Heavy Times - I'm Single 7" Following on last year's Jacker LP, Chicago's Heavy Times return with a triple shot of self-deprecating carbon burnt rock that's chock fulla sweat and just as breathless as anything from their catalog. This seems to almost be a more refined
sound from their album, and well, the world did need an ode to bath salts. The a-side is a slacker anthem for the times with a shout along sensibility and a rumble of guitar barely holding down the rails throughout the end. Second cut hurts just as much as the first (in the best ways of course) with a huge slice of riff and the insistent tempo stomping it out and keeping heads moving and fists held high. The b-side rounds it out with the aforementioned ode to face eating substances of choice from the swamp state, a dark-tipped driver that really caps the whole beast off nicely. Loving this sludgy side of them actually and I'm eager to see what the next record brings. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Veronica Falls: "Teenage" Video

Veronica Falls' upcoming sophomore album is pretty high on our hotly anticipated list for 2013. The first sneak peek off the record, "Teenage," does little to squash that excitement. Its packed full of the three part harmonies and wistful pop that's come to signify the Falls' style. Waiting For Something To Happen is out February 12th on Slumberland.

Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch

Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch return with their second album within the bounds of 2012. The collaboration that began with a streetcorner meeting about a film score has blossomed into two albums of feedbacked glow and the unmistakable pluck of Van Wissem's lute. Gotta hand it to Jarmusch for his humility as he always claims they're pretty much Van Wissem's recordings and he just colors in the edges. Still that shading gives a pretty dark and grainy depth to the austere pluckings and circular phrasings. The album starts out with a clean bit of string work before really beginning to delve into the cigarette burns of noise that crumple the edges, and finally blossoming into a distorted bit of lute work that's far from the the traditional ren-faire connotations that often come attached to that instrument. The depth of degradation trades back and forth but the tone remains consistent throughout, with both artists never backing away from the gleaming edge of bleakness. It’s not your average Sunday morning record but its a good accompaniment to getting lost in a maze of thought or even occasionally trying to push a few down. Hell its on Sacred Bones and for some of you, I trust that's need enough to seek it out.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

King Tuff - "Anthem" Live

Well far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to post some live King Tuff. Signal Kitchen has a session up of the band playing "Anthem" from one of RSTB's favorite records of the year. Soak it up.

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Magic Jake and the Power Crystals

Well this one took a minute to get around to and I have no idea how or why. Led by Magic Jake, the bassist from King Tuff along with Bobby Harlow of The Go, this is a body shock of Deeetroit rock that kicks, cuts and crumples to the floor in a heap of exhaustion. Jake's got the magic touch to be sure but takes a less melodic approach to the records than would betray his day job with Tuff. The album has a dirty garage groove that's more swagger than pop hook. With denim jackets dirt caked and guitars loud enough to shake the last support beam from any venue, the band is a throwback to the legion of 2000's rock cutters that burst out of their hometown with a fury a few years back (hell Harlow oughta know he was one of them). There's something to be said about a record that feels like the crunch of discarded cigarettes and the distinctive snap of your shoes sticking to the old beer mottled to the floor of last night's escapades. This is that kind of record; no regrets and barrelin' like a '77 Dodge with its brakes cut. Fuck it. Turn this up.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Hubble Bubble - Faking While the S/T Hubble Bubble album is often more highly regarded, to discount Faking is to overlook another great source of glam-stung punk from the depths of time. True this isn't a proper follow up because the majority of the band that
appear on the debut, assembled by Plastic Bertrand, do not appear on this record. In fact only one original member was still in the band, begging why it needed the Hubble Bubble name at all. In the long run if the band had taken on another name this may have elevated its status from the shadow of their debut. Still, if divorced from the reputation of that original, this is a shiny chunk of Bowie-isms and Kim Fowley-flecked glam punk that crunches and swaggers as much as quite a few lauded classics from the overlooked pile of the 70s. The band even turn in a pretty spot-on cover of Fowley's "Motor Boat", bridging the connection ever further with the later, pop side of the punk coin. This would be their last ditch effort at keeping the name alive and its well worth your time whether you hold that name in high esteem or you're just a fan of 70's punk gems in general. Download: [MP3] Hubble Bubble - Come With Us Support the artist, buy it HERE

