Flesh World - s/t (La Vida Es Un Mus)

La Vida Es Un Mus now have a bandcamp page.. Expect DIY punk related things.

No back catalogue stuff yet but this new Flesh World mini LP is good. Kind of fuzzy, melodic post punk that's kind of tuneful. Here's the blurb:-

On their debut MLP, San Francisco, CA’s Flesh World plays ice-soaked punk rock led by dark and infectious guitar flourishes and a just-under-the-surface pop sensibility that makes each song an immediate stand out track. Featuring band members who are all veterans of the DIY punk scene — from bands including Limp Wrist, Brilliant Colors, Needles, and more — Flesh World brings influences from a host of punk sub-genres together, calling to mind the tense moodiness of classic British post punk, the sneer of the 1977 school, and just a hint of C86 flourish and feedback. Most importantly, this MLP includes six hopelessly catchy songs that will work their way into your skull like an infection without a cure.

Beastmilk - Climax

Very goth. Bauhaus/Sisters Of Mercy frilly shirt and velvet trousers goth. Candles and dry ice goth. Gothy gothy goth goth.

Missed them at Live Evil fest because I'd gone for my dinner. Kind of regret that now. Oh well.

The Fierce And The Dead - Spooky Action

80s King Crimson meets The Raincoats meets Sleepytime Gorilla Museum?

Noise Rock - 2013 'scene report'

Noise rock is on fire at the moment. There's a small number of bands putting out absolutely killer stuff at the moment. Pretty much the only thing I'm scrabbling around collecting vinyl of. A lot of it seems to fall through the cracks and not get much attention. That's why I thought I'd bung together a list of the great stuff that's out there in one place.

It's probably worth stating roughly what I'm defining noise rock as to avoid confusion. I'm thinking of the output of labels like Amphetamine Reptile. Bands like Unsane, Helmet, Big Black, Distorted Pony, Glazed Baby, Hammerhead, Fudge Tunnel, 16, Cherubs etc.

It'd include Jesus Lizard but not the millions of post-ATP Lizard wannabe indie bands littering University cities across the world. Nor really the Lightning Bolt/Skin Graft/Load kind of thing (although you definitely need to check out Xaddax). The bands all probably like Swans as well but I'm not talking about hour long brutal doom stuff either.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. Anyway, all the following bands vaguely fit in that description. Also, I fully approve them all as quality noise rock. I can't be bothered finding a load of different ways to say each band is good. Every one of the bands on this list is good. Now go check them out. Oh, and feel free to make any suggestions in the comments. Keeping up with the noise rock tag on this here blog might be a wise idea too

HEBOSAGIL
http://hebosagil.bandcamp.com/
After a killer 7" on Kvlt Of Nihilow the gods of awesome Finnish music, Circle, have released the new LP on their Full Contact label.
A review, another review, another one.
Hebosagil on facebook

THROAT
http://ihatethroat.bandcamp.com/album/manhole
"fans of Unsane, Die 116, Tad, Bastards etc take note and obey." - Collective zine review
Another fantastic noise rock band from Finland. They've been putting out some great releases on Kvlt Of Nihilow, At War With False Noise as well as their own, excellent Kaos Kontrol label

BAXTER STOCKMAN
http://bstockman.bandcamp.com/
"The guitar parts crawl and lurk, reminiscent of the Jesus Lizard or some of the snakier, more aggro moments presented by bands like Crain, Rodan or the Shipping News while anchorage is provided by glutinous lumps of bass gloop that slide and slump ominously in the background" - Collective zine review
Yet more awesome Finnish stuff put out by Kvlt Of Nihilow and Ektro
Baxter Stockman on facebook

LURCH
http://lurchsongs.bandcamp.com/album/demo-april-2013
Think of stuff like Trance Syndicate, Band Of Susans, The God Machine, Foetus, Swans, Old Lady Drivers, Bastro, Steel Pole Bath Tub, Amphetamine Reptile etc. The guitars go from the really noisey end of indie stuff to all out sludge. Vocals go from almost-sung stuff (that's actually comprehensible) to agonised screams.
Lurch on facebook

