Charalambides is the band started in Houston in 1991 by Tom Carter, former guitarist for the Mike Gunn, with his wife Christina Carter. The amazing hallucinatory quality of their music is no better revealed than on this their fourth album, the double LP Market Square a glorious sendup of Red Krayola and Popol Vuh at their most deranged. A lot of the sounds and technique found on this album foreshadows the "New Weird America / Freak-Folk" scene that has been dominating the underground for the past few years now.
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Charalambides - Market Square
Various Artists - Tar'd & Further'd
A collection of select tracks from the early 7" releases of the highly influential Philadelphia label Siltbreeze Records. The tracks on here showcase the early days of extremely important lo-fi acts such as The Dead C, Sebadoh, Alaistair Galbraith, Mike Rep while also showcasing some awesome obscure acts like Monkey 101 & The Gibson Bros.
Check out www.siltbreeze.com for more great stuff. They release nothing but awesome music.
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Bitrate: 256 KBPS
Encoded with: ITunes (version unknown)
Smog - Sewn to The Sky
Smog's 1990 debut, Sewn to the Sky, introduces the noisy aesthetic and dark sense of humor of Bill Callahan's early work. According to the liner notes, Sewn to the Sky was recorded on a "dumpster Porta-Studio," and indeed the album wears its cheap, abrasive production values well. Distorted guitars, vocals, and tape collages gain harsh and muddy textures that Callahan uses artfully, ranging from percussive pieces like "Russian Winter" and "Polio Shimmy" to droning, minor-key guitar workouts like "Olive Drab Spectre" and "Hollow Out Cakes." "Confederate Bills and Pinball Slugs" and "Fables" feature more recognizable melodies and song structures, and "Fruit Bats," "Peach Pit," and "The Weightlifter" introduce Callahan's dry, detailed lyrical style (sample lyrics from "The Weightlifter": "His car is red/He's saving for a waterbed/Oh what a love nest that'll be"), but the album's focal point is its pungent sound. Callahan's first album might be miles away from his later work, but it's still an interesting artifact from Smog's earliest, noisiest years.
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Factums - Alien Native
With squelch and emission drone that can be so abstract that you may think your household appliances are trying to tell you something, it's potency lies in the b-side's hammering incessance that lobs Factums into their glorious fold alongside fellow misanthropes and cohorts, The Intelligence and Pyramids. While industrial music hasn't had a real resurgence that's made an impact like its initial footprint with Although the first side of the album may draw long on it's instrumental proto-Cabaret VoltaireThrobbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions in the mid 70's, the current blossoming crop of contumacious and anti-image based 'bands' like Factums and their melodically corrupt circle of conspirators could easily be the original formula's righteous second coming, if not just a jagged stab in the right direction. Don't be expecting Ministry-type stuff with Factums, but think more atmospheric and unilaterally apocalyptic, cross-wired with a lo-fi punk anchoring that keeps the Wax Trax fans scratching their receding hairlines in wonder and amazement.
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Bitrate: 320 KBPS
Encoded with: ITunes v7.0.2
Updates
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Regular posting will resume tomorrow and will happen on a more consistent basis from here on out.
The Amps - Pacer
Initially, Kim Deal planned the Amps to be a solo project as she waited for her sister and fellow Breeder Kelley Deal to finish recovering from heroin addiction. Soon, the Amps flowered into a full-fledged band, recording material intended for both Kim's solo project and the third Breeders album. Recruiting drummer Jim MacPherson and two local Dayton musicians, Deal recorded Pacer in the summer of 1995, releasing it in the fall. Appropriately, the album is raw, punky, and amateurish -- it's lo-fi garage punk. Not only does Deal sound recharged by recording with a new band in such a rushed atmosphere, she contributes her most immediate and bracing songs since Pod, the first Breeders album. Pacer somewhat recalls the Pixies, but only in the sense that both bands rely on amateurish enthusiasm to rock, and both bands have an off-kilter sense of song structure. In that sense, the Amps also take a great deal from Guided by Voices, who the Breeders covered on their 1994 Head to Toe EP. But the key to Pacer is its primitive energy. From the brutally pounding "Empty Glasses" and the charmingly sleazy "Tipp City" to the singsong pop of "Pacer" and the fractured melodic rock of "Hoverin" and "Breaking the Split Screen Barrier," Pacer is exciting, gut-level rock & roll.
