NO-CORE blog

Hey. I have a blog. That means I get to do one of those goofy “best of 2011″ lists! Okay, so this is pretty much a list of every album I got in 2011, but all of these rule. More caveats: They are in no particular order. I’m sure there’s other good stuff I didn’t hear, but I’m pretty confident if I listened to anyone else’s best-of list, these would still come out on top. **UPDATE: now with links, several are free downloads**

Meager Sunlight/Skeleton Warrior split 12″

I’ve definitely listened to this record repeatedly the most times this year, just flipping and flipping it. One side dark synth jams that could have literally been major radio hits in 1988. Other side mutant synth jams part DEVO, part Oingo Boingo, part bizarro.
Get it from Hot Releases or More Records.

Unicorn Hard-On/Container split 12″

Unicorn Hard-On’s track “Persian Cats” is just about song of the year and makes this split worth it alone. the other UHO track is great too and Container does “minimal techno” or maybe “fake techno” AKA the genre that noise became in 2011.
Also from More Records and Hot Releases.

AIDS Wolf “Ma vie banale avant-garde”

Epic abstract harsh guitar tracks. Still torch-carriers of the no wave bad vibes.
Get it from Lovepump (free download by mailing SASE).

Mincemeat or Tenspeed “Games of Chance”

Best Mincemeat or Tenspeed album? More headbanging noise but freakier sounds and tighter changes. Davey (dude behind this project) calls this “fake techno” too but uh… this would definitely still be half on the noise side of the fence.
Get it from Harshnice.

White Suns “Waking in the Reservoir”

Ah, a refreshing blast of negative noise-grind-dirge to wash yourself clean from all that reverbey indie-hippie nonsense.
Get it from ugExplode.

Dead Rider “The Raw Dents”

Slick and skilled and unsettling and really kinda OFF in a weird way – all at the same time.
Get it from Tizona.

Gay Beast “To Smithereens”

As good as their last one “second wave” but this seems to have been overlooked by most people, maybe because the band split up before it came out and weren’t able to support & promote it. Compositionally ambitious prog/no wave.
Get it from Skin Graft.

Black Pus “Primordial Pus”

Rocking drum-n-noise numbers. Kind of unhinged and spontaneous compared to the Black Pus 4 album, but with more blood sweat and tears.
Get it from Load Records.

Dick Neff “Dunce Slap”

Okay, apologies to Black Pus, but I think Dick Neff one-upped him at the one-drummer-noise-band thing. Lance (dude behind this project) calls this “fake metal” and it is heavy. Triggered synth tones fight each other as he drums like a maniac and everybody wins! The heaviest metal band that’s neither metal nor band.
Get it from Lance himself, I guess whenever you see him somewhere.

Mutwawa “Mayan Mutations”

Totally ruling merger of beats, noise, samples with a sci-fi/conspiracy theme. Sinister and tense and mind-blowing awesome.
Download it free from Free Music Archive.

Skoal Kodiak “Kryptonym Bodliak”

This is like what I was hoping !!! would sound like, but didn’t. Post-apocalyptic funk played by mutants and malfunctioning robots.
Get it from Load Records.

Dog Leather “Greezy Man and Stinky Man”

So this album did seem kind of short and half the tracks felt a little like filler, but the meat of it was still great even if it’s really sort of an EP. It’s probably too much to hope that this heralds a return of the goofball pseudo-music noise bands – last heard from around the time when we had Danse Asshole, Meerk Puffy, Wolf Eyes’ first album on Bulb… But I can dream!
Get it from Ehse Records (free download available).

Satanized “Technical Virginity”

Pretty much no one else touching this caliber of complex, skilled, aggressive music today  (outside of metal).
Get it from Skin Graft.

Doomsday Student “A Jumper’s Handbook”

Most of the Arab on Radar crew reunite and make what’s basically more Arab on Radar music. Nary a disco beat in sight, just atonality, dissonance, shrill shrieky guitars and voices. Yeah, it’s been done, but it was done by most of these same guys and I kind of wish there were more people making this music so welcome back boys.
Get it from Anchor Brain.