TILE
http://tilenoise.bandcamp.com/
I've been waiting for this album for quite a while. They put an amazing 7" on Kvlt Of Nihilow but that was back in 2010. Thankfully it doesn't disappoint. It's more top tier noise rock. At times there's Pissed Jeans-esque tunes but generally just thunders the riffs along. Definitely an album I'm picking up on vinyl.
Tile on facebook

DRUNK IN HELL
http://drunkinhell.bandcamp.com/
Best band in the UK by a mile. "Vile noiserock shitstorm" was the description i put on a flyer once. There's been talk of them doing a split with the mighty Kilslug. Fingers crossed for records soon. In the meantime youtube will have to do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOvOKIm4mdc - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41S2NNUHI-I - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he4W0DVMgK4
Drunk In Hell on facebook

WOLFBAIT
http://artforblind.bandcamp.com/album/w-lfbait
This is sick. Horrid, slow, relentless, pulverising dirge. Swans. Describe themselves as "kraut violence". Imagine Man Is The Bastard covering a Neu song. But a Neu song written by Chrome at their bad acid addled worst. Like being tarred and feathered and thrown into a cesspit.
Wölfbait on facebook

PINK CITY
http://pinkcity.bandcamp.com/album/virgins
Drum machine noise rock duo that "have found some FX and parts sound a bit like Nirvana drunkenly trying to do My Bloody Valentine stuff" Spoonful of tar
Pink City on facebook

WARBRIDES
http://warbrides.bandcamp.com/
Got a bit of math-y Chicago rock going on amongst the noise rock riffage

HYRROKKIN
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/streaming-hyrrokkins-anacoluthon/
Like a jazzier Dazzling Killmen or a punkier Caspar Brotzmann Massaker. the Decibel thingy mentions Dysrythmia and Sonny Sharrock. a friend mentioned Nels Cline and Sun City Girls' jazzy moments.
Hyrrokkin on facebook

FRIEND COLLECTOR
http://friendcollector.bandcamp.com/album/fcii
the awesome Built On A Weak Spot blog compared them to Swans, Glazed Baby and Drunks With Guns. 'nuff said.
Friend Collector on bandcamp

MURDEREDMAN
http://polar-envy.bandcamp.com/album/murderedman
Murderedman on facebook

FAKING
http://faking.bandcamp.com/
Only a raw 3 track demo so far but hopefully there'll be records soon
Faking on facebook

DROSE
http://droseohio.bandcamp.com/album/a-voice-7
Interview at Destroyed Human, Collective review
Drose on facebook


DIRTDRINKER
http://dirtdrinker.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-lp
If you like stuff like Unsane, Ken Mode, Kowloon Walled City and Coalesce then you're going to be into this. It kind of exists in the grey area between noise rock and the good offkilter end of metallic hardcore (ie Hydrahead, Kiss It Goodbye, Botch, Deadguy etc). In some places the vocals even reach Steve Austin of Today Is The Day levels of intensity.
Dirtdrinker on facebook

PORNOGRAPHY
http://prngrphy.bandcamp.com/
"horrid Swans style noise rock. Repetitive dischords battered out in a most uncomfortable manner." according to me
Destroyed Human review

KOWLOON WALLED CITY
http://kowloonwalledcity.bandcamp.com/album/container-ships
Their first 2 albums, Turk Street and Gambling On The Richter Scale that Feast Of Tentacles put out are totally essential. Pounding rhythmic noise rock stuff. New album veers into a slightly more shoegaze-y sound but is still awesome. UK tour long overdue.
Kowloon Walled City on facebook

TIDE OF IRON
http://shybairnsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tide-of-iron-sow-ep
http://superfirecords.bandcamp.com/album/split-7-3
Keelhaul/Today Is The Day inspired stuff from Newcastle. Only a split on Super Fi Records so far. In the meantime, this video they made of Bill Cosby dancing to one of their songs is quality - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0BqXqoLgp4

ART OF BURNING WATER
http://artofburningwater.bandcamp.com/album/this-disgrace
"AOBW channel the prime noise-rock of vintage Zeni Geva and Godflesh with the more complex rhythmical riff obsessions of the Melvins, Keelhaul and mid-period Voivod" according to their press release - http://spoonfuloftar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/art-of-burning-water-this-disgrace-riot.html
Art Of Burning Water on facebook

GODSTOPPER
http://godstopper.bandcamp.com/
"Somewhere between the Thunder-Pop of sparkly heavy-hitters Torche, the aggressive sludge of fellow Floridians Cavity and the awkward stop-start dream-logic quasi-operatic noise rock of Pony Express Record-era Shudder To Think" - Sleeping Shaman
"stop thinking and get deep into a dichotomous band where dream pop meets nightmare metal, with a healthily unusual mixing of chiming major chords and filthy bass stabs together with chanting underpinned by crushing doom" - Collective zine review
Godstopper on facebook

BONE
http://boneband.bandcamp.com/album/for-want-of-feeling
Melbourne, Australia must be a bleak place. This lot have got a sparse, post-punk thing going on. kind of taut basslines with those old goth-y tom-heavy drums. But then there's also hints of 90s touch and go, Bastro, God Machine, Trumans Water and similar things.
Bone on facebook

SINKING SUNS
http://sinkingsuns.bandcamp.com/
The excellent folk over at Shiny Grey Monotone mentioned Killdozer, Steel Pole Bath Tub, Scratch Acid, Tar, Crucifucks, Big'N, Sicbay and Distorted Pony in their review.
Sinking Suns on facebook

Well, there you go. A bunch of awesome noise rock bands. By the way, there's a gig in London waiting for any of these bands plus some help sorting a UK tour.

Flaum Adger - s/t (ex-Jesus Lizard)

Folk from Jesus Lizard and Dis- get together to make a record of classic Chicago style underground rock.

Relatively tuneful which gives it a bit of a Tar feel in places.

Trumans Water/Birdbath split

Well bugger me, Trumans Water are still going. Great news as they're a total 90s underground classic. Like a bastard punk rock Sonic Youth or something.

Was just watching this recently unearthed live footage of Trumans Water from 1993 and thought I'd check out what they're doing now.



Birdbath are alright too. Kind of math-y noisey indie rock stuff. You could imagine them playing with Bilge Pump.

Belgrado - Panopticon/Vicious Circle 7" (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Nice short slice of goth-y post-punk dreariness. Dreary like bleak early 80s UK anarcho punk. Wearing all black clothes & black makeup. It's freezing cold and pissing down with rain.

Quite how a band from Barcelona can evoke that is anyone's guess but there you go.

There's been quite a refreshing micro-trend in the DIY punk of bands like this and the likes of Arctic Flowers bringing back goth punk type stuff.

La Vida Es Un Mus is selling the vinyl but Belgrado are offering up the download for a euro. Bargain. Especially as their album is also a euro.

Fingers crossed I don't miss them next time they come to the UK as I've already managed to miss them twice somehow.

Arctic Flowers - Procession

Gloomy anarcho post punk goth stuff. Fairly simple mid-paced tom heavy drumming, bit of reverb on the guitars, woman half singing miserable lyrics. They've got a bit of a knack for subtle hooks and keeping the songs interesting. Yeah, it's a dirge but it's not a bland, unlistenable dirge.

There's been a bit of a revival of this kind of stuff in the past few years. The forgotten bit of the early 80s where the anarcho punk scene bled into goth. I'll be honest I didn't even know about it until this stuff started coming out. There's a fairly detailed article about these news bands and their influences here - http://souciant.com/2012/08/the-year-goth-punk-broke/

I know my MRR reading friends have been raving about this lot and it seems justified. Definitely makes a nice break from what seems to have been an endless onslaught of d-beat from the punk scene.

Also, really cool that they've made digital available. Most of their contemporaries who are dogmatic vinyl purists unfortunately.

Update: Yes, let's have a postscript on this. I've just bought the FLAC of this. I listened to it. I liked it. I'd downloaded one of their previous efforts for free and quite enjoyed it. I was happy enough paying what worked out as about £3.50 for a 12" worth of music. I did this while I had Soulseek running and also downloading something else from mediafire.

I was also checking out other stuff from that Year The Goth Punk Broke article. That Dekoder band sounded interesting. There's no way of hearing their album online. They've got some demo stuff up and that sounds alright. The only way of getting the music is to buy the LP. I'd be paying way over £10 just on postage. And that's for something I haven't even bloody heard.

And that's the whole point I keep trying to get across about why it's a good thing for DIY bands to offer their music digitally. Dogmatic vinyl purism actively denies the vast majority of people access to your music. That isn't 'punk'. I don't mean that it denies me access to the music as if it's some horrific burden on my existence. Yeah, I'm fully aware that it falls under that horrendous (& actually quite offensive, when you think about it) phrase "first world problems".

There's a small chance the LP might turn up in a distro at a punk gig I might attend at some point in the future. But it's a small chance. Even then, unless I'm friends with you or you have a superlative history of putting out awesome records, I'm not going to buy something I haven't already heard.

Maybe I'll notice Dekoder on a blog with a mediafire link at some point. Or maybe a friend will rave about them and I'll be reminded that I thought I should check them out. Alternatively, I could have listened to them tonight, really enjoyed them, bought their music and banged on at my mates to check them out as well.

I dunno, it just reminds me of when I first managed to track down a copy of Maximum Rock n Roll (one with Misfits on the cover from 1995 i think). Some of the stuff sounded awesome. Walked into my local indie record shop and tried to order some stuff but they couldn't get hold of the stuff as it wasn't distributed. I bought something on Epitaph/Fat Wreck instead. Thing is, now labels and bands don't need to go with a big distributor. A couple of minutes work (and a bit of time for the music to upload) and they've got instant global distribution at no cost whatsoever with virtually every penny going to them from sales.

This rant is getting kind of rambling so I'll finish up. Just seems that Arctic Flowers way is the better approach. And their stuff is still on vinyl and going through all the usual diy punk rock channels. It's all win-win.

Carter Tutti Void - Transverse

Buy it direct from the band here - http://cartertuttivoid.sandbag.uk.com/Store/DII-230-5-transverse+download+wav.html

From the fine tradition of bands using their surnames as a group name like Emerson Lake and Palmer or Crosby Stills and Nash comes Carter Tutti Void. That's Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti from Throbbing Gristle (and Chris & Cosey). The Void is someone from a newer Kraut-rocky band from London called Factory Floor. Missed them at Supersonic the other year because i sneared at the description and went and got some food instead. My mistake, I've checked out some Factory Floor and it's good stuff.

Back to Carter Tutti Void, it's a repetitive mix of Kraut and techno but with an early 80s industrial feel and live slightly clanky instruments. Those are all good things by the way. I guess it's almost like a bleaker, grimmer English industrial version of what the Moritz Von Oswald Trio have been doing in the past few years.

Love to see this done live at some point. For now the recording will do.

Wooderson - Let The Man Speak

Wooderson's own words are fairly self explanatory:-

Now then. Wooderson are a DIY band from Sheffield. We play noisy, DC inspired post-punk type stuff.

We've just put our first album 'Let The Man Speak', which will be released via Bombed Out and Art For Blind on July 16th, up for streaming and vinyl/CD pre-order. The first 100 vinyl orders will receive a nice slab of green wax.

You might enjoy if you like bands such as Fugazi, Mission Of Burma, Hoover, ...Trail of Dead, Sonic Youth.

Cheers!



It's been put out by Bombed Out Records who must be nearing their 15th anniversary of putting DIY punk stuff out in Leeds. They've got a ton more stuff to get your ears round.