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Noiseweek: KEN mode, Old Baby, Earth and EMA

Sunday, May 24th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

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Fuck The Police: A Musical Sentiment From NWA To Ferguson | The Quietus

““This is non-violent protest music”. So said Ice Cube recently in an interview announcing a forthcoming biopic of his former group N.W.A. His claim is rather timely. “Fuck the Police”, the musical refrain popularised 1988 by “the world’s most dangerous group”, is having something of a moment. Occasioned by collective anger at American law enforcement’s proclivity for murdering Black men at the rate of once every 28 hours, the song — or rather, songs — deserve inquiry.
Dismissal of Ice Cube’s claim is likely. N.W.A. are better known for lyrics depicting misogyny, homophobia and violence without which many of their songs would be, if not altogether silent, at least palpably shorter. There’s also a tendency to reduce ‘Fuck The Police’ to cliché progressivist demands for free speech, as both Ice Cube and the schlocky narrative of the N.W.A. film imply (imagine Ice Cube as the Jim Morrison/Val Kilmer character).
But as jaunty parody backed by James Brown’s ubiquitous ‘Funky Drummer’ break, N.W.A.’s ‘Fuck The Police’ registered a changing lived reality for a substantial portion of America at the hands of a brutal form of policing and the prison industry it feeds. In doing so, it laid out a set of affects that would echo across the better part of nearly three decades of hip-hop.”

Ian Curtis: 35 Years To The Day Of His Death, Why The Enigmatic Joy Division Frontman Remains British Indie’s Greatest Unknown Pleasure | NME

“He was certainly adept at living a double life, and not just from Deborah, who he was unfaithful to for long periods of time with Belgian journalist Annik Honore. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see Ian’s inner turmoil exert itself through his lyrics and manic performances, but away from the stage, his welling melancholy was well-hidden from the bandmates he didn’t want to alarm or disappoint. Even as he was planning to kill himself, he convincingly feigned enthusiasm for Joy Division’s upcoming American tour, so much so that drummer Stephen Morris has admitted that, “Looking back, I wish I’d helped him more. I think that all the time… But we were having such a good time, and you’re very selfish when you’re young. Epilepsy wasn’t understood then. People would just say, ‘He’s a bit of a loony — he has fits.’”

Young Hearts, Run Free: On Camp & Australia’s Eurovision Entry | The Quietus

“If Susan Sontag asserts that camp is “its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration”, then this year’s Eurovision entry might do some good. It’s almost an oxymoron, but Australia just needs to chill. We get it, we’re the romantic, rugged country with a masculine veneer, but please, just for three minutes, can we not be weirded out by the inherently excessive, camp spectacle that is Eurovision?”

LISTEN

KEN mode — Management Control

KEN mode are at a fascinating turning point in their career. Everything about the Steve Albini-produced Success sounds like the band at their most fresh, raw and vital. The marked shift in aesthetic — from metallic hardcore to Shellac-influenced, straight-up noise rock — has probably raised a few eyebrows, and on Facebook, the Winnipeg trio sound almost desperate that their ambitious reinvention pays off. If the four tracks released so far are any indication, Success should pay off — whereas “Blessed” and “These Tight Jeans” flirted with self-indulgence, “Management Control” and album closer “Dead Actors” represent the band at their most deliberate, channeling the Albini influence through a measured brand of fury that few can replicate. Success is out through Seasons of Mist and June 16 and is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

Old Baby — New Music

With little fanfare and not even a proper title, Old Baby have released one of my favourite records of the year. The Louisville, Kentucky, outfit — which boasts members of Slint, Young Widows, alongside many of that city’s unsung heroes — have traded in the doomy flirtations of their 2013 debut, Love Hangover for a diverse, psych-tinged desert blues odyssey. There are some odd turns — the quintet sink into an effortless funk groove on “Necessary” before returning to uncomfortable meditations on “Visions” and “Comedown.” And there’s a beautifully off-kilter vibe that permeates throughout the entire record, from the tripped-out, Egyptian-influenced geometry of the cover art to the sinister melodies in the backgrounds of each song and the deadpan invocations of vocalists Jonathan Glen Wood and Evan Patterson. This is music for road trips to parts unknown.

WATCH

Earth Live from the Islington Assembly Hall in London

Watch a professionally-shot set from the drone trio’s latest British outing.

Under the Influence: Krautrock

Part three of Noisey’s music documentary series looks into the context and history of krautrock, featuring interviews with members of Can, Neu! and modern-standard bearers in every genre of contemporary music.

EMA on Coastal Frequencies

Live and interview footage with Erika M. Anderson from her latest record.

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Noiseweek: 13th Floor Elevators, High on Fire, Methyl Ethyl and Todd Tobias

Friday, May 15th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

The Bakery held its final show on Saturday, celebrating its last day with a ridiculously stacked 14-hour extravaganza. (How fucking good were The Wednesday Society? My god.) It’s a huge loss for Perth music and it’ll be a long time before another space emerges to fill the void, but there’s some good venue news on the Western front (for once). Plans are in motion for a new music space in Wolf Lane in a room that formerly housed a manufacturing base for fashion retailer Pierucci. You can follow updates on The Sewing Room — which has just lodged its plans with the City of Perth — on Facebook.

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Pitchfork and others are reporting that prolific D.C. noise rock duo Royal Trux are set to return for LA festival Berserkertown in August. So far it’s the only date for the two-piece who broke up in 2001

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In yet more reunion news, Blabbermouth is reporting that Phil Anselmo’s Superjoint Ritual are set to tour the US, according to a recent interview from drummer José Manuel Gonzales. The thrash outfit broke up in 2004 before reuniting for a one-off performance at Housecore Horror Film Festival in October last year. Anselmo had previously insisted that the show would be the band’s only time sharing the stage together — despite insisting years prior that a reunion was an impossibility — adding further proof that every single goddamn band in the world members who are breathing and at least half a dozen fans will reunite at some point. Superjoint Ritual are set to play Hellfest in June.

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Ask Andrew W.K.: ‘How Do I Become A Successful Musician?’ | The Village Voice

“The traditional modern concept of success — being the measurement of monetary income as the primary indicator of effort and mastery in a certain field — is essentially a scam, a con, and a lie. To equate success with an amount of money earned, or an amount of fame achieved, is at best an unfortunate miscomprehension of the very nature of success. At worst, it’s a malicious distortion.”

