Institute-Salt

Institute have been an Austin staple for a while now. If there was ever a hardcore show, or a noisy guitar band rolling into town, Institute were sure to be shoved onto the bill somehow. Over that year of opening for everyone though, Institute started to hone their bleak, misanthropic post-punk, turning it into something tighter and tougher with each passing show. A sharp taste of this was already delivered earlier this year when the band released their Giddy Boy 7", and it has been refined even more with "Salt".

"Salt" will probably serve as the introduction to Institute for many, and there may not be a better track. The rumble of the low end bass and drums meshing together, only to be cut apart by guitarist Arak Avakian's jagged, picked riffs. These two contrasting sounds play off each other, creating a discordant mood through the whole song. All this this serves as the backbone for frontman Mose Brown's vocals. Taking center stage, they're both snotty yet menacing, slurred but full of spite. When the words can be made out, they're Brown decrying clichés of the world, taking down tropes with profanity and a snarled lip. With "Salt" Institute push post-punk into a ragged form, creating the musical equivalent of a raw nerve protected by nothing except venom and bitterness, which is the band is more than happy to spew.



Links:

Pre-order the Salt EP here, from Sacred Bones Records

Joanna Gruesome-Jerome (Liar)

"Jerome (Liar)" is a strange little track. The newest song from Joanna Gruesome since their utterly impeccable collection of noise-pop tunes Weird Sister came out last year, "Jerome (Liar)" feels like a distillation of every aspect of Joanna Gruesome's sound. Incredibly sweet snippets of indie-pop are dueling with equally frequent bursts of noise rock throughout the whole song, with the track constantly teetering the edge between wholesome pop and teeth snarling guitar freak out. It manages to do all of this in less than two minutes, short even by Joanna Gruesome standards, and sounds like the closest the band has ever come to throwing a temper tantrum in song form. But maybe that's the point. The song is clearly about someone they know, and we've all been in the predicament of having a "friend" you had to alternate between smiling to their face and flipping them off behind their back. Joanna Gruesome just finally cut the charade short, and let it all come tumbling out on "Jerome (Liar)".



Links:

Joanna Gruesome's Facebook
Pre-order the Trust Fund/Joanna Gruesome split 12" here, from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records

Quirke-Break a Mirrored Leg

There's not a lot of information about Quirke. Like a lot of producers these days he just suddenly appeared, without name or picture into the musical world. Instead, they've choose to let their music speak for itself, and good god is "Break a Mirrored Leg" one hell of an opening salvo. It's genius lies in the tracks dynamic; the track opens with an eerie yet intriguing ambient intro that sounds like the wind traveling with a warped siren layered over it. Then the track drops for a moment, falling into complete silence before instantly emerging with its true sound, a stuttering, muffled, yet rapid fire beat paired with equally fast, glitched synths that sound as if they were turned off and back on every second. "Break a Mirrored Leg" keeps building, adding inorganic clicks and triggers to keep the tension mounting; the song drops again right in the middle only to burst alive again at somehow a faster momentum. "Break a Mirrored Leg" is the soundtrack to driving down a destroyed, futuristic cityscape in a hovercar. It has the sense of someone starring into the future, only to be shocked and horrified by what they see.



Links:

Quirke's Website
Pre-order Acid Bath EP here, from Young Turks

Tirzah-No Romance

Tirzah's "I'm Not Dancing", one of the best and strangely obtuse dance songs from last year, managed to be both an excellent opening bravo and mission statement rolled into one. In little more than two minutes, it managed to truly showcase Tirzah's sound's; sparse, dry beats enhanced by Micachu's excellent production coupled with Tirzah's detached yet warm vocals. It was a real case of accomplishing so much with so little.

