Pulse Emitter- “Equinox” (2014, Constellation Tatsu)

I went for a walk through the rare snow a few weeks ago, feet buried and slushed in the icy mess of Portland’s streets, on the last morning of snowpocalypse. I glanced up at a young bare tree, and stopped in awe at the shimmering crystal ice that encased every twig and bud, slowly dissolving away in the subdued sunlight. 

I normally wouldn’t think to discuss meager observations like this, but that blissful, misty moment in time is exactly where my mind took me as soon as I pressed play on Pulse Emitter’s Equinox. Improvised by fellow Portland-dweller Daryl Groetsch during the first days of autumn, the album has a beautifully surreal terrain that hypnotically guides you through a sobering awareness of the cosmos. The delicacy of the synthesizer is poetic in itself, setting the stage for an intimate experience with the album. Equinox is simple and masterful all at once, inspiring a greater appreciation for the grandness of the planetary and stellar systems we often forget we are a part of. 

You can grab a copy of Equinox via Constellation Tatsu here, which I highly recommend. Stay lifted, friends. 

Sauna Heat- ‘Sharkbait’ & Triathalon- ‘Seshing’ (2013, Soft Science)

Sauna Heat- ‘Sharkbait’

Soft Science from Savannah, GA sent some tapes to me back before the holidays, and Sauna Heat has been jamming in my tape deck since.  

With a name like Sauna Heat the first thing that comes to mind are house shows, warehouse space, and American Legion hall shows where the band is dripping wet from playing, the people are soaked from dancing, and the guitars are mind melting.  Sauna Heat delivers with an uncharacteristically San Francisco style sound. The title track, ‘Sharkbait’, has a little bit more of a traditional garage rock vibe, but you get hints of the California’s patron saint John Dwyer in the B side.  Whoops and shreds a kin to West Coast kids displaced at birth.   The albums is a quick burner, just as quick as you hit play the tape ends and flips to side B and you are stuck with the harsh reality this your romp through the garages and sheds of Georgia are cut sadly short.  Sauna Heat’s debute is a killer EP…but leaves me wanting about 10 more songs.  I can’t wait for more.  

  

Triathalon- ‘Seshing’ 

Triathalon’s sunny melodic pop was not exactly what I was expecting from Soft Science after Sauna Heat’s barn burning EP but it’s a delightful welcomed surprise.  The men of Triathlon have influences spread all over, but their love for sunny pop music shines threw clearly.  Hints of world music, Brian Wilson, andbeyond can be felt. It might even be a bit hard not hear a slight Vampire Weekend comparison in the lead off track “Freaking Me Out Again”…but don’t jump to a quick judgement. Triathalon ooze warmth, and make the South Eastern United States seem like a much more inviting place…well Savannah doesn’t really have that problem, but the rest of Georgia sometimes does.  

Seshing is amazingly clean for a full band home recording, and you wouldn’t even notice if it wasn’t for the slight ringing of the cymbals. We’re a little bit behind on this release having come out in April of 2013 so hop around on their bandcamp to check out some of the newer tracks.  If you pick up Seshing make sure to hop over to Soft Science and grab the tape (rather than the download) and you are in for a real treat…and exclusive track.  

More on:
Sauna Heat here. 
Triathalon here. 
Buy the tapes from Soft Science here. 

Caténine-S/T (2013, Self-released)

