Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Paging Dave Kendall (or more likely, Lewis Largent)... it's a PURLING HISS music video

Here's a nice hazy vid that the Sunday post-midnight crowd should appreciate. It's a tune called "Passenger Queen" by PURLING HISS and it's from the album titled Hissteria.
It was put together by Jake Fennell in southern California.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Rare BWY gig in Cleve-o


Hey take a look at this hideous flyer. It announces the record release gig at Now That's Class in Cleveland for The Trilogy by BRAINWASHED YOUTH. Anyone wanting a copy of the record should show up, as the damn thing is just about sold out. Also on the bill: FOLDED SHIRT and FLYIN' TRICHECOS. And it says that all the bands are required to wear white pants, for some reason. Hopefully that'll distinguish the performers from their grubby audience.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Autumnal Round-Up

Well look, sometimes it can get so I can't check in at this weblog with the frequency that I'd like and that my readers demand. Sometimes there's just too much livin' to do. My hands get full of guitars and pint glasses and sometimes a pigskin and the keyboard gets neglected. And my precious and fickle readers feel scorned and they need to find somewhere else to direct their eyes. Well, fret no longer. Here's a quick entry that'll eat up a few minutes of your day and send your browser across cyberspace.

First of all, the HOMOSTUPIDS proved that world that an audio cassette doesn't have to just some stupid little spineless piss-take project in 2010. Turns out that, for the man or woman on the go, it's an essential medium for jamming the finest tunes available. A lot of automobiles once came standard with tape decks, and a good number of those are still on the road. A very lucky few of those have the pleasure of holding the 'Stupids Great Music Collection (companion to last year's Our Best Shit cassette) in its grips. It features a couple radio ads in the great Flag tradition and it's got some terrifying and raging tunes that are just too much to keep confined to a home stereo. "Doper"? "Flies Die"? The BB King inflected "Mister Payback"? These tunes are essential listening in this world. "Taping the Worm"? "Brown Items"? Those kick much ass as well. And you get the 'Stupids take on GG's "Live to Be Hated" as well. Two Goddamn Times in a row!! It's a thoroughly solid listen on a drive to work, to the beach, to the slopes, to the bar, to the dentist, or to wherever one might drive. Look for a copy at Fan Death Records. And yeah, I realize that an mp3 player can funnel music into an automobile, but it's such a hassle and then you end up skipping around like a guy with a satellite dish and a remote control...


Speaking of FDR, keep those eyes peeled for the vinyl release of CLOCKCLEANER's Nevermind. This album was recorded in about 2004 and it was originally released only on compact disc (because "People. Do not. Purchase. Vinyl") by an archetypal speciman who worships the devil and is rumored to keep a coffin (in which he intends to rest eternally!) in his living room. For extra cash he models black jeans, black t-shirts, black nail polish, and a black goatee. He also sells weak drugs to weak people. But yeah, the record is being committed to wax... In more timely news, check out FDR figurehead Sean Gray's weekly music and sports themed radio broadcast Get Up and Fight on Mondays from 7-9pm on WMUC2. Recent broadcasts have included discussions of Donovon McNabb, YDI, Ray Lewis, and Violent Apathy.


Currently zigging and zagging across the US, Perth, Australia's TACO LEG are out there holding their heads even higher than they did when we last checked in. Great combo of thrown-off guitars and monotone, upfront blurting; charm and grit all wrapped up in 3 baby-faced mates. A buddy observed that, unlike a lot of modern groups that get rolled up in the Messthetics rug, Taco Leg isn't afraid to stand their singer up front on stage and in the mix. I'd agree. Andrew is up there flailing around in the long shadow of that guy Mark Smith. Definitely worth a night out for even the most hardened and uninterested music fan.


Here's a nice surprise: A great new LP of electric guitar-based droning, vamping, and licking came through. It's titled Eyewash Silver by KING BLOOD and it's on the Ignorant Gore label. Some seemingly eastern squeals jump out from this one, and the bass and drums (maybe just one drum, certainly a cymbal) throb along to maintain head nodding. Looks to be limited. Nice listen if you can get it.

Everyone ought to know that good friend of the label KURT VILE has a new single. Its a nice maudlin offering called In My Time. It's a classy affair and the flip has some nice canned drums that bring me back to the pre-Zanghi days. This may or may not be a sign of things to come, though all reports lead me to believe that the next big KV record will have some big sounds, big guitars, big drums, and all around big things. All these pieces are building up to reveal the man beneath it all. Relatedly, WAR ON DRUGS, the work of the longest-tenured VIOLATOR (or maybe KV is the 2nd longest-tenured War on Drugs?) recently issued a tidy twelve inch of new tunes. The title is Future Weather and it's got swells, swagger, and Springsteen-moves. The propulsive drumming sounds familar... turns out Violator Zanghi shows up here as well.

Goddamn... Mike "Dizzy" Polizze took a month of from his buds in BIRDS OF MAYA to take a trip with PURLING HISS. Our man wouldn't even give a glimpse of his live outfit until he had already showed it to about 30 other cities. PH was opening for the Violators, and those guys report that it was a hell of a privilege to watch the thing gel before their eyes and in their ears night after night. "Don't diss the Hiss!" became the mantra of this crew. And so these unkempt tossers pulled back into port something fierce...