Cloud Nothings: "Psychic Trauma"

"Psychic Trauma" doesn't sound like anything you haven't already heard, but that's primarily because the component sounds are so familiar: garage rock, noise... and post-punk? You don't see the latter thrown into the mix that often, at least not successfully, but damned if Cloud Nothings don't pull it off. I'm a root-for-the-underdog kinda guy so I'm not necessarily pulling for Here and Nowhere Else to come off as a top 10 album at the end of 2014 - Christ knows they earned a lifetime's supply of accolades for 2012's (admittedly glorious) Attack on Memory - but it's good to hear the band haven't lost a step nonetheless.

The Coathangers: "Follow Me"

Garage punk - done well - is a style that never entirely goes out of style, though it obviously ebbs and flows as oversaturation dictates. Well, shit, The Coathangers happen to be from Atlanta, home of OG garage punkers the Black Lips, so they're fighting an uphill battle within their own local scene, let alone an international one.

Fortunately they distinguish themselves by employing those choppy, reed-thin 80's riffs rather than laying on the overdrive and fuzz tones. It'll do.

[EDIT 2/26/14: well that was quick... updating with the official music video, featuring Mastodon for some insane reason]:

CBGB (Movie Trailer)

Right... so, a bit shit, eh? I'm getting tired of these hacky, overly self-conscious biopics that pretty much telegraph "HEY, IMPORTANT HISTORY OVER HERE!" in every single scene. There are many divergent methods of crafting a good - even great - biopic, but one thing that will ensure you don't hit the mark is by feeding your characters deliberately understated quips, the kind that only work if the actors are openly aware how everything is going to pan out all along. 

This is simply wrong. Your characters can't seem like they know the end game while they're still knee deep in the thick of the narrative. That's not ivory tower prescriptivism, by the way, if you're doing this with your writing no one you take seriously will ever commend you on your work. "Show don't tell" is hardly controversial advice.

Christ, just look at that trailer. "The name of this band is Talking Heads". Oh shit! There was a live album by that same title! Reference!

I kind of feel like we've slipped into a Pavlovian rabbit hole, where both context and execution have become expendable and all that's really required of a filmmaker is to evoke a totemic image, whereupon collectively as a society we are all expected to instantly devolve into Orgasm Guy from the old SNL skits.

Man, we're fucked.

Raspberry Bulbs: "Groping the Angel's Face"

Ok, so now we're mixing black metal and bootstrapping garage punk? Is that what we're doing? I guess it'll be alright.

Hooded Fang: "Graves"

Ty Segall would be proud to have written "Graves", a garage stomp by Toronto act Hooded Fang. The 60's production values are there, the distant refrain on the chorus... gold star on each band member's forehead.

The band's upcoming album, confusingly spelled Gravez, is out May 27 on Full Time Hobby.

Vacation: "Pyro Hippies"

I must have slept on this Cincinnati band's self-titled debut two years ago, but "Pyro Hippies" seems like a welcome enough introduction. With that energetic backbeat and noise-drenched post-punk guitar fills this is the right kind of sloppy.

Candy Waves is out June 18 on Don Giovanni Records.

The Men: "I Saw Her Face"

That's that old Neil Young shit right there. Or new Neil Young shit, sounds like the guitar line could have been lifted straight off Shakey's last album. Funny thing is The Men don't typically trade in proto-grunge classic rock, but their album New Moon was released recently on Sacred Bones, and there's something about being on that label that brings out the fuzzy acid psych in everyone. Nonetheless, this song is a standout anomaly on an album that largely sounds nothing like this.

Milk Music: "Cruising With God"

I'll probably rethink this analogy after I've heard this song a few more times, but right now it sounds to me like a mildly David Thomas (Pere Ubu) fronting Dinosaur Jr. with Mike Watt on power bass.

Cruise Your Illusion is out April 2 on Fat Possum, who have been taking some real left turns with their signings lately. Good for them.

Pissed Jeans: "Bathroom Laughter"

Honeys just came out today so probably no coincidence that Pissed Jeans just dropped this vid like it was a slicked up baby straight out the womb. Oh, come on, this shit is obviously brain damaged.

Altered Boys: "Reality Check"

Altered Boys are from Jersey, but their style of hardcore owes as much (if not more) to early 80's UK HC than it does to their neighborly NY brethren. They recently debuted with a self-titled 7" on Katorga Works, but little else is known about their background... for now, anyway, I expect to be hearing more from these motherfuckers forthright.