Men’s Room tape

Like HEALTH in an AmRep world or something. Way, way blown out and effected-into-oblivion guitars with rock drums and unintelligible vocals. Sounds kind of like garage rock pushed into the red until it becomes industrial noise.
Download it free from Bandcamp.

last second entry: Bloodhuff tape

Just grabbed this tape literally yesterday! Some Providence noise girls doing something sort of like punk rock. Every once in a while something like this convinces me that maybe punk rock is still a good idea. The sound is pretty subterranean and the vocals are almost strangely prominent but the weirdness of the sound only helps. Urgent and weird and spooky. Hard to say if something I only listened to once yesterday has earned its place on a “best of” list, but I’ve got a hunch this is better than that Iceage album everyone raves about but I still haven’t heard.
Get it from Price Tapes (free download available).

In honor of CMJ weekend here in NYC, I present the final part in my series of posts (see Part 1 and Part 2) , wherein I listened to bands I’d heard “buzz” about among an airline’s “Alternative” listening selections and wrote down my impressions. (It was a long flight) These first 2 selections don’t count as indie rock I don’t think, but I had heard the names so I gave them a listen.

You Me At Six

30 Seconds to Mars

Beach House

Yeasayer

MGMT

The Hold Steady

Yes, it continues! Though I’m not really into doing negative reviews, I decided to finish posting the rest of this. On an international flight last summer I browsed the in-flight radio’s Alternative options and listened to bands I’d heard “buzz” about, writing down my impressions. I mean, there must be something among all those hyped indie bands that’s worth checking out, right? (SPOILER: Wrong.) Here’s a link to PART 1, in which I was disappointed by Dirty Projectors, White Denim, Passion Pit, Gossip, and Grizzly Bear. As explained in part 1, this should be taken as entertainment only. Here goes:

Kings of Convenience

Kings of Convenience “Declaration of Dependence” – I feel like I’ve heard of this but not sure. The band photo looks like the guys who got beat up in high school by Simon & Garfunkel. I’ll give this a few minutes. Oh wow, it SOUNDS like the guys who got beat up by Simon & Garfunkel. This makes Scarborough Faire sound like AC/DC. They even sound bored with the music themselves. Yup, every song is the same. Next.

The XX

The XX “x” – Oh no, I think this was something like the “buzzed about band of CMJ.” I don’t know if I can do this to myself… and you just know this band wanted to name themselves ‘X’ and then was like “What do you mean there’s already a band called ‘X’? Okay, then we’ll be ‘THE X’ … There is? You’re kidding me. Okay, ‘The XX” will have to do I guess…” Here goes: Oh, come on! You’re kidding me. This is exactly the same adult contemporary alterna-rock that’s been boring since 1995. Sounds basically like 10,000 Maniacs. I had this faint hope that this would actually be a rock band and surprise me. At least it doesn’t have the faux-feeling-it falsetto vocals, but that’s about the only redeeming feature here. Painfully boring and bland.

Hot Chip

Hot Chip “One Life Stand” – Another frequently mentioned band. I thought this would at least be a synth-pop guilty pleasure like The Faint or something. No such luck. Breathy sub-crooning and basically the same soft-rock music as all the others, even if it is technically “electronic.” The songs are slightly more memorable than the rest, and so far this comes out as my “favorite” by a narrow margin. Makes The Faint look like The Jesus Lizard.

Local Natives

Local Natives “Gorilla Manor” – More promising band photo? At least one of them is smiling and the others aren’t explicitly moping. Starts with that same sparkly U2 guitar schmutz, and pretty much continues in that vein. Like we really needed a (further) watered-down version of U2. Not much different from anything else I’ve heard so far.

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend “Contra” – Not too different from Paul Simon’s “Graceland” – right down to the vocal delivery which sounds like an indie boy’s best attempt at impersonating Paul Simon.

To be continued! Yes, there’s more… I’ll be sure to post up some awesomeness and positivity before the next round.

bbigpigg "Phantom Photography"

*****UPDATE: This album now available for free download at http://www.bbigpigg.com/bp.html GET IT!*****

Bbigpigg are an NYC band and this is their debut 5-song EP. This is noise-rock that falls just about halfway between what I call noise-rock (music with rock beats, but incorporating real dissonant sounds or noise) and what some other people call noise-rock (loud edgy rock in the vein of the Jesus Lizard or somesuch). Shrill and tweaked guitars stab at you, but unlike some other modern No Wavers, this is anchored to a rock-solidly skilled rhythm section. Like… Shellac playing Arab on Radar covers? If you like Satanized or Microwaves you’ll probably want to check these guys out.

