. Hell, it even mentions it in the liner notes. The early tracks clearly show a band that were operating within that raw and charmingly flawed area of noise, no fancy stuff…just distortion masking some riffs. As they moved forward though the band clearly pushed towards a further straight forward heavy rock approach, employing the type of meaty riffs that would have resembled Helmet at the time, but with a noticeably heavier focus on 70’s riff/radio rock. At times that can be a bit too much, but otherwise they managed to keep it in check more often than not. Not a bad disc, and definitely a band that could have found an audience if things would have broke right for them. Kudos to Kaos Kontrol and Arkisto for unearthing these tracks.
Forkboy – Charity, My Dear (stream)
Forkboy – Television (stream)
For those interested in grabbing a copy of this, it can be had through Kaos Kontrol.
I’m still not quite over the fact that Shoppers have since called it a day, but helping me move on some is this debut single from California X that features former Shoppers drummer Josh Smith pounding it out to a bit of a different tune here. Containing two tracks, the a-side of “Sucker” is a nearly seven minute rocker in the area of Dinosaur Jr.. I doubt that’s any coincidence considering that both are from Amherst, MA. The tune motors along through some fairly nice riffs backed along a constant churn of melodic humming fuzz that brings to mind Boston vets The Beatings at times and who are certainly no strangers to six minute plus anthem rockers. On the backside is the tune “Mummy”, which doesn’t necessarily get the ball rolling quite as soon as its companion, but eventually hits it stride about mid way through and bubbling up all those nice thoughts of great power trios in the 90’s. Nice debut for these folks. Hope they keep it coming…
California X – Sucker (stream)
Right now the single is available through Feeble Minds for those interested in picking it up.
Some distinctly Chicago rock music to be found here on the debut from Fake Limbs. Music that is specifically aimed toward the burly bearded, hard drinking, and bitterly aging crowd. Although the title may spark the thought of there being some type of revelatory self-reflection or therapy session for guys out there on this record, you might want to drop that thought altogether. This may inflict a state of identity confusion if any of the number of themes lovingly joked about on Man Feelings hits home. One of those moments where you’ll find yourself laughing along and as you slowly realize that you in fact have a shining resemblance to their own self deprecation the album takes on a whole new light. One that becomes a bit more personal, but equally enjoyable.
Music wise, Fake Limbs are, as previously mentioned, much a product of the surrounding Chicago area showing flashes of past notables like Jesus Lizard, Tar, Shorty, and so on. The bit of choppy abrasiveness is then funneled through a hefty dose of 70’s riff rock, leaving the album with a nice balance between the rough stuff and the rockin’. At just over twenty five minutes, the pace is kept at a speed that suits their sound perfectly, allowing the frequent injections of riffs to stay fresh. Recorded at Electrical Audio, the drums and bass make for a record that sounds mammoth coming out of the speakers. Particularly on a track like “Hanging Kudzu”, which is a lumbering rock beast that actually represents both sides of the band perfectly. Give it a listen, cool record.
Fake Limbs – Hanging Kudzu (stream)
Those interested in grabbing a copy of Man Feelings can do so by heading over to BLVD Records, where it is currently available for pre-order. Official release is May 8th, but you get an immediate download of the album if purchased any time before that.
Well, this is certainly a nice surprise. A new album from Retisonic, who were last heard from back in 2006 I think with their EP Levittown. Big fans of Bluetip are probably well aware of the existence of Retisonic, due to the presence of former member Jason Farrell and the fairly similar qualities in which both bands share music wise. However, it always appeared to me that Retisonic never really got the same sort of exposure as Farrell’s previous band, probably mostly due to the fact that Bluetip enjoyed a nice stay on Dischord during their time together and they were the band that directly followed Swiz for Farrell. Those that haven’t heard Retisonic and enjoyed Bluetip’s discography, then it would be a good idea to at least give them a listen. Their latest album Robots Fucking serves as good as any place to start, and in fact may be the best material they’ve put together yet.
