Mazes – Cenetaph / Go Betweens 7” (Suffering Jukebox)

New-ish single from Mazes, and the first release from new Manchester-based label Suffering Jukebox, whose name and release schedule thus far seems specifically designed to please me. You’ll recall that I loved Mazes’ first 45 to pieces, so when I say I don’t like this one quite so much, that’s not to say that there isn’t much here for the discerning consumer of indie rock to enjoy.

Thing is though, ya see: the home-recorded songs on the first record had a wonderful, rich, desperate blare to them, a spark that seemed really special. The tracks here were done in a studio, and well, I dunno – it kinda sounds like they had a really chilled out time doing them, and really out the work in to make everything sound perfect; maybe they had some really nice guy who usually does alt-country bands behind the board? Whatever, the result is that Mazes here sound like a competent indie-rock band, playing some good songs with quite nice melodies. Less “Shocker In Gloomtown”, more “Date w/ Ikea”.

I know which end of that spectrum excites me more these days, but hey, maybe you think differently. 90s revival partisans should by all means give it a shot. I don’t know which song is which, cos the sides aren’t labelled and neither of them have obvious title-repeating choruses, but at least one of ‘em has crisp drumming, a cool lively tune and a winning solo. Good enough for me. Now get back to the flat and start trying to record ten songs through the hi-fi speakers every time your neighbours go out, for such is apparently the only way a jaded freak like me can appreciate your rock majesty.

http://www.myspace.com/mazesmazesmazes
http://sufferingjukeboxrecords.blogspot.com/

Labels: Mazes, singles reviews

Summer Singles, part # 2

Mazes – Bowie Knives (Sex is Disgusting)

So it was essentially on the basis of mp3s of the songs from this 7” that I made my initial assessment of Mazes last month. To wit: “Guided By Voices and The Clean are the self-acknowledged chief reference points here, and whilst obviously Mazes aren’t remotely as revelatory as either of those groups, theirs is a straight up blend of roaring, rough-hewn subterranean power-pop that hits all the right buttons. At worst, file under “thoroughly satisfactory”, and at best, songs like "Bethesda" are f-ing superb; strong song-writing, goofy immediacy and a killer sound that recalls GBV’s ‘Propeller’”.

And all that still stands (hey, I don’t change my mind THAT quickly), but now that I’ve got these numbers on an actual disc (great cover art, and a really nice, good sounding pressing too – three cheers for Sex is Disgusting), I like ‘em even better. Mazes are just a really straightforward great band, making great songs that sound great, with (it seems) little in the way of ego, silliness or career ambitions getting in the way – they’re ditching the hassles and just getting down to it. The spirit of Greg’s basement circa 1993 lives on. ‘Bethesda’ really is a hit – the kind of spooky, self-explanatory, unbeatable singalong tune I wish I’d written; “There’s a witch in distance / and she knows what I know”. Sensational. So if like me you’re the sort of fool who’s prepared to regularly shell out £5 for four minutes of neatly packaged music, don’t let this one pass you by - it’s real nice. Limited to 250 apparently. Cor, you’d think they’d at least stretch to 500. Anyway, two thumbs up!

http://www.myspace.com/mazesmazesmazes
http://www.myspace.com/sexisdisgustingrecords

Miniswap – Whistler b/w Human Error (Cloudberry)

Miniswap is the band that the other three members of The Bats turn into when Robert Scott is off on his holidays, or serving time in The Clean, or whatever. So guitarist Kaye Woodward takes the lead vocal, song-writing duty is shared and the result is as gorgeous a pile of perfectly formed chiming kiwi guitar pop as you could hope for.

With Woodward’s softer tones, and some jovial recorder and whistling, things are sufficiently cutie to gain a release on Cloudberry (er… not that there’s anything wrong with that..), but the songs are also more upbeat and energetic than recent Bats material, with ‘Whistler’ in particular barrelling along like a lost Look Blue Go Purple song, carried forth by Woodward’s dense, shimmering rhythm guitar strummage as she seemingly takes on the role Scott plays in The Bats, rather than her usual quietly ferocious lead work. ‘Human Error’ meanwhile is more acoustic, but still catapulted forth by the band as Paul Kean’s muscular bass and the faintly Smiths-y melody take centre stage. A fine listen.

