Built on a Weak Spot

Blue was a scuzzy sort of sounding rock band from Philly in the late 80’s all the way up until their album Solid State in 1994 that was released on Flipped Out. Leading up to the album the band also put out a handful of singles on such notable punk/noise-rock labels like Bovine, Datapanik, etc. They often teetered between being sort of sludgy sounding kind of similar to Floor and their faster paced material; however the majority their catalog presented itself as a more of a straight up sloppy rock band complete with all that lo-fidelity charm with songs that burn out at around the minute to two minute mark. That excludes their incredibly drawn out mutilation/tribute, whichever, to a certain Beach Boy member that spans around 9 minutes and slowly degenerates into a lovely mess of noise underneath the howls of the singer. Anyway, here is Solid State, the only proper full-length from Blue which has been ripped to a high quality for your listening pleasure. I am sure some of those singles that the band are floating around eBay or something for a reasonable price if you’re looking to seek out more from this band, in which I fully encourage you do. Good stuff.

Blue – Solid State LP

Below is the insert that came with the album. It’s been scaled down to fit on this page, but you can click on it for a larger and higher quality version. Enjoy!

A couple or so years ago singer/guitarist Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City passed along to me the bands debut EP Turk Street and looking back on it he must have had an idea as to whom he was sending it to because it was very much within my tastes. Unsurprisingly the music stuck with me and I’ve sporadically kept tabs (or really the powers of social networking sites have) on them since. I was pleased to learn that their new album Gambling on the Richter Scale would be coming out on Perpetual Motion Machine, as they’ve done some nice work and housed plenty of bands I consider myself a fan of. But anyway, moving on to the actual record…

Gambling on the Richter Scale is the bands first full-length and it really picks up where their EP left off with eight more tracks of quality sludgy bottom heavy noise-rock. The songwriting has taken a step forward for certain by stepping back from the complete onslaught of filthy noise and interjecting some pretty catchy riffs here and there making for some songs that take on a bit of a different sound and in turn dashing any concerns of predictability that one might have. The band seems to have finely tuned their craft and it has translated well onto a full-length record. At various times Gambling on the Richter Scale reminds me of Shallow North Dakota, more specifically their album Mob Wheel which stirs up a similar set of sludgy of noise. However, if you’re a fan of this sort of deal…then you certainly can’t miss out on this and really there is no reason to as the band currently offers up the album for free download on their website. So yeah, by all means give it a go.

Kowloon Walled City – Clockwork [MP3]

The album is available currently through Perpetual Motion Machine on vinyl that also comes with a CD of the tunes as well. However, as I mentioned before…the band has been gracious enough to put the whole album up for download on their website for those that want to hear more first. Enjoy!

It really is a shame that a band like UK’s Snowblood can go relatively unnoticed during their run while other critically praised bands that operate within the same area musically continue to do so, however less effectively. I was introduced to the band when their second album Being and Becoming was released in 2005 and it was a massive listen of sludgy doom ridden tunes that grabbed my attention from the start. I have never been a big fan of that sort of thing over the years, however when done right it forces you to take notice and that’s part of the beauty of what Snowblood managed to accomplish while remaining in the shadows of so many others sadly. Their music can definitely be considered exhausting to sit down and listen to fully in one sitting, much like I felt when I first heard the debut Jesu LP. Except the thing I appreciate about Snowblood, other than the music itself, is that the band didn’t shy away from that approach as they progressed. They still insist upon creating the type of slow and successive punch that grinds and toils until it hits the payoff, and the payoff almost always proves to be worth it. Here on their third and final album the band is undoubtedly at peak form and at their most challenging with four lengthy compositions for the listeners to digest.

Snowblood – Untitled 1 [MP3]

Those looking to pick this up can do so by heading on over to SuperFi Records. Right now the CD version is available, however be on the lookout in the coming weeks for a limited 2xLP release of this monster. Enjoy!

Apologies for the short hiatus, but various outside matters kind of got me down and the site kind of suffered for a week from it. Anyway, all is well now and I am back with some more jams that will hopefully interest a few of you.

I think Part Chimp are one of the few bands that when they come up during shuffle on my iPod I find myself being impressed with them all over again. There are songs on I Am Come that pop up that still blow me away. I can’t really pinpoint why, but being excessively loud both on record and live might play a part in it. Thriller happens to be the London based group’s third full-length album, which has been handled by the Mogwai imprint Rock Action. While I’m not big on Mogwai, someone in the band must know what’s up if they had the good mind to sign this band. So props to whomever that may have been…you are now my favorite member of Mogwai.