Let me get one complaint out of the way. For some reason I never like pig-themed things so I’m not into the band name. It might just be me. (I also don’t like songs about volcanos. Can’t say why.) I do think the curious spelling is going to throw people off though. I kept typing it in as bbiggppigg. Nope, the letters in the middle are not doubled. It’s bbigpigg. I never liked Boss Hogg’s name either (similarity intentional?) but somehow I got over it.

I caught a show by these guys last weekend and it sounded great live, and I was impressed by the one-slide-on-each-hand guitar technique. (not present on this album?) I think I caught more atypical time signatures going on at the show too. In fact my favorite track on this is the last one, “Foxx the Fox” where one guitar is playing in threes, the other in fives, and I couldn’t quite pick up on what the drummer and bassist were doing but it was something weird. It makes for a constantly shifting mess – of the best kind imaginable. And it makes me want to listen again so I can figure it out. That counts as a big win in my book.

http://www.myspace.com/bbigpigg
Contact bbigpigg-AT-gmail to get a copy.

Outside of the world of noise/no-wave/weirdo rock and bands I have actually played shows with, I really know very little about what’s supposed to be hip – but living as I do in hipster central I keep hearing all these band names, and sometimes I wonder if there’s anything there worth a listen. So I was on a long flight recently and they had album listening on demand, including an “alternative” category. I thought it might be fun to take a little browse of some band names I’ve heard and give my impressions. I know I’ve never done negative reviews before and I might dislike much of what I hear, but I thought this might be educational for me and fun for anyone else to experience my reactions. Anyone inclined to take this a little too seriously ought to see the *DISCLAIMER at the bottom of this post.

And here we go…

Dirty Projectors

First up: Dirty Projectors “Bitte Orca” – an unnamed acquaintance had told me this band was the worst live show he’s ever seen, but they are name-dropped about once every 15 seconds in Brooklyn, so let’s see. After a too-long opening of someone enamored with the effects they can apply to their guitar in Garageband it’s straight into over-the-top cutesy vocalness. Oh man, I don’t know if I can take this. That same acquaintance said that this band sounds kind of like Dave Matthews Band and I can hear that. At least the songwriting is straight alt rock sappiness – Dave Matthews meets Gin Blossoms but with that overbearing twee-cutesy-pie singing. Ouch. Next few songs start the same. Can’t take any more. Next.

White Denim

White Denim “Fits” – I’ve definitely heard this name somewhere. This starts out really, really unpromising with some Garageband-effected moanwave mwwaaaah. In fact, it sounds almost exciting when this suddenly becomes a 70’s boogie-rock thing. Compared to Dirty Projectors, this band sounds downright bad-ass and I was starting to think maybe they’re going for a Royal Trux thing. But the vocals are pretty half-assed instead of bad-assed and scanning through some songs, this all sounds pretty flat and gets boring within a few minutes. Actually sounds like the whole thing was recorded direct into a Macbook and then vintage amp effects were applied and the result is pretty bleh. I didn’t catch any hooks or riffs in any of these “rock” songs. A couple points for slightly loose style and what might qualify for “rocking” in the world of indie rock but that’s about it.

Passion Pit

Passion Pit “Manners” – This name is familiar to me from another friend making a recent comment about them. This is just pretty terrible all around. The self-consciously twee-falsetto vocals. Reverbed, chimey, flutey synth swells. Sounds just like the radio music I couldn’t stand 25 years ago and still can’t. Even on a 7-hour flight with nothing better to do I feel like I am wasting my life listening to this.

Gossip

Gossip “Music for Men” – Okay, this is in fact the band I remember as THE Gossip. I’ve heard them and remember them being pretty good. Basically the same formula The Yeah Yeah Yeahs started out with: rock songs with a garage sound, pop hooks, and a singer who can sing. Sounds like they’ve seriously smoothed out all the rough edges and lightened things up, sad to say. The singing is still good and at times almost redeeming – belted out old-school R-n-B style – but every song has this disco-lite sound. Kind of like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs now also, come to think of it.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest” – I know the New York publications have been raving about this one. So much so that I shudder AND cringe just thinking about hitting play on this. Everything gives me a bad feeling about this, including the band photos, but here we go… Okay, seriously? This is what people get excited about? It sounds like Hall & Oates crossed with Air Supply, or maybe iPod-commercial music slowed down to half-speed. Acoustic strummery, oohs and ahhs, breezy ambience, and all that Beach Boys wankery which indie rockers have been convinced is brilliant ever since the Flaming Lips dumped a load of it all over “The Soft Bulletin.” This is really what gets people excited? Those same people must have heart palpitations when there’s too much cinnamon in their oatmeal. This makes Pink Floyd sound edgy – today – in 2010.

Can I go on? It’s getting hard but let’s see…

TO BE CONTINUED in PART 2…

*DISCLAIMER: This post is for entertainment purposes only. The members of these bands might be wonderful people, and in fact some of these bands are probably friends of friends. My musical tastes do not make me a superior person. I once listened to a Sightings CD for 15 minutes thinking it sounded pretty cool before realizing my computer was reading it as a data disk.

Amoeba Men "Worried About Your Wiring?"

This album kinda kicks ass. I’ve listened to it about 4 times today and I think I’m going to play it again now! You know, when I first heard this, I had put it into a playlist of some new and old music. The Ex-Models were playing and I was thinking the following: When the Ex-Models guys were around I dug them but kind of took them for granted. Another “spazzy” Brooklyn band doing that post-punk sound. About that time everyone wanted to sound like that first Liars album so it seemed like there was plenty of that going around. (Ex-Models were way better than the Liars though) But now I just recently tortured myself by listening to all of the buzz-worthy indie bands of today and let me tell ya, how that made me appreciate them! “Where, oh where have all the high-energy, spazzy post-punk bands gone, and can we PLEASE get them back now?”

Next up in the play list? AMOEBA MEN come out of the gate swinging with a “One, Two, Blackout!” – EXACTLY what I was looking for! Every song sounds like they are jacked on caffeine and flipping out. Dense, rapid-fire drums, jittery buzzing synths, scathing guitar attack, and yelped out vocals. They’re not as mathematically precise as the Ex-Models, but all the herky-jerky energy is there. There’s also some new-wave oddball flavor, particularly coming from the keyboard and vocal delivery – almost a DEVO or, heck, even an Oingo Boingo vibe. But where Oingo Boingo or theatrical bands like them can come across a little self-consciously “aren’t we soooo arty and weird?” the main purpose of the Amoeba Men would seem to be to ROCK OUT. I’d also compare them to the Silver Daggers who share their focused but raw, rock’em sock’em vibe.

So these Amoeba Men are another Richmond, VA band featuring Mr. Jason Hodges, and I know I keep talking about his projects but hey, if you want to form a half-dozen killer bands and send me a new awesome album every month then maybe I’ll keep talking about you too. One of the most amazing things about this album? It was given away free! You can still get it too. Just follow this link, click the “download” link on the page you get to, and I think you need to add a “.zip” extension to the file you download.

http://cnproachmotel.blogspot.com/2010/08/amoeba-men-worried-about-your-wiring-cd.html

Be sure to leave a comment and thank them! I also found this 51-second YouTube clip of the Amoeba Men in action to give you a taste. Check it out.

Update: You know who else the Amoeba Men sound sort of like? Dazzling Killmen! Really!

DEVO tour poster

I had seen and participated in DEVO’s “vote-for-the-songs-you-want-on-the-new-album” thing, but somehow the actual release slipped by me. Well, after a 20-year break, DEVO’s new album: “Something For Everybody” is out. In DEVO fashion, this comes along with a new look (nice. powder blue is the new red apparently.) and an extension of the De-evolutionary philosophy.

