Aborted Tortoise - Scale Model Subsistence Vendor (2020)

I've finally started work as an occupational therapist, and for reasons I'd rather not get into, I'm commuting 180 miles per day to do so. I wake up when it's dark, drive an hour and 40 minutes into Newark, NJ to hang out with autistic children, trying to engage them in play dough, pompoms, and pipe cleaner for 6 hours and then make the long drive home. 

These kids are great and I'm stoked to be apart of bringing their potential out, but holy shit does this commute fucking blow. Not to mention Newark has more potholes than the damn moon, which easily adds another 5-10 minutes to my drive. The drive out of Newark is a whole other hell and it's turned me into an aggressive driver much quicker than I ever thought possible, completely obliterating whatever low-key-whatever-dude facade I'd built the past 13 years living on the west coast. 

That said, my chosen soundtrack for the commute home has lately been high energy punk music and nothing does it for me like Australian punk. 

Aborted Tortoise out of Perth are a great band for my commute home. A little garage, plenty o' punk. It's uppity, fun and fast, just the kind of music to help numb your cares about flipping off the piss-shivering plops who seemingly have a highway death wish. (ps I'm alright everyone, I'm just tired.)

4 songs. 7" available.

Aborted Tortoise - Scale Model Subsistence Vendor

EP Grab Bag vol. 106

This post has been a long time coming, I had it 65% written then things went all pear-shaped. Turns out my computer shit the bed. Blasted motherboard was fried, and there were many deliberations on how and when to acquire a new computer. Today I finally bit the bullet. I'm feeling profoundly uncomfortable with having spent so much money, as I am fundamentally a miserly man. Yet this is better than sitting around watching Quantum Leap on my smartphone and drinking cheap micheladas. Well, maybe not better as much as it's different.

Also, this means I am even more far behind on submissions that I would have been otherwise, so please bear with me.

To be had here:

Fuzz Ghost - Fuzz Ghost EP (2015)

If you've been digging on the full-length albums I've posted lately then I'm glad to say that there's plenty more garage rock piled up in the submissions, not least of which is this debut EP from Nashville's Fuzz Ghost. Surfy, psych-tinged garage rock with a light-hearted tone. The singing is a real highlight of these tracks, howling, echoey and dreamy at once.  I think it's an utterly fantastic EP, yet I had little doubt that it would be impressive. After all, it is being issued by our friend over at Ongakubaka Records.

Buzz Driver - Buzz Driver (2015)

On the other side of the equator comes more garage rock, specifically from Volta Redonda, Brazil. Heavily reverbed and stylized surf riffs can be heard in the intro, then it fades into a jumpy, fast and very distorted garage rock. Like an even more blown out version of Tokyo Sex Destruction. They've full embraced the thunderous quality of an untuned bass guitar through a wildly lo-fi set up. Whole EP is maybe 7 minutes, but some of the loudest and craziest minutes I've heard in a while.

Pulco - Found Sound (2015)

Though this EP was just released it is a recording from 2009 for a radio show called 'Garden of Earthly Delights' (a name taken from the same Hieronymus Bosch painting that is the background imagery of this very blog). If you've heard any of the other work from Pulco you'll know to expect some experimental music riddled with spoken word. This EP is neat because it sounds more raw and kinda creepy compared to the music the Welshman made later.

Kate Wakefield - Water Lungs (2015)

A rather unique EP as far as what you'll usually find on this blog. The songs are filled with operatic and classical influences from Wakefield's cello playing and her robust vocals. However, it is done in the way that is weirdly appropriate for what we do here. Her sining is phenomenal, poetic and versatile. Same goes for her cello playing, and they're both wrapped into a highly textured and layered avant-pop context. I could see her either as an indie darling or a full-blown popstar, I wouldn't mind hearing her as either really.

HIATO - HIATO (2015)

An lo-fi electronic musician from Guayaquil, Ecuador, the city that the first Scenes of a City was about. Ambient, chillwave sort of electronic music. The songs are well-fleshed out and engaging, something can sometimes be a challenge with these genres. HIATO has avoided many common pitfalls, yet still has identifiably characteristic of a bedroom electronic musician such as vocal samples and looping artificial drum beats. There's some catchy stuff on this EP, especially the final track, "Úrsula."

