Unpiano | Music Blog

These days everyone with a computer is “working on an album.”  Most of them never actuallyhappen, and the ones that do are pretty much always terrible.  Every now and then some idiot-savant finishes up his bedroom disaster, and it somehow ends up sounding super raw and bizarre and it’s completely fucking perfect.  I don’t know anything about Local Wizards except that it seems like their changed their name from “Pizza Pizzazz,” and that’s pretty great too, so they really got the whole package here.

Local Wizards – Burn It Down
Local Wizards – I Have Nothing At Stake
Local Wizards – Cold

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A week ago, after spending an afternoon looking like an idiot in an old wood-floor rollerskating rink in Glendale, I Netflix’d (that’s a verb now) this awesomely bad roller disco movie, set in Venice during the supposed late 70′s rollerskating craze and featuring a tarted up Linda Blair with some castaway cast of soon-to-be-in-porn actors and actresses that can’t act or act-ress. Its a typical teenage fad movie, like Breakin’ or Thrashin’, with some good-hearted rich girl trying to be down and a struggling out-of-her-league underdog trying to get famous for something you can’t make money at, and his cheeky friends and her shitty parents who don’t understand and all the usual shit. Needless to say, it was awesome, and I sat through the whole thing with my jaw in my lap. My wife said I shook my head through the whole movie, probably at the completely improbable situations, characters and dialogue that danced before me (on skates, and in slutty 70s/80s fashion, of course). It was like an American Apparel boner-fest with badly delivered laugh-out-loud lines and a disco soundtrack. Well, except with this track, which opens the film and totally rips the rest of the original soundtrack double-LP a new asshole. Powerpop by numbers about some supposed “Good Girls” who are clearly sluts, sung by this one-hit L.A. wonder with a rapper’s name.

Remember the first time you hear Black Sabbath’s first record?  These guys do, like it was yesterday, because they probably listen to Sabbath every day of their lives.  Ape Machine is basically classic metal, but they are a little heavier than their 70′s predecessors.  They also incorporate prog-rock song structures, but it’s really only as complex as you would expect from massive stoners, which is to say it’s still mainly pretty simple riff and guitar squeals jams.  They recorded with Ikey, who also had his hands on the Crystal Antlers’ last record, and the heavy, raw rock sound shines again here.  My only complaint is that I wish every song was longer, maybe that’s for the live show.

Ape Machine – The Sun
Ape Machine – Black Night

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I know I’m probably a little late on this, I’m not the most current dude, but a really great way to get introduced to new music is by drinking beer and smoking pot. Blah blah blah “liver disease”, blah blah blah “low sperm count”. How about, “awesome amounts of patience to sift through hours of YouTube threads, blogs and message boards chasing forgotten treasures”? Or “tireless yapping with other record nerds about shit you don’t know about yet”? Just be sure to take notes, because there’s a good chance you’re going to forget a whole lot about what you learned before the morning. Case in point, this 7 inches of reissued wax only found its way into my collection because of a crumpled, beer soaked note I found in a pant pocket after a late nighter, in which the phrase “awesome Sing Sing reissues” was chicken scratched onto a torn chunk of grocery bag. Lo-fi power poppish punk with a hint of TV Personalities, recorded in ’79 and reissued this year. Grab one before they’re gone.

Voice Of The Puppets – I Don’t Want To Know

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This track has been in heavy mix rotation since I stole it off the awesome Mod Punk Archives site years ago. A perfect 60′s revival pop hit (tipping the hat to the Byrds, the Zombies and other post-mod British Invasion rockers), but recorded on the other side of the pond in the mid 80′s by San Diego garage-heads. Comprised of members of better known SoCal garage scene favorites like the Tell-Tale Hearts and the Crawdaddys, the Nashville Ramblers had a short run with little to show for it, but what they did manage to record was so timeless its been a staple of power-pop comps (like Bomp’s “The Roots Of Power Pop” or Rhino’s “Children of Nuggets”) for the last 20 years. Mike Stax’s Ugly Things Records recently reissued a limited edition of the original 7″, snatch one up before they’re gone.

Nashville Ramblers – The Trains

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Bonus:
Nashville Ramblers – The Trains live on “Its Happening”, 1987

Don’t say motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER! Don’t say motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER! Don’t say motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER! Don’t say motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER! Don’t say motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER! I know this isn’t much of a review, but if you didn’t immediately hit play on this track after seeing these awesome lyrics, we probably can’t be friends.

Turbonegro – Don’t Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker

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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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In the world of bizarre music, there’s a fine line between interesting and annoying.  WU LYF stands firmly on the interesting side, but knows how to push the envelope to edge; they give little real information and create an entirely immersive concept and backstory, keeping fans and critics confused and interested. The Manchester-based 4-piece has nothing to do with Wu-Tang Clan, it’s an acronym for World Unite – Lucifer Youth Foundation. The websites are a confusing mess, but with a clean design that winks through the bizarre cult imagery, saying “This is creepy, right?  This is weird, right?” All in all, the mystery works in the band’s favor, allowing the music to speak for itself.

After an hour of listening and poking around on their website(s) I’m still not sure what to make of the band, but I know I love the debut record, Go Tell Fire To The Mountain.  The sound of the album sits somewhere just beyond the DIY indie rock/pop realm.  The guitar riffs are instantly catchy pop fare, the drums pound out primal, tribal patterns on the toms, and the vocals sound like they were overdubbed in a cave.  This is all great, and the juxtaposition of dark and mysterious vocals against the light and fun guitars continues perfectly throughout the entire album.  There’s something infectious about “Spitting Blood;” the lyrics are just the right amount of vague, forcing the listener to deal with some strange mental images, much like the band’s presentation of themselves.

The point here is, the album is super badass. Whether or not the cult-y stuff and the mystery is off-putting, you really need to check out the songs.  These guys are really on to something, despite the terrible name.  Also apparently if you buy the album from them, you get a bandana with all their weirdo cult images screen-printed on it.  If that’s not brilliant marketing, I don’t know what is.

WU LYF – Spitting Blood
WU LYF – We Bros
WU LYF – Heavy Pop

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Lots of bands draw influence from the titans This Heat, but not many bands can claim to be anywhere close to their talent.  Haunted Horses is a band that really gets what made This Heat so exciting; they are funky and beat-driven, bizarre and experimental, with a sense of humor (but not in a novelty, jokey way). Above all, Haunted Horses sound genuine in their experimentation, separating them from so many bands doing “weird shit” just for the hell of it. The guttural screams that punctuate the drum-driven groove sections sound primal and the heavy reverb on the vocals set the perfect dark atmosphere. These guys deserve the same attention and accolades as Lightning Bolt, so we should all see them at small, wild shows while we can. You get an extra point if you see them at a house party and 10 more bonus points if the party is in a basement.

Haunted Horses – Medusan Sky
Haunted Horses – Desmond
Haunted Horses – Horizons

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Strongly political, patriotic and simply gorgeous, Polly Jean Harvey’s new album Let England Shake has pumped new dark blood into my long standing crush on Britain’s saddest woman. Set to be released right near Valentine’s day, the album features a strong dose of heart tugging autoharp and her unabashedly direct vocals. These days all Morrissey can talk about is how wrong it is to eat meat, so it’s up To Polly Jean to restore English pride and melancholy lyricism. I have been waiting for this album ever since To Bring You My Love and wholeheartedly agree with Patti Smith, who recently said “It just makes me happy to exist. Whenever anyone does something of worth, including myself, it just makes me happy to be alive.” Me too Patti, me too.

PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder
PJ Harvey – The Last Living Rose (Video)
PJ Harvey – Written On The Forehead

Bonus:
PJ Harvey – The Devil (Video)
PJ Harvey – Hardly Wait (from 4-Track Demos)
PJ Harvey – Water (from Dry)