Nuggets: Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968

Well considering the influence of the Nuggets comp on this site its almost requisite that this get covered. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the original, genre defining compilation by Lenny Kaye, he and David Fricke have put together a new comp of Australian bands covering cuts from the original set plus a set of Australian 60's nuggets that rope the best of the country's garage bands from a bygone era (Down Under Nuggets: Original Australian Artyfacts 1965-67). Focusing on the former, the comp is hit or miss but when its on it contains some pretty great covers from members of the Aussie garage set. While some of the covers just layer the original take in some lo fidelity crust (see The Laurels suck the fun out of "You're Gonna Miss Me") or rushed punk theatrics (see The Gooch Palms' sloppy slaughter of "Just Like Romeo and Juliet") the bulk of the set pays a clean homage to the songs that came to define garage rock for a lot of young ears. While Pond may have the honor of being the 564th band to cover "Hey Joe" there are some really fun covers of classics like Step-Panther's sugar soul cover of The Castaways' "Liar Liar". True oddball nuggetm"Moulty" shows up in fine fuzz form from Davey Lane and RSTB faves The Murlocs and Bloods both turn up with some nice covers of The Count Five and The Premieres respectively. Scuzz poppers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard also kick in a pretty raucous cover of The Nazz' classic "Open My Eyes" which you can check out below. Along with that new box of Aussie Nugs (which shines some well needed spotlight on The Easybeats) this is a great tribute to Kaye's original comp of teen sweat anthems and lovesick fuzz blasters. I'll never balk at a Nuggets centric project and this one has come together nicely.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE

A Very Burger Thanksgiving

New episode of BurgerTV to augment a day of eating. Gentleman Jesse, The Memories, Audacity and more in typical ADD-addled fashion from the crew at Burger. I'm beginning to anticipate these more than I care to admit.

Lee Gamble

Admittedly I was not a dance music nerd as a kid, so there's no nostalgic factor in the make-up of Lee Gamble's ambient burner Diversions 1994-1996 for me, but its deeply absorbing all the same. The album is made up from the breakdowns and interludes from old Jungle mixtapes but it's much more than the sum of its parts. Those quiet moments in the chaotic fray of dancefloor heat become an amniotic wash of dubbed out beats, room rumble, synth scrawls and the faint crackle of tape that hisses along in the background. Honestly without the foreknowledge of its makeup I'd have know clue this was indebted to the dancefloor, its a high concept that pays off completely in execution. Swathed in throb and a kind of headspace float that begs for the use of headphones as much as any of Pan's releases, Gamble has crafted an intense album that challenges dance's past while pushing its experimental future. A recommended pickup if you want to lay back and melt into the couch in the coming days, weeks or months.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Mad Music Inc. - Mad Music The world is full of private press records that are found without much information, backstory or credits. Usually though it’s through a storied account of initial disinterest and poor distribution, unfortunate circumstances that
combine to ensconce the release in mystery. In Mad Music Inc.'s case, however, the release seems to have been purposely draped in mystery from its outset. The record was never commercially released but set out on the secondary, collector's market with very little information, no track titles and no pictures of the band. Even on its reissues the companies responsible for bringing it back to the world (Yoga / Drag City) seem mum on details. It seems to be the work of a Bostonian who had the means to enter a studio at the time and hire a crew of studio musicians, most of which are known only for their involvement in disco at the time. The record balances somewhere in the realm of new age float and instrumental piano musings, but with the odd pop up of rhythm that occasionally gives away those players' history in disco. It’s a hard one to pin down but repeated listens make for an interesting float on the tides of lost history. It seems that no more questions will be answered but the world again has Mad Music back in its life. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Peoples Temple