Wild Raccoon - Mount Break (2015)

There's also a lot going on in France, not always for the better, but I am not gonna use my irreverent music blog to dwell on all-too-serious of matters. Rather I would like to focus on something the French have been constantly proving the world with and we'd be sorely lacking without. I am talking about arts and culture. The French are classy, we all wish would be as sophisticated as they appear in our public imaginations. This is even true when a Frenchman makes a fuzzy, sung in English, one-man band in the northern city of Lillie and names it Wild Raccoon.

Mount Break is a mesmerizing collection of lo-fi songs. Wild Raccoon's done an astounding job at showing a masterful talent at composing warm, fuzzy tunes that draw on garage rock, psychedelic, and surf is continuously recalibrated proportions. There's a remarkable juxtaposition at play in his songs. He cleared labored to make these cacophonous, loud and distorted sounds as compelling as possible. Making beauty out of an absolute mess is not unique to garage rockers, but I adore how they do it and I particularly like how Wild Raccoon managed to do so. Definitely the equal of perennial favorites Dusty Mush, Lady Flint, King Cayman or those dudes down in Capetown. Yet more particularly he reminds me of Ty Segall or his fellow Frenchman, Pain Dimension, though perhaps a bit less distorted and more psychedelic.

I'm not gonna pull attention to individual songs, as this is without a doubt the sort of album best heard from beginning to end, more than likely twice or thrice in a row. If you're interested in obtaining on a cassette the awesome folks over at Paris's Howlin' Banana Records have you covered. 

To be had here:
Wild Raccoon - Mount Break

Sex Hands - Pleh (2014)

I still download music illegally. And so it was surprising when I looked into this band, Sex Hands, after previewing their music on Spotify to see if I wanted to download it from my special source, that they actually offer this excellent album, Pleh, as a "name your price" on their Bandcamp page.

Well then, time to funnel it on over to Spacerockmountain.

This album has it all. It's like Joey Santiago and John Dwyer trading licks over a Rob Pollard side project. Can I get anymore lame with my comparisons? Yes! Just you wait.

Anyway, without digging a grave for my credibility and/or this fantastic Manchester, UK band, just do yourself a favor and grab it.

Their music is a smear across the lofi-indie-punk-garage spectrum. There's little reason to get into it any further. It's better than most shit that does the same, that's about all you need to hear before you hop over and check them out for yourself. Also available on 180 gram vinyl.

13 songs.

Sex Hands - Pleh

Black Fruit/Factotum SPLIT (2015)

What we have here is a split album, something you might have pieced together from the title of the post. You might not have guessed that they're garage rock bands from Michigan and another from United Kingdom. Nonetheless this is very much the case.

Black Fruit are from Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city on the other side of the state from yours truly and one I fail to understand fully but has produced its fair share of excellent bands. Black Fruit is a particularly awesome example of this. Moreover, they put out the majority of the tracks for the split (7 of 12 songs) allowing for you to soak of all the lo-fi bliss their belting out. Fuzzy guitars, loud and steady drum beats and almost totally incomprehensible singing. The songs are infused with a healthy degree of both surf rock and mild nihilism. It's funny how those blend so well.

Factotum is a British outfit, who while certainly being garage rock are of a different sort. The sound is more grungy and filled out with a psychedelic style. Additionally the singing is more abrasive and akin to post-hardcore garage punk. The songs are intense and rumbling, so while the songs are the minority of the split they haven't any trouble holding up their end of the bargain. Overall the split is indeed an interesting contrast in the varieties of garage rock that are existent, but I would be hesitant to say they show any UK-US rift in the style (this is how the email pitched it to me). Especially because I remember Whirlwind Heat, a Grand Rapids based garage rock band from a bit over ten years back that was more like Factotum than their fellow Grand Rapidians Black Fruit.

Finally, the album is due out physically as a colored vinyl, I believe in March, by Stolen Body Records. So if you liked what you heard and want it on wax, look out for that.