I really like the cover to this one too. Not that I’m some twee foot fetishist or anything, but it’s really pleasant to look upon… the Mazes one also. Heck, I even quite like the Mother of Tears one, and that's just plain ugly. I'm a pushover for covers.

http://www.myspace.com/miniswap
http://www.cloudberryrecords.com/

Mother of Tears – Little Ratty b/w In The Morning (Hozac)

Boy, this is sure not what I expected a band called ‘Mother of Tears’ to sound like. I wonder if they’re named after that notoriously awful Dario Argento movie? Whatever; just like that movie probably will when I get around to it, this hits my pleasure receptors with a dull thud, and life is alright. Well executed if ultimately undistinguished, it’s good natured, masculine ‘Punk Rock’ in a wouldbe sky-scraping, vaguely fist-pounding ‘anthems for barflys’ kinda vein. Close one eye and you could be listening to a demo of ‘Do The Collapse’ era GBV, but close the other and you could just as easily be hearing The Weirdos, or some other hardworking LA outfit on the cusp of that punk-becomes-new wave moment. The singers sounds a little like Gary Floyd of The Dicks in places, although a lot less OTT or distinctive. ‘Little Ratty’ goes on a bit too long, but has a great, dramatic ending with “are you ready to die??” yelled over a one note guitar crescendo. I think this band does drama pretty well actually; ‘In The Morning’ has a far more blatant New Wave thing going on, almost a vampy LA goth kinda vibe if it wasn’t simultaneously so macho – it’s got a real cool ‘80s horror movie theme song type stomp; good times, although it ends before it really gets going. Not bad at all!

It’s crazy isn’t it, how we (or at least I – dunno about you) have these so, so many accutely delineated little categories and cross-referenced tick boxes for each and every possible variation of dudes playing guitars and drums and hollering…?

So, I dunno, fuck it – this is some rock music. It’s a lot better than the majority of other rock music out there, so if you’re thus inclined you might as well give it a spin if you’ve worn out all your Alice Cooper records. But if you’re thinking of ordering some 7”s off ebay from overseas for mucho $$, I’m not sure I’d make it a priority.

http://www.myspace.com/motheroftears
http://www.hozacrecords.com/

Nodzzz – True To Life b/w Good Times Crowd (What’s Your Rupture?)

First new material from Nodzzz since their album, and…. straight in the back of the net! Or ‘home run’, or whatever your preferred crappy sports type expression of effortless success and exhilaration is. Seriously, this band can do no wrong for me at the moment, and these are two more beautiful little songs to add to the pile. The recording here is brighter and cleaner here than on the album, but correspondingly perhaps a little thinner. Who cares though, you can hear it all fine and these guys are definitely a ‘song’ band rather than a ‘sound’ band.

In ‘True To Life’, Nodzzz return to their familial home in the suburbs and sing to everyone about the things they’ve learned at the art school. “If you must make a picture, make it true to life”, they advise sagely. Sounds like a refreshingly down to earth approach to the arts to me – presumably this wasn’t the same art school that gave the world all those Lightning Bolt type dudes, or the subsequent generations of fluorescent bozos who hang around this neck of the woods.

On the other side is ‘Good Times Crowd’, wherein Nodzzz perhaps examine a different aspect of the art school life, communicating the thrills and disappointments experienced by a fragile fellow attempting to adjust to a new-found life of hedonism. It doesn’t sound like it ended well, but it doesn’t sound like it was entirely fruitless either.

Perhaps soon there will be enough Nodzzz songs for us to place them all in order and piece together a concise and comprehensive biography of an earnest young man making his way in the world and experiencing new things. And, rendered by way of the band’s insistent, twangy guitar lines and jaunty ‘nerd bounce’ sound (of which the A side here is another definitive example), it would be hard not to wed this unfolding tale to the mental image of our protagonist happily striding down the street on a sunny day with a mischievous look in his eye, his picaresque troubles overcome and a spring in his step as he marches on toward adulthood. Sort of like The Embarrassment if they’d taken some anger management classes, got a bit more fresh air and really sorted their shit out.

