BABY BONES“The Curse of the Crystal Teeth” C17(Gubbey Records)

Coastal California, early ‘90s.
Surfy skate-punk & tamer thrash
a ubiquity throughout A-circle’d
mixtape collections.

Louisville, KY, right fucking now.
Three young lads standing along the
Ohio River, rabidly flossing their chompers
with the magnetic strips of these mixtapes,
ingesting* through bloody gums
just miles and miles of
Kyuss, Dead Kennedys,
Offspring & the likes.

https://babybonesband.bandcamp.com/releases
and/or
http://gubbeyrecords.net/

 --Jacob An Kittenplan

* Which is to say that this hefty, full-on sprint of a six song EP plays must like a pretty sweet skater’s compilation album, with modestly varying punk/metal guitar disciplines mastered & meshing together, & with such a diverse array of vocal styles varying from song to song that there doesn’t seem to be a specific “voice” to the overall outfit, aside from passionate and energetic.

BLACK KASPAR "Year Of The Centipede" (Gubbey Records)

This is one of those skronky flailing slobbering tantrums chasing me so it can throw crumpled-up bulldozers at my face all day. But not all the time. Sometimes Black Kaspar gets the void to gaze back into you long enough for you to forget what you even look like, but they also have a controlled explosives mode. And other times they build obviously unstable towers made of shudders and let you sweat while waiting for them to collapse in rubbery, concrete-barfing ecstasy.

We have constant distorted bass. We have feedback-skewered unidentifiable rumblings like an airplane stuck in your hair. We have jellied synth transmissions from out there. We've got those guitar squigglies sneaking in to see what's going on. This doesn't necessarily *sound like* Naked City, Alboth!, Borbetomagus, Slab!, or whatever deconstructed metal primitives you could rattle off, but it sure *reminds me of* them. Which means you probably already know whether you need this pounding mess of soggy shrapnel in your life. I do.

http://www.gubbeyrecords.net/

https://blackkaspar.bandcamp.com/

-ckwilhex

DREAM EYE COLOR WHEEL “False Omega” (Gubbey Records)

This is the soundtrack to a trip through a haunted barn in southern Indiana at dusk in late October. It is a moody, spooky tape, and despite its being a tape of “songs,” it is vibe-oriented rather than song-oriented. There’s a rotating ensemble of woodwind players backing up a bandleader who sings in a whisper and plays acoustic guitar and breathy organs. There’s a lot of warm air flowing, a lot of wind flowing through cracks and bellows. The production is highly effective in capturing all this organic sound variety and spooky ambience. Once I got to “On and On” at the end of the b-side, I was hooked in. I consider that song to be the highlight and the climax of this elegant little tape of dark moods.

Gubbey Records
PO Box 7481
Louisville KY
40257

www.gubbeyrecords.net

-- Kevin Oliver

RACHEL SHORT "Nature:Industry:Self” C54 (Gubbey Records)

Rachel Short is, from what I can tell, is first & foremost a composer, followed by being a multi-instrumentalist, and then, finally, a spoken-word performer. In this, her debut release on Gubbey Records (both out of Louisville), she takes turns weaving field recordings into textured loops, adding bits & scraps of French horn & piano, and delivering a slow, confession of a life’s fluctuating perceptions, all stretching across a wavering 27 minute stretch of side A.

Flipping the tape, she trades in her (only slightly more) concrete thoughts for more carefully crafted soundscapes and giving her full attention to exploring how goddamned haunting and forlorn one can make a French horn sound. Both sides are both glacially slow AND the opposite of studying music. Think of it like a theatrical performance for the closed-eyed.

https://rachelshort.bandcamp.com/track/nature-industry-self
and/or
http://www.gubbeyrecords.net/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

TWIN SISTER RADIO "I Want Sugar/Hey!" C8 (Gubbey Records)

IWS: Hey, there, ‘90s revival. I hear your expert Wah-Pedal, your pixies-esque vocal arrangements; yeah, you’re capital G, ”Groovy”. Oh, them earnest guitar solos be humble, & those melodies, so very catchy. Super-fun gang vox? Check. Tasteful, metronomic bassdrum-heavy, rock pulse? Yup.

H!: Jimmy Eat World-ish in the layering (but, y’know, still keeping Pixies-liek), with pretty noteworthy rhythm v. lead guitar interplay during the chorus. Nice! Hoping for more of that. Same with the choral blending!

This “cassingle” hints at pretty great possibilities for the indie-rock world, as all the skillsets are present and accounted for. Let’s cross our fingers & hope for the best?
https://twinsisterradio.bandcamp.com/
and/or
http://gubbeyrecords.net/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

BLIND TIGERS “Mosquito EP” (Gubbey Records)

How many Veruca Salt references does this Hard trio get per show? How do they feel about that? Being from Loo-Vull, have they ever opened for Heartless Bastards up in Cincy?

Blind Tigers are pretty straight-forward bar rock with a slightly heavier bent. Distorted guitar & bass & drums back strong, no-frills vocals. Keyboards add a few flourishes between the words, but the overall theme is less-is-more, catchy repetition.

http://www.blindtigersusa.com/

and/or

http://gubbeyrecords.net/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

ANDY MATTER “Pacific Midwest” C-46 (Gubbey Records)

Lou Barlow has only been dead for 6 months and people like Andy Matter are just kicking his corpse around the schoolyard already. Piling sheet cake mattresses of loud guitars onto his reedy pipes. Matter doesn't disappoint (himself).

www.gubbeyrecords.net

-- Daniel Seward

"haha" -editor