The Soft Moon

Luis Vasquez returns with a new Soft Moon album, this time with the burden of expectations on his head, and he rises to the challenge amicably. Still rooted in the gothic clutches of post-punk and still sparse and driving as ever, Zeroes takes a black clad hammer to the monuments that his debut built. Then from the rubble up, the new album is reassembled; dark and pulsating, still with a heavy emphasis on instrumental rumbles but also pushing further into 80's pop territory with lean, icy vocals and shards of brittle glass guitar. Vasquez' songwriting evokes the dark creeping loneliness of night drives and empty streets. It’s a soundtrack to inner struggle, full of torment and misgivings and creeping temptations. And quite honestly, it’s exactly what we were hoping Vasquez would bring forth from his latest mission to the studio. Sometimes its good to be reminded of the dark recesses of pop's over-burdened conscience.

Download:
[MP3] The Soft Moon - Insides

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Toy Love - Live at the Gluepot 1980 As mentioned here before, Toy Love's S/T LP is a highly undersung classic, but its also not always an accurate representation of the band's sound as it stood in the live environment. The album left
members of the band a bit disappointed and they always thought it smoothed a few of the rough edges off of their more angular and spirited sound. Now Goner has unearthed one of the band's last live performances, recorded from the soundboard September 1980 at The Gluepot in Ponsonby, Auckland. The live record powers through many of the LP tracks and gives them a crackling intensity that lends a definite amount of credit to the band's claims about their studio recordings. Though personally I like both the live and studio cuts, they just seem to highlight different shades of the songs' brilliance. Knox and co. keep it short and sweet with deadpan banter between tracks, but who's here for the commentary? For those of us too young, and certainly too far away from New Zealand in 1980 to see the band in its glory, this comes as a saving grace and a welcome document of a band that would go on to inspire countless other countrymen to take up guitars and pummel the world with chords and choruses that spread like a welcome disease in the ensuing years. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Video :: Nude Beach

Brooklyn's Nude Beach released a buoyant rock album that trod into areas of power pop and classic rock in equal regard with mastery of form that earned them comparisons to Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen in equal regard. The band has released an amusing new video for standout track "Some Kinda Love" directed by WFMU luminary Tom Scharpling. Check it out and be sure to pick up their LP, released by NYC institution Other Music below or catch them on tour with Roky Erickson this fall.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

Woollen Kits

With their second album of 2012, Woollen Kits achieve the sound they've been aching towards these past few months and past few releases. Four Girls pull in Aussie jangle, VU instincts and more than a few hooks that make it clear why these guys are making as much noise in their homeland as they are. Instilled with the same reverence for 80's Flying Nun and 60's stark strummers that spawned the American Indie movement a few decades ago, the album digs its roots into you on each new listen. With a minimal beat chugging behind the songs, they explore that pale line between noise and yearning then explode with the kind of head-nodders and feet movers that'll plaster mix tapes for years to come. The Australian jangle-pop movement is on fire of late and if your ears aren't pointed southward then you're definitely missing out on some of 2012's best. Woollen Kits are leading that pack along with contemporaries like Boomgates and The Twerps. Get this one on your "must listen" list now.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (U.S.) or HERE (AUS)

Gross Relations

BK faves and RSTB label alums Gross Relations are back on the streets with their first full-length album in tow. The eponymous collection is full of fuzz-chunked pop hymns to last night's regrets and tomorrow's best intentions. Augmented with a fifth member snapping up keys from Joey Relations, the sound is foamy and thick as a milkshake full of metal shavings. Still melting your 90's indie heroes like GI Joes on a Bunson burner, the band froths with an energy that feels like it may just topple. And because they love ya, the band is offering this up for free so grab it now and buzz your speakers 'til they shake.

Download:
[MP3] Gross Relations - Shameless

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Hierophants - Bow Down To... 7" Haunted by Aussies this week as Hierophants new 7" makes its way to RSTB's speaks. The material was recorded two years ago on a friggin' webcam mic and somehow doesn't sound like the garbled output of complete room noise. Sure its got
its limitations but the band's intentions come through with a frosted layer of noise crackling underneath. The Geelong crew mash their way through spaced-out surf-styled garage, Link Wray twang, bonged-out death chants and slow stomping garage cuts that seem like they should head to a studio or at least a tape machine and up the fidelity to see what they're made of. Download: [MP3] Hierophants - The Untimely End of the One You Love Support the artist, buy it HERE

