The disconnected guitar skronk at the front of this song is weirdly something that kind of sticks with me. I think because it kind of lays bare what noise rock kind of sounds like when its stripped of all the layers. And, of course, when the rest of the band joins in, it’s thunderous magic.
I guess we’re going to open all the songs today with a lil’ guitar wank. OK by me!
[Read More]Garage rock revivalists Mono Men, from Bellingham, WA, were dedicated to the proposition that back-to-basics rock was all anybody really needed. They were sufficiently dedicated to the idea that not only did they put out a ton of albums on their own, but they formed Estrus Records to put out records by like-minded bands (like The Mortals). In one of the bummers of indie rock, the building where they kept the masters for all of the Estrus records releases burned down, although I suppose that matters less in the digital age than it might have in previous eras.
[Read More]More of Labradford’s drone-y version of post-rock, with that lovely build up during the song.
No, this isn’t actually a Motown song, this is actually from Stax, from 1968 even. Usually, it’s easier to spot which label we’re dealing with.
Frankly, the fact that a band appearing on here called “The Mad Lads” turned out to be old soul and not some fifth-tier third-wave ska band is a massive upset.
[Read More]WRCT, the campus radio station at Carnegie Mellon, used to get tons of records from just about every label. Primarily, that was because we actually would play stuff from smaller labels, having largely rejected the idea of “college rock” as well as “coherence” and “professionalism”. From that wave of incoming stuff, somebody on the staff would listen to everything and write a little note on an index card to stick to it. You’d suggest which songs might make sense to play on the air, which songs you should avoid unless you were in the “safe harbor” (in other words, which ones had swearing), if a record was hopeless, whatever. If you really liked a record, you’d put it in the booth with the other notable new releases.
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