Holy Wave

Holy Wave's second LP takes its new home at The Reverberation Appreciation Society to heart. The label, run by Austin Psych Fest, is the perfect home for the band's brand of wobbly, cave-echoed 60's shakers. Relax luxuriates in a heat vapor-stung bit of country psych and there's a definite taste of Texan 60's touchstones running through their mix, with bits of Thirteenth Floor Elevators and Cold Sun making the rounds but as if found at a thrift shop, with the record baking under a bit of age and sun and dust. Its hard not to sweat a little bit listening to the band, as Relax seems to be the imperative only because their hot tar psychosis makes it difficult to want to do anything other than melt into the nearest chair and let the album wash over you in waves. Best pick this up on vinyl as something this attuned to the crackle of amplifier heat has no room for digestion in a non-analog world. 180g Orange seems to fit quite nicely.

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Black Dirt Oak

Black Dirt Studios has served as a hub of experimental roots for years now and amassed a rather impressive list of musicians who've roamed through its halls. Would seem fairly natural then, that some of those musicians might connect for a project on the scope of Black Dirt Oak. Featuring members of Pelt, No Neck Blues Band, D. Charles Speer, Psychic Ills, Black Twig Pickers, Rhyton and GHQ, the record is stitched with the sinew of back alley jug folk. The band rolls from fingerpiked precision to nighttime noir ambient squelch in the flick of a wrist. Wawayanda Patent fumes and froths with an incandescent experimental quality that's only bolstered by the names on the roster, each player adding to the heady milieu that threads the narrative of lonesome spaces here. Though for me, the bright patches of picked steel string are pleasant, but its those dark corners that really seem to sing. The more the group sinks into the reclusive spaces and cracked neon flicker of the shadows, the more enticing the track, placing "Demon Directive" high on the end of favorites here. Its an excellent batch of songs from a group that's far more than just the sum of its collective talents, though here's hoping they get back into the Black Dirt sometime soon and this time mine far deeper into those shrouded corners.

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	Leven Signs - Hemp Is Here Still some mopping up of 2013 to do yet, and that's exactly what January if for. On the reissue front I'd missed out on this little gem that Digitalis unearthed mid-year, a whiling, psychedelic, dark-hued oddity that feels thrown immediately into the
midst of some of the underground dub pop of the current digitalis set rather than being a 35 year old crate-dug discovery. Feeling like folk gone off the rails and into an obsessive tunnel of dub, Middle Eastern and early electronics; the album is nothing if not far ahead of its own time. Easily overlooked in its era, Hemp Is Here was recorded in a time when home recording wasn't a commonplace occurrence by the duo of Peter Karkut and Maggie Turner who scotch tape Arabic beats run backwards through the rain soaked tape machine while beaming Turner's vocals in from a close passing satellite. Simply a must for fans of Peaking Lights, Broadcast, Ghostbox Records' entire catalog or much of the lauded hypnogogic set. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards

Truly and odd duck from Blackest Ever Black, a double shot of dub plated echo cake from the mysteriously monikered Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards. The band (artist?), shrouded in mystery, has cranked two looming sides of sonic float, anchored by a lonesome sax throb that works itself into a drone of thrum and hum on the A side that feels like a sunny day compared to the bleak electronic dub dystopia that evolves on the flip; the first side, here, acting as a kind of melancholy entryway to the filthy unease of the second. Their two divergent takes on the dub platform work well as a light/dark tug of war that comprise "elegies in dub: for the once great city of New York, and for one of its most celebrated sons." RIP NYC but welcome aboard Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards. Hopefully this bit is just the beginning.

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Kevin Morby - "Harlem River" Video

Late last year Kevin Morby snuck out an album of darkly tinged folk tunes that's still riding high on my listen list. Now he's paired an equally haunting video with the track's soul-searching noir vibes. If you haven't picked up the record yet, use this as a reminder that this one should be on your turntable at least until winter thaws.

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Morgan Delt

The new wave of throwback psych is a testament to the power of the internet as a community of rabbit hole wanderers. The depths of discovery run deep on Morgan Delt's debut and I doubt in another age, unless there was one perfectly positioned record store clerk with an obsessive love for psychedelic era nuggets, that it could have so perfectly captured the periphery of '68 cracked through a home recording filter. The album feels like late night YouTube runs through psyche obscurities, lapping up bits of Glass Family Electric Band, JK & Co., Ivory and Rainbow Ffolly in addition to the usual suspects of The Byrds and Love. Delt's obviously spent a good deal of time picking apart the perfect bits collector fodder, even working in a bit of cinema psychsploitation on closer, "Main Title Sequence" which feels ripped from the ranks of one of Finders Keepers' best kept soundtrack secrets. For RSTB this kind of album comes as an instant entry to listening rotation and its fun to play spot the influence and commiserate with a fellow traveler of psych's tangled corners. But, just as with labelmate, Jacco Gardener, the nostalgia's only truly effective if there's a wealth of songwriting beneath the pastiche of burbling effects. In that regard Trouble in Mind have stumbled on another gem that opens itself wide to listeners who've barely cracked the Nuggets compilation. Delt's crafted a warm, mutable, dense album that's perfect to immerse oneself in on any lonely day.

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Together PANGEA

Finally, the highly anticipated LP from (together) Pangea arrives and its a slash and burn bit of jumble and rumble that's payoff for anyone who'd been waiting with fevered anticipation since Ghostbot dropped Killer Dreams and uncorked the vat of weird, nervy, melodic nuggets the band had been sitting on. They make the official jump to Harvest from their homestead at Burger and, as expected by the early singles, it sees the band wade even further into pop's waters without ever leaving behind their cratered punk punch or trademark ragged delivery. Title cut, "Badillac," has floated around for a while and its built on a solid set of strums and shouts that feel bigger than the room can contain; yet still the track sits back into itself nicely with the kind of sweat soaked shimmy that can only be broken up by a rail splitting harmonica / guitar back-and-forth on the finish.

The rest of the LP is no slouch either, matching the current amplifier assault of cracked guitar slingers like Ty Segall (inevitable comparisons abound) and John Dwyer. Though let it be said that this is standing tall in the pop canon right next to Cronin's MCII for breakout hits of the past few years. The cuts here cook with the constant threat of boiling over and that means the volume should be twisted till the knob can't be turned any further. That is until "Offer" and "Where The Night Ends" come to soothe the burn with the power-jangle and accompanying fragile croon that opens like a sore wound, a trait that's come to mark each of their releases between the bouts of fury. Though, honestly, the softer punch on those two are by no means reason to dip the volume completely. "River" rears its head again in a fuller version, and even though its an old standby, its actually a check mark in the 'pro' column. Somehow the album wouldn't seem complete without it. Only sad fact is that they cut "All Creation" from the original rumblings of this release, a pop gem if there ever was one. Otherwise, this one winds up immediately at the top of the 2014 heap and you should be procuring a copy before you finish this review.

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Giuda

Italian stompers Giuda live forever in the the diamond sparkle of gelled lights, denim swagger and roller disco crash of the mid-70's. They've picked up the glam yoke and seem to have perfected the space between Slade's raucous drinking anthems, Gary Glitter's fuzz-toned skronk and Mud's Saturday night party starters. Their second record does little to move beyond the party of their first, but that's hardly the point. To enjoy Giuda fully is to suspend that cynical portion of your brain and just give in to the handclaps, stomps, pub life and football atmosphere teleported straight from Top of the Pops, 1974. Not one second of the album gives in to anything that resembles quiet reflection, its made for the loud moments, the epic nights and brilliantly bad decisions. So screw that self-conscious pose and drink up with Giuda.

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I Need You Bad Compilation

Compilations are always a dicey prospect, I know having put them together that they take forever and who knows how it'll all gel when it hits that final form. The best have an angle rooted in them and a trusted driver at the helm, two requirements easily met by I Need You Bad the new compilation wrangled by Sonny Smith (of Sunsets fame) and chronicling some of his favorite San Francisco bands and a few offshoots from L.A. and Portland in the mix. The comp captures a snapshot of one of the most interesting musical pockets in the country, picking up some of the lesser known players and slotting them on a shelf next to your Ty, Fresh & Onlys and Oh Sees records. Sonny's picked up on the Sunshine State vibes here for the most part, and though rooted in the garage ethos of the city, it also hits on some of the mellower notes of its vast scene, which isn't so surprising given the direction of the Sunsets material in general. Well worth the dough and featuring some ace artwork by Shannon Shaw, you could spend your lunch money on that regrettable sandwich or go hungry for a couple days and feed your soul with this lot. No brainer.

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Whatever Brains

Currently on their third self-titled LP and this time the boys in Brains take the trip down a much darker rabbit hole, injecting their twitchy punk with a dose of inky synth-pop and driving negativity. The shadowed palette fits them well though and in some ways it feels like the band is just now hitting their stride. Brining their sound into focus, a touch of buoyed production amps the frantic energy to new levels. Ever ones to revel in their own oddity, their third album sees the band tumbling through a briar patch of guitar shards and gas huffing vocals down on an unsuspecting audience just here for the beer, unaware that Whatever Brains were here to fuck shit up with a dose of oven cleanser punk that makes the room spin at odd angles. Certainly a new chapter for North Carolina's finest and one you should seek out and put on full blast after the most trying days. It'll soak in better that way.

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Negra Blanca

Gnod's Marlene Ribeiro has been adding a dose of drift to the band's recordings for years but N B marks her solo debut. Released last year in a scant run of 50 tapes, the album exists in a bubble of dub-pop filled to the edges with curling smoke, ghostly vocals and reverberating low slung bass that cascades off the walls. Familiar territory for fans of Peaking Lights, Hype Williams or Paco Sala, the record slots Ribeiro in nicely alongside modern dub miners as a new voice of psychedelic float. The LP adds two additional tracks to the original tape and they augment the experience of N B seamlessly, adding two extra dimensions of spectral flotsam to the mix. This one's in a run larger than the tape but surely won't stick around very long. Nab it while you can.

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	MX-80 Sound - Hard Attack Superior Viaduct have been on a tear of reissues, putting some much needed fringe entries back into the water and keeping us poor schlubs from having to track things down via expensive out of print channels. Bloomington's MX-80 Sound lived
in a pocket of their own, with no real local scene to attached to their weirdness but they would certainly share an aesthetic sensibility with Devo, Debris and Pere Ubu. Taking the skronk of Beefheart and flinging it through simultaneous left turns of jazz and metal the result is some kind of prog-punk beast that sits on a shelf of its own. The record has a nice duality between riding a wave of groove and rolling off the rails into jagged breakdowns. Add to this the double drummer attack and vocalist Rich Stim's chaotic yelp and occasional horn stabs and Hard Attack lays the foundation for experimental travelers to follow for years. The band would slim down to a four-person, one-drummer lineup after this and pull up roots for San Francisco. They never quite hit stride with the local punk scene but eventually hooked up with The Residents' Ralph Records for two more excellent records before dropping the "Sound" from their name and continuing on as MX-80. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Michael Beach

Michael Beach has spent time with bands like Colossal Yes, Meercaz, Shovel and Electric Jellyfish, but its his solo LP Golden Theft that seems to be making a name for himself. Taking a few tracks from an earlier tape release and reworking them alongside several new ones, the LP mixes the dusted country of Uncle Tupelo, wounded troubadour moves of Neil Young and a grittier, heavier sound that comes close to the growl of pre-grunge. The results are an album that's stylistically diverse but cathartically cohesive. Just as the heavier tracks wind up the blood, Beach brings down the houselights and kicks through the dust on the floor with a soulful, road wearied delivery that seems to mellow like bourbon on ice. The push-pull continues throughout the album, culminating in the widescreen epic of "Eve," an eight minute closer that brings the whole house down with it framing Beach as kin to Will Oldham if he were to undertake an epic guitar squall to close out a track. A fitting close to an album that never rests easy.

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Blank Realm

Blank Realm follow nicely on their breakout from 2012 building on Go Easy's shift toward pop structures, albeit sinewy and winding pop structures that reconcile their experimental beginnings, positioning it as their finest statement yet. Grassed In is full of jangles and strums for sure but also just as packed with the kind of slow building narcotic vortexes that anchor all those lighthearted moments to the deck. Centerpiece, "Bulldozer Love" swallows the album whole and then passes it through a pop wormhole casting the second half of the album into darker seated jangles that drive with an inky intensity that's a counterpoint to Go Easy's luminosity. Then, just as soon as the heartbeat quickens, the band releases its grip to let the album sigh on its way out the door. There are many working the clay of jangle-pop these days, particularly from Blank Realm's neck of the woods, but the band seems to take a new lease on shading it into fully dimensional pop art that catches on the brain as much as the ear.

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	The Limit - The Limit Been catching up on some much needed power pop over the holidays and this gem reissued on Cheap Rewards falls heavily into the necessary pile. The Limit formed in New Orleans in the early 80's and recorded the tracks that would
comprise their debut 10" over '82-83 releasing it in a scant 500 copies. Though the release is anchored by the incredibly infectious "Uh-Oh" which bears more than a striking resemblance to the blueprint for pretty much every pop punk song from the late 90's (Blink 182 I'm looking in your direction), the release failed to attract major label attention and the band broke up by the end of 1984. Thankfully though Cheap Rewards have swung in to rescue their lone EP and packed it up with some bonus demos and live tracks to flesh it out to a full 12". Any archiver of power pop needs this one on the docket. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Ausmuteants

So many latecomers streaming in from the Australian underground on the tailwinds of 2013, how Ausmuteants eluded us for this long is a bit of a mystery. The band's sophomore LP Amusements arrives via the Ooga Boogas run imprint Aarght Records, always a stamp of quality from the South Hemi. The band definitely digests a steady diet of Devo, Chrome, Screamers, The Twinkeyz and MX-80 and properly chews them to bits before spitting them back into fine formation and a sight better than most obsessives of those bands. The Geelong crew makes it seem easy to tap into the synch-infected madness of those influences, channeling the wiry unease and tension that ruled those records and making it seem fresh. Definitely a worthwhile album to get your hands on and worth the import sticker for sure.

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	Giuda - Wild Tiger Woman 7"" Another late 2013 entry lost to oversight. It seems in preparation for a November album, Giuda resurfaced with this double-shot of glam stompin', riot flashin' punk snarl. Many take the glam yoke on but very few just run away with it like
the sons of Slade returned for blood. Italy's garage heavyweights take a heavy shot with the A-side, all steam and sparkle, ready for a Saturday night. The flip cools just a touch for a sweet bit that skews into the power pop vein but still packs a pretty rowdy punch. This pair prepared the way for the band's sophomore album Let's Do It All Again, but perhaps we'll save that for another post. Better late than never, and good to have 'em back. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Unity Floors

Still taking a sweep through the end of 2013 and naturally the Aussie hits are still coming. A latecomer from Popfrenzy, Unity Floors' debut album is a taught nod to the 80's Australian heyday. Tracks swing from jangle-pop to a more muscular punk but rather than work against each other, the mesh of styles seems to form one sonic tapestry that tangles influences into an album that's bouncing with energy. There's a weariness just beneath the surface, something that seems to come through in several of the South Hemi hits in the past couple of years and I'd have to admit I'm drawn to the sighs between the chords here. Exotic Goldfish Blues places the duo in the running of bands to keep eyes and ears on in the coming year and with this gem and an RSTB year-ender in Camperdown & Out, Popfrenzy put themselves on the shortlist of Aussie labels well worth your time and import money.

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