Rock – Page 33 – 7th Level Music

Review: Punchlove – Channels

Every now and then, you hear a new band described as arriving “fully formed” on the scene. It’s actually true in Punchlove‘s case, as they sound like they’ve been making shoegaze since at least 2010. You hear their debut album, Channels, and think, “This can’t be their first record.”

Yet, it is, and opening track “Breeze” hits you as heavy as any track Hum would’ve put out in their heyday with roaring guitars and crushing drums. The album was created not only post-pandemic, but also post-move from one continent to another. Jillian Olesen and Ethan Williams landed back in NYC after being forced out of Prague by the COVID-19 lockdowns. They met up with other NYU music technology students and Punchlove was born.

So were songs like “Screwdriver,” which sounds like The Cure meeting Failure in a battle of the bands. The ethereal fuzz of “Pigeon” is wondrous to behold. “Dead Lands” might be about Jillian Olesen’s feelings about returning to the U.S. to find it shut down and essentially empty thanks to the pandemic. It’s a lovely track.

“Apartment” is warped and weird. Every guitar and vocal in it sounds like it was partially melted in a studio fire that almost got out of control. “Birdsong” flies back and forth between bursting guitars and subtle chords. “Guilt” takes those bursting guitars and somehow pushed them further until it feels like you’re racing downhill with the band in a tour van without brakes.

I don’t know which is louder on “Elapse,” the driving guitar riffs or the drums hit and cymbal crashes that sound like Godzilla kicking over a power line tower. The album closes with “Corridor,” which could be thematically interpreted as a song beginnings or endings depending on where the corridor leads. It’s the softest song on the record and probably the most haunting as well.

This is all fine shoegaze stuff from Punchlove, who are already far ahead of other current bands in the genre. A lot of people are scrambling to catch up while Punchlove is making it look easy.

Keep your mind open.

[Punch your e-mail address into the subscription box while you’re here. I’d love that.]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Review: LAIR – Ngélar

Indonesian psych-funk? I’m there all day.

That’s what you get with LAIR and their new album, Ngélar – an album that salutes the band’s hometown, Jatiwangi, and the earth that provides most of the areas income through terra-cotta production, and discusses the struggles to reclaim that same land from deforestation.

“Tatalu” gets things off to a fast start with wild beats and exotic guitar work. “Pesta Rekyat Pabrik Gala” takes on a sorrowful tone that sounds like a call to ancient ancestors and spirits. “Tanah Bertuah” has more stellar guitar work from Tedi Nurmanto. “Hareeng” is almost desert rock with beautiful vocals from Monica Haspari. “Boa-Boa,” with its car horn honks, fuzzy bass riffs from Andzar Agung Fauzan, is one of the coolest songs on the record and will go straight onto your psych-rock playlist.

The chant-like vocals on “Bangkai Belantara” dance back and forth between power and celebration. “Kawin Tebu” is a lively track that makes you want to dance, sing, and invite strangers to a party at your house. The title of the album, after all, refers to a local custom in Jatiwangi of musicians roaming around the town, playing music for anyone, and celebrating whatever happens to need celebrating. “Setan Dolban” brings in some synthesizers and these cool microtonal guitars that would make King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard drool.

If you didn’t know LAIR was from Indonesia, you might think they were from the Algerian desert upon hearing “Gelombang Pemecah Malam,” which is a brief instrumental of sand dune rock. The closer, “Mencari Selamat,” is a lively song of thanks and uplifting beats made to help you forget troubles.

This is one of the most uplifting albums I’ve heard so far in 2024. It comes at a time when we need music like this to expand our horizons and jolt us out of any bad funks we’re in right now.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Steve Albini loved music more than money.

Steve Albini, who recently died of a heart attack at just 61 years of age, might have been the last producer who frequently and joyfully stuck his middle finger in the eye of the music industry. He enjoyed being outside the mainstream, even when working with well-known acts such as Nirvana.

Nirvana were rulers of the radio, college campuses, pop culture, and practically everything else after the success of Nevermind. The whole world wanted a new album, and they went to Albini to produce it. That album became In Utero, which was originally considered “unreleasable” by the band’s label – which Albini and the band found baffling and, looking back, humorous…especially since it’s sold millions of copies by now.

Albini, by the way, collected no royalties on In Utero, or any other album he produced. He only charged his production fee of less than eight hundred bucks a day, and he’d often let friends use his studio for free. He could’ve been a millionaire off royalties from In Utero alone, but he didn’t care about that. He cared about music first and foremost and helping bands catch something raw and pure (“If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody is fucking up.” – from a letter he wrote to Nirvana before the In Utero recordings began).

He was one of the last to not really give a crap about what labels, radio programming managers, and music festival promoters thought. He openly hated most music festivals (and, somewhat famously, Steely Dan), and only played Primavera Sound in Barcelona with his band Shellac…who were due to release a new album, To All Trains, ten days after he died.

The list of Albini’s credits is insane. His most famous works are In Utero, Pixies‘ Surfer Rosa, The Jesus Lizard‘s Pure, and P.J. Harvey‘s Rid of Me. The following is a list of albums he produced that I personally own:

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – self-titled album (1992), Acme (1998), Xtra Acme USA (1999), and Plastic Fang (2002), Failure – Comfort (1992), Helmet – Meantime (1992), Nirvana – In Utero (1993), Pixies – Wave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies (2004), Living Things – Ahead of the Lions (2005), Screaming Females – Ugly (2012), Live at the Hideout (2014), and Rose Mountain (2015), Man or Astroman? – Defcon 5 4 3 2 1 (2013), Flat Worms – Antarctica (2019), Fuzz – III (2020).

Antarctica, by the way, was my top album of 2019.

Albini will be greatly missed, but he left a big legacy and massive shoes to fill. I hope someone picks up his band-loving torch and runs with it.

Keep your mind open.

Enjoy this Albini-produced banger.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

Review: Church Chords – elvis, he was Schlager

elvis, he was Schlager, the debut album from Church Chords, is difficult to describe, but that’s part of what makes it so good.

Combining recorded field sounds and samples with live performances in the studio, the album is a blend of musical influences from three cities: Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It’s the brainchild of producer / multi-instrumentalist Stephen Buono, who decided to become more of a producer / bandleader / circus ringmaster with a wide number and variety of musicians from those three cities.

The result is a neat experimental record that somehow blends electro, post-punk, psych-rock, jazz, and other stuff I can’t quite define into sort of a calm chaos. It’s like the album cover, a woman stopped along a roadway while forest burns immediately next to her and she records the growing danger on her phone…or perhaps is reciting her thoughts for future meditations.

Songs like “Recent Mineral” and “Apophatic Melismatic” combine killer bass riffs with soft vocals and hip-hop drums. “Spacetime Pauses” reminds me of some of MC 900 Foot Jesus‘ jazz-psych fusion tracks.

Songs like “Warriors of Playtime” bring in wild jazz horns and prog-rock guitars. “She Lays of a Leaf” has industrial beats and, I think, vocals from Chicago alt-rockers Finom to make it a weird robot-dance / lounge club groover that builds into something that would fit into a late 1970s French erotic thriller. “Owned By Lust,” on the other hand, would fit into a modern horror film with its panicked guitar licks and rambling madman vocals.

“Then Awake” has sultry vocals over a synth-bass line that moves like a snake across a sand dune at midnight. “Man on a Wire” reminds me of some Siouxsie and The Banshees tracks with the vocal stylings, goth synths, and post-punk saxophone and beats. The vocals on “I Hope You See” are layered with extra effects to almost make them unintelligible, but also make them more ethereal.

In case you’re wondering, as I was, “Schlager” is a type of European pop music characterized by catchy beats and love-song lyrics. I suppose Elvis Presley was that for many of the masses. This record has catchy beats and love-song lyrics, but it’s not Schlager. It’s too experimental, too stream-of-consciousness, too odd.

But it’s not too much of any of that either. It’s one of the most interesting records I’ve heard so far this year.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]

Rewind Review: Acid King – Beyond Vision (2023)

One of the biggest surprises for me of 2023 was that stoner metal giants Acid King released a new album – Beyond Vision. Shame on me for taking so long to get to it, because it’s a fine piece of work (and their first since 2015, no less).

The opening drone of “One Light Second Away” is perfect for the album’s cover image of some kind of heavenly cosmic tunnel / path leading to either an all-seeing eye or another reality we can’t yet comprehend. The instruments are subtle, even as they build in power, not overwhelming you right out of the gate. They’re still guiding you along this swirling tunnel of nebulae, planets, monoliths, stars, and lightning.

We’re floating in the astral plane by the time we drift into “Mind’s Eye.” It hits hard in all the ways you want a stoner metal track to hit – crashing drums, deep Earth-heavy bass, wasp’s nest-buzz-menace guitar, and ghost-like vocals. “Transmissions from the sky, from someone left behind. Was it just a sign?” guitarist Lori S. sings on “90 Seconds,” a song of cosmic messages that sounds as ominous as its warnings.

“Electro Magnetic” starts like a giant robot powering up from sleep mode, shaking off cobwebs and dust, and arming its missiles and electro-magnetic power sword for battle in some kind of desolate wasteland. The short “Destination Psych” merges / melts right into the title track, which has Bil Bowman‘s drums landing like mortar shells and Rafa Martinez‘s bass chugging like hydraulic fluid through that giant robot’s metallic veins. The closer, “Color Trails,” is the sound of the giant monster rumbling across the land as the giant robot comes to meet it, missiles streaking across the sky, trees uprooted with each step from both, roars louder than thunder, robed monks watching a prophecy come true from a safe distance.

I love that most of Beyond Vision is instrumental. You can tune in and drop in rather than out. This album drops you into something beyond your current space.

Keep your mind open.

[Make the subscription box your next destination.]

Rewind Review: Screaming Females – Desire Pathway (2023)

No one knew in early 2023 that Desire Pathway would be Screaming Females‘ final full-length album. The band decided to call it quits late last year and have since only released one five-song EP (Clover). I haven’t read or heard any official reasons for the band’s dissolution, but it seems to be an amicable decision from a band who’d been one of the champions of the DIY method since their inception. Desire Pathway‘s title might have been a clue to what the band was thinking, as perhaps they each desired a different path to walk for a while. The cover art by guitarist and singer Marissa Paternoster depicts a city jammed with buildings and teeming with activity while open paths (or perhaps rivers) divide the city into sections and offer peaceful escapes from the chaos around them. Perhaps that’s what she, Mike Abbate (bass) and Jarrett Dougherty (drums) wanted – a nice path to walk so they could get away from the chaos of being one of the hardest working touring bands in the U.S.

Starting with the slow build of what sounds like a synthesizer found in a thrift store, “Brass Bell” kicks off Desire Pathway with growling energy that comes at you like an overstimulated orange cat. “I’m living in a brass bell. It’s too loud!” Paternoster sings, again a possible clue to the pressure / grind the band was feeling back then. “Desert Train” races by you like its namesake as Paternoster sings, “I know this feeling, tied to the road. I’ll get high ’til I explode.” and puts down one of her signature ripping solos. On “Let You Go,” she sings, “If I could explain it, how black turns into blue. Now the stage is empty and I am, too.” The signs are right there that she was tired. She and her bandmates weren’t tired of jamming, however, as all of three of them click well on the track. Dougherty’s drumming is especially crisp on it.

