Los Pecadores - Escape From Uranus (surf)

One for fans of Man Or Astroman?, Satan's Pilgrims, The Huntington Cads, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, Estrus Records, Dionysus Records, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Surfaris etc etc.

Total surf worship. Maximum reverb on the guitars and silly sci-fi samples.

The soundtrack to an evening in a tiki bar that's been squatted by punks. Cocktails served in halved coconuts and umbrellas but with Buckfast as the main ingredient.

The LP is limited to a mere 100 copies so be quick.

Man Or Astroman? download card

Went to see the reformed Man Or Astroman? the other night. They were fucking awesome.

On the merch table they had something I hadn't seen before but have long argued bands should have - download cards! A fiver for their new album. Half the price of the CD and a 1/3 of the price of the LP.

Orgone Accumulators - august 2013 demo

THE GREATEST MUSIC YOU WILL EVER HEAR IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!

Yeah, I'm a bit biased cos I made it but it is worth a listen. Started as an attempt to make an electronica version of Man Or Astroman? Ended up as some kind of synth-y lo-fi indie thing?

Meridian Brothers - Desesperanza (Soundway)

One of those bands that's impossible to describe. Think a mix of The Residents, Ethiopiques compilations, 60s surf instrumentals, old 60s electronics and Latin American psych stuff like Os Mutantes and that Tropicalia compilation Soul Jazz put out.

This Colombian band are dead tuneful but in a really bizarre way. Highly recommended though.





Oh, and they've also done one of the strangest covers of Purple Haze I've heard



Boomkat is the place for FLAC of this

Night Birds - Born To Die In Suburbia

OK, I've banged on about how fucking awesome Night Birds are previously - here and here

Obviously my taste in music is impeccable and you take my word as fucking gospel on what bands to check out. Therefore you should already be aware of just how good Night Birds are.

For the slackers sitting at the back of the class you need to get on this right now. Tuneful surf punk stuff. Think Adolescents, Wipers, Dead Kennedys, Agent Orange etc. One of those sounds that everyone from pop punk types to crusties to indie folk can't deny.

I guarantee you'll be whistling this tunes by the end of the week and clamouring for them to come over the UK and tour again.

Night Birds - Maimed For The Masses 7" (Fat Wreck)

Loved the last Night Birds LP.

This 7" is more of the same. Tuneful, surf guitar tinged punk rock. Agent Orange, Adolescents, Descendents, Zero Boys and that kind of thing but with an added dose of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and Man Or Astroman?

Kind of surprised to see it being released by Fat Wreck. Not quite what you usually associate with them. Hopefully should mean more people get into them. Good for them. Also makes it more likely they'll come back and tour the UK again.

Seriously, Night Birds UK tour soon please.

Apparently there's a new LP out soon too. Can't wait. In the meantime these 4 songs will have to tide me over.

Mrs Magician - Strange Heaven

Totally catchy garage pop stuff. Bits are almost like a lo-fi Beach Boys. It's on Swami Records (run by John Reis of Rocket From The Crypt/Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu).

Discovered them via the end of year list put up by Aquarius Records.

Pretty much been on repeat all week and I absolutely guarantee you'll love them if you like any kind of poppy garage/indie stuff. There Is No God and Dead 80s are the two real stand out tracks.

Solid gold stuff. UK tour please.

Night Birds - The Other Side Of Darkness

Night Birds were probably the best punk band I saw last year. Completely off the hook. Singer crawling through the crowd's legs. Guitar and bass players running around everywhere. Actually, yeah, it was the guitarist going through people's legs now I think of it. His rather fetching white Gluey Porch Treatments t shirt ended up a a brown, soggy, torn mess.

Of course, if someone likes the Melvins you can generally trust them musically.

And punk bands that aren't completely and utterly myopic musically are also a good bet.

Night Birds hit the spot musically as well. Surf punk is the best description. Surf-y guitar lines mixed up with some of that post-Observers snotty tuneful punk rock. Some super catchy tunes. And they sound like they're going a million miles an hour and about to fall apart at any second (but actually being mid-paced and far from being an all blur - they just have that feel if you see what I mean).

Before State Icons got asked to play the Brighton date on their tour I'd never heard of them. Found an illicit download and ended up playing it on repeat for a few weeks. Still gets plenty of spins. I might even go so far as to say they might be the best current punk band. Obviously, my opinion on that position changes frequently but they're always up there. Honestly, highest possible recommendation to check them out.

That brings me to the nit-picky bit of this review. You can buy the whole album digitally. And that's great. That's kind of the whole point of this blog. Making stuff available to buy digitally in a DIY manner is awesome.

However, you can only stream two songs. You can't even stream the song I reckon is the best one. The total headshot tune that'd instantly make you fall in love with the band. That'd be Neon Gray if you're interested. Doesn't seem to be on youtube either. Guess you'll have to find a dodgy mediafire link or fire up soulseek. I'd definitely recommend it. And fuck it, no-one has got the LP for sale in the UK anymore. I want repeat my rant about the stupidity of the limited nature of vinyl records. Especially as they've got it up for sale digitally. But it's a bit daft that I'm sat here screaming at you to check them out because you'll definitely love them but for some reason you can't listen to it properly. I can understand why people do it because someone might rip the stream and bung it up elsewhere on the internet for free. But that's already happened. It's already out there. And I'm telling people to go out and find those dodgy rips so they can listen to it. Instead, they could listen to it easily and they'd be a great big button saying BUY in their browser.

Plus, virtually no one buys music on spec anymore. They only buy stuff they've already heard. I know I do. Bought enough crap records in my time that I really don't feel the need to buy records I haven't already heard anymore. To the labels that complain about that because no one buys your records I'll paraphrase Dead Kennedys (who Night Birds get compared to quite often), maybe you put out one too many lousy records.

Night Birds is far from being a lousy record. Genuinely a fucking great record. Night Birds need to damn well make another record and come back over here and tour again.

UPDATE: Grave Mistake records mentioned in the comments that they've got the whole thing up to stream on their bandcamp here - Grave Mistake records bandcamp



There's the whole album to stream so now you can listen to Neon Gray and fall in love straight away.

Put Grave Mistake up in the recommended labels in the sidebar as they've got all their stuff up for streaming and download. Genuine DIY punk labels are well worth supporting so get on it.

Orgone Accumulators - An Aleatorial Mathematical Approach to Deciphering the Radio Broadcasts of Ancient Astronauts

Yeah, I'll post my music first. So what. Here's a thing I do called Orgone Accumulators. I dunno, I tried to start a band like Man Or Astroman but no one was really up for it. At the same time I was getting into attempting to make techno. Put 2 and 2 together and made surf stuff with more synths and beats and whatnot.