FIDLAR: "Cheap Beer"

If Red Fang was a street punk group instead of a stoner rock one they would be FIDLAR. Never apologize for that Busch Light in your hand ever again.

Nice Face: "You're So Dramatic"

I refuse to link to a Myspace page. I can't exactly explain why. I certainly have no allegiance to Facebook; I'm actually kind of rooting for Google+ to dethrone their ass, but I'm glad I don't have money riding on it.

No, I think my antagonism toward Myspace is the kind that an Eskimo would feel if they put a decrepit grandparent out on an ice floe and the grandparent had the indecency to paddle their way back. No, dude, we thought long and hard about what we were doing before we stuck your ass out on that ice floe. Don't be trying to make a cheesy comeback. You're just embarrassing yourself here.

Nice Face have a Facebook page is I guess what I'm getting at here.

White Suns: "Footprints Filled"

Whoa. Not sure what to call this shit. It's kinda sludge, kinda punk, kinda noise. Actually it's mostly noise, but there are vocals and discernible riffs so definitely don't think of Merzbow or old Earth style drone. White Suns are playing with genre conventions in a manner that the average metal blog would have you believe is only being done via Cascadian black metal. Fuck your Cascadian black metal in the ear. Sinews is out 4/20 (appropriately enough) on Load Records.
(via Tiny Mix Tapes):

Black Bananas: "My House"

Eschewing the usual found footage video thing to lens their own scattered thematic aesthetic, Black Bananas give you low riders, Mardi Gras Indians and hula hoops. If you can't manage a balanced diet out of those three ingredients your life is probably already fucked.

OFF!: "Wiped Out"

Saw these boys a couple of times at SXSW, including a slot opening for Pennywise. Yes, that's Keith Morris (Circle Jerks) on vocals, so although I do recommend seeing OFF! - soon to be sued out of existence by a litigious insect repellent - on tour the caveat is you have to be willing to listen to Morris rant about politicians at length between each and every song. It's the price you pay.

A Gender: "Anemic"

Best album title of the year: Self (En)Titled by Melbourne's A Gender, the new project from Romy Hoffman, probably best known for her hip hop project Macromantics, who were briefly signed to Kill Rock Stars in the mid-2000's. Hoffman was also a fourth quarter replacement in alt-rock band Noise Addict back in the 90s and has been restlessly dabbling in different styles - with different projects - in recent years. A Gender is the latest of those, an old school new-wave infused punk throwback that is doing good things.

"Anemic" works in the Elastica vein, so we're talking several layers of Wire-worship deep here. The whole damn album can be downloaded for free at the group's obligatory Bandcamp page.
(via Mess + Noise)

Dentata: "Earwig"

Much gratitude to Collapse Board for turning me on - literally - to this band, an obscuro-dirtpunk outfit from Ontario, but I'm not getting the Runaways vibe they do, aside from maybe the general 70s glam/sleaze look. If anything, these gals (and out-of-place dude) seem to be taking musical cues from early 90s girlpunk - think Babes in Toyland, L7, etc - except with the Black Flag/Sabbath influences stripped from the grunge template and recycled through a modern stoner rock filter.  It's hard to place, but readily identifiable once you hear it.

"Earwig" was directed by Richard Kern, a legendary filmmaker and photographer who is best known for photographing and directing videos for the likes of Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch and Marilyn Manson as well being part of the Cinema of Transgression in 1980's NYC.




 Dentata "Earwig" (2011) from Richard Kern on Vimeo.

1990: "Shove", L7

Not that Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland were the only formerly interrelated band members attempting to establish themselves with a similar sound. Jennifer Finch had also played with Love and Bjelland in Sugar Baby Doll. As it turns out, L7 were first to make it to record with 1988's L7, but at this point it's nearly impossible to unravel which of these women was most instrumental in defining the sandblasted, grunge punk sound all three bands would become associated with, or to what extent the evolution was a group effort.

"Shove" was the lead off single from 1990's Smell the Magic

1990: "Swamp Pussy", Babes in Toyland

In fairness to Courtney Love, she and Kat Bjelland played together in several unrecorded bands before going their separate ways to form Hole and Babes in Toyland, respectively, but though both women argued incessantly over whom originally came up with the tattered baby doll look and throat shredding punk sound both bands early became known for, it seems that the majority of their mutual bandmates side with Bjelland on this issue. Either way, it's hard to argue that Love wasn't the first to cash in her underground credentials.