Saluting Ronnie James Dio, metal’s uncool godfather | The A.V. Club

“The album that finally resulted from the lineup turmoil—Butler also left during the sessions, though he returned before recording finished—was Heaven & Hell. Dio’s presence as a lyricist and driving songwriting force revitalized the rest of Black Sabbath. Iommi’s riffs and solos, previously rooted almost entirely in the blues, began to incorporate the neoclassicism that Dio learned from Blackmore in Rainbow. The songs began to shift between high-tempo (for Sabbath) blasts and moody, atmospheric passages. And, of course, Dio’s fantasy lyrics were a departure from Butler’s tales of war, women, and drugs. Despite the album’s commercial success, the change in direction led to an exodus of old fans. The Dio era is still a point of contention among Sabbath fans, though a string of successful reunion tours from 2007 to 2009 under the name Heaven & Hell renewed interest in his records with the band.”

How to take a picture of rock ‘n’ roll | i-D

“Back in the pre-Instagram days, folks were in it for the love (not the likes). Iconic music photographers such as Glen E Friedman, Henry Diltz, and London DJ/punk documentarian Don Letts — whose 1978 The Punk Rock Movie shot on Super 8 footage featured all the key players in the UK punk movement (The Clash, The Slits, The Sex Pistols) — were capturing a piece of history. In LA, the show From Pop to the Pit is currently showing electric, rarely seen archival portraits of the bands that shaped the city’s music scene from 1978–1989 shot for the now defunct Herald-Examiner. These camera-wielding renegades were in pursuit of those vulnerable and fuck-all moments that happen backstage, in the pit, and in an infested alley behind a venue. From hazy-days with Diltz, Woodstock’s official photographer who spent the 60s with Joni Mitchell and the Laurel Canyon Folk Scene, to stage-diving with Edward Colver, the gritty punk photog who chronicled the birth of American hardcore and snapped early portraits of Bad Religion and Minor Threat, nostalgic images have shaped our understanding of a formative time.”

LISTEN

High on Fire — The Black Plot

The new High on Fire sounds just like High on Fire, which is just fine, because High on Fire sounding like High on Fire is better than most other things. Pike makes his guitar sound like an actual screaming banshee at the beginning of the bridge. Honestly, listen to that moment around 3:53 and tell me that doesn’t sound like the horrid scream of some harbinger. The cut is from their forthcoming 7th LP, Luminiferous, a concept record about the social engineering of the nebulous Elite, which is out June 23.

Methyl Ethyl — Twilight Driving

On every song, Methyl Ethyl exist on some kind of utopian celestial plane where the sun never sets and the the whole world is a coastline. Twilight Driving harbours an ever-so-slight sinister undercurrent in its verses, as if the whole veneer could shatter at any moment.

Todd Tobias — Suvarnabhumi

Something lurks beneath the lush melancholia of this first track from Todd Tobias’ forthcoming Tristes Tropiques. The imagery in my head is organic yet machinic, like a Vangelis-scored nature documentary. Tristes Tropiques is out June 9.

WATCH

The 13th Floor Elevators — You’re Gonna Miss Me (Live at Austin Psych Fest Levitation)

The last time this band played together, LBJ was president, the Stooges had existed for only a year and Matt Pike wasn’t even born. The psychadelic stalwarts’ first show since 1968 closed Austin Psych Fest Levitation marked 50 years since their formation in the Texas capitol and closed the proceedings of the ridiculously stacked festival that boasted Earth, Lightning Bolt, Primal Scream, Thee Oh Sees, Nothing, A Place to Bury Strangers and Chelsea Wolfe. 47 years between shows. Think about that.

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Noiseweek: Steve Von Till, Null, METZ and Bibby

Friday, May 8th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

The Bakery’s final show is tomorrow. It’s shitty that we’re losing another fundamental venue that’s hosted a wealth of life is noise shows — Russian Circles, Sleep, Clark, My Disco, Barn Owl, Slanted & Enchanted and a buttload of others — not to mention some amazing other locals and internationals. But at least we get to celebrate in style, with the return of The Wednesday Society, Sex Panther and The Sabretooth Tigers, along with Injured Ninja presenting The Epic of Gilgamesh, plus Fait, French Rockets, DJs Craig Hollywood & Wil Bixler, Rachel Dease, Mudlark and more. Head over to the Facebook event for more details.

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Beat is reporting The Espy in St Kilda is also closing its doors soon, but only for a little while. From May 17, the venue will cease its live music operations to allow for renovations with an aim to reopen by the summer.

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Some good venue news! Wick Studios in Brunswick is set to open its doors on May 17 — just as the Espy begins its hiatus, funnily enough. As Beat reports, the former 13-room rehearsal studio/warehouse now boasts a recording studio, 15 rehearsal rooms, two live music spaces and a photo/video studio. The space will also be home to in-house industry services, including A&R, marketing, legal and graphic design personnel. They’re celebrating with a launch party which you can check out on Facebook.

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Swinging the Chain: A Conversation with Bill Ward | Steel for Brains

“It was very profound when I realized it, and I couldn’t deny the affection that I had for drums and drummers and just the look of a drum. Everything about drumming I was fascinated with. Not only drum patterns but the way that the drums looked; the way they shined in the sunshine in marching bands. Just everything about drums for me as a child was something that was very attractive, and I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew that I just got a good feeling when I listened to Gene Krupa. It was Krupa when I was a child and then later it was Louie Bellson, but when I listened to Gene or I listened to a lot of the big swing bands, or then later when I listened to the more rock and roll bands from the United States and people like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and of course Buddy Holly – when I listened to these people I was just completely involved in what they were playing. ”

Godspeed You! Black Emperor — There’s Only Hope | Exclaim

“Twenty years on, very little is really known about GY!BE beyond the fact that they are one of Montreal’s most cherished and powerful instrumental bands, with a virtually flawless and majestic discography. They incorporate film abstractions in their music and, with its textual ruminations, diagrams and photographs, their album artwork has made bolder and more provocative political statements than some songwriters’ hard-laboured lyrics. In simply going about their business, the band have been accused of terrorism by both the FBI and the Canadian music industry. And, while they’re often perceived as gloomy and self-serious, they battle through all of that noise, stubbornly brandishing hope as their unshakeable emblem.”

Art-Rock Adventurism: The Complete 4AD Story | The Vinyl Factory

“Independent labels with proven longevity are, almost without exception, reflections of their patrons. So it goes with the four cornerstones of Britain’s post-punk apocalypse – Rough Trade, Factory, Mute and 4AD, and three of them (Factory being retired years before Antony Wilson’s death from cancer) still survive today. Out of that trio, 4AD’s current success is more on a par with its original incarnation than its peers. Compare 4AD ‘Past’, which embraced the likes of Bauhaus, The The, The Birthday Party, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, Throwing Muses, Pixies, The Breeders, Lush, Red House Painters, Belly and Mojave 3 to 4AD ‘Present’, which currently includes Grimes, Bon Iver, Deerhunter, The National, Ariel Pink, Future Islands, tUnE-yArDs, Scott Walker, Daughter and Purity Ring. But with Rough Trade and Mute still manned by their original founders (Geoff Travis and Daniel Miller respectively), 4AD is the only one of the original quartet to have survived with a new label head replacing its original spearhead Ivo Watts-Russell.”

