Tag: At the Drive In

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Earlier this summer,  I wrote about the Stockholm, Sweden-based garage punk outfit Sudakistan, and as you may recall, the band has a unique backstory: Comprised of Michell Serrano (vocals), Maikel Gonzalez (bass), Carlos Amigo (percussion) Juan Jose Espindola (drums) and Arvid Sjöö (guitar), the band features one native Swede — Sjöö — while the the other members emigrated from South America. And with the the release of their furious and incendiary full-length debut Caballo Negro, the Stockholm-based quartet quickly received attention for a sound that meshes Latin music — in particular, Latin rhythm, percussion and groove that’s part of the musical and cultural heritage of Serrano, Gonzalez, Amigo and Espiondola — with the blistering garage rock and punk of Thee Oh Sees, At the Drive-In and Death from Above 1979.

Swedish Cobra, the band’s forthcoming Daniel Bengtson-produced sophomore album is slated for a September 7, 2018 release, and the album reportedly finds the band capturing their raw and raucous live sound on record — with the five bandmembers recording in the same room, live to tape at Bengtson’s Studio Rymden, and with minimal takes and overdubs. As the band’s Michell Serrano says in press notes, “You can hear that on the album. it’s quite raw and very intense.” Interestingly, the material balances blistering fury with an experimental sensibility with the band expanding upon their sound — partially as a result of each individual band member’s role becoming more fluid, and partially through the employment of instrumentation beyond the usual punk rock/garage rock arrangements. “It was much more of a collaboration between the five of us,” Serrano explains. “Things flowed differently. Carlos sings on two or three songs, and Mikael sings on one. We swapped instruments quite a lot, and because we had access to everything in the studio, we were able to use some piano, some acoustic guitar and some mandolin, too.”

Lyrically speaking, the album is purportedly the most personal they’ve written to date — and although it’s not overtly political charged, the material does focus on their day-to-day reality, from partying excessively to moments of deep introspection, with each individual member contributing idea. “Our first album was made over five years, rather than five months, so the themes on it weren’t as heavy as this. Now, we’re talking about a lot of the things that we’ve gone through together since we started the band, as well as personal things – like, why do I keep repeating the same mistakes. We talk about pursuing our own Swedish reality, but that’s just because we’re living in Sweden – it’s relatable in any other country, I think,” Maikel Gonzalez says in press notes.

Swedish Cobra‘s first two singles, the furious and swirling psych punk/surf punk “Whiplash” and the mid-tempo, 90s grunge rock-inspired “Two Steps Back,” were urgent and passionate — but to me there was something sobering about the material, especially in light of a heightened age of nationalism, racism and xenophobia. Cultural exchange has inspired new takes on the familiar, new modes of thinking, new foods, new words — and more importantly, deeper empathy and understanding of our neighbors, of those men women and others from far away.  Interestingly, “Last Love Supreme,” Swedish Cobra‘s latest single is a swooning mid-tempo ballad with soaring hooks and explosive blasts of feedback that sounds — to my ears at least — as though it drew from mariachi, psych rock and garage rock simultaneously, thanks in part to a classic quiet, loud, quiet song structure.

Certainly, from the album’s first three singles, Swedish Cobra may arguably be one of the year’s most unique, passionate and downright interesting albums, and possibly one of the most necessary of any genre, because it affirms what can happen when diverse people and ideas intermingle and influence each other, and perhaps more important that we should protect and honor the immigrant and what they bring.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Stockholm, Sweden-based garage punk outfit Sudakistan is a rather unique band — with a unique backstory. Comprised of Michell Serrano (vocals), Maikel Gonzalez (bass), Carlos Amigo (percussion) Juan Jose Espindola (drums) and Arvid Sjöö (guitar), the band features one native Swede — Sjöö — while the the other members relocated from South America. And with the release of their furious and incendiary full-length debut Caballo Negro, the Stockholm-based quintet quickly received attention for a signature sound that meshes elements of Latin music, in particular, Latin rhythm, percussion and groove that would have been part of musical and cultural heritage of Serrano, Gonzalez, Amigo and Espiondola while pairing it with the blistering guitar punk of Thee Oh Sees, At the Drive-In and Death from Above 1979.

Slated for a September 7, 2018 release the Stockholm, Sweden-based punk rock act’s highly-anticipated Daniel Bengtson-produced sophomore album Swedish Cobra finds the band capturing their raw and raucous live sound on record — with all five of the band recording live to tape at Bengtson’s Studio Rymden, and with minimal takes and overdubs. As the band’s Michell Serrano says in press notes, “You can hear that on the album. it’s quite raw and very intense.” And while reportedly being the most blistering effort the band has released to date, it’s also interestingly enough the most experimental one as well, as the members of the band’s roles became much more fluid. Additionally, the album finds the Swedish punk rock band expanding their sound through the use of different instrumentation to the usual punk rock arraignments. “It was much more of a collaboration between the five of us,” Serrano explains. “Things flowed differently. Carlos sings on two or three songs, and Mikael sings on one. We swapped instruments quite a lot, and because we had access to everything in the studio, we were able to use some piano, some acoustic guitar and some mandolin, too.”

Additionally, the album lyrically reportedly is the most personal while not being the most overly political as it deals with the bandmembers’ everyday reality — and unsurprisingly, each individual member contributed lyrical ideas to the whole. “Our first album was made over five years, rather than five months, so the themes on it weren’t as heavy as this. Now, we’re talking about a lot of the things that we’ve gone through together since we started the band, as well as personal things – like, why do I keep repeating the same mistakes. We talk about pursuing our own Swedish reality, but that’s just because we’re living in Sweden – it’s relatable in any other country, I think,” Maikel Gonzalez says in press notes.

To build up buzz for the new album, Sudakistan has released two singles from Swedish Cobra. First is the furious, jangling and swirling psych punk/surf punk “Whiplash” which is centered around Serrano’s howls, pedal effected guitars and tons of feedback, thunderous drumming, subtle bits of Latin percussion — and in some way, the song reminds me a bit of The Black Angels, complete with a swaggering sense of menace and an expansive song structure. Second is the mid-tempo ballad “Two Steps Back” a track that finds the band employing a 90s grunge rock song structure — alternating quiet, loud, quiet sections with a raise-your-beer-in-the-air-and-shout-along worthy hook, blistering power chords and Latin percussion. And while passionate and urgent, there’s something sobering about the material in a heightened age of nationalism, racism, xenophobia and sexism. Cultural exchange and openness has brought about new takes on the familiar, new modes of thinking, new foods, new words and perhaps more important empathy and understanding. Goddamn it, before we completely head off the rails, we need quite a bit more of that these days.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Dark and Striking Visuals for At The Drive In’s “Call Broken Arrow”

Currently comprised of founding members Cedric Bixler (vocals), Omar Rodriguez (guitar, vocals), Paul Hinojos (bass) and Tony Hajjar (drums) and Sparta’s Keely Davis, the El Paso, TX-based punk rock act At The Drive In can trace its origins back to its formation in 1994. After several line up changes, the band’s lineup eventually solidified into a quintet featuring Bixler, Rodriguez, Hinojos, Hajjar and Jim Ward, and with its best known lineup, the band released three critically applauded and commercially successful studio albums — 1996’s Acrobatic Tenement, 1998’s In/Casino/Out and 2000’s seminal effort, Relationship of Command — before abruptly splitting up at the height of their popularity, just before they were about to embark on a Stateside leg of a lengthy world tour. 

Following the break up of At The Drive In, Bixler and Rodriguez formed the critically applauded act The Mars Volta while Ward, Hinojoso, Hajjar formed Sparta with Davis, and both acts were a decided departure from their work from At The Drive In — with The Mars Volta specializing in intricate and expansive prog rock and Sparta specializing in much more straightforward rock. The band reunited in January 2012 and played that year’s Coachella Festival and Lollapalooza Festival and re-issued their original material through their own label before splitting up. Interestingly, the following year The Mars Volta went through a bitter break up in which Bixler and Rodriguez refused to speak to each other for a couple of years.  However, the original lineup had reunited to play a series of Festival gigs and announced they were releasing new material, but as the band was rehearsing and preparing to go on tour, Ward left and he was replaced by Sparta’s Keely Davis. 

