Random Old Records

Random Old Records Podcast #39

2012-01-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

Whew, even after I promised myself last year that I would never do it again, I went ahead and made a top 25 albums of the year list that took me damn near a month to complete. Naturally, I posted the last of it yesterday long after all of the bigger, better, more relevant blogs had posted theirs and even longer after everyone was tired of reading "top whatever of 2011" lists, but I just couldn't help myself. 2011 was another AMAZING year for music, probably the fourth straight one in a row after most of the 2000s had been dominated by digitally-recorded pop drivel and painfully earnest singer-songwriting pussies masquerading as cutting edge indie rock. If you haven't yet, please do peruse my top 25 LPs of 2011 list and check out the track I posted with each entry. There was just TOO MUCH good shit that came out last year, so much that I might be writing an honorable mentions list sometime soon.

But anyway, we're entering the fourth year of Random Old Records Podcast, so what better way to kick off 2012 than episode #39, which is packed with as much killer rock n' roll as ever?! This time around, you'll hear the second straight KILLER single from ex-Mika Miko sisters Bleached, a selection from the current crop of garage punk releases from Wisconsin's Dusty Medical Records, hazy glam-psych from Cleveland weirdo Gap Dream, and stellar tunes from Mark Sultan, Wheels On Fire, Digital Leather, Burnt Ones, Coasting, Mikal Cronin, Xray Eyeballs, and more! It's a crucial sixty minutes that is the perfect soundtrack for blasting your way out of the winter blahs.

So yeah Random Old Records #39 is out and that is exiciting news, but I also have MORE exciting news to announce! I've been posting here and there about it on Twitter and Facebook, but I'm not sure if I said anything officially, but as of NOW, Random Old Records the blog and podcast is branching out into Random Old Records & Tapes: the LABEL! Our first release is from Cincinnati's loudest bubblegum rock n' roll band, 20th Century Tokyo Princess. ROR #001 is entitled I've Never Been Happy & I've Never Had Fun, and it contains eight tracks of raging pop music heavily influenced by The Modern Lovers and Velvet Underground. It was recorded to four track mono on 05/01/2010, and is presented in a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered RED cassettes complete with a free digital download containing two bonus tracks not on the tape. Here's a preview track, an feedback-drenched rock n' roll blowout called "99 Years."

Head on over to the band's site to stream the album in it's entirety and buy a digital download if that's your thing, or you can buy the tape at the brand new Random Old Records & Tapes Store! I'm also distributing the debut 12" EP from Cincinnati's #1 white boy soul rockers The Guitars, so pick one of those up too! You can stream that release at the group's Bandcamp site. Support Cincinnati rock n' roll music, and don't be surprised if these bands blow your minds.

In other news, I'm proud to announce that I'm now contributing to the national garage rock blog Get Bent as of now! Get Bent is the best blog going right now (apart from mine, naturally....HA!) devoted to underground, lo-fi, out-there garage, punk, whatever music and I'm positively giddy to lend a hand. Stay tuned to that site for reviews, news items, and coverage of Cincinnati bands from yours truly! As always, thanks for reading and supporting Random Old Records, and it's looking like 2012 is going to be our best year yet!!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE
DIRECT DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #39

1. Digital Leather - "Mind Eraser"

(Sponge, Crash Symbols 2012)

2. Xray Eyeballs - "Sundae"

(Sundae 7", Hardly Art 2011)

3. Burnt Ones - "Gonna Listen To T. Rex (All Night Long)"

(Black Teeth & Golden Tongues, Roaring Colonel 2010)

4. The Barreracudas - "Baby Baby Baby"

(Nocturnal Missions, Douchemaster 2011)

5. Bad Sports - "Inside And Out"

(Kings Of The Weekend, Dirtnap 2011)

6. Wheels On Fire - "Dead Of Night"

(Dead Of Night 7", Milk N' Herpes 2011)

--Reform School Girl!

7. Mikal Cronin - "You Gotta Have Someone"

(Tide 7", Goner 2011)

8. Tomorrow's Tulips - "Eternally Teenage"

(Eternally Teenage, Galaxia 2011)

9. Radar Eyes - "Miracle"

(Miracle 7", HoZac 2011)

10. Gap Dream - "Go Ahead"

(Gap Dream, Burger 2011)

11. Swiftumz - "More Than Sleep"

(Swiftumz, Holy Mountain 2011)

--It came from Detroit!

12. Lantern - "I Don't Know"

(I Don't Know 7", Mammoth Cave Recording Co. 2011)

13. Head On Electric - "Here They Come Now"

(Sleep Slaughter Sheep, Dusty Medical 2011)

14. Dead People - "Misleady"

(Dead People 7", Windian 2011)

15. The Famines - "Faux Famous"

(The Complete Collected Singles, Mammoth Cave Recording Co. 2011)

16. Guilty Pleasures - "Put Your Mouth To It"

(Summer Strange, Dusty Medical 2011)

--Gary Busey has a big wednesday.

17. Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"

(Searching Through The Past 7", Suicide Squeeze 2011)

18. Coasting - "Snoozefest"

(You're Never Going Back, M'Ladys 2011)

19. Neverever - "Bitch Boys"

(Angelic Swells, Slumberland 2010)

20. Bazooka - "Back Tou You"

(Jupiter 7", Dusty Medical 2011)

21. Mark Sultan - "If I Had A Polaroid"

(Whatever I Want, In The Red 2011)

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 5: 05-01

2012-01-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

5. Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

(Drag City)

If the slow, steady strum that kicks off this album didn't give it away, the press release written by none other than 60s Rolling Stones manager and bon vivant Andrew Loog Oldham sure as hell does. Goodbye Bread is garage punk prodigy Ty Segall's grown-up album, the one where he finally combines the fearless, ADD-addled fat kid at the buffet pop gluttony of his early work with the maturity that comes with being a somewhat respected rock n' roller with a handful of killer tunes under his belt before turning 25. Is anyone surprised that the ten tracks on Goodbye Bread flow seamlessly into one another and display a songwriter that taps directly into the same well of inspiration as John Lennon and Kurt Cobain without coming off as overly reverential or patronizing?! Segall's previous records sounded like they took a day or two to make, with schizophrenic highs of perfect fuzzed-out glam and dizzying lows of studio-induced unlistenable sludge fighting for equal time, but here he spent six months sculpting the sound, and Goodbye Bread immediately places Segall into a stratosphere above his legions of garage rock peers. If anything, this record makes a convincing case for Ty Segall the GUITAR HERO, as he packs some face-melting leads and solos into "Goodbye Bread," "The Floor," and "Where Your Head Goes" that add another layer to the package and proves that he's ready for a mainstream indie-rock close-up. Of course, he followed this up with the grinding sludge-metal moves of the "Spiders" 7", so who knows? Segall is a restless spirit, and combining such experimentation with classic singer-songwriter skills might not get him on the cover of Spin, but I highly doubt he gives a shit. and as a result, neither do I.

4. Strange Boys - Live Music

(Rough Trade)

After taking the top spot in last year's countdown, The Strange Boys return with a near-flawless follow-up that probably would have ranked higher if it didn't come out in November. As always, your enjoyment of the band will hinge on your feelings towards Ryan Sambol's adenoidal croon, which sounds likes a tone-deaf Texas teen impersonating Mick Jagger in front of his bedroom mirror. Personally, I think Sambol's voice is an impressive weapon, which makes up for its rough and whiny tone with conversational candor and passion, especially when he unleashes powerful lines like "I'm surprised you're still alive, after all the time you spent in the middle of the road" with a withering sneer reminiscent of classic Dylan. Live Music strips the Strange Boys of their earlier, Nuggets-inspired garage production style once and for all, presenting these fourteen tracks in a warmer, fuller setting that pushes all the band's strengths to the forefront. The twinkly pianos, bleating harmonicas, and gradually building sing-a-long choruses will have you convinced that this is the great lost Stones album that would have come out after Exile On Main Street if the greatest rock n' roll band in the world hadn't fallen into drug-induced burnout and apathy. Dig the lightly funky swagger of "Doueh" and try to tell me that it doesn't resemble an outtake from Some Girls. While Be Brave was front-loaded with rockers and finished up with a bunch of dirgey ballads, Live Music does a better job of mixing things up and settles into a melancholy twilight mood that drives the songs further into your brain with each listen. With this new LP, the Strange Boys cement their place as the best American rock n' roll band since the Replacements. Believe it!

3. Mikal Cronin

(Trouble In Mind)

If you're like me and you couldn't stop spinning the shit-fi surf-punk jams of the self-titled debut Moonhearts LP from last year but wished they would have spent a couple more hundred bucks and let the hooks out from under the noise, then do I have an album for you! Moonhearts songwriter Mikal Cronin is a California boy through and through, and on his first solo record he fuses the surfy Moonhearts punk chug with dollops of 90s grunge and classic post-Byrds strummy 70s folk-rock into a sound that fans of everything from the Beach Boys to Fleetwood Mac to Nirvana can appreciate. Like frequent collaborator Ty Segall, Cronin is clearly a musical omnivore, mixing genres and decades with reckless abandon, picking, choosing, and rearranging disparate influences into a stew that just sounds GOOD without pretense or irony. But while Segall is an unhinged, restless punk rock rabblerouser, Cronin seems to be a bit more cautious and calculated, turning out songs that hit all the pleasure centers with a type of universal and timeless appeal. Lead-off track "Is it Alright" fades into a multi-track Wilson brothers chorale of his own voice, gathers a head of steam with jangly pop, and then blasts off into a punk rock coda featuring an intense flute solo from Oh Sees mainmain John Dwyer, and if that sounds intriguing, then the rest of Mikal Cronin will be pure ear candy. He's mastered the stop-start Buzz Bin angst pop style with "Apathy" and turned it on its head with relentless optimism, and he evokes the top-down chilled-out cruising bliss of "Ventura Highway" on "Again And Again" while the lyrics speak of a bittersweet failed relationship, and Cronin does it while playing almost all the goddamn instruments himself. Mikal Cronin is a pop-art collage of familiar sounds distilled into a creative and intensely personal vision, and it's just his first album. I'm eagerly anticipating the next one.

2. Natural Child - 1971

(Infinity Cat)

Nashville's Natural Child released the best rock record of the year on 04/20/2011, and you just have to take one look at the band's glazed-over expressions on the cover to determine that this trio is out to celebrate every strain of hedonism under the sun. Initially lumped in with the current crop of garage punkers after their first couple of singles, Natural Child slowed things down on 1971, touching on all the hallmarks of FM radio classic rock. Back in the summer, I wrote "These kids worship at the altar of Exile-era Stones, Sabbath, Zeppelin, T. Rex, Faces, and Deep Purple, and bring a healthy dose of youthful exuberance to the table, soaking these eleven tracks in tape hiss, sweaty denim, barely audible Bic flicks, weed smoke, and Southern Comfort puke. It sounds more like the band your dad's shitty friends formed to rock the keg party and less like some artless, overproduced Black Crowes-style pastiche or the coked-up Beatles worship Oasis peddled for years." The riffs might be familiar, but Natural Child is the classic rock n' roll band that you Black Keys fans REALLY should be listening to at your next weekend blowout.

1. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

(Fat Possum)

The Strange Boys grabbed the top spot on last year's list in February 2010 and like Be Brave, Dye It Blonde emerged way early as the front-runner and knocked all potential competitors out of the box as they tried and failed to knock it down a peg. The big, BOLD, swoony tracks on the second Smith Westerns LP set the entire tone of the year with its high school love letter romanticism and instantly catchy songcraft. It was a massive leap from the boombox-quality sound of their debut, but somehow they managed to duplicate the best part of that record PERFECTLY. That obnoxious blown-out Marc Bolan guitar sound is lifted out of its formerly dingy surroundings and grafted onto big-budget rock anthems that flawlessly duplicate the epic, escapist majesty of 90s Britpop with the optimistic guile of kids too dumb to know better. The range of emotions veer from "weekends are never fun unless you're around" to "everybody wants to be a star on a saturday night," and sometimes that's all you need to get through the year. Dye It Blonde is the soundtrack to young love, sunny skies, and endless weekends, and it's just about the best makeout record I've heard in forever.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 4: 10-06

2012-01-03T19:03:00.001-08:00

10. Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin'

(Hardly Art)

I originally had this record placed a few slots lower, but after I realized how much I walk around singing Glazin's best hooks to myself like I quoted Simpsons references as a teenager, its position in the top ten was a given. I reviewed it back in October and said, "It's all sun-baked and easy-going and might be the best soundtrack for barrelling towards the beach in a sand-flecked beater that I've heard by a band not ending in 'each Boys.' Well, let me back up the hyperbole truck a little bit. It's not THAT good, not by a long shot, but it's definitely one of the top three mid-fi/glitter/beach/surf/punk/power-pop albums I've heard since the mighty King Tuff Was Dead record was unleashed back in 2008...It's slight and genuine and unassuming, and perhaps it treads too close to the T. Rex bubblegum formula that King Tuff perfected, but this trio of youngins have a real knack for crafting serious hooks, punctuated by frontman Gabriel Alcala's playfully bratty vocals." The POWER side of Jacuzzi Boys' power pop style was definitely on display when they played the Comet here in Cincinnati a few months back, giving these sugary tunes a stiff kick in the ass and proving that they aren't just a bunch of beach-baked softies. Let's hope that these Miami boys can keep this roll going on their next LP.

9. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams

(Sub Pop)

Kristin "Dee Dee Dum Dum" Gundred is a total anomaly in the world of lo-fi garage indie pop rock. Refreshingly free of pretense, she is happily married to a dude from noise-rockers Crocodiles and loves her mama so much that she put her on the cover of several Dum Dum Girls records. I've been obsessively listening to rock n' roll since preschool, and have gotten to a point where every simple three-chord punky love song sounds kinda PHONY, but Dee Dee's robust vocals imbue every inch of Only In Dreams with the kind of passion that is sorely missing from 93% of most music these days. With "He Gets Me High" (one of the greatest love songs written in my lifetime) in her back pocket, Gundred and her band evoke classic 60s pop music, nervy Prentenders-style new wave, and Madonna's 80s slow jams, making almost everything else that came out this year sound vapid and shallow by comparison. Mama Dum Dum passed away some time before this album was finished, and side two forms a gut-wrenching cycle of songs that could move even the most hardened cynic to tears. The slowly stopping heartbeat pulse of "Coming Down," the joyous, "don't give a fuck" hospital bed delusion of "Wasting Away," and the final track "Hold My Hand," where Dee Dee repeats over and over "Oh I wish it wasn't true, but there's nothing I can do except hold your hand till the very end" form an astonishing tower of real-deal emotion that will shake your ass up good and proper. No other album released this year comes close to the simple, honest emotional bloodletting on display here.

8. Blouse

(Captured Tracks)

Somewhere around the middle of summer, I fell out of love with the primal, punky garage rock n' roll that I've been tirelessly championing for the past few years. I'm still not sure if it was just burnout, or the releases coming out in that style were lame, but I'm 100% sure that Blouse's first 45 "Into Black" was the record that led me down a deep electronic pop hole for a couple months. It sounded like a lost top 40 radio hit from 1989, with vocalist Charlie Harper's smoky Julee Cruise croon and an insistent ringing guitar riff straight out of the New Order playbook inhabiting a Twin Peaks netherworld. Both tracks from the single appear on this debut LP, and the other eight songs travel along the same mysterious, hazy path, full of robotic drum machine beats, droning synth textures, and the kind of moody subtlety and depth missing from much of today's music. Dig the sultry groove of "They Always Fly Away," and don't be surprised if you wake up four minutes later in a different world, where pale kids with hairsprayed black tresses still made the pop charts every once in awhile. Sure, it kinda sounds like the music you'd hear seeping from the Starbucks sound system, but Blouse takes pop music in a dark, sensual direction that hits all the right spots. That's a slightly more articulate way to say that this record is full of SEX JAMS, but I'm sure you get the point.

7. Wax Idols - No Future

(HoZac)

Lots of punk rock bands put out perfectly acceptable records in 2011, delivering respectably tough slabs of standard-issue entertainment without stepping over any lines, but No Future stands on top of the lines and pisses all over them. One of the few things that bug me about the current wave of garage punk bands is that they're too busy singing about cavemen and candy and walking down the street next to their baby to say anything IMPORTANT. Sure, I love escapism as much as the next guy, but there's gotta be artists out there that can stir some shit or else the rock n' roll balance will implode on itself. Enter Hether Fortune and the Wax Idols, breathing fire all over the ten tracks on this record. A few months back, I wrote "No one wants to write anthems anymore, no one wants to hurt some feelings, no one wants to step on anyone's toes to make a point, no one wants to step up and speak out. Guts and passion are in short supply, and the silence is ready for voices of dissent to make a whole lot of fucking NOISE. In a world where Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon can get divorced and the fiery loudmouths of my youth can be turned into placid NPR correspondents and VH1 documentary talking heads, who can whatever percentage I'm supposed to be in look to for ideas?!...[No Future is a] a kick in the balls for the MOR indie rock dweebs out there that cling to tired 70s singer-songwriter retreads and dismiss anything more challenging as juvenile and unlistenable." Wax Idols took a bunch of classic influences, infused a steaming dose of passion, and made tons of bands look inept in the process.

6. The Paperhead

(Trouble In Mind)

It's impossible to listen to the debut LP from Nashville's The Paperhead without thinking about the story surrounding its recording. These three pals graduated high school, spent the summer putting together this psychedelic daydream of a record, and went their separate ways off to college in the fall. Every second of The Paperhead is soaked in woozy summer nostalgia, and it sounds way more mature and poised than a bunch of eighteen year-olds reminiscing about junior high bong sessions. Wait a minute, these are teenagers?! This music was made by recent high school graduates in 2010, not journeymen British blues rockers tripping balls on brown acid back in 1969?! No fuckin' way! Daring and heady and just skirting the edge of proto-prog rock, The Paperhead crafted an album which sounds like a gritty reboot of S.F. Sorrow sans pretension, and reclaimed the good name of jam bands from peasant-shirted folk singers who fill amphitheaters with ghastly fusions of world beat and bad 70s Zappa. They dig into the same record collection and sense of small town isolationism as the Elephant 6 collective, but this collection of swooping tape loops, out-there tabla freakouts, and carefully constructed Rubble-style pop moves combine into an album that sometimes jolts and jars like fitful, anxious sleep, guiding the listener into blissful candy-colored dreams and terrifying nightmares depending on where you drop the needle. They've already accomplished more that most people do before they reach drinking age, and The Paperhead sound like they're ready to close the door on childhood and push on to a new dimension.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 3: 15-11

2011-12-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

15. The People's Temple - Sons Of Stone

(HoZac)

When I first picked up Sons Of Stone, it didn't really register. After the first couple of plays, this Michigan band of brothers just seemed like regular ol' garage rockers, even if they did get the primal, sun-baked 60s sound down pretty well. After awhile, the sprawling opening title track seeped its way into my brain and never shook itself out. Jesus, are these dudes really singing "Do you care if I'm alive? Do you care if I died?" The People's Temple back up their sick joke name with some of the most sinister, downright scary psychedelic rock n' roll music I've heard since Phosphene Dream by the Black Angels came out last year. They manage to sound more like a Texas band than a Michigan one, more 13th Floor Elevators than the Stooges. The busy guitars twang and bend and drone and never fucking stop, the drums pound all tribal and swing sometimes like a low-rent go-go-bar band, and the tinny speakers on the keyboards sound like they're about on their last legs. "Axe Man" is the most evil sounding three minutes waxed in 2011, and the rest of the record tries it's best to be as otherworldly and mean. Sons Of Stone is an album that demands repeated listening.

14. Vivian Girls - Share The Joy

(Polyvinyl)

After the tepid reception of their second LP Everything Goes Wrong, Vivian Girls ended their association with venerated garage punk label In The Red, lost one-dimensional drummer Ali Koehler to Best Coast, and started intriguing side-projects La Sera and The Babies. Such seismic change usually crushes a band, but Vivian Girls emerged on their latest album with a more technically advanced drummer in Coasting's fantastic Fiona Campbell, a richer production courtesy of Woods' Jarvis Taveniere, and a focused set of tracks that betters their debut by a hair. With a solid foundation for the first time, the focus is on Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman's vocals, and they light up the two-step explosions of "Trying To Pretend," the Shangri-las'-inspired silliness of "Take It As It Comes," and the sinister cover of Green On Red's cowpunk classic "Sixteen Ways." The Pitchfork set shrugged and went back to pimping James Blake or whatever, but Share The Joy is an exciting leap for a band most people had already written off.

13. Heavy Times - Jacker

(HoZac)

Heavy Times is rough, loud, and Chicago as FUCK. Jacker sounds tailor-made for tattooed, Old Style-swilling dudes in beards and Fidel Castro hats, and its thirteen brief songs are piled with heads-down chugging guitars and pounding drums. While its geographical sound is easy to pinpoint, trying to figure out WHO Heavy Times is most similar to is a trickier concern. Usually, it's easy to listen to a band, throw out a quick "welp, they're like a cross between X and Y," and go on your merry way. After playing Jacker dozens of times, I can pull out bits of the beery shout-along Archers Of Loaf style in the vocal hooks, but their deliberate, driving rhythms don't sound anything like the Archers more easy-going moments. There are moments of Superchunk's hyperbolic, bratty kid punk, but singer Bo Hansen's throat-shredding bellow bears no resemblance to Mac McCaughan's strained tenor. They kinda sound a bit like the Wipers too, with a whole bunch of gruff Greg Sage angst but not so much of his end of the world epic heft. Jacker is swift and brutally efficient, and it's easier to listen and enjoy it than it is to get too hung up in comparing it to everything else.

12. Bare Wires - Cheap Perfume

(Southpaw)

Bare Wires main man Matthew Melton doesn't seem too keen on putting a cork in his prolific, seemingly bottomless jug of tough rock n' roll songs, and who am I to stop him? Last year, I wondered if the sugary doo-wop pop of Seeking Love's closing track "The Last Thing On My Mind" was a hint that Melton might be looking to expand the Bare Wires' vision past leather jackets and bubblegum, and Cheap Perfume expands the band's sound until shit is about to BURST from the sides of this 10" cherry red EP. Opening track "Don't Ever Change" came out way back in the winter on a limited edition 45, and it sounds like a teen movie closing credits theme, or at least a suitable substitution for "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" when the Ramones come into town in Rock N' Roll High School. Tracks like "Back On The Road" and "Sweet Little Stranger" are prime examples of the lean, muscular proto-punk rock n' roll that got me listening to Bare Wires in the first place, but elsewhere the songs take a little bit longer to develop, give the blunt-force hooks a rest, and instead evolve into something a bit more sticky and insidious. Melton played all the instruments, sang on, and produced "Now Or Never," which sounds like a nervous, jittery Tin Pan Alley reject. Buried deep on side two, it proves that the Bare Wires aren't running out of gas, and Melton is probably stockpiling songs for the next record that will probably be out before your ears and wallets can adjust.

11. Wax Museums - Eye Times

(Trouble In Mind)

Consider this an all-inclusive blanket slot for the INSANELY prodigious output of the Denton, Texas punk rock scene, including fantastic LPs from High Tension Wires, Bad Sports, OBN IIIs, Video, Silver Shampoo, Wiccans, Mind Spiders, and probably three or four other bands I'm forgetting about right this second. The Wax Museums self-titled LP on Douchemaster from 2008 was my gateway into that scene, and their long-awaited second album is a killer from start to finish. Back in September, I wrote, "Really, the Wax Museums have simply remade their first album, only a lot tougher, smarter, and BETTER, but 'maturity'? Eh...I dunno about all that. The two longest songs are 'Bruiser,' which retells 'Whole Lotta Rosie' with a bratty sneer, and 'Breakfast For Dinner,' which is sludgy and kinda heavy and rhymes with 'I'd rather be in her.' Love songs, I guess? Just as much as 'Mosquito Enormo' is a love song about a big-ass bug bite." Eye Times is straight-up classic dude punk rock at its silly finest.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 2: 20-16

2011-12-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

20. Pure X - Pleasure

(Acephale)

Like a lot of people now afraid to admit it, I was entranced by My Morning Jacket's brand of reverb-drenched hillbilly rock back in the early 2000s. Back then, I had a lot of free time on my hands and liked to drive around aimlessly frequently, and I spent a lot of time digesting the sprawling jams on the first couple of MMJ records. I barely have time to digest my own lunch anymore, and luckily Austin trio Pure X has taken the basic template of Jim James and crew, cut out all the pointless jamming and Neil Young worship, and laid it all out into a concise, hypnotic trance of an album called Pleasure. In a year where reverb became the most overused studio effect since auto-tune, Pure X use it as enhancement instead of a mask. Minimal, pounding drums crawl along, clean, surfy guitar lines butt up against shoegaze noise, and the vocals fight their way to the top like a town crier stuck in a well. Fans of Galaxie 500, Low, and other slow-core heroes might have just found their favorite new band. Judging by the garish red and gold color scheme of the cover and s&m artwork, you might think Pleasure is a lousy Euro disco record, but it's really a thirty-eight minute daydream for any lazy Sunday afternoon.

19. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream

(In The Red)

Up until this year, I didn't much care for Thee Oh Sees and leader John Dwyer's musical output. I think the Coachwhips sucked, and I much preferred the lysergic campfire folk tunes of Dog Poison to the heavier sounds of LPs like Help and Warm Slime. Those records reeked of half-baked, drug addled experimentation at its worst, and the layers of lo-fi psychedelic crud was totally a crutch to prop up songs that didn't have shit going on to begin with. Dwyer kicked off 2011 by dropping a sunny, sprawling sequel to Dog Poison called Castlemania that had a few classic jams, and then outdid himself with Carrion Crawler/The Dream, which sounds like it had enough time and money invested in it to show off what Thee Oh Sees are REALLY all about. Gone are the studied attempts to get "weird," and all that floundering is replaced by huge psychedelic groove MONSTERS! Maybe adding a second drummer did the trick, since these songs throb and grind like prime Krautrock, making Carrion Crawler/The Dream the best road trip soundtrack of 2011. Crank it up and watch those highway lines melt and disappear.

18. The Babies

(Shrimper)

Holy shit, did this album give me happy feet in the first few months of the year. HAPPY FEET! Every single bit of this record sounds bouncy and goofy and coy and downright FUN. Side A kicks off with a bit of playful guitar noodling, and develops into "Run Me Over," a song that defines the entire record with Kevin Morby of Woods' whiny yelp and Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone's flat bray winding in and out of tunefulness and occasionally meeting in harmonies that seem way better than most because of their brief and hard-fought joy. Side B starts off with "Breakin' The Law," which is the best approximation of June and Johnny's romantic outlaw push and pull since "Jackson" or maybe Natural Born Killers to make with a more current reference. I don't know shit about my favorite bands' personal lives and I like it that way, but it's impossible to listen to this record without imagining that Ramone and Morby had some kind of romantic entanglement with this much passion and giddy fun dripping from its grooves. The Babies is a voyeuristic gas.

17. Shannon & The Clams - Sleep Talk

(1-2-3-4 Go!)

Shannon Shaw is a national treasure, no lie. After adding crucial vocals and songwriting assistance on Too Young To Be In Love by Hunx & His Punx (which just missed this list), Shaw dropped the second LP from her own band, Shannon & The Clams, who mine an always-pleasing, John Waters-inspired trash rock aesthetic. That kinda shit can get a little too cutesy at times, but Shannon's voice is a big, boomy, scratchy weapon that reminds me of Wanda Jackson or Brenda Lee on her British rock n' roll singles, and guitarist foil Cody "King Lollipop" Blanchard provides the right amount of silly sweetness with his Buddy Holly/Tiny Tim hybrid backups. On Sleep Talk, the Clams front-load things with big, swoony doo-wop inspired ballads, but the real gem is lurking somewhere in the middle of side two. "Toxic Revenge" is a straight-up blast of early 80s California punk rock with a skronky saxophone solo, and it suggests that Shannon & The Clams have somewhere to go after perfecting this collection of banged-up malt shop jukebox 45s.

16. Peaking Lights - 936

(Not Not Fun)

It's 2011, and if you start your album with a few seconds of clanging beats and trippy dub echo and a bassline that sounds suspiciously like "Push It" by Salt N' Pepa, then you'll get my attention. Even the most forward-looking and original record on this list rips off the past mightily, and 936 proves that there's still a lot to be said for taking a whole bunch of influences that don't sound good on paper and trying to cram those awkward parts into an entertaining whole. This duo of Wisconsin weirdos smear fragments of commercial pop onto the genre-smashing experimentation of Public Image Limited and the psychedelic trip-hop of Black Moth Super Rainbow and come up with a unique set of six extended tracks that loop the good parts with determined gusto and leave hyped headliners like Animal Collective in the dust. Peaking Lights have happened upon a sound that is both fearless and familiar, perfect for nodding in dazed approval or dancing in a dimly lit room. 936 is cut and paste internet generation pop at it's finest.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 1: 25-21

2011-12-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

25. Widowspeak

(Captured Tracks)

Sure, Widowspeak vocalist Molly Hamilton is a dead ringer for Hope Sandoval, but the band's new spin on dark, mid-80s post-punk cowboy rock is a lot different from Mazzy Star's elegant, noisy torch ballads. On tracks like lead-off single "Gun Shy" and "In The Pines," Widowspeak evoke a seductive, gothic vision of dusty highways haunted by murderous villains and back them with big western guitar riffs. They should have included their perfect cover of Chris Issak's "Wicked Game" though.

24. Wooden Shjips - West

(Thrill Jockey)

Fire up the candles, turn off the lights, become acquainted with your drug of choice, tune in, turn on, and drop out to the latest LP from bay area space cadets Wooden Shjips. After several years of releasing every half-baked jam they could come up with on a myriad of formats, their particular brand of exploratory psychedelic rock is peaking HARD on West. All seven tracks are built on a bed of Can-inspired drum beats that allow the guitars , keyboards, and vocals to wander all over the place in search of a perfect spot to come down. West is a perfect soundtrack for your next journey to the center of your mind.

23. Run DMT - Dreams

(Culture Dealer Media)

Mike Collins of Run DMT made a 30 minute cassette tape called Dreams this year, which melted shards of classic pop music and hypnotic sound collages of trippy, split-second hooks into a pair of extended suites that rewarded both intense and passive attention. Back in October, I wrote "Pressing 'play' on this tape is the gateway to another planet, where feelings and colors and sparkling flashing lights drift without a tether, where showers of syrupy synth muck rain all over your face, and sunshine pop, doo wop, northern soul, and post-Motown 60s 45s make you wanna dance listlessly until they fade out in washes of beach waves and clarion calls of lighthouse spotlights..." Yeah, that sounds about right!

22. Earth - Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1

(Southern Lord)

Once Dylan Carlson finally kicked hard drugs and discovered major chords, Earth became one of the most interesting bands on its namesake planet. He'd already spent a decade-plus in the deepest of trenches, making torturous sludge epics that wallowed in despair, feedback, and speaker-wrecking Black Sabbath worship, so a turn towards the light seemed like the perfect idea. The press for this record indicated that Carlson was influenced by classic British folk-rock this time, but the expansive tracks on Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 confirm that Carlson is one of the most distinctively AMERICAN composers working today. Things are still slow as balls, and that allows Earth to build monoliths of every day 99 percenter dread that move like rain clouds creeping over suburban strip malls. With his all-black clothes, craggy face, and storyteller's eye, Dylan Carlson is emerging as the Johnny Cash of post-9/11 America.

21. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain

(Vice)

Remember when Jim Suptic of the Get Up Kids came out and basically said "don't blame us for all that awful mall emo bullshit"?! I'd imagine the Black Lips feel the same way for unleashing all the mediocre Nuggets-inspired garage rock bands that litter the internet right now like so many eager sheep. Instead of cranking out another LP that revisited their heydey as the hippest band on the planet, they took a left turn and enlisted pop superproducer Mark Ronson for some much-needed gloss and direction, and trusted Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt to produce the rest. Arabia Mountain might be a bit on the longish side, but it packs in the best songs the band has written to date, kicking off with the sleazy saxophones of "Family Tree," and then it rounds itself out with the Ramones-worship of "Raw Meat" and the joyous classic rock n' roll of "New Direction." It's the best album the Black Lips have released so far, and it shows all their half-ass imitators what's up, for real.

Random Old Records Podcast #38

2011-12-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

2011 is almost over, and holy shit, where did the time go?! The past twelve months were filled with all kinds of good things for me on the life front, and much like last year, there was a HUGE amount of crucial rock n' roll records released and a bunch of killer shows that damaged my eardrums even further. Episode #38 of Random Old Records cuts away all of the bullshit and somewhat clever soundbytes and presents an hour of my personal favorite songs of 2011 with no interruptions!

You'll hear all the songs I've been raving about since January, including heavy hitters like "Gold Sneakers" by Wax Idols, "Weekend" by Smith Westerns, and "Into Black" by Blouse. You'll hear heavy-duty psychedelic blowouts from The Paperhead, Thee Oh Sees, and The People's Temple, and perfect pop from Dum Dum Girls, Colleen Green, and The Babies. Later this week, check back for my top 25 albums of 2011 list!

After it took me a month to complete it last year, I swore that I would never even attempt to write a long-ass list of 25 records again, but so much good shit came out this year that I felt kinda obligated to dive back in and give it a go. My loss is your gain, I reckon! 2012 is just around the corner, and I sincerely thank every listener and reader that clicks on this blog on a regular basis, and hope that you stick with me into the new year. I'll have some big announcements coming soon that revolve around a certain http://randomoldrecords.bigcartel.com! In the meantime, enjoy the podcast!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #38
1. Smith Westerns - "Weekend"
(Dye It Blonde, Fat Possum 2011)
2. Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom Eyes"
(Only In Dreams, Sub Pop 2011)
3. Wax Idols - "Gold Sneakers"
(No Future, HoZac 2011)
4. Colleen Green - "Y Do U Call Me?"
(Green One, Hardly Art 2011)
5. Vivian Girls - "Dance (If You Wanna)"
(Share The Joy, Polyvinyl 2011)
6. Natural Child - "Chris' Blues"
(1971, Infinity Cat 2011)
7. Black Lips - "New Direction"
(Arabia Mountain, Vice 2011)
8. Bare Wires - "Sweet Little Stranger"
(Cheap Perfume, Southpaw 2011)
9. Jacuzzi Boys - "Automatic Jail"
(Glazin', Hardly Art 2011)
10. Mikal Cronin - "Again and Again"
(Mikal Cronin, Trouble In Mind 2011)
11. The Babies - "Breakin' The Law"
(The Babies, Shrimper 2011)
12. The Paperhead - "Can't Keep My Eyes Open"
(The Paperhead, Trouble In Mind 2011)
13. Thee Oh Sees - "Chem-farmer"
(Carrion Crawler/The Dream, In The Red 2011)
14. The People's Temple - "Axe Man"
(Sons Of Stone, HoZac 2011)
15. Blouse - "Into Black"
(Blouse, Captured Tracks 2011)
16. Widowspeak - "In The Pines"
(Widowspeak, Captured Tracks 2011)
17. Ty Segall - "Goodbye Bread"
(Goodbye Bread, Drag City 2011)
18. The Strange Boys - "Mama Shelter"
(Live Music, Rough Trade 2011)
19. Jeffrey Novak - "Looking Down At You"
(4 Track Solo EP, Trouble In Mind 2011)

Wax Idols - No Future

2011-11-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

(HoZac, 2011)

Back in the spring, Wax Idols released their debut single "All Too Human/William Says," and I musta listened to that damn thing a hundred times. The A side was one of the best pure pop songs I've heard in a good long time, with its gargantuan 80s college rock guitar riffs and bratty multi-tracked harmonies. It was pure punk ROCK in spirit, without resorting to bash-it-out trad thrash cliches, and stuck out like a sore thumb among the legions of sub-par Black Lips rip-offs that started to overwhelm the underground rock n' roll scene with suffocating blankets of mediocrity. Wax Idols, for all intents and purposes, is the work of Heather "HETHER FORTUNE" Fedewa, and she's the kind of punk rock hero we don't see much of anymore: a brash, loud-mouthed, tack-spitting, zine-making, big-hearted firebrand equally at home writing manifestos as she is kicking someone's ass.

It seems like these days, the internet has turned into a giant circle-jerk of positivity for artistic types, but Fedewa frequently takes people to task on Facebook and Twitter, railing against lazy bloggers for comparing every female-fronted band with reverbed harmonies to Phil Spector's girl groups, and for playing up her connections to Bare Wires and Hunx & His Punx for lack of anything better to say. It might seem smug and catty to some, but the lady has a point. There's been like 65 people floating through the lineups of those two bands in the last few years, and none of them had a hand in "All Too Human." Hell, if I'd written an insta-classic banger like that and played all the instruments myself, I'd be shouting that fact to everyone I know. There's far too many "writers" out there who semi-creatively regurgitate a one sheet, toss up a couple links, and call it day, and they deserve to be called on their shit. No one's making money or glory from blogging as far as I can tell, and you can find all the music you want for free anyway, so if you don't give a fuck about what you're writing about, and there's no ulterior motives, then why not just pack it in?! You're sucking up valuable bandwidth and time from people who actually believe in what they're saying, and this debut LP from Wax Idols definitely has the courage of its convictions.

No Future is one of the best albums of the year, and a big part of it is that Fedewa, unlike a lot of her contemporaries, actually sings in key most of the time. Her voice isn't slight and flat, it's a full-throated howl that evokes heavy hitters like Deborah Harry, Penelope Houston, and Joan Jett, the yelp and screech of Carla Bozulich of the Geraldine Fibbers, and even a bit of the ol' (ulp) Courtney Love at times. The steady strum of "Nothing At All" sounds like an outtake off Live Through This with more lived-in swagger, and Love is another artist that had to deal with haters and ignoramuses who tried to shift credit to others. FORTUNE/Fedewa is that freakin' GOOD, dude, and when she places that voice on top of the glam-dusted Runaways stomp of "Bad Future" and shouts "You're not free to do as you please! We're all enemies! You're not free!" over a gut-punching drum and down-stroke march, the result is a rabble-rousing call to action that's like a wake-up call to all the bands that play it close to the vest and stick to safer or more obtuse subjects to avoid criticism and scrutiny.

No one wants to write anthems anymore, no one wants to hurt some feelings, no one wants to step on anyone's toes to make a point, no one wants to step up and speak out. Guts and passion are in short supply, and the silence is ready for voices of dissent to make a whole lot of fucking NOISE. In a world where Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon can get divorced and the fiery loudmouths of my youth can be turned into placid NPR correspondents and VH1 documentary talking heads, who can whatever percentage I'm supposed to be in look to for ideas?! People get really excited about the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, and kinda sorta gloss over the fact that Kurt Cobain blew his fool head off because it beat the monotony of sitting on talk show couches explaining the deep meaning of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for infinity and beyond. He learned that you don't look back like Dylan in the movies, and they're after your name and likeness, not your words and music.

It's not exactly clear what Fedewa is so fucking pissed off about, aside from the usual distaste with the government and lack of satisfaction with day-to-day life, but those emotions have been the subject matter of a hundred classic rock n' roll songs, so why fiddle with the formula? Besides, inarticulate rage is the BEST rage, because there's nothing as intimidating as someone who's so angry that they can't be bothered to explain WHY. I've heard the song a whole bunch, but I still don't know what's so special about Mick Jagger's cloud, and why he wants me to get off of it so badly, but I know that he's vulnerable and pissed and not in the mood to argue semantics at the current time. "Human Condition," the grinding opener of side two, rides a Flipper-esque plod and repeats the mantra "We get down, we get high, we get born, then we die. This is the human condition." It's not Camus or anything, but its existential angst says more than the average internet philosopher can muster in ten times as many words.

With all this anger and rage, you need a balancing dose of sunshine, so it's no surprise that some of the best moments on No Future come when Fedewa turns down the vitriol and lets her softer side surface and rub it's squinty, light-starved eyes. Lead-off single "Gold Sneakers" is a punk rock love song that should be a mixtape staple for a good long while, with a plaintive chorus of "I love you" stretched and twisted around the layers of riffs and hand-claps that evokes the nervous energy of classic Buzzcocks. Better yet is the closing track "Grey Area," which is such a great song that it threw me for a loop the first time I heard it, leading to compulsively lifting up the needle and replaying it at least a dozen times. Remember when I mentioned Debbie Harry earlier? This tune brings that influence to the front, with a dreamy, ringing guitar riff and a punchy bridge that for real sounds like a classic Blondie hit, with a bit of the poppier moments of Siouxsie & The Banshees thrown in for good measure. Like I said, she's that freaking good, dude...

So here you have nine killer original tracks and a note-perfect cover of Wire's "Sand In My Joints" that point to Fedewa's love of turn-of-the-80s post-punk, which would make No Future a perfect 10 out of 10 if I'd bother to attach a meaningless rating to the thing. It's a kick in the balls for the MOR indie rock dweebs out there that cling to tired 70s singer-songwriter retreads and dismiss anything more challenging as juvenile and unlistenable. As I finish writing this, Hether Fortune is debating the merits of the Cure's later albums with commenters on her Facebook page, and smacking down The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. When was the last time you saw Ben Gibbard do that?!

RIP Southgate House...

2011-11-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

After a dreadful, rainy day, the last thing you want is to come home to is a foul dose of seriously bad news. Today, word spread through the internet with haste, and just a little bit ago, the news was official. Newport, Kentucky's legendary venue, the Southgate House, will close its doors after thirty years as the best live music venue in the Midwest on New Year's Eve, 2011. If you don't live within the Cincinnati area, this might elicit a shrug of indifference, but the Southgate is a place that offered near-perfect acoustics, a dimly-lit balcony, a "green room" behind the men's room for the artists, and a confounding labyrinth of stairs and doorways that made just finding your way around the place a royal pain in the ass, especially after you'd had a couple. It was a building that overlooked the Ohio River a hundred years before Newport built a giant shopping mall and aquarium across the street, a mansion designed to house sin and vice on the down low, while simultaneously flaunting its brazen debauchery to Kentucky's more puritanical neighbors to the north. The prostitutes, river trash, and gangsters had vacated the Southgate House by the time I'd reached adulthood and started hanging out there, but the smoky Victorian atmosphere remained. Just stepping into the front hallway made you feel like you were doing something illicit. This seemed like a place you could get away with shit!

I remember being barely out of high school, huddled around the back door in the alley behind Southgate House, so a friend could sneak me in to see Hot Water Music for free. Clutching a 20 oz. bottle of Jack and Coke to my chest, I walked in and tried to look like I belonged. I'd been to shows in basements and Cincinnati's notoriously institutional concert hall Bogart''s before, but seeing Hot Water Music on that elegantly draped stage, blasting out heavily tour-bearded songs of rage was like a moment of awakening. I knew that Southgate House was the place where grown-ups hung out, and I proceeded to spend a considerable portion of my adult life there, consuming adult beverages, stumbling from room to room, watching rock n' roll bands, tipping my bartender, and somehow never managing to fall down its formidable staircase on my way out.

I saw the Drive-By Truckers play a nearly three hour set there, fresh off the release of The Dirty South and passing a bottle of Jack Daniels around the stage like a hot potato. My friends had gotten free tickets to an arena football game and I stood there by myself blown away, texting everyone with vindictive glee. They have this song called "Goddamn Lonely Love," and at the time I was so taken with it that I wrote the song title and the date of the show on my wristband and taped it to my wall so everyone who went in my room for years could see it. I have a terrible sense of direction, and it would get even worse when I was high off a perfect Southgate House show, trying to navigate my way home through the streets of downtown Cincinnati. There's been a lot of those kind of shows, and that's why the closing of Southgate House doesn't just suck, it HURTS.

Just a quick list of bands I've seen there: The Black Angels, Sebadoh, Dead Meadow, Blue Cheer, Wanda Jackson, The Black Lips, Don Caballero, Zombi, Cursive, Songs: Ohia, The Hold Steady, The Greenhornes, The Guitars, Pearlene, Earth, Black Mountain, etc, etc. No matter how crowded the place got, I never failed to find a parking spot on the street around the corner behind the Travelodge. The place is closing, so what difference does it make if I give up my secret spot?! I've taken so many walks past the parking meters to cross 3rd Street to examine the marquee only to take it for granted. Yeah, the economy sucks real bad, and times are really tough. Still, losing Southgate House is like losing a part of my life forever.

I remember crossing that street and hearing such violent volume that I felt the need to buy earplugs in Junie's Lounge (Sunn 0))) in 2010, still the loudest band I've ever seen), and I remember leaving the place covered in beer after dozens of local shows. I was lucky enough to play music in the upstairs Parlour a few years back, and my friends threw me the best 30th birthday party ever last year in the Ballroom. The closing of Southgate House feels like a punch in the chest, but this poster helps me remember everything good about the place. The pessimist in me thinks that this is a devastating blow to the Cincinnati music scene, but I hope that a new place can sprout up soon to pick up the slack. RIP Southgate House, there will NEVER be another one like you....

Ty Segall - Spiders 7"

2011-11-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

(Drag City, 2011)

If anything, I guess this single proves that Ty Segall is gonna one tough nut to crack as a musician. When I slipped it out of the sleeve and played the A side on 45 (no handy dandy indications on the label as to the correct speed), it appeared that Segall had taken all the artistic development shown on his previous LP Goodbye Bread and thrown it right into the bin. Gone were the Hendrix-style guitar heroics and Kinks-inspired whimsical song structures and the Nirvana influences that bubbled up to the point of inescapability, and in its place was a swamp of sludgy downer riffs and Beck helium falsetto impersonations that sounded like either Ween on seriously bad acid or an outtake from last year's Melted that should have been left on the cutting room floor. Yikes!

Both "Spiders" and "Hand Glams" were such a staggering disappointment that I knew something had to be rotten in Denmark, so I slowed my turntable down to 33 and things kinda made a bit more sense. If you were expecting a continuation and improvement on Goodbye Bread's acoustic melancholy and grunge-addled take on the traditional singer-songwriter thing, then you haven't been paying attention. Segall is a young dude that grew up with the Internet's endless free culture smorgasbord at his disposal, and he's been trying on new styles like a hyperactive teenage girl at Aeropostale throughout his entire recorded career. In the past year, he's also dropped a gleefully irreverent EP of T. Rex covers and a bootleg-quality live LP called Live In Aisle 5 which had pitch-shifting level fuckery all over the damn place, suggesting that Segall got all drugged up and decided to mess with everyone's heads for the sheer malevolent joy of it. Unlike the studied, artsy pretentions of fellow San Francisco garage rockers Thee Oh Sees, Segall seems to be pushing further into new arenas of sonic playfulness because it's fun and he knows that his audience knows that there's always going to be another perfect little noisy gem creeping up along the bend.

Even at the correct speed (and I'm STILL not entirely sure that it is), the two originals on side A are loaded with sludgy downer riffs and totally incomprehensible stoner-rock vox that are buried in the mix and coated with a metric ton of distortion. "Spiders" sounds a bit like Flipper or the Butthole Surfers at their darkest, and it's over before it shows any potential to be a migraine-inducing mess, while "Hand Glams" rides a simple, descending riff and screeching white noise into a suffocating tarpit that reminds me a bit of "Mrs." off Melted on a horrible, terrible bad day. On the flip, there's a cover of the Groundhogs' classic biker blues rock jam "Cherry Red" which really shows where Segall's Roman nose is really pointing these days. It scissors out most of Tony McPhee's extended soloing and the ham-fisted white boy jamming from the original, yet retains the stomping, jittery groove that makes the song such a touchtone for us jaded record collector nerds. Sure, writing perfect fuzzy rock n' roll songs is great and all, but I can forgive an artist like Ty Segall for taking detours and pushing the boundaries and boxes people seem so eager to hem him into. Hey guys, remember when Kurt Cobain recoiled from mainstream adulation and made a noisy, weird record just to piss people off? Time has certainly proved that he was in the right, and Ty Segall's talent is impossible to deny, so strap yourself in for the devilishly creative detours ahead.