LISTEN

Steve Von Till — A Life Unto Itself

Even when it’s stripped of the crushing weight of pounding drums and punishing, gargantuan guitar riffs in Neurosis, Steve Von Till’s intonations demand attention. It’s one of those voices — powerful, foreboding, authoritative, and almsot prophetic in its seriousness — that stops you in your tracks and compels the listener to focus on every utterance, every syllable, every breathy whisper. With an acoustic guitar and occasional flurries of percussion atmospherics for backing, the Neurosis co-vocalist’s meditations on this, his fourth solo record, are well worth a listen.

Null — I

The strength of 65daysofstatic lies in their masterful marriage of the electronic and the amplified, where dancehall synthetics and artillery-strength guitar riff intertwine in a beautiful, chaotic mess. But they’ve always been a rock band with electronica tendencies; not the other way around. Late last year, guitarist Paul Wolinski released his new solo foray into experimental electronica with Full Bleed before following up with Midiflood the next month. Now Simon Wright has ventured out with his own solo project under the moniker of Null, an ambient, glitch-heavy and machinic experiment that sounds perfect for a neo-noir technological dystopia. Unlike the exploits with 65daysofstatic, this is not comfortable or uplifting music; it’s moody and unsettling — peculiar enough to maintain interest and confounding enough to keep you on your toes.

WATCH

The View From Here: Peter Bibby and his Bottles of Confidence

The Perth hills’ crown troubadour checks into the RTRFM studios with a few familiar faces for a 20+ minute live session. It’s an unusual setting for the now Melbourne-based songwriter — Bibby and offices don’t seem like they’d go together — but it makes for an oddly relaxing afternoon listen.

METZ — The Swimmer

METZ continue their love affair with uncomfortable viewing in the video for The Swimmer, a jerky, frenetic and enraged piece of forward-reverse cinema.

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Noiseweek: The Leap Year, Chelsea Wolfe, Fugazi’s Repeater at 25 and more

Saturday, May 2nd, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

If you’re over 33 and can’t stand all the racket the kids call music these days, turns out you might be statistically average. Writing at Skynet & Ebert, Ajay Kalia — who works at Spotify to create users’ Taste Profiles — analyzed the demographic data and listening habits and concluded that users’ tastes, on average, “mature” by their mid-30s — which is to say new music is no longer a part of their listening diet. Of course, Kalia’s conclusion concerns popular music (whatever that means), and what many of the discussions around his findings have ignored is that older Spotify users (whatever that means) discover less familiar genres that they weren’t exposed to as teens, and users also re-visit music that’s fallen out of popular favour since their teenage years.

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Explosions in the Sky’s discography is now available on Bandcamp.

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Morning Glory: Fugazi’s Repeater Revisited | The Quietus

“Rock music tends to reward the inspired accident: fans have become trained to respond to sounds that may be calibrated to micron-thin tolerances but which give the aural appearance of the intuitive and the inspired. That isn’t what seems to be happening here. Nor is this the product of a jazz sensibility, where technical excellence and deep understanding of chords, tone and rhythm combine to permit improvisation, in tune and on time, to provide the hypnotic focus. On these sessions Fugazi sound like they found a new path, somewhere between the two — where you can hear the deliberation behind every note yet never for a second feel that this makes the music anything less than tremendously exciting.”

Creative Darwinism: Pretty Flowers Grow in Shit | Spook Magazine

“Being isolated spatially and culturally – us from the city, Perth from Australia and Australia from the world – arms one with an Atlas-strong sense of identity. Both actively and passively, originality seems to flourish in Perth’s artistic community. Without the wider community’s acceptance, creative pursuits lack the potential for commodification. There’s no point in preening yourself for success because it’s just not real. It’s a fairytale, so you may as well just do it in whatever way you like, good or bad, in your room or on the top of the Telstra building, which – as anyone with any common sense will attest – was built for that one potential badass to drop in on a skateboard and parachute off.”

The Fight For All Ages Shows | Pitchfork

“Live music is, by nature, impermanent and ephemeral, but the places that show are staged can be either transitory or stable. All that’s needed is a power supply, a space for artists to play, and a place for the audience—meaning live music can happen most anywhere. I’ve seen bands play in a cemetery, in a botanical garden, a library, an industrial hallway, on a bridge, and in a skate bowl. I’ve been to huge festivals, clubs, and seen sets in churches, community centers, and many basements, kitchens, and living rooms. Despite all these options or spaces for opportunity, it’s harder than ever to get a show space off the ground, and keep it running. It’s no wonder so many spaces throughout the U.S. are illegal and temporary at best.”

LISTEN

The Leap Year — Knesting / Dental Work

In an alternate universe, The Leap Year are one of the biggest bands to ever come out of Perth. I fucking love this band, and I wish everyone else did too, and I can’t pinpoint what makes them so compelling yet so under-appreciated. Their new 7-inch — the follow-up to their tremendous 2013 album, The Narrowing — is bombastic and subtle and brittle and powerful and morose and uplifting all at once. Without being obtuse or even that groundbreaking, The Leap Year defy genres — call it slowcore, indie rock, shoegaze or gloom — all I’m settled on is that they just write really fucking good songs.

Chelsea Wolfe — Iron Moon

There’s a menace lurking beneath every note in this first taste from Chelsea Wolfe’s forthcoming Abyss, which is out August 7. But the song’s not without its moments of beauty; she matches the storm-brewing moments of intense discomfort with purgative, uplifting vocal melodies. This is Wolfe at her heaviest and most invigorating.

WATCH

Under the Influence: New York Hardcore

Rancid’s Tim Armstrong narrates this VICE documentary on the punk scene that flourished amongst New York’s 1970s and 80s squalor in the Village, documenting the abuse, addiction and poverty surrounding the rise of Agnostic Front, Title Fight and more.

Death From Above 1979 — Virgins

The amish go wild in this second video from the Toronto duo’s The Physical World.

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Noiseweek: Chelsea Wolfe, Lycia, Sumac and Tyranny is Tyranny

Friday, April 24th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

New book alert: Drag City are releasing a collection of posters from the Louisville punk scene that birthed the likes of Slint and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Though never as celebrated as a music capital the way Seattle, Nashville, New York or Chicago ever were, the Kentucky city played a pivotal role in the development of noise rock, hardcore and its others — names like Rodan, Squirrel Bait, June of 44, and more recently, Young Widows, Waxeater and Watter. Titled White Glove Test, the book brings together poster art from 1978–94 and is available for purchase at the Drag City website.

