Acid Kicks-Live at Sick City EP

Philly's Acid Kicks rang in the new year with a sweet live set at the Silk City. This set features songs off the self-titled EP, as well as some sick unreleased stuff.

If you liked the EP I posted back in September, you'll dig this: deep, heavy bass riffs and sepulchral vox...hot shit.

Listen to, and then buy, it here.

Congenital Death-demo CS (2011)

Philadelphia's Congenital Death blasts out seven originals and a DRI cover ("Couch Slouch") on this demo tape. I'm quite out of tune with this end of the punk scene, so I can't give much context for 'em.

They sound, however, like the bands I used to listen to when I had a skateboard: DRI (duh), Siege, Thulsa Doom. Fast, tight instrumental sections with a screeching vocalist who may or may not have hit puberty yet (Heresy, eatcher heart out). I basically divide bands in this genre into two groups: those who can actually pull off the stop-on-a-dime instrumental time changes, and those who can't. Congenital Death is in the former category, and it's a pretty good demo. I don't have a lyric sheet in front of me (left it at the office, go figure), but I think they're singing about, uh, politics and lifestyle choices.

Anyway, pretty good stuff, and worth a spin, which you can do here. Pick up the tape over at Ranch Records. Congenital Death is playing Smash it Dead Fest in March, so check it out if you're in the Boston area-from what I understand it's a benefit for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC).

Purling Hiss-Lounge Lizards EP

This is almost as lo-fi as the Bad Banana demo, putting it high in the running for lowest-fi rock record of the incipient decade. Most of these songs sound like Mike Pollize (Birds of Maya, Holy Mountain) recorded direct into a boombox. Nevertheless, under the mud, this is a tasty treat indeed.

The downed-out dirge "Voices" opens Lounge Lizards, and it's classic scuzz rock: squalling, sludgy riff, minimal drumming, bombed out vox...what more can ya ask for? "The Hoodoo" almost gets up enough energy to classify as boogie, with Pollize crooning about meeting down the street...my favoritest track, though, is "Been Teased," with a big bad guitar riff straight outta a lost Dead Boys demo. The last two tracks just sorta slog along, and sound like half-finished ideas, but overall this is a sweet debut.

Get into it.  I stole this from the Tiny Grooves blog, which you should check out. Then, grab the physical vinyl over at Mexican Summer Rex while it's still available! Permanent Records  recently released an LP by dood, grab that, too. See the Purling Hiss page for tours, releases, et. al. Where's my beer?

Acid Kicks-Life Dreams 7" EP (2011)

This blog isn't exactly famous for hosting texture-heavy music. I'll usually side with a sledgehammer over a rapier for good times. So this three-tune EP by Philly's Acid Kicks threw me for a curve: the production's amazing, and the music actually expands and contracts, although the structures are basically PR-level simple.

Acid Kicks specialize in carving out grooves so heavy, they might be chiseled out of the Mines of Moria. While the three bass guitars respectively sculpt, reinforce, and clobber home the ambience, the drums set up a kraut rock-style beat that wends and winds through space. The breezy trumpets that pop in and out of each track reinforce the heavily-drugged, magic carpet ride feel of the tunes.

       I'd like to see the Kicks live, as I can't tell how much of this EP's sound is due to the stellar production, or the band itself. Either way, this is some heavy, blissfully zonked out stuff, and I look forward to more of it.

Check it out on Band Camp. The 7" is well worth purchasing, as the cover is gorgeous: on a par with Do Make Say Think, aesthetically.