Random Old Records Podcast #37

2011-11-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well shit, what happened to this month's episode of Random Old Records?! It's been up on iTunes and Mevio and Official.fm and such since last week, but since then, I've been on VACATION! Yeah, it's been a year now since I got a full-time grown-up job, so I finally decided to cash in and take a week of paid vacation. Lemme back up a bit and be honest. I didn't just get a wild hair up my ass and check out for awhile, I got a wild hair up my ass and impulsively bought tickets to the Friday night show of the Norton Records 25th anniversary celebration at the Bell House in Brooklyn back in August, then realized I needed to figure out such trivial things as boarding and travel and how to tell the boss that seeing the Reigning Sound, Mark Sultan, the Great Gaylord, Jackie & The Cedrics, and an all-star band led by Mick Collins on guitar backing the Mighty Hannibal, Andre Williams, and a bunch of other r&b legends was WAY MORE IMPORTANT than showing up at work for a little bit. Well, after a five day weekend in NYC that involved much record shopping (original pressings of the second New York Dolls LP AND PiL's Flowers Of Romance, YES!), a midnight show at the KILLER Spectacle Theater, a trip to Coney Island for a Nathan's Famous, and a few moments of clarity in a garden on top of a seventeen story building, I'm back and proud as fuck to present Random Old Records Podcast #37, which also happens to be the third anniversary show!

Yep, I've been doing this shit for a solid three years now and it might seem easy, but it can get hard as hell to scour the bins and blogs for a monthly hour of fresh jams sometimes. Luckily, the fall has coughed up a whole bunch of sizzling slabs that I can't stop spinning, and the springboard was a killer weeknight show at local dive The Comet, featuring Davila 666, Jacuzzi Boys, and Barreracudas. You'll hear a track from each band on this episode, kicking off with Davila's modern classic "El Lobo." Elsewhere, there's bubblegum-catchy glammy power pop punk junk from Italy's Giuda, Bare Wires, Video, and White Faces, another track from the AMAZING new Strange Boys LP (the best American rock n' roll band since the Replacements, for real), dark mysterious pop from Captured Tracks heroes Blouse and The Soft Moon, noisy Ramones worship from Terry Malts, noisy 90s slacker-rock worship from Heavy Times, and a whole helluva lot MORE!

I know that I say it every time a new episode comes out, but seriously, THANK YOU for reading this blog and listening to the podcast! Whether you've been here since the beginning, or just found this site while searching for Mediafire links to the new Bad Sports LP or whatever and decided that REAL old school music writing still had merit in 2011, I'm glad you came along for the ride. Every time I think about quitting and settling into old age and complacency, my mind is blown by another bunch of kids with guitars and the cycle starts all over again. If going to the Norton bash taught me anything, it's that real, passionate rock n' roll still pokes through the cracks in this monolith of Internet cultural saturation every once in awhile, and it's no less vital than it was back in whatever time and place you decide is THE DAY. Hope you dig episode #37, and here's to three more years!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #37

1. Davila 666 - "El Lobo"

(Davila 666, In The Red 2011)

2. The Strange Boys - "Punk's Pyjamas"

(Live Music, Rough Trade 2011)

3. Bare Wires - "Ain't Worth Walkin' Away"

(Cheap Perfume, Southpaw 2011)

4. White Faces - "Star Of Bright"

(White Faces, Windian 2011)

5. The Barreracudas - "Don't Roll Your Eyes"

(Nocturnal Missions, Douchemaster 2011)

6. Giuda - "Don't Stop Rockin'"

(Racey Roller, Dead Beat 2011)

--record collectors suck.

7. The Penetrators - "Gotta Have Her"

(Gotta Have Her 7", Windian 2011)

8. Heavy Times - "Let It Die"

(Jacker, HoZac 2011)

9. Terry Malts - "Something About You"

(Something About You 7", Slumberland 2011)

10. Bad Sports - "Can't Just Be Friends"

(Kings Of The Weekend, Dirtnap 2011)

11. Video - "Eyes"

(Leather Leather, Play Pinball 2011)

12. Spider Fever - "Back To You"

(She's No Saint 7", Cave Punk 2011)

--muscleheads on a muscle beach.

13. Jacuzzi Boys - "Cool Vapors"

(Glazin', Hardly Art 2011)

14. Reading Rainbow - "White Noise"

(Prism Eyes, HoZac 2010)

15. Super Wild Horses - "Enigma"

(Fifteen, HoZac 2010)

16. Bad Banana - "Teleport Tonight"

(Cry About It, Puzzle Pieces 2011)

17. Colleen Green - "Jesse Has A New Girl"

(Cujo, Art Fag 2011)

--Bob Ross, just painting some trees. NBD.

18. Half String - "Evergreen"

(Tripped Up Breathing, Independent Projects 1994)

19. The Soft Moon - "Alive"

(Total Decay, Captured Tracks 2011)

20. Blouse - "They Always Fly Away"

(Blouse, Captured Tracks 2011)

21. Wax Idols - "Grey Area"

(No Future, HoZac 2011)

The Penetrators - Gotta Have Her 7"

2011-10-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

(Windian, 2011)

Although I own several thousand albums, singles, EPs, novels, articles, biographies, movies, TV shows, cartoons, and such in every format of physical media imaginable, I ain't never considered myself much of a collector. The message is the most important part, not the medium. "Collectors" are weird people, and record collectors are the most odious of the lot. Paying $50+ dollars for an crackly, scratched-up original pressing of the first Velvet Underground album with an unpeeled banana is MADNESS, especially when you can get an almost-exact replica on immaculate-sounding 180 gram vinyl at a fraction of the cost. I peeled the banana on my VU CD box set and lost it like 15 years ago, but I still listen to its contents all the damn time, and don't feel like it's diminished the experience at all.

The Killed By Death collector-scum craze is by far the worst symptom of the record collector disease. In fact, compilations like Killed By Death and Back From The Grave were made in the early 80s so people didn't HAVE to shell out hundreds of dollars on shitty, flimsy pressings of obscure punk rock released on fly-by-night labels just to hear the music. Absolutely EVERYTHING is digitized and readily available these days, and if you downloaded a new album for free today and disliked it, think about the poor sap who shelled out $150 for Cold Cock's "I Wanna Be Rich" 45 only to find out it was a heaping pile of shit. If I spent that much money on a record, I certainly wouldn't do anything as damaging as taking it out of the sleeve and listening to it, so it totally defeats the purpose of its existence, right?!

So yeah, it's awesome to see the stellar Windian label out of Washington DC reissue the debut 7" from Syracuse's self-styled "Kings Of Basement Rock" The Penetrators, since it was released on their own Fred Records label back in 1979, original copies are presumably as rare as potato chips shaped like Abraham Lincoln, and rock n' roll records made by in the basement by two ugly dudes in Chuck Taylors are way more en vogue now than they were 32 years ago. Spike Kagan and Jack Lipton, the Penetrator Two, make nerdy record-collector kid rock much like Mark Sultan and Ty Segall do now, weaving bits and pieces of a thousand influences into short bits of transcendent, punky fury. A side "Gotta Have Her" sounds like a track from a lost 60s frat-rock live album, complete with a goofy band introduction, and you wouldn't know the difference if the riff from "Raw Power" wasn't repeated a few times during the verses. On the flip, "Baby Dontcha Tell Me" explodes with an exact replica of Stones/Sonics sexual frustration in Vietnam war-time America, and sports some guitar work that sounds incredibly impressive if it really did come from two dudes in a basement hopped up on Genesee Cream Ale and shitty weed.

Sure, Swami Records released a CD back in 2006 that collects these two tracks with everything else the original Penetrators recorded, but that particular disc is out of print now, and who the hell really buys CDs anymore?! Why pay $15.99 plus tax for a flimsy compilation CD when you can get the two songs you really want in an exact replica of the original release in a superior format? Windian plans on releasing the Penetrators' classic follow-up single "Teenage Lifestyle" next, so get that one and this one and the next one, and complete the set. You might be able to spend money on something else, like bills for a change. Perish the thought.

Do The Hammerlock: Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

I hadn't planned on making a Halloween mix, since things have been super-crazy-busy around Random Old Records HQ this month (Halloween parties out the ass, plus a killer Davila 666/Jacuzzi Boys/Barreracudas triple bill and a Sebadoh reunion show in the past week), but I found this record, y’ see, and like always, all it takes is a single record or song to get my gears turning. Somewhere along the way, Halloween has become the second-most popular holiday in the US behind Christmas, and as a result, shit like "Monster Mash," "I Walked With A Zombie," and "Human Fly" have become as played out as "Jingle Bells." Couple that with everyone having a blog and fashioning themselves as master DJs and mix-makers, and you're taking an express trip to overkill city.

But yeah, I was trawling through the cheapy bin at Half Price Books, and came across this LP called Flowers Of Evil for two bucks. It's housed in an ultra-creepy hand-drawn cave cover with a surreal drawing slapped awkwardly in the center, and is the work of pioneering female electronic musician Ruth White. The concept here is heavily-treated icy readings of poems by French poet Baudelaire paired with harrowing beds of Moog and tape collage, and the end result is often WAY more fucking terrifying than any horror movie soundtrack you've ever heard. It was a perfect example of music that is scary in tone and mood, without the usual Halloween subject matter, and the springboard for a mix of unconventional choices.

Sure, there's "Fire" by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, which is one of my favorite songs of all time, and horror punk classics by The Cramps, TSOL, and the Misfits, but there's also the churning dubbed-out death disco of Public Image Limited and a track from Ruth White's British counterpart Delia Derbyshire and her White Noise project, which packs more harsh scary noise than your average modern avant-garde improv cassette. You'll also hear a sample of Dr. John's classic debut LP Gris-Gris which evokes skin-crawling Cajun voodoo incantations, Italian horror soundtrack icons Goblin and their modern-day acolyte Umberto, and a whole lot more! It's about 45 minutes of creepy sonics that will scare the shit out of some trick-or-treaters, that's for sure. Turn out the lights and enjoy!

Direct Download: HERE.

Stream/Download: HERE.

Do The Hammerlock: Halloween 2011

1. Ruth White - "Mists And Rain"

2. The United States Of America - "The Garden Of Earthly Delights"

3. White Noise - "Love Without Sound"

4. Umberto - "Black Candles"

5. Goblin - "Death Valzer"

6. Black Bug - "Shard Of Glass"

7. The Soft Moon - "Sewer Sickness"

8. Public Image Limited - "Swan Lake"

9. Scientist - "Blood On His Lips"

10. Dr. John - "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom"

11. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - "Fire"

12. The Craig - "I Must Be Mad"

13. The Lollipop Shoppe - "You Must Be A Witch"

14. Alice Cooper - "Hallowed Be Thy Name"

15. 45 Grave - "Violent World"

16. TSOL - "Silent Scream"

17. The Misfits - "London Dungeon"

18. The Cramps - "The Crusher"

Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin'

2011-10-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

(Hardly Art, 2011)

Man, I sure do love some good old fashioned happy feet rock n' roll. Nothing gets my blood boiling quicker than some sugar-sweet short songs stuffed with sap and sunshine. Say THAT one fast a couple times. Pack in some "oh oh oh"'s and some tasteful keyboards, and I'm happier than a kid in a post-Halloween candy coma. Sure, I've digested and appreciated such monoliths as Metal Box and OK Computer, but most of the time I'd rather listen to the Archies or Tommy James & The Shondells, man. There's just too much shit going on in the world right now, and people are busy occupying things, updating their resumes, working on their bedroom pop projects, and taking their kids to pilates classes. You'd like to think that a few of them are just DYING to put their goddamn phones down for like two minutes and thirty seconds sometimes to FORCE a dopey smile. Maybe just daydream for a bit? Well, if you're part of that undefinable percentage, and you've ever wished for sugar everywhere, melting in your hair in the sunshine, then I might have an album for you.

I can't think of a better title for this particular LP than Glazin'. From the sticky, garish photo and art-deco lettering on the cover to the opulent irony of the band's name to the brightly tinted band photos on the inner sleeve to the warm, candy-coated pop tunes within, this second LP from Miami's Jacuzzi Boys is well and truly glazed over. It's all sun-baked and easy-going and might be the best soundtrack for barrelling towards the beach in a sand-flecked beater that I've heard by a band not ending in "each Boys." Well, let me back up the hyperbole truck a little bit. It's not THAT good, not by a long shot, but it's definitely one of the top three mid-fi/glitter/beach/surf/punk/power-pop albums I've heard since the mighty King Tuff Was Dead record was unleashed back in 2008. Glazin' is one of those albums you throw on the stereo when you just want some HOOKS and don't want to play the connect-the-influences game that has been slowly sucking the fun out of music since we all started downloading shit at will and started throwing our "well, it sounds like this crossed with this" hats in the ring.

Like a cheap trinket bought in the moment at a beach-side tent, Glazin' starts to fall apart under close scrutiny. It's slight and genuine and unassuming, and perhaps it treads too close to the T. Rex bubblegum formula that King Tuff perfected, but this trio of youngins have a real knack for crafting serious hooks, punctuated by frontman Gabriel Alcala's playfully bratty vocals. At times they settle into a steady Modern Lovers-style power chord chug that sends your head into a spontaneous fit of lazy bobbing, best demonstrated by lead-off single "Automatic Jail," where Alcala is shacked up in a womb-like cell, watched over by his lady love's electric eyes, and he knows it's a trap, but it's just too damn safe and secure in there to ever leave. Sure, it's a well-worn lyrical conceit passed down from "Suspicious Minds," but the song connects immediately, and it could have been a college rock staple back in the day, slotted comfortable in between "Just Like Heaven" and "Here Comes Your Man" on a KROQ playlist.

The title track is the cut that references melted-sugar hair, and as it turns out, "Glazin'" is the verbal equivalent of those scenes from old cartoons where hearts sprout from the eyes and thumping bass drums erupt from the chest. You ever get so sprung and head-over-heels that you can't get any words out more than one syllable long? Well, that's glazin'. This record might not have anything deeper to offer beyond that initial heart-stopping infatuation, but sometimes it's nice to have that kinda feeling documented, and it's been quite a long time since a record offered up some tunes that had me singing along by the second listen. Things start to get a bit thick and plodding somewhere in the middle of side two, but album closer "Koo Koo With You" comes closer to that T. Rex feeling even more than Smith Westerns ever did, starting with the line "Well I'm a space cadet headliner, and I can draw my heart in the sand," which had to have come straight out of the Marc Bolan diaries, which remain unpublished for some odd reason. T. Rex were written off as a teenybopper fad and largely ignored in America in their prime, so it's hilariously perfect that they've become the most influential band going, some 40 years later. The Jacuzzi Boys are adrift in a cartoon world, solving mysteries and getting down with Marc Bolan, Jungle Face Jake, Scooby Doo, and Pepe Le Pew, with enough raspberry feelings for all. It's more fun than the alternative, right?! Glazin' is a must-hear for today's jaded and too-busy ears.

If you're in the Cincinnati area, the Jacuzzi Boys are playing at my favorite bar the Comet next Wednesday, the 26th. They're bringing along two great rock n' roll bands, Davila 666 and the Barreracudas. It starts around 9:30 and it's FREE, so no excuses, OK?!

Run DMT - Dreams

2011-10-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

(Culture Dealer Media, 2011)

Lord help me, I've actively begun buying cassettes again. Since I got a good job that's provided me a decent amount of disposable income, I've spent literally thousands of dollars on records, including a goodly amount of limited, first-press, pre-ordered, colored, swirly, alternate cover-arted horseshit. If record collector scum culture isn't exclusionary enough, then get a load of the contemporary cassette tape underground. Now that vinyl has become HIP again on a (let's be real here) miniscule scale, these fuckers have upped the ante even further and are pressing their music on an even deader format in runs that are so small that you need the eye of an Ebay sniper and the Googling skills of an Adderall-addled teenager just to find the damn things. Even in my advancing age, I'm still handcuffed by the urges that are unexplainable to anyone that doesn't quest to find every good song ever recorded ever, so now I'm ponying up my dough for tapes and canvasing area Big Lots locations to find tape head cleaners to make my 18 year old decks sing again. Circle of life, wheel of fortune, Elton John, Lion King, etc.

Ya see, cassettes were my musical life's blood when I was a little kid. Records were quickly disappearing and CDs were shiny, distant, and expensive, so tapes were all I had left to feast upon. I distinctly remember cutting up the flimsy cardboard sleeves of my Guns N' Roses cassingles into makeshift J-cards and carefully pasting the song titles onto the outer lip to mimic the full-length albums like Hysteria and Slippery When Wet that I played to death in my ordinary suburban bedroom. Remember when the big deal about the iPod was that you could carry your favorite songs in your pocket?! Cassettes were providing the same fucking service like twenty years earlier. You didn't need some decks and a giant PA to rock a party, just an AC/DC tape and a case of warm beer. Nowadays, cassettes seem obnoxiously elitist, but back in the day, the tapes you stashed in your bookbag were like a badge of coolness, and you could trade them with your friends in between classes and "download" them to a blank tape and "file share" that copy to anyone you pleased. I played my dubbed copy of Screeching Weasel's Boogadaboogadaboogada so many times that I still anticipate the tape drop-outs and the five second gap in "I Love To Hate" when I accidentally recorded over it when I was fourteen, even with the pristine digital copy I downloaded from Amazon a few months ago.

It's not 1995 anymore, it's 2011, and I'm supposedly supposed to be reviewing the debut cassette from the impressively-named Run DMT, and this C30 called Dreams is more immersive and otherworldly than any state-of-the-art MMORPG you've ever played. Pressing "play" on this tape is the gateway to another planet, where feelings and colors and sparkling flashing lights drift without a tether, where showers of syrupy synth muck rain all over your face, and half-remembered shards of sunshine pop, doo wop, northern soul, and post-Motown 60s 45s make you wanna dance listlessly until they fade out in washes of beach waves and clarion calls of lighthouse spotlights and sirens until you just wanna make like Odysseus and crash into the fucking rocks already. Nothing really finishes with satisfaction, and as the sonics bake and bleed and meld into each other, Run DMT mastermind Mike Collins comes off like a bastard son of Ariel Pink and Bob Pollard, patient enough to meld a half-hour symphony of fragments, but not enough of a control freak to really put it all together.

A half-baked unnamed hippie spirit guide narrates the proceedings, reporting lucidly about his DMT trip, and his voice melts and contorts into a distorted grimace as Dreams ambles its way to conclusion. That mysterious creep sees a figure that is free and unbound and unhinged and not afraid to flail around in search of heavy-duty enlightenment, and right before the tape finishes up with that satisfying "kaCHUNK," it tosses in another bit of near-perfect droning Everly Brothers gone mental pop. That babbling hippie burnout just keeps on talking until he gets cut off in mid-sentence, and the kaleidoscope he mentions in the beginning closes up, and somehow it all makes sense. When you're chemically altered, you're gonna take the time to listen to any confident blowhard spew his line of bullshit. That hippie dude speaks of the feminine god inside of him, but you're just waiting for him to shut the fuck up and pass whatever it is he's having to you. Sure, cassettes are elitist and exclusionary and all that, but they also offer murky and expansive sonic possibilities that stretch far beyond a rudimentary Bandcamp page, and seems to be turning into THE medium for bold and experimental music in 2011. Dreams is like a gateway drug into the netherworlds of the cassette underground, and you're never gonna forget your first time, especially when the experience is exhilarating as this.

The Ketamines - Line By Line 7"

2011-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

(HoZac, 2011)

Ketamine is a drug I ain't never bothered to fuck with, because it doesn't really sound like much FUN, man. Anything that involves hallucinatory psychosis and seeing things through a pinhole isn't really my bag. So, I guess my only recourse is to live vicariously through bands like Alberta, Canada's Ketamines, who wear their dissociative allegiance on their sleeve quite literally. Brooklyn's K-Holes unleashed a debut LP on HoZac back in the spring that sounded like the Birthday Party recast as a sax-splattered surf rock band from the deeper reaches of Hades, but on this pleasantly weird single, the Ketamines present a slightly sunnier depiction of a Special K-influenced night out.

Lead-off track "Line By Line" (haha) rides a nursery-rhyme simple guitar melody punctuated by pick-slide scrapes, and that cheerful riff fights with some snidely whiny vocals, Beach Boys backing "whoos," and subliminal distorto-fuzz farts for play in the mix. It comes off like a sugar-sweet, head-bopping tune from a mutant kids show even more demented than Wonder Showzen, a place where Grover and Big Bird go line by line to get some shine in their world. "New Victims" inhabits more traditional reverb-heavy surf-rock ground, shoehorning Dick Dale western guitar wanderings and 13th Floor Elevators raunch strumming into a slightly out-of-sync and woozy stew that reaches nightmarish nirvana when the crackly fuzz organ injects itself rudely before the song crash lands. It's the best song on the EP, and it wanders close to Jesus & Mary Chain territory, if the brothers Reid had grown up on Malibu beach instead of dreary Scotland.

A trip is all fun and games until somebody loses their goddamn mind, and b-side "Dig" is where things begin to get seriously scary, dank, and interesting. A swirling, mid-tempo freakout dirge that mimics the hazy build-up of "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" mixed with Thee Oh Sees lysergic depth charges, this track has a more pronounced pitch battle between the squalling organ and psychotic guitars, taking you on a journey that sputters and lurches until the Ketamines are fused into a single person bashing around a padded cell, squirming to break out of the strait-jacket and screaming to get out. It's a perfect cliffhanger ending that makes you want another hit instantly, and since this record requires $6.95 postage paid instead of your sanity, I'd consider it a very sound investment indeed.

Random Old Records Podcast #36

2011-10-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Holy shit, is it really October already?! Judging by the clock at the bottom right of my computer screen and the flannel shirt wrapped around my torso, it must be. Where the hell has the time gone? It seems like April was only a few minutes ago, and now the year is damn near over. I've been to a bunch of shows, crossed a couple of folks off my live bucket list (New York Dolls, Wanda Jackson), and spent probably a few grand on records, and what do I have to show for it? Slightly more damaged eardrums and a whole buncha shit that will be a real pain in the ass to lift if I ever move into a new place, I reckon. Seriously though, 2011 might have already topped 2010 as one of the best music years since the mid-90s, and it's not over yet!

Random Old Records Podcast #36 is out now, and it's loaded with just over an hour of jams, starting off with the raging opening salvo from Let's Wrestle's new LP, "In Dreams Part II." It sounds so much like the aforementioned mid-90s that you'd swear that 15+ years of godawful over-produced mainstream rock didn't kill good music after all and that the kids really and truly are alright. The kids really ARE alright, even though their space phone zombie walks and Twitter posts suggest otherwise. Forget about the waves of whiny bedroom folk and trendy corporate "garage rock" wannabes, there's real and VITAL rock n' roll still being cranked out by the truckload all over the world. No better example can be found than the second track on this here podcast, a sizzling blast from the brand new 10" LP from smooth punk titans Bare Wires, who continue their unparalleled streak of insta-classic bangers with "Sweet Little Stranger." That nasty fuzz and snarling vocal might just lift you out of your plush computer chair, Mr. Internet cynic!