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Seems like tribute records from the 90s are the new reunions. There’s currently crowdfunding campaign to finance a cover of Helmet’s debut Meantime, with contributions from KEN mode, Kings Destroy and The Atlas Moth among others. The starting goal is pretty low at $5,000 and as of writing a little over 40% of the way towards its target. Head over to the Kickstarter campaign page if you’re keen to throw some coin.

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How Much is Music Really Worth? | Pitchfork

“Putting the debates about artists’ income from Spotify, Pandora, and their ilk in a broader historical context, it becomes clear that the money made from a song or an album has clearly decreased over the last several decades. What’s equally clear, though, is that the value of music is almost as subjective financially as it is aesthetically; the economics of music, it turns out, is more dark art than dismal science.”

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Join The Chant? Pop’s Endlessly Problematic Relationship With Politics | The Quietus

“There’s a sense, some reckon, of heads-down expediency among today’s generation, that however tousled their hair may be or serrated their ‘indie’ guitar stylings, they are aspirational rather than countercultural. Is there even such a thing as the ‘counterculture’ anymore, outside of the dreams of 40-and-50-somethings brooding wistfully over their large vinyl collections? What has become of the insurrectionary spirit of rock’s halcyon years, before postmodernism set in and hip ironicism usurped an older, angrier spirit of authentic rage? Where is the Doc Marten energy of the old days, of rock music as soundtrack to petrol bombs and stand-offs with cordons of crewcut police?”

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The Man Who Broke The Music Business | The New Yorker

“From 2001 on, [Dell] Glover was the world’s leading leaker of pre-release music. He claims that he never smuggled the CDs himself. Instead, he tapped a network of low-paid temporary employees, offering cash or movies for leaked disks. The handoffs took place at gas stations and convenience stores far from the plant. Before long, Glover earned a promotion, which enabled him to schedule the shifts on the packaging line. If a prized release came through the plant, he had the power to ensure that his man was there.”

LISTEN

Lycia — Silver Leaf

I first heard of Lycia when the late Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele described the Arizona outfit’s music as the most depressing he’s ever heard which is lofty praise from the drabbest of the drab four. Now a duo, Lycia remained largely dormant for the first decade of the 21st century before resurfacing in 2010. “Silver Leaf” is one half of a forthcoming split release with Black Mare through Earsplit, and it seems Steele’s description still holds true; if you start your morning with the tides of reverb that envelop Mike VanPortfleet’s stark incantations, you’re useless for the rest of the day.

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Tyranny is Tyranny — The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Tyranny is Tyranny first came to my inbox about six months ago with word of their ambitious concept album, Let It Come From Whom It May, based on American writer and critic Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of The United States. Rarely is protest music infused with such a vivid aesthetic — in this case, a vivid and violent sound somewhere between mid-west emo and Fugazi (Russell Emerson’s vocal delivery falls right in the middle of Ian Mackaye marching orders and Guy Picciotto’s attitudinal rebel yell. Tyranny’s latest record takes on Naomi Klein’s breakdown of disaster capitalism,The Shock Doctrine, and this time their adaptation is better produced and rich with guitars that convey vulnerability and power all at once. Extra props for this being the only record on Bandcamp tagged Zinn-core.

WATCH

Sumac — Thorn in the Lion’s Paw (Live)

As much as I’d love an ISIS (the band) reunion, it almost seems unnecessary. Between Old Man Gloom, Zozobra, Mamiffer and now Sumac, the members of the late post-metal vanguards are producing some of the most exciting heavy music in the world. Sumac is the youngest of those projects, having just released The Deal through Profound Lore earlier in the year. This video from one of their first shows ever back in March in Vancouver showcases how utterly gargantuan a three-piece can be. That’s Turner on vocals and guitar, Baptists’ Nick Yacyshyn on skins and Brian Cook of Russian Circles / Botch / These Arms Are Snakes fame on bass. This is the most crushing thing you’ll hear all week.

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Chelsea Wolfe: ABYSS album trailer

Your Sargent House Gush of the Week features the first taste from the fifth album of the new Noir Queen. This excerpt is easily the heaviest Wolfe’s ever sounded, and the visuals of a chiaroscuro California show the limitless potential of her cinematic world. Abyss is slated for a summer 2015 release.

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Noiseweek: Record Store Day, David Bowie, El Ten Eleven, Weedeater and more

Friday, April 17th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving’s Yield to Despair comes out today. You can stream and buy it on Bandcamp and see them play The Bakery one last time before its closure to launch the record. Expect this album to be rank highly on all of our best-of lists this year, and expect this show to be gargantuan.

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The BBC is reporting that David Bowie is working on new material for a musical stage adaptation of The Man Who Fell To Earth, the 1976 sci-fi film about an alcoholic alien in which Bowie had a starring role. Though Bowie is not slated to appear on stage, he’s said to be closely involved in the production, which is set to debut in New York in December.

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High on Fire have announced the title and release date for their 7th LP: it will be called Luminiferous and it will be released on June 23. The announcement was accompanied by the following mini-treatise from riffer-in-chief Matt Pike:

“We’re doing our part to expose The Elite and the fingers they have in religion, media, governments and financial world downfall and their relationship to all of our extraterrestrial connections in the race to control this world. Wake up, it’s happening. All while we stare at a socially engineered lie we think of as normalcy. Unless we wake from the dream, there will come true doom.”

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A Pressing Business: tQ Goes Inside A Czech Vinyl Plant | The Quietus

“Since much of digital music technology is helmed by a crop of multi-billion dollar companies, with millennial branding and self-styled demi-gods for CEOs, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the marketing strategies and modes of consumption for a medium like vinyl are concerns for a comparatively sluggish underground; a physical product that’s barely changed for generations, yet discussed on panels, in clubs, in record shops, on loop. The companies who supply them, too, must be similarly small-time affairs. But the year-on-year growth of the market recently has been remarkable. The Official Chart Co. noted that 2014 was the first year since 1996 in which sales in the UK reached the one million mark and, according to Nielsen Music, sales in the US alone increased 52% on the year previous to hit an impressive 9.2 million in 2014. And just this past week, the Official Chart Co. also launched the weekly Official Vinyl Albums Chart and Official Vinyl Singles Chart, for the first time in the company’s history.”

Meredith Graves: Pussy Power | Dazed Digital

“That people who have been hurt and people who have been marginalized deserve to be heard. That’s really the first and most striking similarity that comes to mind. In my perfect world, the prevailing ideology would be ‘do what you can to make the world better, to make your life better.’ I have now been in many countries where young kids have come up and said they were inspired by me because I came forward as someone who survived abuse and has suffered from mental illness. You can survive the cultural conditions that have fought to suppress you. I have lived through a horribly abusive relationship. I have struggled my entire life with extreme depression and mood disorders. And now, after a year of traveling the world and talking to people about it, I’m here in a place where I can facilitate the survival of others. Survival is an option, and once you can get to the point where you are above water, if and when you’re feeling up for it, you can reach your hand back and pull someone else up.”