One thing noticeably apparent upon first listen of Thriller is that the production is cleaner, not as muddied and overall distorted as previous material I’d say. I mean there is plenty of distortion, it is Part Chimp we’re talking about here after all, but I guess maybe all that fuzz is just a bit more defined? I don’t know. There is certainly more depth here than I could ever really pick out of the bands sound and really with a band as forceful and overwhelmingly heavy as Part Chimp something like that is just icing on the cake. It’s hard to argue with the results after three albums of the bands volume intensive sludgy riffing, but every time it seems to work and genuinely impress. Thriller opens with the stoner exploration tune “Trad” and from there continues to pour it on for eight more tracks. Excellent as always.

Part Chimp – Trad [stream]

No word that I could find on a release date for the US, however it’s available on CD and digitally through Rock Action. If you’re already fan, then you likely already have it…but if not this is as good of a place as any to jump in and enjoy.

This record continually has me guessing, which I think is probably a good thing. I just don’t know what to say about it really other than I dig what these two guys from Portland are banging out. The Ax come armed with three things apparently…guitar, drums, and big riffs. At times they lay down a heavy low end guitar tone that briefly touches upon Floor or Karp sludge territory, however I’d say the band are channeling more of a straight up rock n’ roll sort of thing more along the lines of Red Fang or a heavier Bad Wizard. They are kind of a vacuum cleaner of all things that could be considered big guitar rock and the The Ax certainly emphasize the “big”. Their sound is massive in fact, to which I can only envision a towering set up behind them with patrons shirts rippling from the blast it omits. While the band tiptoes around a number of different ideas here on Our Queen of Dirt, they never cease to let up with the distortion as if they figured maybe everything sounds better this way…and I think I am beginning to agree with that sentiment. I don’t know if there are still too many people out there presently that are looking for a record like this, but I am certainly hoping so.

The Ax – Mouth to Feed [MP3]

For anyone wishing to pick up Our Queen of Dirt, then it’s available in both vinyl and CD formats over at Whoa! Boat. If you’re digging the posted tune above then I would recommend checking out the whole record. Well worth it.

I had been meaning to check out this record from Richmond, VA’s Food. I finally got around to laying down some cash and it arrived this past weekend just in time to sit down and see what the band was all about. After hearing five tracks clocking in at just less than forty minutes, I’d say what they are all about is delivering some face melting low end heavy fuzzed out sludge. These are some pretty killer tunes and not the typical kind of drawn out slow churning stoner sort of fuzz that I generally shy away from. While essentially anything like this will get some Melvins comps Food brings the full force rocking with a pace more so in the way of I’d say Floor or possibly Buzzov*en (sans vocals/samples), especially with the grimy outsider/downer feel the record manages to convey. While the songs are typically stretched out and fairly lengthy Food have no trouble maintaining the intensity and riffage for the duration, stopping for a breath here and there only to amp things right back up and in your face. All I know is that it’s heavy, loud, and that I dig it. Here is to hoping that despite the time it took the band to record this monster (over three years I hear) that more material shows up sooner rather than later or if it all. For now though, give this a listen.

Food – March Forth [MP3]

For those interested in picking this record up, it’s available through Molsook Records. Check it out if you’re digging the tune above.

Following the balls to the wall rock show I saw Wednesday, it left me craving more the next few days. That’s where the now defunct NYC based trio of Kung Pao stepped in and helped satisfy a bit of that remaining need for filthy grimy sounding rock. The band delivers plenty of it, that’s for sure.

Formed around 1999, the trio released a split single with Tucker through –ismist records before putting out two full-lengths through the Minneapolis based Maduro Records titled Bogota (2000) and Sheboygan (2002).
Don’t know exactly what happened to the guys after that, but it appears that they have since called it a day. Regardless, those two albums are full of straight up dirty bar brawling noise-rock with a major emphasis on low end, just the way I like it. The band definitely gives a few nods to the likes of Killdozer, early Tad, etc with their brand of riff heavy ultra down tuned sludge. If anything, check out their second and last album Sheboygan, as I prefer it a touch over their debut. Although, you can’t go wrong with either if this is your sort of thing.