Elsewhere, you'll hear the lead-off single from the Strange Boys' highly anticipated new LP out in a few weeks, which finds the Austin garage rockers moving even closer to that Exile On Main Street vibe, another perfect 80s pop jam from the new Dum Dum Girls album, some delightfully evil synth punk from Swedish noise terrorists Black Bug, a fuzzed-out Beach Boys homage from Moonhearts mainman Mikal Cronin's debut solo nod on Trouble In Mind, some obnoxious analog oscillations from California's Blasted Canyons, some dusty reverb rock from Texas teenagers Fungi Girls, and a catchy-as-fuck beach-pop latecomer from the former Mika Miko members in Bleached. Random Old Records #36 finished up with 18 or so minutes of classic mid-90s indie rock from Material Issue, Hazel, The Spinanes, and Sebadoh, who I'll be glad to cross off that live show bucket list in a couple weeks. Bakesale was released 17 years ago, and if that's not enough to make a motherfucker feel old, I don't know what does. In between the tracks, you’ll hear a series of spooky inserts from “Death Of A Doll,” an episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally aired October 18th, 1948. Right in time for Halloween, it will send a chill up your back and shit. As always, thanks for listening and reading, and stay tuned for more reviews, more music, and more, more, MORE!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #36

1. Let's Wrestle - "In Dreams Part II"

(Nursing Home, Merge 2011)

2. Bare Wires - "Sweet Little Stranger"

(Cheap Perfume, Southpaw 2011)

3. Fungi Girls - "Honey Face"

(Some Easy Magic, HoZac 2011)

4. Mikal Cronin - "Get Along"

(Mikal Cronin, Trouble In Mind 2011)

5. The Ketamines - "Line By Line"

(Line By Line 7", HoZac 2011)

6. The Wrong Words - "Summer's Gone"

(The Wrong Words, Trouble In Mind, 2011)

7. XRay Eyeballs - "Big Toe"

(Not Nothing, Kanine 2011)

--Death Of A Doll

8. The Strange Boys - "Me And You"

(Live Music, Rough Trade 2011)

9. Colleen Green - "Green One"

(Green One, Hardly Art 2011)

10. Black Bug - "Shard Of Glass"

(Police Helicopter 7", HoZac 2011)

11. Blasted Canyons - "Death And A Half"

(Blasted Canyons, Castleface 2011)

12. Burning Itch - "Dead End Street"

(Burning Itch, Tic Tac Totally 2011)

13. Wax Museums - "Mosquito Enormo"

(Eye Times, Trouble In Mind 2011)

--Death Of A Doll, Part 2

14. Dum Dum Girls - "Heartbeat"

(Only In Dreams, Sub Pop 2011)

15. The Pretenders - "Wait"

(The Pretenders, Sire 1980)

16. Bleached - "Think Of You"

(Carter 7", Art Fag 2011)

17. The Spinanes - "Noel, Jonah, and Me"

(Manos, Sub Pop 1993)

18. Hazel - "Blank Florida"

(Are You Going To Eat That?, Sub Pop 1995)

--Death Of A Doll, Part 3

19. Material Issue - "A Very Good Thing"

(Freak City Soundtrack, Polygram 1994)

20. The Figgs - "Favorite Shirt"

(Low-Fi At Society High, Imago 1994)

21. Sebadoh - "Rebound"

(Bakesale, Sub Pop 1994)

22. Unrest - "Make Out Club"

(Perfect Teeth, 4AD 1993)

Black Bug - Police Helicopter 7"

2011-10-05T21:47:00.001-07:00

(HoZac, 2011)

This is the third straight record I've reviewed in the past week that has absolutely no information about the band or its music presented within on the sleeve, but I'm done bitching about it and am just going to start making shit up instead. Black Bug are an anonymous collective of Martians and child molesters that release morse-code manifestos bi-monthly ranting about low-quality smartphone ROMs, and every once in a while they make claustrophobic, minimal electro-noise that HoZac compares to Cabaret Voltaire and Catatonic Youth. While their self-titled debut LP on FDH Records had way too many songs and occasionally lapsed into bits of monotonous noise for noise's sake and too-cutesy new wave silliness, the three tracks on this 7" possess a more malevolent, singular vibe, channelling criminally underrated late 70s LA sci-fi synth punks the Screamers if they'd formed in like 1985 and were more influenced by New Romantic pop and bad 80s action movie soundtracks than Suicide or the Ramones.

Opening track "Shard Of Glass" sports a choppy rhythm bed and a massive, guttural synth riff that's tougher and more memorable than any guitar-based rock n' roll song I've heard in recent months. Next up is "Machine," which makes the Screamers connection more explicit, but it subtracts KK Barrett's violent punk drumming in favor of proudly phony computerized beats and cheapo Casio plinks and plonks. Flipside "Police Helicopter" weaves a synthetic cowbell pulse into a cold, slightly frightening melody that never stops, and in contrast to the A side, which features strangulated vocals under blankets of effects that bring to mind John Lydon on early Public Image Limited records, the only voice you hear is a disembodied robot moaning "THEY ALL LOOK LIKE RATS FROM UP HERE!" Black Bug might seem scary and unearthly, but these songs are oddly danceable, much like early 90s goth and industrial was danceable, better suited for the kind of moves you'd bust out in a darkened corner far away from the DJ booth.

All in all, this might be the best 7" HoZac has put out all year, and it would sound more at home on the soundtrack of the planned gritty reboot of Suspiria than whatever z-grade nu-metal garbage or hipster pop the producers are probably using. Curiosity got the better of me, and it turns out Black Bug are two guys and a girl from Sweden, not outer space, and haven't been listed on any sex offender registries that I can locate. That's way less interesting than the backstory I invented, so maybe there's something to be said for maintaining the air of mystery. Either way, you kinda need to buy this like yesterday!

Burning Itch - Burning Itch

2011-10-05T09:23:00.001-07:00

(Tic Tac Totally, 2011)

I hated this record with the passion of a thousand suns before I'd even bothered to throw it on the turntable, and it has sat in my "to listen to" stack for weeks, with its monumentally stupid "naked dude cradling a blow-up doll" cover leering up at me as I continued to pass it over in favor of, well...just about everything else. Ya see, I ordered this thing back at the end of May, tacked onto a Midheaven purchase as an afterthought to my pre-order of the Go Sailor reissue on Slumberland. My love of mid-90s twee pop is more intense than it probably should be for a heterosexual dude in his early thirties, so I was way pumped. The posted shipping date of June 6th came and went, and still no records. I checked the website, and this goddamn Burning Itch LP that I bought because I like Tic Tac Totally and the description sounded kinda neat ("loud, completely unpretentious punk rock") got pushed back to mid-July, late July, and finally August 16th. Yeah dude, for those playing at home, I waited nearly three months to relive some of my favorite teenage indie pop moments because I took a flier on some band I'd never heard before. Any wonder why I'm kinda bitter?! That's as prototypical of a first world problem as you're gonna get, but such is life for an obsessive music nerd with a decent amount of disposable income.

What a pleasant surprise I had in store when I finally got over my grudge and gave Burning Itch a spin, because this compact, ten track firebomb is, um, one of the loudest, most completely unpretentious punk rock records I've heard since the mighty Winchester Mystery House by the Hex Dispensers, my favorite LP of 2009. Punk rock has been done to death in the last thirty-plus years, but it will never stop being refreshing to hear a bunch of young folks dig into the well of the Ramones and Misfits with a gleeful lack of restraint or respect. Vocalist Ian pulls off the same terrible Joey Ramone impression you let rip in your car when no one's looking, and these kids from Knoxville, Tennessee prove that collecting records is still a favorite pastime for punk rockers in nowhere towns. "Dead End Street" mimics the runaway freight train chug of the Weirdos' epochal "Solitary Confinement" and stops on a dime every fifteen seconds or so, managing to sound even more sloppy, dirty, and obnoxious than the original shit they are trying to imitate.

Much like the bands on Nuggets attempted to sound like the Stones and Beatles and Byrds and Who and ended up with amateurish, pale, but enthusiastic and intriguing results, and Burning Itch does the same damn thing with the titans of punk rock. It's telling that the picture under "influences" on their Myspace page is the cover of Killed By Death, since any of the tracks on this self-titled LP could pass for a forgotten single by some band only fifteen record collecting scumbags across the world have heard about. It's not like you can really hear the words amidst the basement show sludge production, but the songs divide their subjects between post-teen angst and fuck-it-all hedonism in equal measure, and really, this is the kinda music that is best suited for shouting along in a drunken, guttural slur anyway. "Brains Fall Out" even has a faint bit of furious acoustic guitar strumming poking its way up through the mix, much like Jay Reatard did on his more introspective cuts, suggesting that these kids didn't stop listening to music made past 1982, and that they might have more depth hiding behind the noise and murk and the "naked dude waking up next to a blow-up doll with a bunch of whip-it chargers" photo on the back sleeve.

If you're looking for introspection and depth, I would direct you to the closing track, "Me Myself and I." It starts with a pounding, cracked-out post-punk disco beat that evokes "Turning Japanese" more than Burning Itch would care to admit, then keeps hammering those strangely danceable beats into your brain. If I may be so bold, it sounds like a curious cross between Wire, the Heartbreakers, and the Misfits, while referencing the same cracked-out post-punk disco beat that runs through the classic album-ending title track of TSOL's brilliant Dance With Me. If legendary rock writer Chuck Eddy taught me anything, it's that album-ending tracks point the way to the future. TSOL took "Dance With Me" and leapt off the deep end with it, morphing into post-punk disco synth rock on one of the best albums of the 80s, Beneath The Shadows. Time will tell if Burning Itch can make the same kind of stylistic jump, but they certainly have enough talent to make it happen.

This record reminds me of a cheeseburger from McDonalds more than anything. It's familiar and generic to a certain extent, but it always tastes the same and always fills you up in a pinch. Sure, it would be better if the pickles weren't so slimy and the onions weren't so old, but the basic ingredients do their job, even if you have to wait in the drive-thru forever to get in in your hands. Punk rock done even slightly well will always crush anything else out there, like 99 percent of the time.

That's The Curse Of Being Young: Fall Mix 2011

2011-09-27T20:16:00.001-07:00

This mix got started, like most mixes do, when a couple of songs got stuck in my head like malignant earworms and refused to let my brain and heart go. In this current Facebook-fueled "share everything" culture, I'm not afraid to say that I talk to myself a lot, and on most days I engage myself in day-long conversations that might contain rehearsals for phone calls I have to make at work, verbalizations of my plans for this evening, or repeated karaoke renditions of lines from songs I haven't heard in forever, followed by mental notes to listen to those songs. I almost never follow through on those urges though, because I've probably heard those fuckers enough to internalize them, and who really has the time to listen to every classic song every day?! There's just too much culture to keep up with these days, and looking backwards inevitably seems like a cop-out because there's more than enough out there to get lost in, and I've always felt like looking forward is a better alternative to nostalgic navel-gazing.

If you've read this blog with any regularity, you'd know that I like a whole lot of current music, find the recorded output of the 2000s mostly detestable, and hold the 90s up on a pedestal as a golden age of music and culture. This mix touches on some malignant earworms from all three periods. "So this is goodbye more or less, and things have changed a lot I guess" is the opening line from "Deep Deep Down" by Mr. T Experience, and it sounds just as good as the first time I heard it fifteen years ago. Has it really been fifteen years since Love Is Dead came out and blew my mind with it's mix of Ramones muscle and Jonathan Richman awkwardness?! I guess so. It took me this long to decipher that the lyrics were about burying your girlfriend six feet deep and moving along, because back then I was a horny and impressionable teenager, and my brain never could understand irony and humor when matters of the heart were concerned. I was all, I'm the man on the mountain, come on up. I'm the man that brings you roses when I ain't got none. Cutting off the object of your affections isn't always an option, and when you're puffing your chest on top of the hill, you can't really grasp the concept of a slick metaphor. You're too busy roaring, and there's no shame, no pain, no gain.

Turning off your brain, shutting up, and opening your heart can be a revelation, and it's really fucking hard when you've spent your life listening to music made by frustrated and emotionally-stunted rock n' rollers. Everyone's read on the Internet recently that pop songs are a highly advanced form of brainwashing, and I've been suckered in more than your average fellow. I'm a hopeless fuckin' case. You're young. So what? I'm young, so what?! Being young really is a fucking curse, but once you make it over that hump, it's all gravy. You spend those first couple crucial decades accumulating grey hairs, scars, and life lessons, and once you realize that there's more important big-picture shit to work through, all that piddly stuff seems embarrassing and insignificant. Why look backwards and reflect on all the things you've done in the past when the future offers limitless potential and beds of dreamy California stars?

Anyways, this mix is perfect for romantics that still get excited for hoodie weather. These thirteen songs are about love gained, love lost, love unusual, love of the spirit and heart, and love both happy and unhappy. There's a good bit of acoustic strumming for driving past miles of fall foliage, a fair amount of Americana harmonizing, and an honest depiction of what happens when an obsessive soul that still talks to themselves too much emerges on the other side a smarter, happier person almost by accident. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I did putting it together!

That's The Curse Of Being Young: Fall 2011
1. The Strange Boys - "I See"
2. Wilco - "California Stars"
3. Beachwood Sparks - "The Sun Surrounds Me"
4. The Jayhawks - "Somewhere In Ohio"
5. Mojave 3 - "Some Kinda Angel"
6. The Rolling Stones - "Loving Cup"
7. The Ettes - "Love Lies Bleeding"
8. Screeching Weasel - "99"
9. Mr T. Experience - "Deep Deep Down"
10. Harlem - "Friendly Ghost"
11. Hunx & His Punx - "The Curse Of Being Young"
12. Shannon & The Clams - "Sleep Talk"
13. Primal Scream - "Movin' On Up"

Download it HERE.

Nectarine Pie - Dreamdaze/Chameleon 7"

2011-09-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

(Southpaw, 2011)

Well, there isn't fuck-all in the way of information anywhere regarding this band, so I've carefully pieced something together after 15 minutes of frenzied Googling, so you don't have to! Apparently, Nectarine Pie is the main gig of Nathan Price, who most recently did time in Matthew Melton's ever-evolving Bare Wires lineup, and Melton himself plays bass on these two songs, along with recording them, and appearing on the cover looking, as always, like a young John Holmes. While Melton's music draws inspiration from NYC and Detroit for the most part, Nectarine Pie's debut single is California down to the bone, from it's mountains and sunshine artwork to the desert-baked sonics within.

Unlike a lot of modern bands that look to the 60s for inspiration, Nectarine Pie actually does a spectacular job of emulating the sound of San Francisco in 1968. Keeping with the theme of overall mystery, the labels on the 7" can't be bothered with anything so basic as printing the song titles on them, but since I'm a huge nerd, I can tell you that most pressing plants etch "A" or "B" next to the catalogue number in the dead wax, and this record is no different. Pretty much any information on any topic is available at anyone's fingertips at any time, and it's not like I make my monthly podcast playlists easy to find, so I definitely salute the attempt to make a listener have to dig up shit like that, instead of shoving it in their faces.

Speaking of saluting something shoved in my face, the guitar-work on this 7" is some of the best I've heard in a long time. Price layers on thick cakes of sinister, Twin Reverb-infused strumming in true Link Wray knife-fight fashion, while lead guitarist Billy Trujillo says to hell with pop melody and simply solos all through both tracks, bringing out the ghosts of John Cippolina, Jorma Kaukonen, and (ulp) even Jerry Garcia, showering everything with torrents of bendy notes and controlled fretboard shredding. "Dreamdaze" wouldn't have sounded out of place on Quicksilver Messenger Service's classic Happy Trails album, melding a bluesy bottom end and just enough exploratory lift-off to indicate that it would get twice and longer and wilder aired out in a live setting. Flipside "Chameleon" actually apes "Gimme Danger" by the Stooges a little too closely, stripping out the acoustic guitar and adding in layers of murky fuzz before heading off into the sun once again, while bits of Queens Of The Stone Age-style desert rock work their way into the sound.

Like Bare Wires, this is record collector rock n' roll at it's very finest. Listen to hundreds of songs, dig the depths, piece together the parts of a genre that resonate the most, then file them down to a fine point, and reconstruct them into the perfect songs you hear in your head. If it was 1971, Nectarine Pie would be labelled "biker rock" and relegated to the last page of the reviews section in your favorite rock mag, celebrated by Lester Bangs and Greg Shaw, and ignored by everyone else, then resurrected by bootleggers and Ebay scum as a great lost classic. Maybe that's why it's on white vinyl, limited to 400 copies, and harder to find than truffles in Saudi Arabia? This single is worth seeking out, not as a trophy, but as something to listen the fuck out of, and as a soundtrack to the next night you feel like getting out of your head.

Let's Wrestle - Nursing Home

2011-09-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

(Merge, 2011)

In my mind, England in the mid-90s was like Camelot or some shit, at least musically. Geographically and intellectually miles away from my small-town suburban bedroom, Britpop injected a whole bunch of escapist fun to a rock n' roll landscape that was haunted by the suicide of Kurt Cobain and dominated by the aggressive angst of Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. Sure, I felt like a rat in a cage some days, but most of the time I yearned to put on a smart suit and dance like Jarvis Cocker in the "Common People" video and knock back a few pints with some dudes from Menswear at the Good Mixer in Camden town. I was fifteen, well read, listened to the import show on 97X like it was my job, and dreamed that writing for the NME would be my job someday.

Things didn't work out that way though, and I saw Britpop crumble and fall away, while a whole bunch of awful shit like Coldplay, Klaxons, and Glasvegas were hoisted upon shoulders and given the royal treatment for making music that wasn't any more fun or substantial than a hangover fart. Every once in a while, bands like Len Price 3 or Male Bonding or the Long Blondes would emerge, but while excellent, none of them could equal the rush I got from hearing "Wake Up Boo" or "Wonderwall" the first time. Damn near 15 years after Blur kicked off the Britpop revolution with "Girls & Boys," London trio Let's Wrestle finally gave some hope to us jaded Anglophiles with their debut album In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's, an insanely smart and hooky collection of songs that proved the ghost of Supergrass wasn't ready to be buried quite yet.

From the sounds of second LP Nursing Home, Let's Wrestle wasn't too happy about constant (and unfounded) comparisons to overrated late 80s UK jangle-punks The Wedding Present, as everything is louder, noisier, and tougher here, with nary a bit of the speedy, folky strumming that occasionally dusted In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's. These guys were probably way psyched to record with Steve Albini, and I'd like to imagine the phrase "Hey Steve, remember Seamonsters? Yeah, not so much this time, eh?!" was bandied about more than once during the sessions. Shit is more compact as well, with the pointless samples n' instrumental interludes that made the first album a bit of a slog scissored out, leaving twelve tracks that barely crack a half-hour, which is a much better fit for a band with this kind of punk rock attack and nervous energy.

That might be a bit of presumptuous interpretation on my part, as frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzalez doesn't appear to give much of a shit about ANYTHING. He still delivers his vocals in a flat, conversational tone that suggests that he couldn't be bothered to get out of bed most days, let alone care about negative press from a bunch of jaded, ignorant rock n' roll writers. The first LP's jaunty love ballad "In Dreams" is given a dirty, abrasive re-take in the opening track on Nursing Home, and instead of puffy clouds and cartoon hearts, Gonzalez imagines fire and Greek dudes fighting in the pharmacy and bad actresses from bad TV shows and old guys named Tony that bedded Queen Victoria. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's catchy as fuck, and under all the volume and grit, it's still a love song. After all, no one understands, but you get it right away.

Albini does what he's always done, presenting a shit-hot punk rock band with sympathetic, bruising clarity. In fact, it might be the best thing he's done since the first Magnolia Electric Company record a decade ago or the last Shellac LP back in 2007. I've seen Let's Wrestle classified as "lo-fi," but seriously, since when did any rock song not outfitted with beat-doctored drums and auto-tune automatically become classified as "lo-fi"?! Rock n' roll had been documented as such for nearly fifty fucking years before computers came in and sorta ruined shit. Everything Let's Wrestle has recorded doesn't sound any different from hundreds of classic albums that were made with real tape machines and microphones and amplifiers, and anyone suggesting this kinda stuff sounds bad is smoking crack.

Forget about the Wedding Present, OK?! Let's Wrestle clearly find their inspiration in American indie rock circa 1994. Picture a punkier Pavement, a sillier Sebadoh, or a less-dumb Dinosaur Jr. cranking out a concise song suite about an early twentysomething that's too smart for his own damn good, who would rather get high and eat dinner with mum and waste some fools in Halo than go out and bar-hop for some emotionally-empty (and INTIMIDATING!) girls. Remember "Suburban Home" by the Descendents? I always thought that song was supposed to be sarcastic, but Let's Wrestle seems to have taken it to heart. Really though, I spent those years of my life trapped in the same post-adolescent bubble and feel like I came out of things better in my early 30s than my more overly-ambitious high school classmates. Seriously, do you want to become a productive, mindless cog in society, or do you want to cram as much lazy fun as possible in before your body and brain tell you to just grow the fuck up already?! Better to hang back and pick your spots and make a bunch of noise instead, huh?

Beneath his lazy hero-worship of the 90s slacker archetype, Wesley Patrick Gonzalez proves that he's like way smarter than you, all of you. Near the end of Nursing Home, he paints a chilling portrait of the future he's trying to prolong in "I'm So Useful." He's busy weatherproofing his summer villa in Tuscany and the tract home in the suburbs, and wondering why if he's so useful, than why did you leave him? He's already got it sussed out that everyone gets old and boring someday, and it's like he's anticipating failure because that's what's ingrained in the psyche of anyone that spent a decade of life in war-torn, recession-riddled hopelessness. In the rock n' roll lexicon, getting old and irrelevant is the biggest sin possible, and no one wants to become Liam and Noel Gallagher, fighting over the scraps of a legacy no one in their right mind cares about anymore. Perhaps that's why the cynicism of Let's Wrestle sounds so fucking good in 2011, because everyone hopes they die before they get old, even before they know what such a weighty statement really means.

Maybe it's because I was an idealistic teenager back then, but the 90s really does seem like a golden age, much like the 60s must have seemed to grown-ups in the 80s. All I remember is neon colors, big pants, MTV, decent FM radio, bookstores crammed full of messy, interesting magazines, bins full of vital CDs, and a president that wasn't afraid to crack a stupid joke every now and then. I can't state enough how refreshing it is to see a bunch of young punks putting a wry, British smile on things and bashing out fun and smart rock n' roll like the Britpop days of yore. Maybe they don't give a shit, but I do, and Nursing Home means more than anything Green Day or Coldplay has farted out in the last ten years. Fuck a bunch of ambition; just give me a smart suit and some fun.

Spider Fever - She's No Saint/Back To You 7"

2011-09-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

(Cave Punk, 2011)

I raved about the first Spider Fever single on Hozac way back in April, and was seriously jazzed to get this follow-up in the mail recently. Frontman Mario Rubacalba has put in his time playing drums for Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, and loads of 90s post-hardcore bands, and was most recently seen in extremely disappointing "hardcore supergroup" Off!, cranking out punk rock nostalgia that wasn't anywhere near as satisfying as a real, legit Black Flag reunion would have been. Reverence and nostalgia goes out the window when Rubacalba picks up a guitar and starts shouting though, and this release on Cave Punk Records out of San Diego is a second straight notch in Spider Fever's belt.

If their debut 7" played out like a great lost sequel to Black Flag's Damaged album (one where Ginn and Rollins stopped hating life so much and started talking to girls more often), the two tracks here delve into tougher, sludgier, and more sinister places. "She's No Saint" builds off of the standard-issue "Suspect Device"/"Blitzkrieg Bop" template before offering up an insanely catchy chorus and then some face-melting Wipers-style guitar soloing. Truth be told, it sounds a helluva lot like Columbus Ohio's fearsome New Bomb Turks on their Epitaph LPs, which were rough, raw, and ready, and not afraid to sock you upside the head with melody when you weren't paying attention.

On the other side, "Back To You" slows things into a jackhammer rhythm, which brings to mind some mid-80s punk/hardcore/metal hybrid action with a grinding pogo pulse and even more nasty guitar strangulation. It's a song appropriate for dancing, drinking, fighting, or fucking, or some wicked combination of the above. This reviewer wishes that more bands had this kind of fire and drive, and just stopped respecting the past and started fucking going for it, man. Spider Fever have come up with another winner, a single which maintains the catchy, euphoric rush they started, while stretching out and letting people know that they've probably got a killer LP waiting to be unleashed. When is that record coming out, again?!

Hoop Dreams - XCPR/Memory Light 7"

2011-09-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

(Captured Tracks, 2011)

Even in 2011, when decent band names seem harder and harder to come by (deep breath...Bare Wires, High Tension Wires, White Wires, White Mystery, White Fence, etc.), "Hoop Dreams" is particularly lousy. Naming your indie rock ensemble after the sprawling 1994 documentary about inner-city basketball prospects is a pretty gutsy and disingenuous move, especially when your music is decidedly pale and reeking of synth-heavy mid-80s pop from England. Luckily, I stopped judging bands by their name when I was like nine. My favorite group of all time are the Manic Street Preachers, which might have the dumbest name ever, except for maybe !!! or a million mall-emo bands. Really, a name is just a name, and Hoop Dreams deliver a promising debut single that continues the heavy roll that Captured Tracks has been on in 2011.

