Tag: punk rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Jon Spencer Releases Kaleidoscopic Visuals for Bruising New Ripper “Beetle Boots”

Best known as a founding member of renowned local alt rock acts The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash and Pussy Galore, Jon Spencer released his long-awaited solo debut Spencer Sings the Hits last November, and as you may recall, the Bill Skibbe-produced album, finds the renowned guitarist and frontman embracing a DIY approach while collaborating with Quasi‘s and Heatmiser’s Sam Coombes and M. Sord. So far I’ve written about two album singles — the blistering and abrasive ripper “Do The Trash Can,” a track centered around a snarling, garage punk attitude, abrasive and enormous power chords and an oddly danceable groove and “I Got The Hits,” an equally explosive ripper, featuring abrasive power chords, a shit ton of double entendres and a propulsive, junkyard groove that’s danceable yet mosh pit friendly. 

Spencer Sings the Hits’ latest single “Beetle Boots” is a straightforward garage rock ripper, featuring around a downright nasty, snarling, power chord-based guitar riff, a propulsive groove and shouted call and response lyrics centered around picking up a guitar, joining a band and trying to kick ass and take over the world — but with the reminder that being in a band ain’t easy; that if you come in faking the funk, the game will chew you up and spit you out. 

Directed and edited by Andrew Hooper, featuring photos from Jon Spencer, Michael Lavine, Ebru Yildiz, Patrick Houdek, Myranda Baert, and Bob Coscarelli, art by Katie Skelly Visual and visual elements by The Verite Messengers, the recently released video is a trippy and kaleidoscopic treatment that draws from found footage of 60s psych pop concert films, young bands jamming, photos of Spencer and his bandmates — and all of it serves as a powerful reminder: that being in a rock ‘n’ roll band is fucking awesome. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tony Hawk’s Son Fronts a Sludge Punk Band Warish, Check Out Their Awesome First Single

Featuring founding members Riley Hawk (guitar, vocals) and Bruce McDonnell (drums), the Southern California-Based trio Warish formed earlier this year, when its founding members wanted to try their hand at something a bit more distinct than they’d previous done. “We wanted to do simpler riffs and a fun live show,” Hawk explains in press notes. “A little more punk, a little bit of grunge… a little evil-ish.” Sonically, their sound reportedly draws from a variety of things — early Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Incesticide-era Nirvana, Static Age-era Misfits. With “Fight,” the first single off their self-titled debut EP, slated for a February 19, 2019 release through RidingEasy Records, the trio quickly make their presence known as the song is centered around Hawk’s effects-laden vocals, enormous grunge rock meet thrash punk power chords, pummeling drumming, mosh pit friendly hooks and an aggressively sleazy, Troma Films-like vibe — and it’s fucking awesome.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Oh Sees Release Nightmarish and Hallucinogenic Visuals for “Enrique El Cobrador” off “Smote Reverser”

Throughout this site’s eight year history, I’ve written quite a bit about the Bay Area-based  Oh Sees (a.k.a. Thee Oh Sees, OCS, The Oh Sees, The Orange County Sound, Orinoka Crash Suite and other variations) — and as you may recall, the band which is led by its ridiculously prolific creative mastermind John Dwyer has long-held reputation for a wide-ranging experimentalism that has seen the band dabble and bounce between lysergic-tinged folk, furious and sweaty garage rippers, sci-fi driven krautrock and more. And with each successive album generally being completely different from its predecessors, it makes the band difficult to pigeonhole.

Last year’s Orc was a muscular and darkly inventive turn for the current lineup which features Tim Hellman (bass), Dan Rincon (drums) and Paul Quattrone (drums), as the material balanced a trippy, cosmic vibe with some of their most hard-hitting and punishing tendencies. Reaffirming their reputation for being unpredictable, the members of the band quickly followed that up with Memory of a Cut Off Head, an album that found the band revisiting the sound and approach of their early years, best known as their “quiet” period; in fact, returning to one of the band’s earlier names — OCS — was meant to herald a return to –the lower end of the decibel meter. 

Last year, Dwyer and company did two shows with their quieter and lush incarnation at The Chapel in San Francisco and those live shows eventually produced a handmade, mail-order only live album OCS Live in San Francisco that was released through Rock Is Hell Records. Interestingly, the album will be re-issued and made available in a condensed 2 LP set and to support that effort, the OCS will play a limited performance run of mellow OCS tunes at The Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn, as an octet featuring members of the early lineup, including Brigid Dawson (vocals), Tim Hellman (bass), Paul Quattrone (drums), Tom Dolas (keys), Eric Clark (violin), Heather Lockie (viola) and Emily Elkin (cello). (You can check those dates below.)

