Review: Cheap Time - Wallpaper Music
By Paul Blawat
Jeffrey Novak is prolific. Almost suspiciously so.* Some musicians have that special drive; intense bursts of creative genius in which each LP, 7”, song, and note is both calculated and magnificent. Novak is one of these rare artists. He’s the “man behind the curtain” of Cheap Time, a Tennessee-based trio, and purveyors of some of the finest punk rock and roll over the past few years.** Their brand new LP, Wallpaper Music, is a continuation of that musical excellence. Novak’s razor-sharp vocals,*** Cole’s fuzzed out bass, and Ryan’s sensational splish splash drum pummeling are at the peak of their raw powers.
“More Cigarettes” reminds me of Mommymen-era Geza X, with greater than KBD production. I’ve been humming this all week walking ‘round town.**** Doo-doo-doo-doo-ooo-ooo, doo-doo-doo-doo-ooo-ooo, doo-doo-doo-doo-ooo-ooo, doo-doo-doo-doo-ooo-ooo - that’s how ya do a solo. Damn. “Straight and Narrow” is an Oz rock fireball of fuzz with hints of Cosmic Psychos, the Fluid, and Thee Hypnotics with a tinge of the MC5. Power pop punkness of a grandiose scale, and possibly the finest use of hand claps since “No Fun”. “Take it if you Want”: Eternally Yours Saints meets Rolling Stones c. “Street Fighting Man”. Laid back, sprawling, just distorted enough guitars pair well with Novak’s diatribe. And there’s flute? Eh. It works. “Dream it Up” and “Night to Night” surge on with 70s power punk shine, funneling toward the LP’s closer “Underneath the Fruit Flies”. The last track clocks in at 7:28 and I’ve listened to it on multiple occasions. Nods to Hawkwind aside, Cheap Time’s closest attempt at an epic (thus far) is an odd journey.***** Moody organ intro, wild buzzsaw bass, tripped out backing vocals, essential Pete Townsend solo, reverb up the wazoo—this one’s got it all folks. Must kill live.******
Wallpaper Music is out now via In the Red Records.
*Did he meet Billy Childish at the Crossroads? I’ll leave that assessment to you, loyal readers.
**”People Talk”, from their debut s/t LP, is a still a favorite of mine. Was I crushed when I found out that it was a cover? A little.
***Like an angry, raw Ray Davies.
****One of many reasons people been staring at me?
*****No. Not that Journey.
******I’m of course talking about the penultimate 25-minute version that has or will be attempted at some point.
Best Of Year One: Reviews
In addition to our birthday shows, we’re celebrating our one year anniversary by looking back over our favorite news, reviews, features, and mixes, as Joseph, Kristen, Mariana, and Sonam make their picks for Best of Year One. And to show how far we’ve come, we’re also switching back to our original look for the week. It’s been an amazing twelve months, and we look forward to what the next twelve will bring. Thanks for reading.
We’ve generally tried to stick with concise, as-objective-as-possible reviews, more as a way of going “hey, check out this record!”, rather than drawn-out novellas with too many irrelevant factoids and a much-loathed rating system. We set out to write about and promote the music we dig. Most of us don’t really have much in the way of previous writing experience, but there has been some definite improvement over the past year, especially with the continual addition of knowledgeable music-obsessed folks from all over the place. In celebration of GET BENT’s birthday, the staff selected their favorite, most memorable reviews to date. Without further ado, here’s a recap. - Kristen Berry, Reviews Editor
Review: Violens - True
By Mukta Mohan
Listening to Violens’ latest album, True, is like taking a step into a broken time machine that accidentally captures moments of every era, smashes them up and blends them together, creating something that is new and exciting. While the word ‘dreamy’ is often used to describe Violens and much of the Slumberland crowd, any dreams had while listening to True are sure to be wild rides, since the mood changes drastically from start to finish. This album is meant to be listened to in its exact order, as each song is strategically placed so that your feelings follow the music.
The first half of the album takes cues from 1980s bands like Cleaners from Venus and the Wake, but also blends 1960s harmonies in songs like “When to Let Go”. All of this is done while washing the songs over with a 1990s Cocteau Twins-style haze that darkens every song just a bit. The very first track, “Totally True”, makes it feel like everything is going to be all right, but soon enough “Lavender Forces” comes on and changes the tone. Suddenly, things get darker and it feels like you’re in a rainy industrial city where thunder takes over the already grey sky. Thrashing Sonic Youth style guitars fill “Unfolding Black Wings” in a frenzy. The rest of the album seems rushed and urgent, as if Violens are running away from something but can’t escape it, leaving the listener feeling unsettled but inspired by the last track.
Available on Slumberland Records.