This 7" contains everything I like in a classic single, sporting two tracks that are totally different from one another. A side "XCPR" (featured on Random Old Records Podcast #34 last month) is a tight, propulsive two-minute jam which works off a simple, jittery, killer guitar riff that rushes into a soaring chorus lightly dusted with synths and shouts before ending abruptly and much too soon. It kinda reminds me of an early 80s DIY band off one of those Messthetics comps that listened to The Smiths way more than they let on to their punk rock friends. B side "Memory Light" is a swirling, slow-moving reverb n' keyboard haze that is more atmosphere than song, packing in bright tones and goth-lite brooding that makes me wonder if kids in Blacksburg, Virginia are really getting deep into the Cocteau Twins in 2011. Shit sounds like an outtake off Treasure with Peter Murphy or Morrissey singing, and that ain't a bad thing in my book.

Back when I was a kid, it seemed like every 45 or cassingle I bought featured a sure-fire pop hit on the A side and some kinda weird shit on the flip. "Welcome To The Jungle" was backed with the funky heroin hell of "Mr. Brownstone," and Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing" had a head-scratching demo lurking on the other side. I'm not sure what direction Hoop Dreams are headed, and I'd be really happy if they continue to crank out schizophrenic singles like this for awhile. A mutant cross between the two sounds on this 7" would be pretty fucking impressive, though. Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks is one of the most astute talent-spotters in music today, and I'd bet that this good band with an unfortunate name are just gonna get better and better.

White Mystery @ Spoonful Records & Nobunny @ The Boneyard: Columbus OH 07/11/2011

2011-09-14T21:52:00.001-07:00

Well shit, it feels like I haven't done a proper show review in a long time, and after looking at the blog archives, it proves that the last time I put my fancy PRESS hat on and spoke on a live event was almost a year ago when the Greenhornes put on an epic, super-crowded show at the Comet in Cincinnati. That was a hell of an EVENT, so it makes sense that I take some time to talk about another epic show I went to a couple months ago. Usually, I'm too busy losing myself in the moment (or a beer or three) to remember the whats and whys outside of Twitter posts (FOLLOW ME), but this time I started earlier and soberer than normal.

After a pleasant and not-so-scenic drive to Columbus, I ended up at a semi-isolated spot called Spoonful Records, right outside of downtown and plopped between a bike shop and a couple of ominous "customers only" parking lots. Inside was a warm, comfortable space made more inviting by immaculate racks of LPs waiting to be picked over and a raggedy air conditioner that was absolutely perfect if you were in its line of fire. The night before, a fearsome garage rock twosome from Chicago called White Mystery had laid waste to The Summit, or so I'd been told. I couldn't make it to that show, but luckily Miss Alex White and her impressively-named brother Francis Scott Key White had decided to set up right in the middle of Spoonful to do a retake of the previous night before taking off for another show in Cleveland. They did so while decked out in the most ferocious Hello Kitty and Iron Maiden t-shirts and house pants that I've ever seen.

White Mystery @ Spoonful Records, 07/11/2011

Photo: Christopher Olvis

If you haven't heard the latest White Mystery LP, Blood & Venom, then you need to quit being such an asshole and pick it up. It takes the surprisingly tough blues howl Alex White developed while fronting the Red Orchestra for a few years and pits it against the (dare I say it?!) Meg White-inspired thud of brother Francis' drums to create an absolutely massive sound that was only hinted at on their debut LP from 2009. I'm definitely an old fogey, so I still get excited at the thought of such quaint things as "artistic development" and bands getting better in between albums, even in this quick-fix culture. Besides, I'm a sucker for call-and-response male/female vocals from Porter & Dolly to Peaches & Herb to Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes and beyond. My point is that White Mystery ripped this motherfucker up in their brief set, played all the best tracks from the new LP, turned the shit into a lazy Saturday afternoon hangover party, then slipped in "Powerglove" and "Take A Walk" from the first one way better than most folks could have when asked to do their jobs at 3 PM on a hot and hazy July afternoon. While picking through the racks, I found a cherry copy of Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service, because one can't have enough psychedelic Bo Diddley workouts in their collection, and a sealed Happy Birthday LP because I’d gone way too long without picking that one up. If you ever find yourself in Columbus, make sure to visit Spoonful. It's staffed by a cool dude and his buds and his super-cool dad who seriously lit up the room offering album recommendations, bottled water, cookies, and correct change to the appreciative crowd.

White Mystery @ Spoonful Records, 07/11/2011

Photo: Christopher Olvis

It was time to venture off to Used Kids after a quick jaunt over the knotty, confusing streets of Columbus, and I'm probably not the first person to venture into that store speaking of its limitless bounty, so I'm not about to gloat about my haul, except to say I picked up a Keef Hartley Band LP that 99% of my readers would be ashamed to throw on their turntables. Yeah, it was one of THOSE days. You charge into battle to see your latest fave raves and lose your goddamn mind over some cut-rate proto-prog psych records that no one gives a fuck about and theoretically blow your wad before the climactic portion of the evening. Nah, dawg. I was seriously jazzed to find some of my favorite records at budget prices, but I came to see Nobunny at some dude's house, and I wasn't gonna leave until I saw Nobunny at some dude's house. Forget that the last time I went to a house show was in 2007, crowding into a basement to see a REUNION show of a band I saw probably five or six times like ten years ago, and I spent that night slamming keg beer in the back corner while people sweated and conversed. I saw the flyer on the wall at Used Kids, and that shit said "NOBUNNY @ THE BONEYARD, 7/11 @ 8 PM. So, me being old and shit, I filled up a styrofoam cooler with icy refreshments and headed to the spot around nine.

I hadn't been to a show in Columbus in over a year, and hadn't been to a house/basement show in longer, but still wasn't too shocked that the friendly face at the backyard gate said "EIGHT BUCKS for the touring band, there's four opening bands, so come on in and hang out!" Shit starts LATE in Columbus. I dutifully paid my dough to see Nobunny at some dude's house, crushed a couple beers in the backyard, then went in to see a bunch of kids playing perfect '77 punk for a few minutes while surveying the lay of the land. I'm pretty sure that the dude wearing a vest and an "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" shirt was the singer, but I can't remember their name, and the sickly sweet smell of ball sweat and Mad Dog 20/20 drove me back outside again. Maybe they were local. Seriously though, Nobunny looks like this. I like Nobunny.

Nobunny @ The Boneyard, 07/11/2011

Photo: Christopher Olvis

I saw Nobunny for the first time at Mayday in Cincinnati last spring, and the place was semi-filled with like forty people and the band, and the whole club still managed to smell like two shit-stained rats fucking in a wool sock. Somehow like fifty punk rockers in a backyard wearing crust pants and drinking heavily on a hot summer evening smelled better, and I can't even begin to break that particular observation down logically. It was one of those Ohio nights that manages to be cool and still yet muggy and sweaty as crap at the same time, and all I could smell was fabric softener and Herbal Essences and bum wine as I climbed up on an amp close to the wall and braced myself as the room filled up and surged like a bunch of heshers trying to get into a Who concert. Yeah, I ran for cover because I'm fucking old and I no longer feel like taking an elbow to the cheek determines whether I'd been to a good show or not. That mass of people lost their goddamn minds when Nobunny and his band started playing, and it wasn't long until everyone was screaming "NOBUNNY LOVES YOU!" and bodies started flying and feet started kicking the ceiling fan that was like eight feet above everybody's heads.

Nobunny @ The Boneyard, 07/11/2011

Photo: Christopher Olvis

In the meantime I heard the opening riff from "Boneyard" teased at least five times, and a whole bunch of bangers from Love Visions aired out, instead of the smarter, poppier tracks from Nobunny's superior follow-up First Blood. Well, duh. When you go see REO Speedwagon at the state fair, you don't wanna hear the NEW SHIT, you wanna hear "Keep On Loving You,” so if someone is paying you cold, hard cash to play a semi-private concert in their living room, you'd better play the fuckin' HITS, right?! Like Johnny Rotten, Joey Ramone, and Joe Strummer before him, Nobunny is an entertainer first and a punk rocker second. He can work a room like fuckin' Elvis, man. While he was doing his thing, a couple chicks got their tits out, some people got kicked in the face, and a dude with a denim vest and zebra pants who looked straight out of Heavy Metal Parking Lot first offered me a swig of his Mad Dog 20/20, and then tried to climb on my shoulders for what I'd assume was a very good reason. About twenty-five minutes into the shit, the mood started turning weird and I bolted for the door, my shirt soaked in sweat, and I'm sure that at least 45% of it wasn't mine.

Nobunny @ The Boneyard, 07/11/2011

Photo: Christopher Olvis

I was still standing in the backyard catching my breath when I could hear the music stopping inside the house, and then a bunch of people stumbled out, much worse for the wear than I was. Soon, a bald dude in a straw hat and khaki shorts appeared with a serene look on his face. So that's Nobunny?! He seemed a bit aloof and a lot confused by what had just happened, and why so many people had shown up to watch a dude in a filthy bunny mask and a pair of black BVDs do his thing. He was happy though, and so was everybody else, myself included. On Monday morning, more than a few people started a conversation with "What did you do Saturday night? Oh yeah?! Well, I saw fuckin' NOBUNNY! Man, that was a lot of fun..."

Wax Museums - Eye Times

2011-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

(Trouble In Mind, 2011)

When I first heard the Wax Museums back in 2008, they were like a slap in the face. After all, the 2000s were ruled by bands like the Decemberists, Wilco, The Arcade Fire, and Radiohead; very serious bands making very serious music. By contrast, this quartet of Denton, Texas weirdos started off their debut album by screaming, "HEY! I GOT LOCKED IN THE MALL! SOMEBODY LET ME OUT!!" The message was clear: to hell with "expanding the sonic palette" or some similar malarkey, let's have some fucking FUN! Instead of singing about the death of the American dream or whining about your prescription-pill habit or making concept albums that would have Rick Wakeman saying "Too much, man," let's write songs about miniature figurines, doing dishes, and going to the grocery store. Let's forget about our college degrees and European influences, and play some rock n' roll like the suburban middle-class kids we really are, and quit play-acting like junior Bono's in training.

Fuck if I know if the Wax Museums put that much thought into forming a band, but that was what I got out of them, and I adjusted my listening habits accordingly. Soon afterwards, they broke up and spent a few years making killer LPs with bands like Silver Shampoo, Bad Sports, and High Tension Wires, but none of them came close to the sense of euphoria I got from hearing tracks like "Safety In Numbers" and "Got No Guts" for the first time. So when news came in the spring that the Wax Museums were coming out with a second LP, I pre-ordered that shit. Now that I've spun it a bunch of times, I can say that Eye Times is up there with the best punk records of the year, and it's approximately 1/4th the length of The Suburbs.

Trouble In Mind is throwing around the word "mature" in the press for Eye Times, and I take that to mean "this one's got one less song and is about three minutes longer than the first one." It comes pressed on swirly vinyl that looks like some kid puked up cotton candy and peas all over it, and that might be an adequate description for the music on the record, as well. They still sing about silly shit, and their brand of punk rock still suggests what the Adolescents would have sounded like if they'd listened to way more Devo and way less Sham 69. Most of the tunes are filled with spastic stops and starts, and even the ones barely cracking a minute seem to cram in a weird little instrumental bit of surf-band-on-heavy-drugs madness. "Sunburn" sounds like an outtake from the first album, telling a tale of faux-macho bluster about hating taking a sunscreen bath before hitting the beach. Who doesn't?! The best rock n' roll is about first world problems, folks. Just ask Chuck Berry.

Really, the Wax Museums have simply remade their first album, only a lot tougher, smarter, and BETTER, but "maturity"? Eh...I dunno about all that. The two longest songs are "Bruiser," which retells "Whole Lotta Rosie" with a bratty sneer, and "Breakfast For Dinner," which is sludgy and kinda heavy and rhymes with "I'd rather be in her." Love songs, I guess? Just as much as "Mosquito Enormo" is a love song about a big-ass bug bite. Eye Times very rarely breaks into straight-up pop stuff, but "Chase Your Shadow" and "(Nothing To Do With) The 60s" do tread pretty close to Lookout Records-style Ramonescore pop-punk with some righteous power chords and "WOO-OOO" backing shouts. I wouldn't mind the Wax Museums making a whole album that sounds like those two tracks, but it would be robbing me of my right to hear more songs about skin problems and mad gassers and such. Expand your palette all you want, Wax Museums, but don't grow up, OK? I've already heard The Crane Wife once, and my ears still hate me for it.

Random Old Records Podcast #35

2011-09-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah dude, episode #35 of Random Old Records is finished, fresh off my hard drive to yours, and this one is chock-full of jams! Not only that, but this time around there's no dance pop. Yep, 100% dance pop free! It kicks off with a track from Vancouver's Dead Ghosts, who put out one of the best rock n' roll debut albums I've heard in a long time earlier this year. Shit sounds like a bunch of degenerate punk kids who grew up on beat-up vinyl copies of early Stones records. A few minutes later, there's a tune from the upcoming second Dum Dum Girls record on Sub Pop, and goddamn, Dee Dee Dum Dum has morphed into a master of the pop song. "Bedroom Eyes" sounds straight outta 1985, a simpler time when songs that still resembled rock n' roll made it onto pop radio. It sounds like the love song from a classic big-budget 80s flick, and just try to make it through without getting that chorus stuck in your head. It's unpossible!

Elsewhere, I dig deep into my bank of classic tunes and pull out stuff by Big Star, The Raspberries, Captain Beefheart, Thee Headcoats, and Louis Jordan. Plus, you'll hear a set of original punk rock from The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Rezillos, and a sprinkling of newer tracks by Jacuzzi Boys, Bare Wires, Fungi Girls, and Missing Monuments. Hot DAMN! Nestled deep in the playlist, you'll find a track from The Streys, a bunch of kids from the Cleveland suburbs who cranked out a few singles of hammer-dumb 60s garage punk before disappearing forever. It all wraps up with "Since You've Gone" by Spanky & Our Gang, one of the most dazzling displays of psychedelic vocal harmony I've ever heard.

All in all, this is one of the best episodes of Random Old Records I've put together in awhile, so go to the normal locations and download it right away! There's lots of loud guitars, simplistic hooks, and plenty of "fuck yeah!" moments to be had, and it's a perfect soundtrack for jumping around your room for like an hour. As always, thanks for reading and listening!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #35
1. Dead Ghosts - "When It Comes To You"
(Dead Ghosts, Florida's Dying 2011)
2. Bare Wires - "I Lie Awake"
(Artificial Clouds, Tic Tac Totally 2009)
3. Jacuzzi Boys - "Crush"
(Glazin', Hardly Art 2011)
4. Fungi Girls - "Thanks For Following, Love Yoko"
(Denton Denton USA!, Play Pinball 2010)
5. Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom Eyes"
(Only In Dreams, Sub Pop 2011)
6. The Rifles - "Local Boy"
(No Love Lost, Red Ink 2006)
--The kinda woman they write books about.
7. Louis Jordan - "Caldonia"
(No Moe! Louis Jordan's Greatest Hits, MCA 1992)
8. The Ramones - "Cretin Hop"
(Rocket To Russia, Sire 1978)
9. Stiff Little Fingers - "No More Of That"
(Inflammable Material, Rough Trade 1979)
10. The Rezillos - "No"
(Can't Stand The Rezillos, Sire 1978)
11. The Weirdos - "Solitary Confinement"
(Weird World Vol. 1, Frontier 1993)
--Good times...
12. King Tuff - "Connection"
(Was Dead, The Colonel 2008)
13. Missing Monuments - "Painted White"
(Painted White, Douchemaster 2011)
14. Big Star - "Way Out West"
(Radio City, Stax 1974)
15. Raspberries - "Every Way I Can"
(Fresh, Capitol 1972)
16. Thee Headcoats - "No Way Out"
(Heavens To Murgatroyd, Sub Pop 1992)
17. Len Price 3 - "Chinese Burn"
(Chinese Burn, Wicked Cool 2007)
18. The Nightcrawlers - "Little Black Egg"
(Nuggets, Rhino 1998)
--Zappa does Allen
19. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - "Zig Zag Wanderer"
(Safe As Milk, Buddah 1967)
20. The Streys - "She Cools My Mind"
(Psychedelic States: Ohio In The 60s, Vol.3, Gear Fab 2000)
21. Brenda Lee - "Is It True"
(One Kiss Can Lead To Another, Rhino 2005)
22. Jail Weddings - "One Of These Days"
(Love Is Lawless, White Noise 2010)
23. Spanky & Our Gang - "Since You've Gone"
(Without Rhyme Or Reason, Mercury 1968)

LA Vampires Goes Ital - Streetwise

2011-09-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

(Not Not Fun, 2011)

Oh man, do I love this fucking record. Like, I want to pull the record out of the sleeve and lick it a whole bunch, sing its praises, and play it for everyone I know. I want to climb up a hill and shout about how great it is and how everyone with ears should at least give it a fighting chance. If you've read any of my previous blog posts, you'd know that I'm big on context and mood when it comes to enhancing the mood of music, and I gotta say this four track 12" EP came into my world at the right place at the right time. I've spent the last few years neck-deep in the simple pleasures of lo-fi garage/punk/pop, and every basic, loud, instantly-catchy hook that genre had to offer. A few months ago, that well seemed to dry up, and every new bit of nursery-rhyme chorus seemed to come across a little bit STALE. Maybe the newest releases were a little bit weak, or maybe my ears had gotten blown out by listening to the same routine over and over again. Who knows?! I downloaded Streetwise back in mid-July, mostly because I wanted to hear what Bethany "Best Coast" Cosentino's band-mate in Pocahaunted was up to now. I've since listened to it probably a hundred times, enough to make this entrancing mix of blown-out drum machine beats and reverb-soaked shards of diva chants embed themselves in my skin almost permanently.

Amanda Brown is LA Vampires, the aforementioned Pocahaunted founder, and Daniel Martin-McCormick is Ital, the uber-nerdy beat-maker and DJ who gives interviews that talk more about WAV file editing than world domination. Together they make music that sounds like a cassingle from the early 90s that was left out in the sun to bake too long. Everything sounds warped and cooked. When I first heard this record, it was 95 degrees outside, and that day melted into weeks and every day turned into a pitched battle for sweat-soaked survival. Streetwise sounded like a cloud filled with Club MTV fever dreams, of endless dance parties that existed slightly out of reach, teeming with sweaty, gyrating folks that rolled up in cars with no air conditioning and all-black interiors. It sounded dreamy and defiant at the same time. It still sounds that way, a month later.

All four tracks on this EP drift and dream and float and sound like the perfect floor-fillers in a dystopian universe, teeming with lock-step beats and hypnotic repeated phrases that sound like a demented take on vintage Parliament west coast funk jams, or more likely stolen moments of listening to The Chronic on repeat in junior high. The title track is like a vintage raver club throwback jam, the one the DJ throws on at three in the morning, all sleek and sinister and LOUD and just familiar enough to whip the crowd into a fever pitch. Little bits of various influences crop up and disappear quickly, most noticeably European house music, Enigma-style Pure Moods beats, and Beastie Boys sample soundscapes, which all form into a song that's both strident and sprawling, instantly recognizable and fearlessly experimental. It's a fuckin' trip, dude!

So really, I pulled a lateral move and started to listen to lo-fi dance music instead of lo-fi garage rock, and there's really not much of a difference when you start to break the shit down. Both are noisy, obnoxious, and defiant, and even in their simplicity explore loads of traditional sounds lost in the transition from an analog to a digital world. We've got computers that can make the phony mechanical beats and distorted vocal echo of "A Woman Is A Woman" sound less phony and mechanical and distorted and echoey, and make the cheesy keytar synths of "The Chic Shall Inherit The Earth" sound reality show ready. But really, where's the fun in that? This whole EP sounds like a relic from a forgotten and relentlessly optimistic time. Unlike most time capsules, you can dance to this one, think about it a little bit, and vibe out to the sunglasses and glow stick keyboard washes that bring you to the fade-out. Hey LA Vampires and Ital? This meeting of the minds should happen more often.

Natural Child - 1971

2011-08-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

(Infinity Cat, 2011)

OK, so after a life break where I didn't pay much attention to this blog, I started buying records with gusto and reviewing them a few months back. I knocked out a fairly glowing review of a 7" I liked quite a bit, compared them favorably to some classic, well-loved bands, and hoped (as always) that someone might read it and be convinced to buy the goddamn thing and support a band that deserved the attention. Next thing I see, said band is posting on Facebook to say, "Why do all are reviews compare us to such and such, we've never even heard a song by them. Lazy journalism, etc." My first thought was "Geez, it isn't very punk rock to Google your band for press clippings then bitch about it on Facebook when you don't like what you read, is it?" It seems more in line with the modus operandi of today's batch of suburban brats; the kind that would rather text a chick to say that they're banging her best friend instead of saying it to her face. I listen to everything I review at least a dozen times before I fire up WordPad and start shooting off at the mouth. Not only that, but if I do dare compare a band to another band, I re-listen to the originators again to make sure it isn't a figment of brain damage from whatever it was that I ingested back in the day to keep me entertained in the vast boredom of rural suburbia. I don't claim to be an expert on ANYTHING, but I've heard enough to know when a certain guitar tone, riff, or vocal tic reminds me of something else. This shit ain't rocket science, folks! Needless to say, if you're playing rock n' roll music in 2011 you're not a unique snowflake and you're not reinventing the wheel. You're playing the same chords through the same amplifiers that many, many bands have used before, infinitely better in most cases. It's like, my opinion, man, and if it doesn't jive with your carefully constructed list of influences, then it's not my problem.

That being said, 1971, the debut LP from Nashville's Natural Child, is the best thing I've heard in 2011 so far. This thing just fucking rocks, dude. It's full of bong-rattling bass, simplistic air-guitar power riffs, wah-wah guitar solos, and beer hoisting shout along hooks that are an unabashed throwback to early 70s hard rock, and I really doubt that these terminally baked buddies (seriously, look at the drummer's mug on the album cover!) really give a shit if you think so or not. These kids worship at the altar of Exile-era Stones, Sabbath, Zeppelin, T. Rex, Faces, and Deep Purple, and bring a healthy dose of youthful exuberance to the table, soaking these eleven tracks in tape hiss, sweaty denim, barely audible Bic flicks, weed smoke, and Southern Comfort puke. It sounds more like the band your dad's shitty friends formed to rock the keg party and less like some artless, overproduced Black Crowes-style pastiche or the coked-up Beatles worship Oasis peddled for years.

At heart, these kids are punk rockers, or at least they were at some point in their lives, judging by their blatant and glorious theft of the riff from "Suspect Device" on the track "Crack Mountain" from their earlier 7" Shame Walkin', also on Infinity Cat. Even when endings are stretched out with serious wah-wah damage and keyboards playing one-note drones like on "Hard Workin' Man," there's sloppy-as-fuck punk rock jams like "Chris' Blues" which barely crack the two minute mark, blasting by with shrugged shoulders before coming together with kinda perfect Skynyrd-style hillbilly harmonies at the end. The hooks on 1971 are dumb, insistent, and naggingly familiar, I just wanted to know. I just wanted you to know. I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW! I swear to Christ, I've heard the line "You gotta get your spirit free, live like a refugee" from "Makin' It" a million times, but I'll be damned if I can place it, which makes me think these dope smoking kids just might have thought it up on their own. But did they really? I went back to my Tom Petty records and gave them a cursory listen, and yeah, I came up blank. After you've been actively ingesting and dissecting music for like 25 years, everything kinda blends together. It gets harder and harder to just turn off your brain and pump your fist and shout. You stop listening with an open mind and instantly start cross-referencing everything with everything you've heard before and it all becomes a rotten mess of phrases and riffs and noise and any new records you buy sound like something else. White people ain't got no style and don't know how to move their feet, right?

