Links:

Surfer Blood on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/surferblood
Kanine Records Home Page: http://kaninerecords.com/

Surfer Blood bring forth from the blue-green sea foam a sound not wholly original, yet still updated enough to call their own. Mixing in ’60s vocal styling, Indie-Rock/Brit-Power Pop guitar and drum hooks, a Surf-Rock feel (surprise), and even some British-influenced Shoegaze all at once. So, dispensing with the sea of music labels (a water pun… way too many more to come), let’s leave the lake bed and get to the substance of the album, shell we?

The record for the most part is a solid album, not allowing itself to be drugged out in the undertow of experimentation that makes many bands sound like just a studio band, yet able to play music in a hundred different styles but never having their own. Too many musicians reach for this in their first couple of bands as they search like lifeguards for a sound.  This being said, there is a single track that seems a bit out of place, awash in the band’s appreciation for British Shoegaze — a little ditty called “Harmonix.” Using guitar harmonics and arpeggios, spilling over mechanic drums , this track is more than a simple wave to early ’80s Cure.

The other tracks on Astro Coast are less of a direct borrowing , and more original in arrangement. Tracks of mention are “Anchorage” and “Catholic Pagans.”  The former track comes out noisy and poppy, diving right in with drums and ringing brass. The reverb guitars pour in and maintain a Beach Boys-meet-The-Smiths feel. Spilling on top of this are the echoic vocals evaporating and condensing over the 6+ minute voyage. The later track seeps in with ’60s ballad arpeggios and some guitar processing, and a vocal structure that is at once poppy and basic washes in to keep our appetites wetted.

According to the band’s MySpace page, Surfer blood swim in from Palm Beach, Florida. Meeting in their freshman year of college, Astro Coast was recorded in their dorm rooms, and this involved spending their college scholarship money to do so.  They will be spending the first part of the new year touring in support of the new album.

Bad water pun count: 16. yeah. Drink it in.

Links:

Jezus Factory: http://www.jezusfactory.com/
Sukilove on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sukilove

Sukilove is great Belgian art-pop/blues-based alternative rock, not too far removed from The Only Ones , the Walkmen, and Radiohead. Static Moves is a bouncy, bass-heavy artsy alternative album. The production is deep and overly-full; the bass is so powerful it drones a bit and becomes the ambience, the vehicle to carry the remainder of the music and vocals. Keyboards and sustained guitars accompany the echoing vocals and back-ups.

The LP is an interesting listen; sporadic, intense, and unafraid to let the music play out a bit; the tracks are balanced and produced together giving a definite theme to the release. The only drawback to this notion is that one is almost drawn to consider the whole album, not the individual tracks; this will make things difficult for the band if they are trying to get a track onto the radio for exposure.

The track “Rebel” has an intensity that grabs hold right away and doesn’t let go easily. “Fear” has a rambling, grooving backbone to it driven by a nice bass line, and the line “We’re all just meat, we’re all just waiting to die” repeating over and over adds a psychedelic feel to the track.

Links:

65daysofstatic homepage: http://www.65daysofstatic.com/
Monotreme Records: http://www.monotremerecords.com/

In a series of performances supporting a virtually unknown band from England called The Cure (has anyone ever  heard of them?), 65daysoftatic recorded a number of tracks that appear on Escape from New York, from the Madison Square Gardens and Radio City Music Hall gigs.

65dos is an instrumental, electronic, alternative math post-rock band hailing from England. Falling somewhere in intensity between Aphex Twin and The Prodigy, the band uses heavy doses of vocal and noise sampling, distorted guitars, synthesizers and 808 drums (techno fans will understand that reference) to pack its release full of sound. Powerful, in-your-face, and rather well-crafted, 65dos apparently plays out with intensity not often seen in this genre.

One track that really sticks in my head is “Retreat! Retreat!” The equivalent of the chorus to this song is a great repeating melody that sounds like it is the music from some of the great melodic post-hardcore bands. The notable exception, of course, would be the lack of vocals and presence of electronic samples.

So many electronic bands have so much in common, and fans just accept this fact. This is fine, except that if one has a few releases in the genre, one really needn’t buy more than that; they’ve heard it all. 65daysofstatic is a rare exception to this group. The genre also doesn’t tend to lend itself well to live performances, but this release is a powerful testament to what can be done.

Other tracks to check out would be “Drove Through Ghosts to Get Here” (one of the best song titles I’ve ever heard), “No Use Crying Over a Little Techno,” and “Fix the Sky a Little.”

Links:

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down homepage: http://www.thaomusic.com/
Kill Rock Stars home page: http://www.killrockstars.com/

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down are truly fun band to listen to. Alternative, folk, ethnic (god I hate to use that word), and dancey. This 4^th release from the three-piece from Kill Rock Stars records is a gem to say the least. The 13 songs on the LP go by way too quickly. I have to go get the other releases now. Rats.

Vocally, Thao Nguyen reminds me a bit of Imogen Heap from Frou Frou (and from her solo work as well), but without the electronic effects, or maybe a somewhat less blues version of Fiona Apple. The musical backbone is provided by Thao on guitars,  Adam Thompson on bass and Willis Thompson on skins.  The music is well-crafted and full, leaving no gaps in the production at all. The fruits from the horns, violins, banjos, guitars, bass, and drums sit very well in the home-baked pie that Know Better, Learn Faster is. The bright production lends itself to the indie rock sound, almost drifting into an Americana feel at times. Sweet, personal and bare-bones vocals bring in a blues feel into the mix.

Tracks to check out would be “Give,” “Cool Yourself,” and “When We Swam,” although it is limiting to only note these 3; there isn’t a bad track on the release.

RIYL: Imogen Heap, Fiona Apple, almost any artist appearing in the Lilith Fair concerts.

Anyway,  their new EP, Can’t Stop Not Knowing,” is a fine little gem. Frantic and powerful, the tracks are packed good hooks and harmonies. Radish does well to mix the dance beats with rock beats; they blend rather well.

The New Loud features Jessi on keyboards, Shane on the guitar, Radish Beet (nice name!) on drums, and they all contribute to vocals. Check out their great live performance at the Chicago Dark Room on their MySpace page. Jessi’s screech comes out of nowhere and almost made me pee a little. The folks of The New Loud took time out of their busy schedule of scaring children and elderly people to answer a few questions for us, for which we are obviously grateful.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/thenewloud and http://the-new-loud.blogspot.com/

Your album Can’t Stop Not Knowing was mixed by Mark Trombino(producer of a few Jimmy Eat World and Blink 182 releases, and former member of Drive Like Jehu). What was it like working with someone with those credentials?

Working with Mark is great. He was our was our first choice for mix engineers. After we got his contact info, we sent him some demos of the tracks and he was really into them. The EP mixes sound amazing and we just finished up the LP mixes right now. We love the way everything has turned out. From the outset we intended for both releases to sound different from one another as we didn’t want to make it seem like we recorded 15 songs total and put 5 over here and 10 over here. We wanted each release to have its own sound and atmosphere. Mark definitely delivered on that front. The LP sounds very different from the EP. Both equally good, but very different from one another.

As Mark is in CA, it would’ve been nice to fly out for the mixes, but being a totally independent, self-released band, we just didn’t have any budget for it, so all correspondence has been through e-mail.  We have a pretty strong vision of how things should sound in terms of relative levels and Mark is totally cool when we send him revisions. As we finished up the last of the LP revisions, Jessi jokingly mentioned that we shouldn’t tell Mark the disc is done and keep sending him fake revisions for the LP, even after it is pressed so we can still keep in contact with him – LOL!

According to your blogspot site, you’ve been on a number of tours, including a bad night in NYC. I’ll let readers visit your site to read up on what transpired, but has anything changed in your touring  strategy in light of the events from that night?

Since our last West Coast tour in 2007, our tour strategy has been to slow down a bit and focus on the back-to-back release of our upcoming EP/LP. You hear so many people talk about how touring and playing live is where bands are making their living as music sales decline, but the reality is that the market is completely over-saturated when it comes to lesser known touring bands. Trying to get a foothold when you’re an unknown consumes tons of resources, both in terms of time and money. Over the years we’ve tried to adapt the philosophy of ‘working smarter not harder’. We love playing live and we are definitely up for touring, especially as we consider the intensity of our live performance to be one of the band’s biggest strengths. At the same time, we are less inclined to play shows for the sake of playing shows, hoping that the press around the releases creates an environment where touring makes more sense.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin isn’t really known for it’s powerful music, especially the kind you deliver. What local influences do you cite, if any?

Between 1999-2003 I worked doing sound at a small, 100 person capacity venue called The Cactus Club in Milwaukee. One of the best and, at the time, one of the only places where more underground bands were coming to Milwaukee besides basements. Over those years I saw/ran-sound-for a bunch of different great live bands including The White Stripes, Bright Eyes, The Faint, Cursive, Zen Guerilla, Lonesome Organist, Bad Wizard, Wanda Jackson, etc. Seeing those bands play their sets in the same venue that we play our shows was totally inspiring.