Caténine is a tape by Caténine, a solo project by a one Dylan Connor. At times, listening to this, it’s hard to believe it is not the demo tape Wild Nothings sent to Capture Tracks. It’s this wonderful batch of hazy, dreamy indie pop that would have been right at home circa 2010. Right from the get go there’s “Wonder”, a breezy yet quiet piece of jangly, early Beach Fossils-esque pop, gliding along before the distortion kicks in for a second for some added humph. There are the little howls on “Let Me In” that make the song seem distant, as if it’s going to start fading at any moment, before the drums really kick in and the song instead blossoms with a spark of love from the ‘80s. Synths are sprinkled over the tracks like fairy dust, giving the whole tape a glistening quality, even though it feels  very wintery at the same time, as if it were crafted in a unheated apartment on a cold, December night. Strangely though, “Disintegrate” is really where everything Connor does truly shines. He puts his vocals at the center of the track, and Caténine’s sound shifts immensely. Instead of invoking gray, winter days, the track feels like it should be played along to a crisp, autumn sunset as the distortion rises and the Yo La Tengo influence becomes more apparent before it all dissipates into a fitting quiet.

Each of the tape’s five songs was crafted by Connor alone, and it shows. Everything has a fragile quality; from the looped, three note guitar riffs, drum machine beats, and Connor’s buried crone, you can see the seams and stitches as to how it was all put together. At the same time though, that gives it a lot of its charm. This tape really feels like something that was lovingly made, heart and soul in every aspect.

Caténine’s Website

Buy the Caténine cassette here, from their Bandcamp

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Posted by David

Alligator Indian- “More Songs About Animals & TV” (2013, Bleeding Gold)

Alligator Indian have been milling around in Bleeding Gold’s basement for sometime now popping out to scare some children, release a record or a tape, and snuggle a cat fairly often…this time around they are back with a four song EP of cold electronics, horror pop blissed over with dual co-ed vocals to send shivers up your spine to make your body move. 

Spooky Bubble and Christian Church’s vocals complement each other well, and really show the afterlife what they can do on the B side of this lovely tape. Christian’s vocals on  ”PUF//FIN’ are almost hypnotic, and Spooky’s vocals act more as an instrument to create an intense sonic intoxication when the two are layered together, and she shows that she can carry the spell like cadence just as well on “Later, Data Dog.” Cold but playful synths with warm vocal, besides the occasional screech from Spooky on “Corpsing,” carry the the band into the dark areas of pops unknown corners that seem very fitting for the duo that resides in surprisingly chilly mountains of the North Carolina. 

It’s not to say that Alligator Indian exclusively dwell in the realm of sprits, ghosts, and the like but it’s hard not to take note in the month of October when Halloween decorations are abundant around my house. Great for letting your mind unwind during a storm or a full moon after that X-Files or Twilight Zone marathon you just finished. Don’t be afraid to hit play, their tunes are not just for goth kids…they hit familiar notes with the coldwave shut-ins and the hypnagogic pop family too (or should I say FMLY?). 

Pick up the limited edition cassette from Bleeding Gold.

Alligator Indian // Bleeding Gold Records

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Posted by Tom.

Spotted Race Tapes

Never, ever underestimate the necessity of a scene to document itself. Of the five tapes I received from Spotted Race, a label/distro run by Martin Lumpy that’s dedicated to capturing all the fucked up, drug obsessed, brain damaged, weirdo punks and the music they make in St. Louis, four were dubbed right onto old cassettes that the label managed to find in a used Goodwill freebie bin. Three were just the tape and insert rubber banded together, something I had never seen before I opened my package. I bring all this up not to imply some sort of sense of amateurism to the releases (in fact, all the art is made in house, and every tape comes with an insert/lyric sheet to boot). What I’m saying is that Spotted Race has ignored a need for sheen, instead solely concentrating on making sure this music is on tape, and available to those who want to hear it.

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Lumpy and the Dumpers-S/T Demo (2012)

The demo that started this whole shebang. This is some of the scuzziest, lo-fi, spastic punk I’ve heard in a long time. This is not a band that cares about looking silly or stupid in any way, shape or form. For Christ sake, the first song is called “Eel Goo” and is about trying to use every slime you can find to get high. “Face the Meat” is equally obnoxious, just a spewing of the most vile and absurd tale of living in the city. The last track “Future” is a lot angrier, with Lumpy singing through clenched teeth and squinted eyes toward tomorrow. Somehow, through all this, Lumpy and the Dumpers create something that is…addictive. Nothing is outright catchy per se, but the songs stay in the brain, soaking and sloshing around in the brain, making it heavy and thick like a chemical high.

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Nos Bos- S/T Demo (2013)

The most directly “punk” of the batch, it’s clear why Spotted Race released this Nos Bos tape. While not as absurd as Lumpy and the Dumpers, Nos Bos craft some deeply warped and evil feeling punk rock. A twisted suburban hell is crafted on these songs, thanks to the singer’s nasal vocals, which makes the songs both teenage and alien at the same time. The byproduct of the Germs if they had become a proper hardcore band and all their songs were then coated in a thin layer of tar. It’s five very damaged songs, but also fiver very awesome and crazed hardcore songs too. I can’t imagine what their Halloween songs would be like.

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Cal and the Calories- S/T Demo (2013)

Apparently these songs were written around the same time as the Lumpy and the Dumpers demo, by a member of the band, but couldn’t be used because they were too catchy. Listening to the tape, it’s understandable why. The songs have a much more proto-punk sound to them, like Cal was listening to a lot of OBN III’s records, and wanted to make a similar modern proto-punk sound. It actually turned out pretty well, the songs are pretty catchy (especially “Jackhamma”), though they feel a little simple at times.

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Black Panties-“I Don’t Care About Punx” b/w “No Manners” Cassingle (2012)

This was billed as an anti-punk tape, and you can hear the effort that Black Panties put in to make that happen. The whole sound of “I Don’t Care About Punx” is a compressed mess; the drums, guitar, and bass a giant blob of noise as Panties delivers a sarcasm filled but truly pissed screed against the scene punks he sees. It’s almost just rising and falling noise, and it’s great. “No Manners” serves as a great contrast, the lyrics a takedown of Blank Panties himself, and song just a smidge catchier than the a-side. The computer program voice that ends the song delivering cynical after cynical phrase is the deliciously cruel cherry on top.

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Lumpy and the Dumpers-“Bat” b/w “X-Rod” Halloween Cassingle (2012)

More Lumpy and the Dumpers! Part of a Halloween themed cassingle series they did last year, this tape is more of the vile and excellent slime punk that their demo was. “Bat” is just that, the tale of a bat terrorizing everyone, ruining everything and spewing gunk everywhere. The b-side is a cover of “X-Rod” by the band Max Load, an old Killed by Death band from ’79. Where a key influence something else, the song sounds just like another Lumpy and the Dumpers song, as damaged and warped as the rest of their discography.

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Sweet Tooth-S/T Demo (2010)

Fond memories. This was the band Martin Lumpy was in back in the day with his brother Erik. Erik played guitar, Martin played drums, they had a friend play bass & another scream, and together they called themselves Sweet Tooth made very, very excellent modern hardcore. And now Spotted Race is making more copies of their debut demo available. It was a sort of push back against the whole “mysterious guy” hardcore scene that was a part of the scene at the time, so the songs are direct and brutal. They are just one blast after another of fury and rage, indiscriminate as to who gets harmed so long as the subjects of the song feel the blunt of it. It’s some great stuff though, never static or the same, with bits of the various different subgenres of hardcore appearing here and there on the tape (Japanese hardcore craziness, “Damaged I” sloggers). This is the type of tape that makes your anger boil over and causes you to start punching a wall.

Buy all these tapes from Spotted Race right now

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Posted by David

Priests-Tape Two (2013, Sister Polygon Records)

The first time I heard Priests was on their Radiation​/​Personal Planes 7”, a really cool single that had two very minimalist post-punk tunes that built up slowly as they noisier and more chaotic. But as great as that single was, it pales in comparison to their new tape, appropriately titled Tape Two. Maybe it’s the inclusion of fourth member Taylor L. on the recording. Maybe it’s the result of playing more shows and getting more comfortable within a band dynamic. Maybe it’s just the way a tape lets a band feel like they can let loose however they want. Whatever the cause, Tape Two feels so much more vital and volatile for the band.

