Pink Reason & Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones-Split 12" (2008)

Whoah ho ho ho, here we go, I'm finally posting something for the first time in months....

....sorry for that, ah, blank space, kiddies. Been homeless, been vagabonding, been drinking, yadayadayada.

I might as well pick up in the same general place I started this blog with, a Pink Reason post. I just learned that Kevin finally called it quits recently, after a hiatus following 2011's Shit in the Garden and European tour. PR will be sorely missed, so revel in this, one of their more obscure releases.

Originally released on Florida's Dying back in 2008 or so, it features PR covering two Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones tunes and vice versa. The cover art, vaguely derivative of Exile on Main Street, adequately encapsulates what the songs sound like. Clattering, ultra-lo-fi, sub-blues rock scribblings like a junkie who's been locked in a room with a 4-Track, smack, and a 2-string electric guitar for like a week. The songs stumble, surge, and mostly just ebb along in a narcotic summer haze. Hue Blanc's rendition of "Down on Me" is more frantic than the PR original, while "By a Thread" drifts into psychedelic, Bardo Pond realms before drifting back into standard garage slop.

"Frolicked Walk Through Autumnal Bliss" is the standout track here. I haven't heard the HB&JO original, but Kevin does a rambling rave-up version that's good for gettin' drunk while watchin' trees change colors and such autumnal activities.

Hanging by a Thread. I'm pretty sure that this one is out of print, but check over at Florida's Dying to see if there are any copies left. RIP Pink Reason.

Pyschedelic Horseshit-Who Let the Dogs Out? EP (2007)

"in this world of mine nothing lasts/it's got to/BLOW UP"-The Avengers, 1979
"All the blended days and photocopied mornings..."-P.H., 2007

Well, I guess this as a good an introduction to the Midwestern misery embodied in Psychedelic Horseshit as any other of their legion of one-off-who-gives-a-fuck-about-quantity releases. Undoubtedly one of the best bands to emerge from that weird coulda-been-a-movement we call "shitgaze" (I think 'cause one of the jamokes in this band invented the term), back in the mid-'00s, PH is an on-again-off-again crew of garage-born deadshits from Colombo Ohaioh.

Scratchy acoustic guitar, talk-singing, hollering, pitterpatter drumming, and I think there's a bass guitar in there somewhere (sometimes): Yeah I think that's Psychedelic Horseshit in a nutshell. Yeah there's a bit of clamor and hectic yammering and yowling but mostly this is whatcha play on a rainy weekday when there ain't shit going and all you wanna do is stare out of the window mindlessly waiting for rain that never comes.

it's like that, and that's the way it is. I'm pretty sure that this thing is out of print, but try throwing Matt or Rich an email and they might be using an old copy as a beer cosy or cup coaster. Now that I'm done writing this shite review I'm gonna drink boxwine by the river and yell at tourists.

Whirr-Pipe Dreams LP (2012)

Sacramento's hometown heroes dropped one of last year's best LPs, and I completely missed it. Since I got back it's all I've been listening to. Along with Broken Water and Psychic Blood, Whirr is one of the only bands worth a damn, as far as the '90s-revival thing goes. Instead of simply crushing you to death with colossal Mascis-style riffs or drowning you in MBV tone, Whirr seduces you. Effects-laden guitar dreamworks and sedate synthesizer lines waft in and out of focus through, perpetuating the initial impression I had of Whirr: they sound like falling in love feels.

I'm too out of it right now to elaborate on that, so just go ahead and check it out for yourself. Then go buy a copy at Tee Pee Records!

*EDIT, 9.9.14: I re'up'd the file, you can get Pipe Dreams HERE! *

Kitchen's Floor-Orbit/Regrets 7" (2010)

I haven't showered in days and I can't recall what kind of or which drugs I've been doing for the last four days, so it seems like it's appropriate to feature Kitchen's Floor, finally, on Drug Punk.

KF is one of my favorite recent bands, combining an ear for harmonies with an offhandedly snarling, apathetic aesthetic. This, their debut EP, is ramshackle even by Matt Kennedy standards: three tracks of dirtbag, ultra-lo fi garage misery. The drummer sounds like Mo Tucker on percosets, Kennedy howls, hollers, and shouts over the guitar squall, and yr misery has its new favorite company.
"Still Night" is the surprise here: a slightly psychedelic, plodding concoction much slower than most KF songs, it really sticks in yr head. HERE.

Turn this on, drug out, and remember that loneliness is a dirty matress. This EP is long out of print, but you can still pick up copies of their two LPs at Siltbreeze Records.

Psychic Blood-Autumn Curses CS (2012)

Psychic Blood returns for another round of guitar savagery on their follow up to last autumn's debut EP, "Strain." If you dug that, you'll probably enjoy their full length.

"Visions" picks up where "Strain" left off: heavily distorted, clanging guitar bashes it out with echoey drums, the result falling somewhere between something off MBV's "EVOL" and a Nirvana b-side. "Annihilator" is built around a cascading guitar riff worthy of J. Mascis, although the guitar is mixed at the same level as the drums, so it isn't quite as, well, tyrannically monolithic as a typical Dinosaur, Jr. track. Psychic Blood demonstrates its understanding of the importance of texture with "Roving Mind," a quiet tune with humming, electronic white noise that's almost dreamy. It's effective in setting the first two headbangers apart from what follows, the chaotic "Here is no truth," which could've turned up on one of those old mid-80s SST comps with stuff like BLasting Concept or St. Vitus.

The rest of the album follows the same dynamic, alternating between towering guitar blitzkrieg bashing and downed out noise weirdness. The band's developed their sound a lot since "Strain," and this is worth a careful listen. Check out tracks from the tape on Psychic Blood's soundcloud, here. Damage Mailorder is distributing the tape, out on FeebleMinds Rex-buy it here.

Guest mixtape: Kent State

So Nick from Kent State sent me this mix about two months ago and, industrious young man that I am, it took me that long to get around to spinning it.

If you're into fuzzy '90s grunge/shoegaze/blahblahblah, yer gunna dig this. I vaguely remember seeing a lot of these bands in my local record store's bins back in the late '90s. Highlights include My Vitriol's cover of the Wipers' "Wait a Minute," the GBV tracks, and Kent State's Nirvana cover (f you can't figure out which one that is, I can't help you).

Check it out here, and download it here.