San Angelus - Soon We'll All Be Ghosts (2014, Arctic Rodeo/Amber & Wool) - A brief overview

Given their antecedents in considerably more intense precursors like Shift, Pelican and Sparkmarker, (among others) the four piece San Angelus are of fairly esteemed, not to mention concussive stock. Fear not, as there's no bludgeoning agenda here.  To the contrary, on their two-years in the making debut San Angelus manage to keep Soon We'll All Be Ghosts at a rolling boil, not a frenzied fever pitch.  Hinting at the likes of No Knife, Rival Schools and Failure, there's a sonically nimble post-hardcore modus operandi at play here, eschewing any semblance of an emo crutch.  Slyly cerebral, S/A adhere to an austere subtext and temperament, while exuding an inviting, nuanced glow that compels any eyes and ears that pass over it.  More than a few notable highlights abound, commencing with the powerful opening salvo, "One Hand on the Wheel" demonstrating the quartet's dextrously tuneful and textured musculature.  From there it's onto "Splitting Differences," loaded with delightfully mathy arpeggios.  The churning "All Bets on the Slow Kid" is a vigorous rocker with ironic bite, and "Without You" is the finest example of S/A's heightened melodic prowess heretofore.  Dare I refer to this album as a slowly revealing embarrassment of riches?
 
Complimenting the deluxe vinyl edition of ...Ghosts is a DVD containing videos for all twelve album tracks. In actuality, they're (mostly) unedited single frame shots in outdoor settings, but they manage to dovetail appropriately with the pensive nature of the music they accompany.  This particular incarnation of the record is available via Arctic Rodeo as a European import.  An even more limited edition of Ghosts has been printed up in excruciatingly small quantities on CD, and comes housed in sharp, industrial strength packaging.  Check it out at Amber & Wool.   Thus far, the album is not available digitally, but you can partake in some of the aforementioned videos via San Angelus' YouTube playlist below.

Here's a lesson in dissonance.

The almost complete discography from an early '90s post-hardcore trio, whose members would go onto even more substantial endeavors.

http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/99919981/file.html

The Pengwins - If U Want 2 7" box, and Nixon's Head/Donuts !Pow/Mod! - A brief overview

So here's the concept.  Say you were in a commendable but unheralded power pop band from about 30 years ago.  You had the privilege of recording about a dozen and a half songs that were fit for public consumption, but only a few trickled out onto an EP that is now out of print, and largely speaking your following was local.  To make this music available again (some of it for the first time) the obvious thing to do would be to cram these songs onto a CD for reissue, and/or go the iTunes route and be done with it.  Or you could get considerably more creative with the idea and release each song as a separate 7" single, with a new song from a reconvened incarnation of said group to accompany the "oldie."  Not finished yet?  Ok, let's say you wanted to prolong the fun, and house each separate single in it's own corrugated cardboard box, with a bonus CD of the songs, plus stickers, photos, commentary, trinkets and other reproductions of ephemera contemporary to the era.

Unless you're Led Zeppelin, not many artists would entertain the thought of such an undertaking, but for the Lannie Flowers fronted Pengwins are already up to the second chapter in this exhaustive and unique saga.  As was the case with the first box in this sixteen part series (Naive/Life After High School), which dropped in late 2013, the packaging and ingredients were nothing short of dazzling, and even more swag is being offered this time around, but I shan't give away any more details that what's depicted above (click on the pic for a closer peek).  Oh yeah, and there's music here too.  The A-side, "If U Want 2" is the newbie, while the alternate side of the coin, the 4-tracked "Look Around" dates back to 1977.  Astonishingly, "Look Around" sounds nearly as current as it's far more recent flip.  The Abbey Road recorded (no joke) "If U Want 2" bears glints of Cheap Trick and Velvet Crush, without getting quite as decadent as either.  In the sampler linked below I'm offering an alternate version of the track, a bonus on the enclosed CD version of the single.  The whole shebang is available from CD Baby or by emailing Spyder Pop Records directly.

In unrelated news, I recently posted a record by Philly's Nixon's Head, Traps, Buckshot and Pelt from 1987.  It turns out that not only is Nixon's Head still present and accounted for, they also have something to show for it, namely a split release with the Donuts.  Each band is allotted their own separate full length CD.  The album title alternates depending on how the sleeve is held.  The Nixon's disk, MOD! showcases a quite different sounding group than their days of yore, going straight for the pleasure center here, deviating between saucy riff-pop, a la recent Sloan, and the refined psychedelic inclinations of the Grip Weeds.  Tracks one through five are proper length tunes, with the remaining 14 clocking in at ninety seconds on average, making for a somewhat intriguing comeback.    MOD/POW! is available from CD Baby and Nixon's Head's merch page.

