Introducing Mike IQ!

So we're served with another post on Augenmusik blog; this one a little bit different from previous ones. First off, it's by a new contributor, my dear friend Mike IQ. Mike is a lifelong New Yorker and old friend who's spent time with me in all sort of musical pursuits, from various bands to checking out shows in dirty squats and swanky clubs, to DJ-ing Manhattan bars, to all other sorts of hijinks. He recently came off a stint at Neighborhoodpublicradio.org with his show Straight Nerdin'. His musical taste is informed and all over the place, so I thought he'd be an ace fit. He liked good tunes, doesn't mince words, and doesn't have much patience for hype or drama. As a way to introduce the readers to him, he thought he might just put his iPod on shuffle and muse about whatever tracks came up. It seemed fun for him, and made for a good read, so in addition to more contributions by him, we're hoping he continues with this format every now and again as well....

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Prince Buster and Judge Dread – Taxation
From She was a rough rider
The reggae/ska/rocksteady stalwarts talk about “Taxation without representation.” I’m a sucker for both these guys and you probably should be too. Go read about them on allmusic.

Big L – Size Em Up
From The Big Picture
I don’t think that L’s deification in true school hip hop circles is at all undeserved. Aside from his sick flow, his superb wordplay this is one of those tracks that really conveys his personality. He’s cocky, hotheaded and arrogant and he’s liable to eat your ass up. Throw ya L’s up!

Charlie Feathers – Stutterin’ Cindy
From This Little Show
I originally got into this cat thanks to the Songs the Cramps Taught Us compilation series that, not surprisingly, showcases songs that the Cramps covered. This is the guy who wrote “Can’t Hardly Stand It,” which is such an ill, infectious song and I think the first song I learned to play on guitar (which probably isn’t saying much since I’m no Ivy Rorschach.) Anyway, this one is live or a demo or something – it’s off his “This Little Show” record – I think it’s some kind of bootleg. It’s vintage rockabilly of the highest order.

Nick Cave – Omalley’s Bar
From Murder Ballads
This is 14+ minutes so I can’t listen to it right now. That doesn’t detract from the fact that Nick Cave is the best guy in the world or the fact that I, and not you, am going to see him again this Fall.

Prefuse 73 f/ Ghostface and El-P – HYF
From Surrounded by Silence
Highly infectious beat by Prtefuse and surprisingly El-P and Tony’s skills and egos don’t cause the track to kill itself, but rather work together. Great hook and El gets dirty, vintage Co Flow style (not to detract from his solo material but this proves that when he wants to, he knows how nod heads.) There’s clearly mutual respect and it doesn’t feel like Tony phoned this one in from his secret Wu Tang (or Theodore Unit) compound. There’s interaction on the ad-libs and that’s rarely a bad thing with MC’s of this caliber. It’s dirty, it’s street and it’s fresh. I could listen to this track 10 times in a row. Peep Ghost’s second verse – it’s classic Tony and yet another example of how he could probably read from the phone book and make it sound dope.

Newcleus – Auto Man
From Jam on Revenge
If you don’t know who Newcleus is, you better axe somebody. You can axe me. If you were born in the mid-seventies and lived in New York, there’s a good chance that their classic “Jam On It (wicky wicky)” was one of the first rap songs you ever heard. It certainly was for me. But it wasn’t till a couple of years ago that my man Karun played me the whole LP. It’s got a super dope Funkadelic-looking comic strip cover and is full of electro hip hop goodness. I’m not crazy about the sung vocals on this joint but the instrumental sections and the beat as a whole are quite fresh.

Redman – Can’t Wait
From Ego Trip’s Best Hip Hop Singles of ‘94
Youngins who think that Redman is just a character actor or inextricably linked to Method Man would be wise to check out joints like this. It’s got that nice, warm early nineties vibe that makes you feel so young and good. Almost brings a tear to my eye. There’s a 21 Jump Street reference too. Also, for all you true rap nerds, he drops a line that Kriss Kross later used as a hook when they tried to come thugged out in the mid-nineties – "Please/My whole crew’s making cheese/tonight’s the night baby/so suck up on these.” If you never heard that track, consider yourself lucky – being So So Def OGs does not allow a little kid novelty act to make a G record work.

Dwarves – Blast
From The Dwarves must Die
What can be said about the Dwarves? They’re raw and nasty hardcore from the Pacific Northwest and they have an album called “Thank Heaven for Little Girls.” What’s not to like?

Witch Hunt – Life in a Box
From …As Priorities Decay
My homegirls out of Jersey/Philly, they’ve been at it for a while and on tracks like this one you can hear how they manage to make passionate and original-sounding anarcho-punk that synthesizes disparate influences. This is one of their older records. Theyv’e done a lot since. Go check ‘em out when they come to your town. They tour a lot and they bring it live.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – You Made Me Love You
From Voodoo Jive: The Best of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
This song is performed by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

Black Anvil – 777
From Test Mixes
Another friend of mine – you may know Paul from Black Anvil from his other band, Deathcycle (one of the only New York area hardcore bands worth a piss these days,) or from his previous projects, Long Island hardcore stalwarts Kill Your Idols and New York hardcore pranksters Down Low (known for penning songs with titles like “Crack Bitch.”) Here Paul branches out into black metal of raw, dirty and ferocious kind. I swear, Paul is the only person I know with whom I can carry an infinite e-mail conversation about Von (http://www.myspace.com/von666). This one’s got a lot of dynamics and character and a big Celtic Frost influence and that’s never a bad thing.

John Fahey
From Volume 6: Days Have Gone By
Another gentlemen, who like Mr. Cave, could do no wrong. Pretty much anything you can find by the late Mr. Fahey is guaranteed to be great and he put out 364,023,405 records! No shit! His shit basically remained meandering, strange bluegrass/folk instrumental guitar pieces (with the notable exception of his later electric period which approached atonality yet with its feet firmly planted in blues and bluegrass and, for some reason, awesomely reverb-laden surfish guitar tones,) and this is no exception. This one’s a slow, short somewhat somber number

Material – Upriver
From Memory Serrves
I’ve been meaning to listen to these guys forever – they’re part of the post-punk canon apparently. This is a Bill Laswell project and Bill Laswell’s got the Midas fucking touch, baby (check out his record with Jah Wobble or his Trojan Dub Massive Volume 2 comp.) They play extremely strange , extremely funky instrumental new wave with violin and other idiosyncratic instrumentatuion. It’s also quite fucking awesome. I need to listen to more of this. I am a sucker for sleeping on Material. Don’t be like me. Don’t sleep.

Celtic Frost – Dethroned Emperor
From Morbid Tales
I love On to Mega-Therion and (especially) Into the Pandemonium as much as the next hessian, but for my money nothing lays down that slow, clunky brutality that the Frost is known best for like Morbid Tales. You’re not metal if you’re not at least acquainted with this record.

Acid King – Dry Run
From Zoroaster
I tried unsuccessfully to immerse myself in the burgeoning stoner rock scene a few years back. Like any other style of music, there’s a lot of chaff for every one piece of wheat (or vice versa – I’m assuming you want the wheat, unless you’ve got that allergy which I think I kind of have. Also I don’t really know what the fuck “chaff” is – don’t warplanes launch it to confuse enemy radars?) Any way, Acid King are an exception because they keep you hooked in with truly psychedelic jams and great female vocals.

Until next time, kids.

INTERVIEW: Helen of the Skabs

Ah, the Skabs. I've admitted on numerous occasions how smitten I was with them, and I jumped at the opportunity to publish a little chat with former front-woman Helen. The Skabs definitely stuck out in the mid 90's NY punk scene alongside bands like H-Tomb, Dysfunctional Youth, or the Casualties (perhaps you've heard of that last band). Whereas the lion's share of bands opted for some degree of Partisans or Conflict worship, the Skabs influences clearly laid elsewhere. I would say they were ahead of their time, since the Skabs might have had a prescient feeling about the post-punk craze that would take hold of NY a few scant years later. However, the Skabs simply didn't care about time, and moreover, their noise was so very different in style, comportment, and attitude from what came after, and I dare say most of those folks weren't from New York anyway.

