Miserable-Halloween Dream

Back when I saw Whirr a few months ago (who were absoutly incredible and demonically noisy as I hoped they would be), I noticed that their vocalist/synth player Kristina Esfandiari was absent. It seems now that Esfandiari has left the band, which is truly unfortunate because her breathy vocals truly add a wonderfully ethereal quality to Whirr's sound, especially their last EP Around. However, there appears to be a silver lining, with Esfandiari investing in her solo project Miserable. Least anyone think the name is an exageration, go listen to the dark folk melded blackened shoegaze that is "Bell Jar" and tell me otherwise. However, it's the the title track of her new 7", "Halloween Dream" that truly stands out. Her voice has emerged from its hazy casing, and now carries the full weight of its gothic, almost witch-like tone. It hovers heavily over the whole song, whether during its creeping and breathy opening, or during the metalic shoegaze crash of that takes hold of the song in its second half. "Halloween Dream" is as dark and haunting as its name it evokes, both spider-like and crushing.



Links:

Miserable's Facebook
Buy the Halloween Dream 7" here, from The Native Sound

The Bats/Boomgates Split 7"

For the most part I don't usually enjoy split 7"s; I find I never get enough out of them. I never get the fully experience of one's band's music, the one band's side can be a mismatch to the other's, and it tends to feel like an incomplete package. Then there's stuff like this Bats/Boomgates split that just make my heart a flutter in joy. There is an unintended feel of one generation of guitar pop passing the torch to the next one that makes the 7" work perfectly. Working off a track that somehow didn't make it onto their excellent Free All the Monsters, "December Ice" is completely evocative of its name, feeling like a jangle pop song on Quaaludes, it has a wonderful winter time feel to it, with the psych guitar that plays through it gives the song an absolutely wonderful Galaxie 500 quality, or even the lightest feel of The Velvet Underground. It's filled with sadness & longing, and is just as wonderful as everything else they've made over the past 30 years.


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Boomgates, on the other hand, are the complete contrast to everything The Bats just crafted; young and energetic, "Widow Maker" feels like something that could only exist in the summer as the sun holds steady over everything you're doing. It's just as wonderful as anything that was Double Natural, possibly an even greater concentration of their sound. The interlocked boy/girl chorus has never sounded so spot on, and the guitar & drum beats just roll effortlessly through the song. Boomgates might be making the best pure, no frills jangle pop right now, and "Widow Maker" does nothing but add evidence to that case.



Links:

The Bats' Website
Boomgates' Facebook
Get the split 7" here, from Bedroom Suck Records

Yo La Tengo-Super Kiwi

Earlier this year, Yo La Tengo released Fade, a mighty, mighty fine album that hovers between heavenly and discordant, psych heavy and art bent. Basically, it's everything you want with a Yo La Tengo. However, as great as the songs are on Fade, the best one might have slipped through the cracks. "Super Kiwi" sounds like its genesis was the band trying to craft a krautrock tune before deciding to throw that demo through a "blistering noise" filter. The end result though is chaotic and disjointed, the steady, practically rhythmic roars of electronic noise contrast sharply with Ira Kaplan's calm, almost dreamy vocals and near transparent, "hear-it-then-it-disappears" guitar playing. Yet of course Yo La Tengo manages to easily meld all of these conflicting elements together seamlessly, turning a song that is ready to burst apart at any moment into something that just washes over the ears; a whirlwind of pure, noisy indie rock bliss that just dissipates as quickly as it explodes in its beginning. "Super Kiwi" is the sort of song I will never understand not making the cut of an album. It's so effortlessly perfect indie rock that I don't understand how the band wouldn't recalculate everything to make it fit.



Links:

Yo La Tengo's Website
Pre-order the Super Kiwi 7", and deluxe reissue of Fade here, from Matador Records

Cass McCombs-Three Men Sitting On A Hollow Log/If You've Loved Me Before...

Cass McCombs is an artist that took me a long time to come around to. For the life of me a I can't explain why; some fake Ariel Pink connection that I crafted in my mind seems to be the excuse I created, as lame as that sounds even now. No matter, because after hearing McCombs' "Three Men Sitting on a Hallow Log" I am a complete devote. The song sounds exactly like some long forgotten roots song that was unearthed and polished to perfection by McCombs. It thumps along, the steady, mallet heavy pounding of the drums lifted along with McCombs' twangy guitar and vocals. There song is an endless groove over its four minutes, never deviating in its sound or pace, just a slow, smoky track that eventually fades into the night like the good campfire banger it is. The track owes a lot to Michael Hurley, who Cass McCombs splits this upcoming 7". Hurley, for those who don't know, is one of those long forgotten folk legends who has been steadily putting out wonderful records year after year. Mississippi Records has been slowly reissuing his discography, so jump in to his spellbinding world as well with this release.