Pye Corner Audio

It seemed only natural that Pye Corner Audio should cross paths with Ghost Box sooner or later and with his second release of the year he does just that. Sleep Games continues PCA's dark soundtracking sensibilities and tumbles into a labryntine chaos of Tron grids and Haruki Murakami noir mysteries. Martin Jenkins has a real talent for taking synth epics into territory that feels haunted both physically by threats and mentally by turbulence. It’s also permeated with a creeping brand of house beat, but rather than inspire dance the pulse seems to pound like a heartbeat in the back of the throat. It’s got a feel for dark corners and a love of Italian horror soundscapes to match, taking tropes of German progressive psych down a hatch and into the hauntology k-hole. Past tapes have found Jenkins' work less thematic but Sleep Games seems tied together like with a cohesiveness that begs for the story behind the nightmarish keys. Guess we'll have to make that one up for ourselves though.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Video :: Bare Wires

Bare Wires (RIP) release a new video for the slow burner "School Days Are Over" from their posthumously released Idle Dreams. The video loosely follows the same protagonist from the "Don't Ever Change" video as she eschews workplace malaise to ride into the sunset with Melton. It feels like a welcome sendoff for a band that hardly got its due. Pick up the LP below.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

Crooked Bangs

Austin trio Crooked Bangs make a declarative statement with their debut on Western Medical. Sung partly in French and partly in English, the bilingual nature is hardly even the most intriguing part of the record. The band have, as their label has amiably pointed out, found that sweet spot between post-punk and garage punk. It’s a throbbing and taught, fierce and fraught album that accuses you with every note that shreds out of the speakers. Front woman Leda Ginestra's voice comes down with the weight and heft that anchored post-punk dirges mired in dread, but here its formidable as a hammer coupled with the tuned engine guitars of Samantha Wendel. The record seems hell bent on smashing side mirrors down every street in America, leaving tracks on your heart and no remorse for the damage. There are records that fall in your hands and immediately leave the sense that seeing a band live would only sweeten the pot. Crooked Bangs are just such a band. Put this on the must see and must hear lists for 2012.

Download:
[MP3] Crooked Bangs - Be Young/Sois Jeune (Et Tais Toi)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Sensations' Fix - Music Is Painting In The Air RVNG, Intl. have put together a monster retrospective of restored and remastered tracks from the Sensations' Fix catalog, spanning more than six proper albums and years worth of material
the compilation is quite the undertaking. Falsini was a pioneer of home recording and much of the Sensations' catalog was recorded by himself, as was this collection which Falsini has overseen and remixed over the last year. The collection is sprawling but not daunting. Taking a non-linear, non-sequential approach to the setup, the songs switch from year to year but are held together by a constant feeling of adventurous that wafts from space blues to Krautrock and into Kosmiche drift. After bouncing from Italy to Virginia, back to Italy and from California to New York over the course of Sensation's Fix's career Falsini picked up influences that seemed to meld all of the influences the progressive psych canon had to offer and it makes for an collection for lovers of the form. In the intervening years Falsini hasn't rested on Sensations’' cult rep, instead founding electro-pop swingers The Antennas before returning to Florence to launch the Interactive Test label, focusing on emerging dance music. Heavy packaging and a great sound here, as is to be expected from the archival eye of RVNG. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Blank Realm

Always satisfying to hear another band that's been bubbling on the edge of promise really hit home with a savage LP that plays to their strengths and cuts deep for blood. Brisbane's Blank Realm have had a steady stream of noisy cuts on Not Not Fun, Digitalis, Bedroom Suck and Negative Guest List and they've all caught the ears of RSTB at one time or another but until now nothing's stuck. Their latest, Go Easy, finds them lighting their post-punk leanings on fire, delving further into pop jangle, torching the bridges and going further into the noise-punk territory with a record that's wholly satisfying. It opens with a growl before launching into the jangled sprawl of "Cleaning Up My Mess", one of the most spot on pop tracks they've ever ventured into but also tagged on with a fiery outro that keeps the noise-pop theme consistent. Over the course of the record they proceed to build nooks and nodes of jagged, smeary, gnarled, scabbed and scarred South Hem punk then knock them down and kick the pieces in every direction. Its a full realization of what they've been heading to these past few years and another damn fine declaration that our waters are spinning the wrong direction up here or at least that there's something magical in those Aussie springs down there.

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	Gap Dream - Generator 7" Gabe Fulvimar follows on his undersung debut with a double shot for Suicide Squeeze's singles series. Both cuts simmer rather than boil, but that's come to be a signature of his style. Well crafted pop tracks that buzz with synths, bounce with
handclaps and bubble with effects. Its a brand of softly frothing psych pop that brightens up any playlist. Cutting the swath between Velvets and Spacemen, the Midwesterner's style proves pretty enticing around these parts and hopes are high for what he churns out next. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Tobacco and crew are back with a new album under the cloak of Black Moth and it steps away from the gloss of Eating Us while taking a few pop twists that seem unexpected in the BMSR canon. The prominent singles show the influence of Tobacco's solo work over the last few years, caustic and sickened with glam-chunked fuzz blasts and the melted wick of vocals that seem to accompany most of the Black Moth catalog (though this time they're mixed much higher for some added clarity). But where did those sad and clean country licks come from on "Psychic Love Damage"? It’s a move that fits well with their heart tugging vocal warbles and transitions nicely into the second side's fondness for acoustic guitars and downtempo shuffle. It’s as if the color palette on BMSR's intensity has shifted from shocking oranges and pinks down to the deep blues and purples of a well-deserved pop hangover. Still those hues shimmer with the usual glint of Black Moth's skewed universe and make Cobra Juicy some of the best we’ve heard from this unit in a while.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Pheromoans

The Pheromoans have been banging it out in the UK DIY scene for years but it seems that its all been leading to this, their most fully formed and turbulent record yet. Does This Guy Stack Up? brings the band's post-punk leanings into sharper focus and distills some of the rambling tracks and mumbling innuendos that preceded this record down to their melodic and shambolic cores. Its the child of a dozen bands before them, from The Fall's erratic snap and brutal honesty to Young Marble Giants and The Homosexuals sparse delivery but they seem to pack them all down to a swirling pot that keeps those each of those touchstones moving on and off the tip of the tongue. The band is at the best when the self-critical light is turned on singer Russell Walker who's self-deprecation and nebbish humor come off as a perfect compliment to the constrained chaos and milieu of homage going on in the music behind him.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Video:: Starred - "No Good"

Matt and Liza of Starred have worked up a road weary video for their track "No Good" which is released soon in 7" form on Pendu Sound. The song vacillates between Mazzy Star's sun-blissed delivery and Galaxie 500's deliberate crawl. Be good to see what these two have in the works as this is a pretty awesome taste. Pick up that single for sure when its out as that one's probably gonna have bragging rights over knowing them before it all escalated.

Support the band. Buy it HERE.

1991

On his sophomore release, Axel Backman steps up the midnight tape reverberations and smeared neon negotiations that have marked his style. The album takes murky synth work and garbles, warbles and in some cases makes hot button jump cuts through territories that fall nicely in line with the hallucinatory, hypnogogic mindset. Tape faded vocals play through static, giving way to keys on the edges of the new age drift before getting caught in the VCR once again in a melted mash flashback through technology and time. There's a nice tension that bubbles up under some of the tracks recalling 80's soundtrack work and Backman ups the stakes with submerged snippets of dialog that strain just beyond the ear's reach; begging questions as to whether deciphering them would lead to answers or only further confusion. It’s a great step forward for the artist and quickly become a late night go to around here.




Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	King Tuff - Screaming Skull 7" Oh 2012, so much King Tuff to give, eh? After one of his best singles yet ("Wild Desire") and an album to match, the power pop strutter kicks out another two shot of solid pop confection in the form of "Screaming Skull". The a-side, like "Wild Desire"
is an upbeat corker, this time with a rapid flutter of drumbeats pushing it like a turbine and plenty of Tuff charm in its lovesick/cathartic lyrics. Its the kind of untethered rock that's criminally left to be discovered on blogs rather than blasted from every radio in the country but ah well, more KT for us I suppose. The flip thickens things up with a meaty riff and epic swagger meant for the biggest speakers you own. Kick the two of these up and just repeat them until the needle wears down. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

The Barbaras

Admittedly I've been waiting for The Barbaras' record since the Memphis group released their "Summertime Road" single in 2008. The band, often clad in garish flair, had a reputation for blending the garage punk native to their hometown with a falsetto lent 60's pop that fit like the charming bowtied, bespectacled oddball at a late night party fueled by dirty 30's of Busch and Icehouse. Though rumors of an album initially swarmed, they dissolved when two members (Billy Hayes and Stephen Pope) left to form the backbone of Jay Reatard's touring band. In the wake of their collapse former members picked up into the more refined Magic Kids, and in fact an early version of their "Superball" graces this collection. But where the Kids were slick and filled with a Specter-vision wall of sound, the Barbaras are the ones that got away. A scrappy one-single live juggernaut that wound up almost slipping away forever.

When Pope and Hayes jettisoned themselves from Reatard's band in favor of Nathan Williams' Wavves, Jay threatened to burn the tapes he'd been harboring (that he'd recorded over the years) and it seemed to all involved that The Barbaras were all but vanished in that promise. However, it seems that Jay also had a soft spot for these recordings as they survived and were found among the tapes in his house and are now seeing light. Still scrappy, still boozily tie-open torch bearers and still a long lost part of Memphis' history. This isn't an album in the true sense that I'd anticipated. Its a snapshot. Its The Barbaras unfiltered but never unblemished. Its also well worth the wait.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Sea Pinks

Belfast's Sea Pinks have been hunkered down kicking jangle pop for a while yet but this is the first we've caught of it. Glad though that they've finally come our way. "Lake Superior", the first cut off of Freak Waves is a jangled stunner that recalls The Hollies via The La's and it catches in the brain like a candy coated tumor. The rest of the record follows in suit although with darker shades, taking the jangled strums though brooding pop territory and wide skied rock shades. Its catchiest moments are in the first half but as the record opens up it reveals its quiet moments to be just as engaging. It’s a complimentary pickup for the fall into winter season with its cool burn fogging up the windows over the next few months. The album's out in small quantities and with a growing reputation its bound to go fast so pick up a vinyl you fiends.




Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Thee Oh Sees Video - "Lupine Dominus"

Thee Oh Sees flip the expectations in more than a few ways with their new video for standout cut "Lupine Dominus" from their latest testament to frenzied garage, Putrifiers II. The strip club centered clip takes a look at Middle American pastimes and missed connections in the modern age.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

	Various Artists - Man Chest Hair RSTB is never one to back down from a good compilation of psych rarities and especially not if the name Finders Keepers is attached. Andy Votel and Doug Shipton have dug deep into Manchester's vaults of psych, psych-funk, glam, proto-punk
and gritty rock to pull up eighteen tracks of rumble and pummel that stands along any of their other compilations. The comp digs up some familiar names like the Beefheartian Stack Waddy and well into the archives for primo cuts from bands without such storied histories (but whom we'd now love to look into much further) like Oscar, Greasy Bear, Socrates, Savory Duck, Urbane Gorilla and a ton more. Certainly one of the most complete overviews of the Manchester heavy rock scene along with plenty of liner notes and biker psych packaging. There are upcoming road trips that are begging for this, cranked to perfection. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Ty Segall

So in a year with two other Ty Segall albums already on the docket (three if you count the singles compilation on In The Red) it'd be ludicrous to say this was highly anticipated… but that's just the case. The collaboration with White Fence is pure 60's immersion, done masterfully by both parties, and it’s a case study in psych that should be referenced by all other bands mounting the terrain. Slaugherhouse on the other hand is the first time the full band hit the studio and it really captures the live dynamic, force and spontaneity in full. It’s a brute force of aggression that's familiar to any Ty fan that's ever been face pressed to speakers in the audience. However, Twins is finally Ty set loose in the studio to capture that brilliant balance of pop sensibilities and garage thrust that drew the kids and critics alike in droves to pick up the past few full lengths like siren stung sailors. The album opens up the Segall arsenal and adds a mounded helping of backing vocals, fuzz breakdowns, hooks and hammers to his pop nuggets. Its a distillation of Melted's catchy choruses, Slaugherhouse's double-foot kick and those psych records that helped Hair come to fruition. In the end though its pure Ty and his ability to make those ingredients cook like a punk frittata into a heap of goodness. If you think your 2012 collection of Ty Segall records is complete, better shove over some space in the S section for one more classic.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Moon Duo

Moon Duo swung through NY on Friday and proved once again how they're one of the best live shakers around. Screw your million dollar DJ plans, this is dark-cloaked rave for the apocalyptic embrace. Their new album, Circles is anchored by a consistent throb of palpitated heartbeats coated in guitar fuzz and the right mix of organ swell and shimmer. Their move to rural Colorado may have lent a naturalistic vibe to the lyrics but the music's no shut-in loner vibes on this one, instead it ends up the pair's most accessible group of tunes yet. With help from Phil Manley, who kicked the Shjips sound out of the basement as well, the record is a crisp exploration of fried psych with enough movement to get the most stalwart psych fan moving a foot or two. The veil of smoke is lifted a few times to let Ripley's vocal's peek through, and more often to let a jagged cut of guitar blast tear into your ears but its still 100% Moon Duo which means a whole lot of carburetor choked, bone rattling psych. I don't think they'd have it any other way and neither would we.


Download:
[MP3] Moon Duo - Sleepwalker

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Cairo Gang

Probably best known for their work with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy more than their own recordings, Emmet Kelley and his co-conspirators The Cairo Gang have been making quietly refined folk pop since 2006, slipping out a 7" last year on Empty Cellar that was rather unfortunately missed out on by the masses. Returning to the Cellar for a full length, Kelly and the Gang have crafted a fine record that should most certainly not be slept on. Kelly's singular voice anchors the bulk of the material and its just as idiosyncratic and heartbreaking as that of his oft-collaborator Oldham. As for what backs his pipes; the record is stocked with hushed, still moments that creak with back porch sincerity and lushly produced numbers that are full of pop swing and delicate nuance and even a swell of guitar growl or two. Empty Cellar has a knack for finding those records that are unusual jewels in a sea of trends and imitations and its these sorts of records that wind up on collector's dockets years down the road as highly sought after grails. Made all the more special is the care and detail of packaging that's gone into The Corner Man, with heavy paste on sleeves and a fine grain, letter-pressed OBI strip. Gotta say I'm always a sucker for a really nice package and this is certainly that.

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Eternal Tapestry

Two in one year, what has come over Eternal Tapestry? Following on their vinyl only space-rock opus Dawn in 2 Dimensions the Tap are back at it with another full length that barrels out of the door with a heavy 12-minute stretcher set to scorch and at the same time sway with the full geetar force of the band's Nick Binderman and Dewey Mahood leading the charge to space-rock nirvana. Elsewhere the band shows no signs of reentry with sonic aspirations that dive headlong into the epic abyss. The record's hard to break into pieces, having been recorded as one mammoth session, and it flows as a torrential storm of hiss and fuzz and wah and screech toppling over the cathartic crash of Jed Binderman's marrow shaking rumble. Which, as it would happen, is just the way we like our Eternal Tapestry records around here. Though its not all crash and burn, the band slows things down nicely for closer "Sand and Rain", a psych-folk comedown that's notable as one of the few times the band lets their vocals take the wheel on a song. Over time Eternal Tapestry has sought to bring the feeling of their live shows to the studio and with this and Dawn in the bag it seems that 2012 is the year they cross the threshold of capturing the spark that burns the crowd and lighting up a mile of tape with it.

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Twerps Video: "Work It Out"

Always delightful Aussies The Twerps have a new video for their single on Chapter Music / Underwater Peoples. A sparse affair but it showcases the band's jangles in fine form. The single is out digitally now and will be out on vinyl on Oct. 23rd. Be sure and pick it up as every new release seems to be a gem from these guys.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

The Outside World

We were fans of Chicago's undersung Brain Idea here, and their Kiwi-laden pop seemed a perfect fit with some of the actual So. Hemisphere crowd we'd been digging over the past couple of years. Alas the band dissolved but in their stead a new project under the name Outside World has sprung with Brain Idea's Ben Scott at the helm. A softer, and more well rounded affair than Brain Idea, their new tape on the venerable Night People is a soft focus sugar rush of later period Kiwi influences but with a massive melodic touch up courtesy of the bass and background vocals from the band's Hazel Rigby. The EP is full of stripped back candy nibs that deserve to be on repeat until the tape unspools in a fit of desperation; a blur of colors that collapses in dizzied bliss. Seriously interested to see where these three go from here but for now we'll just have to love what they've put down on Seaside Nowhere.

Download:
[MP3] The Outside World - Due to See

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	Loop - The World In Your Eyes In addition to the seminal Heaven's End Reactor is reissuing the rest of the Loop catalog, notably the singles and b-sides compilation The World in Your Eyes. Culling together everything from their first single, "16 Dreams" to great covers of Nick
Drake and Neil Young, the compilation is a historic overview of some of the band's key singles. For a band that's already pushing the envelope on length, there are extended versions of songs like "Burning World" but the band is at their best when they push the compact thump and buzzsaw grind of their material fast and hard. Along with A Gilded Eternity and Fade Out if you're only just now getting a handle on Loop its the time to really dive in. Download: [MP3] Loop - 16 Dreams Support the artist, buy it HERE

Bare Wires

Though sadly Bare Wires imploded in a disjointed run of dates at last year's SXSW, there remain a few bright spots in the story - namely that this final album survived the fray and that Matthew Melton has quickly picked up as Warm Soda in his previous band's wake. Idle Dreams runs through the many amplified stages that have marked the previous Bare Wires albums; exhaust-fueled heavy punkers, proto-glam stomp and tough chewed power pop. Over the past couple of years Bare Wires established themselves as a formidable force on record and on the road, devouring tour dates with a fervor that bordered on endless wanderlust. Melton's continued that tradition with Warm Soda and kicked up the softer side of his songwriting but this stands as one last chance to hear the fruits of one of the best West Coast cone shredders from the past few years. It’s a necessary addition to cap your collection, that's for sure.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE