11 RECORDS for 2011
December 7, 2011
ALARIC - s/t (20 Buck Spin)
YOUNG WIDOWS – ‘In and Out of Youth and Lightness’ (Temporary Residence)
HELMS ALEE - ‘Weatherhead’ (Hydra head)
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE - ‘Across Wounded Galaxies’ (Shogun Recordings)
BIG’N – ‘Spare the Horses’ 10″ (African Tapes)
RED FANG - ‘Murder the Mountains’ (Relapse)
AMERICAN HERITAGE – ‘Sedentary’ (Translation Loss)
CITY OF SHIPS - ‘Minor World’ (Sound Study records)
PART CHIMP/TORCHE – split (Chunklet)
VOIVOD – ‘Warriors of Ice’ (Sonic Unyon Metal)
SCREAM – ‘Complete Control’ 10″ (Side One Dummy)
A solid year for some interesting releases from both new and old alike. Extra mentions: The Bitch Magnet reissues, Office of Future Plans album on Dischord & the Atriarch CD came out this year but I haven’t heard either yet. Also the first BIG’N LP ‘Cutthroat’ was repressed in an edition of 200 by X-MIST. Oh and the Shiny Beast discography CD finally saw release on Little Mafia.
.end now
July 6, 2011
I had some reservations as to posting this or not… I’ve avoided anything relating to ‘pimping your shit’ but I’m guessing some people may be interested in hearing the band I play guitar in called .end now. Since I’m writing the riffs the music is in many ways relates to the bands I have posted here. These tracks were recorded back in September 2010 by our friend Guy in his makeshift studio. After some persuasion he finally mixed them in May 2011, we weren’t allowed to assist. All the same he did a good job and they sound pretty sturdy for the hundred quid we paid him for recording four tracks. At some point in the future we will make physical copies which will sound/look much better and include the other two tracks from that session (one is a Failure cover). Until then see what you think…
CRAW – Map, Monitor, Surge
March 21, 2011
Massively overlooked band that grew through the same period of 90′s ’noise rock’ that was popularised by Helmet, Jesus Lizard, Shellac et al. In fact Craw share few similarities beyond the surface references, the nearest band I can think to categorise them alongside would be Season To Risk. Both bands favour strange time signatures, odd spoken/sung vocals & dissonant guitar lines.
’Map, Monitor, Surge’ is their third album recorded by Steve Albini and Bill Korecky at Mars studio (Integrity/Ringworm) in 1996. This is the first appearance of Will Scharf (Keelhaul) on drums and he maybe accentuates their abuse of meter change and twisting song patterns. It is rare that any song part is repeated twice and any verse/chorus format is abandonned. It can be a disconcerting and difficult listen which is why they didn’t get much noteriety, their last album however was released by Hydra head in 2002 which was a profile boost. I detect some definite later Black Flag influence in the guitar lines on ‘Killer microbes devour Cleveland’ and the general ’avant garde’ vibe. The Craw website had basically everything they ever recorded on it available for free download, unfortunately it seems to have gone kaput… so seek out their albums instead!
TIDE OF IRON – Bill Cosby video
February 23, 2011
My good friend Rob Woodcock sings/drums in the band TIDE OF IRON. They have a demo out shortly and just put this video together which rules. I thought I’d share it here so if you like Unsane/early Helmet/AmRep noise check it:
THE FAITH – Subject to Change
January 14, 2011
More of a proposition than a post… I need a copy of this 12″, can anyone out there hook me up? I know there were six pressing or something stupid but you hardly see any copies of it. Hopefully it will be in Dischord’s ‘to do’ list for 2011. Released in 1983, the lineup is basically pre Embrace with Alec MacKaye on vocals not his brother. I was always one for the Void side but I think these days I’d go with The Faith, Alec MacKaye is an underated force within D.C. history… probably kinda hard to live up to a brother like Ian though! This is the last post for a while…
EDIT: Dischord reissued ‘Subject to Change + demos’ in September this year!