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Speaking of Cass McCombs, he has also put out an incredible contribution to the LMAC charity 7" series for Famous Class Records. "If You’ve Loved Me Before..." is completely removed from the sunny, folky strumming of "Three Men Sitting On A Hollow Log". "If You’ve Loved Me Before…" pulls deeply from from the Mount Eerie school of indie folk music, all sharp, electric guitar strumming and forced, terse lyrical delivery. The electronics that float around the song, and then form the songs outro perfectly capture the dreary, heartbroken sadness that McCombs is emoting through out. "If You've Loved Me Before..." is a truly heartbreaking work, incredible spare and delicate, as if McCombs is ready to burst into tears at any moment. However, he manages to hold it together long enough to create something that is wonderful in the bleakest of ways.



Links:

Cass McCombs' Website
Pre-order the Cass McCombs/Michael Hurley 7" here, from Secret Seven Records
Buy the Cass McCombs LMAC 7" here, from Famous Class Records

The Juan MacLean-You Are My Destiny

I've never listened to house music. This probably isn't an uncommon thing for an indie rock nerd to be say, and personally I thought I would go a steady portion of my life without activity indulging in the genre. Not that there is anything wrong with the genre per se, but the brief snippets I had heard over time trigger the same response in me is akin to how a lot of people probably feel about American dubstep; it's a blur intense, repetitive, noisy beats that have no form or distinction. A deeply ignorant view I know, and something that was shattered with one listen to The Juan MacLean's "You Are My Destiny".

The beat that introduces the song is perfect, this wonderful thick "thump" that is intense and grows, but never starts bashing your skull in. It holds steady through out the build, before it drops to let the watery and grimy synths take over the song, giving it an almost sparse, floating feel to it. Then the final piece kicks in that cements "You Are My Destiny"'s greatness; Nancy Whang's vocals, which were chopped and spread through out the track, emerge fully formed and delivered with a robotic intensity that brings the track to life. It sprawls from there, like any good dance song, and you just get lost in the faded neon world it creates. Maybe I'm drawn to "You Are My Destiny" because it exhibits so many traits that are not usually irregular to house music. Even if that's true though, I know "You Are My Destiny" is a stunner of a track, one that doesn't escape the brain and will forever cause my body to start twitching when I hear it.



Links:

The Juan MacLean's Website
Buy the "You Are My Destiny" 12" here, from DFA Records

Single Review: WL-Impermanent

There has been some very, very, VERY great noisy, creative guitar rock this year. From more traditional shoegaze craft from the likes of Whirr to more complex takes on the genre from the likes of Heaven’s Gate, these “shoegaze” bands has been pumping out sublime (and noisy) releases all year. And to round off the end of the year and trend, WL have released their ungodly excellent debut single.

The single is a simple two song affair, but the band nonetheless manages to manifest their sound and style perfectly across both sides. On the a-side “Impermanent” is a slice of pure, classic shoegaze: cascading, distorted guitar over slow motion drums and cymbals, with both picking up at exactly the right moments to propel the song forward. The song hits you like a constant barrage of waves, just crashing over you steadily, like a great Isn’t Anything era My Bloody Valentine. The vocalist for WL, Misty Mary, has an absolutely stunning voice, which sticks just the right balance between sultry and airy. It gives “Impermanent” an added dimension that doesn’t hit you at first, but would be lacking if it wasn’t there. “No Escape” ups the noise quota for the band, but toes WL more into dream pop as well. Whereas “Impermanent” was a stagnant barrage of pure shoegaze (in the best possible sense), “No Escape” uses momentary noisy breakdowns to punctuate its relative quietness. The track is built around Mary's breathy vocals (which are possibly nicer here than on “Impermanent”), and the simple chiming guitar lacking all its distortion but captivating still, along with the steady drum beat. Subtly, the song builds into these noisy blasts of off-kilter distortion and frantic drum crashing before returning to its shimmering, airy-pop core.

I cannot overstate how wonderful this single is. There is nothing like a band coming out of nowhere only to completely knock you over with their skill and songs, and WL have done just that. Their debut 7” is pure, unfiltered noise-pop heaven, drawing from all sides of the genre. It’s the type of thing shoegaze addicts like me are always craving, and this more than meets my cravings.



Links:

WL's Bandcamp
Buy the Impermanent 7" here, from Death Party Records

Solar Year-Night & Day

Solar Year's music feels deeply trendy. The duo crafts very atmospheric pop, cemented with their newest track "Night & Day" from their first, proper single. It's based around a mix of cut-up clean and grimy beats that still have a ton of space to them that let's the song both have a "quiet echo" throughout the song, as well as expand and build while it closes too. There's also the dark, R&B influence present in the vocals and production that adds to the already heavy air of detachment and mystery present in the song. It feel like something that Ad Hoc or No Fear of Pop would fall in love for, so it should come as no surprise that this is the first release on NFOP's new label Stratosfear. At times it feels like a more muscular and slicker take on the type of sound Born Gold produced with his Little Sleepwalker album, and more so, Solar Year have produced an elegant and sparse slice of modern electronic pop with "Night & Day".



Links:

Solar Year's Website
Buy the "Night & Day" 7" here, from Stratosfear Records

Marching Church-Throughout the Borders

Look at the cover art for Marching Church's new single for a second. It's only of the few times I think the artwork properly expresses the music contained within it. There is a beauty present in the artwork, but you can see the evil and darkness there as well, which is and will slowly consume everything else eventually. That, to a certain degree, is what Marching Church's "Throughout the Borders" sounds like. Marching Church is the solo project of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt front man of iceage and member of Vår, two bands who already have a dark energy to them. Here he mixes dark folk and post-punk catharsis in a lethal combination on "Throughout the Borders" as the metal sounding guitar chords just ring out over the frantic and off beat drum work while Rønnenfelt brings all of the despair and darkness that he hadn't released with his other projects here, especially through the vocals. "Throughout the Borders" is a deeply haunting song, containing a nervous and dark energy that is inescapable. Nonetheless, that eeriness and bleakness of the song are what make it so compelling in the first place.



Links:

Buy the "Throughout the Borders" 7" here, from Posh Isolation

METZ-Dirty Shirt

I was late to the (über-noisy) METZ party, but I am catching up now. And what better way than with a brand new single that will cap off the year? "Dirty Shirt" is the B-side, but is utterly glorious in it's own way. Not as blown out as their debut, instead METZ channel more clearly than ever their early Nirvana influence, along with The Men as well, especially in the minor, melodic flourish that lays within the versus. That, of course, disappears in the utterly explosive choruses filled with anguished cries and crushing bass. "Dirty Shirt" is less than two and half minutes of pure, volatile, noisy post-punk, AKA making it a damn fine song.



Links:

METZ's Website
Pre-order the "“Leave Me Out” b/w “Dirty Shirt” 7" here, from Sub Pop

Total Control-Scene From a Marriage

The true quality of Total Control, I think, comes from their ability to change shape and sound, and not only make what ever type of shift organic, but natural as well. On one single they sounded like an abrasive, drugged out post-punk band, and on another they had crafted claustrophobic dance-punk. And now they've done it with their newest single. Stripped of any of the moody synths that colored much of previous release, the ungodly under appreciated album Henge Beat. Instead "Scene from a Marriage" opens with with a lone acoustic guitar, something that threw even me off since Total Control have always crafted their music as unnaturally as possible. However, that guitar quickly starts bending and producing discordant chords that eventually explode into a full band playing an incredibly dark and twisted post-punk tone that manages to convey everything with its knotty, Wire like guitar work and the monotonic yet piercing vocals of DX as he spews out abstract, anger-filled lyrics can you can't exactly understand, but can't escape either. Total Control have always had this dark energy to their music that has been evilly compelling, and nowhere is that more prevalent than listening to "Scene From a Marriage".



Links:

Total Control's Website
Buy the "Scene from a Marriage" b/w "Contact" 7" here, from Sub Pop

Heaven's Gate-Pogo

Heaven's Gate is a band that formed out of the ashes of Sweet Bulbs, a super awesome noise/shoegaze hybrid that somehow managed to shove pure, über catchiness without watering down their noisier tendencies one bit. After a long delay, Heaven's Gate are finally prepping their debut EP for Fire Talk, a 200 only(!) pressing of 7(!) swirling nuggets of noisy goodness. "Pogo", the first single of the EP, starts in a semi-similar area that Sweet Bulbs did, filled with truly buzzing guitar work at the song's core. However, an off-kilter surf/garage bent quickly appears and mends itself to the song, and singer Jess Paps' vocals, which used to only be dream-like whispers, have been ratcheted up into intense, anguish filled howls. All of these elements are ever so slightly off from one another, never fully connecting together. For any most bands, this would make the song just fall apart into a blob of mishmash sound. For Heaven's Gate though, they manage to just keep plowing forward with the song, letting "Pogo" form into this wonderfully crystal of noise rock, garage rock, and indie rock perfection.



Links:

Heaven's Gate's Bandcamp
Pre-order their debut EP here, from Fire Talk

King Tuff-Screaming Skull

Well this is long over due. King Tuff is awesome. Since his early lo-fi days, to his twee-grunge of Happy Birthday, to his now pristine, but just as catchy solo records, Tuffy manages to pump out some of thee catchiest garage rock around. Already putting out an awesome single on Suicide Squeeze (seriously, "Wild Desire" might be one of the best songs of the year), and an equally great, self-titled album on Sub Pop, King Tuff has returned with another single. "Screaming Skull" almost plays like an anti-Misfits song, taking possibly evil and/or grotesque imagery as its starting point, but filtering it through King Tuff to produce a garage-pop gem. "Screaming Skull" is everything that makes a Tuff song great from twangy power-pop chords and simple drums, to Tuff's falsetto-filled but memeorizing vocals. More so, the guitar solo the punctures the song midway through manages to convey what is so enjoyable about "Screaming Skull" and King Tuff in just a few seconds: simplicity without being boring, a childlike sense of energy, and above all catchy after catchy hook.



Links:

King Tuff's Facebook
Buy the "Screaming Skull b/w Love Potion"  7" here, from Sub Pop

Single Alert: Thee Oh Sees w/ The Mallard Split 7"

Famous Class Records has been doing something every cool with their LAMC single series. They ask one established band to contribute a new song to one side of a single, then ask that band to pick another band they like to be featured on the other side. Thus creating a showcase for not only new bands, but an awesome split single in the process. The latest band to contribute to the LAMC project is the ever prolific Thee Oh Sees. "Wait Let's Go" is Thee Oh Sees in their chill, '60s mood: simple, clean acoustic guitar over Beatles' like harmonies and slinky bass lines. People forget that Thee Oh Sees are not just manic energy, but can create really catchy pop songs too, as " Wait Let's Go" proves so well. Thee Oh Sees choose fellow San Franciscans (as well as fellow Castle Face record mates) The Mallard as their flip side band. And if The Mallard stay true to their psychedelia damaged post-punk, one can expect a a quality juxtaposition between the two sides.


Links:

Thee Oh Sees' Website
The Mallard's Tumblr
Buy the split single here, from Famous Class Records

Blog Give Away: Gap Dream LP

Gap Dream's debut LP is currently one of my favorite records of the year. Just look here to see me gush all about it. In fact, the record is so good that I feel the need to share it with someone. Thankfully, the folks at Burger Records agree, and I happy to announce the first ever blog giveaway for The Creative Intersection! The lucky winner will get a free copy of Gap Dream's stupendous debut on vinyl (with a digital download of course).

Here's how it works:

1. Either leave a comment of one of your favorite records this year in the comment section with an email

OR

2. Retweet the corresponding tweet that I will put out with this post

3. Doing either gets you entered into the contest. Doing both gets you entered twice

4. The contest will end at 6 PM EST 9/21, so enter quickly.


And remember, you can always grab a copy of the record from good ol' Burger Records.

UPDATE: Congrats to Carly F. for winning the LP. I want to thank everyone who participated. It's really awesome that so many people like Gap Dream enough to enter.
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As an added, unintentional bonus, Gap Dream will be releasing a brand new 7" soon on Suicide Squeeze Records. If the super catchy "Generator" is any indication, not only will the 7" be flat out great, but Gap Dream is slowly is sound further as well. The hand claps are a nice touch to the old school garage vibe that the song encompasses perfectly. A nice bonus treat that should not be missed at all.

Twerps-He's in Stock

Twerps hail from the ever infinite musical utopia that is Australia. However, unlike most of their musical brethren, Twerps play a brand of glorious melancholy jangle pop that evokes New Zealand gods The Clean more than anything. Their debut from last year was a under appreciated gem that I wish I had picked up sooner.

Anyway, after a little while, Twerps are back with another new single and a great B-side. "He's in Stock" shows off a more jagged edge to Twerps. Gone, or at least no present here, are the psychedelic builds a la Galaxie 500 the band infused within their songs. Instead, The Velvet Underground come to the forefront as the band sings of getting drugs, bums in their life, and what happens when the two. All the while the song rides on a wave of a simple, nearly constant drum beat and twangy guitar lines. The band's ability to craft another excellent jangle pop tune is not surprising, and doing just that would have been enough. However, their willingness to change it up a little bit, go a bit snottier and add another shade of post-punk, headed in a new direction, and let's "He's in Stock" rise above the past that proceeded it.



Links:

Twerps' Facebook
Pre-order the Work it Out 7" here, from Underwater Peoples

Savages-Flying to Berlin

Despite everyone's collective brain's exploding when they heard Savages' "Husbands", the band managed to release the A-side to their debut single under nearly everyone's noses. "Flying to Berlin" colors the other side of Savages that we didn't even know was there in the first place. While "Husbands" painted them as the band at the perfect intersection of no wave and post-punk, "Flying to Berlin" shows what the band is when they dial back the intensity and up the slink. "Flying to Berlin" is noir-punk, the audio equivalent of watching a very tense spy film, with a pulsy bass line and a guitar line as coiled as the snake on the cover, released in distorted blasts with the chorus. The field recorded jets add to the atmosphere of the song, a perfect icing to this dark, moody cake. Savages got hailed as punk saviors when "Husbands" came out, and "Flying to Berlin" has sort of confirmed this. Not with another sharp blast of pure intensity, but with a track showing all the different crevasses of a genre that Savages are willing to enter in order to create something great.



Links:

Savages' Facebook

Buy the Flying to Berlin 7" here, from Pop Noire

The Intelligence-(They Found Me in the Back Of) The Galaxy

The Intelligence are one of the best garage bands of the '00s. Fact. The only reason that they aren't spoken about in the same breath as Thee Oh Sees or the Ty Segall collective, or the thousand other awesome garage bands of now, is due to them being based in Seattle instead of Anywhere, California. Well,l hopefully that will change with the leader of the band being based in L.A. now and the band will be releasing Everybody's Got It Easy But Me later this year. "(They Found Me in the Back Of) The Galaxy" is great enough to prove how much this band needs proper attention.

"(They Found Me in the Back Of) The Galaxy"'s glory lays in how it is everything at once. Minimalist surf rock chords give way to eerie post-punk breakdowns, which give way to killer garage and back again. The lyrics are wonderful as well, with a real Malkmus quality to them; seemingly meaningless yet strangely deeper as well. Filled with wit and jokes that you feel you had to be there to understand, but intriguing enough to make you want to figure them out rather then ignore them. Any band that can jump from surrealist religious imagery to goofy space imagery is working at a level far beyond standard garage rock.

(mp3) The Intelligence-(They Found Me in the Back Of) The Galaxy (via The Finest Kiss)

Links:

The Intelligence's Facebook
Pre-order Everybody's Got It Easy But Me here, from In the Red Records
Buy The Intelligence split with Kelley Stoltz (yellow vinyl!), also from In the Red Records

War-Brodermordet

Finding out that the front man of the incredibly great punk band iceage is collaborating with a member of the also great hardcore band Sexdrome (who I free admit to discovering through iceage's cover of them), the part of my brain that love's loud music started doing back flips like I'm guessing everyone's who read the headline as me. Then I clicked on the actual track, and it blew my mind...mainly due to how it is in no way a punk song. Apparently these two violent men managed to channel their dark, violent urges into this bleak, throbbing track dubbed "Brodermordet". Lo-fi synth and drum beats fade in and out, bringing to mind the more spaced out work of Total Control, with barely audible vocals popping in to give "Brodermordet" just enough of a sinister undertone as well. Not at all what I was expecting, but still an excellent track none the less. Can't wait to see how the rest of this 7" turns out to be.



Links:

Pre-order War's At War with Youth 7" here, from Sacred Bones Records

Deerhunter-Cool (Pylon Cover)

This is just awesome. The ever great Deerhunter will be releasing a sort of split 7" as a tribute to fellow Georgia artist Pylon. They cover the classic "Cool", and manage to keep the same tension that defined that song, while still making it darker and giving it a Deerhunter style sheen. The flip side is two remixes of "Yo-Yo" by Calvinist, with help from Sleigh Bell singer Alexis Krauss. It will be released on June 28 by DFA, the same label that handled the reissues of Pylon's albums. Hopefully the whole release will bring a little extra attention to to the long under appreciated Pylon.



The original version, in all it's post-punk glory:

Links:

Deerhunter's Blog/Website
DFA Records' Website

Cold Showers-I Don't Mind

Great news everybody, Gun Outfit have released a brand new song! OK, very few people will understand that reference, but it is completely apt. The same Meat Puppets style influence, tense and tart guitar play, and excellent monotonic trade off singing between Cold Showers' male and female band members that make Gun Outfit such a wonderful (and equally underapperciated) band. Not to mention the way Cold Showers uses of sound to apply to a song that deals with apathy. This is Cold Showers first mp3, off a soon to be released 7" from Mexican Summer. I suspect good things to come from them.

(mp3) Cold Showers-I Don't Mind

Links:

Cold Showers on Facebook
Pre-order the 7" here, from Mexican Summer