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All posts for the month August, 2015

Pterodactyl hailed from Brooklyn. This song belongs to 2007. It’s noisy, catchy, fantastic.

ps. Tonight we debut a new regular series called International Radio Shower. Basically just us exploring music from around the globe. This month we are highlighting some music from Greece.

I was so impressed with Conspiración Autista when we did our drunk blogging about Chilean music. The thing about it, this was a brand new release. Only 5 days old when we rambled on about how great it was. And it really is that good, so I think it deserves special attention here.

This is a debut release for Conspiración Autista. I tried searching and didn’t see any evidence of a physical release. It appears to be primarily a digital release on bandcamp. So don’t go looking for this in record stores just yet. But be thankful that platforms like bandcamp exist and make it easy for great bands to share great music. And if you run a label, drop these folks a line stat.

The entire 7 track lp is extremely great. The opening track Todas las sirenas en camino al lugar de la emergencia, and yes the track titles are mostly very long, is some peaceful low key post rock. It doesn’t really fully prepare you for the glory to come. But it sets it up quite nicely. And Solanas Maquillada continues the pattern effectively before launching into epic screaming post punk goodness. I’m quite picky about how my singers scream their lyrics and this works quite well for me.

More after the fold…

I really like how Nariz Sangrante switches between an unintelligible full throat scream to a loud, almost yelling, sorta talking thing. Once the tone is set with the first two songs, the rest is just history as they say. I think my favorite track is He visto a Dios: Es una cámara de vigilancia, which translates as “I saw God: A surveillance camera.” Possibly in large part due to the presumably implicit politics of it.

There isn’t a bad track here. And it’s lyrically interesting. I’m glad I got the urge to punch the lyrics to Virgen del Espectáculo into google translate. Here is what I got, some of which is clearly lost in translation, but it’s still pretty great.

Virgin Entertainment, show the contents of the unconscious
under the influence of drugs mystical Andean highlands,
glue for bicycles, live TV,
Wine of liquor stores, coffee police stations.

And here is the music. So listen in and enjoy.

Dutch post-punkers Rats of Rafts find a groove on “Sleep Little Child” and ride it’s peaks and valleys for nearly eight wonderful minutes. If you enjoy the band’s neighbors to the northeast, like Iceage, Lower, and Lust for Youth, you’d be well served to give this a listen.

Tape Hiss is out on Fire Records on 10/16.

So, I obviously think of music somewhat in terms of vinyl (a product of my age I think). And I do now and then come across vinyl EPs that are released in the 10″ vinyl format or sometimes in other weird formats (such as Deerhoof releasing their latest album in a flexidisc book option). So, roughly once a month we will highlight some unique release. We will obviously highlight it primarily for it’s music, but also maybe make note now and then of interesting experimental releases (such as maybe records made out of urine?).

It’s true we sometimes like our music on the Interstellar Radio Shower loud and screaming oriented, but we also love the power of a lovely synth backed indie pop EP such as Bouquet’s 10″ In a Dream. In a Dream was released in March as a limited edition run of 500 on Folktake Records. Folktale Records is one of my favorite indie folk labels so I think that’s how it initially got my attention.

This is the kind of relaxing music that facilitates the contemplation of one’s life and circumstance. I’ve always been a fan of smartly construct albums and this one does not disappoint there.

The title track In a Dream opens up the EP and it thrusts that contemplation aspect right at you. It’s got a repetitive catchy thing happening. Not the kind that gets you up in dancing (though swaying is plausible). But the kind that facilitates the closing of eyes and the non-sleep kind of dreaming. Lyrically the song reinforces this as it talks about a romantic journey in a dream and the attempt to hold onto it.



Stacks on Stacks builds off of the opening track, elevating the poppy catchiness of our dreaming, contemplating couch state. But it’s Come To Your House that really elevates the indie pop elements. This song is so good and if by this point you are almost in a state of coma-level contemplation, I think this wakes you up and alerts you to the fact that you’ve been lost in contemplation and there are a million wonderful things you can do today.



Over Mountains continues our contemplative trend. A song about loneliness and letting go. It’s just beautiful. Falling closes the album in an appropriately completionist mindset. “I’m falling, falling, still falling.” Listen to the whole EP below.

!!! just announced a new album, As If, due out 10/16 on Warp. When you’re as good at what you do as !!! is, there’s no real need to reinvent the wheel, and “Freedom! ’15” finds the band doing exactly what they’re known best for: dancefloor funk that should get plenty of festival crowds moving for the next year or two. A+ artwork, too.

Digging this indie rock from Sarah Persephona in St Petersburg. Here is a video from a couple months back. And below that a link to her EP. Also worth noting as Russia is a possible contender for our next session of the drunk radio shower.

Melkbelly’s BATB (aka Bathroom at the Beach) is awesome. The 7″ was released on vinyl on July 31 by Chicago outfit Automatic Recordings. This straight up single, available on a limited edition run of vinyl, really rocks.

This is sharp edged noisy pop reminds me a lot of Speedy Ortiz which I coincidentally posted this morning. The short A-side Bathroom at the Beach is quick, catchy and loud. The B-side is a long track with the braggable title Piss Wizard. This song fluctuates from driving and noisy to slow and catchy.

This band does recall Th’ Faith Healers some. I think this music speaks for itself.

I was a bit surprised at how quietly APTBS’s Transfixiation was received upon release earlier this year. Some of that may have had to do with the band’s “Our-practice-space-closed-up-woe-is-us” marketing strategy, but the album itself is exactly the kind of in-the-red noise dirges (bordering on industrial at times) one would expect from them.

I don’t think we’ve played this. But I also want to call attention to how awesome Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Depuis is. So read this article before you watch the video. Maybe even go buy yourself a Gender is Over t-shirt. Ok, now you’re good.