“Leave Me Alone”, which opens the tape, instantly has a darker and more aggressive feel, the way its no wave like guitars and bass bounce off each other, and Katie Alice Greer’s is instantly in your face, a mix of snot, snark, and being pissed-off as hell. That dark, knowing attitude of their songs holds steady through the tape, whether on band’s reflection/take down of Lana Del Ray (“Lana”) or the Sleater-Kinney worthy “Twelve”. The tape’s centerpiece (for lack of a better word) is “USA (Incantations)”, a brief but very intense spoken word track akin to Raw Nerve’s “Dating Problems” that manages to cast a shadow on all perceived greatness of the USA. It feels like the band’s mission statement, even if the band never brings themselves up.  

There’s an intelligence here that also cannot be understated. As (seemingly) childish or snotty Priests can seem, they know exactly what they’re doing at all times, throughout Tape Two’s seven tracks. And it’s that mentality that lets Priests make their boldest statements on the seemingly most mild-mannered of mediums.

Priests’ Tumblr

Priests are going on a mini-tour of the east coast, so grab a copy when you see them. If you can’t snag a copy from Dischord

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Posted by David

Vulture Shit- “Demo” (2013, Self released)

At the Silent Barn cassette fair this past weekend three dudes were checking out the wares on my table…and as they left they stuck a demo tape in my hand.  

Typically bands with references to fecies in the name are an instant turn off to me, but when naming your band after a bowel movement Vulture Shit is a much better name than Diarrhea Planet .

The five song cassette was recorded on TDK 90 minute blank, and handwritten song names. For an act as rough, and who’s live show invokes such a…for lack of better words…enthusiastically violent pit I was extremely impressed by the quality of the recordings on this demo, and the full sound produced by the bass, drum, and vocal three piece. 

Lyrically Vulture Shit are full of angst, and this demo hits on many of the classic punk rock themes (religion, parents, growing up, jobs) and made me laugh out loud with the line that goes something like “the pigs see a church van you know they look the other way every time” in their track “Church Van Contraband” (listen below). They have speed, angst, and an interesting and intense vocalist who sings, screams, and speaks, but aren’t afraid to slow down and get weird and personal with the listener. All things that are necessary for a punk band to invoke a response, both positive and negative from a crowd…and let’s be honest if there isn’t some negative response you aren’t really a punk band.  Rhythmically Vulture Shit hit on some sonic frequencies that bring my mind back to 2004’s Death From Above 1979’s You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine but coming from a dirtier darker place, a place that is going make you mosh rather than get your groove on.  Although it’s not on the tape check out video for “Whole Lotta Nottin’” it might hit that spot for you too.  I’m looking forward to checking these dudes out live sometime.  

Vulture Shit // VS Facebook 

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posted by Tom. 

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This five song tape has now become a five song 7” called The Joys of Employment by Vulture Shit.  You can buy it here: http://msdos.biz/

Sneaky Snake - “Eventide” (2013, Holodeck Records)

Holodeck Records hasn’t been around too terribly long, but in the few short years since the label’s inception they’ve built up an excellent reputation for themselves on the back of their hard work and attention to detal. On top of that, they’ve curated a very specific aesthetic born out of the Austin, Texas electronic and drone scenes bolstered by an impressive roster of local acts. 

With a few of their more recent cassettes however, they’ve made a conscious effort to extend their borders outside of the Austin scene by incorporating releases from not different places but of different styles as well. With recent releases by artists like Marie Davidson and Good Stuff House, the label is making sure to have those moves count. In an attempt to stretch their arms out a bit further, the label has released Sneaky Snake's latest album Eventide. 