Peoples Temple have a knack for mining 60's tropes and exploding them on the screen with a reverence and execution that makes them feel like the Nuggets box come to life. The band returns with new album indebted to the rumble and throb of '67 but with an eye towards the more adventurous years that would follow. Admittedly aiming for more ambitious waters, the band tap Arthur Lee's Love and mix it with a dirty blues swagger that would make more than one heart swoon. The last album received some critical praise but ran shy of the kind of wide ranging acclaim that it deserved. More For The Masses seeks to rectify that mistake with an album that's deeper, wider and layered in more smoke and cinder than anything they've previously rendered.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Another Friday With Burger

Well well, it seems that the Burger folks have struck again with another episode of BurgerTV. The ADD rampage resumes with snippets from Hunx, Bleached, the new Burger View interview series and more. Essential Friday viewing.

Tim Richmond

Tim Richmond has crafted an album of sparsely singular pop that skews towards the darker narratives and winding paths. With minimal aesthetic touches surrounding his gently croaked croon, the songwriter creates a close mic'ed world of cardigan hideaways and smoke curlicues that waft into walls full of cracked hardbacked volumes. There's a hermitage aura that permeates Richmond's work, an effect that's amplified tenfold with headphones; giving the feeling that the artist has taken up residence in a diorama of the listener’s head and is weaving slowly through the corridors and locked doors of one's own hope and hindrance. Though there are some immediate catches, like the single "It's Always" that lock into catchy refrain, the bulk of the album takes some time to delve into, opening wider on each listen to become a knotty bit of Kiwi-bent pop that latches on to the imagination and pulls ya down with it.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Dead Bugs

There's been a dearth of hushed folk releases around here of late. It seems that folk went out of fashion and the form was swept under the rug in the past few years. However, aside from that stellar release by Mariee Sioux and some lovely works from Donovan Quinn from earlier in the year this tape from Dead Bugs is one of the most striking I've heard in the idiom in 2012. The tape itself a physical issue of Adam Martin's digital release from earlier this year, Soft Drugs is a quiet universe unto itself. Recorded with obvious limitations that turn into charming atmospheres, the album echoes and pings around cavernous rooms while Martin's voice swims languidly above the hushed fray carrying his idiosyncratic lyrics about human connections, loves lost and found. The most endearing part seems to be that Martin sings without the guarded self-consciousness that some artists harbor. It’s a heartfelt record that spills over the edges with sincerity, if not maybe a little fidelity as well. Get this man a studio and see what might come.

Download:
[MP3] Dead Bugs - This Is Me

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Lyres - Lyres Lyres In the wake of several garage revivals and tangents of late it seems odd that it took this long for someone to round up a proper reissue of Lyres' first two albums. Kind of like The Fall of American garage rock, the band was birthed
out of the demise of DMZ and its leader Jeff "Monoman" Connelly cycled three dozen or so members through its ranks over the band's lifetime. Their first is a raw nerve of garage that owes much to The Kinks' early days, The Seeds, & The Mysterians, Tommy James & The Shondells, and a whole host of Nuggets-era stalwarts. The follow-up took the same blueprint of 60's garage fire but rolled in more of the R&B and soul inspirations that made those Nuggets members pick up their axes in the first place. It’s a deeper and darker bit of garage, with swelling organ and a dirty beat, coated in fuzztone and dripping with hip-swung swagger. The mid-eighties seems like a weird time to embrace full on 60's tropes but Connelly never seemed to care what the trend was, despite his reputation as a cantankerous collaborator, you have to give the guy credit for doing what he wanted and doing it well. Now seems the perfect time to gaze back and give credit to this highly undersung album (and its predecessor). Download: [MP3] Lyres - She Pays The Rent Support the artist, buy it HERE

