Nik Havert

Review: The Wants – Container

Before COVID-19 floated across the country and shut down music venues and tours everywhere, I was lucky enough to catch The Wants on tour with BODEGA. Two of The Wants, guitarist / lead vocalist Madison Velding-VanDam and bassist / vocalist Heather Elle, are BODEGA members. I got to speak with Wants drummer Jason Gates after the show and he told me they’d been working on their full-length debut, Container, for a long while and were proud of it.

As they should be, because it’s a sharp post-punk / new wave / no wave album that everyone should hear. Opening instrumental track “Ramp” starts off with what sounds like half-melted tapes being played backwards before it adds synthwave layers and instantly intriguing guitar licks. The title track has Velding-VanDam singing about compressing emotion, desire, and even human contact into something manageable or easily hidden (“Watch him, pull him apart, can he fit in a container?”). The song now in the wake of self-isolation, which put us all in our own containers / homes against our will, is doubly powerful (and it was already massive with Velding-VanDam’s brash riffs, Elle’s thudding bass, and Gates’ killer beat).

After another brief instrumental (“Machine Room”), Velding-VanDam again reveals himself as a bit of a prophet on “Fear My Society” as he sings, “I don’t need my society. I can feel my society bringing me down.” Elle’s backing vocals add a haunted layer to the track, and the whole thing reminds me of early 1990’s Brian Eno recordings. Lead single “The Motor” (which seems to be a song about working well under pressure – perhaps in the bedroom) has some of Gates’ sharpest chops and Velding-VanDam’s guitar seems to come at your from at least four different directions.

I love that The Wants (and any band) include instrumental tracks, especially ones like the three-and-a-half minute “Aluminum” – a weird, yet catchy soundscape that goes well with the following cut – “Ape Trap” (a song about being caught somewhere and refusing to let go of what’s keeping you miserable in that space). “I’m craving science fiction, so I’ll no longer do your dishes while I beat my head on the walls of my ape trap,” Velding-VanDam sings in perhaps my favorite line on the album (and Elle’s wicked bass curls around you like a purring cat).

The hissing and thumping “Waiting Room” could easily slide into the score of John Carpenter film. Elle’s opening bass on “Clearly a Crisis” gets your whole body moving while Velding-VanDam sings about being wary of moving forward in a relationship (“There’s clearly a crisis. This attraction’s inescapable, so I hide myself…”). The sparse breakdown about halfway through the track and the subsequent shoegaze tidal wave afterward are outstanding. “Nuclear Party” has a great early B-52’s sound to it (especially the way Velding-VanDam’s guitar seems to stumble around the room). Elle’s bass and Gates’ drums on “Hydra” are dance floor-ready and Velding-VanDam’s vocals remind me of Cy Curnin‘s (of The Fixx) vocal style. The album ends with another long, and somewhat creepy, instrumental – “Voltage.”

Container is an impressive debut that is not a BODEGA spin-off. Both bands are outstanding in their own right, and both bands tackle some similar subjects in their lyrics (the often bizarre natures of relationships, sex, and technology, for example), but The Wants are just as happy to stand back in the shadows and watch the party as they are to jump into the middle of it.

Keep your mind open.

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Tricky asks us to “Fall Please” on his new single.

ricky announces his 14th studio album, Fall To Pieces, out September 4th on his own label False Idols, and shares its lead single/video, “Fall Please.” The legendary producer might be over three decades deep into his music career but he’s currently on an especially prolific run. In the last year, he dropped the enchanting 20,20 EP and put out an acclaimed autobiography, Hell Is Round The Corner.

Watch Tricky’s Video for “Fall Please”

“Fall Please,” a song which Tricky likens to Washington, D.C. Go-go, has a strange and twisted accessibility that surprised even the man who wrote it. “With most of my stuff, there’s nothing else like it around,” he says. “But with ‘Fall Please’ I’ve managed to do something I’ve never been able to before, which is that everyone can feel it – even people who don’t know my music. It’s my version of pop music, the closest I’ve got to making pop.”