On "No Romance", off Tirzah's upcoming second EP, she and Micachu's have expanded upon everything that made her debut EP so excellent. Its core is still the give and take between the song's beat, here ever so more punchy with its artificial snare snaps & the more subtle electro pulse, and Tirzah's vocals, here stacked upon, and almost falling over each other, giving them a more sultry effect as a contrast to the song's actually sad, emotional core. Not to mention Mica Levi's production is truly on display with this track, especially when the vocal manipulation takes center stage during the song's last third and all of  the various tricks and flourishes Levi' has added to the track come into focus. "No Romance" is a deeply creative R&B track, demonstrating Tirzah's ever expanding style and willingness to go in whatever direction her sound takes her.



Links:

Tirzah's Facebook
Pre-order the No Romance EP here, from Greco-Roman

Death of Lovers-Buried Under a World of Roses

Death of Lovers is a new band/side project created by Nick Bassett of shoegaze saints Whirr, and Domenic Palermo of shoegaze greats Nothings. With them collaborating, it would be understandable if the expected end result was some crushing, glass and ear shattering onslaught of distorted guitars and cascading cymbal crashes. However, Death of Lovers is nothing of the sort. In fact, it's a pure, honest homage to the goth bands of old. From the dry, tension filled bass line that open "Buried Under a World of Roses" to the dark, neon-esque synths that instantly erupt to give the song its initial push, it's clear Bassett and Palermo have done their homework. The drums are so precise that they sound like a machine, and the lyrics are the perfect balance between dark romanticism and bleak depression. The soft delivery of the vocals, probably a holdover from their other bands, complements the song nicely, especially when it becomes ever so undone during its finally. Goth is only just now returning properly as an influence, with bands treating and giving it the respect it deserves in what they make. "Buried Under a World of Roses" serves as a great addition to this ever growing cannon of material.        



Links:

Death of Lovers' Facebook
Pre-order the Buried Under a World of Roses EP here, from Deathwish Inc.

Psychic Blood-Nightmare Beaches EP

Psychic Blood make noisy, lo-fi punk rock, and this is one of the few times all those genre tags hold completely true in describing a band's sound. Their newest EP, Nightmare Beaches, feels like a compression of all the chaotic guitar noise made in the past colliding with the ruckus being made by the kids now. "Jagged Brain" feel like a METZ song if the band was more interested in playing up their hooks than bashing you over the head with intensity. "Art Skool" is a demented, twisted piece of almost spoken word darkness that quickly deforms into frantic noise freak outs. Then there is the likes of "Won't", which sounds like a demo recording of Goo era Sonic Youth, right down to the Thurston Moore-esque delivery. The catchiest moment is in the middle with "Omens", the closest the band comes to modern indie rock, but even that track is built around screeching intros and long, crashing fills. Nightmare Beaches is a restless collection of songs, jumping from one influence to another, but managing to channel that chaotic nature into a proper extension of their wonderfully old school sound.



Links:

Psychic Blood's Tumblr
Get the Nightmare Beaches EP on cassette from Ascetic House

Future Death-BATH SALTS

I personally have never taken bath salts, but I would imagine it would be comparable experience to what is felt while listening to Future Death's "BATH SALTS". While I know that's a bit of an easy comparison, but the twisted insanity and chaos within "BATH SALTS" truly not be explained in any other way. It feels like a Marnie Stern song, if Stern decided to record a song's vocals on codeine, but recorded the instruments after taking a hit of PCP. It's spazzy and manic to say the least, with so many frantic stops and starts within it that it starts to induce whiplash, with drums and guitars that feel like they're were speedup from the actual recordings because there is no way people can play this fast. And yet, stewing in all that chaos are the most absurd form of pop-hooks, demonic and seemingly inconceivable, but there nonetheless. "BATH SALTS" is just absolutely crazy, and is perfect because of that.



