Built on a Weak Spot

The Olympia, WA based label Radio is Down has developed a trend of reaching overseas for their choices of release, which has been a pleasure thus far since most, if not all, of these releases wouldn’t have been as readily available here otherwise. So yeah, kudos to them for really going after what they want to put out. One of their latest discoveries happens to come via Jesi, Italy with Bhava and their album Double Jump Carpiato. Interestingly enough, this release actually has been altered with English lyrics for its release here, although I don’t know if the language would make much a difference when listening to this anyway. No matter, the band tosses out eight tracks of fairly volatile and break neck paced math/noise-rock here that draws from past genre staples like Dazzling Killmen and Arab on Radar. This seems to be about all over the place though, squeezing in whatever it can within the somewhat short run time.

Bhava – Look Sky Walker [MP3]

Anyone interested in picking this up can do so by heading on over to Radio is Down. If you like what you hear then definitely do so!

Kuan are a Dayton, Ohio instrumental group that recently passed along their EP On/Standby to me. In actuality it’s two discs, however one of this discs (the “Standby” one) serves as basically a bonus disc of material the band put together while a three piece back in 2007. While paired up with the actual EP “On”, it provides an interesting parallel between where they started and what they’ve worked towards becoming for the six songs that are contained on the disc. Kind of a nice thing to do and an incentive to picking this up I’d say. The screen printed artwork is also a nice added touch.

As for the music, the On portion of the release is where the majority will want to be focusing. There is a nice mixture of post-rock, jazz, and math-rock influences bouncing around in Kuan’s music with some smartly placed guitar effects put to use as well. One thing that I immediately enjoyed was how the second track “G” comes in from a bit of an intro and really sets the tone for the EP with a much more bouncy upbeat quality that I think a lot of post-rock/math-rock groups tend to completely dismiss. Kuan seem to be able to jam out in an improvisational fashion, however seem just as interested in piecing together a nice hook or melody as well. It all just kind of makes you feel good, which is odd to say…but it really does put me in a better mood. At close to 40 minutes on just these six songs alone, there is plenty to wrap your head around.

Kuan – G [MP3]

For those interested in picking this up, it’s available through the band directly on their MySpace or you could hit up CD Baby and get it there. Either way, if you like the posted tune above, it’s definitely worth grabbing.

Being bored late at night after getting home from work can be a good or bad thing. Typically it just has me sitting down watching sleazy horror films until I feel like it’s a good time to head to bed or in other cases I start perusing various online retailers and the money sucking land that is eBay. Sometimes it unearths riches; sometimes it turns up some duds. The San Francisco based group Ventid find themselves among the notables that have turned up in recent weeks with their debut album Rain Dance for Your Wedding.

Although they reside many miles away on the west coast, the band certainly have their hearts in a lot of what Washington, D.C. churned out in the early to middle portion of the previous decade. Most notably bands like Faraquet and a portion of Fugazi’s discography. So to say they are sort of rooted in 90’s math/post-hardcore would be a fair assessment. I’ll admit, I was a bit weary to read the descriptor “surf undertones” within the blurb that directly followed when I clicked to purchase the LP. That could go a number of different ways I initially thought, however the band has incorporated the characteristics of the genre successfully into their sound leaving the listener with some strong rolling melodies to latch on to and subtle yet interesting twang to some of the notes that make up the five songs included on this LP. Some of the tracks venture off into slower paced expanded post-rock territory that touches upon similarities to A Minor Forest or early Tortoise somewhat. Ventid wraps it all together quite nicely, making this definitely worth giving a listen.

Ventid – Shell Thief Repentance [MP3]

For those interested in picking this up, it’s available directly from the band on their website. There is also a list located on the site of record stores on the west coast that are carrying the album for anyone that might be in the area.

It’s been roughly 5 years since the last album from Chicago’s Haymarket Riot and probably at least 3 since I’ve heard fresh tunes from the band in any form. I guess they put out a single sometime last year that I shamefully missed, but they’ve come roaring back this year with the release of their new album Endless Bummer on Divot Records. It’s actually been out for a couple months or so now, however the initial CD pressing was fairly limited and sold out within a short period of time. Again, I shamefully missed out on that…however there was silver lining to it all as it allowed me just get it on vinyl which was just made available in the past two weeks or so. The LP features some alternate artwork and come with a nice gigantic poster as well. Nice. For those concerned, it does come with a digital download of the album with a couple extra bonus tracks thrown in as well and is certainly a good deal.

For those that are new to the band, well they’ve been around since 1999 and play the sort of post-hardcore we (we being just me really) love around here. And they do it very very well I might add. If anything, people should check out these guys because likely one of the members was in a band you heard and liked at some point, ranging from Big’N, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Gauge, Radio Flyer, Traluma, and so on. Seriously, that’s a pretty nice list of rock solid bands right there and it certainly carries over into what Haymarket Riot have been doing for the past ten years, Endless Bummer is only adding a nice big exclamation point to it all. So don’t miss out on this album and then obviously work your way back if you like what you hear on it. In the meantime check out the tune below.

Haymarket Riot – Raked Over the Hot Coals [MP3]

For those interested in picking up Endless Bummer, then just head on over to the bands online store. The LP is still available along with digital downloads as well. Enjoy!

Awhile back these guys passed along their debut EP to me and ended up liking what I heard from them. It sort of reminded me of Botch, Deadguy, and the likes in a few ways. Back when that sort of thing was listenable. If there was one criticism to be had, it was maybe a bit too busy with each song being crammed full of time changes, etc. However, the band recently sent me copy of their follow up single and the three songs here sound like a band refining that sound a bit more and cutting away some of the excess fat that seemed to jumble up the songs a bit too much for their own good. All the while, the songs here sound just as heated as the material that I heard previously, which is certainly a good thing. In the end, I am digging on what these guys have to offer.

Tigon – Proud Americans [MP3]

The band is offering up this 3 song 7-inch for free download via their website, so I would definitely recommend doing so if you enjoy what you hear posted above. If you’re looking for a physical copy of it, then the band has them for sale over here. Enjoy!

Been awhile since I’ve stepped back and posted about some older material. What I have today is a split LP from the two very excellent and criminally overlooked Raleigh, North Carolina bands that were around in the early to mid-nineties, Regraped and Shiny Beast. I’ve seen this pop up a couple other places on the internet, but I got bored this weekend and decided to sit down and rip this. Gus over at The Dust Bowl does a fine job of summing both bands here and here so I won’t go into lengthy back stories on either, but in short Regraped were a mathy sort of band that featured two bassists and a drummer. Very cool stuff that is pretty unlike anything I’ve really ever heard since. And yeah, I am quite aware that there were and are currently plenty of other math-rock bands doing the two bass thing, but Regraped were a bit more aggressive and were just downright more interesting than many of the others that would come along. Shiny Beast was mostly an instrumental math-rock band, however they are completely instrumental as far as this split goes. They did occasionally feature the singing of Mike Carden though. Brian Walsby of Polvo fame also drummed for them. This here split that came out on Blast-O-Platter was pretty much the largest release that either of the bands would end up doing. Regraped also put out a cassette and a number of other compilation tracks. Shiny Beast had a 7 inch/EP on Boner, and of course a number of compilation tracks as well. Anyway, do check this out if you don’t already have it, especially if you’re a fan of math-rock, etc. It’s excellent stuff that never got out to the masses that should have heard it. So enjoy this nice high quality rip of this long out of print gem.

Regraped & Shiny Beast – Split 12” (.zip file)

I’ve went ahead and scanned some of the inserts. You can click on the images below if you wish to see larger versions.

And with that I’ll be back tomorrow with more tunes.

Man, did I like Ten Grand. I can’t say the same for Forstella Ford sadly, but that’s not because I disliked them or anything…I just don’t recall ever listening to them. Why do I mention those two bands you ask? Well, because former members of both combine to make up Tornavalanche who have recently released their new EP Get Rich, or Cry Trying on Modern Radio and it’s pretty gosh darn good. Their debut mini album or EP was pretty good in it’s own right too, but Get Rich, or Cry Trying makes the three year wait between records a bit easier to forgive. Hell, let’s just make amends right now…I like it that much. But in all seriousness, Tornavalanche have put together a fine piece of mathy/post-a-number-of-things that I’m afraid far too few people will hear. While featuring two drummers is surely nothing new, as can be attested to by flipping through the archives on this very blog, Tornavalanche put them to good use by incorporating a few interesting patterns to keep pace with flurry of guitar notes spread across these five tracks. The capricious nature of Ten Grand still finds its way into much of Tornavalanche’s music, which ultimately leads to these five tracks being noticeably varied, but rocking nevertheless. They have no problem keeping it interesting and the little mock of our nation’s sudden love of autotune at the end of first track earns mucho points.

Tornavalanche – My Balls Are a Magnet for Pain Heat Fire [MP3]

Get Rich, or Cry Trying is available currently at Modern Radio. The album also comes with a digital download. Definitely check it out.

I could have sworn I posted this up at some point, but looking back I guess I never did. Bummer. Anyway, I KNOW I’ve made mention of Johnboy here in the past on the blog talking about their two excellent albums they put out on Trance Syndicate. They were possibly one of the finest noise/math/whatever rock bands around then, but criminally overlooked. Today I am posting up the Austin groups debut 7-inch for your listening pleasure. And a fantastic listen it is, albeit one of the songs (“New Jersey Roadbase”) would appear on their debut full-length re-recorded…so some might already be familiar with that tune. The track “Bob and Cindy” would make an appearance on the Cinco Anos compilation featuring a number of other Trance bands at the time and serves as probably one of my favorite pieces of work these guys put to tape. Take a listen for those that haven’t ever heard this fantastic band.

Johnboy – New Jersey Roadbase [MP3]
Johnboy – Newton [MP3]
Johnboy – Bob and Cindy [MP3]

For those looking for more, both of the bands albums (Pistolswing & Claim Dedications) are both still widely available used on Amazon for a mere couple of dollars at most. Grab them.

There isn’t much to say about the three men who make up New Brutalism. In fact, there is hardly anything at all. This is by design however and not because they aren’t interesting fellows…in fact they very well could be but they sure aren’t going to let anyone know. New Brutalism and the music the trio creates is the one and only focus and they plan to stick to that, so much that each song is not overshadowed by lengthy clever titles, but rather are just simply numbered. The only things that can be concluded by searching around the good old internet is that they are based out of Knoxville, TN and they make their own custom guitars, amps, and drums out of aluminum. Take a look at their page for some photos of that.

Actual Record is the bands latest offering, which have been far and few between over the span of 10 or so years. I saw information regarding the album pop up last year sometime and got excited by the prospect of new tunes from these guys; however in perfect fashion details about it remained scant all the way up until a few weeks ago when Actual Record suddenly became available. Quite a nice surprise for 2009, as I had almost completely forgot about the album by this time. For those that haven’t heard New Brutalism, well here is a good time to jump on board if you’re a fan of Big’N, Shellac, or Tar. They are waving the whole 90’s Chicago noise/math-rock flag furiously and create some of the finest sounding rock you’ll hear as a result of it. It’s incredibly tight, abrasive, and pretty rockin’. Do check it out.

New Brutalism – 063 [MP3]

Like what you hear? Then pick up a copy of the album through ABC Group Documentation. Vinyl only, however it comes with a download card for anyone that wants in on some digital action. Enjoy!

Edit: Thanks to a heads up in the comments, there is in fact a CD version of the album available through the excellent French label Rejuvenation Records.

Anyone who heard Detroit’s Child Bite and their album from ’08 Fantastic Gusts of Blood already know that they are fairly unpredictable. At the end of the day their vision comes off as some gnarled take on post-punk and new wave that constantly seems to be fighting it out as to which one is going to prevail. However the track featured here on the split, “Gloom Boots”, is a relatively straightforward and somewhat more accessible track from the band that makes very good use of a horn section. Sort of sounds like RFTC if they were merged with Ten Grand, which I can get behind. If you haven’t already checked out Fantastic Gusts of Blood…probably worth your time if you like the track posted below.

Now to the Boston based Big Bear. Well, first and foremost it’s great to know that they are still alive and kicking. Secondly, it’s even better to know they have new material. In fact I think the material found on this split is the first stuff they’ve officially released since their debut album came out on Monitor back in ’05. Anyone that’s into mathy riffage sort of in the area of Breadwinner or Bozart might want to give that a listen. Things have changed a bit since then though, subtracting and adding a couple different members to reach their current state. The track featured here has the band definitely cutting back on the chunky guitar licks; however they have by no means refrained from the sort of discordant guitar work that initially got me into the band. According to their website they have completed their second album and were selling it on their tour this month with Child Bite. Would love to hear it if anyone has a copy that they might want to sell me.

Child Bite – Gloom Boots [stream]
Big Bear – 23 [stream]

For those interested in picking up the split from these two bands, it’s available now through Joyful Noise and is limited to just 500 copies. Do grab one if you like what you hear!