Games

Around these parts we'd been expecting a Warm Soda full length to come along somewhere down the line and perfectly encapsulate the '79/'80 axis and the soft punk shimmy of power pop, however it seems that Games has come along and filled that order sooner than expected. Mining the same quarries of power pop confection; The Quick, Raspberries, Shoes and to a lesser extent Milk n' Cookies (though Jeremy Thompson's voice doesn't quite get that high register yearning), the eponymous debut is an endearing record that swoons and swings like a rock record should. However, it all stays on the well-mannered side of the fence, and doesn't swing too far into that punk crunch that would develop later in power pop's pedigree. But where Games lack a gnarled punch, they make up for it in heart-swelling odes and earnest delivery. Thompson cut his teeth in The Busy Signals as well as an early line up of The Carbonas and its easy to see that the time there was well spent, leading to this platter of spot on pop that sits well with the reputation of his former stomping grounds while ending up feeling like a lost classic just waiting to be dug out of the crates.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

RSTB Guest Mix on Get Bent + BurgerTV

Lookin' for a Friday pick-me-up? Head on over to Get Bent where I've put together a mix for them full of some classic punk and power pop jams that fuel pretty much every week here at RSTB. Also, while you're there browse the rest of the Get Bent crew's awesome coverage of garage's best. They're pretty much kindred spirits over there so I'm definitely glad to have been asked.

Check out the mix HERE.

Also, for some bonus Friday fun, check out the debut installment from BurgerTV. Those guys never cease to amaze me.

Major Stars

In one respect its hard to believe this is Major Stars' eighth album, but then again Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar have been cone-toasting psych jams for more years than just the Stars' discography would give credit for. With rostered time in Crystallized Movements, The Magic Hour and Vermonster, the two have credit to spare in the heavy ranks of psych's pantheon. Their last couple of albums backed off the vigor, stripped down the scale and pulled their excesses in, but thankfully they've done away with all that and given back in to the impulses of expansive guitar tsunami. This album marks the debut of their new singer, Hayley Thompson-King, whose voice has an effect landing somewhere between Corrine Tucker or 90's Liz Phair fronting Blue Cheer. This one lands them in good company, occasionally bringing to mind other current amplifier-melters White Hills, though nowhere near as sinister or quite as explosive as they tend to be. Its been a long road for the band and they prove that they've still got some fight left in them on Decibels of Gratitude

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Tyvek

Over the past few years Tyvek have continued to hollow out their existence in a pocket of the Detroit music scene that borders its punk roots and its noise present. They've consistently knocked out albums that feel like a raw nerve in the wind, bracing and jolting, electric in the way they pull at the fine hairs on the back of your neck. Their last was more aggressive, almost bordering an abrasiveness that owed something to hardcore. This time around though the band feels more positive, back to some of their fun-loving past selves. There's even a couple of loose sleeved rockers that inspire beer hoisting and emphatic sing-alongs (see "Wayne County Roads") Their sound is still taught and brittle as clay but with a chewy, fun center that inspires a loss of abandon and the kind of pit flung gyrations that got left behind in our indestructible teens. On Triple Beams is stripped punk like it always has been, needs to remain and hopefully always will be. There need to be bands like Tyvek to remind you that catharsis is a life necessity and that sweat is an elixir.

Download:
[MP3] Tyvek - Wayne County Roads
Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Milk Teddy

Another great pick out of Melbourne this week with the debut album from Milk Teddy on the horizon. Drawing on bits of American indie's founders a la The Feelies and Brit jangle circa Television Personalities, but adding a dense layer of swirling, euphoric gauze to Thomas Mendelovits' yearning vocals (that at times almost recalls Jim James’ angelic yowl); the band creates a much more complex set of songs than many of their contemporaries. The majority of Zingers feels barely tethered to the ground, floating in and out of stratospheric vocal passes, shimmering keys and enough reverbed jangle that it would make any member of the Captured Tracks roster jealous at how effortless it all sounds. Roll in some subtle touches of The Chills and XTC (the latter even have a song named after them) and the album is a crossroads of sweetly shimmering, yet propulsive pop that hangs in the air long after the record has stopped spinning. There's been plenty to love from down Melbourne way this year but few have tugged at our hearts and minds like Milk Teddy have. Check out the video premiere for the album standout "Suburbs Mystery" below.

Watch:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (AU) or HERE (US)

	F.J. McMahon - Spirit of the Golden Juice Playing in surf bands all through high school as a kid in California, McMahon then gigged a bit around just North of San Francisco after enlisting in the Air Force between '65 and '67. In '68 he shipped out
for a tour of duty in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand where he formulated the basis of Spirit of The Golden Juice; said "golden juice" being a euphemism for the I.W. Harper bourbon that was found on base at the time. Pressed in small quantities by Accent in 1969, the album became a grail among collectors of the psych-dappled loner folk that permeated the era. McMahon has drawn several comparisons to Fred Neil but the record is not as caustic as his sometimes biting world view. Instead it paints a sparse image of 69's war ravaged atmosphere, coming direct from someone who'd seen it first hand and who spent time dealing with it well afterward. McMahon's road weary croon is laid sparse atop folk lines and spare drums that keep his tales of lost faith, disillusionment and quiet suffering at the forefront where they belong. This is the first approved reissue of the album,transferred by Nemo Bidstrup of Time-Lag and comes as the first LP release by Circadian Press, the venture run by Keegan Cook, who was instrumental in bringing to light the wonderfully singular Carl Simmons reissue for Sacred Bones a while back. Just as intriguing, the McMahon reissue is a prime example of collectors’ treasures that deserve a second light. Download: [MP3] F.J. McMahon - The Road Back Home Support the artist, buy it HERE

Pop Singles

Melbourne's Pop Singles have issued this on LP for their country's Vacant Valley and simultaneously on tape for U.S. enclave of taste Night People. Taking a cross section of the jangle pop canon, the band rips through touches of R.E.M.'s catchy upbeat heyday, tumbles through The Smiths' dour afternoons and more precisely bumps all corners of The Go-Betweens bittersweet catalog. The record is packed tightly with melancholy and soft sunlight stretches that seem to bring out the yearn in between the jangles. It’s a smart pop record that rightly deserves the moniker they've adorned themselves with. Fraught with human drama, the album explores themes of hope and hopelessness, relationships doomed to fail and times when it’s hard not to smile. The dark shades of the second side take more time to burrow into but let the catchy bits pull you in for the deeper recesses between the bounce. Definitely see why Night People snuck this one back for a domestic release.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE

Emeralds

Feel like there's been a lack of fanfare on Emeralds' follow up to Does It Look Like I'm Here?, but the Cleveland enclave takes another dark, saturated trip down the synth rabbit hole with pretty stellar results. Maybe the tide of analog praise is pulling back, but that just leaves the truly devout to master their craft outside the expectations of leery onlookers. The new album focuses heavier on beat and the oilslick sheen of McGuire's guitar lines. The first half has a blurred neon drive feel to it, pulsing like a slow descent into inebriation and numbness. On the second half it delves deeper into the darkness a slow lurching dance towards pin lights in the distance and like the title track implies, letting yourself bleed just to feel anything. Its both an accessible step forward and darker declaration of desire than Emeralds have put forth in the past but one that seems fitting given their trajectory.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The UV Race

Ah in the midst of a full on Aussie assault on 2012, one of RSTB's favorites are back with a new album. The UV Race have moved further into the core of late 70's punk and crossed those blunt instincts with a few glam stomps from the same era to mix a milieu of grime ridden glitter-punk that tears itself apart from the inside. Racism pushes and pulls at its own being, ending up both as crass and as refined a vision of themselves as the band has ever been able to achieve. The band is coming off a rather productive run since their last album that's included a split with Eddy Current Suppression ring and the soundtrack to a feature-length film, Autonomy and Deliberation which sees release just prior to Racism. Still, with all that going on in the mean time, the band bring a dose of acerbic fire to their third full-length. It’s a well needed bit of grit in the teeth of 2012.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE