LUMPS “Curses!” (King Pizza)

“Curses!” I repeat after looking at the cover of this swell little tape out of the thriving garage/punk/pop scene percolating in Brooklyn, which is as obvious as it is sort of stupid to even mention at this point in time. You say “Brooklyn,” you think of bands like Lumps, having great times, releasing music on King Pizza Records. I was young once. I understand. I turn to the gigantic bird that has just landed on my shoulder (is that an Andean condor?) and wonder aloud whether the music of Lumps would be eminently enjoyable to the younger me. It leans its head close and concurs in a series of exhalations rasping from its throat. (It’s not going to screech in my ear, it’s my friend.) It reminds me that we’re all in a cartoon, and that Lumps and King Pizza are just extensions of things like Archie comics and Scooby Doo and other Hanna-Barbera constructions. I look again at the (admittedly very cool) comic book art of the cover and realize that it’s real life, not a comic book, and the condor is right, my half-assed ruminations on Brooklyn and stereotypes of the people who live there have brought a sort of storybook-within-myself to life, and comic art and real life have converged. I stare now at the photorealistic image that graces the cover of Curses!, and I begin to feel terrified as understanding dawns that these are real creatures and that is a real person in bed who is being menaced by them. Each side is a curse, “Curse 1” and “Curse 2,” and each curse animates a subset of these vile creatures. There is a 5.5 song-per-curse ratio, and each one is a reminder of the cartoon chaos, the overdriven guitars a testament to Halloween horror and sugar-rush fun. Oh, I say to the condor, those real creatures menacing that real person are sort of lovable in a hell-has-come-for-us-on-Earth sort of way. I wonder if rock and roll has affected them with its communal spirit. The condor looks at me, great eyes boring into my very soul, and silently waits with me in its mesmerizing gaze. I am frozen as a thousand years pass by in a second while under the great bird’s spell. Real life dissolves and becomes a cartoon again. I’m a cartoon. Again? I’ll never really know. Curses indeed.

Lumps

King Pizza

--Ryan Masteller

DAN SOTO “Yeah Sure” (King Pizza Records)

Following in the wake of the pizza movement, whose trailblazer, the Pizza Underground, burned too fast and half as bright, comes Dan Soto of Dan Soto and the High Doses fame. The jokester from Stamford, Massachusetts, a town I know strictly because of the American version of The Office, does not take anything very seriously. Make of that what you will – I make of that a recipe for a swinging good time.

Yes, you turkeys, if you don’t like humor and a healthy level of brotherly camaraderie, then what are you doing here? What are you doing with your life? Who cares if Dan and his bros are total hipsters, it’s the principle of this tape that rings universally true. You have a few brews, a few rips from the bong, you make music. You put your arms around each other’s shoulders. You smile. It’s the spirit of Nathan Williams before he became a total d-bag. (Check that – Nathan Williams has always been a total d-bag.)

The smiling, mustachioed cartoon character on the front cover pretty much says it all: if Bob’s Burgers was a show called Bob’s Basement Jams, it wouldn’t be culturally out of place in the slightest. I mean, seriously – there are two songs about birthdays, two songs about thinking and/or knowing things, one song literally only about liking pizza (called “Pizza”; sample lyric: “Pizza, pizza, why not have a piece of pizza?”), and another called “My Baby Face.” Gang, don’t think, just do.

The album gets its name from pre-song banter, and many of the songs feature snippets of studio dialogue at the beginning and end, reinforcing every notion one would have that this is light, breezy, enjoyable fare. I had a lot of fun listening to it. Macaulay Culkin probably would be jealous of it. Ditto the Wavves team. Whatever. I’m hungry.

King Pizza Records

Yeah Sure

--Ryan Masteller

DEADLY VIPERS “Cataclysmic Events” (King Pizza Records)

Pointlessly gendering a band when describing them is an easy trap to fall into. Catch phrases like “female-fronted” and “girl band” (no, not the guys on Rough Trade) get tossed around a lot when humans with XX chromosomes are involved. To me what matters is if what I’m listening to is good. Let’s apply that to Deadly Vipers. They are a 4 piece band from Detroit, they happen to be all women, and their sound fills is like a cross of White Lung and Red Fang. That happy place between riot grrrl punk and doom metal is where they reside. To answer the most important question: yes they are good.

The EP is 4 tracks long and left me wanting more. I barely had time to blink before they were done. I was satisfied by the dense lyrical content, solid drumming, and the heavy riffs. Their Motor City grit, vocals more on the punk side, and early Sabbath influences show throughout. Just don’t mistake them for a female Ozzy Osborne gimmick coming to you in a pink box with the DreamHouse sold separately. Even from the brief glimpse I got from the tape it’s already clear to me that this band is so much more than that.  Stream and/or buy from the link below.

Stream + Buy: http://kingpizzarecords.storenvy.com/products/13804137-deadly-vipers-cataclysmic-events

-- Roy Blumenfeld

JACQUES LE COQUE “Hooky” (King Pizza Records)

I try to never judge a tape by its cover. However, when I saw the cop walking by an overflowing sewer towards a guy in an embroidered Jacques Le Coque jacket concealing a joint that spelled out the album name on the front of the j-card, I knew I was in for a fun listen. Turns out I was absolutely right. The music on this tape sounds like the smell of cheap beer acquired with a fake id for a gathering of young oddball types in somebody’s parent’s basement that has no air conditioning and is taking place on a Friday night while the rest of the school is at the big football game. This isn’t music for jocks and the kids at the ‘popular table’. The vocals can be a little whiny, the guitars are soaked in reverb, and songs are dominated by themes of angst and fun mostly had while intoxicated. Like most fuzzy garage pop, it’s best enjoyed at a loud volume and a light heart.  Tap into your juvenile side and give it a listen.

Stream: https://jacqueslecoque.bandcamp.com/

Buy: http://kingpizzarecords.storenvy.com/products/12163554-jacques-le-coque-hooky-cassette

-- Roy Blumenfeld