Although the punky jams and mid-tempo ass-shakers on 1971 rule really hard, the slow burners really set it apart from the now-ubiquitous "lo-fi indie garage punk" pack. "Let It Bleed" steals it's title from the Stones and it's vibe from late 70s AOR hard rock and it's heart from any number of classic punk songs from the past 35 years. What do you do when your love goes bad? Let it bleed! It's so brutish and powerful and matter-of-fact that all you want to do is pump your fist and shout. Natural Child is just a bunch of sweat-stained punk kids from Nashville that want to tell the world about their lives, and they do it with the most popular and most effective method that exist: rock n' roll clichés. You know that Loverboy song "Working For The Weekend," right?! It's such a dumb, cheesy piece of shit song, but it has a killer chorus and contains some universal truth. EVERYBODY works for the weekend, even if their weekend starts on Wednesday. You might huff and puff and blow some garbage about how you're different and shit, but when it comes down to it, you're grinding away and piling up some cash to go roast a bone and chill out on Saturday night. People can get all high and mighty and dream about some idealized life all they want, but rock n' roll clichés are what keeps this country running, folks.

I spent a goodly portion of my teenage years fighting the awkward punk rock fight in a small town, sending well-concealed cash away for godawful 7"s and rejecting the classic rock I loved as a kid...for what exactly? To rebel against the establishment? To prove that bands of my generation were somehow cooler or better than the Stones or Zeppelin or whatever? I'm 31 years old now, and I'd rather listen to Exile On Main Street than Rustweiler or Rhythm Collision or Everready, even though the friendly hand-written thank you notes I tucked away in those records do bathe me in the warm glow of nostalgia from time to time. Back then, I thought that buying DIY records and making a zine and living outside of the mainstream was somehow gonna change the world like every kid with a wild hair up his ass once thought. And you know what? It didn't. Every "lo-fi indie garage punk" band has PR guys and booking agents these days, which seems ludicrous to my punk rock heart but makes perfect sense. Remember what I said earlier about not being a unique, delicate flower? It's 2011, not Year Zero. No matter how dangerous or new or rebellious you think you are, someone else has done it more, and more significantly than you've done it, and with gusto! Think about all the drugs you've done. The Stones just call it Tuesday, even as they are waiting in the AARP line. Natural Child isn't here to fuck with the formula, they just wanna make some noise and have some fun. So cut your bullshit son, and let's get high.

Random Old Records Podcast #34

2011-08-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

So yeah, Random Old Records Podcast has been coming out like clockwork every second Wednesday of the month for like a year or so now, but my shit got derailed in the last few days. I had the playlist finalized on Sunday, then came home from work on Monday to find that my computer had taken a dump. LAME! After a couple hours of shopping online and several more hours of staring at progress bars, I had a brand new machine loaded with jams and cracked software and whatnot, so here's Random Old Records Podcast #34, approximately a day late and eight hundred dollars short. It's got roughly an hour of my favorite songs from the past month, and I'm hoping at least some of you faithful readers and listeners will enjoy them, too.

Last month, I spoke a bit about being bored with new music, and judging by the stuff coming out lately, it seems like bands across the land are feeling the same way. My ears have gotten burned out by listening to nothing but lo-fi garage rock for awhile, and after hearing like fifty bands dealing in sounds of the sixties and seventies, the only logical place to go is the eighties. I just can't get down with all those sweater-vested weiners aping Talking Heads, but bands ripping off Depeche Mode, The Smiths, and The Cure get an immediate pass in my book. So this episode features a ton of classic tracks from the eighties by The Sound, The Comsat Angels, and Morrissey's band, along with songs by The Fresh & Onlys, Voxtrot, and Pernice Brothers that remind me of that post-punk time when bands slowed down and got all jangly and noisy and weird.

Speaking of new music and old music, Captured Tracks has become my favorite label of the last few months. On this episode, you'll hear tunes from Soft Metals, Widowspeak, and Hoop Dreams, which bring back the sounds of the late eighties so perfectly that listening to their records might put you into a time warp. If you like dark dance, gothic country, or nervy college kid pop, then you're gonna love this shit as much as I do. That Mike Sniper guy has a singular vision for his label that rivals Tony Wilson in his prime. Believe it!

If you're a bit confused and are thinking "Well fuck, I started listening to Random Old Records because it has a bunch of crazy garage rock n' roll jams every month" then I've got you covered, too. Random Old Records #34 finishes up with the best feral garage pop I've heard in the past month from the new Black Lips LP, The Happy Thoughts, Apache Dropout, and more! This one goes all over the place and back again, and I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I had putting it together. Click whatever link you want below and open up your mind. Thanks for reading and listening!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #34:
1. Tommy James & The Shondells - "Crimson & Clover"
(Crimson & Clover, Roulette 1968)
2. The Sound - "Winning"
(From The Lion's Mouth, Korova 1981)
3. The Comsat Angels - "Independence Day"
(Waiting For A Miracle, Polydor 1980)
4. Hoop Dreams - "XCPR"
(XCPR 7", Captured Tracks 2011)
--Forbidden World.
5. Soft Metals - "The Cold World Melts"
(Soft Metals, Captured Tracks 2011)
6. Zombi - "Slow Oscillations"
(Escape Velocity, Relapse 2011)
7. Peaking Lights - "Key Sparrow"
(936, Not Not Fun 2011)
8. Widowspeak - "In The Pines"
(Widowspeak, Captured Tracks 2011)
--The Mozzer speaks!
9. Pernice Brothers - "7:30"
(The World Won't End, Ashmont 2001)
10. Voxtrot - "Raised By Wolves"
(Raised By Wolves, Cult Hero 2005)
11. The Smiths - "Sheila Take A Bow"
(Louder Than Bombs, Sire 1987)
12. The Fresh & Onlys - "Waterfall"
(Play It Strange, In The Red 2010)
--Amy Winehouse, 27, etc.
13. Black Lips - "New Direction"
(Arabia Mountain, Vice 2011)
14. The Happy Thoughts - "One More Fish"
(The Happy Thougts, Hozac 2011)
15. The People's Temple - "Axe Man"
(Sons Of Stone, Hozac 2011)
16. Apache Dropout - "Sister Burnout"
(Shot Down 7", Trouble In Mind 2011)
17. Ty Segall - "My Head Explodes"
(Goodbye Bread, Drag City 2011)

This album freakin' rules. You should probably buy it HERE.

Random Old Records Podcast #33

2011-07-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

Summer, summer, summertime! I threw this one together at the last minute, but I think I did a pretty good job of capturing the mood of this lazy, hazy, hot as motherfuckin' balls July. Random Old Records Podcast #33 drifts by in a dreamy blur of psychedelic moods, shimmering reverb guitar, and loping dance beats, with a mix of new and old tracks. If you're one of those people who are melting in this punishing 100+ degree heatwave rocking the midwest, and just want to sit around in a dark room getting high all day, this is the podcast for you!

Episode #33 kicks off with the all-time classic opening medley from the debut LP by The Soft Machine, a towering groove filled with stunning drums from Robert Wyatt, screeching organs, and slow-burning instrumental fury, and goes into some screaming garage psych from The Night Beats and Thee Oh Sees, then a Brit-psych style workout from The Paperhead, who put out one of the best LPs of the year on Trouble In Mind a few months back. I've been raving about them ever since, and now I'm SUPER-PUMPED that they're playing a free show at one of the best new venues in Cincinnati, MOTR Pub, on July 27th. If you're anywhere close, come check it out! Also, check out the perfect lo-fi 60s psych vibe of Jeffrey Novak on this episode of Random Old Records. He just so happens to be the producer of The Paperhead LP, and will be guesting on keyboards on their tour. Sweet deal!

Elsewhere, you'll hear dreamy electronic-psych tracks from Washed Out, Hype Williams, and Black Moth Super Rainbow, and more chill jams from the likes of Pure X (AWESOME new LP), Seapony, Sic Alps, White Fence, Blouse, and Kelley Stoltz. There's classic tracks from The Kinks and Matching Mole, plus a few more surprises to round things out. Hopefully y'all dig it! There's some of my favorite songs of the year on this thing, so check it out and let me know what you think! All the links you need to stream/subscribe/download are below, as is the playlist. Stay tuned to the blog, because there's a review of a crazy Nobunny house show (with sweaty, filthy pics) coming up soon! Enjoy your summer, folks!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #33
1. The Soft Machine - "Hope For Happiness/Joy Of A Toy/Hope For Happiness (Reprise)"
(The Soft Machine, ABC/Probe 1968)
2. Night Beats - "Hallucinojenny"
(Night Beats, Trouble In Mind 2011)
3. Thee Oh Sees - "Corrupted Coffin"
(Castlemania, In The Red 2011)
4. The Paperhead - "Back To Those Days"
(The Paperhead, Trouble In Mind 2011)
5. Pure X - "Voices"
(Pleasure, Acephale 2011)
--Searching for the perfect wave.
6. Matching Mole - "O Caroline"
(Matching Mole, CBS 1972)
7. Blouse - "Shadow"
(Shadow 7", Sub Pop 2011)
8. Seapony - "So Low"
(Go With Me, Hardly Art 2011)
9. Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Moody Day"
(Extra Flavor, Graveface 2011)
10. Hype Williams - "Your Girl Smells Chung When She Wears Dior"
(One Nation, Hippos In Tanks 2011)
11. Washed Out - "Echoes"
(Within And Without, Sub Pop 2011)
--Owlsley blue, British dudes, etc.
12. Kelley Stoltz - "Please Visit Soon"
(Antique Glow, Jackpine Social Club 2004)
13. Sic Alps - "Cement Surfboard"
(Napa Asylum, Drag City 2011)
14. White Fence - "Art Investor Collector"
(Is Growing Faith, Woodsist 2010)
15. Jeffrey Novak - "Queen Of Moods"
(After The Ball, LMN Recordings 2009)
16. The Kinks - "People Take Pictures Of Each Other"
(Village Green Preservation Society, Reprise 1968)
17. The Go - "Caroline"
(Howl On The Haunted Beat You Ride, Cass 2007)

We Wait In Summertime: Summer Mix 2011

2011-07-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I haven't been blogging much lately, and I'm not exactly sure why, but I have a few solid ideas. First of all, work has been kicking my ass and I've been putting in a bunch of twelve hours days in on a big project that has turned my free time into a massive blur of couch sitting, tv watching, and competitive dozing. Ever tried to swap out 700+ computers in a week? It's not a pretty sight, folks. When "me time" is at a premium, sitting in front of a computer trying to come up with new and exciting ways of saying "THIS RULES!" isn't exactly a high priority. Instead, I've been coming up with new and exciting ways to jazz up frozen pizzas and watching Get Smart reruns. All I gotta say is Italian seasoning is crucial and KAOS agents are everywhere. FUN!

Also, I almost sorta kinda am bored with music at the current time. For the last six months, I've been buying records at a furious pace, and the latest crop of purchases just haven't been moving me, man. 2011 has come up with some serious jams so far, but there hasn't been much in the last few weeks that really MOVED me. I'm not sure if I'm burned out, or that the stuff coming out in June is just plain mediocre. The steady stream of amazing, basic, LOUD rock n' roll of the last couple years seems to be petering out, and it all sounds like a bunch of too-loud, monotonous racket. To be honest, I'd much rather listen to synth pop or prog rock or standards from the 40s or something right now. I keep putting on the same damn Joni Mitchell album over and over again (The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, which is fucking essential, OK?!) and it rules because I know all the words and when all the drum beats kick in and all that good stuff. It's pretty and nice for sleeping music, too. Even as I write this, the new Pure X LP is kinda blowing my mind, so maybe new music is getting back on track after all.

Anyway, this mix has been gestating for several weeks and I think it's pretty great. It starts and ends with two of my favorite love songs of all time, both sung by women. The first is decidedly from a lady's perspective and the last one is male as it comes. Soft and dreamy at the beginning, then tough and moody at the end. It sounds pretty good to these ears, at least. Somewhere in the middle is "He Gets Me High" by Dum Dum Girls, which is a perfect mix of both. Filling out the rest of the runtime are some of my favorite songs of 2011 so far, along with a few crucial older songs that you need to hear if you haven't yet. It's a soundtrack for summertime. It's for singing and swooning and lounging around. The word gets overused these days, but it really is dreamy. This mix is for reflecting over how awesome 2011 has been so far, and for anticipating how awesome it will continue to be as it keeps rolling. Play it loud and often.

Download it HERE: http://www.mediafire.com/?r2dgtekpaddbvwx

Stream it HERE:

We Wait In Summertime: Summer 2011
1. Mary Lou Lord - "The Wind Blows All Around"
2. The Joykiller - "She's Something Else"
3. The Anniversary - "All Things Ordinary"
4. Wax Idols - "All Too Human"
5. Dum Dum Girls - "He Gets Me High"
6. White Wires - "I Can Tell"
7. High Tension Wires - "Backbone"
8. Wax Museums - "Safety In Numbers"
9. Natural Child - "Chris' Blues"
10. Smith Westerns - "Imagine Pt. 3"
11. The Go - "Invisible Friends"
12. Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Sun Lips"
13. Blouse - "Into Black"
14. Massive Attack - "Protection"

Random Old Records Podcast #32

2011-06-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

So yeah, the air conditioning has been broken in my office at work all week long. Neat, huh? It's like eleventy billion degrees outside, so it's a perfect time to drop a brand new podcast of hot-as-fuck rock n' roll jams to sweat out the summer months with! Random Old Records #32 features brand new tracks from Black Lips, Wax Museums, Ty Segall, and Cults, who are releasing four incredible LPs in June that will be high on nerdy top 10 lists at the end of the year. Ty Segall in particular has a stunner ready for all of you with Goodbye Bread, which thickens and slows down his bratty garage punk sound and brings the superficial Beatles and Nirvana influences of his past releases to the forefront in a way that will have mainstream rock critics blowing loads in their pants when they finally get around to checking it out. He's THAT GOOD, OK?

To be honest, I wasn't much of a Black Lips fan before, but the steady hand of super-producer Mark Ronson guides the band and polishes the shit out of their hooks and sound on the new Arabia Mountain. The blasts of bratty feedback and in-jokey murkiness of their previous releases has been replaced with huge gang choruses, sleazy saxophones, and more refined melodies than ever before. Random Old Records #32 includes "Raw Meat," which is a short and sweet Ramones homage that might be the best song they've ever recorded. Check it out!

Also, you may notice some strange and different sounds on Random Old Records #32 that you haven't heard in previous episodes. For some reason, this new wave of dark and moody electronic rock has really been catching my ear in the past month or two, most notably the releases from Brooklyn's Captured Tracks label. On this episode, you'll hear a KILLER track from Portland's Blouse called "Into Black." These folks sound like they're trying to create a late 80s David Lynch movie credits theme with every track, and that's not really a bad thing in my book. You'll also hear darker Suicide-style tunes from The Soft Moon and Led Er Est that are on steady rotation around Random Old Records HQ.

You'll also hear new hot blasts of rock n' roll from Wax Idols, The Hussy, Personal & The Pizzas, Brian Olive, Ramma Lamma, The People's Temple, Natural Child, Smith Westerns, Thee Oh Sees, and loads more! Click the links below to stream, subscribe, or download the latest episode and let me know that you think. As always, thanks for reading and listening, and if you're in the Cincinnati area, come out to see The Hussy from Madison, Wisconsin at the Comet tonight! Free show and burritos!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #32
1. Wax Idols - "All Too Human"
(All Too Human 7", Hozac 2011)
2. Bad Banana - "Cry About It"
(Cry About It 7", Puzzle Pieces 2011)
3. Seapony - "Blue Star"
(Go With Me, Hardly Art 2011)
4. Blouse - "Into Black"
(Into Black 7", Captured Tracks 2011)
5. Cults - "Never Saw The Point"
(Cults, Columbia 2011)
6. The Soft Moon - "We Are We"
(The Soft Moon, Captured Tracks 2010)
7. Led Er Est - "Opto 5"
(May, Captured Tracks 2011)
--We wanna be free!
8. Natural Child - "Easy Street"
(1971, Infinity Cat 2011)
9. Shapes Have Fangs - "Dinner In The Dark"
(Dinner In The Dark, Reverb Appreciation Society 2011)
10. The People's Temple - "Keeper (Of Souls)"
(Sons Of Stone, Hozac 2011)
11. Thee Oh Sees - "The Whipping Continues"
(Castlemania, In The Red 2011)
12. Ty Segall - "The Floor"
(Goodbye Bread, Drag City 2011)
--Who gives drugs to robots?
13. Smith Westerns - "End Of The Night"
(Dye It Blonde, Fat Possum 2011)
14. Brian Olive - "Back Sliding Soul"
(Two Of Everything, Alive 2011)
15. The Greenhornes - "Back Sliding Soul"
(The Greenhornes, Telstar 2001)
16. The Soledad Brothers - "Downtown Paranoia Blues"
(The Hardest Walk, Alive 2006)
--See the dirt gang!
17. Ramma Lamma - "Truthin'"
(Tiger 7", Certified PR 2010)
18. Black Lips - "Raw Meat"
(Arabia Mountain, Vice 2011)
19. GG King - "Incendiary Device"
(Esoteric Lore, Rob's House 2011)
20. The Hussy - "Sexi Ladi"
(Cement Tomb Mind Control, Slow Fizz 2011)
21. Wax Museums - "Bruiser"
(Eye Times, Trouble In Mind 2011)
22. Personal & The Pizzas - "Dead Meat"
(Dead Meat 7", Total Punk 2011)

I Just Wanna Be Your Sweetheart: May 2011

2011-05-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

So yeah, it's been about a month since I posted a mix, so here ya go. This time around, it's all about givin' the ladies some. All 14 tracks on this mix feature female vocalists, and most of them rock serious balls. Most of the tracks are from the 90s, and even the more recent ones sound like they could have originated in the Buzz Bin circa 1995.

I'm still riding on a wave of 90s nostalgia after last month's mix, and I spent most of that decade with my teenage heart swooning over every pissed-off, screeching, cooing, babydoll dress-clad female rock n' roller I could uncover. That hasn't really changed over the past decade, either. A chick swinging a guitar around is just like kryptonite, dude. Hopefully, I'm not the only one who feels the same way.

Anyhow, this mix is like the imaginary soundtrack for a sequel to Clueless that never got made. It's loaded with huge guitars, walls of harmonies, feedback, a fair bit of screaming, and songs about lesbians, movie stars, male sexual inadequacy, unwanted pregnancies, drug addiction, and more witty lyrics about stupid dudes than you can shake a stick at. Hope y'all dig it!

I Just Wanna Be Your Sweetheart: May 2011

1. The Long Blondes - "Lust In The Movies"

2. Sleater-Kinney - "Little Babies"

3. The Muffs - "Oh Nina"

4. Tilt - "Leanin' Like A Barn"

5. Elastica - "Stutter"

6. Veruca Salt - "Volcano Girls"

7. The Donnas - "Take It Off"

8. Letters To Cleo - "Anchor"

9. Anna Waronker - "I Wish You Well"

10. The Go-Gos - "How Much More"

11. Baby Shakes - "Love Machine"

12. PJ Harvey - "C'mon Billy"

13. Lush - "I've Been Here Before"

14. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Trashman In Furs"

Download it HERE:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dj0q8tcai693q5o

Random Old Records Podcast #31

2011-05-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Holy shit, is is really May already? Well, according to the calendar it is, so here's episode #31 of Random Old Records! April was a freakin' amazing month for rock n' roll, and I spent it buying a metric fuck-ton of records and getting my face melted off at live shows by the Black Lips, Vivian Girls, Ty Segall, The Fresh & Onlys, The Black Angels, Davila 666, Magic Jake & The Power Crystals, and YOWZA! Yeah, luckily a whole buncha sweet bands played around Cincinnati and got a fantastic turnout each time, so hopefully that bodes well for the summer and we'll be seeing even more coming soon!

Anyway, Random Old Records #31 is loaded with an hour of new rock n' roll, including a BRAND NEW track from glam pop wizard King Tuff, fresh off a recent Scion A/V split single with the Hex Dispensers. It's called "Hands" and it sounds like a long lost Slade song or some shit. His upcoming LP is gonna be something else! The featured label this time around is Trouble In Mind, who should get some kinda award for putting out dozens of records without a single bad one in the bunch! This time around, you'll hear a track from each of their latest releases (Wrong Words, The Paperhead, Jeffrey Novak, and Alex Cuervo), plus Mean Jeans doing a TORRID Sparks cover from the TiM Record Store Day split 7"! That The Paperhead LP is freakin' amazing, by the way. It's a buncha 18 year old kids channeling vintage 60s psych pop through a 90s Elephant 6 lens and wrapping it all in a haze of youthful vigor and pie-eyed optimism. Not to be missed!

Speaking of Record Store Day, you'll hear a previously unreleased track from The Black Angels and Ty Segall lighting up T. Rex's "Buick Mackane" culled from their respective RSD releases. Also, this baby's got even more new music from Natural Child, Silver Shampoo, White Mystery, Hunx & His Punx, Dum Dum Girls, Shannon & The Clams, and loads MORE! And while I'm throwing out recommendations, the debut Natural Child LP is a MUST HEAR and might just end up as my #1 of the year once December rolls around. It's the best late 70s hard rock album I've heard in a long-ass time, and you should expect a full review on the blog in the next week or so! As always, thanks for listening and reading, and expect more reviews, mixes, fresh jams, and podcasts coming soon!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #31
1. Magic Jake & The Power Crystals - "Power Crystals"
(Magic Jake & The Power Crystals, Burger 2011)
2. Natural Child - "Hard Workin' Man"
(1971, Infinity Cat 2011)
3. Ty Segall - "Buick Mackane"
(Ty Rex, Goner 2011)
4. Silver Shampoo - "Streaks Of Satan"
(Higher and Higher, Krazypunx 2011)
5. Alex Cuervo - "Hands Of Glory"
(4 Song Solo EP, Trouble In Mind 2011)
6. King Tuff - "Hands"
(Hex Dispensers/King Tuff 7", Scion A/V 2011)
--Werewolves On Wheels!
7. Dum Dum Girls - "He Gets Me High"
(He Gets Me High, Sub Pop 2011)
8. White Mystery - "Good Girl"
(Blood & Venom, self-released 2011)
9. Shannon & The Clams - "Toxic Revenge"
(Sleep Talk, 1234 Go! 2011)
10. The Unwed Teenage Mothers - "Change Your Mind"
(Blonde Girls, Play Pinball 2010)
11. Mean Jeans - "Forever Young"
(Record Store Day 2011 7", Trouble In Mind 2011)
12. White Wires - "Pogo 'Til I Puke Tonight"
(Pogo 'Til I Puke Tonight 7", Ugly Pop 2010)
--How do you get to know someone?
13. Hunx & His Punx - "Tonite Tonite"
(Too Young To Fall In Love, Hardly Art 2011)
14. First Base - "She's Boy Crazy"
(She's Boy Crazy 7", Play Pinball 2010)
15. The Guitars - "She's Got Your Heart"
(High Action, self-released 2011)
16. The Fresh & Onlys - "Fascinated"
(Play It Strange, In The Red 2010)
17. Jeffrey Novak - "Looking Down At You"
(4 Song Solo EP, Trouble In Mind 2011)
18. The Paperhead - "Do You Ever Think Of Me?"
(The Paperhead, Trouble In Mind 2011)
--You must have a widescreen navel!
19. Snake Flower 2 - "You Can't Erase A Mirror"
(Memory Castle 7", Southpaw 2011)
20. The Black Angels - "At Night"
(Phosgene Nightmare, Blue Horizon 2011)
21. The Wrong Words - "Wrong Again"
(The Wrong Words, Trouble In Mind 2011)
22. Sex Clark Five - "Detention Girls"
(Strum and Drum, Records To Russia 1986)
23. Rockpile - "When I Write The Book"
(Seconds Of Pleasure, Columbia 1980)

Random Record Roundup #2

2011-04-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

Spider Fever - Whatcha Gonna Do? 7"

(HoZac, 2011)

Call me a jaded old fart or a party pooper or whatever, but all those records from OFF! that came out last year just didn't MOVE me like I thought they should. Sure, it's nice to see Keith Morris back from couch-surfing and playing awful pseudo-funk-metal with the remaining bits of the Circle Jerks, but if you're gonna claim a bug spray inspired name and Raymond Pettibon artwork, then at least put some BALLS behind it! Like most of you, I got a raging boner when I heard of OFF!'s existence, but went limp immediately when Dmitri Coats' guitar tone didn't measure up to Greg Ginn's massive sound on that CD of early Black Flag singles I diligently purchased from Borders back in my teenage years. You know, those songs like "Nervous Breakdown," "I've Had It," and "Jealous Again" that made Zach B. pace and slam restlessly across his 16 year old living room and wish he lived in Hermosa Beach circa 1980, pasting up show flyers from the Masque instead of feeling like a high school weirdo out of touch with the rest of the other yokels?! Leave it up to the drummer to gimme some. While OFF! gathers much of the hype and drool manufactured by writers blinded by the pedigree, drummer Mario Rubacalba is fronting this band called Spider Fever and is tapping into the main vein of early 80s California punk way better than his more well-known band members. Dude has played drums for Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes for years and sounds like he's literally chomping at the bit to show off what the fuck he's all about. These songs sound more like the Weirdos than Black Flag, shoving classic 60s bubblegum hooks into two roaring hardcore-paced tracks that are over in four minutes and leave me out of breath and gasping for more. They have that FIRE and passion that cuts through any museum piece bullshit and hits you in the chest with brute force and attitude. The flip side "Party Girl" gets the slight nod over the title track due to its loutish, shouty refrain, but both tracks are lean and mean and tough and rough and aren't gonna make any apologies for broken furniture or bruised egos. Get this record, like now!

Coasting - Same Old Same Old 7"

(M'Ladys, 2010)

Jesus Christ, isn't everyone sick of the breathy, ghostly lo-fi girl band sound yet?! It seems like everywhere you look, there's another band peddling early 90s K Records sonics with low-rent, slightly out-of-tune harmonies coated with tin-can reverb and simple nursery-rhyme hooks. Vivian Girls and Best Coast opened the floodgates, and now it seems like a goddamn tidal wave! I can only imagine what the average Hinder-lovin' mook cruising around in his Honda Civic thinks about all this stuff, let alone your average pasty record collector whose already played their Frankie Rose and Grass Widow LPs to death and might be looking for something NEW to spend their hardly-earned cash on. Well, in case you haven't noticed, formula has been a part of rock n' roll since day one, and when a certain sound is on it's way to being played out, you need to look at the levels of inspiration to determine whether a set of songs are worth your dough. Coasting are a Brookyn duo who wear their Slumberland and Vivian Girls influences on their sleeve (literally, since Cassie Ramone designed the record cover), and somehow come off sounding pretty damn massive considering their minimal setup. They bring a bunch of moody, early '80s new wave vibes and piles of gleeful guitar thrashing noise to the party, not to mention lots of drum fills that are a cut above the standard-issue surf/Ramones beat that most of these bands tend to overuse. So, I know what you're thinking: "Jesus Christ, it's just a band that sounds like a cross between Grass Widow and Frankie Rose, right?!" Well yeah, that's not too far off the mark, but it's the passion that matters on these two tracks. Coasting actually sound like they're ENJOYING themselves, and it's readily apparent when "Same Old Same Old" kicks off with some twangy reverbed-out guitars and cooing call-and-response vocals before crashing into noisy '90s indie rock territory that sounds a lot like later-period Bikini Kill tracks. B side "Discovery" is the real gem here though, with an insistent, martial drum beat anchoring a riff that sounds like a chopped-and-screwed version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," topped off with joyous shouts of "DISCOVERY!" that suggest that the kids of today are having just as much fun seeking out the great rock n' roll of the past as their hipster forefathers and mothers. The pressing I got (on minty, faintly glow-in-the-dark vinyl) is sold out, but you can still get a copy from the label. I can't wait to see what these chicks get into next.

My Heart Is Crammed In My Cranium: Spring 2011

2011-04-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

So yeah, all the tracks on this mix date from 1993 to 1995. I was 14 in 1994, and the longer time goes by, it seems like the early 90s really were the last golden age of rock n' roll music. When I was making this one, the song that really stuck out was "Cannonball" by The Breeders. I mean seriously, that song is so fucking weird and yet somehow it was all over the radio and MTV in the summer of '94. It's all minimal, rubbery bass lines and fuzzed-out vocals, with lyrics that still make no sense 16 years later. "I'll be your whatever you want, the bong in this reggae song," huh? OK then!

Speaking of Pixies side projects, Frank Black's "Headache" wasn't as big of a hit (it wasn't at all, in fact), but it may actually top "Cannonball" for pure visceral power-pop genius. My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound? See, now that makes sense! Those Frank Black solo LPs of the early 90s are loaded with gems that have been ignored for way too damn long, I reckon.

Anyway, here's a twelve track mix of stuff I listened to a ton when I was a teenager. Unlike all the terrible alt-country and post-punk math rock we somehow fell into in the first half of the 2000s, these songs haven't really dated all that much. It's all a giant mess of wailing, bratty vocals and 70s arena rock guitar hooks buried under walls of distortion, and is kinda Cincinnati/Dayton-centric, because at the time I listened to 97X religiously and that's just what they like played, man. Call it lazy slacker rock, call it the soundtrack for the Alternative Nation (RIP), call it post-grunge indie rock, call it whatever. Hope y'all dig it!

Download it HERE! http://www.mediafire.com/?4ccakwcokvzs7yc

Stream it HERE:

My Heart Is Crammed In My Cranium: Spring 2010

1. Swervedriver - "For Seeking Heat"

2. Catherine Wheel - "Waydown"

3. The Afghan Whigs - "Honky's Ladder"

4. Pavement - "Ell Ess Two"

5. Archers Of Loaf - "Harnessed In Slums"

6. Frank Black - "Headache"

7. Veruca Salt - "Seether"

8. Hole - "Plump"

9. The Breeders - "Cannonball"

10. Sebadoh - "Rebound"

11. Beck - "Burnt Orange Peel"

12. Guided By Voices - "Auditorium/Motor Away"

Random Old Records Podcast #30

2011-04-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been a month since the last podcast came out?! According to the calendar, it sure as hell has! I just got back from Bloomington, Indiana, where I saw Davila 666 and Charlie & The Skunks tear the roof off the Bishop club, and also checked out the sweet Mexican restaturants and record stores lurking around the IU campus. Landlocked Records? That place is legit! In the next week, The Black Angels, Fresh & Onlys, Black Lips, and Vivian Girls are coming through town, and I plan on raping those merch tables silly!

I can't believe that I'm already at episode #30, either. When I started this shit back in 2008, the focus was on vintage tunes, but there's just been too much good shit coming out since then and I can't resist! 2011 is shaping up as another banner year for rock n' roll music, and Random Old Records Podcast #30 is loaded with hot new jams from all over the place. This time around, the spotlight is on Chicago's HoZac Records, who have been straight killin' the lo-fi/garage/psych/punk/whatever game for the last six months or so. You'll hear a whopping six tracks from recent HoZac releases, including the raging old-school punk of Spider Fever, the art-punk of Women In Prison, the Velvets-style drone pop of Reading Rainbow, early '80s weirdo new-wave worship from Xray Eyeballs, squalling Birthday Party-style noise punk from K-Holes, and the return of Gentleman Jesse & His Men!

Elsewhere, you'll hear new tracks from Two Tears, Vivian Girls, Colleen Green, Shapes Have Fangs, Bare Wires, High Tension Wires, White Wires, Coasting, and loads more! Rounding things out this month is an EXCLUSIVE track from the upcoming 12" EP release by Cincinnati's premiere bubblegum garage soul band The Guitars! This record, entitled High Action, has been several years in the making, and I'm happy as hell to let everyone know that rock n' roll bands from Cincinnati are ready to hang with the big boys. If you've never heard 'em (and you probably haven't), imagine Todd Rundgren backed by the Buddah Records house band circa '68, and you wouldn't be far off the mark. Anyway, I hope y'all dig the new sounds, and as always, thanks for reading and listening! Check out the playlist below, and click these links to get the podcast from the internet to your hard drive with haste!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT ZIP DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records #30

1. Two Tears - "Eat People"

(Eat People 7", Kind Turkey 2011)

2. Vivian Girls - "Sixteen Ways"

(Share The Joy, Polyvinyl 2011)

3. Coasting - "Discovery"

(Coasting 7", M'Ladys 2010)

4. Reading Rainbow - "Always On My Mind"

(Prism Eyes, HoZac 2010)

5. The Babies - "All Things Come To Pass"

(The Babies, Shrimper 2011)

6. Colleen Green - "Y Do U Call Me?"

(Green One EP, Hardly Art 2011)

--Good time with a bad girl!

7. Caroline & The Treats - "Bad All Over"

(Bad All Over, House Of Rock 2011)

8. High Tension Wires - "Get Weird"

(Welcome New Machine, Dirtnap 2011)

9. White Wires - "Roxanne"

(WWII, Dirtnap 2010)

10. Gentleman Jesse & His Men - "You've Got The Wrong Man"

(You've Got The Wrong Man 7", HoZac 2010)

11. Wheels On Fire - "Sarah"

(Liar, Liar, Alien Snatch 2010)

12. Shapes Have Fangs - "Ghost In The Mirror"

(Dinner In The Dark, Reverb Appreciation Society, 2011)

--When you get to heaven, tell 'em an angel sent ya!

13. Spider Fever - "Party Girl"

(Whatcha Gonna Do? 7", HoZac 2011)

14. Women In Prison - "Births Of Rot"

(Strange Waves 7", HoZac 2011)

15. Xray Eyeballs - "Broken Beds"

(Crystal 7", HoZac 2011)

16. K-Holes - "Step and Fetch"

(K-Holes, HoZac 2011)

17. Grass Widow - "Walking Out On Love"

(Under The Covers Vol. 2, Volar 2011)

--You're swimmin' in a toilet bowl!

18. Bare Wires - "Ready To Go"

(Don't Ever Change 7", Robot Elephant 2011)

19. 1910 Fruitgum Company - "Indian Giver"

(25 All Time Greatest Bubblegum Hits, Varese Sarabande 2000)

20. The Cool Jerks - "You Really Got A Hold On Me"

(Cleaned A Lot Of Plates In Memphis, S4TRI 2002)

21. The Raspberries - "Let's Pretend"

(Fresh, Capitol 1972)

22. Todd Rundgren - "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference"

(Something/Anything, Bearsville 1972)

23. The Guitars - "Talkin' Bout My Baby"

(High Action, self-released 2011)

Random Record Roundup #1

2011-04-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

So yeah, I finally got a real live grown-up job, and I've been using all that extra income to buy records like nobody's business! I'm a 31 year old male that doesn't have a mortgage or kids to worry about, so why the fuck not? I spent most of the last decade being poor as fuck and downloading what passed for hip, current music with regularity, so I've been making up for lost time with gusto. Why not pass it on to you faithful readers?! So here's a new feature on Random Old Records, where I spin all the new records I've bought incessantly and review them all fancy like so you can decide what's worth spending your hard-earned post-recession cash on! I hope you dug the last podcast, because the next one will be out in a week, and it features a ton of new sizzling tracks from the likes of High Tension Wires, Colleen Green, Reading Rainbow, Two Tears, Bare Wires, and Shapes Have Fangs that you can sink your teeth into. As always, thanks for reading and listening, and stay tuned for more hot jams and words to keep you going in this most promising year of 2011!

Gentlemen Jesse & His Men - You've Got The Wrong Man 7"

(HoZac, 2010)

Gentleman Jesse Smith's debut LP from 2008 was like manna from heaven to real rock n' roll fans who spent the last decade listening to people pimping bozos like Of Montreal as the future of music. I mean, all those neat synthesized, computerized prog-rock moves were cute and all, but what's so wrong with four dudes in a room pounding out instantly catchy hooks on good old-fashioned guitars?! Gentleman Jesse & His Men was like a perfect thirteen track punky power-pop symphony for all the folks like me who are still bummed out about what happened to the Exploding Hearts damn near a decade ago. It was so good that this humble blogger was terrified that the dude had already shot his wad and retired to the land of Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello to wallow in complacency, but without the steady checks earned by coasting on the reputation of being a once angry, tough, and vital singer-songwriter. How the fuck do you follow-up a perfect debut album with that kinda economical weight on your shoulders? Well, in Jesse's case, he's just didn't give a fuck and kept on doin' what he's doin'. I am overjoyed to report that the well is not only not dry, but it is overflowing! He's still infatuated and confused by girls, life, and everything Stiff Records put out in the late '70s, and still backed by razor-sharp rhythms and harmonies. The two tantalizing tracks on this single dig a little deeper into that well, and slip a heaping dose of '60s worship into the mix. A-side "You've Got The Wrong Man" throws up pounding surf rock drums and post-British Invasion Buddy Holly "oh-oh-oh-oh" tricks and sounds like a bunch of leather-jacketed ruffians crashing a beach party.The B-side "Stubborn Ghost" introduces a bunch of Byrds-style jangle riffs and it's infinitely more exciting than some emotional abuse off of Armed Forces or Look Sharp. Remember folks, rock n' roll is supposed to be fun! It's a bunch of emotionally pandering horseshit aimed squarely for your funparts. Really, it's like deep-fried fish sticks and energy drinks for the soul. People get so hung up on being important and current and shit, but no one ever really sits at home on a Friday night and listens to a 45 repeatedly like I just did. It makes me turn loops in my stomach and dance around the room. Really man, just keep on doin' what you're doin'. There's decks and cheeseburgers and bubblegum pop records being played way too loud in the future. This new album had better have a "California Love" on it, goddammit!

Jeffrey Novak - 4 Song Solo EP

(Trouble In Mind, 2011)

This whole one man band thing has gotten out of hand, folks. It's gotten to the point where really good songwriters have forsaken the ugly, schulumpy dudes lugging around basses and drums and reinvented themselves as used carpet salesmen cutting out the middleman. Every time I hear of one man bands, I instantly think of dudes like Todd Rundgren and Emitt Rhodes, sweating over a giant studio and a big-ass mixing board, layering tape over tape, punching the clock, and getting super weird and stupid at 5 AM when the janitor is gently tapping his wrist watch and suggesting that those long-haired weirdos should just pack it in and call it a night already! Jeffrey Novak is cut from the same cloth and knocks out his sing-song semi-songs with casual David Bowie and T. Rex moves like it ain't no thing. Those overly precious basement poppers named Ethan and Dustin don't get it, but this guy does. Most of the time those fellas puke up songs that hover between the peaks of mountains called inconsequential, banal, and stupid, but this 33 RPM 7" is on a whole 'nother level. Jeffrey Novak has spent the last couple years fronting the bratty garage punk band Cheap Time, and has apparently been writing songs like these in his downtime. The whole thing sounds like 50+ years of underground rock n' roll run through the wringer and spit back up in lazy, easily digestible chunks. This guy gets IT, suckas. "The World Of Peter Brown" is like the overly fancy tracks from the Rubble comps rendered in HD, all base and immediate instead of fussed-over and impenetrable. His nasally, put-on British accented voice and killer falsetto carries everything, crystal clear and direct instead of the murky, distorted haze you hear on Cheap Time records. After hearing tons of whiny, shouty, and just plain bad garage rock singers, it's nice to hear a dude that can carry a tune with gusto. And holy shit, "Remember All The Expectations" sounds like a vintage Pavement cut from 1997 boiled down to a thin stew of Steven Malkmus mannerisms and slacker vocal tics. Slap some vintage keyboard sounds on it, subtract the Grateful Dead guitar interplay, and it's a dead ringer. Malkmus even says "dying does not meet my expectations," so it's not much of a stretch to suggest that Mr. Novak was listening to Brighten The Corners back in the day. I swung my fiery sword and vented my spleen at the lord, so what's left?! All I know is that I'm gonna go back and listen to Novak's solo debut After The Ball again religiously and try to tap into that same well of inspiration.

Women In Prison - Strange Waves 7"

(HoZac, 2011)

I've noticed an alarming trend recently of dudes in beards turning up in punk rock bands. What the fuck is up with that?! This is something that wouldn't have flown in 1977, that's for sure. What's that line? "No Elvis, Beatles, Rolling Stones, or beards in 1977"? Could you imagine Joe Strummer singing about London burning while sporting a big ol' hippie beard? Nah, dawg. I guess the trend started in the late '90s with Hot Water Music, but that shit was essentially arty, gruff Bruce Springsteen-style jazz with double-time beats and heart-on-sleeve emotionalism that cried out for a bunch of facial hair to scream authenticity. But here we are in 2011 with this debut single from Women In Prison, and smack-dab in the center of the cover is a beardy dude in a beanie that would look more at home stomping around a stage in khaki shorts with Drowning Pool or some shit. Unfortunate grooming choices aside, the three tracks on this 7" are a howling throwback to the late 80s when bands like Halo Of Flies and Mudhoney walked the earth, inhabiting a slightly uncomfortable place where post-hardcore punk was about to turn into grunge. I'm talking about that weird twilight world where punk bands didn't want to play hardcore, but weren't willing to admit they were closet classic rock fans yet. So instead they took their cues from Sonic Youth and Big Black and got really noisy and weird to compensate. Everything on this EP is coated in a healthy dose of sludge, the bass is deep, LOUD, and skull-rattling, and the feedback is low and groin-throttling instead of ear-piercingly obnoxious. "Births Of Rot" in particular sounds like a prime outtake from Superfuzz Bigmuff, with snarly shouting reverb vocals, grinding, screeching noise guitars, and drums that do their damndest to punch a hole through your speaker cones. The opening track "Strange Waves" is more of a straight-up punk rock banger, and the flipside "Circles & Circles" sounds like it should have been released on Touch & Go in 1988. These Austin dudes get punk points for having names like Booger, Dr. Fill, John Bondage, and Tim Pimple, but too bad about that beard though, man. Joey Ramone would be spinning in his grave, for real.

Random Old Records Podcast #29

2011-03-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, it's that time again! Random Old Records Podcast episode #29 is out NOW! Yes sir or madam, get ready for a solid hour of new and old rock n' roll, punk, garage, soul, psych, and raw n' REAL shouts from the bottom of the gutter. Kicking things off on #29 is a track from the LP I've been spinning the most in the last few months, the latest and greatest from Ottawa's White Wires! "I Can Tell" is a classic, slow-building power pop punk rawk jam, and the rest of the record is more of the amazing same. After that, you'll hear a track off the long-awaiting new 7" from Florida's Garbo's Daughter, the triumphant return of Denton, TX's all star punks High Tension Wires, up-and-coming Richmond trash rockers Sports Bar, the dreamy new Vivian Girls side projects La Sera and The Babies, and a bunch of spankin' NEW bangers from the likes of Charlie & The Skunks, Dead Ghosts, Hornet Leg, Smith Westerns, Wheels On Fire, Trent Fox & The Tenants, Caroline & The Treats, and WHEW, a whole lot MORE! This is one of the best episodes I've cranked out in recent months, so download it, rock out, and tell all your friends.

I guess the most exciting new news this month is that Random Old Records Podcast is now iTunes OFFICIAL! Yep, I broke down and threw my credit card number Apple's way and went legit. You can now search for Random Old Records in the iTunes store and subscribe directly. Neat, huh? Here's the official page if ya want to go poking around. As always, you can also go to http://rorpodcast.mevio.com to stream, subscribe, and download as well, though the site is a hell of a lot uglier and harder to navigate. If you don't want to jump through all those hoops and just wanna hear some goddamn music, you can grab the mp3 file by clicking HERE. Did I mention that it was all free, free, FREE?!

Speaking of free, tune into Real Punk Radio (http://realpunkradio.com) tomorrow (03/09/2011) at it's brand NEW time of 5 PM EST to hear the premiere of Random Old Records Podcast #29! I'll be in the chat to answer any questions you might have, and will tell tales and talk shit to your heart's content. Make sure to keep it locked in before and after to hear a fuck-ton of original programming, podcasts from the GaragePunk Network, Maximumrocknroll and Razorcake Radio, and a whole lot more! RPR is a 100% FREE, user-supported DIY streaming radio site that deserves your ears, support, and donations, so check it the fuck out already! As always, thanks for reading and listening, and stay tuned for more Random Old Records. Here's the playlist for this month's episode:

Random Old Records Podcast #29

1. White Wires - "I Can Tell"

(WWII, Dirtnap 2010)

2. Garbo's Daughter - "Mascara Stains On My Pillowcase"

(Spin & Melt 7", Surfin' Ki 2011)

3. High Tension Wires - "Backbone"

(Welcome New Machine, Dirtnap 2011)

4. Charlie & The Skunks - "Ooh La La La La"

(Take An Ice Cream Scoop Out Of My Brain 7", Eradicator 2011)

5. Fast Cars - "The Kids Just Wanna Dance"

(Coming...Ready Or Not, Detour 2001)

6. Smith Westerns - "Weekend"

(Dye It Blonde, Fat Possum 2011)

--Winter storms...

7. The Yo-Yos - "Leaning On You"

(A History Of Garage And Frat Bands In Memphis 1960-75, Shangri-La 2001)

8. Dead Ghosts - "I Want You To Know"

(Dead Ghosts, Florida's Dying 2010)

9. Sports Bar - "Anisa, Nah She Don't Live Here No More"

(Sports Bar, self-released 2010)

10. Trent Fox & The Tenants - "Outta My Mind"

(Mess Around 7", Kind Turkey 2011)

11. The Giljoteens - "You'll Miss Me"

(Get A Head, Teen Sounds 2004)

12. Wheels On Fire - "Broken Up"

(Cherry Bomb 7", Kind Turkey 2010)

13. The Exprollers - "Shake & Shout"

(Run! Rollers Run!, Stiffeen 2004)

--Partners in crime...

14. The Babies - "Breakin' The Law"

(The Babies, Shrimper 2011)

15. Hornet Leg - "Covered In Blood"

(Blood Trilogy 7", K 2010)

16. Timmy's Organism - "Give It To Me Babe"

(Rise Of The Green Gorilla, Sacred Bones 2010)

17. Cum Stain - "Broke My Dick"

(Cum Stain, Burger 2010)

18. Le Face - "Exits/Illusions"

(Le Face, Tic Tac Totally 2009)

19. The Bold Ones - "Screwing Around"

(Open Your Mouth 7", HoZac 2009)

20. The Lids - "Fool For You"

(The Lids, Rip Off 2004)

--Marsha, the erotic housewife...

21. Caroline & The Treats - "Let's Do It"

(Bad All Over, House Of Rock 2010)

22. The Glossines - "Underage"

(Hey! It's A Teenacide Pajama Party, Teenacide 2004)

23. The Pleasure Kills - "I Want You"

(Bring Me A Match, Polypore 2010)

24. Rocket - "Join The Professionals"

(Girls With Candy Hearts, Teenacide 2006)

25. La Sera - "Dedicated To The One I Love"

(Devils Hearts Grow Gold 7", Hardly Art 2011)

STREAM IT!!

David F. Friedman

The Monarch Of Exploitation
RIP
1923-2011

Random Old Records Podcast #28

2011-02-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

2011 is in full swing, and there's a ton of amazing new jams coming out, so what better time to drop another episode of Random Old Records?! #28 is a tribute to the ultimate diva Tura Satana (RIP) and it features a whole bunch of her classic quotes from the classic Russ Meyer flick Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill! As far as the musical portion goes, it starts off with some classic '90s tunes from Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, then moves into a mix of new and old rock n' roll from Spencey Dude & The Doodles, 20/20, Mind Spiders, Mr. Airplane Man, and Bare Wires, then finishes up with brand spankin' new tracks from Smith Westerns, Jail Weddings, and the Strange Boys! Big surprise that the most intriguing track to drop in 2011 so far comes from Austin's Strange Boys, off a FREE Scion Garage A/V single. My favorite band of 2010 goes OUT THERE with a seriously arty song that mixes yacht rock, silly white reggae, barking preacher voices, and their patented Stonesy swagger into a four minute firebomb interrupted by jolts of AM radio static. It sounds like a band of tired rock n' rollers driving their van down a faceless highway at 4 AM, sick of all the previously packed CDs, tapes, and iPods, desperately trying to find something good to listen to on the radio.

