EASYBOY - "Mirror Killer" 7"EP (Spooky Town)

 

  Brattleboro, VT's Spooky Town Records has been putting out some great releases as of late(i.e. Guerilla Toss)and they've recently supplied me with a new personal obsession, with Easyboy. This five song EP is a fun and addictive listen, and I just can't stop flipping it. Mirror Killer isn't anything grossly profound or groundbreaking, but the songs are honest, the lyrics are humorous without coming off as goofy, and the  music is well crafted. Easyboy creates some terribly catchy electronic pop songs in the vein of Gary War, Devo, OMD, Mac Blackout and other whatever-wavers, with piles of thick synth melodies and driving drum machines. 

  Here's the breakdown. His vocals are heavily treated, soaked in reverb and slightly robotic a times, which is most cases hides an awful voice, but in this case just adds a bit of depth to things, because he can actually sing a tune. The quirky delivery of his decent lyrics hover just above the numerous layers of warm synths and abnormal drum machines, making for a fresh batch of infectious, astral pop tunes. Stellar debut. Fingers crossed for a proper full length, sooner than later. Edition of 300 on black vinyl.Get one directly from Spooky Town here.

Three New Spooky Town TitlesNew Tapes From OSRNew Blanche Blanche Blanche LP

It appears that the task of being Brattleboro, VT's hype man always falls to me, but there are far worse ways I could spend a monday morning than listening to the lulling sounds of Horse Boys II or Chris Weisman's Bentonia.  After moving from the desolate cultural wasteland of the Hudson Valley, Great Valley guitarist and Spooky Town labelhead, Peter Nichols has set up shop in the quaint Connecticut river valley just over Vermont's border with Massachusetts.  It's here that Spooky Town has really begun to blossom as a label. I've enjoyed everything he's put out in the last calendrical year, but these three new ones might just be the best batch yet.  For all thing's Spooky, go here.

First off, before we get to the local jams, Spooky Town just put out a larger run of Guerilla Toss My Real Dad: Live In Nappa. I previously reviewed the band's self-released version here. If you were unable to get one of the original copies, you should have plenty of opportunities to pick up the re-release cause it's in a run of 200 copies. Fantastic stuff.

I'm very happy to announce that Bentonia, Chris Weisman's new tape on Spooky Town is one of the better entries in his vast catalog. I've only listened to it once through and I'll hopefully be writing more about it soon. Rest assured, it's worth purchasing.

Also out now on Spooky Town is another reissue of sorts, Zach Phillips fantastic Horse Boys II. This was one of my favorites a few years back in it's original run of 20 copies, and while this second release of a mere 50 tapes surely won't spread the good word on this album too much further, you would be foolish not to pick this up.  Now credited to Zach's Nals Goring moniker, it's a charming a delightfully weird collage of modern piano fugue type material (pulled that out of my ass) which also features some nursing home residents singing.  If you can only get just one thing...

Zach is also the keyboardist and co-songwritter/arranger of the duo Blanche Blanche Blanche who continue their warpath through 2012 with their 2nd tape and 4th LP (!!!) released within the confines of this year of our lord.  Papa's Proof, a vinyl LP on the French lable La Station Radar is perhaps the best thing I've heard from them yet, but you'll definitely want to get the Twice Twins 12" on Feeding Tube Records as well.  The BBB sound veers between completely saturated and dry as sand, and the new record really hits a perfect balance between the two. I simply can not get enough of the combination of Sarah Smith's wry voice and Zach's busy keyboard music. Everything you'll need to know about the record is enclosed within the label's website here.  You probably hear about a lot bands on the internet, but you've never heard a band like BBB. Find some youtube videos and you'll know what I mean.

Blanche Blanche Blanche also has a newish tape out on Zach's own OSR Tapes label. It's called Open Session Rock and it maintains the trademark of quality this gang is known for.  It's a bit more stripped down than Papa's Proof, but it's got more burbling sounds than the incredibly stark and bare sounding Our Place LP (also on Feeding Tube).  In trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes BBB so special, a few words come to mind: sincerity, craft, reality.  Shit, I don't think there are any words that can convey the secret of why they're so great! There's also a secret-ish BBB CDR that comes in a manilla envelope but you might have to ask nicely for that one. Codeword: #7.  OSR has some really exciting cassette releases planned: one from Howling Hex (Neil Michael Hagerty of Royal Trux fame) and one from Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz). Peep it all here.

Before I sign I'd also like to highlight one more recent Brattleboro endeavor: a compilation cassette of some current residents and alumni.  Standout tracks from King Tuff, Happy Jawbone Family Band, et al here. Not sure how to acquire the hardcopy, but there's digital love here.

A HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY X-MAS GIFT TO YOU, 2011 "Vol. One: Operation HO! HO! HO! (Spooky Town)

Merry Holidays dear weevils! I thought I'd share a little bit of the x-mas cheer with ye all. I received this delightful cassette as part of the Happy Jawbone Family Band Christmas Spectacular Musical Paegent and Jamboree up in Brattleboro, VT a few weeks back. It contains a number of cheerful holiday numbers performed in the glorious ramshackle way that only the Family can provide. The cassette first appeared as a freebie at said show and is now available on the Spooky Town website. The band has been kind enough to offer it as "name your price" download here. Ron Schneiderman has also been kind enough to release it as a CDr on his Spirit of Orr sublabel Blueberry Honey. Grip that here.

Happy Jawbone website

NUDE SUNRISE "Should Be" c62 (Spooky Town)

Stoners, skaters, psychers, slackers, jammers, burners. Chillin' with this tape. First time I put this one on was after leaving Chicago on the way to Dover, OH on a tour with some dudes back in April. We had just spent a weekend with these guys, who also run that dank Nitetrotter blog, first at their homebase Schwag City, a dumpy old house with a useless ceiling fan, and then at their now-defunct warehouse paradise called Drone City (RIP). There was a lot of getting high, mostly puffing on some Mary Jane but there was DMT around and some weird pills. They had some chill ass cats with names like Fela Booty and De'mond Dekker. We watched a gang of skate videos. We saw some noise shows. It was fucking tight kicking it with this crew of weirdos and their awesome weirdo friends but I had no idea what to expect from their music. We had been listening to all kinds of records at the warehouse so there was little to infer from their tastes alone. I guess I anticipated something tripped, considering that Jay Feather put on a Rene Hell tape for us to fall asleep to (it ended up giving us killer Starcraft flashback dreams). So when I cranked up the stereo from the backseat to hear the first song, which is the title track, I was pretty surprised to hear a one-chord, six minute space-blues jam with wah pedals and a funk-ass bass line, with some scrawny sounding dude singing about some weird trippy shit and asking "Are you a God? No? Then die!" like we were at some fucked up acid party on a star-temple or some shit. I was way down. The eight or so other tracks definitely keep on the psych/kraut jammer style but reveal a distinct aspect of the band with each song. There's an excellent Neil Young cover on here that even your dad would probably like. They have the blues down, no problems. They also do a particularly drippy T. Rex jam that is perfect for rolling and smoking a fatty doobie to. There's a live track on it too with some voice samples played in reverse with a primitive drum line, wish I could have seen that performance. This music can be listened to anywhere, that's one of this tape's strengths. I've played it at work, on drives, BBQ-ing and in between sets at shows. The dudes definitely locked in on something sick here. Future Americana Midwest Industrial Mutant Vibes, Chicago Style. Spooky Town Records in Brattlebro, VT just gave the tape the pro-treatment, complete with an innercity skate art j-card and fresh, pro-dubbed, grape-popsicle-purple cassettes, limited to 200. One of my favorite tapes of the year, hands down. Feeling good in the USA.

SICKNESS

There are just too too many amazing tapes that have been floating around in the past months, and in between running a record store/label and booking multiple tours I just haven't had the time to give them all their proper due. Cheers to Kenny for writing up the absolutely stellar Gypsy Treasures tape, that one was high on my list. Here is said list, and it needs to be said that each of these tapes deserves a complete write up. All come highly recommended.



New Blockaders- Live At Morden Tower (Mirror Tapes) - NB at their very best, early '80s live recordings issued for the first time (?) in complete form. Sounds like a bunch of metal being scraped together and shook up, if that's your bag, then do not hesitate because this is very limited.



NNA Tapes - I believe the name of this label stands for Nu New Age, and while you won't find too many surprise in their catalog (Caboladies, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ryan Garbes, Three Legged Race, Nonhorse, Driphouse) all the releases are highly listenable and have a uniform and attractive look.



Limbs Bin - Familiar Combatants (Tickled Meat Productions) - I don't really know what "digital hardcore" is, but I'm guessing this about fits the description. 30 second songs, angry barking and pummeling drum machine mania. Rinse, repeat. What makes this work is actually the repetition and the the sense of humor and caring that comes across in the lovingly assembled packaging (sewn-in info book, lyric sheet). Music made by one Josh Landes of Western Mass, who is a total sweetheart.



Charlie McAlister - Crappie Fishin (package deal #5) (Unread Records) - Here we see the latest in the world of c.mcalister. this long awaited project is entitled "crappie fishin" or "package deal #5" - which follows the same basic theme/scheme of package deals gone by. the cassette contains all new sound collage works compiling various old reel-to-reel tapes, shortwave radio snippits, telephone conversation, skipping records, found sounds, etc. hear the excitement as the tanker truck blows! a strange and surreal trip through a bizzare terrain indeed. The VHS contains the films : mundane calculation & pragmatic vacancy / realms of triple-ism / crappie fishin / making the sandwhich. Items contained in sealed plastic porno bag co-released with SPACE CULT in an edition of only 30 copies.


Blanche Blanche Blanche - Songs of... (Night People) - Just. Absolutely. The. Best. Band. Can you feel the beat of my pop heart?



Russian Tsarlag - Eternal Flame // Mark Lord - Straight From The Hand (Ranky Tanky) - You'll probably want to pick up both of these new releases from this great label run by the guy who does Night Burger. Heather Nicole Young and Dick Neff tapes available too.



Happy Jawbone Family Band - Return To Hotel Double Tragedy (Spooky Town) - an equally winning sequel to last year's Hotel Double Tragedy: gold edition LP on Feeding Tube Records.



Daniel Higgs - Ultraterrestrial Harvest Hymns (Moon Glyph). You know you want this. The whole album was recorded direct to the master tape.



Ecstatic Peace - Our colleagues at E.P. just released 10 new tapes. Some of these may be done and gone already. I have copies if people want, but this NOT a paid advertisement, just you know...whatever. Don't be mad at me! Anyway, there are a few really good ones. The highlights for me are the Black Hole Miami tape (INC style hell) and Body/Head "Fractured Orgasm" (Bill Nace + Kim Gordon). There is also a Stegm double tape that i have yet to check out.

*BODY/HEAD – “Fractured Orgasm” – sick guitar duo Kim Gordon + Bill Nace.
*CALDERA LAKES – “Arranged” – beautiful dream noise from Eva Aguila (Kevin Shields) and Brittany Gould.
*STILLBIRTH – “Before Things Got Worse” - focused noise drama from Luke Moldof (Razors & Medicine).
*LEAH PEAH – solo cassette of harsh noise love from member of Head Molt.
*BLACK HOLE MIAMI – “Pure Hell” – over the top trio of Rat Bastard (To Live & Shave in LA), Ulrich Krieger (Zeitkratzer) and Chris Grier (Scarcity of Tanks, etc.).
*BLYTH HOLES – “Blyth Graveyard” – kitchen table UK harsh electronics super-trio of George Proctor (Mutant Ape), Ben Jones (Jazzfinger) and Dean Glaister (Romance). Artwork by Kim Gordon.
*STRANGE BREW – “Live Weird, Die Weird” – solo noise action from Ann Arbor, Michigan legend Michelle Birawer.
*SOUND OF POT / PEWT’R – split cassette from Western Mass underground wizards, exploring internal synth moves. SoP: Conrad Capistran (Tarp), Pewt’r: Ron Schneiderman (Sunburned). Cover art by Thurston Moore.
*WEIRD HABIT – amazing new solo venture from Sarah Bernat of 16 Bitch Pile-Up.
*STEGM – “On Tight White Sheets” – 2Xcassette in white vinyl case. Killer harsh noise project of Canada power electronics master Ryan Bloomer.

HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND "Family Matters" c76 [Spooky Town]

If you haven't heard Happy Jawbone Family Band, you've got some work to do. This band is really damn good, I give them my "Best New Band" Grammy or whatever that award is. Apparently, HJFB is a bunch of people who either live in Brattleboro, VT or Boulder, Colorado and they somehow form like Voltron to make the most arresting, ramshackle, brilliant pop music I've heard in a while. Calling out all the great tracks is kinda pointless here as there's pretty much no filler in the 40 songs/76 minutes. They're all great tracks!
I described the tape to a friend as kinda like Hairdryer Peace made by a ragged pop band. The tape is so well put together stitching songs of all varieties of styles and instrumentation along with a few well-made collage pieces. Family Matters flies by exceeding fast for such a long release. This cassette earns its 76 minutes, which is big praise from a c30-or-less enthusiast. I feel really long tapes should be saved for special occasions and this is a special occasion.
The jerks even interrupt my favorite song on the tape with a Wu-Tang-ish skit that takes up more time than the song does but I can't help but love them anyway. Admittedly, the skit is pretty funny.
The tape is obviously the product a bunch of really talented, creative people as there's some really cool aspects here rarely found in lo-fi pop music. For instance, the band is fairly self-referential throughout the tape but the b-side opens with "The Album So Far..." a neat collage, squeezing the past 30 some minutes into one. It's plainly a cool track but it's also funny to see them giving a little wink that this record is so long you need a refresher of what you've heard before you can continue.
Anyhow, this is great. Hooks galore, a constant stream of surprises, a ton of replay value etc. etc. Totally essential, one of the best tapes of the year.

BUY THIS MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT NOW

Happy Jawbone myspace