While I’m generally a backer of most Dischord related bands, Bluetip always appealed to me because they seemed a bit different than a lot of the bands on the roster in that they didn’t bare as much of the DC sound as most. Really, to me, their style always sounded much more rooted in a Midwestern post-hardcore/rock vibe that relied on a big bass and melody driven combination to create a distinct largeness. While Retisonic carries a lot of similar attributes, they’ve moved much closer to that territory than Bluetip ever really did. With the presence of Joe Gorelick, you even hear a slight resemblance to his previous band Garden Variety at times. On Robots Fucking the group hasn’t altered their approach much, but the songs all seem to have a bit of vibrancy to them that seemed to be lacking on previous Retisonic releases. There are loads and loads of riffs/melodies here, more so than I ever remember, making this an extremely fun album to listen to. I don’t know exactly what the band was up to during all the time in between albums, but if it was spent refining a good majority of these songs, then it has certainly paid off for them with what is hands down the best thing they’ve released. Let’s hope it’s not the last.
Retisonic – In and Out of Dim (stream)
While the album was put out through Arctic Rodeo Recordings, it may be cheaper to get it through Dischord since the actual label is based out of Germany making it a bit pricier for those of us in the US. It’s also available digitally through Amazon.
It’s interesting now to go back and listen to early Slices material and hear a band that was briefly flirting with some of the ideas and sounds that would come later. Even when their debut LP Cruising came out, I don’t think I was really prepared for the leap that they would make with that album, to which they managed to refine their hardcore/noise-rock approach and filter it down to a nearly perfect blend. However, it remained nasty and downright disturbing at times. In between records the band released a single on Kemado, which I didn’t really take much away from other than it sounded a bit more rockin’ than anything I’d heard before. Now that I’ve listened to the bands follow up LP Still Cruising (great name by the way) a handful of times, maybe I should have paid a bit more attention to it.
The albums opening chords for “Still Cruising/Trying to Make a Living” lead the listener to believe that this could head in the direction of the previous album, an unsettling trip into grimy bad vibes hardcore, but that’s all flipped on its side when the sound of motorcycles fire up and Slices dive right into full on rock n’ roll mode. Littering the tune with the needed distortion and more importantly riffs to make it a true stomping good time, it’s a furiously paced tune that hints at some of the Didjits higher points. A good portion of the more flat out rock moments on this album do actually. As the band would have it though, those are only a few key parts of this record. What Slices do with Still Cruising is somehow inject the bits of hardcore/noise in places and in ways that don’t even seem unusual at all. It’s fused together so smoothly that the transition from a thirty-nine second blast of hardcore like on “Human Resources” into the catchy rock styling of “Why Do You Make Yourself Sad” and then into the calming elevator tones of “Forever Cruising”, makes all the sense in world. I would say that Still Cruising is so brief that it doesn’t necessarily give one time to process it, but I’ve sat down with it a few times now and still manage to get lost every time in its pure rock heart. Easily one of the best albums I’ve heard all year.
Slices – Horse Race (stream)
Those interested in picking up Still Cruising can do so by hitting up Iron Lung. They also have it up for digital download on Bandcamp for anyone that is interested in that.
I didn’t know John Grabski III. I only knew of his story and his music created as Teeth through the thread on Electrical Audio (There is also a fantastic tribute to John over at the Collapse board here). It’s a bit surreal to think only a week or so ago I had a chance to listen to this mans vision and creation for the first time that he worked so tirelessly to put together for the world to hear and more importantly as something for his children to remember him by. His story is one of resilience when the cards are continually against you and something that is truly inspirational. A story that should certainly be heard by as many people as possible and I can’t urge you enough to click those links above. Although I only came to learn about John’s story roughly a month ago, it saddens me greatly that John Grabski III has passed.
Cancer is an awful awful thing. As one who has battled cancer in the past, reading about what John fought through day to day to finish this project is simply amazing. I still have a hard time grasping just how someone could face it like that, going toe to toe with a disease that is doing everything it can to crush your spirits. And yet, this man didn’t let it take an ounce of that away from him. Forging on no matter the circumstance to create The Strain. Those of you out there that consider yourselves fans of grungy noisy rock in the mold of Shellac/Jesus Lizard…then please give this a listen. It’s a pretty damn good record.
Teeth – Rash (stream)
Those of you that would like to pick up the album can do so by heading over to the Teeth Bandcamp page. It’s available on LP and digital download. Five dollars of every purchase goes towards comfort care supplies at John’s local cancer center.
My condolences go out to John’s family and friends. He is a hero in every sense of the word.