Also, Castle Face Records will be re-issuing a string of Oh Sees out-of-print Oh Sees albums from the quiet era beginning with The Cool Death of Island Raiders in February 2019. In the meantime, the band has released live footage of them performing the trippy and epic burner “Block of Ice,” that features some wild and unhinged guitar playing centered around a propulsive and steady groove. Quieter? I’m not so sure, as this one as a buzzing, garage psych quality; but either way I’m looking forward to catching Dwyer and company live. 

But before that, the ridiculously prolific Dwyer and his Oh Sees/OCS released Smote Reverser earlier this year, and album single “Enrique El Cobrador” finds the band meshing classic psych rock and prog rock in a way that brings JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard but with a muscular and frightening sense of menace at its core, as the song is centered by a motorik-like groove, explosive blasts of guitar, arpeggiated keys and Dwyer delivering his vocals with a guttural snarl. Directed by Alexis Giroux and featuring animation from Giroux and Massimo Colarusso is a hallucinogenic nightmare of murder, bloodshed and bright colors and other wild imagery. 

TOUR DATES
12/15/2018 Murmrr Theatre – Brooklyn, New York
12/16/2018 Murmrr Theatre – Brooklyn, New York

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
Priors is a Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based punk rock outfit that specializes in relentlessly pummeling garage punk with a dystopian attitude. The Canadian garage punk band’s soon-to-released sophomore album New Pleasure is slated for a release next Friday through Slovenly Records, and the album is reportedly a major step forward for the band — and as you’ll hear from album singles “Heart Strings” and “Provoked,” the band’s sound is centered around lacerating, fuzzy power chord-based riffs, rapid fire drums, skittering analog synths and punchily delivered shouts and howls — and interestingly, the album’s first two singles manage to evoke the creeping sense of anxious  fury that we’re all feeling on an increasing basis, as we live in a mad and delusional world in which our “leaders” have relativized commonly accepted fact, and accept all the things that will lead to our annihilation.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Plague Vendor’s Frenetic New Single “Locomotive”

Over the years, I’ve written a bit about the Whittier, CA-based punk rock quartet Plague Vendor, and as you may recall the act which is comprised of Brandon Blaine (vocals), Luke Perine (drums), Michael Perez (bass) and Jay Rogers (guitar) formed back in 2009 — and in a short period of time, the members of Plague Vendor developed a reputation for frenetic and raucous live sets. Naturally, as a result of their reputation they played an increasing number of shows, and along with that they had begun to write an increasing batch of material. Those early live shows lead to 2014’s debut album debut Free to Eat, an album that has been described as terse, dark and thrashing post-punk.

2016’s Stuart Sikes-produced sophomore effort Bloodsweat landed at number 2 on this site’s Best of List, and from album singles “ISUA (I Stay Up Anyway)“, “Jezebel” and “No Bounty,” the album was full of frenetic, furious and anthemic punk performed with a blistering and undeniable swagger. Up until recently, two years had passed without any original material from the members of Plague Vendor; but before joining renowned producer John Congleton to begin work on their untitled third album, the members of Plague Vendor, along with Brett Gurewitz and engineer Morgan Stratton entered Sunset Sound Studio 2, where they spent a furious two days writing, completing and recording two songs in two days — the first single was the anxious, raw and stomping “I Only Speak in Fiction.” As the band’s Luke Perine explained in press notes at the time, the writing and recording of “I Only Speak in Fiction” helped revitalize the band and restore their focus. “As a band, we grow anxious—often depressed to some degree—during our downtime,” Perine said in press notes. “Having these two days to get in the studio ahead of working on the next album released a lot of that tension. It became a more productive two days than we expected, as we were only planning on recording one song. I think we are reaching a higher level of focus together as we go into this next album.”

The breakneck “Locomotive,” Plague Vendor’s latest single was recorded during the “I Only Speak in Friction” sessions, and track is centered by rapid fire four-on-the-floor drumming, brooding guitar chords, a chugging bass line, a mosh pit friendly hook and Blaine’s vocals, which shift from crooning to manic howling — and while the song possesses a primal and furious energy at its core, the new single reveals a band that has grown increasingly confident in their songwriting and approach, decidedly expanding upon the sound that has won them attention. 

The accompanying video captures the band at their best — live, frenetic, furious and downright rousing. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Earlier this year, I wrote a bit about the Austin, TX-based trio Exhalants, and as you may recall, the band which features Steve (guitar, vocals), Bill (bass) and Body Pressure’s Tommy (drums), can trace its origins to the breakup of Steve’s and Bill’s previous band  Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes. As the story goes, with the inevitably downtime that’s a result of a band’s breakup, Steve wound up spending his free time further honing his guitar playing before he recruited his former CSSS bandmate and Tommy to complete the project’s lineup.

