Across 110th Street....

Just a reminder that, no matter how cool you are, you're never gonna be as cool as Bobby Womack was and is. That is all.

Crazy Pills-Restless LP (2013)

Behind all the gloop 'n'glop,  many of us-even at this late date of the beshitted year of our Lord 2013-still prefer bare bones, moronically straightforward rock 'n roll over contrived, overly-complicated gimmicks and/or too-kool-for-skool-retreads. Of course, doing your best to sound like Jerry Lee Lewis' band fronted by a woman is fundamentally reactionary. But the last couple of years' worth of subcultural (anti-)cultural slop have largely focused on rehashing the 1990s. So takin' it back to the '50s seems downright revolutionary-by-way-of-reactionary at this point.

Whatever, in Crazy Pills, Brookyln belches out yet another sweet rock 'n'roll group that strips away all pretense and just dishes out snazzy tunes to dance to. This sort of rock is exactly opposed to longwinded disquisitions on why it's good; it just is.

So crack a beer, comb some pomade through your hair, and go down to the local sleazy rocker bar. Pop a quarter in the jukebox, then get irate with the bartender when Crazy Pills doesn't show up. Then insis, at top volume, that he look this band up HERE, and FUCKING ROCK OUT DOOD. Yeah. I totally impressed a girl enough with this sort of gimmick for her to make out with me last weekend, Scout's honor.

Preludes-The Swan EP

Drifting by light as a feather and drowsy as a Klonopin bar, Brookyln's Preludes sounds like a dream ya don't wanna wake up from on this, their second release.

I've always been of the opinion that dreampop always hovers between masturbatory, self-indulgent pap and holding the listener in a sustained, blissful moment in a way that 4'4 time rock can't. Upon my third listen, I'll say, tentatively, that Preludes manages to fall on the latter side. The songs on "The Swan" are all of a piece, and that piece is something like walking around Seattle, stoned out of yr mind, on a sunny day; people glide by, there's gently moving water everywhere, and the world is melting into a pleasantly nebulous mass of good feelings.

"The Swan" sets the mood with barely-murmured vocals and muted, hushed percussion that's barely audible on first listen. "Sleepy Eye'd" wakes up from the dream a bit, with a sustained synth figure framing the singer, who sounds a lot like Beach House's Victoria LeGrand or Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval on this one. The heart of the EP, however, is "In Central Park," the most dynamic of the tracks. Lilting along in slumberland, buoyed by what sounds like violin samples and handclaps, the vocalist narrates, uh, walking in Central Park. This one's going on the mixtape for the next girl I fall in like with.

Listen to the EP here. Also check out the "Dresden" single, which came out in March. Dream on, dreamerz!

Rosenkopf-Dispiritualized CS (2011)

As most of you know, cold wave, deathpunk, and all things vaguely cold, melancholic, chilly, and synth'd to the nines is in vogue these days. Most bands stripmining the early 1980s for stolen sounds go straight for Joy Div, Brigade Internationale, Chromagain, and such Eurosounds for "inspiration." The result is pretty hit or miss.

Lately, however, some bands have started stripmining American stylings such as WaxTrax et. al. for said inspiration, and Rosenkopf does it pretty well. "Dispiritualized" offers four tracks of synth-heavy, glacial misery. "Burning Spirits" is built around monotonously fixating synth lines and handclaps, with echoy, reverbed howls; the live mix is even more agonizing. "Heed" is similarly numbing, in the way that too many nights spent chainsmoking and staring meditatively at David Lynch movies is.

Anyways, Rosenkopf would fit in well with recent heavy hitters such as Cemetery or Crimson Scarlet. As it happens, they're playing Chaos in Tejas on the Ice Age/Xeno & Oaklander bill. Any cute goth girls who wanna do the deathdance with me, consider yourself cordially invited. I'll bring the beer, you bring the mirth.

Listen to it here. Check out Rosenkopf's website for info on the Chaos bill, show flyers, etc. Rosenkopf's debut LP is dropping on the 15th, which you can purchase at WIERD REX.

*Edit, 10.18.13: I re-up'd the file, so get it here. *

Peopling-s/t EP (2011)

I've been meaning to review this thing for weeks, ever since it showed up in the mail, and I apologize to the guy behind Peopling for my sluggardly ways.

Anyways....Peopling is a one-man operation outta Brooklyn. This 6-song ep is somewhere between Dominick Fernow/Prurient-style savagery and fucked up, bedroom synth punk. Usually Peopling verges closer to the former, but on the opener, "come home eccentric," there's a trashed synth beat lilting along with the warbled voiceovers. "Regprog" is simple, hulking, lunking, clunking power electronics; sorta like what Fernow might make on a softer day.
I think that "summer such and such" is the best song on here: strummed acoustic guitars leaven the usual squalling hiss, and there's some cool found-sound type burbling in the background....

