So as the month of June waxes on it feels like it's time to look back at the albums that spent the most time burning up the turntable here at RSTB headquarters. I've tried to rein it in, so these are the best of the rest from January to June. It's definitely been a good year so far I'd say. Can't wait to hear what the rest of '08 produces.
Celebration, Thomas Function's debut album is one of the most fun releases I've come across this year. Exuberant choruses, a penchant for 70's punk vocal inflections and downright catchiness are all in Thomas Function's corner. Mixing punk spirit with southern jangle-pop and blues into a tight squirming mess that tumbles out of your speakers in unabashed basement fervor.
Download:
[MP3] Thomas Function - Snake In The Grass
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Luminarium, the latest full length from Swedish trio Tape has me fully engrossed in its crystalline concoction of electronics and calm purposeful composition. Flecks of dubbed percussion and peacefully strummed guitar fold you into a state of glossy tranquility, but with a wonderful unease just below the surface. This is their best yet.
Download:
[MP3] Tape - Beams
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
On Two Sides mines the very same nauseous deep space rot that his slew of 7 and 12"s laid down in the past year. Still chock full of drain pipe synths and tin-foil scorched vocals but with that ever-present burble of a catchy melody just brimming under the surface; each second of this album reverberates like tarnished chrome and nerve gas shocked into life by a low current bleed from bare wires. The releases from Blank Dogs just continue to get better and better.
Download:
[MP3] Blank Dogs - Ants
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
No Age fully live up to the expectations that were set by last year's singles collection, Weirdo Rippers. This album is littered with fuzzed punk odes that fade into oblivion only to come hurtling back with teeth barred. Of all the noise coming out of the L.A. Smell scene these two are most definitely leading the pack.
Download:
[MP3] No Age - Teen Creeps
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Striking up a garage beat and burrowing through psych scorched vocals and a rag-tag bit of surf on the fringes, Masters Bedroom chugs on a full tank of propane. Dwyer and co. pump out garage stompers like the shit was made for them and honestly it makes me wonder what took him so damn long. The A.M. crackle of this album deserves to be tossed on and blared out of car speakers long after the drive-in closes but before the sun even thinks about rising.
Download:
[MP3] Thee Oh Sees - Ghost in the Trees
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The band's second album, Laulu Laakson Kukista continues on the same track they'd blazed with their debut; an equally varied collection of otherworldly Finnish folkisms and stuttered electronic charm. Looping like lost broadcasts echoed off wayward weather patterns, the album seems bound by neither by time nor sense of genre and yet it plays as seamless as if all this were the pop standard.
Download:
[MP3] Paavoharju - Tyttö Tanssii
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Novak's stripped down rock is deeply indebted to a Ramones style simplicity and a crux of New Wave/Power Pop hooks but its all waxed rugged with a sneer of youth. As catchy and energetic a record as you're likely to hear this year; Raised on the Ramones and reflected through Milk 'n' Cookies, its like distilling the sound of seventeen.
Download:
[MP3] Cheap Time - Glitter & Gold
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The band's sound is comes straight from the blood-stained garage but every once in a while just dipping their guitars into the ghosts of Metal's past. It's hard to capture the beast that is there live show on record but this'll do the trick in a pinch. This is the sound of sweat boiling under hot lights and its a glorious noise indeed.
Download:
[MP3] Monotonix - No Metal
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The enigma that is King Khan has been lurking around for years; and where his work with BBQ is all shuffle and blues, the Shrines bring out the King's true shades of SOUL. This is all the swagger, pomp and bended knee pleading you'll need to hear for the next 3 years. Whatever ghost haunts Khan's soul, it's a damned restless one indeed.
Download:
[MP3] King Khan & The Shrines - Torture
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Lindsay and Alexis Powell's voices intertwine and play off one another in that special way that only two members of the same family can achieve. On Come Arrow Come they wind and twist their way through breezy Americana with a touch dark maudlin wistfulness, choral folk that haunts like the ghost of forgotten yesterdays and just a bit of pure carefree pop. A beautiful record befitting of a home on Language of Stone.
