SKIN TAGS “Skin Tags” (Already Dead)

The three shit-kicking women of Skin Tags are (I’m guessing) depicted on the cover of their self-titled tape getting their hair done. It’s not really them though, although the one in the middle looks young enough to be a Skin Tag, and maybe is – the other two are much too old. And no, don’t accuse me of ageism – I can’t even imagine the toll it would take on my body to make music like this, and I’m WAY younger than the other two women. So they’re not in the band.

A mushroom cloud emerges from the central head, and that’s the Skin Tags sound: nuclear anger erupting in shredded punk madness. Take a gander at the some of these song titles and tell me they’re not punk: “Hope to Die,” “Connect the Dots,” “Joke,” “I Hate Life.” I don’t think it’s hard to imagine that Skin Tags ratchet up a massive amount of energy and release it into their compositions. Are they having fun? Yeah … I think so. Although it’s hard to tell over all that anger.

So flip the script along with the women of Skin Tags. Do not let anything stand in your way. Punk has always been the perfect outlet for this. Skin Tags just happen to be the latest band to harness its energy, latch on to its rapidly melting-down core, and ride its lightning tail with whiplash abandon till it all crashes into whatever it’s aimed at.

https://skintags.bandcamp.com/

https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

VICTORIA BLADE “Lo-Fi Love Songs” (Already Dead)

Victoria Blade is a surprise treat, a treasure too few of you will uncover once all is said and done. “Lo-Fi Love Songs” is just exactly what this is, a lovely collection of gentle folk songs sung by Blade about her relationship with her husband. It’s the kind of love we all hope for, we all yearn for. Some of us find it, some of us don’t. Victoria Blade is lucky that she has found it.

Over acoustic guitar, Blade’s voice is double-tracked for that extra richness. She recorded the whole album to Tascam four-track, and the hiss of the tape is delightfully audible. The homespun production of “Lo-Fi” adds to its insanely catchy charm. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that every single moment of this tape is an ember stoked in the crackling fireplace of our hearts on those cold winter mornings after snow has covered the ground. Those mornings are the perfect times to snuggle up with that special someone. Probably with “Lo-Fi Love Songs” playing on the tape deck.

https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

IMELDA MARCOS “Tatlo” (Already Dead)

Let’s gut it out with Imelda Marcos.

I mean it, because we’ll have to. We brace ourselves, we hang in there, we are bombarded, we survive. Just like the real Marcos herself, hidden in plain site, rolling in a Scrooge McDuck fortune likely obtained just as illegally as the so-called “Mallard Baron’s,” we are beset on all sides, and we must use the armor at our disposal.

Imelda Marcos the duo, Matt and Dave, just as corrupt, just as rich (or is that the opposite?), sling “Tatlo,” their masterpiece, at the forces hell-bent on bringing them down. Swimming through their vault of gold coins amassed due to the second printing of this cassette (first one black shell; second one yellow!), the boys shred guitars and pummel drums and punch angst in the face with magnificent release.

Hey, Bandcamp user stanimosity may have done me a solid by calling out Battles, Don Cab, and Bitch Magnet as Imelda Marcos influences, and I can’t disagree with him. The former first lady of the Philippines SHOULD have great taste with all that money! Because money buys great taste, am I right?

“Tatlo,” people. “Tatlo.” Play it well, play it often, wear it out.

https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

MOTHER JUNO “Commit” (popnihil)

Get ready for some severely groovy squidpop from postpunk everynihilist Mother Juno! Based out of #Sacksonville (yes, I went there, although Mother Juno’s from Orlando), popnihil’s been dropping facefists full of deathdreams for nigh on a decade (seven years at least), and “Commit” is the latest missive to your dome. Drum machines stand sentry guarding the synth melodies and liquid basslines sloshing behind them, while Mother Juno preens and poses and spits (literally spits!) what he’s got to say like there’s a permasnarl all up in his grill somewhere. At home with Krushgrooves and ESGs alike “Commit” will almost certainly soundtrack a party or two in the 904. Drop some friggin cash money on it right away!

Also: Myles Jack wasn’t down!

https://motherjuno.bandcamp.com/

https://popnihil.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

STORM ROSS “Home” (Already Dead)

“Home” is a “living room romance in eight parts,” and there’s certainly nothing if not a romance to Ross’s work. Spread across eight tracks, “Home” basks in its own warmth and power, a roaring fireplace of expressive guitar tectonics and explosive narrative arcs. All this while doing an instrumental thingee! Fans of Already Dead friends like Michael Potter and Carey and even Fuck Lungs will be totally on board here.

Storm Ross’s guitar explodes like Tyondai Braxton’s Battles work, and the term “prog” should be embraced with 100% sincerity. And even though “Home” purports to be a domestic chronicle – and it certainly doesn’t disappoint as its imagination stretches beyond the chaise lounge and out the window, down the sidewalk, and into the world – it blasts off into the atmosphere like it can’t wait to break the “surly bonds of gravity and punch the face of God”! (You can find that quote on your own.) It’s definitely breaking something – maybe the sound barrier, especially with something like the careening “Turning Point.”

Even on quieter and more subdued passages, Ross can’t help but fully invest himself in exploring the deepest reaches of each track. “An Understanding” melds a reverberating acoustic guitar with stardusted feedback. “Sam Ascends the Invisible Path” drips with psychedelic effects, swirling together colorful points of light into perpetual sound. “Half Our Lives” smears itself over half its ten minutes before bursting into a majestic riffbomb. It’s all over at that point.

It’s hard for me to be anything other than wildly enthusiastic about this one. It’s right in my wheelhouse, and hopefully it’s right in yours too.

https://stormross.bandcamp.com/

https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

VIEO ABIUNGO "The Dregs" (Lost Tribe Sound)

One of the joys of reviewing records is getting something truly wonderful that you would never seek out on your own. “The Dregs” is one of those albums for me. The music is deep and cinematic, a mélange of world folk sounds- oud, marimba, Afro/tribal percussion I don’t have names for. Its the sort of filmless soundtrack music that begs for visual accompaniment. Not to say the music doesn’t stand strongly on its own, it does. This is the type of album I’d play over any of Goddfrey Reggio’s Qatsi  films in lieu of Glass’s soundtrack. Or rather, what I would expect to hear as the score to an Africanized remake of El Topo.
Vieo Abiungo is the pseudonym of composer and producer William Ryan Fritch, who has a pretty solid resume scoring for film and television. That much is obvious from the moment the music starts. This album is not the kind of lo-fi bedroom-produced inner space soundtrack that is usually associated with the cassette underground. This music could be on Tzadik. But Fritch decided to make it private and personal. A cassette in an edition of 100. You may hear this music in a documentary at some point, but I doubt the album will be featured on Weekend Edition or found in a Putamayo display at Starbucks anytime soon. Take this album as a gift. Private music from a generous soul.

http://www.losttribesound.com

-- Mike Barrett