Are You Even Real? Identity and Music in the Digital Age | Pitchfork

“This February, Father John Misty released I Love You, Honeybear, a pretty folk album that doubles as an exposé of our generation’s subconscious. Critics have zoned in on “Bored in the USA”, a mournful white-guy ballad accompanied by laugh track—an apt and self-justifying touch. But the lyrical crux within the album is “Holy Shit”. The song grandly reels off a chain of personal and political ruptures—revolutions, holocausts, incest dreams, original sin—which all emphasize the album’s driving concept: the unbearable heaviness of Josh Tillman’s love for his wife. After he’s tried on many rock-star guises—the chauvinist, the lothario, the “changed man”—it’s in “Holy Shit” that Tillman’s shape-shifting character crystallizes. Honeybear doesn’t just fuck with authenticity; it shows how, when our everyday frames of reference disorient us, our identity fractures, and we grasp for a toehold in the familiar.”

LISTEN

HEADS. — HEADS.

Last week we previewed the second track from Berlin noise rock trio HEADS.’ blistering debut and now Heart of the Rat Records are streaming the EP is streaming in full. It’s a lethal dose of concentrated, unapologetic and frankly ugly pigfuck with hints of Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, Young Widows et al. And it’s bottom-heavy, too; the record hits its stride in the bubbling tension of Black River and Foam before climaxing with the understated and disturbing The Voynich Manuscript. Difficult listening, as it should be.

Weedeater — Claw of the Sloth

North Carolina’s weed metal innovators return with this expectedly filthy cut from their forthcoming, where “Dixie” Dave Collins sounds like he’s singing through a throat tube or gargling cough syrup as he growls over some of the trio’s muddiest riffage to date. The album is called Goliathan and it’s out on May 19 through Seasons of Mist.

WATCH

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld — The Rest of Us

Director Dan Huiting looms like a voyeur as his camera tilts, tracks and intrudes in this new clip from the forthcoming Stetson/Neufeld collaboration out through Constellation Records at the end of the month. Rarely do music videos match the mood of their companion sounds so well, let alone when the subject matter is so abstract. Repeat viewings recommended.

A Place to Bury Strangers — Now It’s Over (Live on KEXP)

The Loudest Band in New York are also The Most Well-Lit Band on Tour, bringing a collection of strobes and disco-balls to their in-studio appearance for a Seattle radio station. Oliver Ackermann is pretty much a robot when his voice is filtered through that many vocal processors, and the trio chose the most claustrophobic cut from their Transfixiation for a their decidedly claustrophobic performance.

El Ten Eleven — Nova Scotia

The latest video from post-rock’s most pragmatic duo is playful and serene like much of their back catalogue, juxtaposing live footage with sun-washed scene of a pair of kids frolicking and raising hell. The cut comes from the For Emily EP from early last year. Now can someone please bring these guys to Australia?

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Posted in A Place to Bury Strangers, Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld, David Bowie, El Ten Eleven, Experimental, Father John Misty, Guitars, Heads, High On Fire, Noiseweek, Perfect Pussy, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, Weedeater | Comments Off on Noiseweek: Record Store Day, David Bowie, El Ten Eleven, Weedeater and more

Noiseweek: GWAR, Minsk, holograms, Pallbearer, Nirvana tributes and more

Friday, April 10th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

CNN is reporting that the surviving members of GWAR are being sued by the father of late frontman Oderus Urungus — AKA Dave Brockie — William Brockie, for allegedly holding onto Brockie junior’s remains, music equipment and artwork. Brockie senior is seeking $1 million in damages as well as the return of his son’s ashes and belongings, which are reportedly kept locked at the band’s Slave Pit headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. Both parties remain uncertain on the status of the Cuttlefish of Cthulu, but sources say it remains in the possession of authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earned himself some serious punk cred this week with the proclamation that April 9 is now Riot Grrrl day in honour of Kathleen Hanna’s performance in the city on that night. Walsh’s Chief of Policy, Joyce Lineham, has known Hanna for the better part of two decades and used to host her when Hanna’s bands would come through town. The proclamation is adapted from Hanna’s Riot Grrrl Manifesto and includes the following passage: “The riot grrrl philosophy has never felt more relevant, with misogyny still rampant in many cultural spaces;” and “Riot grrrls redefine the language used against them and continue to fight the newest incarnations of patriarchy. In doing so, they ironically confirm one ex-congressman’s accidental wisdom: ‘the female body has ways to try to shut that down.’ It sure does: women’s voices telling their stories can shut that down.”

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In news straight out of a Phllip K. Dick dystopia, late Tejano popstar Selena Quintanilla will be next to receive the hologram treatment already bestowed to the likes of Tupac and Elvis. With the blessing of her family, tech company Achrovirt LLC will begin working on a of Quintanilla pending the success of a soon-to-be-launched $500,000 crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. Jesus.

READ

How London’s NTS is helping redefine live radio | The Guardian

“If video killed the radio star, then digital streaming is dancing on its grave. Spotify and the like have redefined listening habits but they’ve also driven (mainly young) listeners away from the human interaction the FM dial offers, towards endless playlists interrupted by infuriatingly upbeat adverts about clearing hotlines. An Ofcom report last year found that Brits under 25 dedicate a measly 24% of “listening time” to traditional radio. But you can’t call up Mixcloud for a shout-out when you’re bombing up the M6 for a night out at the Warehouse Project, and that’s where east London’s NTS Radio offers a middle ground.

The station, which turns four this week, positions itself somewhere between BBC 6 Music’s diversity and pirate radio’s DIY spirit; and, like Rinse FM before it, it’s a combination that’s helping to lure music fans back to radio. It’s part of a global network of new, hyperlocal internet stations, including Soho Radio in London, Berlin Community Radio, and Know Wave in NYC, who offer idiosyncratic music selections throughout the day, and not just limited to twilight slots. Some sets come from established DJs such as Andrew Weatherall and Caribou; others, if you happen to live in Hackney where NTS’s shopfront studio is based, quite literally from the girls next door.”

How can we change the face of power in the music industry? | The Fader

“Perhaps part of the problem is the static nature of the business, but that’s not to say there aren’t also unique challenges that face women on the corporate ladder. In an innocuous quote in the Billboard Power 100 issue that hints at a deeper problem, executive VP of Capitol Music Group Michelle Jubelirer describes the moment a male employee introduced her to Mick Jagger as his boss. “I don’t think Mick believed him,” she said. Sexist attitudes in business are deeply ingrained, and will likely take a long time to change. This was famously illustrated when a Harvard business professor changed the name of Silicon Valley exec and SkinnySongs CEO Heidi Roizen to “Howard Roizen” in half of the case studies about her that he gave to his students. The professor measured his students’ responses to the study, and found that the majority would rather work for “Howard” than for Heidi, despite their two profiles being totally identical. Students described having an impression of Heidi as being more power-hungry and harsh than “Howard”; the more she asserted herself, the less they liked her.”