I’m going to see Nodzzz at the end of this month, and I can’t wait! *Claps hands in theatrical excitement*

http://nodzzz.blogspot.com/
http://www.whatsyourrupture.com/

Labels: Mazes, Miniswap, Mother of Tears, Nodzzz, singles reviews, The Bats

I Like All This Stuff! Part # 3

The Barbaras

Some geeky lookin’ guys, all rejoicing in those endearingly whiny voices that as a non-American I thought only belonged to comic relief characters in teen movies, The Barbaras are possessed of a singular vision of homemade pure pop Or rather, a not at all singular vision, since heavy elements of such are creeping in all over the map, particularly with groups like Smith Westerns etc…. but I think it’s The Barbaras who are perhaps tking this notion furthest and doing it best. What notion, you ask? Well “Budget Spectorisms” proclaims their myspace headline, and that’s hard to beat as a two word descriptor. For yes, unlike scary uncle Phil’s productions, there is usually a rock band heart still beating behind The Barbaras songs, but beyond that they sound like they’re way into some wonderful and strange ‘studio as instrument’ perfectionism… only without the studio. It’s a fine sound they’ve got going, sounding psychedelic by accident rather than by intention, with just enough bubblegum rock n’ roll backing to keep things solid, but balanced out by vocal harmonies, overdriven xylophones and bouncing, lurching, cosmic sugar. Mini pop symphonies hewn from the same sonic infatuation experiments that Spector and Brian Wilson used to define the sound of ‘60s pop, but without all the sleaze, egomania and cynicism that followed, all sounding like it’s being worked out with just a tape recorder, some outboard effects and the contents of a school music room. It’s terrific songs like ‘Flow’, ‘Topsy Turvy Magic’ and ‘Heaven Hangs’ that really seal the deal though – beautiful, straight-faced, innocent odes to the joys of looking at yr girl’s hair and visiting her house, with real world creepiness left over the hills and far away. So well do these guys capture a 21st century geeky boy equivalent of The Crystals and Ronettes Wagnerian teen-romance universality, it’s hard to imagine them ever getting wrecked or cracking dirty jokes or hanging around with Jay Reatard or any of the other stuff that 21st century geeky boys in bands like this presumably do. Lovely, lovely stuff from a simpler, happier world that you’ll want to file next to Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans instead of Psychedelic Horseshit.

http://www.myspace.com/thebarbaras


Fergus & Geronimo

More atavistic ‘60s purity reasserting itself here I think – Ruan of ‘Nick Thinks’ recommended these guys in the comments after my last post, and good grief, I nearly fell off my seat when I got back from the pub and hit the link. Fergus & Geronimo are, I’m assuming, a kind of vocalist & keyboard/instruments duo from Denton, Texas, and OMG, they’re AMAZING! Everything about their sound communicates a love of early ‘60s soul, but rather than the tedious, gurning, horrid pastiche that you’d fear might result from the meeting of soul homage and lo-fi white boy capers, this music sounds fresh as the breeze – foot-stomping, up-with-people love songs carrying that same unquestionable FUCK YEAH spirit as vintage Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. So ok, maybe some random kid from Texas stretching his voice to hit the high notes doesn’t equal the greats, and some guy with a casio and a tambourine doesn’t equal Tamla Motown, but they’ve got the feeling and they’re putting in the fucking effort to make it work when no one else is even daring to try, and that’s what counts – an out-of-time blast of jump blues, gospel honesty, pop melody, and now with added punk rock, as righteous as a true love’s kiss.

http://www.myspace.com/fergusgeronimo


Pens

For a thoroughly scrappy DIY trio who started playing out in London scarcely more than a year ago, Pens have gone pretty far pretty quick – a US tour, an album forthcoming album on LA label De Stijl, name dropped in all the right places… we could be seeing the crest of another tedious Vivian Girls / Wavves style hype washout here, but let’s not dwell on such things. Pens absolutely killed when I saw them at that Upset The Rhythm thing on the Old Kent Road a few months back – definitely the best band I saw there, although I never would have expected record labels and tastemakers start agreeing with me about stuff like that, y’know? With one foot in the same deconstructionism and 100% rejection of book-learned male musical orthodoxy as The Corey Orbison and Ethical Debating Society, Pens are a thoroughly self-taught, self-sufficient proposition, banging it out with a raw, organically developed thunk, shaved of the artificial barriers of chops and reference points for some direct anger/noise/fun/listener/hit/face connection, if you will. Added to that, they’ve got a big, fuck-off metal-derived noise of distortion pedal casio and viciously fuzzed guitar to fall back on, and a really winning pop sensibility that becomes clear on repeated listens, from Troggs/Monks style love chants to fascinating densely-packed, ambiguous urban chaos laments – that’s CONTENT by any other name, chaps. At their best, Pens is like the kind of The Fall that every forty-five year old bloke ever bangs on about, only it’s a three-headed girl and it’s happening now. We’ll see what transpires, but world-beating, potentially. Did I really just say “urban chaos laments”? – urgh, I need a holiday.

http://www.myspace.com/penspenspenis


Mazes


Also currently turning up on all the right rackety bills and picking up a fair amount of UK press, it’s nice to discover that unassuming home-recording trio Mazes are actually pretty good. Guided By Voices and The Clean are the self-acknowledged chief reference points here, and whilst obviously Mazes aren’t remotely as revelatory as either of those groups, theirs is a straight up blend of roaring, rough-hewn subterranean power-pop that hits all the right buttons. At worst, file under “thoroughly satisfactory”, and at best, songs like "Bethesda" are f-ing superb; strong song-writing, goofy immediacy and a killer sound that recalls GBV’s ‘Propeller’; crashing drums, churning guitars, clear vocals and EQ-pushing skree – the kind of totally efficient blare that makes you wonder why any self-respecting guitar/bass/drums band would feel the need to venture beyond the 4-track or do overdubs. But then of course, you just need to listen to any number of crappy, unlistenable 4-track bands out there to remind yourself that, oh yeah, that’s what studios are for. Mazes are just getting it right, that’s all, and god bless ‘em for that.

http://www.myspace.com/mazesmazesmazes



The Sock Puppets

I’ll admit there’s maybe a little bit of self-interest here, as The Give It Ups are playing with these guys in Copenhagen next week, but heck, that aside, I really like ‘em! Full of enthusiasm, and coming from the punkier end of European indie-pop (my favoured end), they remind me of a rougher, lo-fi Those Dancing Days, with swearing and shouting and metronomic drums. Thumbs up to all that, needless to say! It occurs to me I don’t actually know much Danish music… hopefully our forthcoming holiday can help rectify that.

http://www.myspace.com/socksandpuppets



The Traditional Fools

Ah, The Traditional Fools! You know what you’re getting with a name like that. Idiocy with a pedigree. Looking back over these posts, I guess I’ve been heavily hinting at the notion that all this stuff is kinda modern day garage rock, perhaps to the point of tedium. The great thing is, this is not so much through direct imitation and pastiche, ala the ‘80s Garage Revival (who always tended to be overproduced and have 3 minute+ songs anyway), but simply because it’s just coming from the same place and speaking the same language as all those legendary teenage cavemen. Listening to the second volume of Pebbles the other way, it suddenly struck me that cuts like ‘Feathered Fish’ by the Sons of Adam and ‘You Rub Me The Wrong Way’ by The Roads, (along with any other punk-ass ‘60s relics that happen to be free of the usual period tells like harmony backing vox, wiggy organ etc.), could just as easily have been made in 2008 as 1968, but probably NOT at any point in between. Surely this forty year disjuncture is unprecedented. I mean sure, people go about reviving moribund musical styles ‘till they’re blue in the face, and that’s great… but for a whole generation to end up sounding *exactly* like their grandparents, without even particularly trying to? That’s just weird. Further evidence can be gained from the fact that if you’d told me that The Traditional Fools’ killer version of Love’s ‘Flash On You’ was taken from a long lost ’65 bootleg of Arthur Lee and co, I’d probably have taken you on your word, been flabbergasted by it’s noise and ferocity, and begged you for a copy on bended knees. But I don’t have to beg, because The Traditional Fools (featuring current it-dude Ty Seagull) are here, and they’re drinking beer and growing beards, and making funny skateboarding based videos, and probably playing the beach party near you, if you live where they live. Alright! Isn’t this so much more fun than when everybody was trying to be like Shellac? And it’s easier too – nobody needed the second-string Albinis, but every town should have some Traditional Fools.

http://www.myspace.com/thetraditionalfools

Labels: Fergus and Geronimo, garage, I like, Mazes, Pens, punk, soul, The Barbaras, The Sock Puppets, The Traditional Fools