Review: Slug Guts - Stranglin’ You Too 7” EP
The Hozac Hookup Klub subscription series is always more than worth the money to sign up, especially with this latest round of stellar underground rock. The cream of the crop has to be the new single from Slug Guts, entitled Stranglin You Too.
Slug Guts’ play stomach-wrenching, swampy, gothic noise rock that owes much to fellow Australians the Birthday Party and the Scientists, as well as early Christian Death. Last year’s epic noise-rattled LP Howlin’ Gang on Sacred Bones was an ear-blistering effort that ought to have awoken fans looking for lost Swans albums/demos out of their stupor. Slug Guts’ new single is even better than that.
All four of these tracks crammed onto Stranglin’ You Too continue on in the abrasive, murky, post-apocalyptic rock vibe of their earlier releases. ”Sucking Down” is like a schizophrenic homeless man on the corner howling about the evils of the world and its eminent end. “Coathanger Blue” and “Old Sores, New Boys” show their love of old Touch and Go records and thrashy mid tempo guitar rock. But it’s really the title track that nails the creepy vibe down. Kinda like a slowed-down Murder City Devils mixed with a vitriolic blast of blues-based feedback, the kind that the Chrome Cranks are known for.
Listen to “Stranglin You Too” below.
Review: Allah-Las - Tell Me (What’s on Your Mind) 7”
By Ruby Perez
The Allah-Las are Miles Michaud, Pedrum Siadatian, Spencer Dunham, and Matthew Correia. Hailing from the holy grail of fun, sun, and sand that is Los Angeles, California, the Allah-Las have done what many musicians before them have tried: write incredible songs that reflect their experiences and surroundings. Word has it on the street that these boys like to surf and love the history that LA carries. This is not too surprising, considering their sound is essentially sweet California love wrapped in a neat little package.
Their 7”, Tell Me (Whatʼs on Your Mind), has been released via Innovative Leisure. Despite generalizations, LA is incredibly large and has much more going for it besides the beach. Landscapes change by the block, and the uniqueness of the city is reflected the music of the Allah-Las. Take their track “Sacred Sands”, which is groovy and deeply reminiscent of 1960s psychedelia. The track embodies elements of surf as well, but as a whole remains drenched in mellow vibes and good times.
Listen to the title track below.
Review: Christian Bland and the Revelators - Pig Boat Blues
Pig Boat Blues is the sophomore album from Black Angels guitarist/UFO Club member Christian Bland and his band the Revelators. It’s a colorful collage of vintage sounds, recalling innovators like Syd Barrett and the more sprawling sonic textures of the 13th Floor Elevators, but in a modern atmosphere.
Album opener “Say Hello” is a short clip that gravitates over a tried-and-true blues progression, with the distant, reverb-laden vocals adding to the trip factor. The manner in which it abruptly ends is slightly unsettling and, thus, only feels half-realized. The Revelators have a tendency to do this to the listener. Standout compositions like “Black Crayon” and “LARA” contain that beautifully reverberating, hypnotic drone that Bland brings to that aspect of the Black Angels’ sound, and are among the best tracks. They’re repetitious in a compelling way and easy to get lost in, evoking images of the western American lanscape with the blazing sun beating down in the arid desert. Those songs come off distinctly American in spirit, hinting at a ruggedly bluesy, soul-soothing interior, while others, like the acoustic, trippy, 60s pop-oriented “Candy Land”, feel more evocative of British psychedelia (see Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery From the UK Underground 1965-69). Several go for the best of both worlds; “Shadow Child”, in particular, combines harmonica with a Byrdsian guitar jangle and a Syd Barrett-like whimsical melody. The instrumental “CIA” is like a buzzy classic era Electric Prunes track gone surfing. Some, like the wavy “13 Cent Killer”, could easily play on for an eternity rather than the mere few minutes they’re allotted. The seven-minute “Shark Attack” seems to; it has three movements and is ultimately the most somber and cinematic of anything on the record. To sum up, Pig Boat Blues is like an audio equivalent of a sketchbook full of color experiments. Not everything stands out, but it sounds damn fine.
Listen tothe album via Soundcloud and get the album from the Reverb Appreciation Society. Check out the video for “Black Crayon” below.
Review: Estrogen Highs - Irrelevant Future
By Zach Braun
“Bedroom pop” has become one of the most popular genres of the last few years, thanks to cheap recording equipment and the instant-fix ease of the Internet, but it’s a pretty nebulous style to describe. Connecticut’s Estrogen Highs don’t sound anything like bedroom titan Arial Pink, but they do have an isolated, insular vibe about them, cranking out minimalist punk-influenced songs that are tight and fully formed. Listening to Irrelevant Future, the band’s first LP for Trouble in Mind and third full-length overall, feels like invading on a private recording session by a lost early 80s Rough Trade band.