As part of the pitch and concept for the album, there’s a “reality series” of videos – which are most likely completely fake, but brilliant nonetheless. This is DEVO for 2010 all right. (videos at the bottom of this post)

All that’s well and good, but I know what you’re wondering: Is the album terrible? Answer: No. Is it as amazing as “Hardcore DEVO” or “Are We Not Men?” or “Duty Now”? Answer: Also No. This album falls squarely in with the mid-period DEVO stuff: “New Traditionalists” and the “Whip It” era. I think it’s way better than those last couple of DEVO albums. The songs are snappy and clever, loaded with trademark DEVO sounds and beats. In fact, I’d swear several songs sample old DEVO songs. Things take a bit of a turn for the lame at the end of the album with a kinda-ballad and a last track that sounds more like something a DEVO knock-off band would write. Still, it’s not enough to ruin things for me.

DEVO "Something for Everybody"

So this is “Something For Everybody,” the “88% focus-group approved” album that is designed – at least within the semi-fictional DEVO-world – to bring DEVO into mainstream America. I am totally enjoying the concept and really nice art direction (check out the perfect album cover) which is 100% in keeping with the DEVO we know and love, although I have no doubt the stated intention will fail miserably. But they may have succeeded at doing something that seemed even less likely: making a totally decent new DEVO record.

I recommend checking out their official website, http://www.clubdevo.com for lots of fun stuff.

Oh yeah, and they’re on tour too. Dates here: http://www.clubdevo.com/tour/

The last time I wrote something about the infamous 4-drummer/vocalist band Foot Village, I said that they reminded me of one of those weekend project bands that would normally play one show and be forgotten. Somehow or other I had in fact forgotten that I actually WAS in a percussion-and-vocals-only band called The Old Joe Smiths. It was formed on a weekend and did play exactly one show.

But wait, this is not one of those self-absorbed reviews where I just talk about me, I have a point about Foot Village. As soon as the Old Joe Smiths band concept was born, it immediately expanded to include multiple odd percussion instruments, including glass bottles with varying amounts of water to make a crude xylophone. Foot Village on the other hand, has a much stronger purity of vision. If someone tells you that a band is made of 4 drummer/vocalists, you might picture some kind of world music group with bongos, bells, vocal harmonies, etc. Heck, even other multi-drummer noise-rock groups like Aa or current Boredoms go in for this stuff.

Foot Village? None of that. Four matching rock drum kits. Kick, tom, snare, hi-hat, crash. Times four. Pounding and screaming. That’s what you get. They allow themselves exactly one additional “instrument” – the megaphone. I suspect the tone in “Death of the Endless” is megaphone feedback and the sirens in “National Jamthum” and “Chicken & Cheese 2″ are a default sound created by the same megaphone. In addition to these restrictions, Foot Village also operate within an established concept – they are building their own nation. This album, “Anti-Magic,” is vaguely about their first war, with the forces of mysticism and magic. The album art shows Foot Village tribe members – all nude – fighting wizard types with sticks, spears, and bombs. I thought this concept might be about the battle between superstition and rationalism, but if so it comes across vague and playful, not political.

You might think the tight restrictions would make things boring, but no. It just forces Foot Village to push the creativity of their composition and interaction. There is one small deviation from this plan, the half-way point track “Grace’s Death” which is mostly vocal, then veers into some kind of remixed/electronic segment. A nice little break, then back to the drums. Also, the album closes with the track ”Chicken & Cheese 2,” which turns into a relay race of rad underground bands covering the song, one after the other. The results are extremely varied and it’s a super-fun way to close things out. In fact, each edition of the album: CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital – has a different collection of bands doing the covers.

One last thought: It is really hard to capture multiple drums in a recording. I don’t know if it always sounds like there are 4 drum kits here, but it almost always sounds like there’s more than one. The drum-layering works best when there are lots of fast rolls going on, like those in “Reggae War Zone.” The “heavy” all-together pounding moments sound much more impressive in a live setting, which is really how you ought to experience Foot Village. Still, none of that changes the fact that this is a great and super-entertaining album. (But maybe they should put out a Dolby 5.1 version too).

Free mp3 sample download: Foot Village – Reggae War Zone

Foot Village website
Foot Village on last.fm
album can be bought here

Social Junk are an experimental duo (often with collaborators) originally from West Virginia and recently located to the ever-growing fun-noise capital of Philadelphia. What I admire and like best about them is how they can’t be easily pegged into one narrow niche. Sure, you could call them “experimental” like I just did, but they’ll only fit into a broad category like that. In our modern era of hyper-compartmentalization and scene fragmentation, Social Junk seem like boundary crossers.

They mash up lo-tech industrial clang, delay-loving moan-wave, organic noise-folk, Wolf Eyes-style creep and scrape soundscapes, and pin it all together with occasional white light/white heat noise-rock. The central and title track on this album, the 15-minute “Born Into It,” is what you’re most likely to get at a Social Junk show. It starts with some indistinct, watery, reverb noises and electronic squeaks. The volume builds as echoing crashes ring out. Then as that part dies out there’s a second hushed part, echoing voices joining. Screeching and howling feedback noise starts to overwhelm things and for a finale the drums roll in with the noise still rising to a dense mess and ending abruptly at the climax. Pretty much a perfect 15-minute I.N.C.-style performance. The other tracks explore different parts of this sonic terrain, sometimes harsher, sometimes more free-form, sometimes more blissful and vocal-focused.

I’ve dropped some terms in describing Social Junk that would normally make me shy away from a band, like “noise-folk” or “moan-wave.” These tags are usually applied to groups that are just a bit too cute and mild for me to appreciate. Social Junk might appeal to fans of that stuff, but haters won’t want to dump them in that crowd, because Social Junk always have an edge, the sounds are never 100% nice, there’s always some lurking tension and you know things could start sounding downright ugly. In the best possible way. These guys just finished a tour with other awesome noise jammers Dick Neff and Mincemeat Or Tenspeed, and they’ll probably be heading out on tour again before you know it.

Social Junk on last.fm
Social Junk on MySpace
Order from Digitalis

I have a personal, mental joke about Sonic Youth album reviews. They all must follow the following formula: “Sonic Youth used to be innovative, but with this record they have begun to repeat themselves.” I think this accusation has been thrown at them since “Goo,” uh, something like 18 years and 9 albums ago. Then the next record comes out and the reviews say the same thing. Heck, someone’s probably been saying that since “Sister.”

Precisely on cue, I ran across some newspaper review of this album which said (almost word for word) “for the first time in their long career, Sonic Youth offer up nothing new.” Either these reviews are written by people who have heard of Sonic Youth and then are surprised that the music is rather pleasing and the songs are mostly standard rock songs – or – hindsight allows people to see that actually Sonic Youth have always been tinkering with their formula.

So I shall now offer my very different review. Here is what’s new about Sonic Youth’s music. These changes have been brewing for a few albums, but here’s what’s happened. About a decade back, they brought in a 5th member, Jim O’Rourke, to play keyboards. That actually resulted in one of my least favorite albums, “NYC Ghosts and Flowers” which I find kind of rambling and directionless. But after some messing around with this line-up, O’Rourke switched to bass guitar.

This brought in a significant new element. First of all, with Kim Gordon on guitar, the guitar-work could be even a bit denser and more intertwined. More importantly, O’Rourke’s straight-up musicianship added a stronger melodic element to Sonic Youth songs. They now have a new bassist (Mark Ibold, previously of Pavement) but he continues very much in the same style. Note the bass playing in the middle and end of “Anti-Orgasm” on this album, which uses these fast little (I think those are called) scales - comletely unlike anything Kim would play. The bass is also played clean, so these additions are subtle, almost subconscious, especially with those trademark guitars up front.

Another change is that Sonic Youth have officially moved beyond their song-noise-song pattern. Instead of a song that goes along for a while, then turns into a storm of noise, then returns to the song (or you can change up the order), the noise and music is now fully integrated. Guitar noises work in service of the songs.

This formula was mostly in place with “Sonic Nurse,” a couple of albums ago. It got stripped down a bit with the lighter-sounding “Rather Ripped,” and now some more grungey chunkiness has been mixed back in and we get “The Eternal.” Everything you’d want from a classic Sonic Youth album is here in this new, refined form. Some unsettling moods, rock’n'roll moves, teenage poetry, some breezy and genuinely pretty tunes, a couple of great Lee songs, a few good guitar squalls. A solid, satisfying album. Different too. Subtly, but different. Like always.

CD and LP on Matador Records.

www.sonicyouth.com