Guided By Voices have a 25th anniversary edition of Alien Lanes coming out. There is of course no point to this other than record company profit margins.
Alien Lanes opens with the immortal lyric: “The new drunk drivers have hoisted the flag.” It was a triumphant line celebrating the new. So forgive me but I’m far more excited about a new band hoisting the flag for GBV’s ‘4 Ps’ - pop, punk, prog, psych - than I am about a reissue.
The irresponsible reprobates driving the tour van into uncharted terrain this week are Portabella, brothers from South Carolina, who have apparently “been making music in some form for the last 20 years with a rotating cast of friends popping in”. Sounds like code for sniffing glue in their mum’s garage while failing to find full-time employment.
And their 15 songs sound like a lot of happy accidents, short, sharp songs, blurring genre lines, no compromise, frantically manic. They brilliantly show ingenuity, perseverance and extreme individualism.They have no restraints. Or anniversary reissue plans.
Sunday, 5 April 2020
Thursday, 2 April 2020
Bond themes by Hacia Dos Veranos and Red Red Eyes
Red Red Eyes specialise in a very English electronic vision - think Delia Derbyshire’s enigmatic precision, Broadcast’s Tears In The Typing Pool, Kraftwerk in Paddington Bear duffel coats.
They’ve taken The Pretenders’ Where Has Everybody Gone? and created a paranoid trip through the suburbs where memories are locked in boxes, bodies buried under the floorboards and fairies seen at the end of the garden.
Hacia Dos Veranos make sense of the anomalous, combining as they do the fury of Mogwai’s post-rock with the delicate classicism of the Durutti Column and Argentine rhythmic flair.
We Have All The Time In The Word finds them taking a melancholic approach to understand that sadness is not a disorder but the natural state. This is the first time they’ve sung on a track. They remain one of my favourite bands.
The WIAIWYA label has been releasing covers of Bond themes for 5 years. These new offerings represent my favourites so far. Label boss John Jervis wasn’t a young man when he started this project. Had he been, his obsession with the number 7 and James Bond would certainly have seen him committed to sessions with a counsellor so he could talk through his feelings with hand puppets. We are, however, fortunate to have these eccentric and essential releases right now.
They’ve taken The Pretenders’ Where Has Everybody Gone? and created a paranoid trip through the suburbs where memories are locked in boxes, bodies buried under the floorboards and fairies seen at the end of the garden.
Hacia Dos Veranos make sense of the anomalous, combining as they do the fury of Mogwai’s post-rock with the delicate classicism of the Durutti Column and Argentine rhythmic flair.
We Have All The Time In The Word finds them taking a melancholic approach to understand that sadness is not a disorder but the natural state. This is the first time they’ve sung on a track. They remain one of my favourite bands.
The WIAIWYA label has been releasing covers of Bond themes for 5 years. These new offerings represent my favourites so far. Label boss John Jervis wasn’t a young man when he started this project. Had he been, his obsession with the number 7 and James Bond would certainly have seen him committed to sessions with a counsellor so he could talk through his feelings with hand puppets. We are, however, fortunate to have these eccentric and essential releases right now.
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Big Baby - Fizzy Cola
When I listen to superior pop music like this Big Baby tape, I remember Game Theory’s Scott Miller saying: “There's nothing really impressive about any mystique that I have. I'm just...it's just pop. And that's kind of hard to sell sometimes."
What would make Big Baby’s songs - and they’re really very good, you know - sell? If Pretty in Pink 2 gets made, then the power pop and fragility of String Of Pearls beats any fist pumpin' soft rock to pull the emotional levers.
Any of those Netflix dramas about love and self loathing and teenage dreams - all improved by a song off Fizzy Cola. Selling pop music to me is easy - I stockpile it whatever the climate - but I feel certain that with exposure and a bit of luck these immediate songs would win many new fans no bother.
What would make Big Baby’s songs - and they’re really very good, you know - sell? If Pretty in Pink 2 gets made, then the power pop and fragility of String Of Pearls beats any fist pumpin' soft rock to pull the emotional levers.
Any of those Netflix dramas about love and self loathing and teenage dreams - all improved by a song off Fizzy Cola. Selling pop music to me is easy - I stockpile it whatever the climate - but I feel certain that with exposure and a bit of luck these immediate songs would win many new fans no bother.
Saturday, 28 March 2020
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
Name a song by Snail Mail? Thinning, right. Now name a song by Mothers. It Hurts Until It Doesn’t, right. What about Soccer Mommy? Nope, you got me there.
But what if any of those bands wrote nothing but hits? Well, you’d have Beach Bunny who keep the emo on the down-low, open the windows on their bedroom music and let Best Coast’s sunshine pop stream in.
Honeymoon elevates suburban boredom - heartbreak, restlessness and disaffection - to the state of celebration by matching it with instant hooks and fuzzy guitars. If you liked All Of Nothing by Remember Sports, Honeymoon will rock your socks off.
Biographical detail? They’re from Chicago. Honeymoon is their first album. There’s an ep Prom Queen. You need both of these records.
But what if any of those bands wrote nothing but hits? Well, you’d have Beach Bunny who keep the emo on the down-low, open the windows on their bedroom music and let Best Coast’s sunshine pop stream in.
Honeymoon elevates suburban boredom - heartbreak, restlessness and disaffection - to the state of celebration by matching it with instant hooks and fuzzy guitars. If you liked All Of Nothing by Remember Sports, Honeymoon will rock your socks off.
Biographical detail? They’re from Chicago. Honeymoon is their first album. There’s an ep Prom Queen. You need both of these records.
Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Pop Crimes - Debuts
Goes is 2020’s first true classic pop song - guitars set to jangle, the big box marked ‘tune!’ opened and the foot slammed on the fx pedal. Seasons & Storms isn’t far behind if you’re looking for the second true classic pop song of the year. Then listen to The Sun. You’ll very quickly get the idea something special is starting to happen.
They sound like Ride when they got it right all those years ago, first album Pains of Being Pure At Heart, exlovers frenzied noise, and the addictive, biting snarl of the Boo Radleys on Everything’s Alright Forever.
No idea why they’ve either named themselves after a Roland S Howard album or think they’ve in fact committed crimes against pop. Neither of these things ring true. But these songs? This band? Time to get very excited.
They sound like Ride when they got it right all those years ago, first album Pains of Being Pure At Heart, exlovers frenzied noise, and the addictive, biting snarl of the Boo Radleys on Everything’s Alright Forever.
No idea why they’ve either named themselves after a Roland S Howard album or think they’ve in fact committed crimes against pop. Neither of these things ring true. But these songs? This band? Time to get very excited.
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
PGX - Naive
This is worth the entry price just for the pagan tribute to the titular Peter Gutteridge.
PGX aren’t the sound of Dunedin, or even Christchurch. Maybe they looked to Gutteridge’s words for inspiration on their first 4 songs: “I like certain sounds. Certain rhythms. I’m interested in drone music as well as melody.”
Their spoken word vocals put them in league with Black Country, New Road, developing repetitive rhythms and oblique tunes on songs like the excellent Chocolate Factory.
Lead track Mopeds tips more to the recent LA punk stylings of Daddy Issues and Shit Bitch, and I’d love to see them on a bill with Breakup Haircut.
That’s a lot of ways to go, right? Well, apparently they’re “not sure what sound they’re going for but are finding their way with distortion”. Whichever way they go - and I secretly hope Speedy Wunderground have opened their chequebook - PGX are a band to watch out for.
PGX aren’t the sound of Dunedin, or even Christchurch. Maybe they looked to Gutteridge’s words for inspiration on their first 4 songs: “I like certain sounds. Certain rhythms. I’m interested in drone music as well as melody.”
Their spoken word vocals put them in league with Black Country, New Road, developing repetitive rhythms and oblique tunes on songs like the excellent Chocolate Factory.
Lead track Mopeds tips more to the recent LA punk stylings of Daddy Issues and Shit Bitch, and I’d love to see them on a bill with Breakup Haircut.
That’s a lot of ways to go, right? Well, apparently they’re “not sure what sound they’re going for but are finding their way with distortion”. Whichever way they go - and I secretly hope Speedy Wunderground have opened their chequebook - PGX are a band to watch out for.
Friday, 28 February 2020
Algara - Enamorados Del Control Total
Imagine The Fall holed up in a Soviet bloc crack den. They’ve shoved their last coins in the electricity meter and have just minutes to record 4 blistering songs. All the needles are on red. Someone might be holding a gun to their heads.
Fragmented, shattering, desperate, howling. I don’t know what they’re singing (they’re Spanish and I’m a monolingual dolt) but they sound like they’re pleading for their lives. Or they just got dumped. Love can be vicious and its wounds bloody.
Fragmented, shattering, desperate, howling. I don’t know what they’re singing (they’re Spanish and I’m a monolingual dolt) but they sound like they’re pleading for their lives. Or they just got dumped. Love can be vicious and its wounds bloody.
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