Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar

March is National Garage Rock Month, and what better way to commemorate it that this 2004 soulful, skronky offering from the Reigning Sound.

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Allmusic.com: Cartwright sums up his approach on the third album from the Reigning Sound with the title, Too Much Guitar -- here, Cartwright moves the old-school soul influences that were in the forefront on Break Up Break Down and Time Bomb High School to the back burner in favor of a hip-shakin' set of loud and primal guitar-based rock & roll. While Cartwright's passion for R&B is still prominent in these songs (and their performances), here it manifests itself in a set of tunes that take Stones/Pretties-style raunch and filters it through '60s garage rock bashing in the manner of the Sonics or the Misunderstood. In short, this thing goes bash, pound, bash through 14 high-impact cuts, and Cartwright's passionate vocals jockey for position against his revved-up guitar bashing, while bassist Jeremy Scott and drummer Greg Roberson flail away for all their worth in support. Cartwright also reaffirms his status here as one of the best songwriters in the nuevo garage scene on Too Much Guitar -- while the performances may value impact over nuance, the songs are smart, soulful, and emotionally powerful, and the lyrics speak of a maturity that's a far (and welcome) cry from the cars'n'girls blatherings of most new garage outfits. While some fans might miss some of the soulful undercurrents that made Time Bomb High School so memorable, if you want to hear Greg Cartwright rock on out, then this album will convince you that Too Much Guitar is never enough.



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and a parting gift (for the aggravation) HEAR

Various Artists - On-U Sound Discoplates 1,2,3,4 & 6

In the hit-or-miss world of Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound productions, Discoplates Collection Part 1 is a home run. It is chock-full of roots with funky, heavy (bordering on lethargic) bass lines, African drums, and echoing, dub-like effects that make these tracks "dub-worthy" enough not to need vocals (Indeed, the acts included here do not necessarily have permanent vocalists, each instead utilizing guests.). But the roots vocals that are included enhance the intoxicating music, especially Lizard's classic melody on Creation Rebel's "Independent Man." Of course, Creation Rebel's "Creation Rebel," featuring Crucial Tony, is nothing to sneeze at either. Congo Ashanti Roy's rich voice on Singers & Players' "African Blood" is also superb. Singer & Players contributes over half of the tracks on Discoplate Collection Part 1, "Hands and Hearts" with Congo Ashanti Roy and Bim Sherman's sax and bass-driven "Revolution" and "Danger" being the best of the rest. The lesser-known Noah House of Dread meanwhile holds its own, with "Murder" and its dub version, and "Stand Firm," all quality cultural tracks featuring African drums and Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah's likeable raspy vocals. Discoplate Collection Part 1 is right up there with Dub Xperience: The Dread Operators as the best On-U Sound collection I've heard.


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African Head Charge - My life in a hole in the ground

Thanks be to YoungMossTongue for reminding me how much I love AHC. This is their first, circa 1981.


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Allmusic.com Playing on both the title and concept of David Byrne and Brian Eno's Africanized, experimental My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, African Head Charge -- led by Adrian Sherwood and percussionist Bonjo Iyanbinghi Noah -- engage in free-form sonic explorations set to dub and African rhythms on their 1981 debut album. My Life in a Hole in the Ground was reissued on CD in 1998.


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Lilys - Better Can't Make Your Life Better

Pitch perfect aping of the strutting Kinks thing. Bay threw this my way in millenium past and it never ceases to illicit a dynamic foot tap n pigeon dance. Heil the prowess of the Lilys mimic machine.


Allmusic.com: Another new record, another new sound: on Better Can't Make Your Life Better, the Lilys hop into the time machine and travel back to the mid-'60s, immersing themselves in the style of the British Invasion. And while tracks like "Cambridge California," "Shovel into Spade Kit," and "Can't Make Your Life Better" certainly bring to mind the timeless pleasures of early Kinks, Stones, and Who, the record's easy appropriation of a 30-year-old sound underscores the Lilys' big problem: Kurt Heasley is a gifted chameleon...


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Playmobil Stop Motion - Joy Division - Transmission

Sic Alps - A Long Way Around To A Shortcut and U.S. EZ

Damn I needed something organic like this. Feels pre-organized rock unit Royal Truxy, with a real songwriter panache to it.


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Pitchfork chunk: Without a doubt, U.S. EZ is a far more structured and melodic record, though its few more experimental tracks-- "Put the Puss to Bed" or the unexpected pummel and howl of "N##JJ"-- pale in comparison to the ones that made A Long Way Around to a Shortcut so wonderfully unpredictable. Granted, that was a singles collection, so of course it's more diverse. But here, amidst the nods to a noisier past and the occasional dip into intoxicated broken blues ("Clubbing for $$", "CO/CA"), U.S. EZ breaks through with tracks like "Everywhere, There", which takes woozy primitive pop and transforms it into something simultaneously fragile and coarse and then, suddenly, sublime.

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Jew vs. Jew: Bob Dylan And Lou Reed

Time to pick a side?

A Caffeinated Compilation

A Caffeinated Compilation is a collection of songs recorded during the year 2010 at Caffeinated Recordings studio in Chicago.

Begin By Gathering Supplies
noise&light
The Columbines
(-o-)
Small Awesome
Whales
Bully Pulpit
Coyote Camaro
Vansassa
Lines and Terminals
Jimmy Two Hands
Supermarketsound
The Infrasonics

http://caffeinatedrecordings.bandcamp.com/
Download for free or just listen online.

Enjoy!

Burzum - Fallen

A little toasty black ambient to warm your blizzarded cockles.

Fallen, the eighth album from Burzum, will be released in North America on April 5. The album is the second to be released via Varg Vikernes’ imprint Byelobog Productions (via Candlelight for the territory). The album features seven new compositions by the controversial Norwegian musician; each adding another storied journey to the celebrated Burzum legacy.

Vikernes says of the new album, “Musically Fallen is a cross between Belus and something new, inspired more by the debut album and Det Som Engang Var than by Hvis Lyset Tar Oss or Filosofem. The sound is more dynamic. We mastered the album as if it was classical music and I was more experimental than I was on Belus in all respects. Lyrically it is similar to the debut album, in the way that it is more personal and focuses on existential issues. But the mythological undertone known from Belus is still there. I have also included some ambient tracks, a short introduction and a longer conclusion.

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