It's timely to be able to post this today, since we've just made the Skabs album CONTENT available as a digital release. Only a lucky handful can claim to have the handscreened LP, which was split with the unfortunately-named, but actually pretty good band "Anal Sausage". In addition to a re-mastered version of all the tracks on that split record, there are also a handful of bonus songs from those sessions that did not appear on that piece of wax. I do believe it is my favorite record of theirs. Hopefully the Skabs vaults will eventually yield yet more material from this band...

Some links:
the Skabs on myspace
MP3 of "Sexy Ass" from CONTENT
MP3 of "the Draft" from Aged to Perfection

Augenmusik: What is the history of the Skabs? How did you get together and where are all of you folks from? The Skabs are from different boroughs, right?

Helen: The Skabs members are from different boroughs, yes - Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens - myself, being a Queens girl.  We all met in LaGuardia Community College.  Sometime during my first collegiate year, I got together with Eddie, Remi, and Adam.  Through those guys, I met Ania, who was attending highschool elsewhere, and voila!  The Skabs were born! 

Augenmusik: I remember the band playing countless times at ABC No Rio-- enough that I'd wager that the place played an important part in the band's formation. What drew you guys to the place in the first place?

Helen: The others were already frequenting ABC No Rio long before I showed up to the scene.  Frankly, I didn't know my ass from my elbow, but I was ready and determined to make my presence known.  I can remember my first Punk show like it was yesterday.  There was a band from Florida.  It was great watching the singer, some fat and drunk bastard with fucked up and dirty green hair, smash an empty beer bottle against one of the poles in the basement and cut himself in different places.  He was bleeding like the fat and drunk bastard he was.  He reeked of piss and sweat.  I immediately thought this was the right kind of place for a wide-eyed youth like myself.  Not long after that did I pull out the Manic Panic and give myself a stylish green troll hairdo before graduating to a sexy purple and green Soo Catwoman haircut.

Augenmusik: The falling out with ABC No Rio was well documented. It's a good bit in the past now. Do you have any words about what happened and what sparked the Skabs' ire-- with as much or as little diplomacy as you'd like?

Helen: Feigned diplomacy is a popular method of manipulation that works so well because it often goes by undetected.

Augenmusik: Skabs' releases were few and far between during most of the band's existence. Some of the bands of that era in the NY punk scene went on to release a lot of music, and others didn't. Given that the Skabs were big enough to pack a club, played out of town a good deal, and toured more than a few times, to what do you attribute this for the Skabs? It seems there was a lot more recorded material than there was recorded output.

Helen: Our recordings were few and far in between due to a crippling lack of financial resources.  That we constantly played benefit shows meant that we weren't going to be paid for our services.  I'm amazed we managed with what little we had.  We weren't shrewd business people, after all.  Moreover, there were small labels that offered to put out Skabs material but declined upon listening to what they perceived to be as either too harsh, too weird, or too confrontational for underground Punk marketability.  How ironic.

Augenmusik: The progression of the Skabs' music was pretty gradual, but quite pronounced as it incorporated more electronic elements and got darker. How did you guys approach writing songs like that? To what do you owe the shift in sound over the years?

Helen: I think it's important to remember that The Skabs were a band that was all about experimentation.  None of us were in previous bands to start with, so it can be said that our project was a long work in progress.  I wouldn't call it a "shift" in song writing so much as I would call it a dire need to kill off approaching boredom.  Without boredom, I don't think we would have grown musically or have bothered playing shows and booking two solid tours by ourselves.  Besides, shouldn't something happen when people learn to play their instruments?  How can a band possibly make the same record forever?   

Augenmusik: For sure, there were plenty of bands the Skabs played with at the time the band was around. However, in retrospect, the Skabs really stand alone during that time in New York in my mind. Are there any bands that you felt were kindred spirits at the time?

Helen: I cannot think of any spirits that were truly kindred.  Everybody's looking out for themselves in the big scheme of things.