The Edsel Auctioneer - Voice of the Harolds ep (1990, Decoy)

I suppose there isn't much more that I can impart here from what I had to say about the Edsel Auctioneer's 1992 Simmer LP which I made available about four years ago.  For a UK band, they weren't ones to plunder much from their own thriving side of the pond.  Instead the Edsels fixed their gaze westward, particularly to Massachusetts, where the Blake Babies, Buffalo Tom and Dinosaur Jr. apparently fulfilled their quota for copious inspiration.  The six sobering but deftly crafted numbers that comprise Voice of the Harolds are actually culled their first single and an earlier ep, Gutted.  If you care to do any further reading on the band, particularly vintage press clipping, may I direct you here.  

01. Unbroken Line
02. Necessary Disease
03. Strung
04. Our New Skin
05. Bed, Table, Chair
06. Stickleback

Hear

The Breathers - Normal, Illinois ep (1989, Scheisterfest)

Here it is, the debut platter from The Breathers, whose Rain Down ep I pitched to you last year.  Big, plump, near-anthemic power pop here, like a fattened-up Plimsouls or Off Broadway.  Think of 415 Records acts like Wire Train and Red Rockers had they fully embraced the AOR shtick they always seemed to be flirting with.  "Stay the Boy" and "Thin Ice" are the clear winners here, but the seven minute "I Can Make it Rain" could have been whittled down a bit.  My apologies for the slight vinyl static.  Maybe a re-rip is in order.

01. Thin Ice
02. Annabel Lee
03. Anywhere But Here
04. Stay the Boy
05. I Can Make it Rain

Hear

...but the records never sold, and that was bad.

Not their best album, but still pretty great - especially the single.  Took a closer look at the credits today and discovered that Dwight Twilley is singing backup all over this one.

http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/63997789/file.html

Lilys - A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns ep (1994, spinArt)

Just as a heads up, I probably won't have the opportunity to post anything more for the remainder of this week (ditto for re-upping some of the older links you've been requesting).  Sorry!

One of you lot recently asked if I had this one, and you're in luck.  A Brief History... was the follow-up to the Lilys dream-pop classic, In the Presence of Nothing.  It saw the band diminishing their woozy sonic penchant tremendously, and ushered in their "pop" phase, so to speak.  Very much in the same vein as what Yo La Tengo were doing right around the same time.  There are some excellent songs here (save for the throwaway closer, "Evel Knieval).  BTW, the vinyl version of A Brief History concludes with a different track.  Enjoy.

01. Ginger
02. ycjcyaofrj
03. Any Place I've Lived
04. Jenny, Andrew & Me
05. Dandy
06. Evel Knieval

Now on Bandcamp w/ bonus swag

On the dark side let the light shine.

From 1987.  A compilation of two releases from a co-ed British group who were in the process of writing the dream-pop handbook. 

http://netkups.com/?d=5a258ff311b46

Citified - Absence ep (2009, Eskimo Kiss)

Am probably only going to be leaving this up for a few days, as it looks like Eskimo Kiss may still be selling copies.  The review I did for Big Takeover pretty much tells the tale, and you can read it after the jump.  It's a good 'un, so enjoy. 

Greensboro, NC’s Citified manage to negotiate a happy and graceful medium between lucid, indie guitar rock and decidedly murkier dream-pop on their latest EP, Absence.  The slight, graceful flourishes of tremolo inhabiting “Founded” and “My Family Cup” illustrate that Citified have a solid working knowledge of shoegazer constructs, and moreover, know how to apply them in moderation.  For those of you old enough to understand the analogy, Absence is more Souvlaki than Loveless. Translation: what modest feedback and extraneous noise Citified exude is soothingly manicured, not unlike The Daysleepers, For Against, and Springhouse.

01. Founded 
02. Pencil Me In
03. Landlocked
04. Dutiful Scout
05. My Family Cup

Hear

milf - antidope (1994, Big Deal)

Low and behold it's milf's second album, and likely the last thing I have to offer by them after exhausting the rest of their catalog on this page over the years.  The title antidope was in all likelihood a pun on the word "antidote" (clever bastards these lads were, eh)?  Their first full length, 1994's godhead ha ha bus! was the pinnacle of their recorded output IMO, an album that wielded equal parts wry pop hooks and hyper distortion overdrive.  By comparison antidope was markedly dissonant and insular, delving into murkier terrain than milf had ever ventured into.  Challenging and oblique as it may be at times, antidope offers it's share of tuneful respites - "thom" and "isao minami" winning the most favor with me.  All in all it's an acquired taste worth acquiring, especially if you've been sold on their other swill.  Feel your Ginsana.