To be had here:
Black Fruit/Factotum SPLIT

Scenes of a City, Vol. 5: Gijón, Spain

Now I work primarily as a used bookseller, which I like to think of as a job that requires me to know a little about everything, but be adept in very few. Yet there are things you entering into the trade with a mild curiosity for and as you get to see the volume of books, or lack thereof, on the topic you'll cultivation it accordingly. My main two fascinations I've nurtured since becoming a bookman is depressing, existentialist foreign literature and the maybe even a more depressing subject of the Spanish Civil War. As I imagine is common for English-speakers, I was exposed to the war via George Orwell's account of the conflict in Homage to Catalonia. Ever since I've wanted to know more but I won't bore you with the details of the volumes I've collected and spent my spare time pouring over. Rather this is a way to explain why I have begun to know the names of many Spanish cities, the various linguistic differences of the country and the political structure of Spain with its autonomous communities. This is how I know of Asturiason, the northern, mountainous and coastal area of Spain and the region in which Gijón, or Xixón as it is known in Asturian, is located. What I only recently discovered is how much music is being produced in this city, and how much of it is readily available on bandcamp. So forget my depressing pre-occupations as you hear these marvelous tunes.

To be had here:

No Fucks - No Fucks (2014)

The most recent release by a band that's got several enjoyable and free releases on bandcamp from the past two years. They make a retro pop-rock that has some touches of surf rock, and this 7" is sung in Spanish (maybe Austrian, I'm not versed enough to know) and is quite alluring and catchy. The last track, "Vegetar," slows it down some and really show off how lovely of a song they can compose. I recommend hitting up their back catalogue too, those EPs are great shit.


HUIAS -  ! (2011)

An electronic pop EP with chillwave and dream pop tones. It is quirky but not overbearing, a sort of subtle and refined approach is apparent in the music of HUIAS. It is really the instrumentation that makes these songs so damned beautiful and how they play off the fantastic vocals, and like all thing with music and this whole blog I can only struggle to convey that is is pleasant to hear. It is easy to get sucked in and wanna hear these songs again. Additionally, they've got a new single out called "Movimiento Este" that is totally worth hearing.

agora que somos muertos - Aquelarre (2012)

If you haven't noticed by now I am a huge fan of folk and American primitive music, as recently shown by the Steve Palmer and C. M. Slenko posts and my everlasting love of John Fahey. So I imagine my joy at finding a Spanish band that was playing folk that came reasonable close to Fahey's style. Aquelarre is full of the wonderful experimentation and psychedelic-by-way-traditonal (this is a concept I am pondering) that I've come to respect and covet so deeply.

The Starkwells - Take The Money And Run (2014)

There seems to be a continuous thread through my posts on cities that there is one band that can pass as a British band while decidedly not being from Britain. This band perhaps doesn't have the accent as well done as prior bands, but it does sing it some fine English and have some very good power pop songs to go with that very British seeming name. It is lighthearted and sweet to the ear, but the issue is that while it is streamable I can't seem to see how one can download or purchase it. Perhaps that band will come through with some details....

Los Guajes - Mujeres y Centollos (2012)

This is what we've all been waiting for, a Spanish garage rock revival act. I mean, we're bopping all around and far from displeased at what I've found in any of these cities, but I had a theory that garage rock was this universal presence at one time and I hoped it survived in abundance. Thanks for Spain and Los Guajes might retain some of this blissful illusion. Here is the freshest, even at two years tardy, of albums from this band, and it goes for seven Euros but the previous album, La vida es como un CARRUSEL, is a free download. I really don't know what else to tell you beyond these simple words... GARAGE ROCK, ORGANS, SPANISH, MOUSTACHE, SUITS, FUZZZZ.

Brimstone Blondes - AGE OF CONSENT (2014)

I've been listening to one new album at least everyday for weeks now, sometimes up to 4 new releases in a day. You'd think that this would burn me out, but really this is a light load compared to what I used to do when I was trapped in St. Clair County, Michigan with little other to do that breathe the polluted air and argue with my girlfriend like the fool-headed teenager I was. I think that many people in somewhat culturally isolated corners of this planet can relate to the problems of living vicariously through media and the obsessiveness that it can generate be it music, comic books, video games or whatnot. It seems like you should be ashamed of it and move on to start living, but every time I do that I find that life is full of waiting. Always in a hurry to get to somewhere to wait. So with time I have noticed that if I am gonna wait why not do so with a bunch of new albums pumping in the headphones and be taking just enough notes along the way that when I get wherever I am going I have something fucking interesting to share. 

Brimstone Blondes a four-piece self-described surf rock band from Buffalo, NY. There's no actual surfing going on in Buffalo, hence to talk of catching the sunbeams or big waves, but that's no reason not to make surf rock on the cold shores of the Great Lakes region as these guys will demonstrate. The songs are fast and full of bravado, to such a degree that it has a likeness to the flamboyance of glam rock. Partying and making out, lust for your friend's girl as if the Cars and Television were getting trashed together. Though the pace does settle down by the time you get to the appropriately named "Afterparty," which is a sort of hedonistic love song. In fact, several the tracks could be called that. Enjoy yourself and give AGE OF CONSENT a listen, and worry about everything you fucked up another day.

To be had here:

Brimstone Blondes - AGE OF CONSENT

Bicycle Day - I Had A Place To Be (2014)

Ever feel like you volunteered yourself for too much work to get done reasonably quickly? I have done that at my job, as I had decided that several decades worth of unsaleable computer books need to be dumped out of the store so I can make way for good stock. Easier said than done, I've packed and hauled them all day today and I am not even half done. My day is aching and I've only myself to blame but at least there are remedies to be had. And sitting down to a good lo-fi album is always one of them for me. That and good measure of beer my boss discourages me from buying with I read novels I bought from his store.

A debut album by the Oakland, California band, Bicycle Day. They play a very distorted and fuzzy garage rock. They nailed those vocals, by which I mean I can't understand the vocals whatsoever. Then there's the music that's fucking awesome. Basically everything is washed out but the songs still have a very west coast surf undertone. It is like sunshine dragged through a sea of mud and making awesome sounds the whole way. The songs on I Had A Place To Be almost seem catered to me, as I have been listening to a bunch of Yelephants, King Cayman and King Khan & BBQ Show lately just because I find that the most naturally productive sort of music for me to hear. Like I get shit done with that sort of lo-fi pulsing in my eardrums. I found I Had A Place To Be to be a most excellent addition to this rotation and a superb effort for a debut. Left me wanting to hear more songs immediately. Luckily there was their Vandals EP to hear as well that bears the same characteristics that I adored in the full-length.

You can get in now on their bandcamp page but I was told they are soon gonna be released via Lolipop Records too, maybe even so by this time. 

To be had here:
Bicycle Day -  I Had A Place To Be

Yorkshire Fields - I Heard You Were Looking for Me (2014)

Yorkshire Fields are back with a successor album to last year's Dummo that got it a spot on an early episode of our podcast. That album was written up by Elvis, and I avoided re-reading it until I had heard the new album so as to minimize how it may steer my opinion of the new album. The first thing I was struck with after hearing I Heard You Were Looking for Me and then looking back at what Elvis had said about Dummo was how they hardly seemed to be referencing the same band at all. 80s electro-rock seemed to factor in a good deal with how the first album sounded, something that delighted Elvis and is still a fine set of songs to listen to. However, it seems like have decide to change the style considerably with their new release.

For those of you hoping for more synth-driven 80s throwback sound, you'll have to go looking elsewhere, as the new dish Yorkshire Fields is serving up is temperamental dream pop with a light dressing of surf. Their are two singers that switch between the duties of lead vocals in the album, one male and one female. The male singer use a modulation that does preserve a bit of the synthetic quality of the prior album, but not to any overpowering degree. All the tracks have a nonuniform lo-fi sound that is vaguely grouped around a dreamy sort of feeling, but more or less guitar and percussion allow the songs to take on considerably different tones. Even parts of songs can have greatly different affectations,and the final songs get damned near actual space rock. Yet I found it's the singing on majority of tracks with the female vocalist that really stole the show for me. "Tire" and "Piltdown Hoax" had mesmerizing effects on me, requiring a good deal of re-listening. They're insanely catchy and her singing ungodly alluring to the fan of lo-fi vocals, even if they are understandable unlike much of the singing I praise. A wonderful follow-up album can be heard with I Heard You Were Looking for Me and I sure would like to see if there's more metamorphic albums to come from Ruston, Louisiana. 

To be had here:
Yorkshire Fields - I Heard You Were Looking for Me

Strange Lords - Strange Lords (2014)

Strange Lords is a two-piece outfit operating mainly out of Gainsville, Florida. The bands is comprised of Waylon Thornton, who usually releases music under as Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands, and Andrew Seward, who was formerly the bassist for Against Me! (a band I best recall as achieving considerable fame among classmates). It has been a minute since I've heard releases that either of these musicians would have been involved in, but I don't think you'll really need to be familiar with their histories to get what's going on with this album. It is intensely lo-fi rock and roll that prizes fuzzy guitar and thunderous drums above all else. Sure there are surf flourishes, stoner rock and vaguely psychedelic cord progressions or keyboard playing in the mix to give the albums texture, but the main this is some fast, short, almost entirely instrumental tracks that's rather bare bones rock. While not all the tracks are surf-esque the ones that are caught my ear the most including "Carroneros" and "Amano-Iwato." Although the final track is worth waiting for as it is has a very neat western sort of thing going on. A good start, and it will be interesting to hear what they produce with another release, especially if they push themselves something even more strange. I suppose there's another monster themed contender for the Drunken Draculas to have to worry about.

To be had here:

Strange Lords - Strange Lords

Yorkshire Fields - Dummo (2013)

The 80s are back you say? Then why don't I see lines of coke at every club? I can't stand the stuff personally, but it did provide ample opportunity to taste the fairer sex.

Yorkshire Fields from Louisiana owe a lot to the synth/electro culture of the 1980s, but this is not a project built entirely out of retro-resurrection. After the funky pop of "Light Leaks," the band charts a path closer to the fuzzed out electronic indie rock than anything resembling Culture Club. My favorite track, "Did We Get Old" rests just off the coastline of my imagination with its buzzing guitar licks, calling me to swim at night even when I know sharks are out there waiting to take a bite. I saw Kisses play at the Soda Bar in San Diego last night, and these kids would have fit well on that bill.

No physical release (yet), but it is a free digitally, so grab it before they run out of free-downloads.

Get it here:
Yorkshire Fields - Dummo (2013)

Killer Ghost - Demo, Lo​-​Fi High Five & Not Punk Enough (2013)

Look here, three EPs by one artist dating only as far back as the summer. He must really be trying to win us over, eh? Well, I am sold on it, Killer Ghost is a member of a band I heavily praised in previous posts, Fun Guns. Naturally I was very excited to hear his new project and it did not disappoint, though the Demo really is that, a very rough recording and the songs that he decided to re-record on the latter EPs are really significantly improved. Musically it can easily be told that this guy is from the Fun Guns, as the music is really of the same style, which is to say bluesy, lo-fi garage rock with surf rock thrown in here and there. However, it is great to hear more from him as I can't get enough of the three EPs I've heard by Fun Guns and was already hankering for more tunes of that sort. Be sure to at least check out the super righteous EPs Lo​-​Fi High Five and Not Punk Enough. Between the two you've basically got a short album on your hands, and a damned fine one at that.

To be had here:




Demo

Lo​-​Fi High Five

Not Punk Enough

Dusty Mush​/​The Future Primitives Split (2013)

What we've got here is a wonderful combination of tracks from two previously posted on and much beloved, my yours truly at very least, garage rock bands. A cross-continental (South Africa and France) effort I was happy to see taking place. God bless these borderless internets. As for the tunes themselves, it is a fine collection of intensely preformed lo-fi garage rock. Dusty Mush's music improves exponentially with every succeeding release. Each of the fuzzy ditties on this split have blazed their way into my memory so much that I've been taking unsanctioned breaks at work just to rehear them.  The Future Primitives do treat us to some surf with the brief "Instro"but delve rather sharply thereafter into fine garage punk. "Try On Something Tha's Really You" is exactly the sort anthem that'd like blast from the shoddy speakers my hoopty if I hadn't ditch it. Fantastically conceived of pair of bands and if you didn't heed my words when I've previously posted them this'll make a grand introduction.

To be had here:
Dusty Mush​/​The Future Primitives Split

Chalk Talk - Bad Influences (2012)

No fun for the busy I suppose. You may not have the chance to take out the board for the afternoon with all your deadlines and wage labor, but I guess that is why god made surf music. Chalk Talk makes a really excellent addition to this genre. It’s hazy, hook heavy, and easy to digest in 3 minute intervals. Exactly what you are looking for in this type of thing.

On tracks like “Your’e In,” the band demonstrate that they have learned a bit from recent surf-rock revivalists and turn up the amps to 11, leaving a sense childish abandon perched over their tunes. This record has been released on vinyl by Sex Cave Records. Grab it before it is posted to a slew of best-of lists this year and enters the realm of the rare.

Get it here:
Chalk Talk - Bad Influences (2012)

Different Skeletons - Without Country (2012)

Toronto's Different Skeletons are back with a follow-up to last year's Secret Jeers. There is a stylistic change that is evident to any of you that might've enjoyed Secret Jeers. The new album is still lo-fi rock and roll but they've made it more psychedelic, the singing far more effected to seem fuller, like a wonderful time beckons you to join in. All this while being neither faster nor heavier in their playing. I'd place it more as a mature of their songwriting style that shows the time they've put in thus far. The results are pretty stellar and don't be surprised if you wanna replay the six tracks of this release immediately because if you could name any fault it was that there was too little to listen to.

To be had here:
Different Skeletons - Without Country

EP Grab Bag vol. 26

My head is pounding harder than I can remember for a long time this morning and I'm in a shitty funk from too many mishaps and stresses to detail on here, but I'm still beating myself up over not getting this EPs posted up. Especially because they're so damned fine, so my apologies if the reviews are short or muddled, I can't muster the words together for any better. However, before my life devolves into a bitter mess of misanthropic phrases like a novel written by Céline, I'd better shill these tunes.

To be had here:

Car Seat Headrest - Starving While Living (2012)

Back with an EP after the two wildly fantastic albums I posted on here, Monomania and Twin Fantasy (and there's more out there if I recall). Psychedelia loaded with distorted vocals delivering a style of melancholy poetry. There's some good organ-like droning "Devil's Moon" but I think he saved the best track for last with "Oh! Starving."

Summer Schatzies - Take me to Bohemia (2012) 

The fine lady from Pirasian Beach sent me word of this band from Budapest. I can see how she'd be into them and why she'd hope we would be too, as Summer Schatzies sounds pretty similar to her own album. The thing that does make this group stand out is their more indentifiable influence of surf rock. It makes for a wonderful lo-fi surf pop that doesn't shy away from the fuzzy guitars.

Moray - Into the Departing Lights EP (2012)

A healthy dose of post-rock, exceedingly welcome in light of my painful headache this morning. Sadly despite investing in various kinds of headphones they've all been broken or stolen, so I'm restricted to listening to Moray over the inadequate built in speakers of the MacBook Air. Even with this handicap, I'm willing to say this is perhaps one of the best post-rock release I've heard all year long. The percussion is solidly winning and guitar is most skillful exacting it fills me with delight that someone has talent of this sort.

Zany Zongas and Yosa Buson - jahannam جهنم

The habitually featured Old Monster Records has given us more music to fill our greedy ear holes with. This is a collaborative effort that results a display of psychedelic prowess that ranges from mild ambient paired with chimes to extended lo-fi guitar droning. It is a combination of sounds played from a reel-to-reel player and new instrumentation. It's out there and takes you with it should you give a listen.

Triptides - Couch Surfer (2012)

It’s raining like a mother here in Northern California over the last two weeks, and I am already missing the warm sun of San Diego’s beaches. I love the gloomy weather, don’t get me wrong, but having grown up in Southern Cali, I generally expect a few days of wet weather to be buttressed by a few weeks of sun. Spoiled, I know.

