PC WORSHIP "Dead Rust" (Dull Tools)

Have you ever been to a party that was just a little too fringe for you? Like, at first it feels like you're just at the after party of an art opening in a suburb north of town you've never been to before. All of a sudden, some guy in a motorcycle jacket that says "Reapers" on the back asks if you know anywhere around here where you can score Meth. All of a sudden, you begin to think maybe this party isn't your scene. But you're too far in. Enigmatically out of the marijuana haze an exotic looking man wearing some fluorescent ceremonial seance robe offers you a thick, purple liquid contained inside a Dunkin Donuts foam cup. You look inside the cup and it bubbles up like lava or black bean juice on a stove. You have no idea what it is but the wizardly man in the green smog insists you try it. Being polite, you tell him you stick to dope, but he's not taking no for an answer. All of a sudden the room you're in feels very compact. As you feel claustrophobic anxiety, you slowly realize the beginnings of a mosh pit is forming around you. Angry young pink skinned punks with yellow mohawks and beer bellies are circling you like fat vultures. The wizard is now starring at you intensely, your body is now in his hypnotic control. Through his mental subversion of your movement, you drink the purple liquid. Reality begins to slip away ... who are these steel towed, skin tight jeaned, nose to ear piercing clad crusties? Then you realize this after party is a concert... PC Worship comes on stage and the trip begins ...

PC Worship is a serious group of young musicians pushing the boundaries of sleazetacular noise rock. This band does not front at all. This is some real shit.

Holy Moly, picking up this tape for a Cassette Gods review is somewhat akin to winning pretty big on a scratch ticket. Not a life changing amount of winnings on a scratch ticket, you know, I haven't gone all Scientology level devotion to PC Worship now that I've listened to this, but I do feel like listening to Dead Rust feels like being up twenty bucks.

This band is gnarly in the truest sense of the word. Their musical influences spiral through growing chord structures in a fibonacci sequence; like a blooming fern that wobbles to and fro according to where sunlight hits it next. It isn't break neck speed, it's stoned out of its mind and in love with powerful and heavy tom tom/snare smacking. It feels to progress organically, like some type of ESP jam session, but in reality these songs are really composed. Each part is pretty simple, but in sequence with one another, they become unpredictable and distinct. Guitars hauntingly linger with minimal solo chords that sound like medieval broken church bells. It can even jump into Doors territory with fuzz guitar and west coast organ blowout and sexy, sexy, reverberated and pained vocals (Kurt Cobain would approve). Primitive and drugged out noise rock that is operatic in its song structure. Mollie is somewhere in this mix, I know it, that or some creepy purple codeine in a styrofoam cup. These songs have movements that sweep through various genres, from mid-eighties glory Sonic Youth guitar detuning ecstatic arm flairs to Tibetan monk ambient vocal harmonies accompanied by jerry rigged cassette loops and carefully warped microphone feedback.

Fuck yeah, PC worship. Nihilism never sounded so sweet. If you haven't dropped out and tuned in yet, AKA you need a little convincing, listen to this brain melter ... it will not let you down.

- - Jack Turnbull

ORDER: http://dulltools.bigcartel.com/product/pc-worship-dead-rust-cs

STREAM recent PC Worship LP: https://dulltools.bandcamp.com/album/social-rust

A MAGIC WHISTLE “Vision Magic Voyage” (Weird Ear)

Side A is Summer Jam 2015. One long piece that has recurring themes/feels/melodies. It kind of shifts between a.) self-help new-age spiritual business guru spirit cleansing workshop in the desert, b.) Kermit’s nephew singing about the beauties of life on the lilly pad, and c.) Link from Legend of Zelda going through a field to battle a bearded deity, serenaded by really nice miniature Viking trolls. No shit.

There’s definitely parts that Paul Simon would approve of. There’s definitely parts that Brian Wilson would approve of.

This is a total keeper from first listen. Does this guy have a Myspace?

Recommended if you like: optimistic desert chants, glittery electronic sputtering, feel-great hum-alongs, ridiculously epic multi-layer vocals and whistling, proggy children’s music, hopeful medieval cartoon sitcom themes, etc.

Dope jammers. Side B should be the soundtrack to The Labyrinth. Or the music at the end of a video game, where the main character has finished a long voyage & is contemplating what lies ahead. The ending credits are rolling. End game.

https://amagicwhistle.bandcamp.com/album/vision-magic-voyage

-- Garrison Heck

TRNSGNDR/VHS “Condominium EP” C15 (Roweba Tapes)

Atmospheric noise under heavily processed and looped samples, all atop dance floor beats. I could see this blasted over the loudspeakers of an “Oakland Hella Gay Dance Party” and it bringing half the crowd outside for a social smoke break while the remaining half got the ffffuck down. Even by an open window, this music makes me feel the collective humidity of a packed-past-the-firecode basement show. Playing it on tinny speakers at the beach would just be wrong.

https://soundcloud.com/transgendervhs

and/or

http://rowebatapes.bandcamp.com/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

MASS CONTROL "Raven in Reactor's Shadow" (Self-Released)

"UNSEEN, UNHEARD."
SECRET GOVERNMENT RADIATION PROBLEM!
PSYCHOSPIRITUAL NIGHTMARE OF THE DEATH DIMENSION!

Mass Control's tour tape is a visceral journey into a true modern nether realm. That place from which things must never return. I don't know who is behind this music, but I feel as though I've just woken up an amnesiac in a place that is both seductive and putrid, unholy, ruinous.

Two tracks, both instrumental and about 14 minutes, each of which is a slow, droning, evil force with a PERFECT and generous dose of uninhibited B-movie weirdness.

I love this tape. Highly recommended for fans of nether realms and perhaps a wide array of cynical and misanthropic types.

Not recommended for those who can't get down with foul cosmic forces.

Unseen, Unheard!
Penetrating death beam!


— Devin Brown

MACULA DOG (Haord Records)

It’s an entry point. Using “dated” at the starting gate is why the gate opens in the first place and the jokers can ride towards the mighty circus, over a scrolling hill, beyond Forbidden Zone. The secret knock: the pound and warble of the sad clown mania, followed by a valve grab. Only rule in the land of color: no dipping toes. Every twist must be full frontal and vibrant, haurient and burlesque. Magnification. So, are you sure you want to cross over and join the skinny chorus underwater in panic, jerking pan pots, convulsing, after sinking the lifeboat, nosediving, skidding over puddles of jewel cases and CD-ROM, leaving spectrum strokes of airbrush molluscs, just to have another bad day at the midsection while under the bright crown of meconium shimmer? Cilia later. And “Wait ‘til you meet / All my buddies”

Haord Records: https://haord.bandcamp.com

-- Rick Weaver

The "Haord's Buncha" compilation tape on the same label is also killer - ed.

SLENDER "Tape Two" (Tender Tapes)

Total no budget garbage rock, complete with purposefully tuneless yelping, gurgling synth and a drum set that seems to consist of a single coffee can. Random spoken word samples that pop up between and sometimes in the middle of tracks, and the entire thing feels like it was written, recorded and produced in about 15 minutes. I heard about these guys because they are tangentially related to NYC hardcore band Crazy Spirit but this doesn't sound anything like that. Includes an Capella cover of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

Sample lyrics: "I wanna seven up, seven up, seven up, fuck you, seven up, for my birthday, it's my birthday, up, a can of seven up."

Same sounds on both sides.

http://papertowncompany.bigcartel.com/product/slender-tape-2

-- Will Griscom

VARIOUS ARTISTS "You Are All A Flossed Generation: A Flaming Biscuit Records RRRRRevival Compilation" Double C90 (Flaming Biscuit Records)

After a fourteen year hiatus, South Carolina tape label Flaming Biscuit marks it's return with this mega big 51 track compilation. On this comp you get staples of the SC sub-underground/noise scene as well as a generous portion of weirdo musicians from every end of the country. The focus here leans towards unsung heroes of the home taping universe such as Caleb Fraid and John Thill, as well as more widely known artists like California noise rockers Gang Wizard. 

Among the many gems to be dug is one irresistibly gorgeous track from Nebraska's L Eugene Methe. While fellow Omaha mainstay Simon Joyner belts out a Urinals cover, recorded live at last year's Junkfest. Tape 2 is book ended by the madness that is the legendary John Trubee and the Ugly Janitors of America. In between you can enjoy some of South Carolina's hidden treasures like Flaming Biscuit founder Brantley Fletcher's own Plundershop project and Columbia's greatest stay at home crooner Joshua Doomslang McCormack. A triumphant return all around, much to look forward to from this label.

https://flamingbiscuitrecords.bandcamp.com/album/you-are-all-a-flossed-generation-a-flaming-biscuit-records-rrrrrevival-compilation

WILLIAM LUST “I Still Got Love for the Street” C10 (Self-Released)

It’s actually not a bong-rip-cough, my lungs are burning like hell from this breath of fresh air. Not sure if I can fully share my appreciation for what these two goofball/visionaries are doing here without proselytizing my own agenda. Maybe our goals are one and the same? I fell in love with tapes b/c they’re a vehicle for passing around sonic idears without the forced mystique of production. Anybody can grab a used Tears for Fears cassette from the thrift store, slap a sticker over the text or carve out the lettering, put tape over the top, and dub onto it the weirdest shit they can possibly dream up. The ritual of dubbing and collating the package are all a labor of love and it’s so great to swap with like ambitious minds, or just drop one off at a record store and hope that the creativity and playfulness infects others.

This artifact is a ten minute dream sequence of, to my interpretation, someone who tries (succeeds in?) getting hit by a car so they can sue and make rent. Sonic themes ally themselves with hip hop/spoken word, but musique concrete plays such an important part, as does lifted r&b samples, loose guitar loops, and subtle humor. “my make up is running…it looks good…is that a real ant, or a robot ant? …I squash it…and it forms a perfect blush.”

I can’t fucking wait to pass this along to friends involved with spoken word/DJ culture. If you live in MA, please give Granny Frost and Deep Wizard a big ol’ bear hug from Berkeley!

http://deepwizard.tumblr.com/

and/or

https://grannyfrost.bandcamp.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

CHARLIE MCALISTER “TWISTED DESIRE” (SPEW GEYSER)

Well well well well well. The whole neighborhood is going to shit. They are saying this area is turning into the south side. I don’t really know much of what they mean, but I am taking it as its spit out. The time that takes place throughout the days on this planet, I tend to staying indoors. I havnt grown too old for the bars and such, but I have drank more than my fill of sauce, and understand finally how lame I become with that outside atmosphere. Hey, I might be growing old, or maybe I am enjoying my own sauce inside. I enjoy all types of sauces. I enjoy mineral spirits breathed heavy from a cut 2 liter bottle. I enjoy tape head cleaners, the smell of dust and mildew, old pages, new pages, sticky liquid, varnish, etc. I also enjoy on occasion stewing and simmering and hearing object sound. Abjeck. ?? sound ?? there is too much talk of sound.

Here we witness some of that sound. I have bantered enough about Mcalister. And you can google or droogle or whatever have you all you want and keep the mysteries going and failing and falling and rising and birthing. But what you get on “TWISTED DESIRE” – the new cassette tape from mcalister and celie d. – is more birthright. Real stomp. Real heat. Fake heat too. A fake tattoo. I engulfed a pastrami on rye. The fire light up the sky. Twisted desire deals the cards in a straight stack. 

Blemished herk, strings about to break. Just a regular band.  your honey pot. Drinking patio water.

I shouldn’t have to tell you to get into this system of events. Don’t you understand the whole scene birthed,  drives itself for real on  treds that are balding ?? put your fuckin $10 in an envelope and send a letter, written with a fuckin pen and ink, and send it to the address below. Don’t be shy my hipster hupcats! Maybe you wont get shit…but I am sure you make $10 in tips easy at the fuckin coffee shop. You can cast me out – but you wont keep me down. Mcalsiter is still thriving on the meat of a subculture gone kaput. A lot of folks are. I am no one to be telling anyone “how things should be or shouldn’t be” - - -hell this computer is fixin all my type writing errors for me. But if you want the real grit of what has become “cassette culture” – do yourself a favor, and do some studying. You have to know where you come from before the tabs come out. 

These tabs. They are for the yearning. Get it. If you can. You can. Just try. Boot off.

TODD LEDFORD & SONS

PO BOX 51

MCCLELLANVILLE, SC 29458

-- Chris Fischer

WHITE REEVES “Who Is Guitarman?” C25 (Self-Released?)

What an ingenious, brilliant culling of primarily mangled field recordings and sparse, loose, buried/blurred guitar lines! Loops of disassociated sounds cave in on previous ones, forcing textures, some pleasant, some notsomuch, and then they all just ride along “beats” of electro-acoustic samplings of metal wire reverberating, these forever subtly shifting. The end result is a seamless sound collage of “curved diminishing repetition, mechanical grooming”, a quote from a series of words snipped & re-arranged for anti-context. If I sound crazy, I blame the tape. Can’t think straight. Brain rearranged. So. Fucking. Good!

http://whitereeves.bandcamp.com/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan