Bad News
No End
New duo operating in the heavy industrial and noise zones, with an awareness of vivisect-era Skinny Puppy, incorporating guitar, synthesizers and drum machines writhing like mercury under sharp female vocals. Double-sided color art on color paper, painted and labeled cassettes.
Kicks
The Secret
By 1980, punk as we knew it was having a bit of a personality crisis. The Pistols we dead and buried, The Clash had lost the plot and...Oh No!...here come the Mohawks. After nearly 3 years (and nearly as many chords) The Young Identities decided to try something different if not entirely distant. They still get a buzz from fast and sinister music so they change their name to KICKS and release a very limited edition cassette singe titled “Leather/Godzilla.” Sounding fresh, brash and furious but with more depth than previously heard, the boys continued to expand on the new noise with the 1981 vinyl double A side follow up “Return of the Action Man/The Secret.*#8221; The single sold well locally and was an acknowledged influence on new and upcoming bands like Mystery of Sixes and Public Execution.
Lower
Someone’s Got It In For Me / But There Has To Be More
When the Copenhagen four-piece Lower surfaced with its debut Walk on Heads EP earlier this year, its dark-hued pallet seemed intentional and impressively realized: a honed but unhinged mix of no wave and hardcore foregrounding singer Adrian Toubro’s dense poetry. But as drummer Anton Rothstein told me this summer, “We had no intentions of playing a defined genre,” naming touchstones like Scott Walker’s slow, bleak surrealism and the militaristic noise of rock avant-gardists Venom P. Stinger. From the eery shine of its opening gong taps, the desperate, raw-sung paranoia of “But There Has to Be More” finds Lower continuing to stretch; with wider-screen emotional delusion, Toubro sings tensely to the sky as if after a nightmare, one brutal to the heart, not the head. —Pitchfork
Blissed Out Fatalists
Blissed Out Fatalists
Blissed Out Fatalists, was a band formed in Los Angeles by Nic Green and Jeff Poe in the aftermath of the 1980s noise band The Blue Daisies. (more…)
Arctic Flowers
Procession
Arctic Flowers’ Reveries LP (Inimical Records) was easily one of the finest punk records of 2011. With a new EP, Procession, coming up in advance of an East Coast tour in August, things are going good for Arctic Flowers. The Portland quartet play a type of gothy peace punk that, unlike some bands in this genre, is not afraid to go at faster tempos. “Our sound is a mix of punk, deathrock, post punk, and goth,” guitarist Stan Wright explains. “Aggressive but at times danceable and melodic.” Arctic Flowers’ powerful combination of these elements makes them one of the most exciting bands around today. —http://www.cvltnation.com/
Trummers
Over and Around the Clove
Over and Around the Clove is the debut album by Trummors, a duo formed by David Lerner and Anne Cunningham in Brooklyn, NY, now residing in the Catskill Mountains near Woodstock, NY. Drawing inspiration from traditional American music and psychedelic folk pioneers such as The Incredible String Band, Over and Around the Clove simmers in gentle guitars and percussion, classic-era Nashville steel, harmonium drones, and close-harmony vocals to create disarmingly simple songs of surprising depth. Limited-edition LP features beautiful hand-screened textured sleeves and digital download code.
Truncheons
Stuck on the Block
Violent Noiz Life is exponentially better than the demo, both in recording and sound quality. If you’ve never heard the band, it’s comprised of members of some of the only interesting raw punk bands to have existed in the U.S. in recent times. This 7-inch is Gloom worship/crasher crust done right. One could say that Zatsuon crashes harder than most crasher crust bands, particularly in the way in which they don’t just fall into the lazy trap of sounding like straight Discharge-style d-beat. I honestly think this is due in part to the drumming, which holds everything together, both in performance and the ways in which the drums are recorded. Combine that with noisy, yet discernible riffs and one of the most recognizable voices in the genre and we’ve got yet another instant, modern classic punk record from NYC. ᰬhttp://icoulddietomorrow.blogspot.com/
Zatsuon
Violent Noiz Life
Violent Noiz Life is exponentially better than the demo, both in recording and sound quality. If you’ve never heard the band, it’s comprised of members of some of the only interesting raw punk bands to have existed in the U.S. in recent times. This 7-inch is Gloom worship/crasher crust done right. One could say that Zatsuon crashes harder than most crasher crust bands, particularly in the way in which they don’t just fall into the lazy trap of sounding like straight Discharge-style d-beat. I honestly think this is due in part to the drumming, which holds everything together, both in performance and the ways in which the drums are recorded. Combine that with noisy, yet discernible riffs and one of the most recognizable voices in the genre and we’ve got yet another instant, modern classic punk record from NYC. ᰬhttp://icoulddietomorrow.blogspot.com/
Peroxide
Can You Hear the Peace EP
Debut 7-inch. Raw and fuzzed out hardcore from Portland that brings to mind bands like Atrocious Madness.
The Men
Immaculada
Repress of The Men’s self-released debut album originally limited to 500 copies. This pressing was remastered and comes with deluxe tip-on jacket. Eight songs of desperate, fuzzed-out, riff-laden punk/post-punk. This release really is an excellent mash of shoegaze and droney soundscapes with buried vocals beneath it all. Dreamy at times, with that Sonic Youth vibe.
Criminal Code
Cold Thought
Within one year Criminal Code has released a demo, a 7-inch, a Live on KEXP tape (all of which are now out of print), toured the West Coast with Big Crux and appeared on KBOO’s Life During Wartime. Somehow they managed to fit in the recording of this 12-inch EP, and managed to make it their best effort yet. Now that the band has added another guitar and new drummer to their arsenal, they took their Husker Du/Greg Sage influences and made it their own unique sound. They are already planning another tour in Spring, and recording another 7-inch EP proving that the momentum of this band is relentless. Recorded at Buzz or Howl Studios. Artwork by Feeding. Limited to 510 copies. No repress. — Iminical Records
Virginia Plain
Electric Eye
The Electric Eyes single is the debut recording from the tech-noir group, Virginia Plain, fronted by Alfra Martini with support from Justin Miller and Christian Reinhardsen of Fono Luxe. The A-side, “Electric Eyes,” is a classic song sharing musical ties with synth pop pioneers OMD and the ’50s crooner vocal stylings of Bryan Ferry. The song kicks off with Martini’s voice gliding over bumping synth bass and 808 drum claps bringing to mind the melancholic pop sound of classic ’80s hits like Q Lazzurus’ “Goodbye Horses.” Side B’s “Swamp Thing” is the shadowy twin to the bright faced “Electric Eyes.” With it’s relentless “Doktor Avalanche” style beat and minor key synth lines the atmosphere turns from dreamy to sinister. — Midheaven
Frenzy
Noizey Trouble
Debut LP from this new Portland noise-punk band. While the cover art on this one might make you think they’re going for straight up Disorder worship, to my ears this sounds like straight up early 80s-style HC with particularly noisy production. There’s a little bit of the Disorder-style 1-2 punk beat in places, but at its core this really seems to have a lot more in common with basic and straight-up early 80s HC. — Sorry State Records
Horrid Red
Celestial Joy
Horrid Red first appeared in 2010, emerging from the ongoing German/Californian kraut-punk institution that is Teenage Panzerkorps (est. 2001). While that band is known for it’s violent propulsive sound, Horrid Red was established to explore more elegant & arcane aspects of post-punk & pop. Centered around the grandiose bedroom productions of San Franciscan Ed Xavier & the Deutsch incantations of Bunker Wolf beamed in from Aachen, Germany, Horrid Red in 2011 is in full bloom. (more…)
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Upcoming Releases
January 21, 2014
- SBR-3013 Vex Sanctuary: The Complete Discography LP
- SBR-3014 Various Artists Killed by Deathrock LP/CD
February 4, 2014
- SBR-103 Marissa Nadler JulyLP/CD
- SBR-111 Prolife Overheated b/w Gold Leaves7"
March 4, 2014
- SBR-107 The Men Tomorrow’s HitsLP/CD