Released earlier this year, the band’s self-titled full-length debt was recorded and mixed by Ghetto Ghouls‘ Ian Rundell and mastered by Yeesh’s Greg Obis, and the albums largely inspired by  Shellac, Unwound and Cherubs, while nodding at the work of contemporaries like Melkbelly, Kal Marks and A Deer A Horse  — or in other words, much like those bands, the album finds the band balancing pummeling and bruising heaviness with an underlining melodic sensibility. Interestingly, album single “Punishers” is an aptly titled, furious, abrasive and — well, punishing ripper centered by enormous power chords, wild peals of feedback and pummeling drumming. Sonically speaking, the song is a mosh pit-friendly anthemic that should be played way too loudly in a dark, sweaty room.

Unsurprisingly, the recently released video for “Punishers” will bring 120 Minutes-era MTV to mind, as its an equally pushing visual, consisting of warped, distorted VHS footage — and while old-timey, it manages to evoke the terror and fury of our time.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Now, as you recall, earlier this month I wrote about  Lifestyles‘ breakneck, pummeling and grungy “Wail,” which is one-half of a split 7 inch that Chicago-based label No Trend Records! will be releasing later the month. The second half of that split 7 inch features another Chicago punk rock act, Meat Wave. Interestingly, the act which features Chris Sutter, Joe Gac and Ryan Wizniak has developed a reputation for crafting brooding and bruising punk; however, their contribution to the split 7 inch “That’s Alright” is the only song in their growing catalog that has any semblance of positivity or light, as it’s an ode to love within the frequently evil, near apocalyptic world we currently inhabit.

Centered around pummeling and forcefully urgent groove and layers of distorted guitars, the track will further cement the trio’s reputation for bruising punk and while being mosh pit friendly, the song features a rousingly anthemic hook. Certainly, the song is a brief reminder that there are brief and sometimes fleeting moments of light in our dark and fucked up world, and that we need to hold on to them desperately — with every fiber of our beings.

The members of Meat Wave are currently on tour, opening for Cursive through mid-November and it includes a November 7, 2018 stop at Irving Plaza. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates:
10/25 – Ybor City, FL – Pre-Fest
10/27 – Gainesville, FL – The Fest 17
10/28 – Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits*
10/30 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade*
10/31 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground*
11/01 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle*
11/02 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club*
11/03 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer*
11/04 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony*
11/06 –  Long Island, NY – Amityville Music Hall*
11/07 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza *
11/08 – Boston, MA – Paradise*
11/09 – Hamden, CT –  Space Ballroom*
11/10 – Buffalo, NY – Tralf Music Hall*
11/11 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater*
11/12 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups*
11/13 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop*
11/14 – Detroit, MI – El Club*
11/15 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall*
11/16 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon*
11/17 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club*
11/18 – Omaha, NE – Waiting Room*
* w/ Cursive & Campdogzz
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Cavemen Return with a Scuzzy and Boozy New Single Paired with Debauched Visuals

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Auckland, New Zealand-based punk rock quartet The Cavemen, and as you may recall, the band which was originally comprised of Paul Caveman (vocals), Jack Caveman (guitar, vocals), Nick Caveman (bass) and Jake Caveman (drums), formed while in high school — with the band’s founding members bonding over a shared love of glue and wild rock ‘n’ roll. After spending several years drinking and loitering around their hometown’s basements, graveyards and parking lots, the band’s original lineup honed their sound and over the course of 2014-2015 or so recorded their full-length debut, which received attention locally for material that could be roughly described as face-melting and furious punk that drew from The Ramones, The Cramps, The Stooges, The MC5 and others but thematically focused on grave-robbing, necrophilia and other weird shit with a sneering sense of humor; in fact, they’ve developed a reputation for being infamous — or as the band once claimed they were a “great band to clear a party.” 

As the story goes, just two weeks before the members of The Cavemen were to relocate to London, they went on an infamous national tour to support their debut album, and unsurprisingly, the tour included an ill-fated graveyard tour that had to be canceled when the band’s Nick Caveman died in a tragic car accident: their tour van’s engine exploded, and as Nick Caveman was trying to see what was wrong, a passing motorist hit him. Now as you’d also recall, the British record label Dirty Water Records re-released their debut album for release in Europe and elsewhere, and from album single “Stand By Your Ghoul,” the band specialized in filthy, cretinous punk, centered around fuzzy power chords and howled lyrics. Unsurprisingly, the band has released the “Burn Out For Love” 7 inch and it’s a boozy, grimy and filthy punk ripper, full of power chords, amphetamine-fueled drummer and howled vocals. Sonically speaking, the song brings to mind, punk’s riotous boozy and revolutionary roots. 

The accompanying video is a cheap and scuzzy cut and paste job on the Mexican punksploitation film Intrepidos Punks featuring the prerequisite debauched orgy of car crashes, breasts and gratuitous biker violence. Enjoy!