Links:

Future Death's Website
Download their self-titled EP here, from the band's bandcamp

Household-A New Leaf

The heels of the just announced Neo Boys reissue/compilation that K Records will be putting out in the coming months, it seems very fitting that Household have announced their return. Household's debut Items was a testament to how sparse, lo-fi, but well constructed post-punk could still be just as excellent it was 30 years ago. Their new song "A New Leaf" is much less lo-fi, and in fact is almost driving, in the way angular guitar riffs and start and stop rhythms can be driving. Still, the song clearly channels the lyrics, a steady, unflinching take down of someone who has committed betrayal so great, the narrator refuses to give them another inch of understanding. It's a deceivingly simple song, one that never masks its intent, but uses restraint to better channel the anger & disappointment within. It is post-punk perfection.



Links:

Household's Facebook
Pre-order the Elaines EP here, from Dull Knife Records

Hand of Dust-Without Grace or Glory

Hand of Dust are another excellent band from the ever increasing musical oasis that is Copenhagen. They released a demo last year that I unfortunately was not enthralled with the way other people were. However, their latest song, "Without grace or glory" (from an upcoming 7" of the same name on Blind Prophet Records), has truly brought Hand of Dust into their own. The track is a little more than a minute and half minutes long, but in that short amount of time, manages to convey a bleak, nihilistic form of post-punk that echos with the same defeated angst as their peers. The song feels like it could have been taken right from Lower's last single, the staggered delivery and lethargic rhythm section matching almost in sync in the best of ways. "Without grace or glory" is a dark, unflinching, 97 seconds of emotionally turbulent music, of various post-punk sounds almost crashing into each other in order to convey the sorrow within the song.    



Links:

Hand of Dust's Facebook
Blind Prophet Records

Parquet Courts-You've Got Me Wonderin' Now

"You've Got Me Wonderin' Now" is everything that makes Parquet Courts wonderful compressed into one ball of manic, scuzzy, twisted energy. Tightly wound, coil-like guitars ready to unleash a blast of fuzzy, distorted noise at a moment's notice? Check. Oblique, wordy, but nonetheless earnest lyrics comparing superficial pain to earnest heartache? Check. Heavy presence of an actual musical recorder throughout the song that shouldn't work but instead adds to the song's warped charm? Check. Really "You've Got Me Wonderin' Now" is an extension of what the band can do when the make the likes of "Borrowed Time" or "Yonder is Closer to the Heart"; full fledged rockers that hold steady right on the line between between indie rock and post-punk. It's the type of frenzy that made Light Up Gold such a great album, and what will make Tally All the Things You Broke a great EP.



Links:

Parquet Courts' Blog
Pre-order Tally All the Things You Broke here, from What's Your Rupture/Insound

ARMS-Comfort

Broken Social Scene aren't coming back anytime soon, no matter what glimmers of hope the one-off reunions and TV appearances may offer. Thankfully though, those, like me, aching for more of their movie ending pop can take comfort in the likes of ARMS' newest single "Comfort" during the in between. "Comfort" is a wonderfully speedy, summery pop song, always waiting to add a new hook, burst of guitar, bout of energy to itself in order to keep itself together. The shift the songs goes through from the earnestness of the versus to the rolling burst of subdued anguish that is the chorus is absolutely wondrous, managing to cram 50 different hooks into a 30 second period. All this is carried over to the songs outro, a minute long jaunt of almost post-punk energy, or more accurately as close as sprawling indie-pop can get to post-punk. "Comfort" is an ever constant song, always putting in something new sound wise it is a tiny miracle the track doesn't trip over itself. Instead, it just keeps unfolding and unfolding, revealing a new direction or hook that is catchier than the one before it.