What would be your ideal venue to play- hall size, bands to play with, event to play, etc?

After playing however many shows we’ve played over the years, I can say, positively, that the venue size/shape/capacity/bill doesn’t matter to us at all. The only thing that matters is if there are people there who are getting into the music. Without an interested crowd, its like playing into a vacuum in deep space. A lot of times I go to shows, especially smaller shows and the crowd is just standing there. Even if they’re into the band, they just stand still. I’m not sure what happened over the years, but audiences both larger and smaller seem to be losing their energy. I think a lot of people don’t understand that when you go and see a band play live, despite the band being on stage and the crowd being on the floor, there is a definite interaction that happens. It begins with the band, but the energy should bounce back and forth between the stage and floor. When the crowd is interested, but unresponsive, energy levels drop significantly. Its like trying to play tennis without another person on the other side of the net to volley the ball back. Sure you can hit the ball as hard as possible, but if its not being hit back, most, if not all of the purpose is lost. I think as people use computers for more and more of their entertainment, we are all losing our sensitivity to pick up on this exchange of energy.

How much planning was put into covering the Radiohead song ‘2+2=5′?  Did it just come out one day in practice, or was there a specific idea you had before hand?

The song was originally released on a Radiohead tribute compilation in which we did the mix for it. When it was set that Mark Trombino was going to mix our releases, we decided to include our interpretation on the EP.

For the tribute, we were given a list of possible songs to use. Jessi initially was shooting for the song ‘Lucky’, as it is one of her favorites, but when I heard it under the pretense of covering it, my mind was blank. We listened to a few more tracks and upon listening to ‘2 + 2 = 5′ I immediately had ideas for how to re-work the song into something that I thought was both different and representative of The New Loud. Sometimes people are more receptive to cover songs from newer band’s than originals, so int he event that was going to be the case, I wanted this to not just be a cover of ‘2 + 2 = 5′, but I also wanted this to be The New Loud, as a band, in a 2.5 minute microcosm, showcasing as many of our strengths as possible. We wanted incorporate my vocals and Jessi’s vocals, both as their own entities and in harmony. We wanted to have singing vocals, softer floatier parts, as well as gang shouts. We wanted to incorporate Radish Beat’s use of both electro drums and live drums and have the rhythm parts range from something groove oriented with deep dub-ey bass to something super aggressive with thrash drums and saw tooth bass. We wanted to add melodic keyboard parts as well as filter noise keyboard parts. We made sure to not do anything we wouldn’t incorporate into one of our own songs which is why we decided to skip the arpeggiated guitar part in the beginning, instead substituting a more random keyboard sequence and almost progressive bass line.

All in all I think we did exactly what we set out to do. Mark’s mix on the EP really gave the whole track focus and consistency which was missing from the tribute CD version.

On your press release you mention that some songs on  Can’t Stop Not Knowing had 60-80 tracks that were used in the songs. When playing these tracks out, do you bring all the tracks with you, do you set them up on site, or do you do without?

We travel with an Alesis Masterlink, a hard disc recorder with just a L/R output. We have all the sequences mixed to the left channel and a click track in the right channel. We’ve mixed all our bass and some keyboard and vocal effects into the sequence channel. We’re trying to get as close as possible to the CD, but we still want to bring as much live playing to the audience as possible. Except for a couple parts none of the drums or percussion sounds are sequenced, Radish just plays all of that live between acoustic drums and electronic drum pads. I play all the guitar live and Jessi plays as much keyboard as possible. We haven’t started sequencing any vocal parts except for effects, yet, but in the future we may try and layer some of the bkg. parts so they’re more full sounding. Live we’re relying more on the intensity of performance, plus at the stage we’re at you don’t want to make anything too complicated for whoever is running the sound, as in smaller venues the sound engineers can be pretty spotty at best.

How has media attention affected your playing, your reception at shows? 8. How, if at all, has professional representation changed the band?

Getting the band’s name out there definitely helps. Its opened some new doors for us, for instance we played CMJ this past year which is positive, despite the forced brevity of our performance – LOL! Fingers crossed we get into SXSW, but you never know. Everything is all about what kind of connections you can build and having press and professional representation of some kind definitely helps with that. Aside from having legal and PR representation the band continues to be totally self funded/released/managed. We are looking to retain as much control as possible, so, we have not even pursued any labels at this point and probably won’t. Management is something that may interest us in the future, in order to let go of some of the day-to-day which would leave us more time to focusing on the most important part of the band which is creating new, interesting music.

Based on the number of releases you’ve put out, the band is relatively young. How long has the band been together, and what influences drew you each to one another?

Individually The New Loud is influenced by a huge variety of different bands and styles – everything from new wave/post punk to dub/reggae to hip hop/R&B to punk/hardcore to 90’s indie to African and more. The New Loud as a band is trying to blend all the elements we love about all the disparate genres and create something that sounds like a cohesive group. Radish and I formed The New Loud in 2001 as a power pop band working on writing good, catchy songs. When Radish added the electronic pads and kick drum to his acoustic drum set, and we added Jessi on keyboards in 2004, it was to open up our options. We didn’t want to relegate ourselves to just playing ‘guitar rock’. In 2007, we adopted the sequences to further branch out. We don’t want to sound like a new wave band or a punk band or a R&B band, but we want to use some of the elements that identify those archetypes. After all I don’t really think the world needs another caricature of a ‘hardcore’ or ‘reggae’ band – what we need is something we haven’t heard yet. Something new is out there and we can’t stop not knowing what it is.

Links:

Original Dan on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/rolldeep1
Eskibeat Recordings on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/eskibeatrecordings

Flow Dan, born Mark Viera, returns with a solo project, Original Dan. Hailing from London, England, the sounds spilling out of the release are anything but the expected London sound. Jungle, DubStep, and Grime beats and rasta-hip hop lyrics fill out the majority of the LP. The album is full, frenetic, and varied, but all sticks together well. Electronic  samples, blip noises, sound effects, auto tuned vocals and triple-tracked voices are the fleshy appendages on this DubStep skeleton, and the occasional super-deep bass tracks help to balance the creature out.

For a good representation of the album, check out “Show Theme, “Dumpers,” Stage Show,” and “Run”. These fun, strong tracks are the best on the release.

Much of the album is the expected topic of hip hop lyrics- explaining how tough he is, how “street” he is, and about how talented he is. Unfortunately for hip hop fans (of most every sub-genre of hip hop), this is par for the course- instead of demonstrating the talents an artist has, they tell the audience how talented they are. It too often seems like more advertising than substance.

Being hypersensitive to racial politics, one track, titled “Kack Back” caught my ear in a negative way. Repeating a  chorus of “…when black men are talking, you better keep on walking,”  I was unimpressed to say the least.  I could see how I could be wrong about his intended message, but this strays too close to negative politics. I really could have done without the track.

RIYL: Miami-Bass music, DubStep

Links:
The Pinx on MySpace:  http://www.myspace.com/thepinxatlanta

Here’s the recipe:

Take 1 portion each Queens of the Stone Age and Black Crows. Mix in what Led Zeppelin or later-days Who would have sounded like if they formed in 1990. Bake at 1969 degrees, remove from oven immediately to cool. Eat while warm. Or high.

Atlanta’s own power trio come with the noise in spades. Look What You Made me Do is more no-bullshit rock, by definition. Look it up. Go ahead. I’ll wait. You back now? Great. Sit down. This is what hair-metal bands from the 80s wanted to sound like the whole time: rockin’ solos, warm tight drums, screeching vocals, and simple lyrics. From the 2:30 minute electric guitar-powered instrumental jam track “The Owl,” to the lead track “The Desert,” to the 4 minute high-heat burner “Impatience,” the entire LP is produced in a very classic rock sound- slightly clipping guitars, vocals, and bass, with the soft, warm snare drum. Talented noodling guitar arpeggios, spastic, syncopated drums and woo-woo vocals are all in order.

I can smell the bare feet, the bad weed, and the spilled beer. I can see the paisley sheets and beads used for curtains swaying in the (very) smoky and slow breeze. I can see the dark aviator glasses, the black porno-moustaches, the tight ringer shirts, the bad early 70s haircuts, and the dirty jeans.(Whad’yaknow- without seeing the picture first, this almost exactly describes their picture on their promoter’s web page as indicated here:

RIYL:  Black Crows, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Kinks, and  (insert any roots-rock band name here).

Links:

Beaten Awake on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/beatenawake
Fat Possum Records Site: http://www.fatpossum.com/

Very retro early 90s alternative music. Very reminiscent of early British shoegaze alt-rock. Think New Order/Electronic but during their more rock phase, think Lemonheads but mopier, think The Church with a different singer. If this existed when 120 Minutes was still on, Beaten Awake would be in heavy rotation. For our readers under 30, 120 Minutes used to be an alternative rock video show on MTV in the early 90s featuring great alternative bands like Lightning Seeds, Mighty Lemon Drops, Smiths, Beastie Boys, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, etc. For our readers under 25, MTV used to play music videos. For our readers under 20, MTV used to suck a lot less than it does now. For our readers in 3^rd world nations, we have this thing called TV.  But I digress.

Beaten Awake, by their name alone, sounds very much like a hardcore punk band, a la late 80s/early 90s when hardcore got huge in the US. Even the album title Thunder$troke has a great punk-sounding parody name. This group, however, is neither punk rock nor hardcore. Smooth, heavy bass alternative rock with proto-shoegaze influence by the bucketful. Makes me warm and nostalgic inside. Great music to put to a movie soundtrack or to leave on while making out with a bunch of friends in the same room, lights low, hoping your parents stay upstairs just . 10 . more . minutes.

Being composed of members of Harriet the Spy, Party of Helicopters, Man I Fell in Love With and New Terror Class, Ohio’s Beaten Awake have an outstanding musical genome. Artsy, airy alternative rock, this 11-track LP is very listenable. Notable songs to pay attention to would be “Halo V” and “I’m Not Asking for the Moon.”

Thunder$troke is a fine record, deserving to be listened to more than a few times in a row.

Links: http://www.visqueenonline.com/
Visqueen on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Visqueen/60365776116?v=app_19935916616
Local 638’s WebSite: http://www.local638records.com/

Submitted for your approval: Visqueen’s Message to Garcia. Start with sugar-sweet vocals recalling rockers (Jefferson) Starship and Heart’s guitars from the early 80s. Include the drums and overall punch of early 90s sweethearts Veruca Salt, maybe even the vocal harmonies Indigo Girls. And, here you have a wonderfully refreshing, no bullshit rock album.  In other words, unpretentious and simple, with  straight forward rock beats, bouncing bass lines, and anthems begging to be sung.

In the current age of vacuous pop music, metal bands trying to out-scream and out-shock each other, and alternative bands investing a great deal of energy in not being themselves, Visqueen bring nutritious food to the table for the hungry music fan.

Songs of note are “Beautiful Amnesia,” “Fight for Love,” and “So Long.” The former two are straight forward rock songs, with standard palm-muted guitars and throbbing bass lines and well-crafted harmonies. “Beautiful Amnesia”  also includes lap steel guitars without drifting into country-rock. The latter track is a slower song built on a piano and cello(?) backing up the soulful blues of Ms. Flotard, talking about stepping to tell the world what she experienced while caring for her father (while making this album and sweating over multiple side projects as well).

According to the band’s website, this third LP is to a large extent a celebration and eulogy to singer Rachel Flotard’s father.

Highly recommended for fans of the Donnas, Heart, Veruca Salt, and any good roots-rock and roll.

Links:
Hurricane Bells on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hurricanebells
Vagrant Records: http://vagrant.com/public_area

Hurricane Bells is the late-arriving calm American answer to the Strokes and Kings of Leon. The association to Kings of Leon would, in any other circumstance,  be enough for me to throw up a little in my mouth, but this side project from Longwave’s Steve Schlitz seems to come out as a somewhat likeable record.

Tonight is the Ghost is a jangly alt-pop record full of bright slide guitars and broom-powered drums, although the chord progressions are somewhat limited. Echoing sweet vocals repeat on almost all tracks, as do the low-impact drums and melodies. This is certainly an easy album to listen to with little exception.

The track “Crocodile,” a one-minute-and-change instrumental track, sounds to me like it was supposed to be something more, but may have been stripped down just for the sake of having it recorded. Tracks to check out would be “Tenterhooks,” “The Winters in New York,” and “Tonight I’m Going to be Like a Shooting Star.” The instrumental “Tenterhooks” is a punchier track than the others, with good starts and stops adding emphasis and drama to the record. “The Winters in New York” is rather well written lyrically, and the chorus hook pairs up with a sneaky guitar solo that comes in around two minutes on. “Tonight I’m going to be Like  Shooting Star” is a bit heart-wrenching to hear with its spare vocals and distorted guitar trilling about.

Nothing terribly fascinating, but I can’t fault the band much; this is one of the genres that really has to jump out and grab me to impress me. With what Vagrant Records has put out in the past, it caught me off guard that this was released on this label, but I am reminded that Alexisonfire’s  Dallas Green has released his City and Color side project here as well; like Tonight is the Ghost is a much less aggressive release from Vagrant Records is known.

Recommended for fans of City and Color, Strokes, the Church, Appleseed Cast, etc.

BTW, for our teen vampire readers, Hurricane Bells provided the song “Monsters” for the virtually unknown Twilight movie series installment “New Moon.” Swoon. Swoon, I say.