Helping us say goodbye to summer, this Los Angeles-based ambient synth duo do their best to bring us down gently after these lingering, hot summer months. With two lengthy mood pieces, Sneaky Snake has effectively recreated the feeling of getting back from a sweltering day at the beach only to dive headfirst into a cold swimming pool. The waves of hissing synths move in gentle waves much like the way the sunbeams dance back and forth as they are refracted and broken on the pool floor. It’s therapeutic in a way that only New Age music can be, and if I listen too closely and allow it to completely wash over me, then it stands to suggest that I won’t be getting anything else productive done today.

Eventide is available now at the Holodeck store.

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Posted by Ian

Cloud Cover- “Cloud Cover” (2013, Self-released)

The first time I listened to Cloud Cover’s music was on speaker setup, the system I usually use to have my room fill up with sound completely. I realized 30 seconds in what a mistake this way, that this was a headphones tape, something to be listened to on a bed in the dead of night. The music is just far too personal to be received in any other way (more on that in a second).

The solo project of one Jenny Tuite (who also makes music with her band Dirty Dishes), under Cloud Cover she makes fragile and haunting music, a blend of haunting atmosphere, electronic manipulation, and slow, clanging guitar strumming that would make Grouper proud. Opener “Cannibalism” is particular gothic, Tuite’s icy and wiry vocals uttered quietly as the track unfolds spider like and the metallic guitar chords blend into the song’s noisy, ambient coda. The tape doesn’t stay in that one, dark place though. Next track “Slow Curse” begins in similar territory as “Cannibalism” before Tuite’s confidence picks up and the slow percussion comes in, pushing the song forward. Björk’s presence is felt on the track. “Happy Now” & “Soft Fangs” are the most fleshed out, using a guitar/bass/drums combination to lift the tracks from a sense of haunting grief to a heavy sense of melancholy dream-pop. The tape ends on its b-side, which contains a sole track “Dinner Bell”; a long spiraling instrumental melding guitars and electronics that ends the cassette on a proper discordant but ambient coda.

All the Cloud Cover tapes are handmade, the J-card/tape stickers made from cut up magazines, with a folded lyrics sheet squeezed inside the case. That just adds the intimacy of the tape. You can tell how much of the music is really pulled from Tuite’s being, and everything from the music to the tape is reflective off that. It’s an absolutely lovely little thing.

Cloud Cover/Jenny Tuite’s Tumblr

Buy the Cloud Cover cassette on their bandcamp

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Posted by David

The Flag- “Alpha 60 Punch Out” (2013, GODMODE)

What a birthday present…in the midst of celebrating Mr. Gimme Tinnitus shows up with a bottle of Allagash Curieux and sticks a copy of Alpha 60 Punch Out into my hand.  If only I had a cassette deck hooked up right then and there.  I know that Mr. McGrath is responsible for send the tape along, and I want to send my thanks out to him.  

I’ve been a fan of The Flag’s collected works (formerly ATM) for a while, but this new cassingle out on GODMODE is something very special. McGrath has mastered the fine balance be tween hypnotic ambience and a fined tuned pop song wrapped up up in the his own vein of post-punk that makes you unsure whether you want to dance, mosh, or freakout. Clocking in at just over six minutes “Alpha 60 Punch Out” reaches an intensity and brilliance that would be the perfect opening or ending to The Flag’s live set.  A song that can at once get the audience hooked and engaged for a whole performance, or a mind blowing ending that will leave you wanting more.  McGrath’s voice is infectious, and have me eagerly awaiting his next full length.  

"Neighbors" is on the B side, and gives us a much darker look into the mind of The Flag.  An ode to a mugging as described by the label which leaves you feeling cold and empty waiting for through the silence until the tape eventually flips back. 

This release is part of the GODMODE Cassingles Club, and sells for $2 on their website.  Hand stamped, hand numbered, and limited to fifty copies…a label after my own heart.  

Listen to the A side, and pick up the tape here.

The Flag // enter GODMODE 

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posted by Tom.