Augenmusik: Touring must have been a trip for you folks since the Skabs could have toured the punk circuit, but didn't quite fit in, and routinely ignored anything akin to an indie scene, and hit the road with song crazy shows on the itinerary. What were the tours like? Any good stories?

Helen: There are too many stories to get into, so many in fact that I really shouldn't bother unless I was writing a book.  Once, we arrived to St. Louis where people showed up to see a New York City circus.  It seemed like our reputation had preceded us again.  We got through playing three songs.  Some guy looked me in the eye, grabbed his crotch, and shouted for me to take my shirt off.  I called him over, and sure enough, he approached the stage willingly.  It was then that I kicked him in the face and busted his nose.  He was bleeding all over the fucking place.  His friends tried jumping on stage when we started the fourth song.  We fought them off with mic stands as the power got cut off.  As we loaded our equipment into the van, the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by an angry mob of testosterone-driven males.  The soundman, who looked like he could've been a member of ZZ Top, fired his shotgun into the air to disperse the crowd, and helped us out with our equipment.  We skidded off as 40 oz. beer bottles rained on our van.

Augenmusik: What are the members of the band up to these days? From what I remember, it's some pretty interesting stuff? Do you guys keep up with the goings on in music at all? It's a very different music scene than 15 years ago...

Helen: I'm looking forward to hearing the new Portishead cd.  I'm a big fan of Goldfrapp's Supernature - liquid gold music and a voice like mulled wine to match.  The new Diamanda Galas cd intrigues me.  As for keeping up with any kind of scene, I'm just glad we did what we did when we did it.  Not only is it a very different music scene, but I find it's a very dull one as well.  After The Skabs, we have since traded the music scene for the world of high gastronomy.

Augenmusik: While the Skabs had a good run, one can't help think they broke up at just the wrong time as a lot more bands came along with whom the Skabs could probably have pal-ed around with on both sides of the country, but started making noise just around the time of the band's demise. Any regrets? Any desire to do anything again with the Skabs or with music again?

Helen: As a former member of The Skabs, I honestly feel we couldn't have broken up at a better time.  When the Towers fell in '01, strange feelings of displacement were resonating with the members and affecting different areas of our lives.  I walked away eagerly and swiftly without looking back on my experience for a very long time.  You know, no life is without its regrets, but I don't do my dirty laundry in public.  As for our direct involvement with music, given the right circumstances, it would be good fun to do a last record.

Augenmusik: An extended version of "Content" has just been made available again. Is there anything you'd like to share about this record? Hopefully it will help satiate some longtime Skabs fans, but also introduce more people to your music. Are there any words you'd like to leave with the folks discovering the Skabs for the first time?

Helen: CONTENT is my personal favorite Skabs release because that LP is the hallmark of our creative peak.  The songs are reflective of the magic and the darkness we felt collectively, and the personal struggle we were enduring at the time.  Listening to those songs again for the first time in years has transported me to a New York which, I'm afraid, will never be seen again by future generations.  For now, I will say only this, that idealism and romanticism are the follies of youth.  We should've sold out when the majors came knocking.

A night out in Montreal: Trouble Vs Glue & folks at Sala Rossa.

It's pained me a little bit that I moved to Montreal and have made a habit out of always posting about music that is happening elsewhere. Thankfully, this will change with this post. A few weeks ago, Duchess Says actually played their record release party to much fanfare in town. They're a band I've wanted to see ever since I moved here, but they've only played but a handful of times in the year and a half since then. Indeed I had planned on writing down a few lines about that show because I was excited to go. But, at the last minute I flaked out. While $18 in a nice theater isn't an entirely unreasonable price, that + a subway ticket + some drinks at the show was feeling a little hard on the wallet on that particular day. Alas, nothing to report.... except that I rather like all the songs of theirs I heard and have been itching to hear a lot more. Apparently people in town (and elsewhere) are rapidly beating me to it.

Last week I got an email from Toni of the italian spazz-y dance band Dada Swing that his new band with fellow-Swing member Manuela, Trouble vs Glue was on tour in North America and were playing in Montreal on April 30th and May 1st. I went down to the May 1st show at Sala Rossa with Big A Little A, Thundrah, and An Albatross. While this won't be news to anyone from Montreal, Sala Rossa is a decent sized venue hosting the shows of Blue Skies Turn Black (and reminding one a little bit of Union Pool in Brooklyn, albeit a bit bigger), housed in the ballroom of a former Spanish social club, which is now also home to a very nice Spanish tapas restaurant right below the venue. I must say, if this popped up a few years ago on Ludlow Street, I'd have been mortified (as I was when those types of things popped up), but on St Laurent, it's actually quite nice; the shows are nice, food is reasonable, sound is always good. It's like if Pianos were ripped out of NY and not over-run with bridge and tunnel. And the food is pretty fucking awesome, thank you very much.

Dada Swing played with the Weegs on a past tour in Europe and have been penpals since around then. Trouble vs Glue is the new band featuring two thirds of the aforementioned act, formed in the vacuum and creative frustration after DS's guitarist moved from Rome to Brussels. As a two piece, they have a slim drums and keyboards and a quirky, guitar-and-keyboards sound. Very fun, loose songs that would sound best at a drunken party. The big stage was a bit of an awkward set up for the two-piece, but within 3 songs, they quickly commandeered the situation and got the attention of the arriving audience who had likely never heard of them before. As the show went on, the band's energy level crescendoed, as did the appreciation of the crowd. It was fun to watch and I'm glad their stop in town pulled me out of the house that Thursday.

[Trouble vs Glue. Mediocre photo by: me]

After our openers came home-town act Thundrah. My first encounter with them, they made quite a good impression. Every town seems to have their tropes, and one of Montreal's is the lengthy, rhythmic, and noisy. Thundra had all of those, especially the first two, in abundance, and at times came across as a mixture of Neu! and Hawkwind intent on harnessing the raw tempos of ESG. I quite dug it, and they more than kept my attention. If I were to complain a little, which I feel justified in doing since I did actually play close attention, is that they had a number of very good, insistent parts that built up nicely but didn't quite resolve into anything else. A little more emphasis on the hooks in the transitions and they'd be quite nice. I know I'll definitely look twice the next time I see their name in the paper. I'd like to see them again.

Big A Little A are from Brooklyn, and the name sounds familiar to me from those Todd P mailing list emails I used to get. I can't admit to having seen them before. I also can't admit to digging their name very much, but the kinds of band names that play on language have gaining in prominence for a while. Nobody consulted me whether I like it, and I doubt anyone will, but I can deal. As for the music, very bluntly: having 3 drummers in a band is a great idea. Period. But also one that can get old very quick and where you need to be on your toes with your ideas. Aa's first few songs were slightly spacey jams that incorporated some interesting Carnaval-style drums. Percussive and interesting enough to yield a decent song, I did find myself losing steam by the end of the song. But then they changed it up with a darker, more electronic-inflected number that reminded me of a slower Nitzer Ebb tune and really took me by surprise. And the set continued to go through different moods, all the while retaining its emphasis on percussion. I'd be glad to snatch up a record of theirs for repeated lessons, and if there wasn't such slim pickings in the bank account now, I probably would have. Some of the drum beats were a bit quaint, like Samba-junior. But shit, if these guys went to Rio for a year to study drumming, they'd come back and write a legendary record. Seriously.

An Albatross. When I was in the Bad Form, we had a show booked at ABC No Rio around 2000 where we were supposed to play with them. They didn't show up... and neither did half the Bad Form (we still played). But I still haven't seen them! They seemed like nice enough dudes, and I've been curious to check them out a few times, but things didn't change today. I had work early the day, and not enough steam in me to go without decent sleep, so I skipped out. Next time, then!

Tomorrow: a Skabs interview!

John Maus & Soiled Mattress and the Springs from Upset the Rhythm

It's an encouraging feeling when good friends get involved interesting artistsic endeavors. It's even cooler when those interesting endeavors wind up yielding something quite good. And, let's say, when said friends wind up releasing some really impressive records that wind up on a UK label compiling some great sounds, then you could say you have a good deal of pride in them. This post will be about what my friends Avi and John have been up to...

The name Soiled Mattress and the Springs is the brainchild of an old friend and former bandmate of mine, Avi Cohen, and to my recollection was initially reserved as a joke for a Killed-by-Death style punk band. Instead, when Avi, Peter Schuette, and Matthew Thurber realized that after jamming together for a number of months, their loose jam sessions spawned a number of songs, and they might very well have something akin to a band on their hands, "Soiled Mattress and the Springs" was the name they settled on. While nothing like the style originally envisioned for the name, Soiled Mattress and the Springs is a perfect name for the Springs' instrumental, keyboard and saxophone driven tunes. A clever moniker depicting a rather benign object, but one that belies something of an uncouth and seedy side. Accordingly, the light jazz records the band was grooving on are readily apparent, but he Springs have some significantly trippier moments, like the moog interlude on "Blanko's Moondance" or the synthesizer and found-sound collage on "Someone's Drinking Water."

A number of the songs, like "Ceasar's Palace" or "Tidal Wave" for example, have taut rhythms, upbeat melodies, and really toy with the aforementioned influences. At the same time, the songs have a neurotic energy, compulsively swinging from one part to the next with the compactness and determination of a rock song. This variation makes for one interesting listen. The CD version of "Honk Honk Bonk" on Upset the Rhythm flows like an album, but is actually the two 12"s the band released on LA's Teardrops label (although the second one is unreleased at the moment in vinyl format). The band sounds a lot like comic book artist and sax player Matthew's art-- colorful, light-hearted, but somehow uncanny. They'll be on tour in the UK with No Age this May, by the by.

"Love is Real" is John Maus's second album for Upset the Rhythm, and is another 14 songs of his meticulously crafted lo-fi pop. Written, performed, and recorded all on his own, his songs are multi-layered, melancholic ditties propelled by John's deep tenor croon and his hook-laden choruses that come across as compulsively chanted mantras (like on "Rights for Gays" or "Too Much Money"). John is successful at playing with well-traveled styles and song structures as synth-pop (coming off as if later Human League had retained a good amount of its earlier grit, or like a less self-involved Depeche Mode) like on "Do Your Best" and "the Silent Chorus" and can kick out a deceptively infectious Giorgio Moroder-influenced disco jam like "Times is Weird." The impressive thing is not the successful mix of varied tuneage, but the absolutely straight-faced resolve and flawless delivery with which the tracks are executed. I don't know how much of the home-recording sound is essential to John's songs, but I'd be totally thrilled to hear a studio-produced album. John's the type of musician who could definitely pull it off; with "Love is Real" he definitely already "pulled something off".


Tenebre by John Maus


Hong Kong Bong by Soiled Mattress and the Springs

Die Kreuzen circa 1983

I found this on another blog (Introverted Loudmouth) but I thought I'd post it here since you can never get enough Die Kreuzen. Seriously.

This is from a TV appearance from around 1983.

RECORDS! Deadbeats, Deadfly Ensemble, Martial Canterel, the Hunt

With this latest update, I have to make the following admission: I rather dislike writing reviews. For the most part, the releases I'm going to be writing about have been in my possession for a while. I've listened to them numerous times, enjoyed listening to them, and then proceeded to put off writing anything in the way of a review. While I'd like share them with whoever might wander on here and add a few of my musings, I hardly care to offer anything in the way of an assessment of them. To assuage this difficulty somewhat, I'll adopt a more conversational tone and "tell you" about these releases. Does it amount to a big difference?? Probably not, but nonetheless....

Recently the semi-nomadic duo known as Deadbeats (having moved from the Carolinas to Portland and then back again) put out a third CD entitled "99 Ways to Die" on their own Recluse Records label. Their two previous efforts left a good impression, but I'm finding this one their most impressive yet. Searing synthesizer lines meld together with beats that sound like they might very well be pre-programmed Casio beats. Lauren Stork-Browder handles the vocals and lays it on pretty thick with a shrill wail that might recall moments of later Subtonix. On this disc, there's significantly more low-end, and the added bass suits them and their pulsing beats well. Additionally, the song-writing has gotten more interesting. Definitely something to check out if you've got some Kas Product or Guerre Froide records in your collection. If they continue to improve at this rate, we should be seeing a rather awesome full length from these two at some point in the not-too-distant future. My cats start running around and scratching my couch as soon as I put on this CD, so they seem to enjoy it as well.

Wierd Records, a label I've been making the point of following quite keenly, put out another release. This one is by Martial Canterel, whose mastermind, Sean McBride, seems to be an associate of our Wierd friend Pieter. Obviously very cold-wave influenced and taking cues from a whole tradition of bands from France, Holland, or further eastwards, Martial Canterel masterfully distill those influences to a very catchy and tight concoction updated for the ears of 2008. Personally, I'm taken aback by the fact that this is indeed from New York and not from across the Atlantic. Though, not surprisingly, there is a European connection--most of MC's previous releases made their debut on European labels, and this release compiles some now out of print tracks from a few of those releases (including no small amount of previously unreleased material as well).

It was a sad day late last summer when Yi-Hsiuan and Lucas packed up their horse-drawn carriage and left Montreal for warmer climates. I don't know whether the Bronx and Vermont [Edit: New Hampshire was the correct designation. Apologies!] are that much warmer, but some good has come of it. Yi-Hsiuan now holds monthly parties in downtown Manhattan where attendees dress in antique attire and dance to the sounds of the roaring 30's (the current financial crisis might make it all the more appropriate), and Luc went and released another Deadfly Ensemble record called "A Seed for Extinct Annuals" with co-conspirators James and Marzia. The instrumentation is much more intricate than on their debut, with more cello and some live percussion adding more depth to the songs. And much as before, one feels inclined to daydream along with the stories the music tells. This one will do nicely.

I got this next disk a while ago, having scored some copies from the label's honcho Caleb. It's now called Sacred Bones Records, but the Hunt's debut 7" came out while it was still called "Monster Squad." My money is on watching this label closely, as they've already released a Blank Dogs 12" right before everyone started talking about them, and now they've got Factums, Daily Void, and Pink Noise records on the way, AND some 13th Chime reissues. As to this piece of wax, it's emblazoned with a picture of a guy who looks like he belongs in a Southern Death Cult video and sports a nice Discharge tattoo. As for the music-- the Southern Death Cult reference isn't too far off, and it's done quite nicely. Incredibly competent, you might even say. There's some nice Morricone-meets-Theatre of Hate guitar work, and the singer can really wail. I can't say much beyond that, since they seemed to debut in New York right when I left town, and these 2 tracks are all I've heard. But I will say, where a lot of current post-punk outfits tend towards some vaguely Joy Division-inflected pop songs, the Hunt don't shy away from grounding their tunes in some fist-pumping rocknroll.

Misc stuff regarding Agent Side Grinder

Their 7" on Enfant Terrible left a nice impression, so i scribbled down a review I intended to post. Now I'm hearing about a video that's been done for a new song.... which of course I will post below. To multi-task, I should also let you know that the band will have a full length out on Enfant Terrible in the coming months, which, as with most ET releases, will be quite limited. That means you'll have to track down a copy quickly. I will be trying to do the same.

Agent Side Grinder- Me, Me, and Me b/w Ricochetting Memories 7"
Enfant Terrible and Hex mastermind Matijn Van Gessel sure knows how to pick them. Sweden's Agent Side Grinder play some driving and synth-heavy cold-wave/ post-punk that brings DAF to mind in the delivery complete with pounding rhythm tracks and all sorts of analog squeaks and noises. It's a bit of a throw-back as it's definitely got an 80's feel to it, but one of the best records in that style I've heard lately. ASG are a very good soundtrack to a night out on the town.... if your town is Berlin and your night starts at a 3am and brings you to a dingy club under the train tracks.