Immaculate Self-Conception | Pitchfork

“When it comes to portraying women, music media buys into the ideas of glamour just as much as the fashion industry, and Instagram feels like an opportunity to supercede the romantic manipulation of photo-doctoring. Airbrushing remains one of the few lies in the commercial economy that’s allowed to remain unchecked even after the public is made aware of their own deception. By that I mean this: When a product doesn’t perform as advertised, it is taken off the market; when an academic misrepresents his research, he is stripped of his title; when a media icon lies about a simple detail of his personal experience, he is suspended without pay. In music, the misrepresentation inherent to altering the female image is an accepted cultural norm despite the fact that in most other instances when people, commodities, or ideas have been publicly misrepresented, there are penalties. We are sold the myth of what women in entertainment are supposed to look like every day, and the fact remains that no one has ever revoked an advertisement or magazine cover because it physically misrepresented a (perfected) female icon. Airbrushing is designed to flatter and romanticize reality—but it’s also an act of deception, however benign.

As a contrast, the impulsive, documentary-quality of Instagram makes it feel like the only corner of the Internet where women can choose how they are portrayed; they can flatter the male gaze or subvert it. An interesting dimension of fame is that female musicians are in the unique position of having access to photos that other people of take of them; as such, their choosing to include photos from the press alongside, say, selfies with their dogs represents a new, highly-tailored way to curate their image. It says something about what women want to add to their own narrative every time a distinction is made between what does and does not get shared.”

LISTEN

Minsk — The Crash and the Draw

This might be the heaviest record of the quarter-year. After six years dormant, the fourth LP from the post-metal outfit (who share a hometown with the late, great Richard Pryor) is quite possibly the best marriage of atmospherics and brutality I’ve heard since the disbandment of ISIS. The first side of this record is ugly, but Minsk are not a group of one-trick ponies; the nine-minute The Way is Through recalls the transcendent moments of Panopticon as the masculine veneer of vocalist Tim Meed recedes, revealing a beautiful vulnerability beneath the bravado, before the rage comes again in the climax. Utterly entrancing.

Solkyri — Sad Boys Club

Solkyri imbue their music with the kind of energy post-rock bands need: a vitality that breathes life and kinetic momentum into the often stale and static aesthetic. This is uplifting stuff, recalling sleepmakeswaves and And So I Watch You From Afar while remaining firmly grounded in a dynamic riffing and compelling songwriting. Expect nothing but big things from this Sydney quartet.

Nothing — Something in the Way

This second cut from the forthcoming tribute to Nirvana’s Nevermind shows Nothing at their most subtle and subdued, substituting their usual reverb pedals and tremolo picking for distant synthetic whines, whispered words and an utterly depressing piano track. The tribute’s out on April 18 through Robotic Empire — who also released an In Utero tribute this time last year — and features covers from Boris, Young Widows, Pygmy Lush and Thou.

Golden Bats — 7?

Cvlt Nation premiered this harrowing offering from our Brisbane friends Golden Bats. It’s an ugly pair of tracks, but Golden Bats aren’t looking for a prom date, so revel in the filthy Iommic dirge and unbridled dread before the 7? drops on April 18 for Record Store Day.

WATCH

Pallbearer — Watcher in the Dark

Some eight months after the release of their sophomore epic Foundations of Burden, Little Rock quartet Pallbearer have unveiled their first ever music video, the 10-minute “Watcher in the Dark.” There are some stunning landscape shots here of what I am guessing are the Ozark Mountains in their homestate of Arkansas, alongside a slew of tripped-out galactic and alien visuals that recall Duke Nukem 3D. Killer.

Lightning Bolt — The Metal East

Speaking of tripped-out, Lightning Bolt’s first clip for their new album might just be the most messed up music video of the year. Part mid-90s side-scroller, part Ren and Stimpy, part space cartoon bad trip and perfect for the frenetic madness that is Lightning Bolt.

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Noiseweek: KEN mode, Failure, Marriages and Nothing

Saturday, April 4th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

READ

An Interview with Brian Cook by Jonathan K Dick of Steel for Brains | The Farm Family

“I think it’s Woody Guthrie that said “If you’re using more than two chords, you’re just showing off.” I feel like most people in my generation got their musical legs in punk rock music, and I think it’s because it’s so simple and it’s something that’s very empowering when you’re like “Oh shit. It’s just power chords? That’s so fucking easy.” I remember finally learning about power chords and it was like oh my god, every fucking rock song is just power chords. It was like this whole world opened up – the fact that people who’d made so many different types of songs were just using the simple structure of three chords or four chords or whatever was really fascinating when I started off. Then at some point you can maybe get too proud of yourself and go “Oh, well I need something more complex and meaningful than that,” but again I think it’s the same kinda thing you were saying with Roy Acuff. You get older, and it’s like “Holy shit, you know what’s really awesome? You can fucking write a really good song with three chords, and that’s all you need.” I think making more out of less is somehow more gratifying to me now as I’ve gotten a little older.”

How To Be Alone: Musicians Confront Suicide | NPR

“For a writer like Sufjan Stevens, who usually stresses patterns and mythologies within his work, the turn toward autobiography is risky. It opens the door to fetishization, something Stevens already has to deal with because of his good looks and invitingly gentle performance style. In the era of pop music, many artists people mention as embodying solitude have very noisy personal narratives indeed — they are troubled figures like Nick Drake or Elliott Smith, both possible suicides, or ones who consciously cultivated singular paths parallel to their natural communities, like Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Cohen, famous for his devotion to Zen, is a star of the essayist Pico Iyer’s recent TED-sponsored book on secular solitude, The Art of Stillness — the prime example of a meditative life that can still make room for major concert tours, Courvoisier and the occasional “beautiful young companion.” Iyer writes of hearing Cohen’s croaky late masterpiece, Old Ideas, in a Starbuck’s in downtown Los Angeles, and ponders, “Cohen seemed to be bringing us bulletins from somewhere more rooted than the CNN newsroom, and to be talking to us, as the best friends do, without varnish or evasion or design.” To be open to his plain words, though, it helps to know that Cohen’s been perfecting it for half a century. His biography is a key to understanding his messages, but it’s also something of a distraction.”

