Interesting mix of period styles here, Britpop-inflected shoegaze with a martial-lite, industrial percussive backing. Somewhere in the intersection where Jesus & Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins and Cabaret Voltaire were meant to collide - and never did - resides this.
Quilt sticks with that brand of acid rock that is not so much a mishmash of psych tropes over the years as it is firmly entrenched in 1967, that Haight-Ashbury sound where everyone wanted to be the next Jefferson Airplane. The sound is not so much timeless as uprooted, reenactment sans pastiche. It's deeply affecting even as it's purely inauthentic. Shit, what are you gonna do?
"Open Eyes" can be found on the New Hampshire Freaks split 10" with MMOSS, out now on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond.
We're running out of band names. Soon a government regulated entity will hand out randomized sequences of letters and numbers to prospective new groups the same way the post office hands out phone numbers (ie. only the select few will even have the option of choosing from an existing pool of unused character strings; presumably you will need major label backing to achieve this honor, similar to how most telephone companies reserve this privilege for deep pocketed businesses). If "Simulador" is any indication, XYX are both confused and perturbed about their lot in life.
Teatro Negro is already out on the decidedly non-major Monofonus Press (ie. it's apparently based in WKMR's hometown of Austin and we've never heard of it; good works, boys and/or girls).
Anyone familiar with the Flaming Lips - particularly their mid-90's (semi-)crossover period - knows that there's always been a certain pop sensibility behind their skewed, acid-drenched aesthetic. That said, this brand new cover of the Beach Boys classic "God Only Knows" proves that they're not particularly interested in separating the psychedelia from their pop. While arguably one of the more "accessible" things they've done in recent memory, they turn this old chestnut out (Paul McCartney's favorite song of all time, incidentally... let him do his own faithful cover if the original is so damned bulletproof).
This was recorded for one of those MOJO magazine cover CDs that seem to be nothing but anniversary celebrations of classic albums via current artists putting their own spin on the tunes.
THEESatisfaction is not - as the name might suggest - a Billy Childish project, nor would it be a lot cooler if it was. They are a Seattle duo creating swirling, vertigo-inducing funk/soul/rap combinations of pure psychedelic intent. "QueenS" is not about the NYC borough but instead a reference to their own self-empowerment motto, "Queens Supreme". Whatever. Just get lost in the discombulation of this head bobbing motherfucker while snacking on those neo-vintage visuals.
Thought for sure this would be a Yamantaka Eye (Boredoms) side project, but nope: just your everyday Canadians-singing-in-Japanese mundanity. Some days you wonder why you get out of bed in the morning.
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan is a duo with a willfully obtuse name - apparently neither of them go by either "Yamantaka" or "Sonic Titan" - from Montreal who released their debut YT // ST (fuck's sake, you can't even do the self-titled album thing like normal people?) late last year and have finally scraped up enough scratch to pay for an animated video. Bet Ted Turner would colorize that for you pretty cheap, guys.
This is 60's psych-pop rendered as modern dance music, a deft touch on the editing console turning a simple carousel melody into an oscillating kaleidoscope of refracted arpeggios. Or something of that sort.
"5th Dimension" - not a Byrds cover, by the way - is the b-side of The Jameses' new single, "Caribou", their sophomore 7" on Captured Tracks, home of Heavenly Beat and Thieves Like Us among other indie contenders.
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" was originally recorded by the Supremes and released in October 1966, becoming the group's eighth number one hit the next month. Almost immediately, the song became a staple cover in rock/R&B circles, and amongst those taking a crack at it were American psych rock band Vanilla Fudge.
This version, shown below in a "live" clip from the Ed Sullivan Show, would be the band's first single (in a three minute truncated form) in 1967, reaching #6 on the charts. Vanilla Fudge are best known today for giving the hard rock world Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert, both of whom recorded an album with Jeff Beck in the mid-70's. Appice in particular has kept monstrously busy over the years, contributing to the bands Cactus, King Kobra, Blue Murder and his own Guitar Zeus project amongst many others.
About time I repped one of my hometown bands. White Denim have been bouncing around for three years now after debuting with the much hyped single, "Let's Talk About It". The success predicted off the basis of that single hasn't entirely come to fruition, but that could well be because the band didn't milk that same psych garage sound in perpetuity. "Drug" comes off their current album, D, and sees the lads kicking the tires on a Sloan / Flaming Lips hybrid model.
One of the least characteristic Flying Nun bands, the Terminals were much darker and acid rock influenced, their vision of "pop" being somewhat more dissonant and obtuse. 1990 also saw the first Terminals album, Uncoffined, but unlike several of the previous Flying Nun groups who were still new to the album format at the turn of the decade, the Terminals were not a longstanding singles band, having only previously released one EP in 1988.
Uncoffined would be their final release for Flying Nun. They would go on to release several more albums for different labels before breaking up sometime after 1995's Little Things. A reunion record, Last Days of the Sun, was issued in 2007, but the band's current status is unknown.