When Double Dagger broke up I didn’t really give much thought to the sort of groups that would form in the wake of it. I figured members would splinter off and start similar bands, in the way that typically seems to happen. It never once crossed my mind that something like Roomrunner would be the next step, but apparently for Denny Bowen it was the way to go. A band that has no problem with reaching back into the bountiful heyday of 90’s grungy/alterna-rock airwaves. I just picture these guys fitting snugly within the track listing of a Crow or Empire Records type soundtrack. It kind of baffled me momentarily while listening to this six song debut on Fan Death, trying to figure out exactly why anyone would want to tread through this sort of territory, but then it quickly came to me that this shit couldn’t be consumed fast enough 15 to 20 years ago so why not give it another go around? Seems due I suppose. I mean, I’ll be the first to admit that I was right there enjoying a fair amount of it and the tracks that Roomrunner lay down here seem to be fixated on some of the best qualities from those days, and that is hooks and melodies galore intertwined with that all so familiar clean guitar crunch. Consider me on board. A strong debut from these guys, in the most unlikeliest way.
Roomrunner – Bathtub (stream)
Anyone that wishes to grab this can do so by hitting up Fan Death Records where it’s available on cassette or it’s also up on the bands Bandcamp page.
I remember some time ago I got an e-mail from a member of Nonagon promoting an EP of theirs, or it could have even been a message through MySpace (that shows just how long ago it was). It doesn’t matter though, I ended up losing the message and I remember spending a nice chunk of time trying to figure out just what band it was that sent it, as I recalled liking the tracks that they linked to. Sadly I didn’t figure it out until much later. I’ve always kind of felt bad about that, as I usually try and get back to people with legitimate inquiries. So with that, it’s cool that these guys passed along their latest release People Live Everywhere despite me accidentally giving them the cold shoulder the first time around.
Nonagon are a three piece from Chicago who, despite being around for roughly six to eight years now, are just now releasing their second official record People Live Everywhere. The band has a nice palate of sounds going on here, one of which obviously reflects the city in which they reside. Other times Nonagon show flourishes of a wider/thicker Midwestern sound mixed with some of the influence of more oddball post-hardcore/punk bands from 90’s DC. In turn, the five tracks featured on the EP are vaguely mathy without being too mechanical in their approach giving them a noticeable liveliness. One of the aspects of this record that I think really seems to contribute to that is the excellent recording job done by Justin Foley, member of The Austerity Program. The EP as such an open and live feel too it, especially when it comes to the drums, which sound absolutely fantastic. For someone who spends a good amount of time writing/recording music for a band that eschews actual drums, Foley shows that he has a real knack for recording in general no matter the instruments involved. Really a job well done with this record, both musically and production wise. Definitely give this a listen.
Nonagon – Fresnel Lens [MP3]
Those that wish to pick up People Live Everywhere can do so by simply heading over to the groups Bandcamp page, where you’ll find it available both on record and digitally. 300 pressed, don’t miss out.
Despite their debut Braille Animal coming out in 2008, I’d never heard of Buildings up until last year. It may or may not have been the best time to discover them, since just as soon as I had a chance to listen to Braille Animal I was made aware that they had a new album coming out in only a matter of a month or two. I’m not sure if that complicates things sometimes, but the immediate reaction is always the more the merrier. Their debut was a pretty solid offering of noisy inspired rock with some Midwestern influences thrown in for good measure. That’s not all surprising though given their locale of Minneapolis, which as many know, has a rather significant history with that type of music. By and large Buildings are an obvious product from which they are from.
As far as Melt, Cry, Sleep goes, the band hasn’t necessarily changed their sound much but definitely have steered further towards the noisier side of things, with a more noticeable influence closer to Jesus Lizard…particularly on the track “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore”. I like the fact that the production isn’t super slick, leaving it a rougher aesthetic that bands of the same style occasionally forgo, which I’ll never quite understand. In a way these guys are pursuing a similar type of path as Young Widows, at least with the first couple albums I’d say, but with an increased habit of latching onto bigger riffs at times. Not sure how much further they can go with this sound, but I’m up for hearing more. Overall, good stuff if this is your sort of thing.
Buildings – Wrong Cock (stream)
Anyone that wish to pick this up can do so by hitting up Doubleplusgood for the CD version or the recently resurrected Cash Cow Records for the LP. And of course, there is always Bandcamp for the digital only folks out there.