Lightning Bolt’s Bassist Is Making an Amazing-Looking ‘Rhythm Violence’ Game | Vice

“[Brian] Gibson, has a lesser known side-line to his bass-slaying position as 50 percent of Lightning Bolt – indeed, it’s been a full-time gig for him more often than not. He’s served as an artist on several games for Harmonix, the studio behind Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as well as the about-to-relaunch Amplitude and the Disney-affiliated Fantasia: Music Evolved. But much of what he’s done in the past will be cast into shade when the colourful aggression of Thumper strong-arms its way into the rhythm action genre sometime next year. A project several years in the making so far, Gibson collaborating with now-Seoul-based programmer Marc Flury on its creation and the pair coming together under the umbrella of Drool, Thumper is pitched as a “rhythm violence” game. “You are a space beetle,” says its website. “Your goal: kill Crakhed!” Some further explanation is offered – “You control a space beetle while careening towards a confrontation with an insane giant head from the future” – but, really, all most people have to go on is the electrifying trailer that came out in February, which you can see below. (And just imagine it in VR, without throwing up on yourself.)”

LISTEN

Marriages — Salome

Marriages might just be Sargent House’s best kept secret. The LA trio formed from the ashes of Red Sparowes and released the tremendous EP Kitsune in 2012, with a centrepiece in the song “Ten Tiny Fingers” that for my money is some of the best shoegaze since Loveless. The group’s forthcoming debut album due out in April 7 has been made available for streaming on Soundcloud and it’s one of my frontrunners for album of the year thus far. Though there’s no one song as compelling as “Ten Tiny Fingers” — at least on the first few listens, the nine-track collection showcases Emma Ruth Rundle’s compelling vocal range, as well the band’s penchant for heartwrenching dreamy melodies fit for astral travel. Pre-orders are up on Bandcamp now.

Failure — Hot Traveler

Failure’s reunion trail has been an unorthodox one. Never that big in their heyday of the early-to-mid-90s, the trio announced their reunion with barely any fanfare in late 2013 before playing a few one-off shows in early 2014 before joining Tool on the road and heading out on their own US headline jaunt. Two new songs emerged from that first 12-month period — “Come Crashing” and “The Focus”, but details on a new album were scant at best. Two weeks ago at SXSW, the trio debuted a third new cut this, “Hot Traveler,” an awkwardly titled pop-tinged number that harkens back to the major-key elements that close 1996’s Fantastic Planet. (By the way — that record has finally been given the vinyl treatment.) Now, with their first international dates, they’ve finally locked in details on album number four: The Heart is a Monster, due for release on June 30 via INresidence. I can’t wait.

WATCH

KEN mode — Blessed

Winnipeg’s finest return with this video for “Blessed,” the first cut from their forthcoming Steve Albini-recorded LP. If this track is anything to go by, the trio have taken an Albini-esque turn, forgoing their explosive hardcore tendencies for a disconcerting brand of noise rock where the vocals are distant and not so much shouted or sung but spat with vitriol, while guitars bathe in a swampy and chaotic fuzz. The new LP comes out on June 16 through Seasons of Mist and is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

A Place to Bury Strangers — What We Don’t See

It’s a shoegazing kind of noiseweek. Brooklyn’s loudest debuted the second video from their latest recordTransfixiation, giving the jaunty and unstable “What We Don’t See” an equally unstable visual treatment, where a macro-lens captures the kinetic fluctuations of their equipment in response to tremendous sound. We see drumsticks and paper and stompboxes and keys vibrating in time with the whining guitar lane and the rhythmic crescendos in a sly display of subtlety from the loudest band in New York.

Nothing live at Saint Vitus

HQ footage of the unlikely Relapse Records signees at Brooklyn’s best metal venue.

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Noiseweek: Cobain documentary, OK Computer in the Library of Congress, NYT on Liturgy, new music from Death Grips, Godspeed and more

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

Radiohead’s OK Computer has been selected for preservation at the US Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in recognition of its “cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.” The organisation selects 25 recordings each year, and Radiohead’s seminal 1997 release joins The Doors’ 1967 self-titled album, Steve Martin’s comedy record A Wild and Crazy Guy and 22 other recordings ranging from the 1890 to 1999 to receive the honour this year.

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The HBO-produced Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck which did the rounds with its debut trailer a couple of weeks back has been confirmed for a theatrical run in our little island nation. US sources point to an April 10 debut in cinemas before the HBO premiere on May 4, but that’s likely a US date; the only solid information on an Australian release points to June 25.

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Earth have struck up a deal with LA-based label / management company Sargent House, joining a stupidly talented roster of the world’s best power trios including Boris, Marriages, Helms Alee, Mutoid Man and Russian Circles. No word yet if this means a severance of Earth’s long-running partnership with Southern Lord.

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British book publisher Strange Attractor are taking pre-orders venerable UK mag The Wire’s latest foray into print publishing with Epiphanies: Life Changing Encounters with Music, a collection of the publication’s Epiphanies column which has been running for over 17 years. Contributors include Michael Gira, Jonny Greenwood, Simon Reynolds and Lydia Lunch.

READ

The Ark Work is Liturgy’s Third Album | The New York Times

“In his interviews and writings, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix — Liturgy’s singer and songwriter and one of its guitarists — rejected the common black-metal rhetoric of decay, doom and negative certainty in favor of the opposite: building, liberation and positive indecision. He wrote a manifesto about “transcendental black metal,” which he read aloud at an academic symposium and which was excerpted in a journal of poststructural philosophy. (For all of this he was called pretentious, as if black-metal bands of the early-’90s Norwegian period, with corpse-paint and bullet-belts and inverted crosses, hadn’t ever known pretension.) In any case, Liturgy’s music, and the predictable response to it, seemed based on what it was not — how it stood apart from what it sounded like.”

Perennially Contentious: The Return of Faith No More | Pitchfork

“While “alternative rock” was a nebulous descriptor even during the genre’s late-‘80s/early-‘90s heyday, Faith No More were the rare band to truly exemplify both halves of the term. On the surface, the San Francisco quintet resembled the sort of long-haired, ripped-denim hellraisers filling up the dance card on “Headbangers Ball”, but their absurdist take on rock owed as much to Zappa as Zeppelin. And their ubiquitous 1990 breakout hit “Epic” both defined rap-metal and defied it, gilding its atomic funk with progged-out synth fanfares and classical-piano flourishes, like a mosh pit choreographed by Cecil B. DeMille. ”

Why Would A Band of White Dudes Name Themselves Slaves? | The Fader

“From Anal Cunt to Cerebral Ballzy, there have always been bands whose names provoke a reaction, especially in the punk and hardcore scenes. Shock tactics and strong political statements are often at the heart of art—and, more cynically, marketing plans—but lately, several bands have been causing a backlash for the overtones of cultural and political appropriation evoked by their names. Prostitutes, Girl Band, and Viet Cong—who played at FADER FORT last week—all make very different music (techno, noise, and rock respectively) but the one thing they have in common is that they’re all made up of white men. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’ve been at the centre of the discussion, with Viet Cong even having a recent university show cancelled by a promoter who deemed their name “offensive.” (The Calgary band have since issued a statement claiming they were “naive” in choosing their name and “never meant to trivialize the atrocities or violence that occurred on both sides of the Vietnam war.”)”