Links:

ARMS' Website
Pre-order EP2 here, from Paper Garden Records

Honeyslide-Deep Architecture

Honeyslide's demo from last year was one of the best pieces of shoegaze and noise rock I had heard in ages, five track of gooey, blistering guitar rock that buzzed in my ears in the best way possible. And now the band have returned with their first proper release, a lovely 10" EP. While one side has a rerecording of the demo's excellent "Drippin'", the flip-side has something maybe even better, the brand new song "Deep Architecture". As much as I loved the noise and lo-fi sound on their demo, it's sort of incredible what the added production has done for the band. Gone is the Dinosaur Jr. like indie-sludge that coated their songs; instead with "Deep Architecture" the band doubles their usual tempo, letting the song have this lovely jaunt to it has it buzzes along, the vocals coming in almost crystal clear as they overlap with one another while the guitar both fuzzes and bends like a violin like My Bloody Valentine did on "I Only Said". It's one of the loveliest shoegaze songs I have heard in a long time, and cement further how great of a band Honeyslide really are.



Links:

Honeyslide's Tumblr
Buy the "Drippin'/Deep Architecture" 10" here, from Critical Heights

Home Alone-Blunts

Teddybears & Weed, Home Alone's completely self-define debut cassette, caught me completely by surprise with its simple bedroom-pop splendor and sound. So it's exciting that such a self-described stoner is already making more music. "Blunts" picks up right where Teddybears & Weed left off, being another nugget of pure, dream-pop bliss. The production has been nicely polished; not so much that the song loses its internal charm, but so that sadness in Tom Polska's vocals are a little more audible, and notched-up beats sound perfectly woozy rather than airy. All of Home Alone's tiny sounds meld a tiny bit more on "Blunts", the swirl of synths, über-reverbed guitar, and cheap beats not as compressed as before. Home Alone may make weed music, but it's wonderful gooey weed music, and "Blunts" shows the emotional spirit that is there.



Links:

Home Alone's Tumblr
Pre-order Crumbs EP here, from Bad Pop

Whirr-Swoon

How it that Whirr, of all bands, doesn't have a song called "Swoon" already? As possibly cliché as it might be for a shoegaze band to have a song named "Swoon", there are few better titles that could suit a song like this one. "Swoon" is just that, an ever ebbing and flowing cascade of Kristina Esfandiari's pillowy vocals and the vortex of guitars created from all three of Whirr's guitarists attacking their instruments at once over the song's near six minutes. The track nicely parallels Pipe Dreams opening cut "Reverse"; a pick up of noise before falling into a stretch of humming guitar ambiance before exploding into pure, shoegaze bliss. The added length of "Swoon", though, gives Whirr time to expand upon their sound, letting it build and swell to greater heights than they were able to previously. Sergio Miranda's drum work really glues the track together, the only instrument that doesn't blur on "Swoon", but instead confidently pounds and crashes to give the song the final piece to make it the shoegaze epic it is. I am bias in my approach to Whirr (I mean, I thought Pipe Dreams was the third best album of last year), but I don't care. Whirr are one of the best shoegaze bands out there, and "Swoon" only serves to confirm that fact.



Links:

Whirr's Tumblr
Pre-order Around EP here, from Graveface Records

Also, Whirr recently got a bunch of their amps and pedals stolen due to a recent robbery. They put some T-Shirts for sale raise money, so if you want/can support them, do it here.

Man Tear-Outside Amore

Is the reason I think "Outside Amore" is so great because it feels so removed from modern dance music? It's not a banger, it is not at all bass heavy, there's no grime, no bleakness.  Instead, "Outside Amore" feels bright and shinny, from the squeek that runs through the songs core, to the lovely and soft vocals that semi-crone the song's lyrics. Not to mention the post-disco groove that is both askew but keeps the song afloat during its entire 9 minute run. If it were to be played in a club, it wouldn't be a modern club, all darkness with stark neon light. It feels like it would soundtrack the end of a movie; cheesy & up-lifting enough to go along with the credits, but not cheesy & up-lifting enough to be over bearing. Above all, "Outside Amore" is just a wonderful pop song, the type of  modern electronic dance music that DFA is so good at discovering and putting onto 12"s that will be spun at parties for people to hear for the first time and go crazy for.



Links:

Buy the "Outside Amore" 12" here, from DFA Records

R.L. Kelly-Life's a Bummer EP

Listening to R.L. Kelly’s (aka Rachel Levi) debut EP, you realize how uncommon lyrical honesty and directness is in modern indie music. Bands hide everything under extensive metaphors or hope the tone in the song accurately grasps the mood that they are aiming for. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I think that standard is what makes R.L. Kelly’s music hit the way it does. Over six quiet, deeply intimate songs, with little more than a guitar, a keyboard, a drum machine, and the occasional distortion pedal, Levi creates these wonderful capsules of depression and self-loathing.

“You’re Not the Only Monster from Hell”, the EP’s most complete track especially once the distorted keyboard kicks in for the chorus, sets the tone perfectly as well as demonstrating to create incredible hooks out of seemingly nothing. The EP spirals down even further, from the less than two minute heartbreak of “Familiar Haunt” to the almost anti-Yohuna like sparseness of “Woke Up Feeling Sad”. By the time you reach the title track, Levi goes straight for her own jugular, and just paints just a sad picture of the culmination of apathy and self-anguishes. And yet, Life’s a Bummer never overwhelms the listener with the emotions it wears proudly on its sleeve. Levi has just the knack for making the tracks heartening and emotional rather than mopey, much like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone before her or her buddy Coma Cinema. Life's a Bummer is one of those perfect little indie gems that hits right in the little pocket where my soul lies.



Links:

R.L. Kelly's Bandcamp
Buy/download Life's a Bummer here, from Orchid Tapes

New Cassette: Clubhouse Split

Releases like Clubhouse are the reason I am so, so happy that a cassette resurgence happened in some form. I don't think a release like this could exist in any other format. A project undertaken by bedroom-pop priestess Emily Reo, she gathered material from her cohorts and friends, along with her own music, to create a mini-showcase out all of them. What effectively is a four-way split becomes something much more seamless because each of these artists operate in a similar style--something that lays right between dreary, electronic-but-not bedroom pop & the lightest of dream pop--but all have their own, crafted sound so that nothing winds up blurring.

Bedroom Bread crafts the most eclectic mix of songs, with the warbled patch work of samples and mnemonic tone that serve as the background to the her cave like chants on "Sister" laying in direct contrast to the more straight forward build-up and stomp of "Moths". MoonLasso creates the closest thing to dream-pop on Clubhouse, her simple guitar playing popping in contrast to the electronics that swell around the rest of the song; both "Vibrasonics" & "Skies All Around" have these wonderful left turns to their sound that add so much dimension to them. Yohuna, possibly one of my favorite artists of right now (if only she would make more songs), creates two of the wonderful echo-pop songs to grace the ears; tracks that build and build, not to a boom, but to a point that they are immersing everything around them. There's a reason "Westerlies" was chosen to close out this tape. Then there are Emily Reo's songs themselves; silky, glowing blobs of gorgeous electronic pop, from the sparse, tropical flare of "Peaches", to the darker, more experimental twist of the appropriately named mini-sprawl "Metal".  

Clubhouse is such a simple concept, but executed so well that it rises above being just a showcase or sampler of some sort. Clubhouse is eight wonderful tracks of outsider pop, by four distinct artists, all contained in one lovely cassette.


Links:

Buy Clubhouse here, from Crash Symbols
Emily Reo's Website
Yohuna's Facebook
MoonLasso's Facebook
Brown Bread's Facebook

Cold Cave-Oceans With No End

Cold Cave are already coming back from their wonderful "A Little Death to Laugh" 7" from last year, and are apparently going to release a new album very soon. Needless to say, woo! Even better, between that, Deathwish will be releasing the Oceans With No End EP, which will probably give us the best indication of what form the new album will take. The just released title track is more in line with what Cold Cave were making on Cherish the Light Years, with the intensity turned down a notch. The song is still as broading as ever, with the industrial drum beat and parallel distorted guitar to distorted synth lines. It's a near stagnate song, never diving into an explosive, emotive chorus or introduce bombastic instrumentation. Instead, we are give four and half minutes of darkwave bliss, and possibly Cold Cave have come to reproducing a New Order song in their own way.