Fall To Pieces was recorded in Tricky’s Berlin studio in late 2019. Tricky is keen to point out that the tracks on the record can be deceptive; often short, ending abruptly and moving on to the next without warning. Although instrumentation varies from bursts of tense synths, distorted dial tones, and samples, the song’s lyrics can be dark and dense. Tricky’s music has always enlisted female vocalists to carry his ideas: the majority of tracks on Fall To Pieces, including “Fall Please,” rely on Marta Złakowska, the singer he discovered during a European tour when he was left without a vocalist on the opening night. She saved the tour from disaster. “I can tell when someone is humble and down to earth,” says Tricky. “Marta doesn’t care about being famous, she just wants to sing.”

The past year in creative flurry has no doubt been a distraction for Tricky, but it’s also been a period of reflection and reassessment. Struck down with grief, he had to ask himself a question: do I fight, or go down with the ship? “You’ve gotta fucking get up and fight,” he concludes. “Right now I’m in fight mode. And I feel really good. I do.”

Pre-order Fall To Pieces

Fall To Pieces Tracklist:
1.Thinking Of
2. Close Now
3. Running Off
4. I’m In The Doorway
5. Hate This Pain
6. Chills Me To The Bone
7. Fall Please
8. Take Me Shopping
9. Like a Stone
10. Throws Me Around
11. Vietnam

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll fall for you if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Brid at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Kestrels’ new single “Grey and Blue” features J. Mascis and a wall of shoegaze sound.

On Dream or Don’t Dream, Halifax’s Kestrels live out a guitar freak’s wildest fantasies. The supercharged shoegaze rockers’ fourth full-length album features spellbinding mixing from John Agnello(Sonic Youth, Alvvays, Kurt Vile, Cyndi Lauper) and mastering engineer Greg Calbi (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Television, Blondie). Together, they constructed a towering devotional to tone with blazing riffs, powerhouse drums, and swooning hooks emerging from an enveloping haze.

WATCH: Kestrels’ “Grey and Blue” feat. Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis video on YouTube

The first single, “Grey and Blue” is a fuzzy, reverb drenched power-pop track featuring soaring solos from Dinosaur Jr‘s J Mascis. Guitarist and vocalist Chad Peck explained, “”Grey and Blue” is a song about being carefully and uncharacteristically optimistic and vulnerable. This song came at the end of a really rough period in my life and it captures the nervous excitement of that time. My thinking tends to get narrow and shallow during bad periods, and when I feel things start to change it’s almost overwhelming; I’m not sure if I should trust it, but I have to push forward anyway. It’s a good feeling when you meet someone who makes you feel like your eyes can open a little wider and makes the echos skip through your brain.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream was largely written on the sofa of Ash‘s Tim Wheeler, but Wheeler is not the only guitar aficionado that Peck has in his contact list. “J Mascis plays two solos on this song. It’s still weird to say that out loud,” Peck explains. “We opened for Dinosaur Jr at this wild secret show in Amherst, MA. I met Luisa, J’s wife, and his longtime engineer Justin Pizzoferrato there. Luisa invited us over to their place and J gave us a tour of his studio and just kept handing me different guitars to try out (“This was what I used when I recorded “Out There”…). It was surreal. When we were tracking this song, Justin mentioned that it would be a good song for J to play on and he set it up for me. Thanks Justin! Thanks J! He did 7 takes and they are all incredible. Maybe I’ll release the other 6 takes someday.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream is out on July 10th on Darla Records. It is available for pre-order here.

Keep your mind open.

[I dream of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Hive Mind PR.]

The Death Wheelers crush us with “Divine Filth” on their new single.

Canadian heavy rock instrumentalists The Death Wheelers share a video single for the title track to their forthcoming album Divine Filth via Metal Injection. Watch and share the B-movie ode “Divine Filth” HERE (or on YouTube.) Hear & share the single via Bandcamp.

From beyond the gutter, The Death Wheelers bring you their second album, the soundtrack to the fictional bikesploitation flick that never was: Divine Filth. Drawing inspiration from instrumental rock, proto-metal, punk and funk, the band embalms the listener in their sonic world of decay, groove and debauchery. Surfing the line between Motörhead, The Cramps and Dick Dale, the Canadian quartet uncompromisingly blends rawness and power in their riff fueled compositions. Recorded entirely in 48 hours in a live setting just like in the good old days, this second opus is a testament to what the band stands for: a no BS attitude spiked with a heavy layer of crass. Just like their previous offering, the album is devised to serve as a soundtrack loosely based on a plot synopsis of a B-movie:

It’s 1982. Spurcity is run-down. The crime rate is up and so is drug use. A new kind of kick has hit the streets and it ain’t pretty. DTA, a powerful and highly addictive hallucinogenic drug, is transforming its loyal citizens into undead trash. Its users experience an indescribable high, but it leaves them rotting away within days, craving human flesh. No one knows who is dealing this new potent drug, but rumour has it that the motorcycle cult, The Death Wheelers, is behind this concoction. Could this be the end of civilization as we know it? What is motivating this group of psychotic individuals?

The cycle of violence indeed continues with this sordid slab of sounds. So hop on, and enjoy one last ride with The Death Wheelers.

Divine Filth will be available on LP, CD and download on September 11th, 2020 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at RidingEasyRecs.com.

On The Web: ridingeasyrecs.com

facebook.com/thedeathwheelersband

Keep your mind open.

[It would be divine if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Riding Easy Records.]

Rewind Review: Minami Deutsch – With Dim Light (2018)

“They’re a Japanese band that plays krautrock,” is essentially the first description I read of Minami Deutsch after I heard they were going to play the 2019 Levitation Music Festival. I was immediately intrigued by this notion and decided to look up some music by the band. I heard a couple tracks from their 2018 album With Dim Light and was intrigued further. Their blend of krautrock rhythms and Japanese psychedelic music was a neat combination. Seeing them live at Levitation 2019 was the deal-sealer. They put on one my favorite performances of the festival weekend and I knew I had to hear With Dim Light in its entirety. I learned they are far more than “a Japanese band that plays krautrock.”

Keita Ise‘s opening bass line on “Concrete Ocean” is an unexpected, but more-than-welcome post-punk element that drips into a wicked drum lick and guitars by Kyotaro Miula and Taku Idemoto that incorporate jazz and surf elements. “Tangled Yarn” adds some shoegaze to their 1960’s psychedelia, with Miula’s vocals being reverbed almost to the back of the room and his guitar echoing off the walls to hit you from every angle.

“Tunnel” was the first Minami Deutsch song I ever heard and was the cause of my desire to find more. The instant urgency of the guitar and beat hook you from the outset. It’s like the anticipation before a chase that breaks into a wild scene running through a dark city street, a foggy nightclub, a backroom mahjong game, a modern art gallery, and an aquarium. “I’ve Seen a U.F.O.” has some of Ise’s fuzziest bass alongside slightly muted drums. Miula’s vocals are barely perceptible, preferring to highlight the bass, drums, and guitars instead of the other way around.

The slow, acoustic start to “Bitter Moon” is a wild contrast to the psychedelic freakout of the previous track, but it’s more of a slow drift at the end of a race than an abrupt stomping of the brake. The closer, “Don’t Wanna Go Back,” has a cool, bouncy guitar riff all the way through it while Ise roots the track with an unstoppable groove and the high-hat / snare work is as crisp as an oyster cracker.

With Dim Light is more than krautrock. It’s krautrock, shoegaze, psychedelia, surf rock, and even bits of garage rock. It’s also worth your time. I hope they release more music soon.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Here Lies Man – self-titled (2017)

The debut, self-titled album by Here Lies Man from 2017 was unlike a lot of rock that came before it. Their music was described with a simple question, “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” It’s a question to make you ask, “Wait…What?” Once you hear HLM, however, you think, “Yep, this is what it would sound like.”

The massive opening riffs of the album on “When I Come To” (the only lyrics in the song, by the way, apart from “Oh God! Wake up!”) grab you by the neck and shake you, and the organ stabs only serve to make you quake further. The African rhythms are immediately apparent and are downright infectious. Those beats roll like a bubbling river on “I Stand Alone.” The drum breakdown halfway through the track is outstanding.

“Eyes of the Law” brings the funky organ to the forefront, and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” covers one of HLM‘s favorite topics – death (“Your life ain’t goin’ nowhere…You ain’t goin’ nowhere.”). “Letting Go” grooves so hard it will stop you in your tracks as HLM sings about leaving this world to find better things beyond, embracing the beauty of impermanence. “Let go or be dragged,” as the Zen proverb says. The mostly instrumental “So Far Away” is a trippy track, and the African rhythms are back in full swing on “Belt of the Sun” (and check out those wicked organ riffs!). The echoing organ stabs, Superfly-like bass, chant-like drums, and fuzzed-out guitar on the closing title track all combine for a killer ending to a killer debut.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in Paris ’19

Recorded at L’Olympia in Paris, France October 14, 2019, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s Live in Paris ’19 is one of three live albums they released for animal welfare charities during the massive wildfires sweeping Australia (many of which, by the way, are still burning). All proceeds from these albums go to these charities, and all three were released well before KGATLW‘s “official” live album – Chunky Shrapnel (review coming soon).

You can tell right away that the Parisian crowd is ready to go nuts from the opening notes. The show starts with the instrumental “Evil Star” before breaking into a sprint with “Venusian 2” and “Perihelion” from Infest the Rats’ Nest. “Perihelion” hits the hardest of the two. “Crumbling Castle” is the second longest track on the album (at nearly nine minutes), and the crowd never stops cheering for it the entire time. It tears into “The Fourth Colour” so fast it almost makes your head spin.

“Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet” and “The Castle in the Air” are a great pairing to slow things down just a touch before the rocking “Muddy Water.” “People Vultures” is a crowd favorite (as is anything from Nonagon Infinity, really) and sounds like it’s almost at double the normal speed. The swing of “Mr. Beat” is always fun to hear live. Hearing the crowd sing along to Stu Mackenzie‘s opening flute on “Hot Water” is delightful.

They’re grooving ands swinging on “This Thing.” “Billabong Valley” is always a crowd favorite as Ambrose Kenny-Smith takes over on lead vocals to sing a tale of a gunman. “Nuclear Fusion” is a personal favorite because of the cool Middle Eastern microtonal groove of the whole thing. “Anoxia,” the always rocking “All Is Known,” and the always hip-moving “Boogieman Sam” follow, and the show wraps up with a dive back into thrash metal with another personal favorite – “Mars for the Rich” and then over twelve minutes of the wild, swirling, mind-melting “Am I in Heaven?” – which contains bits of “Altered Beast” and “Cyboogie” as well.

You might think that after this whirlwind of an album is finished – just like any show by these wacky fellas.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]

Fusilier puts a timely new spin on “Dancing in the Street.”

WATCH: Fusilier’s “Dancing In The Street” video on YouTube

Gothamist once described Blake Fusilier’s sound as “something you’d hear in a nightclub at the end of the world.” Last week that narrative shifted with the release of a meditative, deeply felt drone-ballad “Upstream.” NPR Music praised it as a “slow core revival” and Paste Magazine called it a “sweeping, minimal R&B-pop song led by awe-inspiring strings,” and one of the best songs of May, while The Line of Best Fit in the UK named it “Song of The Day.”

Now the nightclub at the end of the world returns with Fusilier’s re-imagining of the Motown classic “Dancing In the Street.” Fusilier’s version turns the song into a queer indie punk fever dream coincidentally released at the kick off of Pride Month.

Says Fusilier in a blistering critique of what the LGBTQ month of remembrance, Pride Month, had become in the pre-pandemic era: “Pride is so boring. A protest-cum-celebration of marginalized people has become a mirror for the existing hierarchies of society. The people who now need uplift and recognition are the people who ‘Gay’ movements hide. They’re women, they’re queer, they’re trans and non-binary, they’re poor, they’re HIV positive, they’re Black. They’re the ones who aren’t going to bank with Santander because they’re issuing debit cards decorated with rainbows. We should get back to our riotous roots.”

Of the song & accompanying video, Fusilier and his collaborator Kevin Alexander call upon a very different activists and artists who inspire him including Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Toni Morrison and, least known of these, Black gay minimalist composer and vocalist Julius Eastman and his composition “Gay Guerrilla”. Eastman was a major presence on New York’s ‘downtown’ scene of the 70s & 80s who died tragically before the age of 50. Now experiencing a major revival, Fusilier connects to Eastman’s legacy of pro-Black and pro-gay provocations which did not eschew a potential for radical political violence.

Thirty years after Eastman’s death, Fusilier recalls one of the few times on record where we hear the deceased artist speak—literally transcribing Eastman’s words across his own likeness at the video’s climax. Says Fusilier, “In 1980, Julius Eastman once introduced one of his most popular works, ‘Gay Guerrilla,’ to an audience at Northwestern University on what we now know as the first day of Pride month. This is how he closed his introduction:

“A guerrilla is someone who is, in any case, sacrificing his life for a point of view. And if there is a cause, and if it is a great cause, those who belong to that cause will sacrifice their blood. Because without blood there is no cause. So, therefore, that is the reason that I use ‘Gay Guerrilla,’ in hopes that I might be one if called upon to be one.”

The video for “Dancing In The Street” is an expression of my subconscious. It’s a collection of imagery that I keep in mind when I make music. It’s an acknowledgement that there’s a legacy of Black, trans and queer voices that was largely disappeared to history and a reminder that the people who they opposed are still in power.”

Fusilier’s Upstream EP is out now via Brassland and is available on Bandcamp here.

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Review: Ohmme – Fantasize Your Ghost

Chicago’s Ohmme have released one of the more intriguing albums of 2020 so far – Fantasize Your Ghost. The title brings to mind the idea of planning for the afterlife and settling affairs now while you can. It’s also a bit of a fun idea – thinking about who and / or where you would haunt if you were a ghost (if you had the choice, of course).

The weird, melting guitars of opening track “Flood Your Gut” let you know that the album will be an interesting journey, and the double vocals of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart cement that fact as they sing about someone whose ego won’t let them see the forest for the trees when it comes to a relationship (“The tallest person that I ever met couldn’t even reach your head…Your whole vision’s not enough.”). “Selling Candy” is a sweet tribute to growing up in their Chicago neighborhood, sneaking out of the house, and daring to cross the big street to buy a hot dog from the grumpy hot dog vendor – and the Nirvana-like guitar chords on it are no slouches.

The fat, fuzzy bass of “Ghost” is great, as is the thumping chorus of Cunningham and Stewart singing about being “sick of looking at the stupid look on your face” while the object of their annoyance is preoccupied with bogus metaphysical journeys. The guitar solo on this track is nothing short of wild, and the opening lyric is nothing short of Zen (“You are the product of a happenstance.”). “The Limit” has Ohmme singing about a relationship coming to an end (“If human nature makes you a stranger, I can’t give you time if I can’t afford it.”).

“Spell It Out” has a similar theme as the use the image of dirty dishes in the sink and dust on the shelves as a metaphor for a relationship that has grown dull from lack of attention. “Twitch” tackles the light-hearted topic of existence (“Everything bores me and everything hurts. Is this what it means to be a human machine?”). The song builds to a lovely psychedelic haze before a quick fade-out. The following track, “3 2 4 3,” takes on another light-hearted subject – aging (“Looked in the mirror the other day, caught my reflection. My mouth had moved a different way. The muscles were straining…Different today but I’m the same.”). The sharp bass line under the bubbling vocals brings the song up to another level.

“Some Kind of Calm” is a lovely song about trying to quiet one’s mind amid a world of constant entertainment and noise. The instrumental “Sturgeon Moon” wouldn’t be out of place on some early 1980’s industrial album with its odd timing, boiler room guitars, and “falling down the stairs” percussion. The closer, “After All,” is a pretty track about being okay with getting away from the hustle and bustle of the world, and other people. It’s especially fitting in these times of self-isolation as they sing, “Seek your cocoon” over and over. We’ve all been forced to live in and re-examine our cocoons and lives. Is that necessarily a bad thing?

This album certainly isn’t a bad thing. Give it a spin and get lost in it.

Keep your mind open.

[I fantasize about you subscribing.]

Near Death Experience’s “Conquer” is a solid throwback to 60’s psychedelic garage rock.

Good old Indie Rock, Funk and Soul is what do best. Wow, what a treat they have given us here with their latest release ‘Conquer’.

Formed in 2016 in London, Near Death Experience have taken the best from the greats of yesteryear and induced their own unique style to create something truly unforgettable. Their new single, “Conquer,” boasts an unspoiled psychedelic vibe with heaps of nostalgia, but yet it stays authentic in the modern scene too, which is remarkably refreshing.

Killer guitar hooks and a sublime vocal from Manchester-born frontman Ian Whiteling are all over the track. Taking influence from the likes of The Doors, T-Rex, Bowie and Roxy Music, the group have put together a solid modern rock track with a strong 60’s influence.

Twitter – @neardeathexperienceuk

Spotify – https://spoti.fi/300HH4k

YouTube – https://bit.ly/3eIfsf4

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to James and Global Sound Group.]