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Bitrate: VBR (VO)
Encoded with: LAME 3.92
Hasil Adkins - Out to Hunch
Hasil Adkins is a backwoods surrealist from rural West Virginia who spent most of the '50s, '60s, and '70s bashing ultra-crude rockabilly into an ancient reel-to-reel tape deck, one-man-band style (no overdubbing allowed -- Adkins keeps the beat with bass drum pedals while laying down the melody on guitar and howling his lyrics in a single fevered take). Adkins' approach would be odd enough no matter what his songs were about, but a quick scan of his lyrics indicates this is where he really starts to drift into the Twilight Zone; he's recorded no fewer than three tunes about decapitation, "She Said" concerns an assignation with a woman who looked "like a dyin' can of that commodity meat," and "The Hunch" describes the nation's slowest rising new dance craze like so -- "Now, if you ain't never seen nobody do the Hunch, you ain't never saw my woman! And I declare, son, you won't never see her! 'Cause I ain't got one!" Everybody clear on that? As you've no doubt gathered, Out to Hunch (compiled by Billy Miller from a decade's worth of home-recorded Adkins sessions, two of which were actually released as singles in the 1950s) doesn't sound a whole lot like anything else you've heard before, and if you're the sort of person who thinks Eric Clapton improves on Buddy Guy's guitar style, this probably won't be your bag. But if you believe that rock & roll is about passion and enthusiasm first and foremost, then Hasil Adkins has got to be one of the greatest rockers who ever walked the Earth -- even the weirdest, crudest songs bubble with wired conviction, and odd as his style may be, Hasil rocks hard on every frantic cut of Out to Hunch. A true original and a thing of wonderment, Out to Hunch is a truly singular rock & roll experience; after listening to it, hot dogs will never seem quite the same again.
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 192 kbps
Encoded with: ITunes
Jandek - You Walk Alone
I think most who are familiar with Jandek's large body of work would agree that "You Walk Alone" is probably his most "focused" and "conventional" release. With that said, a "conventional" Jandek release is still pretty damn off the wall and crazy.
Like most Jandek releases, it's never exactly clear who's playing what, other than some vocals and guitar from the Representative From Corwood himself. This album appears to feature an additional guitarist who is quite proficient at laying down some wanky 12-bar blues riffs which really drive most of the tracks and also the mood of this album. This allows Jandek to really let loose and give some of his best (and most Lou Reed-esque) vocal performances which is especially evident in "Time & Space" & 'The Way That You Act". If you also consider the spirited (and extremely off-kilter) drumming, you might be able to build the case that this is the most fun release in Jandek's catalog.
If this is your first exposure to Jandek, I would consider this to be a very good starting point. Plus, who could ask for a cooler album? I know I couldn't!
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 256 kbps
Encoded with: LAME 3.92
Pink Reason - Cleaning The Mirror
If you've been been keeping up with the underground blog scene during the past year, chances are you've run by Kevin Debroux's Pink Reason more than a handful of times. After a string of very successful single releases ("By A Thread", "Winona") Kevin dropped his first full-length on the recently rejuvenated legendary label Siltbreeze in early 2007. If you had been keeping up with Kevin's releases to that point, you were instantly surprised at how different this release sounded from the singles. In fact, with each new release it becomes more and more clear that there isn't really a common thread to the "sound" of Pink Reason. The easiest comparison to draw with Kevin's vocals are with that of Ian Curtis, but somehow Kevin manages to sound even more tortured and depressed. Other than that, it seems as though anything is fair game: from the sparse acoustic strumming of "Goodbye", to the drunken sing along of "Motherfucker" to the drum machine dirge of "Storming Heaven", there is a lot of emotional ground covered on this release. With a 7" coming out this year on Woodsist & and a rumored 2xLP follow-up due on Siltbreeze it will be very interesting to see where the Pink Reason sound evolves to next.
Format: MP3
Bitrate: VBR (VO)
Encoded with: LAME 3.96
Guided By Voices - Get Out Of My Stations EP
Get of My Stations is (in my opinion) the best of the series of mini-album 7 inches that GBV released in the early 90's. Where most of the other EPs felt just like leftover tracks this release has it's own distinct sound & fidelity that was never heard on any other release. Working again with Mike "Rep" Hummel (who also lovingly fucked with 1992's Propeller) this release has some really interesting sounds. From the warm and intimate ballads "Spring Tiger" & "Dusty Bushworms" to "Blue Moon Fruit" which sounds like the vocals were recorded in an empty parking garage, there is a lot to sink your teeth into during the short run time of this EP.
(this includes the live bonus tracks that were tacked on to the re-issue)
Format: MP3
Bitrate: VBR (VO)
Encoded with: LAME 3.96
The Fall - Dragnet
While most of the music that The Fall recorded between 1977 & 1983 can be described as "rough around the edges", I don't think anyone would argue that "Dragnet" is where you find The Fall at their messiest.
Recorded in only 3 days, Dragnet is the first album-length collaboration between Mark E. Smith and long standing Fall guitarist Craig Scanlon who would go on to write the music to some of the best known Fall classics. The album kicks off with a bang with a new version of a previously released single called "Psychic Dancehall", which has an extremely catchy riff and drum beat. The album continues down the primitive path, which culminates in the nearly 8 minute "Spector Versus Rector" which is just barely ramshackle contained chaos that sounds like it was recorded 3 rooms away.
"Dragnet" is probably not a favorite among hardcore Fall fans, but I strongly believe that it captures the purest essence of the group... a group who for many years believe that it's the attitude that should carry their songs.
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Bitrate: VBR (VO)
Encoded with: LAME 3.92
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