LISTEN

Godspeed You! Black Emperor — Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress

That happened quick. Godspeed only announced their fifth LP in late February; Asunder… is out on March 31 and was made available for streaming earlier this week. Some of the cuts might sound familiar — I’m almost certain the opening of “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!” was a live staple on their first Australian tour in early 2013. It’s a track mired in dirge and drudgery, anchored by a beastly symphonic below. In fact, dirge and drudgery abound on this record: after a few listens, it feels like the most apocalyptic record yet, as if the collective have traded in their hope for nihilism.

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving — The Albanian Sleepover

Speaking of dirge, Perth quartet and LIN favourite Tangled Thoughts of Leaving have debuted the first track from their forthcoming sophomore LP. At a second under 10 minutes it’s probably the album’s shortest tracks, but it showcases the band’s darkly melodic tendencies as fields of static rise and fall under a ten-ton-heavy riffage before a brooding interlude, a crashing crescendo and a “to be continued…” until we get to hear part 2. I’ve little doubt this will be one of the best records of the year.

Drowning Horse — Drowning Horse

The most punishing band in Perth are in the midst of work on a new record that, fingers crossed, will be out before the end of the year, and before they play their first show of 2015 at our five year anniversary show at The Bakery on April 2 (tickets here!), they’ve made their debut record for free, or whatever price you may feel like paying.

WATCH

Inventions — Peregrine

The first video from Inventions’ Maze of Woods is an eerie, home video-style piece of cinema that recalls cultist found footage, Jason Voorhees and Chuckie — an odd mix of aesthetics given the track’s relaxed tone, but it’s a fitting juxtaposition. You can stream more from that album at Inventions’ Bandcamp.

Joy Division + Teletubbies

It’s the film-noir fever dream you’ve always wanted.

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Noiseweek: Pajo on recovery, John Doran’s new book, Space Bong, Inventions and more

Friday, March 20th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

John Doran — the veteran UK music journalist who currently steers the ship at The Quietus — is set to publish his first book, Jolly Lad, a memoir that delves into his alcoholism, music writing, mental illness and breakdown. From the description: “Jolly Lad is about gentrification; being diagnosed bipolar; attending Alcoholics Anonymous; living in a block of flats on a housing estate in London; the psychological damage done by psychedelic drugs; depression; DJing; factory work; friendship; growing old; hallucinations; street violence and obsessive behaviour – especially regarding music and art.” Pre-orders are available now from Strange Attractor.

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RTRFM have finalised their line-up for this year’s edition of In The Pines. Felicity Groom, Thee Glold Blooms, Grim Fandango, SpaceManAntics, Eduardo Cossio Quartet and a reunited Rosemary Beads joining a lineup that already includes Husband, Lanark, Rachel Dease, Methyl Ethyl and a slew of other amazing Perth acts. It all takes place at the Somerville Auditorium at UWA on Sunday, April 19. More details over at RTRFM.com.au.

READ

The Road to Recovery with Slint’s David Pajo | The Thin Air

“I mentioned that it’s important to beware the ‘dangerous and completely untrue thoughts’ above. But there are quite a few things you can do. Don’t internalize your darkness: pull them out of your head and dump them on every person you can trust with your feelings! Yes, just drop it on them. When you’re bummed, you don’t want to burden anyone with your darkness so you keep it all inside. Fuck that. If they love you, it’s not a burden. Dump it out, lay your cards on the table with people who will react with compassion and not hold it against you. Do this all the time. If it’s in your head, let it out. It’s like releasing a valve, all that pressure starts releasing. Every little bit helps. Don’t hold back.”

Cvlt Nation interviews Emma Ruth Rundle | Cvlt Nation

“I love heavy music. The ways bands and scenes connect is something someone could write a paper about, or draw up a big family tree to illustrate the intricacies of connectivity between musicians. I can see how the association works in this case. I have NEVER once felt sexism present in the scene. The world of “heavy music” is one of the friendliest and most loyal I have experienced. The musicians and the listeners are (in my experience) the best people… and I often have the best times when we get paired up with a “heavy” band – Russian Circles for example. The only sexism I tend to experience in my musical life comes unexpectedly, and almost never from a fan or fellow musician. I once feared the “for a girl” mentality I know exists, but I never think of it anymore. I never feel it. There are many incredible women in and out of the heavy music world who can play technical and creative circles around some dudes – not to swoon too much (and I don’t want to play into any sex-based bullshit), but Helms Alee are one of the heaviest and most unique bands I’ve ever heard, two thirds of which are women. Good music is good. Who is playing it doesn’t seem to matter to me or to anyone else watching or listening.”

Meaningless Pain: An Interview With Full of Hell | The Quietus

“I just wanted things to be as extreme as possible, I didn’t want any middle ground at all, so bands like Discordance Axis and artists like Merzbow were just the greatest things I’d ever heard in my life because there was just no compromise at all, it was just seriously, seriously over the top. And it still felt like there was some kind of artistic expression involved, and that’s always been really important to me. And y’know, just in general I always felt that Hydra Head as a whole was offering real top quality; I knew I could trust anything they’d release even if I didn’t really know the band or artist. And it was totally my dream, ever since I had my first band, to someday put out a record on Hydra Head — unfortunately that will never happen though. Although, I kind of feel that Profound Lore — they label we’re with now — have sort of taken up the Hydra Head mantle. Which is great, they’ve put out some amazing records.”

LISTEN

Relapse Sampler

Relapse Records turns 25 this year, and they’ve been celebrating for the past month with a series of retrospectives features and releases, the pinnacle of which is this free, ridiculously extensive 184-track sampler. Highlights include cuts from Nothing, Neurosis, True Widow, Harvey Milk, Minsk… fuck, the whole thing’s full of highlights.

Space Bong — Deadwood to Worms

Speaking of heavy, Adelaide doom sextet Space Bong just released “Deadwood to Worms”, the first single on their new full-length due in September this year. At 14-and-a-half minutes, it’s a rollicking chunk of ugly, bottom-feeding doom with the perfect amount of riff idolatry.

Inventions — Maze of Woods

The always excellent Temporary Residence Ltd. label — whose catalog includes releases from Young Widows, Mono, My Disco and Watter — have just put out the latest effort from Inventions, the collaboration between Eluvium’s Matthew Cooper and Explosions in the Sky’s Mark T. Smith. Only half of the record is available for free streaming on Bandcamp, but the album’s first three tracks boast a wondrous array of sounds as Smith and Cooper play with trip-hop beats, ghostly textures and otherworldly ambience. Highly recommended.

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