Jacuzzi Boys

In a year when many bands have softened their edges and ended up wading too far into beefed up production that they lose too many of the idiosyncrasies that first led listeners to their doorstep (see: Smith Westerns, Milk Music, Surfer Blood), Jacuzzi Boys have allowed themselves to evolve without losing that kernel of oddball eccentricity that's long brought people into their fold. The album takes some cues from the last half of Glazin' using the downtempo sway of "Koo Koo With You" and bonus cover "Born Dancer" as inspiration for an album that sways through patches of brightly colored pop, that, while no longer wrestling crocodiles, still explodes with restrained squalls and the rock candy crunches of guitar that explode in your eardrums with a delightful fizz. A good chunk of the album does strip back the tempos a bit, and they sit nicely into the laid back swings of these tracks with the same ease they have fitting into more exuberant tracks; only here replacing that candy crunch with an eerie and road worn bit of low-slung classic guitar sheen. It feels like the Boys are finally finding their stride, becoming comfortable in their own nook of glam-stomped garage, but taking it well beyond the simple trappings of their 7" days and letting those vibes spread out with a wingspan that fits them. Self-titled albums always seem a weird move if not positioned as a debut, but here it seems that they're making a statement that they've finally arrived and are jumping full tilt into the Jacuzzi and owning who they are.

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	Fred Neil - Bleecker & MacDougal Fred Neil is cemented in the halls of folk history with his mix of Leonard Cohen weight, Graham Parsons twang and Nick Drake introspection, but before he'd cement some of that softer reputation on his self-titled album in '66 he lay down a classic of folk-blues that
feels alive, sparked with Neil's backporch truck-stop delivery and clapboard shack diner tales that wound a direct line from the gravel top roads to the heart of the West Village without ever seeming disparate. The album helped break conventions of including electric instrumentation in folk at the same time other luminaries of the Village folk scene moved toward a rock oriented sound as well. Though with Neil, the integration of the instrument simply added texture, feeling like a natural extension of his 12-string folk rockers. More than anything this is an album whose influence can be felt reverberating through those who'd follow Neil down similar paths, with the album threading its fingers through the work of Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and Tim Buckley in its wake. The real shame is that, while the album exists in a welcome reissue, no one has put it back in its place on vinyl. Perhaps 4 Men With Beards should put this one on their upcoming schedule. But, vinyl or no, this stands as not just an important high point in Neil's career but in those who'd touch on his weathered, but human, folk-blues as a touchstone to come. (Update: I stand corrected. Sundazed have an LP reissue that it seems they are only selling direct. Definitely pick that up.) Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE (dig) or HERE (LP).

The Spasms

More top shelf garage from the Aussie underground pulls into the spotlight this week with The Spasms' self-released debut. We Better Operate was recorded by Paul Maybury, the man behind the boards on RSTB faves King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and his touch adds thunderous thump to the band's tough-knuckled grit. The Melbourne trio keep things compact with songs rarely dipping over the three minute mark, but in those short spans they knock out nine chunks of scuffed-denim pummel that hovers between barely holding on gasoline huffers and detached cool, sunglasses indoors, mid-tempo rumble. Still its all wrapped in that Aussie snap n' snarl that seems to hover just below the surface of the best the South Hemi has to offer. In a year full of so many necessary recordings from down under, you'd better make room for one more to add to that wishlist.

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	Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Blue 12" Moritz Von Oswald and his collective of dub mining minimalists return for a single that explores more of the gooey side of the band's palette. A-side "Blue" is a steady pumping bit of skitter and creeping dub impulses that perfectly exploit all of the strengths that the trio
have built up over the past few years. That swath of dub that runs through "Blue" is given an extended play on the flip. Given the amount of dubplate vibes that are already coursing through the original its not a massive departure, but it does give the track more room to stretch out and sink the listener into the icy sands of Oswald's entrancing wobble. Always a good day when Moritz and the trio are around and this is a perfect release to ease in if you're unfamiliar. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Steve Gunn

Steve Gunn's already made one RSTB best of list this year with his excellent and wholly essential RSD release under the name Golden Gunn, and his solo album, Time Off, follows in that album's mining of the canons of JJ Cale, Sandy Bull and early Dead while still holding strong to traces of his Fahey worship. Maybe all the touring with Kurt Vile has spurred him into a more sunburnt songwriting position, but whatever the impetus its certainly growing fruit. The album opens strong with one of Gunn's most honeyed tracks and then delves deep into character sketches of neighborhood denizens, street rats and the kind of vagabond dreams that only Gunn could give justice too. Also present is a fitting eulogy and sendoff for his departed friend Jack Rose, a touching ode if there ever was one. This marks the first time Gunn's gone under his own name with the full band attached and in many ways it acts as the lighter half to Golden Gunn's yang-tinged rambler odes. He wears the band well here, though, and its clear that Gunn was born to play the leader and not just the brilliant sideman in other bands, Time Off is his time to shine.