Download:
[MP3] Festival - Valentine
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Feeling very much like an evening spent sitting in Cabic's living room listening to the kind of songs that can be played over and over; this release is almost autobiographical in nature. This album acts as a true curatorial project, it shows Cabic's personal taste as much as it show's how those tastes are integrated into his songwriting and for the most part he makes each song his own leaving this collection with an uncanny resemblance to an album of Vetiver originals.
Download:
[MP3] Vetiver - Road To Ronderlin
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
This fuzzed up scrap of plastic rounds up the some of the best of the Alps' limited wax, including The Soft Tour in Rough Form 12", Description of the Harbour 12" and that Strawberry Guillotine 7" plus the b-sides from the Semi-Streets 7". Though once they're compiled into one place they all seem to fold into one another inside waves of hiss and crumble, each release just a lost part of some other one. If you missed out on any of these releases the first time grab this and revel in the Alps' ramshackle glory.
Download:
[MP3] Sic Alps - Blues (with Tremolo and Distortion)
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Vertigo of Dawn is everything that his fleeting CD-r output promised, its full of dark, moody woven guitar tracks whose vocals resemble wordless chants more than true expressions; floating above the pluck and din of his music. The line between sinister and holy is definitely blurred through his music and Vertigo is without a doubt the best entry for anyone who hasn't yet been exposed to his craft.
Download:
[MP3] Ilyas Ahmed - Moon Falling
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Matched only by Afrirampo in terms of primal energy, Ponytail proceed tearing through the entire album like a furious 8 armed tornado of sound, squalor, hair and teeth. Bolsted on the strength of Siegel's brutal vocalizations, full of guttural growls and wordless squawks the album is both unhinged and propelled like a rocket through your conciousness. Good to see some kids doing it right.
Download:
[MP3] Ponytail - 7 Souls
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Often sounding like a Motown track with most of the elements stripped away; their minimalist soul stabs straight for the temple. It's as if they took away everything unnecessary and just kept the raw beating heart of the tracks; threw it on the table and recorded that. Somehow I'd never figured the tribal pulse of Sweden beat this hard.
Download:
[MP3] Wildbirds & Peacedrums - Doubt/Hope
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Celebration, Thomas Function's debut album is one of the most fun releases I've come across this year. Exuberant choruses, a penchant for 70's punk vocal inflections and downright catchiness are all in Thomas Function's corner. Mixing punk spirit with southern jangle-pop and blues into a tight squirming mess that tumbles out of your speakers in unabashed basement fervor.
Download:
[MP3] Thomas Function - Snake In The Grass
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Luminarium, the latest full length from Swedish trio Tape has me fully engrossed in its crystalline concoction of electronics and calm purposeful composition. Flecks of dubbed percussion and peacefully strummed guitar fold you into a state of glossy tranquility, but with a wonderful unease just below the surface. This is their best yet.
Download:
[MP3] Tape - Beams
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
On Two Sides mines the very same nauseous deep space rot that his slew of 7 and 12"s laid down in the past year. Still chock full of drain pipe synths and tin-foil scorched vocals but with that ever-present burble of a catchy melody just brimming under the surface; each second of this album reverberates like tarnished chrome and nerve gas shocked into life by a low current bleed from bare wires. The releases from Blank Dogs just continue to get better and better.
Download:
[MP3] Blank Dogs - Ants
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
No Age fully live up to the expectations that were set by last year's singles collection, Weirdo Rippers. This album is littered with fuzzed punk odes that fade into oblivion only to come hurtling back with teeth barred. Of all the noise coming out of the L.A. Smell scene these two are most definitely leading the pack.
Download:
[MP3] No Age - Teen Creeps
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Striking up a garage beat and burrowing through psych scorched vocals and a rag-tag bit of surf on the fringes, Masters Bedroom chugs on a full tank of propane. Dwyer and co. pump out garage stompers like the shit was made for them and honestly it makes me wonder what took him so damn long. The A.M. crackle of this album deserves to be tossed on and blared out of car speakers long after the drive-in closes but before the sun even thinks about rising.
Download:
[MP3] Thee Oh Sees - Ghost in the Trees
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The band's second album, Laulu Laakson Kukista continues on the same track they'd blazed with their debut; an equally varied collection of otherworldly Finnish folkisms and stuttered electronic charm. Looping like lost broadcasts echoed off wayward weather patterns, the album seems bound by neither by time nor sense of genre and yet it plays as seamless as if all this were the pop standard.
Download:
[MP3] Paavoharju - Tyttö Tanssii
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Novak's stripped down rock is deeply indebted to a Ramones style simplicity and a crux of New Wave/Power Pop hooks but its all waxed rugged with a sneer of youth. As catchy and energetic a record as you're likely to hear this year; Raised on the Ramones and reflected through Milk 'n' Cookies, its like distilling the sound of seventeen.
Download:
[MP3] Cheap Time - Glitter & Gold
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The band's sound is comes straight from the blood-stained garage but every once in a while just dipping their guitars into the ghosts of Metal's past. It's hard to capture the beast that is there live show on record but this'll do the trick in a pinch. This is the sound of sweat boiling under hot lights and its a glorious noise indeed.
Download:
[MP3] Monotonix - No Metal
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
The enigma that is King Khan has been lurking around for years; and where his work with BBQ is all shuffle and blues, the Shrines bring out the King's true shades of SOUL. This is all the swagger, pomp and bended knee pleading you'll need to hear for the next 3 years. Whatever ghost haunts Khan's soul, it's a damned restless one indeed.
Download:
[MP3] King Khan & The Shrines - Torture
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Lindsay and Alexis Powell's voices intertwine and play off one another in that special way that only two members of the same family can achieve. On Come Arrow Come they wind and twist their way through breezy Americana with a touch dark maudlin wistfulness, choral folk that haunts like the ghost of forgotten yesterdays and just a bit of pure carefree pop. A beautiful record befitting of a home on Language of Stone.
Download:
[MP3] Festival - Valentine
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Feeling very much like an evening spent sitting in Cabic's living room listening to the kind of songs that can be played over and over; this release is almost autobiographical in nature. This album acts as a true curatorial project, it shows Cabic's personal taste as much as it show's how those tastes are integrated into his songwriting and for the most part he makes each song his own leaving this collection with an uncanny resemblance to an album of Vetiver originals.
Download:
[MP3] Vetiver - Road To Ronderlin
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
This fuzzed up scrap of plastic rounds up the some of the best of the Alps' limited wax, including The Soft Tour in Rough Form 12", Description of the Harbour 12" and that Strawberry Guillotine 7" plus the b-sides from the Semi-Streets 7". Though once they're compiled into one place they all seem to fold into one another inside waves of hiss and crumble, each release just a lost part of some other one. If you missed out on any of these releases the first time grab this and revel in the Alps' ramshackle glory.
Download:
[MP3] Sic Alps - Blues (with Tremolo and Distortion)
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Vertigo of Dawn is everything that his fleeting CD-r output promised, its full of dark, moody woven guitar tracks whose vocals resemble wordless chants more than true expressions; floating above the pluck and din of his music. The line between sinister and holy is definitely blurred through his music and Vertigo is without a doubt the best entry for anyone who hasn't yet been exposed to his craft.
Download:
[MP3] Ilyas Ahmed - Moon Falling
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Matched only by Afrirampo in terms of primal energy, Ponytail proceed tearing through the entire album like a furious 8 armed tornado of sound, squalor, hair and teeth. Bolsted on the strength of Siegel's brutal vocalizations, full of guttural growls and wordless squawks the album is both unhinged and propelled like a rocket through your conciousness. Good to see some kids doing it right.
Download:
[MP3] Ponytail - 7 Souls
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
Often sounding like a Motown track with most of the elements stripped away; their minimalist soul stabs straight for the temple. It's as if they took away everything unnecessary and just kept the raw beating heart of the tracks; threw it on the table and recorded that. Somehow I'd never figured the tribal pulse of Sweden beat this hard.
Download:
[MP3] Wildbirds & Peacedrums - Doubt/Hope
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE
4 Comments:
hey,
please don't ever stop writing this blog. it is the best i've come across in a long time. the artists and records you choose to write about and shine light on are so deserving and this blog does them a great justice. keep up the good work!
Excellent stuff, but can you get back to your weekly garage rock posts? I miss those already
nice, and somewhat similar to mine, i'd also throw eat skull, portishead, and spiritualized into the mix. blank dogs yes!
Ah nice, thanks for introducing me to Festival.
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