Links:

Cold Cave's Website
Pre-order the Oceans with No End EP here, from Deathwish Inc.

Home Alone: Teddybears & Weed Cassette

Before I dive into Home Alone's excellent debut release, please take a moment to appreciate the fact that he named it Teddybears & Weed, and how absolutely amazing of a title that is. Did you do it? Good.

Home Alone is the musical project of one Tom Mazurkiewicz, who makes utterly gorgeous, dreary bedroom dream-pop. What allows Home Alone's debut to stand out above the usual genericism of the hundreds of other bedroom pop composers is two key aspects. First, the lovely production, which is decidedly lo-fi but in the gooey, inviting dimension that has begun to emerge with the tag, which immediately lulls the listener into the songs' worlds. And the songs themselves, which show Mazurkiewicz's willingness to jump between the different boundaries that dream-pop encompasses, producing hazy guitar pop a la Atlas Sound on "Wishful Sinking", tinkering, blurry guitar-drone filled beats like Guilty Ghost on opener "Keep Breathing" or "No One's Awake", or even reduced lo-fi pop like Dead Gaze on "Teenage Tide".

There's a slight weirdness on Teddybears & Weed that seems to come part and parcel with bedroom pop (and would you expect otherwise from someone who would name their release Teddy Bears & Weed), but it never detours from the music, instead feeling more like infusion of Mazurkiewicz's personality straight into the music , like on the Antlers-informed-by-rap title track or the weirdo sound sample/collage "Stuck" that ends the tape. They not only work in the context of the tape, but are above else good songs that regardless. Teddybears & Weed is a wonderful slice of bedroom dream-pop bliss, a great opening salvo, and deserves props just because Home Alone do an awesome cover of Modest Mouse's "Sleepwalking".



Links:

Home Alone's Tumblr
Get the Teddybears & Weed cassette here soon, from Orchid Tapes

Nerves Junior-Craters EP

First, a thank you to We Listen to You for introducing me to this EP and possibly my new favorite band. Nerves Junior are a band from Louisville that have been around for a while, but have completely flown under my radar for no good reason. Craters is their newest EP, a sort of starting over point due to various lineup changes occurring within the band, though you would never know it from how fully formed this release sounds.

The Craters EP is three slices of perfectly pieced together electronica informed indie rock, the result of listening to everything Radiohead released since Kid A, but not trapped by their influence like, per se Alt-J are. They all have a gradual, steady build to them that the band manages to effortless pull of within each song, adding an extra "hmmph" to the tracks that could just get away with their steady, haunting pace. The way the title track shifts from cool synth lines and house style beats and clicks to the ringing guitar line takes over the song, rising the track before all these elements collide near the end in a perfect swirl. "Intern", the best track on the EP, is a near recreation of "Reckoner", from the central, shimmering guitar riff to new front man Zachary O’Renick matching Thom Yorke's falsetto to an impressive degree. However, the song throws you through a loop, swelling without detection before exploding with a dark intensity (communicated through the instantly electrified guitar and O'Renick's anguished vocals) that is just instantly memorizing.

"Goodnight Nobody" continues the intensity "Intern", but operating on a peak and valley system, with Nerves Junior knowing just the right moment to drop to nothing but bass and electronic percussion, and when to detonate every instrument at once. The soft, lush finale that ends "Goodnight Nobody", along with the EP, is a lovely touch, a simple way to contrast all the creative bombast just heard. It maybe just three songs, but the Craters EP is one of the best things I've heard all year; for someone who does not usually enjoy meticulously produced, deeply mechanical bands, Nerves Junior so much more than that, capturing a wonderful creative sound with these three tracks.


Links:

Nerves Junior's Facebook
Buy the Craters EP, from the band themselves