Triptides is helping me get over these rainy day blues with their beautiful and lush surf-rock. These guys are from Indiana, so I figure they don’t hit the waves all that often, but they have definitely created the soundtrack for anyone who does. Or for that matter, anyone dreaming of warmer weather and hazy summer days. These guys put out an excellent cassette a few months ago on Beachtapes, and this new single is free and worthy of repeated plays.

Get it here:
Triptides - Couch Surfer (2012)

Aaron & the Burrs - Aaron & the Burrs (2012)

I'm not done with my binge on selecting lo-fi rock to write up. This time it is some surf rock. Aaron & the Burrs play instrumental surf rock that can obviously be likened to many precursors such as Man or Astro-man?, Laika & The Cosmonauts, and Tijuana Panthers. However, none of these really capture what these cats are up to. The guitar, like having a most undeniably surf-sound, isn't fuzzed out nearly as much as you may expect. In fact it's a more precise style, and it's played awfully quick as well (check the fantastic "Sunny Sky, Choppy Surf" to hear for yourself). If you'll allow me to indulge in my obscure references, I'd say they remind me more of a cleaned-up version of The Apemen or The Phantom Surfers. By this I mean the musicianship overwhelms the flourishes of the style to be the driving factor. So fine it makes me forget that it's a bitter cold autumn outside, but not to diminish the album I am blisteringly hot in my basement apartment this time of year (boilers often aren't efficient at spreading the heat around). Be it my artificially induced fever-like state of mind or the exciting music itself, I highly recommend giving a listen to Aaron & the Burrs.

To be had here:

Aaron & the Burrs - Aaron & the Burrs

The Drunken Draculas - Dead Sounds (2012)

As always these days I'll begin with my apologies that I'm not anywhere on top of posting the shit that's been submitted, and as perfect evidence this is a band that should've been able to jump the huge queue that swells in my inbox each day for a few reasons. This is Elvis Dracula's band (obviously right?) who, along with Larry, has prevented this place from going silent as I been too tired out from a variety of distractions and time constraints (illness, extra holiday hours, family gatherings, etc.). You'd think I'd get around to shilling his sweet noise sooner, but I'm a dumbass sometimes. Anyway, the main reason they'd be able to jump ahead in that line is because they're good. Good at garage rock which makes me wildly happy. You'd think I'd get around to shilling this sweet noise sooner, but I'm a dumbass sometimes.

If I'd gotten this up timely it would've been fine listening for Halloween, but luckily for children and vampire-themed rockers across America this is a yearly event that one can never been too prepared for. Moreover, just as I'd never limit my candy intake to the autumn, I'd heavily recommend you give this more stripped down and often jangling new tunes from the Drunken Draculas. There's still those deep, lo-fi vocals that could sing me to sleep even in a coffin (listen to "Father Death") and displays of loud, boisterous rocking, yet it's got a healthy amount of more subtle, eerie rock to make a fully formed blood-sucking album. Forgive my tardiness and don't follow my example in waiting, get this shit.

To be had here:

The Drunken Draculas - Dead Sounds

Monster Rally - Beyond the Sea (2012)

I'm very aware I've been promising and hoping to make more frequent posts and utterly failing to deliver for months, but that's the fucking rub I suppose. However, there's little better reason to emerge from a temporary silence to spread the word about this new LP by Monster Rally. This guy's been written up here and on several blogs I admire for his previous releases and everything that made those so meritorious can consistently be heard on Beyond the Sea. For those unfamiliar with Monster Rally's music, it is a fantastic example of what some term glo-fi, which I think of as lo-fi electronic music with heavy usage of samples and looping to create something oddly nostalgic yet unique. Moreover, all his songs have a tropical exotica theme that makes it absolutely wonderful for listening to while baking under the summertime sun that's been scorching Detroit and various other locales recently. Finally, while the digital version has been released in a "name your price' scheme, there's a vinyl version coming out in June with pre-ordering going down now.

To be had here:
Monster Rally - Beyond the Sea