“Beyond the Void” is a beautiful love song, the kind Screaming Females do so well – singing about the blissful and sometime frightening parts of love while putting down solid rock licks and bright bursts of sound. “Mourning Dove” is a good example of their “sad” love songs, as Paternoster knows her lover is going to leave soon and there’s nothing she can do about it.

“It’s All Said and Done” has lyrics back to their punk roots as they take a swing at government overreach (“No one’s safe. The state will surround you. When they come, here’s what they’ll say: Trust in the dream, don’t deny. Time says it can be yours.”). Paternoster’s guitar work on “Ornament” is so deft that you almost miss it. It seems subtle at first, but you realize how skillful it is when you listen close.

On “So Low,” Paternoster practically begs a lover to not reject her. It’s a modern day blues song without a single blues lick in it. “Let Me into Your Heart” is in a similar vein, but with heavier hits from Abbate’s chugging bass and Paternoster’s lyrics reflecting how her lover bears some responsibility in all of this for a lack of willingness to fully embrace her (“I know the mess I made, admit that I’m afraid. You’ll never let me into your heart.”).

The album closes with “Titan,” which contains what might be the biggest clue to the band’s decision to give it a rest in the first verse: “You smoked beside the stage, with the can in your hand, then you said to me, I’m tired. Please make it true and do what I, I have asked of you.” She and her bandmates weren’t the only ones who needed a break, so did their families and lovers. So, they end the album with a sizzling, growling, heavy-hitter that has some of Abbate and Dougherty’s best rhythm work on the record.

Desire Pathway was a good one to leave on the path for us fans. Screaming Females never put out a bad record. You can start anywhere in their catalog and be amazed. I hope their new paths lead to great(er) things.

Keep your mind open.

[I desire that you take the pathway to the subscription box.]

Rewind Review: Failure – Comfort (1992)

Failure‘s debut album, Comfort, does something right away that the band loves doing – making you uncomfortable. This is often done through cryptic lyrics that challenge one’s thoughts on reality and fantasy, technology and humanity, or love and despair…all with crushing shoegaze riffs and masterful production. Comfort gets you unsettled right out of the gate with the album’s cover. Who is that girl? Is that a shadow of a cow behind her? Or a minotaur? Is it supposed to be her shadow? I don’t know, and the album’s songs don’t give a hint either…which is part of the fun, really.

“Submission” might be about sex, but I think it’s more about how easy it is to get trapped in the rat race (“They work hard and they sell things. We like that, ’cause there’s no choice.”). Failure waste no time in pummeling you with thick bass (courtesy of Greg Edwards) on the track, and then Robert Gauss pummels you further on “Macaque” – which is literally about a monkey lead singer Ken Andrews saw in a Los Angeles zoo that provided him with a Zen-like moment of enlightenment. Andrews’ guitar on “Something” swells and builds like river water casually drifting along one moment and then turning into a racing current below the surface the next.

“Screen Man” has a sense of menace throughout it, which is appropriate since it’s about a man on Andrews’ TV screen who freaks the hell out of him (“This man’s eyes are serious. He’s the man in my screen. I cannot let him frighten me.”). Andrews’ guitar is like lightning you see on the horizon (And the solo? Holy crap.), whereas Edwards’ bass is distant thunder, and Gauss’ drums are the wind that keeps building as the clouds get closer.

On “Swallow,” producer Steve Albini hung a microphone from the ceiling and swung it like a pendulum to record Andrews’ vocals during the first verse, causing a weird panning effect and being a neat example of the kind of stuff Failure love experimenting with in a studio setting. “Muffled Snaps” continues some of this experimentation with Gauss’ drums taking on odd sounds and Andrews’ guitar nearly sounding broken until the song bursts forth like dragster. The lyrics reference physical violence, and it seems to be a song about boxing…or at least fighting. It certainly hits like a boxing match.

Gauss’ drums on “Kindred” are sharp, hitting hard in all the right places. “Pro-Catastrophe” is a whopper, with Andrews flat-out telling people he’s looking forward to an apocalypse and watching chaos unfold around him. Little did he know, that in 2020…Edwards goes nuts on a fretless bass throughout it, often making your head spin with the licks he puts down on it.

“Princess” is sort of a love song, as Andrews sings praises to his lady pal (“I’m always pleased that you don’t say no.”). It’s a burner that’s over before you catch your breath. The album ends with “Salt Wound,” a song about one of Failure’s favorite subjects – relationships going awry. The trio unleash a sound that reflect Andrews’ confusion about why his girl is leaving him and the nervousness that comes with a future alone. Edwards’ bass pounds in your brain, Andrews’ guitar dissolves into a jumbled rage, and Gauss’ drums are a pounding heartbeat ready to burst.

Comfort heralded great things to come for Failure. It’s a great place to start if you’re new to them. Hearing how they evolved from this is a neat journey, and the remaster of the album done by the band in 2023 is sharp.

Keep your mind open.

[It would be a comfort to me if you subscribed today.]

Rewind Review: AAWKS – Heavy on the Cosmic (2022)

I don’t know if I can sum up AAWKS‘ 2022 album better than it’s title track – Heavy on the Cosmic. The album is full of big riffs, cosmic rock, mystical energy, some trippy substances, and other stuff your brain can’t quite define. Heck, the silver orb on the album cover reminds me of the Tall Man’s sphere from the Phantasm films, so there might even be horror movie elements in here.

“Beyond the Sun” begins with a sample of some square cat naming various psychedelic drugs ranging from mescaline to LSD before massive bass and squealing riffs blow off the back of your head. The song is about slipping through time portals to end up in places beyond comprehension…I think. “Sunshine Apparitions” mentions “Sunshine on your tongue.” Take that as you will (or don’t take it at all, if you prefer) and let the stoner metal riffs as powerful as a solar flare wash over you.

“The Woods” has a heavy undertone throughout it, reminding me a bit of some of Psychlona‘s stuff. The opening guitar riff on “All Is Fine” is like the opening of docks on a ship in deep space so an exploration vessel can emerge to check out a weird temple on an asteroid…and then (indicated by the simple, effective high-hat clicks) the temple opens to reveal something akin to what Dave Bowman saw inside the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith.

“The Electric Traveler” charges forward with crunchy cosmic rock riffs that could power the Mars rover from a hidden bunker three miles below the Earth’s surface. The vocals and fuzz on “Space City” remind me of early Soundgarden tracks. It’s a heavy tune with a weird sense of dread but also wonder (“High above an inverted city…Hazed out of my mind as I watch the sun unwind.”). As heavy as that track is, “Star Collider” is (appropriately, given the title) heavier. The guitar riffs on it chug while the drum beats swing with a bit of a jazz touch, believe it or not. It flows right into the closing track, “Peeling Away,” which strips what few layers of brain matter you have left in your head to get down to the lizard brain portion so you can soak up the heat of AAWKS’ cosmic rays.

Heavy on the Cosmic, indeed. Get onboard AAWKS’ starship and enjoy the ride.

Keep your mind open.

[You’ll be a star in my eyes by subscribing today.]

Rewind Review: Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (2006)

I think it’s a given that if you find an Electric Wizard album for five bucks, you put down five bucks. That’s what I did when I found their classic third album, Dopethrone, in a Columbus, Ohio record store a couple weeks ago.

The album’s back story is full of drugs, booze, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard stories, and arguments over which direction the band would take on their newest record. Believe it or not, there were discussions among some band members about trying to sound more like Nirvana or Linkin Park (complete with record scratching – How much drugs were they doing?).

Thankfully, their stuck to their doom roots and created what is now considered a doom / stoner metal classic. The album opens with a sample of someone talking about being able to escape satanic cults only by death or residency in a mental institution before they unload “Vinum Sabbathi” – a sludgy song about drug addiction (“Now I’m a slave to the black drug, forced to serve this black god.”) that almost defies description. Tim Baghsaw‘s bass on it is so heavy it almost crushes you.

The switch to “Funeralopolis” makes you think they’re going to mellow out for a little while, but that thought is short-lived. Jus Oborn‘s guitars on it sound like a hundred buzz saws being operated by drunken orcs while he sings cheerful lyrics like “Millions are screaming, the dead are still living. This earth has died yet no one has seen.” and “Nuclear warheads ready to strike. This world is so fucked let’s end it tonight.” It’s not date night music…unless you’re dating an incubus or succubus, then by all means blast it.

“Weird Tales” is a three-part tale of creepy things and a tribute to Lovecraft and even Weird Tales magazine. Part one is “Electric Frost,” which name checks Yuggoth and Kadath from Lovecraft stories and pays tribute to them through powerful riffs that come at you like a tidal wave. Drummer Mark Greening has said in the past that he always felt the drums on Dopethrone and other Electric Wizard albums could’ve been bigger. That’s difficult to imagine, because his drums almost bludgeon you unconscious over the entire record. “Electric Frost” is a great example. The next two parts, “Golgotha” and “Altar of Melektaus,” are trippy instrumentals with smoky synths that slither like tentacles from shadowy places.

“Barbarian” is, appropriately, a song about Conan and pays great homage to him and his creator (Robert E. Howard) with its battle axe riffs and skull-smashing drums. “I, the Witchfinder” is as gritty and gruesome as its namesake, who delights in torturing maidens suspects of witchcraft. “We Hate You” is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Black Sabbath songs about loving one’s fellow man. The title track is a growling, snarling, savage thing all about…you guessed it, a throne made of weed upon which sit “three wizards crowned with weed.”

This album is about as heavy as a war hammer forged from lead. It’s a wild ride, at times spooky and other times groovy, but always, always heavy.

Keep your mind open.

[It would be dope if you subscribed.]

The Hope Conspiracy release punk rager – “The West Is Dead.”

he Hope Conspiracy will release their long-awaited new full-length album, Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception on May 31st. Today, the group has shared the record’s dystopian, hook-laden second single, “The West Is Dead.” Vocalist Kevin Baker states, “Politicians in the west, whether they are on the left or right, all eat from the same pig trough. Corporations own every single one of them. The working people were sold down the river decades ago. The professional liars are not concerned with fair wages, human rights, affordable healthcare or the poison in our air, water and food. Both sides play on everyone’s sensitivities to keep us hating one another while they take lucrative donations and marching orders from rent seeking billionaires. The tent cities and rampant homelessness would go away tomorrow if they really wanted it to be so. The system is designed to crush the common people. If you don’t feel it now you will. If you don’t see it now you will. It’s the approaching storm on the horizon and there is no escaping it. The west is dead and our end is near.”

Watch / share “The West Is Dead” on YouTube.

True sonic violence aimed at political division, economic manipulation, war profiteering, media propaganda and other vile forms of global oppression, Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception is an ominous soundtrack to the steady decline of our modern age. There is no question, The Hope Conspiracy is back to make a cold hard statement about existence in the end times.

Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception was engineered by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at God City Studios, and artwork for the release was created by acclaimed artist Alexander Heir (Death/Traitors). The album is available for pre-order here and The Hope Conspiracy will be playing select shows this summer and fall.

The Hope Conspiracy, on tour:
June 7 Cambridge, MA @ Sonia
June 8 Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows
June 9 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
July 20 Chicago, IL @ Cobra Lounge – The Rumble
September 6 Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
September 7 Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman
September 8 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
September 9 Giant Rock, CA @ Ask A Punk
September 12 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
September 13 Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
September 14 Portland, OR @ Dante’s
September 15 Tacoma, WA @ Real Art

Keep your mind open.

[I hope you’ll subscribe today.]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side.]