Unpiano | Music Blog

The thing that made me revisit this awesome slab of wax from ’81 was thinking that my 9 year old son would love it. It has two of his favorite things, Sharks and swearing. If the cover had a fucking Pokemon character on it, 4th graders all over the world would be turning off their Big Time Rush bullshit and getting into D.I.Y. London post-punk from yesteryear.

Tronics – Shark Fucks

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These days labeling a band “Post-Punk” doesn’t really give me a good idea of what the music might actually sound like.  The Common Men put the emphasis back on “punk” and their debut LP draws heavily on the true punk and post-punk bands like Television and Wire.  Add some vocals inspired by Jello Biafra and you have some great rock that isn’t too arty or soft.  It’s angular and manic but melodious with structure.  It’s exactly what I think of when I hear “Post-Punk,” and that’s a good thing.

The Common Men – Panic
The Common Men – Impulsion
The Common Men – Hanged Men

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Skronky post-punk from Germany’s Neue Deutsche Welle period (New German Wave, duh). I was about to do the requisite “they really stood back and threw darts at the band names of the last five years for this one” when I realized this debut LP came from ’81. Sorry to all of the “Neon” and “Babies” named bands, they beat you to the punch by three decades. Fans of LiLiPUT and Kleenex take note, jagged party-time art-punk with hints of reggae, punk, new wave and lots of pop sensibility. Vocalists Anete and Inga Humpe went on to long, fairly successful careers in pop and later new age, which sort of makes this the German version of Yanni’s first band. Check out the no-wave version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”.

Neonbabies – Spass Muss Sein
Neonbabies – Ich Will Dich Nicht
Neonbabies – Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Neonbabies – Blaue Augen

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Dripping with elements of goth, post-punk, industrial and bare-bones rock and roll, Los Angeles’ DVA Damas manage to incorporate hints of a broad range of influences into a tight, sparse package of dark-wave goodness. Stripping their music to its most minimal elements – bare–bones rock riffs, thinly placed synths, saturated-yet-hollow bass lines and dry industrial percussion – its hard to imagine them as a flushed out five piece. Creating a tension between the instrumentation and the open space between the individual sounds, the band creates a haunting backdrop to Taylor Burch’s seductively dry vocal delivery.

DVA Damas – Brand New Head

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Sacramento CA has a long history of dance bands coming out of their small but vibrant punk and experimental scene; !!! (chk, chk, chk), Outhud and Free Blood all came from the same circle of D.I.Y. punks in the early 90′s. Buk Buk Bigups might be the next wave to carry that torch. With its young members firmly entrenched in the Sacto punk and experimental scene of now, they’re taking their art-mess education to the dance floor. The original version of “Hot Mess” (from their fantastic debut 12″ on Weird Forest) takes off like an outtake of Sparks’ “Beat The Clock” (from the Georgio Moroder years). Despite all the influence from the No-Wave obscurities, Buk Buk Bigups never flies off into experimental no-wheres-ville the way the Contortions or DNA did, instead they season accessible dance hits with hints of skronk and weirdness, but only just enough to anchor them to their roots without clearing the floor. A hot live band (yeah a band, not a sequencer and a dude with a microphone), expect more good things from them when they hit the road this spring.

Buk Buk Bigups – Hotter Mess

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Bonus:
Buk Buk Bigups – Endless Itch (video)

The Whines have been on my radar for some time, with a wasted Karianne hopping in on drums for Eat Skull for all of ten minutes and their debut 7″ making rounds for the last year or so. Backed by alternating members of the aforementioned Portland faves, she recorded in stop-and-start installments until finally piecing together this fantastic first LP. Hell To Play is a collection of reverb soaked noise pop that would play more like a mix tape if it wasn’t for a layer of over-saturated tape hiss, as well as Karianne’s sweet-to-sad-to-sexy vocals, gluing the whole thing together. A dreary Portland Sunday with a hangover put to wax just for you.

The Whines – Cut Meat
The Whines – Straybird
The Whines – Down The 2 Tracks

Summer’s heating up, the perfect time to roll up the sleeves, crack some shitty backyard brews and lock into some laid back jams like these two classics from power-pop legend Chris Stamey. The first, a collaboration between Stamey and Alex Chilton (Big Star/Boxtops – duh) has been spinning since the sun finally came out. The second, an all time classic with his band The dB’s. Stamey’s high pitched vocal delivery and bright guitar riffs are a perfect mix when the sun’s hot and high (and so are you).

Chris Stamey & the dBs – The Summer Sun
Chris Stamey & the dBs – (I Thought You) Wanted To Know

Evergreen formed from the ashes of local Louisville hardcore faves, Cinderblock, and solidified as an actual band when Louisville native and former Slint drummer Britt Walford (also of The Breeders, Palace Music, etc.) joined in on drums and recorded their only LP with soon-to-be DFA/LCD Soundsystem guy James Murphy. The end result is a killer mix of moody post rock and punk ragers, a friendly tug-of-war between two styles that seem counter-intuitive (if not impossible) to mix.

Evergreen – Glass Highway
Evergreen – Klark Kent
Evergreen – Fairlane

I’ve been digging the new record by Little Claw lately, Human Taste is definitely a continuation of their first effort, but there are some solid jams on here. Dark, warbling pop soaked in lots of fuzz and reverb, sometimes spinning off into endless-jam/one-note-drone land but the handful of tracks that hold some sort of structure are pretty amazing.

Little Claw – Human Taste
Little Claw – Frozen In The Future

When two students at San Francisco City College met in 1977 they threw together a band called TuxedoMoon and started playing differnet spaces like Salons while their following quickly grew. Eventually they ended up breaking out by opening for Devo and getting signed to The Residents’ label Ralph Records. Thirty years later they are still going strong, (despite moving to Rotterdam to be a part of the electronic music scene there), they are still on tour and released their anniversary album in 2007. All San Francisco bands take note! You don’t have to start here, move to New York and then break up two years later. You can stay here and play music for thirty years and still get on the Downtown 81 Soundtrack. Okay, maybe that sort of thing only happened in the Seventies but.. please?

Tuxedomoon – No Tears
Tuxedomoon – Dark Companion