Georgiana Starlington

A half a world away from Jack and Julie Hines' work in K-Holes, Georgiana Starlington turns down the tempers and amps up the weary country strums on the pair's debut LP. The record is clay baked in a desert stretch of twang and woe, winding its way through high plains ballads and psych-tinged country strummers that would belie the pair’s city slicked roots. The duo makes the deal sweeter by kicking up the fog machine and slathering a good dose of dream pop on top of the bittersweet cry of guitar slides and boot rustled ballads. The mixture makes for the kind of soft-focus heartbreak that easily finds its way into repeat listens, settling like trail dust over every inch of your heart. K-Holes have always held a bit of arms length distance in my collection but with moves like these, the Hines have become welcomed guests on the RSTB stereo for sure.

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Campfires

Unabashed psych-pop can be a beautiful thing. Those who indulge in the deep end of the paisley pool have a certain openness that seems to seep through like sun through blinds on a sunny summer's morning, and judging from the fact that one of the tracks on Campfires' latest is dedicated to Bill Doss, it seems safe to assume that Jeff Walls has waded into those waters for some time. Its been a while actually since Campfires graced our ears, a 7" on Mexican Summer to be exact, but the songwriting seems to have congealed into a mix of sunny strums and lo-fi workouts that hold onto the tape-scratched aesthetics of the last few years and run with them. Walls has a knack for melody and that comes beaming through with an earnestness that scoops up your Elephant 6 collection and makes musical snow angels out of their whole catalog. This one's in short supply on the vinyl front so get to linkin' below and pick it up before it’s a sunshine pop white whale.

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Because its been a while and because I have so many great tracks that would easily fit into the re-released feature, if only labels would re-release some great underrated records; I'm reinstating the Jukebox. At least for a little while I am. Seems a shame to sit on such greatness. Search out the full lengths where you can and know that these are just the tip of the iceberg.

[MP3] The Quick - Pretty Please Me
The Quick's Mondo Deco has seen a proper reissue, but it lacks one of the band's most biting tracks. Their soft punk on the record always needed a little bit of leather toughness and they achieve that on the single "Pretty Please Me" The chorus is sugar soft but the verses are where the band brings the swagger. The song wasn't officially released on album but showed up on a 7" released to the band's fan club. A few great covers exist as well from Red Kross and The Dickies but the original still packs the punch. Speaking of covers, Warm Soda - your move on this one. We'll release it if you wanna lay this one down to wax.

[MP3] The Undertones - You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It)
Another great track relegated to the single bin but never to an album proper. This Undertones cut rates as one of my favorites and though the world wants to play "Teenage Kicks" to death, this is the Undertones jam for me (well this and "Get Over You". The song showed up on a number of compilations including the vinyl issue of Cher O' Bowlies and a few other Best Ofs and its well worth tracking down on wax where you can find it.

[MP3] The Flys - Can I Crash Here?
Speaking of tracks relegated to bonus status and of albums that need reissues, The Flys excellent Waikiki Beach Refugees bolstered in a CD only reissue that is not out of print by the inclusion of this b-side cut. The CD now goes for hundreds but it could use a vinyl reissue that includes this essential jam in the mix.

[MP3] The Scientists - Teenage Dreamer
Another one that needs to be lavished with the vinyl rebirth in this day of reissues. Widely known as "The Pink Album," The Scientists' debut is an essential of Aussie punk and this cut fleshes out all the fantasies of teenage punk idolatry. Kinda like a mantra for life here.

[MP3] The Phones - I'm So Neat
A twin cities gem that appeared on a single and stayed in relative obscurity, though the band has issued it on CDs here and there. This was the band's first single and its off-kilter punk / new wave still resonates. The band's catalog is due for a vinyl issue, if for no other reason than to get this gem back into the vinyl grooves.