Irrelevant Future alternates between up-tempo rock ‘n’ roll in a tough and lean Bare Wires vein, the repetitive art school punk of early Wire, and moody jangle pop with wobbly, off-key harmonies that indicates the band put some time in listening to the messy British DIY stuff collected on the Messthetics compilations. They get a bit shouty and strident on tracks like “Status Quo (Oh No)”, which sports an incredible wandering melodic bass line that jousts with the harsh strum of the guitars like the Gang of Four without the dancy, dubby bottom. This disconnect marks “The World Is Flat” as well, as the stark production really highlights each instrument to the point where you can zone out and listen to each part on its own. Irrelevant Future is challenging to be sure, but the Estrogen Highs let enough light into their music to make it a curious and compulsive record.
Grab it now from Trouble in Mind Records, and make sure to catch them at the Hozac Blackout Fest on the 20th.
Review: The Final Frontiers - Pony Up
By Becca Capers
The Final Frontiers have not let the sundry possible applications of their band name stop them from brandishing it with their own unique fervor. This, and the fact that they put out their first tape, Pony Up (2011), by themselves corroborate a stubbornness that their music already implies.
The all-male threesome is based in Burlington, VT. They are fronted by two simultaneous yelpers, both gangly, who share a vocal tone that quivers at the cusp of cringe-worthy and not-so-subtly alludes to adolescence. One plays guitar in a punk/western frenzy, and the other pounds out pop rock keyboard riffs that you’ll unavoidably struggle to keep out of your mind. The drummer keeps it all together and probably single-handedly prevents the band from being too easily described as “silly.” If not quite silly, though, the Final Frontiers flirt with self-deprecation and themes as disparate as gardening, space exploration, and motor bikes.
Listen to “Suzuki 125”, and let yourself feel fourteen again.
Review: Wax Idols - Schadenfreude 7”
By Paul Blawat
Before I get started, I’d like to point out that IMHO Wax Idols’ No Future is one of my top five LPs of last year. So, I’m biased. So there’s that. Here we go*…
The newest Wax Idols 7” is excellent.
“Schadenfreude”** sprawls and spirals with dark 80s Los Angeles reverberations. Wax Idols are in many ways a continuation of the spirit of what Jeffery Lee Pierce was up to on the middling Gun Club LPs.**** The bands are stylistically similar, yet vocally, Heather Fedewa’s pipes are much different than JLP’s warped warbling.***** The track clocks in just over two minutes, so don’t worry about pogoing and spazzing around your room for too long. “The Last Drop” is “punk” in the same way that X’s “Adult Books” is. Mildly, with bright, shiny, reverb-laden guitar riffs, and layered with sweet vocals that somehow sound just angry enough. The bass sounds like it was taken from a live Germs LP. Fantastically rough. Even a dash of the Pixies or later era Hüsker Dü here? This is a hell of a song.
I’m going to buy this right now. Aaaaand it’s already sold out. Well, you can still get a digital copy from the Suicide Squeeze online store.
*If some rescue dog brings me a shitty Bud Light…
**Definition for those who meticulously*** look up these sorts of things: scha·den·freu·de (shäd’n-froi’d) n. Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
***me·tic·u·lous adj. 1. Extremely careful and precise. 2. Extremely or excessively concerned with details.
****Most like Miami and Mother Juno.
*****Don’t get me wrong, I love it. A lot. Like this much.
Review: The Sufis - The Sufis
By Ruby Perez
There are records that demand our full attention; we carefully listen to the songs as each fades into the next. There are the tracks that we can literally feel as the album plays through in its entirety. However, in our modern day and age, we don’t always have time to enjoy these listening parties as much as we would like, but the Sufis are releasing an album that certainly deserves nothing but this serious attention.
Hailing from the music capital of the world, the Sufis take you back to a time in which listening to records was not only a great pleasure, but a way of life. Consisting of Calvin Laporte, Jay Smith, and Evan Smith, the trio have released a self-titled album that is incredibly nostalgic to 1960s psychedelia. Take the track “Lemming Circle Dance”, which features an array of organs, reversed track samples, and maybe even a harpsichord.
Now, plenty of folks claim the Beatles as a musical influence, but with the smorgasbord of weird tracks found in most of their recordings, the Sufis have crafted a modern day take on 1960s rock ’n’ roll. Songs such as “Wake Up”, which feature vocals drenched in tremolo, backwards guitar, and flute, only prove that the Sufis have not only hit the nail on the head when it comes to achieving their sound, but give a certain amount of respect to their influences without sounding contrived in the least.
Sample their debut track “Wake Up”, which will be sold exclusively on tape via Burger Records this June, or for all the UK kids, on vinyl via Ample Play Records.
