It’s Friday night. It’s summer. Human life is a miracle in and of itself. There exists infinite parallel universes where maybe you don’t possess the ability to listen to every song ever made effortlessly through the speaker on your phone. Yadda yadda yadda. Howsabout you put this one on go get weird with it tonight?
Archives
All posts for the month July, 2015
your nightmare…
ps. tonight we are live blogging music from Chile. Come listen in with us at 8pm(ish).
This first caught my attention because Min Diesel is a great band name. And the artwork reminded me a bit of something Will Oldham might have done at some point (in another life or something). And the album does not disappoint.
Min Diesel hails from Aberdeen, Scotland. Mince was released on May 11th on Cool Your Jets. I’m a little late becoming aware of this, but 9 copies of the lp are still available so let’s do this now and quickly. This isn’t Will Oldham (who I like). It’s indie rock, straight and simple. And it’s very good.
I feel like this falls somewhere between Pavement and Guided by Voices without sounding remotely like either of them. The opener War Band is a good rocker, but the second song Pagan Pageant is just great. It may be the stripped down parts of that song that recall Guided by Voices. And the alluring guitars that make me think pavement. The last 30 seconds of it gets very math rocky too.
I really do think this album is great. It has parts that remind me of some of my 90s favorite without actually sounding like those bands all that much. Trail of T-Shirts and Kirk Session make me think of Sebadoh. The guitar riff on T-shirts is just great. dB, however, is probably my favorite. It’s got some edge and some fire.
We seem about due for a timely “What’s Ty Segall and his 14 different project up to lately?” kind of post. That wonderful T Rex cover above is off the upcoming Goner reissue of his multiple Ty Rex releases, all packaged together and accompanied by a few previously unreleased bonus tracks, including “20th Century Boy”.
I love me some Half Japanese. This does not disappoint. From members Jad Fair and Jason Willett. This is a single from their upcoming lp on Dymaxion Groove.
I like Kendl Winter’s take on bluegrass. Here she is partnered with Palmer T. Lee for something that is quite good. And who doesn’t love a record label that’s all about love? You can order their record from Team Love Records here.
Heading back stateside this week. Today we highlight the Ghost Ease’s “Quit Yer Job.” This is a 4 track 7″ EP that was released on April 24.
The Ghost Ease are a self-labeled grunge band out of Portland, Oregon. The EP starts out with Canine which begins with tilting high end guitar notes that dive into grunge land shortly thereafter. It has that up and down, tilting to loud, thing that I like a lot.
Qwi Mai Yab reminds me a lot of some of the great indie rock from the 1990s. Sound bites and buried, affected vocals. It actually reminds me a lot of Zonic Shockum, an old Philly band from those days. It even has a random pause near the end to fool DJs everywhere into thinking it’s over (hoping that typing this helps me remember that it isn’t over).
XV is very much in the same vein as Qwi Mai Yab but without the vocal effects. I was trying to pinpoint who it reminds me of and I think it’s Th’ Faith Healers. Which is probably the best comparison for this band. And I really love Th’ Faith Healers so this makes a lot of sense.
Bad Girls, which rounds out the EP, brings a different tone with the instrument light intro for this cover of M.I.A.
Overall, this is a great ep with some strong noisy guitar. Each track has a full, tight sound and the tunes are good. Really can’t ask for much more than that.
Sometimes I can pretend I’m verbose enough to describe the stuff I put up on the blog, and sometimes I’m better off just copying and pasting the press release. The Butterscotch Cathedral gets the latter:
The Butterscotch Cathedral is the new studio project from Matt Rendon (Resonars, Lenguas Largas) with Chris Ayers & Jim Waters. Featuring three tracks total (Side one is one 18min sidelong track, & side two contains “Loud Heavy Sun” & the 17-minutes suite “Lisa’s Dream”) the project is Rendon’s homage to the great Sixties & Seventies concept records from bands like The Who & The Beach Boys, both of whom Rendon cite as an influence. Won’t you come inside?
“Flood of Mendoza” finds itself tucked into the albums A-side. The S/T album is out 10/2 on Trouble in Mind.
I’ve played Silian Rail on the show a few times. A few months ago I overlooked that they had posted some old material. It’s all still quite good.