Bogota:
Kung Pao – Iron Lung [MP3]

Sheboygan:
Kung Pao – Hotpockets [MP3]
Kung Pao – Truckstop [MP3]

It appears that Sheboygan is still available from Maduro Records. For anyone looking to pick up Bogota as well, then there are plenty of copies of it floating around currently on Amazon. Well worth the price, and definitely recommended.

The lovely album cover pictured there to left on screen is from the Iowa City based band Scrid. Originally formed in 1993 in Fort Madison, Iowa they quickly made the move to Iowa City thereafter. The album, titled The Island of Misfit Toys, was released in 1997 through the Lincoln, Nebraska based –ismist recordings after multiple years touring the country. The album would be the bands only full-length that I know of. They did later release a split 7 inch with the band Sludgeplow in 1999, again released on –ismist. There isn’t anything stating that they ever split up, but I am pretty sure that they are no longer around.

The bands sound wasn’t an uncommon one, however for fans of mega distorted bass and guitar with a dish of slower sludgier sounding noise-rock then this is an album that people may want to look into. They often got compared to the likes of Killdozer, partly because of the whole backwoods persona that they carried and probably also due to the less than serious subject matter of the material. Regardless though, it’s hard to really understand what Craig Owsley is saying/barking anyway so it’s almost irrelevant. To me they sound more like a mix of earlier Clutch around the Transnational Speedway League release and maybe the Cows. Either way, it’s some abrasive rock for sure. The Island of Misfit Toys caps off the album with a fifteen minute piece of nothing but samples of various explicit subjects, not really something I want to hear for fifteen minutes but the nine songs that precede it are absolutely fine by me.

Scrid – Oralfice [MP3]
Scrid – Hedgehog [MP3]

There are still copies available of The Island of Misfit Toys on Amazon, both used and new. If you dig the tunes above then definitely pick it up. Enjoy!

I received this fine little 3 song EP called Turk Street from San Francisco’s Kowloon Walled City a few days ago in my e-mail and I’ve been listening to it off and on for the past few days on the computer. It was mentioned in the e-mail that Kowloon Walled City is intended to be no-frills, undecorated, and heavy. If that is indeed the intention then I believe that they’ve definitely achieved that, in my opinion. Kowloon Walled City is pretty much everything that I enjoy about sludgy bottom heavy rock. Although it’s only three songs to go by, these guys are batting a 1.000 so far, there is nothing to dislike about these tunes as they are crushing. According to singer/guitarist Scott Evans the band has plans to hopefully release a full-length some time this spring through Evans’ own label Wordclock Records. If so, then I’ll definitely be looking forward to hearing it.

Kowloon Walled City – My Hands are Turning to Bricks [MP3]

For those looking to check out the EP, head on over to the bands website to download the entire EP for free in high quality MP3. So take the two minutes or so to do that. Also, for those interested check out Wordclock Records for some other freebies from Scott Evans’ various other projects. As always enjoy the tunes!

I can’t say I’ve ever been a heavy listener of what is often labeled “sludge”, however there were always a few bands here and there that I really was able to get into. Mostly they were the obvious big hitters like Eyehategod or Buzzov*en, stuff like that. Just the other night though I was reminded of a band that came a bit later, Leechmilk. I hadn’t listened to either of their records in quite sometime, but I was quickly reacquainted once it was revealed to me again at just how much these guys ripped.

I remember the good old days of dial up Internet surfing when I would cruise around on MP3.com and download various tracks from bands that put their music up on the site. One of the tracks I distinctly remember getting off of it that completely tore me apart at the time was Leechmilk’s song “The Garrote”, which appeared on their first full-length, Starvation of Locusts (2000, Spare Change) and then again on their second release that was a split with Sofa King Killer called Guilty of Sloth (2001, Tee Pee). Not much else to say really other than these guys were among the best bands that I heard that did the whole Southern sludge/swamp sound, just incredibly crushing and vicious, the vocals especially. It’s too bad that they didn’t release more, but what we got was plenty good enough. Give it a listen.

Starvation of Locusts:
Leechmilk – Doubleplusungood [MP3]
Leechmilk – The Garrote [MP3]

Guilty of Sloth:
Leechmilk – Saltlick [MP3]

As far as I can tell Starvation of Locusts is no longer available, however Guilty of Sloth still can be found used on Amazon and there might still be copies available through Tee Pee. Honestly have no idea what happened to the members after this band. I am counting on some of the readers to help me out here if possible. For now though, enjoy the tunes above!