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Gap Dream - "Chill Spot" Video

Gap Dream giving a taste of the upcoming album Shine Your Light with "Chill Spot", which is also out on 7" shortly, where else but Burger Recs. Now a duo, the Dream are sounding relatively in line with that track title, fusing their low-key psych to some hypnotic dance groove that feels right for shaking just a little bit or at the very least bobbing some heads on the porch while finishing a six pack. Its a melty summer jam for certain and you can pre-order the limited goodness below.

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The Mallard

A darker offering from Greer McGettrick’s The Mallard and on a sad note, also their swan song. The band amps the stark vibes and kicks in a nice dose of propulsion, that instantly separates this from their debut and side-steps the more refined moves on the inbetweener 12" that preceded this. The overall feeling is still subdued, with McGettrick’s voice buried in the mix rather than sparkling above, but the murky waters have always worked for the duck in the past, and so they do again. Subtle squalls of feedback and the occasional cavern of reverb keep Finding Meaning in Deference from resting on its post-punk laurels but at its heart the album embraces that tag, with a strutter chug that inspires its fair share of dancefloor jerkin' and shakin'. Though, mind you, any shaking would be on a dancefloor shrouded in shadow rather than bathed in a glow of disco ball shimmer. As there will be no tours to mop up fans just tuning in and no more goodbyes other than what Deference leaves to ponder, most will have to come to terms with the album between the needle and the grooves. In that respect the album is at its best when coming close to the band's quicker live pacing as on "Decade" or album closer "Iceberg". It’s an album received with a heavy heart, but definitely open ears.

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	The Penetrators - Kings of Basement Rock Slovenly casts a battered eye on Syracuse's unsung heroes of garage-punk, The Penetrators. Rounded up from 1976-1984, the band knocks out scuzz-rumpled versions of their catalog along with
an appropriately downtrodden yet defiant take on The Animals' "It's My Life". The band never really left the confines of the Syracuse bar circuit but they played with a flagrant bravado, apparent no more so than on their band theme song "#1 Band In Town". The recordings are nowhere near fidelity, but if the last five years of so have taught us anything, it’s that fidelity never dictated great garage rock, in fact it may only hold it back. The Penetrators knew that secret long ago, and like The Sonics before them, they know that a catchy tune trumps anyone's expectations of quality trappings and accoutrements. The band didn't make a lot of power moves towards stardom but they did send their video for "Shopping Bag" to a nascent MTV only to have it rejected as too terrible to be aired, and its probably for the best. The world wasn't ready. The world is now. Slovenly have picked the best and its time to slap this on the stereo and crank the knob rightward to infinity. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Weekend

The stylistic shift that began on Red has been ramped up even further on Weekend's latest LP Jinx. Gone are the squalls of noise and disjointed angles, for the most part smoothed into a pleasing post-punk pulse that's smeared heavy with bits of shoegaze amplifier fry and dour new wave shadows. The band have found solid footing though and in that regard Jinx acts as one of their most cohesive offerings to date. Its a moody ride through valleys haunted by the ghosts of synths streaking through the background, locked-groove drums that pound with tireless purpose and chiming guitars that stab and slash at the skillful parry of Shaun Durkan's vocals. With Jinx Weekend have made their most crowd ready album and yet they still push the fringe listeners away just a bit with the darkness at the center of the beast. For each poppy tidbit, there are eight more that are swarmed by gloom and gathered clouds, but for those that love to seem them gather, Jinx is the perfect mix.

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	Jacuzzi Boys - Double Vision 7" The first single preceding Jacuzzi Boys' upcoming album embraces their shift in tone. They've shined the diamond and taken their idiosyncratic garage pop into a more refined state. The a-side, which also appears on the album, is propulsive
without being insistent. Its cast in the mold of the closing few tracks from their Glazin' album, shiny plastic sheen covering up a glam punk heart. The vocals may scream mentholated cool, but as the track wears on they burst through with squalls of frizzle-fried guitar. The flip is a true summertime ballad unlike much they've really wandered into before. Its an ice-melting-in-glass, end of the night fade out that's as dreamy as its title might suggest. We'll get into the album here in a little bit, but for a fist tasted this one's just right. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Light House

Portland's Light House issued a tape version of the In Their Image EP last year, but with the help of Mannequin Records its getting a shiny new life in digital and vinyl form. The band has been on the Portland scene for sometime, etching out a sound that marries the dreamy dark headspace of classic 4AD to a modern goth palette that would feel right at home amongst the Blackest Ever Black stable. The band boasts talent from ex-members of The Rapture and Atriarch, but the real centerpiece of their allure lies in the velvet pulse of Dawn Sharp's vocals. Resonant and assured but with a vaguely threatening edge, her voice pulls listeners like a magnet to full attention, dropping all distractions to the background where they belong. Those vox sit atop a steady throb of beat and menacing churn of synths that put a little green in your pallor and hint at darker things to come. At just four tracks, the EP seems just a taste of what the band might accomplish in the longform, but there are enough stripped back minimal wave tones here to more than overspill a full length.

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Crocodiles

Crocodiles inject a nice chunk of grit n' gravel back into the mix, dirtying up the squeaky sheen of Endless Flowers without sacrificing any of the pop heart that's forever on their sleeves. Opening up with an expansive cut that pays a few nods to Primal Scream, the band turns up the candy crunch vaporizer action over the rest, feeling like a direct extension of the work they were doing on Sleep Forever, which, if you follow RSTB at all, you know got endless play around these parts. The next few tracks roll their love of 80's Brit-pop and shoegaze into a razor sharp blender and strain the best bits to the surface, and ultimately its one of the tightest albums of their career. Sune Rose Wagner takes the helm this time and as with similar Wagner helmed projects, the blast of sound is constant and engulfing in the best of ways. Heralded by the splashes of pink and purple on the cover, the album acts as a declarative blast of glowing, raw pop pummel; a solid footing to push them further into their careers. Eager to see how these come across on the live stage but for now consider Crimes of Passion on repeat across the Raven speakers.

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White Hills

A new White Hills record is always reason to rejoice. The band have returned to the studio with Martin Bisi, who helmed last year's Frying on This Rock, and again the bend the cosmic forces to their will to turn electricity into ferocious rock thunder. Their alchemical prowess has been no secret over the past few years, turning the air around them golden with the sheen of amplifier sweat and a crackle of ozone in your nostrils. Laced with bits of quasar swirl that cool the edges, but never quite temper the fire at the heart of the record, So You Are... So You Will Be sticks largely to the blistering flare that drives the bulk of the Hills' catalog. Though they seem to have struck a newfound balance between those cool edges and the hotspots and its makes for one of their most engrossing and well-paced records yet. Still, no record is quite a replacement for White Hills in their true glory on the stage. If you have yet to catch them melting a face or two, get out and see it for yourself. Always worth it.

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The Mantles - "Hello" Video

The Mantles share a whimsical new video for "Hello" off of their sophomore album Long Enough To Leave. The band is definitely coming on strong in 2013 and if you haven't checked out the LP, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

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	Listening Center / Pye Corner Audio - Study Series 9: Projections 7" Ghost Box has drawn another into the fold of their Study Series of singles, a roster that includes excellent shortform releases from Belbury Poly, Broadcast and The Focus Group, Pye Corner Audio, The Advisory Circle and
more. This time New York producer Listening Center steps up and delves deep into the whimsical, science film-strip evoking Omini journey that marks the A-side of this single. The track is a good intro to the project and leaves a whetted appetite for more to come, hopefully in the form of a Ghost Box full length in the near future. On the flip, Pye Corner Audio takes a turn at digesting one of the Listening Center's tracks into a slick, pulsing futuristic dystopian soundtrack that seems to fit PCA's style perfectly. Its par for the course on Ghost Box releases, excellent packaging and the kind of nerd nostalgia head-trip electronics that are always as welcomed listen. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE (UK) or HERE (US)

Ignatz

Five albums into an odd and largely unheralded career, I would not have seen Bram Deven's Ignatz getting picked up by any formal labels but seeing that its Fonal doing the picking... you know somehow it works. His folk / blues hybrid sounds disjointed, broken, found in a gutter as the detritus of a recording session that was never to be properly understood. For that reason Mississippi Records might have also been a label that I could see having an interest in Ignatz; their crate digger style fits his ramshackle blues well. Deven's works have always shared something of an Alan Lomax in the field quality, capturing the sounds as they flow with no real aspirations of impressing anyone other than himself for one performance. In the past the disjointed pieces have formed bits of song and flotsam jettisoned into the ether only to be lucky enough to be caught on tape, but on Can I Go Home?, he's working more in fully formed songs, songs that capture a sense of longing and heartbroken dishevelment that don't always come through in his past works. Its still a pure outpouring of folk-blues with all the edges in tact, but this time its a bit more personal.

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Scott & Charlene's Wedding

Much as I understand the Australian significance of the band's name, I still balk at a moniker that's the Aussie equivalent to naming your band "Zack and Kelly's Prom." Though, honestly the fact that some indie band hasn't picked that one up yet is woefully beyond me. It seems only a matter of time. Nevertheless, Scott & Charlene has a jangle-pop charm that transcends silly names and it results in songs that seem to get stuck on an endless loop in your head with a slacker ease that's on par with Parquet Courts and fellow South Hemi travelers Twerps. A step up in execution from their recent EP, they volley the success of jangled earworms like "Gammy Leg" (which appears here) into an album of blissfully unencumbered jams all jockeying for playlist prominence. There's a breezy quality to the whole record and it infects listeners with a wistfulness that can only come from that South Hemi, though the band may have rolled quite a bit of NYC touchstones in as well after a move to US shores during recording. Still, no matter their locale, this screams down under jangles and if you've been creeping around Raven for the past year or so, you'd know that the situation suits us just fine.

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	Roky Erickson - Don't Slander Me A year after the release of The Evil One, Roky's situation deteriorated, the spotty mental state that had reared its head in interviews for the album lead way to an obsession with the mail that soon absorbed much of Erickson's time and would lead to an arrest on counts
of tampering with the mail, charges which were eventually dropped. He began to obsess over junk mail in particular, though he also wrote to solicitors and celebrities both dead and living during this time. He taped letters sent to himself, and those sent to neighbors, unopened to the walls of his house. It was the fact that he never opened the mail lead to the charges being dropped. Further, he became convinced that an alien was inhabiting his body and that humans were attacking him psychically. Through this, though, he was able to gather a new batch of rotating musicians and get into a proper studio for the sessions that would form Don't Slander Me. Many of these songs would pop up in various forms, on releases with less crystal clear recordings, but this is where they sound the best and the backing band helps propel Erickson's sharp edged rock to the heights it deserved. This is the record that best exemplifies why Roky is a legend, songs like "Starry Eyes," "You Drive Me Crazy" and the title track are proven Erickson classics and the record has the kind of bite that few at the time could deliver. 1986 was a time of overindulgence in the rock world but Don't Slander Me sounds as nervy, tough-skinned and heartfelt as anything could through the decade. It’s an essential record that few might own, but many have felt reverberate through so many bands that have been touched by Roky's work. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Hunx & His Punx

Most notable about the latest record from Hunx & His Punx is that the band seem to have gone full bore on embracing the 'Punx' aspect of their moniker, upping the tempo and snottiness of their songs ten fold on the appropriately titled Street Punks. It appears that Seth Bogart has saved the swaggering, forlorn and lovestruck numbers to be issued solely under the unencumbered Hunx solo banner, which brings up the second notable part of their new album; the Punx themselves seem to have been elevated in stature just as much as the shift in tone. Shannon Shaw, long an integral member of the Punx and, of course, a formidable force in her own right with The Clams, heads a few of the tracks here making it the first truly full band Punx record. That shift, from players backing Hunx, to a full force, crushing blow of West Coast heavyweights makes Street Punks more than just a dabbling of the band in harder textures. Both Shaw and Bogart tend to embrace a doo-woppy, syrup-throated approach to pop in their catalogs, but its nice to hear the pair tear loose here, screaming and thrashing and using their respective pipes to prove that when they're ready to rip into a listener, both are more than qualified. Overall the record is fun as hell and what else were you looking for from Hunx and co.?

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	Warm Soda - Tell Me In A Whisper 7" Warm Soda follow up on their supremely sweet LP from earlier in the year with a two-shot single for the Italian label Goodbye Boozy. A-side is a all wistful strums and sweet pop bliss, slowing down their
already gooey power pop to a swoonworthy level that's chock fulla croon and charm. The flip speeds things back up again but keeps it locked in the pocket of candy crunch that's come to embody the Warm Soda style. Definitely two more essential nuggets from the band's catalog and an indicator that this Melton lead project can only get better and better from here. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Lantern

It’s been a long time coming to the advent of Lantern's first LP. Six EPs and a single have blown our way since first catching them on Zach Fairbrother's exit from Omon Ra II and the cult of Lantern has only grown in those intervening years. Now a trio with Emily Robb and Christian Simmons, the band has lifted the cloak of fuzz that swathed the bulk of the back catalog and instead amped up the greased garage stomp and rockabilly rumble that pumped underneath the whole time. Appropriately name checking influences like The Cramps, Flaming Groovies, Stooges, Hasil Adkins and Dead Moon, the album is a stew of exhaust pipe R&B shake and shudder that cracks a sinister sneer in places and careens ecstatically in others. The Cramps influences is palpable, feeling like they take the veteran rockers' Spook-O-Rama shake n' shimmy vibe off the rails for a quick joyride through the amusement park on Rock n' Roll Rorschach. It’s definitely the sound of Lantern lighting a fire under their sound and finally channeling the full force of their live setup to tape. Damn fine bit of boogie bit rock n' roll happening here and enough to power you through the dog days of the rest of your summer.

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	Roky Erickson & The Aliens - The Evil One Well since Light in the Attic is so kind as to reissue two important records from Roky Erickson's catalog and seeing how, Roky himself has not been sung praise in the reissue section, it seems a
fitting time to right that wrong. Already a legend from his tenure in 13th Floor Elevators, in 1969 Roky was arrested for possession of a single joint, being held under high scrutiny from his native Texas authorities, and was convicted to 10 years, a sentence he was only able to lesson by pleading not guilty by insanity owing to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia a year prior. The sentence he received was shorter but no less harsh, with it being the late 60's and institutions practicing bouts of involuntary electroshock at the time and high doses of Thorazine being routine. The singer emerged from the institution to a growing legend in 1974 and began forming his band The Aliens. By 1979 the band, with production help from Stu Cook of CCR and a little help from fellow Texan Doug Sahm had recorded material that became The Evil One in the US and I Think of Demons in the UK and Europe. The two albums have differing tracklists but boast mostly overlapping material. Here, Light in the Attic revive the US version that retains the Sahm aided "Two Headed Dog" along with several of Roky's other schlock horror themed gems, many of which add revelation to the reasons that he's been embraced by the horror community over the years, showing up on the soundtrack to Return of the Living Dead and playing the opening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The album jumps off from the Elevators' psych-punk and toughens up the tone into a gritty, yet off-kilter record that feels like a reflection of Roky's oversized personality. Its fodder for the legend that was built around him and that would only grow stranger in the following years. It’s a classic that can still be felt reverberating through bands today, as much on its own merits as on Roky's legend status. Unfortunately at the time it didn't fair so well, with increasingly erratic interviews derailed by Roky's mental state and several fractured press schedules hampering its reception. Thankfully for the uninitiated it’s back in print where it belongs. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Bitchin' Bajas

Cooper Crane and co. answer back quickly on their Krausend 12" from earlier in the year with a full length for Drag City that expands further into the floating synth stained ether while treading into bouts of space blues laced guitar. They've shaved away much of the rhythm that pocked this year's earlier release and instead harkened back to a realm of overlapping tones that lap against one another and make for the kind of binaural headphone splendor that the Bajas have built their catalog upon. Each tone and microtone rub against the tide and flow of their songs lighting up brilliant moments that make the tiny hairs in listeners' ears stand at attention and then relax into the flow of... wait is that flute fluttering underneath "Inclusion"? And that's where the record becomes a much bigger statement than the Bajas have constructed before. They've always been at the forefront of the synth pack but here they've got their sights on something bigger; from the dust bowl guitar to the flute trills, the album plays like the soundtrack to a panoramic nature film. Made more impressive is that the band recorded much of the synth in a purposely complicated process akin to pioneers of splice and edit technique. The original sources were recorded to two machines, spliced into loops, then mixed together with live playing for an analog experience that's not often undertaken in an age when most technology will approximate the results with the push of a plugin. Bitchtronics ends up more than just the sum of a complicated process though, its cinematic, lush and otherworldly while retaining a sense of tactile wonder that seeps through the speakers. Its ambition pushed and succeeded, forming a record that would stand easily in the stead of those it seeks to emulate.

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