Here’s a good juxtaposition with yesterday’s Gun Outfit post: FIDLAR seem to know exactly what type of band they want to be, and so take the express route to writing some loud, distorted pop punk tunes.
Music
An old friend of mine put this video up this week. This was part of a show bidding farewell to Diva Haus in Columbia, MO. I know nothing except that Rough Blush is pretty great. When you are done with the video, check out their stuff on bandcamp too.
If you don’t like that then you’re no rock n roll fun. Seriously. Sometimes though, you need a classic. And I had this scheduled to post today before discovering the awesomeness that is Rough Blush. So why not leave it up?
I’m having a hard time describing Gun Outfit. “Indie” certainly doesn’t do them justice, and “Dream All Over” is far too lively to call folk music. There’s an air of psychedelia to the proceedings, but not enough to classify it under the wide net of “psych rock”. It sort of reminds me of Widowspeak’s take on the slowburning type of 70’s guitar folk, overlayed with a haze of ever-present smog indicative of Gun Outfit’s home base in LA.
TLDR: It’s a good fucking song, and you should give it a listen.
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.
This is fun. I have posted from these folks before and highlighted their lp a couple of weeks back. Here is a video. A new LP highlight coming tonight btw.
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.