I really don't listen to much power electronics these days, but this EP was versatile enough to hold my interest. Unlike most power electronics albums, it's appropriate for smokin' weed on the beach as well as nodding out in a heroin haze.

CHeck dude out, and BUY THE EP, here.

Bootblacks/Monozid split 7" EP (2010)

 I hate Interpol. Those bastards didn't respond to Peter Hook when he submitted his CV to them, when they were looking for a new bassist! MOre broadly, I despise the revival of the dancey end of post-punk over the last decade, in anodyne, safely depoliticized, rhythmic form for the moronic suburban masses. Those bastards don't deserve Gang of Four. They deserve Miley Cyrus, or whatever it is that civilians listen to (is Miley Cyrus a musician, even?).

Like Talking Heads said, "this ain't no party/this ain't no disco."  At its best, post-punk was dangerous, provocative, nerve-wracking, and, yes, funky. But there was always a message and a point behind the sinuous basslines.

So I was pleasantly surprised when that "post punk" the guy from Leipzig's Monozid used in his email linking me this split meant "post punk like The Pop Group," not "post punk like Gang of Four/some dance band." Brooklyn's Bootblacks churns out two taut, threshing floor tunes built around pummeling drumwork and laser-wire guitar. Monozid grinds out the sort of frantic, anxious, declamatory buzz dance that I associate with mid-period Ex or The Pop Group. The guy's voice is suitably hollow, the guitar dense as steel wool, especially on "Shame of the Nation," where it sounds like a howling insect.

The post punk revival in the States has, for the most part, produced a heaping pile of hipster shit, with Pitchfork media buzzing over the pile, leering away. But these two bands convinced me that, even at this late date of the 2010s, people can still do something worthwhile with off notes, stutter-step drumming and leading bass.

Check it out here. Monozid lives here. Bootblacks live dissa way.

Chrome Jesus-Anti-Aquarian CS (2009)

I've been reading about land disputes in medieval Tuscany all day, so I have about as much energy as a medieval peasant. So I'll cut the shit and just give you whatcha want, music-
Digging potatoes.

This is a 200-copy tape Wes Eisold, Cold Cave boywonder, put out a few years ago. Noisy, cluttered, clanging electronic noise with beats buried underneath. It's a lot closer to the Prurient end of things than the direction Cold Cave's gone in since. Hospital Productions released it...good luck finding it for less than $50 or so, these days.

*Edit, 8.3.12: I re-upped the file, you can now download it here *
*Edit, 10.18.13: And again, get it here *

Weed Hounds-Beach Bummed 7" EP (2010)

This EP reminds me of Slacker. "Beach Bummed" and "Skating away from the Cops" drift along in a pleasantly stoned blur, much like the denizens of Austin, Tx. ca. 1990.
  Weed Hounds get better at the soft/loud, slow/fast dynamic with every recording. Opening with a few shimmering chords, "Beach Bummed" is a charming summertime tune. The singer's airy lament for boyfriend blooz nicely frames the squallingly harmonic guitar.  The fuzzy haze is great for smoking a blunt by the seaside, watching sailboats and life slide by.

"Skating Away from the Cops" has a bit more forward momentum to it, and  is awesome cool kid makeout music (Kevin Johnson, get in line). It has all the essential shoegaze elements: a wash of mildly harsh feedback, chiming drumwork, spritely singing....aw man, where's that MDMA?

 There's no future Check out the Hounds' website for shows, news, etc. The Beach Bummed 7" is still available from Iron Pier. Also, Weed Hounds is supposed to be dropping an LP on Katorga Works sooooonnnnnnn!

Cro-Mags-Before the Quarrel demo (1986)

  For the past few months, I've been living in Rome's San Paolo neighborhood. For the most part, it's a quiet, workaday neighborhood, but the defining geographical feature is the innumerable public housing towers that dot the landscape. When night falls, Moldovian prostitutes and East African heroin dealers dominate the asphalt, in between Carabinieri flying squads. Violence around here is a necessity, not a choice.

 The point is that this area is the closest I hope I'll ever come to experiencing the Cro-Mags' native landscape. Read John Joseph's autobiography and this background really comes into focus (although listening to Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" is more succinct).
 This is violent music from a violent time and place: New York City (the Deuce, not White Plains), ca. 1986. John Joseph sounds like the street kid he was, Harley Flanagan's bass has the entrancing effect on the opening track, "World Peace," that it managed to miss on the  LP, and Parris Mayhew's guitar soars and hovers over Mackie Jason's drumwork, which gallops through these tunes like the long-lost, essential ingredient it truly was. Fuck the "Age of Quarrel" LP. This demo captures the 'Mags as they were: angry, desperate street kids straight off the LES, long before Giuliani and his urban cleansing.


WORLD PEACE CAN'T BE DONE.

  I can't remember what blog I stole this demo from, but read this and you'll want to start selling fake acid to burnouts at Mets Stadium, too.

*EDIT, 7-14-12: Re-upped the file, fixed the link. It should work now.*