As always, there's multiple ways to get Random Old Records off the internet and into your ears. First and foremost, point your browser to http://rorpodcast.mevio.com to download, stream, or subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or any way you want! Also, you can grab a direct downloadable ZIP file by going HERE. If that sounds like too much work, you can go to http://realpunkradio.com and hear my show at 4 PM EST every Wednesday! New shows debut every second Wednesday of the month. While you're there, stick around and listen for a few hours and support 100% FREE DIY internet radio! Real Punk Radio offers a ton of sweet original shows, along with Razorcake and Maximumrocknroll Radio, so check it out and donate a couple of bucks, dirtbags! Next episode will be coming in a few weeks, so stay tuned! Here's the playlist for Random Old Records #28:

Random Old Records Podcast #28

1. Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl"

2. Sleater-Kinney - "One More Hour"

3. Pavement - "Major Leagues"

4. The Ettes - "Love Lies Bleeding"

5. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Seven Or In 10"

--Tura Satana Speaks (RIP)

6. Bare Wires - "Seeking Love"

7. Mind Spiders - "No. 3"

8. The Weakends - "Slow Down & Low"

9. Mr. Airplane Man - "Commit A Crime"

10. Spency Dude & The Doodles - "Flirting"

11. The Barreracudas - "Diet Coke"

--Tura Satana Speaks (RIP) Part 2

12. 20/20 - "Going Up With My Girl"

13. Little Bob Story - "Baby Don't Cry"

14. The RPM's - "Loved By You"

15. The Poppees - "She's Got It"

16. The Red Button - "Gonna Make You Mine"

--Tura Satana Speaks (RIP) Part 3

17. Natural Child - "Crack Mountain"

18. Teenanger - "Big Spirit Payback"

19. The Strange Boys - "American Radio"

20. Smith Westerns - "Dance Away"

21. Jail Weddings - "What Did You Do With My Gun?"

Sunshine, Bitches: Feburary 2011

2011-02-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

Obnoxious is such a great word, and obnoxious is how I feel right now. According to the dictionary, it is an archaic word that means exposed to something unpleasant or harmful, and deserving of censure. Like the good book says, right now I am odiously or disgustingly objectionable and highly offensive. Oh yeah?! Who the fuck cares! Who doesn't like to puff their chest out and be a little obnoxious every once in awhile? If I read my history books right, rock n' roll was invented to piss off the squares, and I'm glad to enter my third decade on the planet carrying a hefty batch of killer records under my arm and shining behind the thick coating of road salt and sludge on my windshield.

A lot of weird, crazy shit happened to me in 2010, but right now I'm just gonna let the sun burn my eyes and let it burn my back. Why not?! I am in a good spot, so why fuck with the formula? Good job, good blog, good life. Hey life?! I've got a supercrush on you. You're never gonna stop that little snot-nosed prick in Wavves, and you're never gonna stop me, either (or "eyether," if you're fancy). People talk all funny, and say a whole lot of funny bullshit, but all I can do is roll around and smile like a moron. So here's a lucky thirteen tracks that sound like lolling around on decks, destroying chocolate milkshakes on Sunday afternoons, powering through heroic hangovers on humid days, getting a little sweaty, and wishing upon stars set in hazy midwestern skies. Like always, there's some outrageous T. Rex rip-offs here, along with lots of syrupy-sweet girl voices, ear-bleeding fuzz, gentle finger-picked guitars, crucial harmonies, and blissful, goofy grins. Why fuck with the formula?! Enjoy this Indian Winter, folks. 2011 is gonna be a good fucking year. Just sit back, smile always, and enjoy the ride.

Sunshine, Bitches: February 2011

1. Wavves - "King Of The Beach"

2. Ty Segall - "My Sunshine"

3. Moonhearts - "Shine"

4. Go Sailor - "Last Year"

5. Tiger Trap - "Supercrush"

6. The Babies - "Breakin' The Law"

7. Smith Westerns - "Boys Are Fine"

8. Nobunny - "Breathe"

9. The Fresh & Onlys - "Summer Of Love"

10. Teenage Fanclub - "What You Do To Me"

11. Matthew Sweet - "Sick Of Myself"

12. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood - "Sand"

13. The Raspberries - "Drivin' Around"

DOWNLOAD IT HERE: http://www.mediafire.com/?z9qxwg75f8pkpk4

Random Old Records Podcast #27

2011-02-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

Here it is, all fashionably late and shit: the latest episode of Random Old Records Podcast! Episode #27 was posted up to the Mevio site a couple weeks ago, so if you're a subscriber, you already have it, but if you haven't been paying attention or can't commit to something so formal as subscribing to a podcast, then check it out with haste! This one features the best songs I heard in the year 2010, and features sizzling tracks from The Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Bare Wires, Best Coast, Frankie Rose & The Outs, The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun, Nobunny, The Sugar Stems, and a whole lot more! 2010 was one of the best years for music in recent memory, so I'm sure there's at least four or five songs on here that will become your new favorites! Also, I threw in classic tracks by The Raspberries and The Millennium that I discovered for the first time in 2010. Check out the track list in the comment section, and I hope y'all dig it!

Don't forget to check out my monstrous list of the top 25 albums of 2010, as well. Click the links!

http://randomoldrecords.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-25-albums-of-2010-part-1.html

http://randomoldrecords.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-25-albums-of-2010-part-2.html

http://randomoldrecords.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-25-albums-of-2010-part-3.html

http://randomoldrecords.blogspot.com/2011/02/best-albums-of-2010-part-4.html

Go to http://rorpodcast.mevio.com to stream, download, or subscribe to Random Old Records Podcast and never miss an episode! Also, you can snag a direct download of episode #27 RIGHT HERE. Don't forget to tune into http://realpunkradio.com every Wednesday at 4 PM EST too, as there's a hot episode playing every week, with the new episodes premiering every second Wednesday of the month. Episode #28 is right around the corner, and there's plenty of new updates to come in 2011, so check back and thanks for reading and listening!

The Best 25 Albums Of 2010: Part 4

2011-02-07T18:02:00.000-08:00

Oh hey guys, what's up?! I haven't updated this humble blog in a minute because real life intervened, and a new big-time job and all kinds of cool shit just kinda happened. Now it's February and everyone is surely sick of all those best of 2010 lists and ready to move on, right? Well, if I learned anything, it's that I'm gonna keep the list to ten next time. Holy crap! This list turned into a full-time job, and ended up being seven pages when I was all well and done. Never again! Anyway, here's the last eight albums on the list, and if you haven't bought or illegally downloaded these records yet, what are you waiting for?!

18. Nobunny - First Blood

Man oh man, have you ever seen Nobunny live?! He straight-up wrecked Cincinnati's leading hipster nightclub Mayday back in spring, clad in a leather jacket, black BVDs, and a bunny mask that had to have been fished out of the deep recesses of a port-o-let at the corner of a construction site. The whole joint reeked like a roofer's asshole, but Nobunny still did head-first backflips off the stage and whipped the tiny crowd into ecstatic ecstasy. This LP captured the best of his disco-punk jams and even threw in a picture-perfect T. Rex rip-off called "Breathe." If you're sad, do you slide, or just breathe?! Questions!

19. Salem - King Night

Apparently, lots of rock critics and bloggers hate Salem with a passion, and maybe King Night just happened to hit me at the right time, but this record is one of the freshest, most original things I've heard in ages. Some people complain that it's a lifeless example of paint-by-numbers Fruity Loops child's play, smashing together underground rap beats and icy post-goth synth textures, but to me it sounds like a bunch of overstimulated Midwestern kids that watched too much cable television and still can't manage to figure it all out. Good gimmicks still grab my ears sometimes.

20. Vermillion Sands

The best co-optation of the relentless, early-60s Sun Records slapback echo rhythm beat in 2010 came from fucking Italy of all places, complimented by drawled, snide female vocals on a serious Nacy Sinatra tip, rude slashes of banjo melody, and jolts of simple-minded organ drone. Yeah, the self-titled debut album from Vermillion Sands is naggingly familiar in its reference points, but it totally wins thanks to a heaping dose of youthful energy and angst. "Wake Me When I Die" sounds like June Carter shacking up with a bunch of meth heads, just riding out the storm.

21. The Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion

OK, so yeah, maybe one of my most highly anticipated albums of the year turned into a disappointment, but there's still a bit of success in such a noble failure! Maybe my expectations were set too high by the amazing 2009 LP Do You Want Power by The Ettes, produced by Mr. Greg Cartwight himself and full of the exciting and passionate rock n' roll noise missing from recent Reigning Sound records, but Strychnine Dandelion sounds kinda FLAT, doesn't it?! Maybe 15 perfect songs written by two songwriters at the top of their game isn't enough anymore, but even while treading water, these two still mop the floor with hundreds of mediocre bands.

22. The Jim Jones Revue - Burning Your House Down

The worst thing about this year's Jim Jones Revue LP is how good it sounds! The cranked-up LOUD sound of their earlier singles was kinda frightening, scary, and dangerous, but on this one they dial back the fury a little bit and let Mr. Jones' demented Little-Richard-on-crystal-meth yowl dominate the proceedings. What Burning Your House Down lacks in sledgehammer HOLY SHIT moments, it more than makes up for it with more energy than 95% of bands out there and a generally unsanitary vibe. The epic title track is an all-time classic.

23. Wavves - King Of The Beach

I didn't get the hype for the first Wavves album at all, and saw it as a case of people getting worked up over the layers of noise and slacker obnoxiousness that masked the fact that there just weren't any good songs underneath them. You could totally make a case that this record is so much better because of the presence of Jay Reatard's former backing band and a proper producer, but Wavves dude Nathan William comes equipped with a set of relentlessly sunny punk-pop bangers that benefit a ton from his pedigreed collaborators. "King Of The Beach" was the best pop song of the year, period. You're never gonna stop me...

24. Sleigh Bells - Treats

I didn't get into this record until December, well after everyone else was done shitting themselves all over it, but I couldn't help but like it loads. The best tracks (like "Infinity Guitars" and "Crown On The Ground") knock you on your ass with vintage, thunderous Rick Rubin-style Run DMC/Beastie Boys beats, solid-state cheesedick metal riffs, and demented, shouty cheerleader from hell vocals. Then "Rill Rill" bites Funkadelic with gusto and turns it into a stoned-out blissful jam. There ain't much else out there that sounds like Treats, and I'm sure it will get real old real fast, but in that first moment, it's like aural crack.

25. White Wires - WWII

When I first started writing about the Strange Boys back in March of last year, I was seriously fucking tired of Seattle-style grey skies infesting Cincinnati on a regular basis. One year later, nothing has really changed, and everything is as grey as a Pacific Northwest weeknight. Fuck, what I wouldn't give to go to the nearest beach for a hot minute! The second album from Canada's White Wires dropped in December and packs a serious melanin injection. Year-end lists are supposed to pack a weighty punch, but I'm fresh outta Rocky-style counterpunches. "Forget about the troubles that you're running from, let's rock rock rock n' roll summer fun." Sounds like a great idea, huh?!

The Best 25 Albums of 2010: Part 3

2011-01-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

10. Conspiracy Of Owls

Every conceivably shitty night out you had in 2010 was soundtracked by Conspiracy Of Owls, whether you want to admit it or not. Believe me, I didn't want to admit it myself, but holy fuck! They nailed that perfect childhood dude-kid emotion where you're hunched over a Super Mario Bros. arcade game, consumed by a constant Dr. Pepper thirst, and about to whip some ass on Double Dragon when that fat kid finally exhausts his stash of quarters. You're in that fuckin' ZONE! You're powered by caffeine and awful early 80s radio rock and you feel so fucking invincible. It reminds me a lot of discovering my uncle's ELO records as a lad, and going off to a land of spaceships, unfortunate facial hair, whacked-out keyboard sounds, and a feeling of wonder that is full of wistful childhood romanticism and totally free of adult responsibilities. Who wants to think about bills, inter-office gossip, or that pretty girl that talked a bunch of game but clammed up at the bar when shit got real. You've still got two lives left, plenty of money, and the princess is right behind the big, bad final boss. "Tower Of Diamonds" mixes smooth phony yacht rock horns and rhythms with big kid wisdom into a song that hides a message of crippling indecision and a desire to crawl into Doc Brown's DeLorean and do it all over again. Though it slavishly rips off '70s pop radio, this is totally a record made by and for 80s babies. Conspiracy Of Owls took their name from a Robert Pollard solo joint, and used to be called The Go. That band put out a couple records full of brain-dead MC5/Grand Funk-style rawk before bowing out with Howl On the Haunted Beat You Ride, a seriously poppy and harmony-laden album which clearly points to the shockingly sophisticated songs on display here. If anything, Conspiracy Of Owls sounds more like Bob Pollard's list of influences (ELO, deep prog, Todd Rundgren, 60s Bee Gees) than Guided By Voices ever did. Sometimes the proceedings get unbearably smug, most notably in the weedy harmonies of "Ancient Robots," but there's always a moment like the unearthly extended coda of "Raving Mad," which starts off like a vintage Badfinger-style power-popper, but ends up in another place firmly outside of the stratosphere. Conspiracy Of Owls is so perfect that I doubt these folks will ever be able to top it, but who cares? This is a compact ten track LP made by some dudes who are clearly having the time of their lives.

11. The Sugar Stems - The Sweet Sounds Of...

This effortless melding of mid-90s Clueless soundtrack girl band power pop and modern garage rock might be the best combination of band name and album title in a good long while. Relentless smiles, endless hooks, and the right percentage of swoony teen angst combine to create fourteen memorable tracks that are compulsively listenable. "What's A Girl To Do?" is a perfect pop song and the rest aren't close behind. Fans of the Muffs and Letters To Cleo, please advise.

12. The Like - Release Me

Fuck all the haters, I still think Amy Winehouse's Back To Black is one of the best modern pop albums of the past ten years. A big part of that has to do with Mark Ronson's production, which takes today's synthetic beats and looping, pushes them into the red, and somehow apes classic '60s Brill Building kid symphonies without packing forty people in a room. Release Me has Ronson's stamp all over it, mining the classic girl group sound with phony strings, noisy keyboards, and vocalist Z. Berg snarling over the top like prime Ronnie Spector and Mary Weiss. It's a seriously overlooked gem.

13. Happy Birthday

Kyle "King Tuff" Thomas' debut album Was Dead would have been my top LP of 2009 would have been on last year's list if it hadn't come out in 2008, and this album continues his hitmaking streak. It was a shock initially to hear him take up a full band and turn out ELO and Todd Rundgren inspired smooth pop instead of the snotty garage glam of Was Dead, but repeated plays brought out Happy Birthday's genius. Instead of grinding out retreads like sausages, Thomas is taking his obvious songwriting skills and trying on new guises with the same gusto. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

14. Moonhearts

After hearing Charlie & The Moonhearts' demo and initial wave of singles, I had written them off as a competent trio of garage punk thrashers, but nothing spectacular. Maybe it was lead Moonheart Mikal Cronin's (Charlie is the drummer) collaboration Reverse Shark Attack with Ty Segall that lit the fuse, but their first LP minus "Charlie & The" is on a whole 'nother level. Mixing acoustic sweetness and touches of prog psychedelia into the sound, this album is ear-bleeding loud and cut with honest, direct emotionalism. This is the sound of punk rock circa 2010 AD, fearless and adventurous.

15. Jail Weddings - Love Is Lawless

This one would have ranked a lot higher if it had come out earlier in the year. Gabe Hart, the leader of early 2000s LA art punks the Starvations, has assembled a massive, multi-gendered ten piece band to back his deranged Nick Cave meets Scott Walker meets Jarvis Cocker tortured romantic ramblings, and the result is damn near perfect. If you ever wondered what gothic, histrionic black-suited vocals sounded like when mixed with Phil Spector horns, piano, strings, keyboards, and taunting female backing vocals, then check this out. "What Did You Do With My Gun?" is a pop symphony in miniature.

16. Best Coast - Crazy For You

Blah, blah, blah, yeah I'm sick of that girl talking about weed, her boyfriend, and her cat. Blah, blah, blah, yeah none of the songs on this LP are as good as the early Best Coast singles. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, all of that is true, but if you can stand here in December and tell me that this wasn't one of the best albums of 2010, then you're a goddamn liar. Here's the deal, folks. Bethany Cosentino has an unexplainable catch in her throat, a real, live explosion of emotion that is too true to ignore. Seeing Best Coast twice live this year confirms that everything she does is REAL, despite how trite it may sound.

17. Frankie Rose & The Outs

Wonder why the first Vivian Girls LP was so amazing and why the follow-up was so bleh?! It might be because drummer Frankie Rose took off and recorded her own record with the Outs in 2010. I'm not in the position to say that she took her best songs and bolted, but this record sounds a lot better than Everything Goes Wrong. This record sounds like a classic K Records release circa 1994, full of beguiling cuddlecore hooks and the right amount of noise. It's simple, sweet, and perfect. Hold my hand, make me understand, you know that it makes me feel better. Perfect!

The Best 25 Albums of 2010: Part 2

2010-12-27T19:56:00.000-08:00

6. Wheels On Fire - Liar, Liar

Following the demise of beloved Cincinnati bubblegum trash combo 20th Century Tokyo Princess, it was easy to anoint Wheels On Fire as the best band in Ohio of 2010. Coming from the slightly comatose and sleepy burg of Athens, Wheels On Fire didn't get the memo that rock n' roll was better back in the day, and instead worship furiously at the altar of the White Stripes, Hives, and Black Keys. Really though, what's so motherfucking wrong with that?! To an army of ears that went through boot camp trained by the clarion call of the Queers, Rancid, NOFX, Screeching Weasel, and the Mr. T Experience, the rock n' roll that Wheels On Fire crank out is hopelessly inept and trad. Sure, they talk about pretty girls a lot, but they do it without the slick sophistication of the 90s pop-punk tribe. That very same slick sophistication plants those bands squarely in 1995 and leaves them there in a frozen, severely shiny time capsule. Pop-punk got all hung up with perfectionism and kinda defeated the whole purpose of the whole punk rock thing in the first place. It was supposed to be the vessel of real live kids bashing out noisy, stupid pop songs, and that's exactly what Wheels On Fire do with reckless abandon. Their second LP features a run of AMAZING tracks called "Losin'," "Ambulance," "Land Of Haunted Houses," and "Black Moon" that stand right up there with the best of '60s garage, '70s punk, and the garage rock class of 2000. These folks aren't concerned with professionalism or establishing a mood or adding some kinda epic heft to their music. They just crank out the HITS! "Ambulance" sounds like a raucous bubblegum ditty that's run off the rails, substituting the morose sadness usually associated with catching your baby with another man, and instead dishes out a beating so severe that the paramedics get involved. In place of soul-searching and refection, we get tales of haunted houses, UFOs, and alien abduction. You know, important shit! "Stick Around" is the real classic here, grabbing you around the throat with haste, relaying a tale of pussy-whipped complacency, and getting the hell out of there before you think really deep thoughts. Hell, other bands are covering it already, and if that isn't enough of a tribute to it's genius, then I don't know what is. Liar, Liar is perfect in it's simplicity and more fun than just about anything else.

7. Demon's Claws - The Defrosting Of...

Originally saddled with the stupendous title of "Defrosting Walt Disney" before (I'd assume) the sue-happy band of Mickey's minions got wind of the situation, the third LP from Canadia's Demon's Claws is the scummiest, nastiest bit of basement rock n' roll to emerge in 2010. Despite being recorded in four separate sessions in different locales, it all manages to have the same foreboding, dirty, degenerate atmosphere. The guitars are pushed screaming into the red, the frequently incomprehensible vocals sound like they came from the bottom of the sewer, and everything is drenched in reverb and tribal rhythms, coming off like a seriously deranged seance performed by a bunch of drug-addled fuckups. Crude jolts of caveman rockabilly and country dot tracks like "Catch Her By The Tail," and for the most part, hooks are sacrificed in the name of suffocating atmosphere. I really don't know about the swamps-per-square-mile ratio of Montreal, but these motherfuckers must have climbed out of one of them! If the Black Lips have slightly cleaned up their act and settled comfortably into their role as the garage rock band it's OK for douchebag hipsters to like, then Demon's Claws have taken the basic template of their feedback-drenched epic Let It Bloom in the complete opposite direction, wallowing gleefully in the muck and mire. I mean seriously, have you heard "Fucked On Ketamine" yet?! This is one song that adheres to the maxim of truth in advertising. A song that probably intends to evoke the bad-ass vibe of classic outlaw country instead sounds like vintage country-punk Gun Club on designer drugs and turns the simple tale of retiring to the bedroom with a stripper and a mysterious baggie into a sadistic mystical journey.It all winds up with a pair of southern-style country-rock songs laced liberally with banjos and casual profanity that function as an easy landing-pad comedown for those who get wrapped up in the whole Demon's Claws trip. And what a trip it is!

8. The Living Sisters - Love To Live

This album earned its spot in the top 10 on account of how goddamn PRETTY it sounds. Kicking off with a circular acoustic guitar riff in a haze of harp plucking and gentle harmony voices, "How Are You Doing?" sounds like a warm blanket hovering over your bed waiting patiently to take you away to a world of blissful hangover dreams. I'm fine, how about you? I'm fine, too! Everything is perfect and in it's place, and everytime you'd expect a honking saxophone solo or restrained keyboard line, it's there. Many of the albums I've heard this year sound like the last disgruntled howl of the sexually frustrated male, banished to the garage to work out his bitterness and sorrow on his own time, so it's nice to hear this overwhelmingly female perspective. I'm surprised that mainstream rock critics didn't cream all over this record, since it features the daughter of critic fave/drug burnout Lowell George and siren-voiced Becky Stark, who helped create a perfect album a few years back with Lavender Diamond called Imagine Our Love. Combine those voices with the smoky drawl of Eleni Mandell and you have the classic girl group close-harmony sound of your dreams. I can't be the only lonely music nerd that flipped out over Love To Live this year, right?! Just listen to "Double Knots" and hear how white girls are showing out in 2010 like vintage Salt N' Pepa, teasing and tempting until they just wanna jump in the water and take off all their clothes. Wait, what?! Like I said, it sounds so pretty, but hidden behind all the overwhelming cuteness there's a seething, simmering sexuality that puts the dudes to shame. Like they say in "Good Ole Wagon," get outta my sight, I'm done playing tricks. You gotta go to the blacksmith's shop and get yourself an overhaul. Nobody wants a baby when a real man can be found, you've been a good ole wagon, but daddy you done broke down. The Living Sisters know that you don't need a bevy of garage-sired guitars to prove that you're pretty and vicious at the same time. They're too busy killing with kindness, son.

9. Sleepy Sun - Fever

Even in 2010, when endless musical thievery has given every genre of music a new life, progressive rock still has a bad name. Me? I blame it all on the emos. Not the current crop of auto-tuned mall-emo rockers, mind you, but the math-rock emos of the recent past. I'm talking about pussy-boy college graduates in tight sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses laying delicate mathematical guitar runs over shifting time signatures that had to have come from endless Adderall-spiked nights pouring over their music theory textbooks. Remember when every horn playing band-geek reject turned up in a ska band in 1999? Their equally lame percussion and jazz guitar-toting compatriots were plying their trade in bands on Polyvinyl in 2002. That shit is awful, just AWFUL! It makes me really happy that a band like Sleepy Sun can come along in the present day and rescue the good name of prog and bring it back to the days of 1972, where hairy bastard collegiate burnouts took rock music into playful, unexplored territory, wiping the mathematical equations from the blackboard and instead launching into wild spasms of sonic freedom. Sleepy Sun doesn't make prog rock in the traditional sense, so you won't hear any dizzying displays of mechanized instrumental prowess lifted from your dad's dusty Yes LPs, but you will hear a suite of nine songs that veer from passages of tranquil beauty to moments of unspeakable horror. Fever really does have that classic album feel, instantly familiar yet filled with tons of "what the fuck?!" bits that keep you coming back again and again. Folky campfire harmonies crash into strange Can-style funk beats and then blast off into epic feedback-soaked guitar solos, and you really don't know what the hell they're doing, but everything is safe and calm. The reverb-soaked blasts of harmonica that kick off the album closer "Sandstorm Woman" leads you into a revelatory soup of post-blues Haight-Ashbury guitars, molasses-slow melody, and tribal hippie exploration, and then howls it's way into outer space. Fever is probably the best mix of heavy rock and prog since the monolithic debut LP from Captain Beyond. Believe it! Yeah I ain't gonna lie, Sleepy Sun may have indulged in some psychedelic drugs before making this record, but don't let that scare you away. Any enlightened mind can hop a ride on this rollercoaster with the same results.