Wax Idols

A stark departure from the sound that Heather Fedewa (now going under the name Heather Fortune) laid down on her HoZac debut, Discipline & Desire sees her pulling the full band into the writing and studio fold and diving down tunnels slick with the dark debris of goth-tipped new wave. Aside from the gloomy shadows though, the record is a much more fleshed out and well produced affair, strengthening Fortune's songwriting and jumping off of the rhythmically propulsive platform set forth by the "Schadenfreude" single from last year. The LP holds much more common ground with that two shot than with her past album, trading in garage punk hooks for icy guitar shards and a dance hazed seriousness that's sometimes overshadows her knack for melody. The tracks work best when layered in an angrily choked feedback fog as with standout track "AD RE:IAN" or loosening up the rhythm reins as Fortune begins to on the last few tracks that round out the album, leading to the shimmering close of "Stay In." It’s a mature sound for Fortune and the band as a whole and promises to kick up the fog machines and bring down a few hair shaded dance moves in the live setting.

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Following up your debut with an album comprised of a full on voice over Western is a ballsy move for anyone. It’s an exceptionally ballsy move for a bunch of Aussies who are geographically and culturally removed from the American West by almost 7500 miles. The band embraced the voice over in the past, utilizing narrator Broderick Smith on 12 Bar Bruise's "Sam Cherry's Last Shot". It seemed like a one off trick at the time, not the impetus for a full bore follow-up. However, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard deftly wrap their Morricone meets Jarmush narration-pocked odyssey in the kind of Spaghetti Western grit that feels pulled out of time and ambitiously cinematic in its execution. The Jarmush notes are no joke here either, Eyes Like the Sky plays out like an aural recreation of Dead Man narrated by a grizzle-throated Sam Elliot. To complete the effect the band drops in plenty of golden era radio sound effects, creating a kind of surreal, dark Sunday serial that would scare Little Orphan Annie halfway to Topeka. The record isn't the kind that can be lightly played in the background, but as a centerpiece of listening it achieves a balance of musical homage to the Sergio Leone crowd and oral tradition storytelling that seems to have lost itself in the digital age. Its can be said that many bands don't take chances, but that much can never be said of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. I'd have to say I'm mighty interested in what they'll do next, and fairly certain that I'll be surprised.

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The Men

The Men have certainly proven that, if nothing else, no one can pin them down. The transformation from the noise-sputtered rock shards blistered all over Leave Home to more of a head on guitar rock approach on Open Your Heart may have seemed a natural progression, but who thought three years back that the band would feature acoustic strums and lap steel so prominently down the road? New Moon is most certainly a new phase for the band; and following a locational pick-up to upstate New York to record in a cabin fraught with technical limitations and secluded from influence, the band seems to have honed in on their disparate passions and ground them into the fibers at the core of the album. Its creation also seems to have brought out the most classic minded songwriting instincts in the band. Though while the album has ties in the classic rock traditions, its not exactly evocative of those 70s rock records dotting your collection so much as how they were made.

Much of this rides on the shoulders of producer Ben Greenberg, who has joined the band's fold to play bass and shape the many faces of New Moon into a cohesive stew of sweat and breeze and charred embers of sound. Its emotional shifts are molded by Greenberg into a push-pull aesthetic that doesn't suffer boredom and gives relief to the noiseniks in their fanbase while knowing just when to cool off the amps. The record is not the one I'd have expected, but then I've learned not to expect things of The Men, a band that treats membership with an egalitarian openness that borders on mantra. Everyone gets their turn at the songwriting block and everyone's desires seem to mesh into a wooded grove of sunny strummers and power plugged rockers that get to the core of rock as a form and winds up nailing the balance of old and new in 2013.

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[MP3] The Men - I Saw Her Face