The band’s fourth full-length effort  in • ter a • li • a was released earlier this year and from the album’s latest single “Call Broken Arrow,” the band manages to retain the explosive and breakneck fury of their previously released material but while revealing musicians who have grown older and bring something different to the table than from their first incarnation; in fact, the song manages to strongly nod at prog rock and math thanks to rapid fire key changes and a punishingly forceful bridge that will absolutely melt faces. 

Directed by Rob Shaw, the recently released visuals for “Call Broken Arrow” act as a prequel to the video for “Hostage Stamps,” as the viewer follows the continuing story of a prisoner and his faceless captors, as well as the appearance of enormous, mechanized spiders. And much like the preceding video, the visuals for “Call Broken Arrow” employs a mix of digital and stop-motion animation while providing nuanced into the already established narrative. As Shaw explains in press notes. “In ‘Hostage Stamps,’ we have a prisoner being tortured and monitored by some sort of authoritarian organization. The guys wanted to show why he was imprisoned, as well as cast doubt over his innocence. It’s funny how in stories, especially film stories, you tend to sympathize with whoever you spend time with. When you watch someone being mistreated, the assumption is that person is the victim. ‘Call Broken Arrow’ is in part about illustrating the prisoner’s culpability, but even that is in doubt as we see the Watcher character who follows him around slipping something in his drink at the end.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Milemarker’s New Video Captures Their Live Song and An Anthemic, Mosh Pit Worthy Song

Over the last few months I’ve written quite a bit about  Chapel Hill, NC-based experimental/post-hardcore punk/new wave-leaning trio Milemarker. Initially comprised of Al Burian, Dave Laney and Ben Davis, the members of Milemarker quickly developed a reputation in indie […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about the Chapel Hill, NC-based experimental/post-hardcore punk/new wave-leaning trio Milemarker. Initially comprised of Al Burian, Dave Laney and Ben Davis, the members of Milemarker quickly developed a reputation in indie and underground music circles for explosive life shows and for material that possessed adventurous arrangements and instrumentation. And with their 1999-2007 touring lineup with featured bounding members Burian and Laney, along with Roby Newton (vocals, synths), the trio eventually played over 1,000 shows across North America, Europe and Japan supporting 2000’s Frigid Forms Sell and 2001’s Anaesthetic, opening for the likes of Wire, Mission of Burma, At The Drive-In, The Hives, Thursday, The Blood Brothers, International Noise Conspiracy, High On Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cave In, Les Savy Fav, Spoon and a lengthy list of others.

After the release of 2005’s Ominosity, which featured drummers Tony Lazzara and Noah Leger, as well as arrangements from siblings Beth and Tim Remis, the band went on an extensive US and European tour in 2008 with founding member Ben Davis, which included appearances at SXSW and Fusion festivals; however, by 2009 Laney had relocated to Hamburg, Germany and began to focus his energies on his post-Milemarker project Auxes while Burian had relocated to Berlin to pursue a literary career. Interestingly, in 2015 the founding duo of Laney and Burian had started playing a series of live shows featuring Lena Kilkka (keys, vocals) and Ezra Cale (drums). Just in time to celebrate their reunion, Lovitt Records will be releasing a re-issue of the band’s seminal 2000 release Frigid Forms Sell and the re-issue is not only the first time the album appears on vinyl in 16 years, it’ll include 7 previously unreleased tracks, including one which was  premiered on Brooklyn Vegan. And the digital version will include demo versions of several album tracks. But interestingly, this year will be an even bigger year for the band as Overseas, the band’s first album in some time is slated for an August 26. 2016 release — while embarking on their first US tour in over 8 years (and you can check out tour dates below).

Last month’s post featured “Carrboro” the first single off the band’s forthcoming, new album had the band pairing a throbbing and insistent bass line with a quickly morphing song structure that alternates and meshes between dreamy psychedelia, tense, angular post-punk, New Wave and prog rock — and in a expansive and mind-altering fashion. The album’s second single “Conditional Love” pairs buzzing and angular guitar chords, a driving motorik groove, layers of shouted vocals and vocals fed through vocoder, and an anthemic hook in a song that sounds equally inspired by Nine Inch Nails and as by Garbage; however, with a prog rock bent.

Tour Dates:
08/11 Charlotte NC @ Milestone
08/13 Atlanta GA @ The Wrecking Ball ATL
08/14 Nashville TN @ The End
08/15 St. Louis MO @ Off Broadway
08/16 Milwaukee WI @ The Cactus Club
08/17 Minneapolis MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
08/19 Chicago IL @ Empty Bottle
08/20 Lansing MI @ Mac’s Bar
08/21 Cleveland OH @ Now That’s Class Lounge
08/22 Philadelphia PA @ The Boot & Saddle
08/23 Allston MA @ Great Scott
08/24 Brooklyn NY @ Shea Stadium
08/25 Brooklyn NY @ Saint Vitus
08/26 Washington DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
08/27 Carrboro NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Initially formed in 1997 and comprised of Al Burian, Dave Laney and Ben Davis, the Chapel Hill, NC-based experimental/post-hardcore punk/new wave-leaning trio Milemarker quickly developed a reputation in indie music circles for explosive live shows and for material that frequently possessed adventurous arrangements and instrumentation. And with their 1999-2007 touring lineup featuring founding members Burian, Laney and Roby Newton (vocals, synths), the trio played over 1,000 shows across North America, Europe and Japan supporting 2000’s Frigid Forms Sell and 2001’s Anaesthetic, opening for the likes of Wire, Mission of Burma, At The Drive-In, The Hives, Thursday, The Blood Brothers, International Noise Conspiracy, High On Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cave In, Les Savy Fav, Spoon and a lengthy list of others.

After the release of 2005’s Ominosity, which featured drummers Tony Lazzara and Noah Leger, as well as arrangements from siblings Beth and Tim Remis, the band went on an extensive US and European tour in 2008 with founding member Ben Davis, which included appearances at SXSW and Fusion festivals; however, by 2009 Laney had relocated to Hamburg, Germany and focused his energies on his post-Milemarker project Auxes while Burian had relocated to Berlin to pursue a literary career. Interestingly, in 2015 the founding duo of Laney and Burian had started playing a series of live shows featuring Lena Kilkka (keys, vocals) and Ezra Cale (drums). Just in time to celebrate their reunion, Lovitt Records will be releasing a re-issue of the band’s seminal 2000 release Frigid Forms Sell and the re-issue is not only the first time the album appears on vinyl in 16 years, it’ll include 7 previously unreleased tracks, including one which was  premiered on Brooklyn Vegan. And the digital version will include demo versions of several album tracks. But interestingly, this year will be an even bigger year for the band as Overseas, the band’s first album in some time is slated for an August 26. 2016 release — while embarking on their first US tour in over 8 years (and you can check out tour dates below).

 

“Carrboro,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming, new album finds the band pairing a throbbing and insistent bass line with a quickly morphing song structure that alternates and meshes between dreamy psychedelia,  tense, angular post-punk, New Wave and prog rock — and they do so in a way that’s expansive and mind-altering.
Tour Dates:
08/11 Charlotte NC @ Milestone
08/13 Atlanta GA @ The Wrecking Ball ATL
08/14 Nashville TN @ The End
08/15 St. Louis MO @ Off Broadway
08/16 Milwaukee WI @ The Cactus Club
08/17 Minneapolis MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
08/19 Chicago IL @ Empty Bottle
08/20 Lansing MI @ Mac’s Bar
08/21 Cleveland OH @ Now That’s Class Lounge
08/22 Philadelphia PA @ The Boot & Saddle
08/23 Allston MA @ Great Scott
08/24 Brooklyn NY @ Shea Stadium
08/25 Brooklyn NY @ Saint Vitus
08/26 Washington DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
08/27 Carrboro NC @ Cat’s Cradle