01. nutcracker
02. ginsana
03. apples
04. big rock drum (interlude)
05. mo' zac
06. georgia tucker
07. the day that gram parsons died
08. georgia pad (interlude)
09. isao minami
10. thom
11. spookie
12. shoegazer (lowest energy song)
13. one man
14. shoegazer (reprise)

Hear

Jet Black - In Paradox & What Moon Things - s/t - a brief overview

In 2012 I belatedly discovered one of the most moving albums of the year that had just passed, namely Jet Black's bristling Escape Measures LP.  Fortunately, I'm a little more on the ball for the Montreal quartet's follow-up, In Paradox, which just dropped last week.  Cut from the same amped-out sackcloth as their debut, In Paradox's is another consistently appealing melodi-noise salvo, throttled down a notch or two.  Not a deliberate throwback, Jet Black are nonetheless tethered to '90s sonic aesthetics, the kind that endeared me to the likes of Swervedriver, Failure and No Knife back in the Clinton-era.   The melancholic hues that dye In Paradox are more pensive than despondent, and despite JB's unflinchingly austere poise, their dense, clamorous haze is coupled with a tuneful penchant that's as effective as anything you're likely to hear this side of a Silversun Pickups record.  And the cherry on top?  A slight but unmistakable ethereal kick.

Physical copies of In Paradox won't be coming down the pike until November, but you can purchase the digital incarnation from the usual sources - iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon, and for a limited time you can stream it via Big Takeover's newly revamped webpage. 

And now for the second act on today's docket.  New Paltz, NY’s What Moon Things don’t rewrite the post-punk playbook, so much as revive it to its pre-hipster grandeur and integrity, throwing the notions of today’s ersatz revivalists straight under the bus.  First and foremost this trio hones in on texture, emphasizing nimble percussion and under-your-skin rhythmic contractions.  Secondly, their economical setup lends itself to skeleton crew arrangements, augmented by a crisp recording that reveals every plunky clang and crash.  A foreboding, subterranean mystique is pervasive here, countered occasionally with sweet Cure guitar tones circa-Disintegration.  There’s a purity to the band’s doggedly uncompromising tenor coursing through What Moon Things, whether it be the bludgeoning splay of “Doesn’t Make Much Sense,” or the woefully emoted “Astronaut,” and that’s merely in the first half of this fabulous, noir beast of a record.  Get it on CD or digitally from Bandcamp or Amazon downloads. 

Does that answer your question?

Dreamy post-punk from the Midwest.  This album is where it all began. 

http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/80842993/file.html

Tim - German Engineering (1998, Vital Cog)

Thought this would be an appropriate follow-up to my missive on Rail a couple nights back.  Four Lexington, KY kids do the strum and clang thing pretty adeptly and LOUDLY.  This album isn't the product of "German engineering" so much as sheer Chapel Hill aesthetics, with a big nod to Archers of Loaf.  At their fiercest, they whip up a rancorous, feedbacky din a la Drive Like Jehu, but Tim tender a wry pop element when they get the notion to (think Treepeople, Superchunk, etc).  I'm just kind of babbling here, so I'll let you get to the music, and it's very good music at that.  I might have a Tim single or two to share in the future. 

01. Flashlight Charm
02. Drawl
03. Maps to the Stars' Homes
04. Hang Nail Failure
05. Mashburn
06. Knee-jerk
07. Presidential Ruler
08. -----
09. First in Space
10. Very Replaceable
11. Ignition
12. Better Get Used to it, Sunbeam
13. At the Half-Seam
14. Rural Electric
15. Honor Blackman is Pussy Galore

Hear

Rail - Roling Little Joe 7" ep (1994) & Luke & Lauraland ep (1995)

This post is likely to be the first and last to concern a band whose roster contained a former roommate of mine. Some twenty years ago I had the dubious honor or sharing a flat for the summer with the guitarist of Rail.  And while my first (and only) foray into communal living concluded in Titanic-like fashion, my roommate turned me onto some phenomenal music in that brief time-span, and moreover, was solely responsible for enlightening me to a genre I had yet to familiarize myself with.  I remember it like it was yesterday...

Up until that point, "Emo" merely signified the moniker of a mildly obnoxious comedian.  That was until said roommate set me up with records by two bygone Washington D.C. acts - Rites of Spring and Embrace.  Even at first blush, I had an appreciation for both of them, but they were acquired tastes that wouldn't really sink in for a few more months, whereas some of his other suggestions, like Rocket From the Crypt and J Church made a much more immediate impression.  At any rate, I soon learned that he had his own emo aggregation, a ramshackle Rochester-by-way-of Buffalo quartet called Rail.  It wasn't 'til we departed our dilapidated apartment that summer and went our separate ways that Rail issued their first record, 1994's Rolling Little Joe.  A privately pressed 7" on 33 rpm, RLJ featured among two other tracks, an arresting A-side dubbed "Faith 51."  The song was in reference to the botched seize of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX in 1993.  Sonically, Rail skewed toward D.C. post-hardcore, but possessed a melodic undercurrent as well.  The Cali band Fuel from the late '80s/early'90s were definitely on the same wavelength I might add (and worth investigating). 

A year later another 7" ep, Luke & Lauraland followed.  This one was a tad last wrought and boasted even greater tuneful sensibilities.  Upon it's release I don't remember hearing or seeing much of Rail again, although a full length was completed, which to my knowledge never saw the light of day.  There was a split 45 with the Autobots that came out in 1996 with the band pared down to a trio.   I assume they called it quits shortly thereafter. 

Rolling Little Joe ep (1994, Supermang/Front Porch)
A. Faith 51
B1. Mine All Mine
B2. Transit

Luke & Lauraland ep (1995, Red Dawg)
01. Reconsider
02. Cheerleader on Prozac
03. Tickin'
04. Luke & Lauraland

Hear

Two trips to the pavement wasn't what I had in mind, when I said I was moving up in this world.

A genre-defining album for yours truly...only I'm not going to specify which genre.  Enjoy.

http://www49.zippyshare.com/v/42746602/file.html

Poi Dog Pondering - 8 Songs by... tape (1986)

Admittedly, I never followed Poi Dog Pondering, not remotely in fact, yet when I had the opportunity to snatch up this little curio a couple years back for a song (literally) I didn't pass it up.  When they came "onto the scene" as it were, in the late '80s, I remember that much was made of their neo-folk bent, and comparatively offbeat accoutrements.  Thus, this is what likely turned me off to them, being the indie guitar-rock aficionado that I was well on my way to becoming.   

8 Songs by Poi Dog Pondering was a handspun and very DIY endeavor, consisting of lo-fi bedroom demos by singer guy Frank Orrall, recorded when he was still based in Hawaii.  In fact, this bears little resemblance to the PDP I recall from 120 Minutes and such, offering significantly more in common with early Aztec Camera and the June Brides (the latter is in all probability a coincidence).  I enjoyed this more than I thought would, especially the second half.  Give 'er a listen and comment as you see fit. 

01. Living With The Dreaming Body
02. Barefeet On Wet Earth
03. And I Went Off
04. Everybody's Tryin'
05. Wood Guitar
06. The Strength That I Need
07. You Think Too Much
08. The Big Walk

Hear

Strypes "I Dream" 7" (1983, Strypes Music)

Streamlined but satisfying, Tacoma's Strypes resided on the 'wave' side of the AOR spectrum, leaving me to wonder which camp (if either) took to them more.  Think Shoes or the A's, or to a significantly lesser extent the Cars.  As far as the record is concerned "I Dream" favors guitars, while “I Need Your Love” defers more to synths.  The Strypes discography is padded out with a couple more singles and a full length.

A. I Dream
B. I Need Your Love

Hear

The Hairs - Subcutaneous (1991, Zero Hour)

I'm guestimating this winsome Aussie bunch were from Perth, as that's where this disk was tracked.  If so, The Hairs were yet another fine addition to their nations' west coast brethren, who could safely be whispered in the same breath as the Stems, DM3, Marigolds, the Waking Hours...and most notably the Someloves.  I put the emphasis on the Someloves, if only by virtue of The Hair's strummy, intoxicatingly tuneful tenor that really seemed to overlap nicely with the scant few records Dom Mariani and Darryl Mather were responsible for just a few years before this trio was presumably inspired to write and record Subcutaneous.  There are moments of sheer Perthection here, "Certified" "Ghost Train" "Time" being three among them.  If the Smithereens, Leatherwoods and Cavedogs are up your four chord alley, you just might be adding The Hairs to that same tier in the very near future.  Bravo.

01. The Ghost Train
02. So Easy
03. Certified
04. Are You Calm
05. What She Is
06. Time
07. That's Wild
08. I Heard You

Hear

She's a telephone astrologer who says I'll be a star...

Despite possessing more polish than grit, this was one of the tastiest power pop treats of 2002.  

http://www37.zippyshare.com/v/99329637/file.html

Rollerskate Skinny - live in Belgium 5/3/94

Ever since Rapidshare made my life miserable in early 2013 and dumped the entirety of files I was hosting through them, I've been getting requests from many of you for restored links.  The amount of requests received for the recommissioning of certain titles functions as a barometer of sorts of the popularity of what I've shared over the years.  One name that's garnered multiple requests is Rollerskate Skinny, or more specifically their early eps, Novice and Trophy that I first made available in 2007.  When I recently discovered a live recording of the band via a Facebook fanpage, I jumped at the chance to hear it.  Number one, RS were from Ireland (and only toured stateside once, or twice tops), and number two, I don't know of any other live recordings in circulation.  On top of that, this is either a soundboard tape or a high quality audience recording.  In short, a colossal find.

The Belgium concert in question was culled from the band's campaign behind their debut LP, Shoulder Voices.  You can click on the above hyperlinks for pertinent background details on the band (not the least of which Jimi Shields, brother of My Bloody Valetine's Kevin Shields, was the Skinny's guitarist).  Aesthetically, RS were coming from the same place as across the pond contemporaries Mercury Rev, though Jim Shields and Co. were IMO doubly more creative, not to mention oblique.  If you have yet to make your acquaintance with these gents you may want to familiarize yourself with their studio albums first, particularly the aforementioned Shoulder Voices, available from iTunes, Amazon and the like. 

01. Miss Leader
02. Violence to Violence
03. Lunasa
04. Bring on Stigmata
05. Entropy
06. Bella
07. Some Give Birth
08. So Far Down Up To Heaven
09. Bow Hitch-hiker

Hear

New noise - swingin' singles from Hollow Sunshine, Population, and Wildhoney.

I submit to you reviews you can use on three of akin, not so much three of a kind. While there is a concurrent thread running through this noisome triple-threat, each troupe offers subtle (and not so) variations on some of the very musical niches this site has staked it's reputation on. The first two freshly minted disks discussed below, come courtesy of Nostalgium Directive Records, a newish Seattle imprint whose "dark entries" have made my world a tad brighter.

The California based Hollow Sunshine impart a pair of deliberately slow, sludgy pieces that lay down the low in ponderously heavy fashion.  Take the A-sider “Cold Truth” for example.  What would normally pass for overmodulated muck is sublimely salvaged via an immediate hook, informed by vintage Dino Jr. and further tricked out with mild ‘gazer tendencies.  Exuding the type of despondent vibes we all secretly enjoy reveling in on occasion, the slow-boiling “I Wandered” might have you scurrying to your turntable to make sure it’s set to 45, not 33.  Navel gazing nerve-ana never came in a more sonically dichotomous package, and this single follows up HS's Held Above album on Robotic Empire.  They also have an extremely limited cassette ep, Atascadero, available on Bridgetown Records that you don't want to sleep on.

Good goth!  Population conjure up an entirely legit comparison that I haven’t stumbled on in eons – Fields of the Nephilim.  Chalk that up to their unidentified, throaty frontman whose doomy bellow is a dead ringer for the Neph’s Carl McCoy.   Both cuts here are fairly Joy Division-ed up, with shades of Red Lorry peeking through to boot, though the Nephilim have these guys beat in the spaghetti western department big time. Population aren't going to be ringing everyone’s diner bell – not by a longshot in fact, but aficionados of maudlin post-punk will do well with this beauty.  The envelope adorning sleeve art is quite innovative I might add.

Finally, we have Wildhoney's Seventeen Forever ep.  I dedicated a few ones and zeroes to their 2013 three songer, and I'm happy to talk this one up.  Calling Baltimore home this female commandeered dream-pop outfit unfurls a LOUD, breathless rush of dizzying feedback and melody, with all the woozy pomp and circumstance the genre came to embody, circa 1991.  Borrowing heavily from both Anglo and American camps, you'd swear you had heard Wildhoney before even if you hadn't.  Seventeen Forever is that perfect and impeccably gratifying. 

Below you'll find links to purchase, and perhaps even listen to this trifecta.  Physical copies of all three are quite limited from what I understand, so don't sleep!

Hollow Sunshine - Bandcamp, Nostalgium Directive
Population - Bandcamp, Nostalgium Directive
Wildhoney - Photobooth Records, Bandcamp