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Bitchin' Bajas

Its been a minute since we heard the psychedelic slide of Cooper Crane's Bitchin' Bajas around here. Following up on a pair of splits (one with Moon Duo and one with Faceplant) Crane along with Mahjongg's Dan Quinlivan have delved deep into the kosmiche caverns to craft two sidelong pieces of drone float that far outstrip many of their contemporaries who are often trying for similar effect and fall short of transcendence. But where they fail, the Bajas just float on past, weaving synth drones and subtle flutes into the kind of headphone candy that's perfect for a walk around pulsing masses the city. Best of all, they don't limit themselves to just keeping things meditative; fully embracing the "Krau" end of their Krausend EP they gently morph the simmering synths into a Kraut-flecked hypnotic beat on the title track, keeping things moving while still seaming to float above the listener in some sort of morotik bliss. The second side is no less absorbing, starting with more of a pulse than its A-side compliment but still surfing that wave of kosmiche foam that crested at the close of Krausend. The onslaught of synth seems to have stemmed a bit from the past few years, but thankfully that seems to be because the imitators who thought it easy territory to toggle some keys on their Hammond preset have dropped off and only the true drone weavers like Bitchin' Bajas remain to keep you floatin'. Check out an edit of the title track below.

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Psychic Ills - "One More Time" Video

Check out the appropriately psychedelic video for Psychic Ills' album standout "One More Time". The track is a prime example of band's renewed narcotic shake vibe permeating their latest, One Track Mind. The album is out today from Sacred Bones, pick it up below. Turn down the lights and let this one guide you towards bliss.

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The Living Eyes

The Aussie hits keep a coming and no surprise Mikey Young from Eddy Current had a hand in the recording of this sucker. The band follows up on an EP on the Spanish label Saturno, and a 7" last year also on Anti-Fade with a proper debut that fully embraces their low-slung rock instincts. The band was one of the highlights from last year's Aussie Nuggets compilation and they completely inhabit the spirit of the era emulated on that comp. Recorded in a whip-shot two day session in Geelong, their eponymous debut revels in volume and the kind of dirty twangin' rawk that's in no short supply these days but its damn welcome every time it hits the veins like a rush of adrenaline to the heart. Snotty, impudent, incorrigible garage tones that want nothing more than to corrupt. In the way 60's Nuggets tropes wanted to kick down the doors and steal your daughters, that's the very core of The Living Eyes’ sound. There's a sneer at the end of every line and a whiff of axle grease in every chord. Embrace it and play this shit as loud as the knobs allow. The record is out April 1st. LP through Anti Fade, CD through Z-Man. Put it on your wishlist, because you need this one!

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	Mean Jeans / Big Eyes - Split 7" These two bands make a strong case for the split, with two originals and a cover of one another that adds plenty of dimension to the originals. Mean Jeans are always good for a couple of gems and their original here, "I Miss Outer Space" has already been remarked
on plenty for closing out with an homage to "Runnin' Down a Dream", but its Big Eyes who bring the pop hammer here. The band covers the Jeans' "Since You Left" with plenty of riotous energy and their orig comes in with a bouncy flair that makes for a fun bout of repeated listens. Always good to check in and see what's coming out on the Dirtnap short format and this one doesn't disappoint. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Super Wild Horses - "Alligator" Video

Great new 60's feeling video from Melbourne's Super Wild Horses. Their 2010 debut had more of a bratty feel but it seems the pair are headed towards a more refined pop sound on their follow-up, Crosswords. Check out the video for "Alligator" above and be on the lookout for the album from Dot Dash / Remote Control on April 5th.

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Spectral Park

60's psych pop seems to be having a bit of a moment over the past few months, with Jacco Gardner, The Sufis, Resonars, The Resonars, White Fence, The Paperhead and plenty more taking more than a few strolls through Syd Barrett's garden for inspiration. Mexican Summer has picked up one more piece of the splatter sound puzzle with Spectral Park, the working name for Luke Donovan's musical output. The record doesn't play as close to its source as most of those, but Donovan surely has a record collection touching on a lot of the same artists as those bands. Rather than stick to straight homage, Donovan, much like those younguns over in Foxygen, takes the psych influences and bends them through the prism of current technology and perspective and mashes the sounds into a fine psychedelic pulp. The album stretches flower child guitar lines through warped effects and flashes of Bowie through locked in beats that propel Donovan's songs like a frantic run through an endless stream of 60's youtube clips. Somehow the past gazing and sequenced psych impulses work out, as Donovan seems to have had a vision in mind when he began. It all melds into a pinwheel flash of giddy, bittersweet pop that feels like a memory you can't place.

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Ooga Boogas

Well to be honest, any band that contains a member of Eddy Current Suppression Ring has an automatic spot on the RSTB turntable but Ooga Boogas have caught our ears and hearts before with their 2008 LP, Romance and Adventure. Their latest self-titled affair shows no more effort to even an album out tonally but it is a vast refinement of their sound; though, four years tends to do that to a band. The record embraces its eccentricities and weaves them into a dark carnival of oil-slick midnight guitar jams, boogie-baiter epics and even some beat chugged synth stabbers finding their way into the mix. Now on paper that sounds like a bit of a disjointed potpourri but under the steady hand of the band's Mikey Young (who has honestly been involved in about 70% of the great Aussie bands of the last few years) the brew bubbles potent and the record comes across as a true album in the age of digital singles. Repeated listens open it up to ebb and flow with some of the best of the South Hemi's last few offerings. Definitely an album that your turntable is craving and a must for fans of Young's recording work and other projects.

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	The Sleepers - Painless Nights The Sleepers were a tragedy of circumstances, and like many of the albums that appear here, they never got the credit they were quite due. The band's sole album is a cross-section of punk, post-punk and the odd psychedelic touch
of production. The band came out of the San Francisco, Mabuhay Gardens scene of punk but they're definitely a different animal than other bay area punkers like The Germs or The Avengers. The album has a loose, narcotic feel to it and there's definitely a feeling that the whole thing could slide off the rails at any moment, but the band keep their performances spot on and underneath the chaos there beats a heart of innovation. Adding to the chaos was the fact that vocalist Ricky Williams often times improvised lyrics in the moment, which sometimes leads the lyrical directions of the songs into strange corners. The band broke up a few times, with members going on to play in Crime, Tuxedomoon and Flipper. The album itself was recorded after a break up and reformation that lasted about as long as it took to record and get the record out. After Williams passed out on the second date of an East Coast tour the breakup stuck. Still this album does capture a moment in that Bay Area punk movement that may have never full realized itself, but thankfully its captured in the grooves for posterity. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

The Go

Leave it to Burger to bring back a band that hasn't dropped on the RSTB stereo in quite a while. Back in 1999 The Go's debut was a damn fine stomper that ripped out of Detroit with Bobby Harlow and the boys riding the wave of late 90's garage revival. Now the band is just as potent and the twenty cuts on Fiesta attest to that fact. They've kept the output pretty consistent since that Sub Pop debut, popping out a few albums and a ton of singles on small labels while diversifying their aggressive garage to include a wealth of 60's pop tropes. It’s that love of 60's pop that has this record janglin' and swaying through the runouts. The band has certainly embraced their inner McCartneys and Harrisons on this record but they can still get dirty, with the deep middle cuts adding a rougher, funkier crunch to the mix. Best to jump on this one while it sticks around (ltd to 1000), its got the Burger mark of quality and its good to hear the band keeping in fine form.

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Endless Boogie

This one's a kick in the face of all those good ole boys who say that they don't make rock records any more. The ones who'll tell you that rock attained perfection in '74 and nobody will ever touch it again. Long Island is the hairiest, dirty witch-blues stomper since Endless Boogie's last record and its a complete and total drop out boogie, chooglin' monster 'til the end. Top Dollar's voice is hitting the pagan ceremonial vibes via Don Van Vilet and the band is powerful enough, to paraphrase Duck Dunn, to turn goat piss into gasoline. No band has ever really embodied their moniker the way Endless Boogie have, the band cook jams like they've been bred to do it and just keep snaking their way on through the night. Guitars cascade down like rain on windows, tug and chug like a heart murmur and all the while that bass just marks the time like a compulsion. Needless to say this is an essential piece of 2013.

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Jacco Gardner

No strangers to baroque psych around here, we were pretty much smitten with Jacco Gardner's debut record for Trouble in Mind instantaneously. The Dutch songsmith pays a picture perfect homage to the winsome records of the 60's, the ones that swelled with strings, built music box worlds of swirling sound and could dip their toes in saccharine waters without ever leaving the listener with a toothache. Its clear that Gardner's been filling out his collection with some sweet reissues of late, which is a wonderful testament to being young and having the wealth of decades at your fingertips to reinterpret. The record bounces obvious touches of The Zombies through crimson swells of Left Banke, Blossom Toes, Sagittarius, Gandalf and The Millennium. But what Gardner really brings to mind here is the quiet complexities of JK & Co.'s Suddenly One Summer, another album that feels like an insular world made only to contain the artists joys and sorrows. In the end that's really how the record comes across, as an escape into the past to capture a modern sense of ennui and bittersweet longing. Bonus points to Garnder for tracking down Jan Audier, the man behind the boards of Dutch nuggets like Q65 and Golden Earring, to put a few vintage touches on the record in the mastering department. Alongside The Paperhead, Trouble in Mind have snagged a cadre of psych perfectionists. Maybe they'll reel in the next Sufis record and make a trifecta of lush psychedelia. For now, this is more than enough to tide over RSTB's longing for sweet acid pop.

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The Murlocs - "Bogan Grove" Video

RSTB faves The Murlocs spring a great video on us for this closing track off of their latest Tee Pee EP. The band takes the act on the road with some impressive hands free harmonica work. These guys are due a great album sometime soon (hopefully) and this is just another reason why you should be looking our for them.

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	Utopia - Utopia Not to be confused with the Todd Rundgren led band of the same name, Utopia were a heavy blues rock band in the vein of Cactus or Buffalo and heavily influenced in the Paul Butterfield tradition. Headed up by the twin guitar attack
of Frank Krajinbrink and Harry Brender A. Brandis, the record takes on the tradition of turning blues riffs into hard rock burners and does it rather well. Though its certainly overshadowed by some of the bigger names of their time, the band brought a US flair to the British Blues model that became ubiquitous in the early 70's. This S/T album it a bit more rare in its original form, with many of the songs ending up re-recorded for a sophomore album. Growl that's more widely available but not as raw. Akarma put out a book-style CD issue of this a while back and that can still be found around if you're lucky, but its widely distributed in digital form these days. For those looking to round out their hard 70's blues collections, this makes a nice addition and will hotbox the best El Caminos alongside those Foghat tracks. Also amusingly the band included a drummer named Danny McBride. Sadly, it is not the actor (as he would have been a child when this was recorded) but coincidence struck me as funny anyhow. Download: [MP3] Utopia - Walking Blues Support the artist, buy it HERE

Psychic Ills

If, in 2005, you told me that One Track Mind was a Psychic Ills record I'd have said you were lying. The album marks the most straightforward, head-on rock record of the band's career and the most focused statement from them since Dins quite honestly. Its definitely a progression in the line of songwriting from Hazed Dream, but here they perfect their weary swagger and dusky rasped midnight guitar jams into something far more tangible. The production by Neil Michael Hagerty seems to have cracked the band out of their psychedelic haze and instead focused their energy into the kind of sinking-into-the-floor drug jams they've always been urging towards. Its a heavy, throbbing record with enough melodic touches to keep listeners nodding along and never nodding out. Its the late night vibes that really make the record. One Track Mind feels like coming down easy, shaking off the night and letting the last trickle of bourbon coat your tongue before the sun rises. It revels in those pre-dawn hours when the city seems like yours alone and the pain and consciousness of last night's actions haven't fully sunk in.

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	Haunted Hearts - Something That Feels Bad is Something That Feels Good It seemed destined from the start and now its come to fruition, Dee Dee from Dum Dum Girls and husband Brandon from Crocodiles have finally teamed up for a music
project and its a fizzy, fuzzy balance of the two sides of the garage-pop coin they've come to embrace over the years. Hell, owning your own label seems like it could give way to a vanity project of sorts but this first single blows away any of those notions by offering up two tracks that back into Crocodiles' cavernous psych production and see the rock couple tangle vocals with the best of them. Propulsive, with the gauze layered on top just barely containing the pop tracks crackling beneath, both tracks are equally deserving of A-side designation. Here's hoping this isn't a one off whim and more of a long-term situation with an album on the way. Either way, this is one to pick up for 2013. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE