Link: http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr059/

Damon McMahon is like a mantra. When you get into Through Donkey Jaw you come into it with a meditative frame of mind. And if you don’t, McMahon will put you there. His neo-psych is true to form. There is no glitz to the music that he makes. He is no showman. What you get out of this album is raw and acidic, like you discovered some rare collection of Lou Reed demos on dusty cassette.

This can turn some people off. The acid folk is nothing more than that. Don’t look for emotional crescendos in his temple. McMahon keeps things pure.

On “1985,” Amen Dunes burns through a simple melody with just a guitar and bass fuzzed out like a combination of Tang and sulphuric acid on a lost krautrock gem. It does not move beyond that.

“Jill” could easily be confused for something off of Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Next, and with that you would come to expect this album to be highly experimental. “Sunday” will dispute that theory. This beautiful dark folk, digs into the depths of early Television meets The Zombies. And this is where I think the beauty of this album lies. It’s where minds will get lost and daydreams come alive.

Sundress
Self-Titled
Self-Released
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Link: http://sundress.bandcamp.com/

There is good reason why Sundress is the budding gems of the Lone Star State. This Denton, Texas band plays rock and roll with the gusto of standing bare eye and staring straight into the sun, but light in texture like that late summer breeze.

Filtered through guitar effects and a spattering of synth-rock compliments to the mind-altering vocals, this band bumps up nicely next to your Pains of Being Pure At Heart collection.

Their music is strong with controlled clarity, even when they get raucous with the chord shredding. They don’t make songs like “Derelict” much anymore.

Between a banter of dream pop and psychedelic buzz, this self-titled EP will be sure to satisfy both cravings. And with perfect timing, because there is nothing like the upcoming change of seasons to entice you to listen to more music like Sundress creates.

Put it in, crank it up and turn inside out.

Link: http://www.dragcity.com/artists/these-trails

The folks of These Trails followed that dusty trail of whims and pleasure and the breath of self-discovery. Taken from the sap of ‘60s psych-folk, this ‘70s band roams the wilderness while exploring the lust of self expression and the teachings of Renborn, Fairport Convention, and Baez.

The songs warp like classical odes from an almost fantastical time of yore. “Our House in Hanalei” is as fresh as the Hawaiian flowers dripping with beauty after a rainstorm and sing praises to the nature cult that existed at the time. The freshness comes from a lush classical guitar which ring true all the way to modern Amps For Christ material.

Coming to us from the island of Kaua’i, this self-titled release is a refreshing take on the times, and what a better place for hippie philosophy than the natural geography of Hawaii.

The estranged waltz from “Of Broken Links” with ARP enchantment may confuse you for an Apples In Stereo dream while “Rusty’s House & Los In Space” showcase the talent for this musicians, blurring this song into an acoustic jam that would have caught the eye of Jerry Garcia any day. And “Waipoo” was way ahead of its time as you hear bands like Damon & Naomi mimic the style today.

So sit back, grab a smoke, and enjoy the beauty, no matter how far-reaching it can get. Even in its dated 1973 context, These Trails is an album with no boundaries and worth the purchase if you want an alternative perspective from the atypical bands from that genre and time frame.

Link: http://www.ritualproductions.net/tag/bong/
If the National Geographic Channel used Bong as a soundtrack, what a strange trip NatGeo would be. Space combusting within itself, planets forming, bursting, turning into an interstellar sex orgy of stars and a seance of science.

I don’t think it was Bong’s intention to create Beyond Ancient Space in this vein. The mediative doom rock sounds like an opium den of ‘60s psychedelic acid films and Asian sex orgies who were buzzed out on a night filled with the rumblings of Earth albums.

Put away your ADD because there are only three songs on this album, each around 25-30 minutes long. Sounds like something Spaceman 3 would do, and with the sitar on “Onward to Perdóndaris,” it sounds like The Doors’ “The End” spiraling backwards around the apocalyptic sewage sound of a deep rumbling E chords. If you are 20 minutes into this song and not lost in some strange hypnotic trance, then you are listening to it wrong.

“Across The Timestream” is more of the same just with more growl and a better emphasis of the drums.

“In The Shadow Of The Towers” is more of an out of body experience, mainly because it sounds more raw in a demo sense than straight up noise. The same concept persists, yet the special effects are more exploitive.

I could tell you what all of this means for me, but it’s best if you take that journey.

The War on Drugs
Slave Ambient
Secretly Canadian
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Link: http://www.thewarondrugs.net/

Slave Ambient is an amazingly, beautiful album and my favorite to come out of the Secretly Canadian line this year … thus far.

The album drifts off into mindless jams and a contemplative artform that bears a resemblance to the emotion and timeless classics from those early R.E.M. albums, partly blissed out by ’90s 4AD residue. It’s that feeling of departure, awareness and a transition that flows through the veins of this band.

Much thought was given to a song like “Brothers.” The driving folk-rock number sounds more like alternative in the Outback than the streets of Philadelphia. But when you get to “I Was There,” you hear the ghosts of the early Psychadelphia scene; only weirdness is exchanged for a dominating piano driving the song through.

“The Animator” is a beast! A lonely sax breaking through textures of synthesized pleasure that blends into “Come To The City.” Like an awakening, many bands would have placed this at the beginning, but The War On Drugs puts this two-part concept in the center, like a beating heart to the rest of the songs that radiate outward.

Where Adam Granduciel built up a folk-rock catalyst for the first part, he transforms it into a melting pot of electronica stirred into the rock foundations of Slave Ambient. There is more synth-based texture in “It’s Your Destiny” even though “Your Love Is Calling My Name” dropped hints early on.

“City Reprise” twists things around even more, powering up like rocket fuel and emitting a mass of synth noise swirling in place. But by doing that “Baby Missiles” acts like that strange transition on a mix tape. There’s coherency, but how do you go from chaos to cadence without creating a rift.

“Original Slave” is their un-imaginative krautrock instrumental that co-exists somewhere between Neu! and Yo La Tengo before finishing off with the acoustic “Blackwater,” where Granduciel sounds like Bob Dylan in a space suit. Not the grandiose exodus this album probably deserves and one that I would have hoped for, but still a soft-crooning number that completes the circle.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/psychedelichorseshit

When All Night Radio released their psychedelic opus, it was laced with charm and a dignified strangeness that swirled around your mind. Psychedelic Horseshit sounds like an evening of dumpster diving. And if All Night Radio is the Sgt. Pepper of modern indie psychedelic then Laced is the Her Satanic Majesties Request.

Laced is junked out and kicked around that bares no resemblance to the smoothed out neo-psych jams that has saturated the indie market. Psychedelic Horseshit beats those revivalists down with a hammer like Basement Jaxx did to house music.

“I Hate The Beach” pairs Yes-like random synth sounds with over-exposed Casio-sounding drum thumping. “French Connection” is hazy sampling overlayed with an homage to Bollywood. It’s the mystics versus Carlos Castaneda in an oiled-down ring. “Automatic Writing” is one of the sweetest quick-fire ambient pieces I have heard coming from a band who is not ambient related, while “Revolution Wavers” is about as normal as this band gets. But as you listen, the indie rock construct disintegrates into a noisy collage of loops and layers that goes on and on and on, which messes with your head even more.

Thank you Psychedelic Horseshit for making me cross-eyed.

Link: http://akronfamily.com/

Remember those ‘70s driving songs? The feel-good tunes that if you had the top to put down, it was down and the wheels would spin love vibes warmed by the summer sun.

Akron/Family’s latest is a revitalization of the summer cruise music if it meant cruising around Mt. Fuji with Hokusai in mind.

S/T II for short, is a ritualistic celebration that bleeds elements of purist ‘70s power pop icons like The Raspberries or the Bay City Rollers (listen to any of these songs and any day will feel like Saturday night) with influences of Japanese noisecore and psychedelia. You can get just enough out of their music to have a mental image of the band freaking out to The Boredoms or The Flower Travellin’ Band.

Two things I really love about this album beyond the glowing aura that surrounds it. First, the way the album is laid out is flawless; the transitions impeccable. It’s like waking up and wanting to tell someone, “Hey man, I just had the most incredible dream!”

The second thing is that the album is difficult without being difficult. There is so much crazy and cool things going on that you could listen to it a thousand times and still be able to pick up on something new. But at the core of these songs, it can be deconstructed into simple pop songs that are catchy as hell.

It’s one of the greatest indie pop albums I have heard in a while.

Abby GoGo
Self-Titled
Double Phantom
Rating: 4 out of 5

Link: http://www.myspace.com/abbygogorocks

When setting out to review Abby Go Go’s self-titled album, my goal was to write a review that doesn’t name-check a bunch of other bands in order to describe the band’s sound.  I’ll tell you now that I failed, and here’s why:  When the Brian Jonestown Massacre so masterfully used their musical roots as a transparent blueprint for creating new songs using old sounds and production techniques, I doubt they anticipated that this would become the template for a massive wave of bands in the late 2000s.  If the BJM was “retro-inspired”, does this make this new wave “retro-retro-inspired”?  Do I stick to my goal when the line of inspiration is so clearly visible?  I think not, because it has become necessary to point out that some albums may appear to be second-grade BJM knock-offs on the surface, others demand and deserve you not dismiss them out of hand.  Abby Go Go is one of these bands.

With the opening riffs of “Louder Than Dreams” it is clear there’s no time to waste.

“I want to pick up the pieces. I hold them out in my hand.  I put them back together. They fall apart again. It all seems so much louder than dreams” – This may or may not be a nod to the various influences that make this album a kaleidoscope of awesome, but it sure ties back to the opening thesis of this review, so I’m going with that interpretation.

Regardless, it sets the stage for what’s to come.  The second, and arguably weakest, track – “The Lost Song” does sound a lot like early BJM.  A lot.  Specifically, it would have fit nicely on Take It From The Man.  The result is a somewhat forgettable song, but things really start to pick up on the third track: “Torpedo.”  From here on out, the album veers out of Anton Newcomb territory and finds itself flying down the street In A Priest Driven Ambulance. Thank God.

At 5:00 (yes, five minutes) into this 7:20 epic, the Shoegaze injection kicks in just a little, and things start to get interesting.  By the time I got to “Guitar #0,” I was hooked.  Sure, there’s a clear Souvlaki sound beaming through the song, but the longing and haunting vocal that bleeds at the 1:00 mark is the gateway to the gut punch 30 seconds later.  I listened to this one 10 times in a row.  Song 5 (“Feelin Slow”) gets jangly again, but “Sweet Sweet” brings back the swirling sound salad arena rock.  “Come On” has a distinctly indie low-fi feel, and like many Abby Go Go tracks, really hits a stride 3/4s of the way in with a driving guitar riff backed by cathedral-like vocals in the background that takes the song from precious to kick-ass back to precious again.  It works well.

The final cut on the album is a gem called “Glass.”  The 27-second opening guitar bit that opens the track provides some slight-of-hand to the listener, as second #28 reveals where this one is heading, and it is pure sonic bliss.  Another seven minutes of epic gut punch-guitar riffs that belong next to the best shoegaze songs recorded.

Yes, I failed to write a review that doesn’t compare Abby Go Go to their apparent influences, but at the same time, Abby Go Go succeeded in taking those influences and creating a great album that deserves your attention.  Personally, “Guitar #0″ and “Glass” will be permanent fixtures in my listening rotation.  Above all, these songs make Abby Go Go worth owning.

Links:
Viva’s Homepage: http://www.vivamusic.info/live/
Viva on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/vivadeconcini

Viva DeConcini and her back up band released Rock & Roll Lover in mid-July.

Rock & Roll Lover is good, girl-fronted, girly-centric fun rock and roll. Many tasty ingredients make their way into this gumbo of a record.  The title track is a bouncy, funky, danceable song that should appeal to the rockabilly kids in the crowd, as should “Go-Go Boots,” and her instrumental cover of Carole King’s/ Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman.”

DeConcini’s vocals are skilled and show a plethora of influences. She goes from fun and flirty to slow and serious in the span of the record. Her voice seems better suited for the upbeat tracks more than the solemn track “Emily.”

The strings are mainly well-crafted blues and rock guitar with some late 60s Brit-psyche.  Nothing about the bass and drums stand out too much; the focus stays on Viva’s voice, the guitars and horns. Horns? Yes! Viva employed the services of a full horn section in this her release, and apparently takes a 4-piece with her on tour.

Rock and Roll Lover is over all a good record, a solid record.  It is not, however, a fascinating listen. I have always had the opinion that when a musical outfit plays a little bit of everything on a single record (for this record, it would be a psychedelic rock song, a few upbeat rockabilly-new swing songs, and an instrumental Motown cover, etc), they prove themselves to be a great studio band. They do not prove themselves to be a good independent band with their own sound.

Where the band may lack in a sound that they own, they make up for in playing decent songs. Overall, Rock & Roll Lover is a fun record to relax to and have as background music, or to see at a festival or show; not a band to make a point of seeing based on the contents of this record alone.

RIYL: Stray Cats, Motown records, Ani DiFranco, any alternative-Grrrl music, David Bowie, neo swing music.

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.