SINGLES!
March/April/May ’09, Part # 2:

Part #3 coming up before you know it!

Graffiti Island / Rapid Youth / Old Blood / Male Bonding split 7”(Paradise Vendors Inc.)

Four way transatlantic split between some up and coming art-spazz-noise types, with a big ol’ lysergic alsatian on the front! Nice! Of the four groups represented, I’m only familiar with Male Bonding, who I caught live one time and quite enjoyed. A quick listen to this one might save me wasting a few sweaty evenings up at Barden’s Boudoir though, right?

So let’s see….

Graffiti Island: Wow, I take back all my expectations, this is AWESOME. I mean, really awesome! Sounds kinda like… Nodzzz if they were totally evil? Ok, maybe not, but man, this is some wonderful, weird-ass mutant nerd-rock with fuzzed-out swooshing noises, odd-ball lyrics, strong rhythmic backbone and a killer tune – real deviant Cleveland vibe, like Electric Eels hectoring meets early-Pere Ubu art-noise-pop? Their song is called “long-necked tribe”, and it’s actually about a tribe of people with long necks. Right on. I wanna see these guys, and shake them by the hand too, if possible/ advisable.

Rapid Youth: Oddly, sounds quite similar to Graffiti Island – especially the singer’s voice. Not sure I like this one quite as much though. The guitar is somewhat over-busy in it’s high-end doodling, and the vocals verge into a kinda Liars-esque chant thing that’s a little annoying. To further my Cleveland state of mind, it sounds a bit like Paul Marotta’s work in The Styrenes, if you get me. You don’t? Well fine, you’re not missing much, and I’m just being an obscurist bore.

Old Blood: Christ, this is rather less welcome. Overloaded no-fi sound that pushes all the harsh frequencies ala Times New Viking, but unlike TNV I don’t hear much pop or positivity worth digging for beneath. The drumming literally sounds like somebody banging on some bins with a stick, which I’d usually be into, don’t get me wrong, only nobody in this band sounds like they give a fuck, so I don’t see why I should either.

Male Bonding: Wheee! Rocking, high-energy dual guitar cartoon prog-punk here, served with a mischievous grin. Far more light-of-touch and good-of-feeling than the name ‘Male Bonding’ would tend to suggest, but with all the rock muscle and low-end fuzz present and correct. Actually reminds me a lot of Deerhoof – same undeniable rad-ness, only less precocious and annoying. Result! I’m not sure I could stand listening to these guys for very long at a single sitting, but their songs are short, and so are their live sets, so it’s not like they’re not asking anyone to. Gentlemen to a fault!

CONCLUSION: Hey, all in all, that was a great listen, and a lovely surprise. I kinda expected a lot of ‘rainbow vomit’ types with squelching pedal noise and bad, self-indulgent drummers, but actually at least half of it takes a trip down some interesting, non-conformist punk rock avenues, and, in Grafitti Island’s case, a pretty damn exciting one. All that, and I bet I just managed to wreck some idiot’s one-search-result googlewhack thing by laying down ‘lysergic alsation’ in my preamble too. I don’t think it even is an alsation. I’m not into dogs. Rock on!

http://www.myspace.com/graffitiisland
http://www.myspace.com/rapidrapidyouth
http://www.myspace.com/oldbloodmusic
http://www.myspace.com/malebonding
http://www.myspace.com/paradisevendorsinc

The Hot Melts - Edith (Epitaph)

Yeah, I confess, I bought this one just based on the cover art. I mean, a record that looks like this has got to be a hit, right? (Ok, if you share my aesthetic sensibilities, a record that looks like this has got to be a hit.) It was only then that I noticed it’s on Epitaph; oh well - could go either way. As it turns out, it’s none too great – kinda watered down Rocket From The Crypt on the a-side, with a flat recording nullifying whatever life used to be in the big guitar riffs. The song never really makes an impression; singer sounds like he’s trying too hard. The b is better, in that it’s a total rip-off of ‘Sweet Jane’, which is always welcome. I kept waiting for them to spoil it by launching into a big, dunderheaded chunk riff….. and they held out for so long, I was just starting to think they’d bring the whole thing into harbour safely, but no, the predictable ‘hey, let’s go loud and sing all gruff’ bit cleaved into view to sink my hopes. Basically I suspect this record is the work of lifetime card-carrying Rock Dudes trying to write pop songs and then realising they’ve got no idea how to make the deceptively simple geometry of pop work for them. Oh well, you live and learn. Gimme Foxburo Hottubs any day!

http://www.myspace.com/thehotmelts

Jacuzzi Boys – Ghost Ghost b/w Age of the Giant Jellyfish (Florida is Dying)

Sounding like a ready-made support band for Thee Oh Sees, I must admit that Florida’s Jacuzzi Boys press a lot of the right buttons with me at present, and it’s swell to find an actual, physical copy of this 7” after surviving on a few downloaded mp3s for a while. Totally spooked-out, propulsive garage-psyche is what Jacuzzi Boys do, and if that description already has you reaching for the bat-phone then their warped 12-string jangle, overdrive pedal lead vocals, droning echo, inscrutable harmonies and admirable lack of quirk should be right up your alley.

Maybe it’s reading too much into things to say there’s a distinct Florida feeling to this band’s music, an atmosphere slightly suggestive of the state’s queasier, weirder cultural legacy? Like the almost hallucinatory turquoise on some rotting roadside motel in bright sunlight? If somebody took acid in a Hershel Gordon Lewis movie, it might sound like this. Great cover shot only drives home my point, with the band bearing lanterns, looking sinister. They have another 7” out called “I Fought a Crocodile”. I love it.

http://www.myspace.com/jacuzziboys
http://www.myspace.com/mutinyproductions

Kim Phuc – Wormwood Star b/w Freak Out the Squares (Criminal IQ)

“You just had to find the most horrible record in the shop, didn’t you?”, said my friend Pete in regard to his 7” as we sat in the park surveying our respective purchases the other day. And yes, apparently. Yes I did.

It was the lyrics as printed on the back of the sleeve that sold me I think. Opening lines of ‘Wormwood Star’ are:

I knew it right from the start
That your were born to be a witch
Should have carved ancient sigils
Across my chest

‘Freak Out the Squares’ meanwhile opts for:

Why don’t you and me get together
And cut each other with razorblades
Trip down naked, huff some butane
Find a strip mall to invade

Sounds good to me! Whilst I’ll save both you and Kim Phuc the embarrassment of a full transcription, suffice to say, both songs get progressively more ridiculous(ly wonderful) from thereon in. In fact, all in all this single represents the greatest feat of laugh-out-loud, sleazy, nihilistic, batshit teenage sociopath-styled lyrical derangement I’ve encountered since I gave up listening to Cannibal Corpse. Respect, of a sort, is due.

I’m not sure what my favourite bit is. I’m torn between the line “you can take an average Friday night / and turn it into rights of pain!”[sic] on the A-side, and “Gonna fuck on Ronald Reagan’s grave / we’ll wipe our shit, piss and cum / with the American flag!” on the B. Shocking stuff huh readers? I trust you're appropriately 'freaked out' by these daring iconoclasts.

So, can Kim Phuc possibly measure up musically? Well… ‘Wormwood..’ gets off to a good start, sounding like The Scientists playing ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, but overall both of the tracks are somewhat meandering and leave something to be desired, as the musicians attempt to form an uneasy truce between classic Stoogoid punk, brooding death-rock ambience and endless tension/release metal-core breakdowns, emerging in a deeply unsatisfactory position where the best elements of all those forms have gone AWOL rather than compete with the singer’s tuneless, self-harm obsessed death-freak ranting. He sounds quite serious about it all, bless him. Social services have been informed.

http://www.myspace.com/kimphuc
http://www.myspace.com/criminaliqrecords

Liechtenstein – Everything’s For Sale
(Drill Buildings CD-R)

I was kinda lukewarm on Liechtenstein when I saw them live last year. So, your sound and aesthetic leans heavily on Kleenex/LiLiPUT, I thought to myself. Well that’s just great. But if that’s ALL it does..? Needs more… SOMETHING… to really make an impression. Thankfully, that ‘something’ is provided in spades on this fantastic single, which I’ll admit has really blown me away. And what’s more, it doesn’t sound very much like Kleenex/LiLiPUT either. So that’s me told, with my lazy stereotyping of central European female post-punk trios.

What it does sound like in places though is all-time Flying Nun girl-pop heroes Look Blue, Go Purple, and that’s a BRILLIANT thing to sound like. A backbone of suppressed fury and serpentine suspicion, hidden and soothed behind layers of tidal guitar jangle, nursery rhyme melodies, cavewoman thump. Listening to a-side ‘Everything’s For Sale’, it finally makes sense that Liechtenstein are turning up on so many indie-pop bills too, as the song revs up like a more ascetic, militant Shop Assistants, ending with a few rounds of three-part ‘sha-la-la’s. But it’s b-side ‘The End of the World’ that really elicits the LB/GP comparison, a quiet, heartfelt, gritted teeth vocal holding ground beneath a reverbed swirl of ‘What Goes On’ strummage. And, as if to taunt me, 50 second bonus track ‘Low Sugar / Low Fat’ totally brings the LiLiPUT. “We look good when we’re undressed”, Liechtenstein chant over staccato bass and muted trumpet, an oblique/obvious protest as perfectly formed as any ‘Pink Flag’ nugget.

Scarcely six minutes of music here, but within it I think we can hear the whole essence of a great band, playing some defiantly UN-twee pop, with dignity, substance and self-belief.

http://www.myspace.com/liechtensteinia
http://www.fractiondiscs.se/

Labels: graffiti island, Jacuzzi Boys, Kim Phuc, Liechtenstein, Male Bonding, Old Blood, Rapid Youth, singles reviews, The Hot Melts