Sinister psych revivalists The Black Angels are set to due bidding with our city this October at Headliners. This is a band I’ve been meaning to see for a long time, especially during their tour with Roky Erickson of the mighty 13th Floor Elevators. Tickets are a reasonable $12 and go on sale this Saturday, July 31st.

The Black Angels w/ TBA
Saturday, October 10th
Doors at 8 p.m. / Show at 9 p.m. (18+)
Headliners – Louisville (map that shizz)

POSSIBLY RELATED :::
The Black Angels – Directions to See a Ghost

MP3 :::
The Black Angels – Dee Ree Shee

Oh good, glad to see you like my illustration.  Yeah, I had some downtime and wasn’t feelin’ too creative or too much in my graphic design game as far as doing something special for The Decibel Tolls year-end list.  So Lana and I started talking, and it came to us that it would be hysterical to do a collage with people like Bradford Cox eating that Ezra Comma dude from Frankenstein Weekday or whoever, and Franz Ferdinand… stuff like that.  I didn’t have time to add Lil’ Wayne.  And then I had to make, like, the fuckin’ universe as the backdrop.  That’s how we roll here at the Decibel Tolls – no fun, tasteful graphic to designate this article as the accumulative best-of list.  Nope, just crude images of artists I like with their heads detached eating shitty bands.  I’m additionally thrilled that I was able to describe the image even further despite the fact that it’s already annotated.  I rule.

I put some serious thought into this list, and did a bunch of narrowin’ down.  There were other jam hives I was rather infatuated with this year, such as releases from Magik Markers, Burning Star Core, and Vivian Girls.  But I wanted to do just the standard top ten this time around.  No reason to not do things standard every now and again…

10) KOUSHIK – Out My Window

From 7.29.08: Koushik’s Be With compilation was amazing, but a little brief (only one track made it over the three minute mark). That issue is fixed with Out My Window. Lead single “Lying in the Sun” is sunny psychedelia that comes correct and interpreted electronically – kinda like Caribou (Koushik even provided throat duty for some jams on Up in Flames, back in the pre-MySpace days when Danny S was known as Manitboa). However, Koushik remains very distinct, particularly by way of his clam, insanely reverberated vocals. All that was good about Be With is brought to the forefront – the sonically organic, lush, and hazy textures juxtaposed against crashing beats. However, you can tell, with this track alone, that Out My Window is going to showcase a lot more new ideas. Koushik is the latest heir to the Free Design’s throne, as long as that throne has room for some thumpin’ low end. This… this sweet psych slice is so sickeningly good. It’s an IV drip of technicolor beauty. This groove can heal most terminal illnesses.

MP3:::
Koushik – Lying in the Sun

09) THE BLACK ANGELS – Directions to See a Ghost

From 6.30.08 (The first Decibel Tolls post, actually): The Black Angels‘ latest, Directions to See a Ghost, a poignant title encapsulating their increasingly distinct desert-noir dusty psych grooves, picks up right where 2006’s Passover left off. Tom-heavy percussion intros, tremolo-saturated guitar meltdowns, nasty bass rumbles, and Alex Maas’ throat offerings (vocals that, to me, flutter somewhere between Jim James and Gregorian chant) are all still intact from the Passover days. However, Directions to See a Ghost does mature in two distinct ways. First, there’s a very fluid motion to the album, connecting each windswept canticle to the next. By structuring and composing most of the album in a similar vein with slightly altering moods, the Black Angels have created a whole, cohesive work as opposed to simply a collection of songs they dropped off at the studio on the way to the store. Of course, a good psych rock record should have a consistent ambiance as per the clientele since, you know, Beck albums are not the weapon of choice for the 420 LOL contingent. Secondly, the Black Angels have adopted a deeper sense of melody. Dare I say some catchiness abounds in the major-key call to arms “Doves,” the evil-Beatles sitar raga of “Dee-Ree-Shee,” and the funkadelic first movement of “Snake in the Grass.” This newmelodic slant pushes the Black Angels above some of their LSD theater contemporaries like Dead Meadow and Bardo Pond… Ultimately, If you’re going to emulate and lightly interpret bygone music, why not merge the music of the most triumphant groups ever and mold them into one totally epic behemoth? You know, originality often comes at a cost to the listener. Sometimes it works well and makes an urgent statement, but sometimes it doesn’t and is just overly challenging and annoying (Lou Reed and Tony Conrad anyone?). You know exactly what you’re getting with the Black Angels – no frills – just pop on, flip on the iTunes visualizer, take a bong rip, tune in, turn on, and drop out.

MP3 :::
The Black Angels – Vikings

08) SIC ALPS – U.S. Ez

From 10.21.08 This isn’t your father’s unwashable, filthy, no-fi psychedelic rock scuz – Sic Alps twist, creak, and thump, taking you on a cosmically damaged romp through west coast good vibes and future shock trepidation.  The latest, U.S. Ez, has a comfy place on the Siltbreeze roster with the likes of Charlambides, The Dead C, and U.S. Girls. Sic Alps certainly drink from the same goblets as the highest in psych rock royalty, but they also bring the goods to back up their seat at the table… I was casually listening to my iTunes on shuffle whilst engaging in some fast-track multitasking when “Clubbing For $$” came on and I thought “hmm, I don’t recognize this Alexander Skip Spence song.” Both Skip Spence and Alps vocalist Mike Donovan retain a subtle, gorgeous quality through raspy timbre and decimated, hissing melodies, suggesting that both gentlemen have seen the true face of God and didn’t like what they saw. “Gelly Roll Gum Drops” also provokes this same, insane electric folk feel, with a bit of 13th Floor Elevators style celestial boogie and some general Holy Modal Rounders headfuckery tossed in to give this exercise in tape reverb fortitude some serious lift.  I’m also reminded of my favorite work of Neil Michael Haggerty in U.S. Ez, so imagine my elation when I found out they play as his backup band every now and again. The blitzkrieg of fuzz on “Massive Place” might make Mudhoney feel retarded. But enough of comparisons. Comparisons are lame. I’m listening to this record right now as we speak, and all that needs to be said is that it’s so fucking good… I hope Sic Alps sell a billion records.

MP3 :::
Sic Alps – Bathman

07) HIGH PLACES – High Places

Beach House on uppers.  High Places take the hippie thing in a whole new direction.  Whereas Brightblack Morning Light are unabashedly hippie to the point of almost self-parody, High Places keep their love of nature and petuli more subtle.  Very similar to Panda Bear’s Person Pitch, High Places create a veritable tower of power of lush and bucolic sampled layers, all of which are sun-tinged, and some of which lean on that Raymond Scott-esque atomic age quality found in Broadcast’s latter stuff.  Less beat heavy than Panda, however, High Places tear down all walls and allow the fluid hippy trance melodies to flow like urban runoff, letting Mary Pearson’s vocals provide the ropes to keep everything together.  This is undoubtedly the summer jam.  Sometimes those marimba sounding beats come in a little too heavy and everything gets a little too “hey mon, no problem” for me.  No matter, “From Stardust to Sentience” is so grandiose and gorgeous that nothing else is relevant.  “From Stardust to Sentience” is some next level shit.  High Places also gets best album art of the year – what, with the giant pink ghostly baby and the illuminated agrocrag.  Get this album, or else the terrorists will win.

MP3 :::
High Places – From Stardust to Sentience

06) WOMEN – Women

From 10.20.08: I was introduced to Women (that sounds so odd) by a fellow Tiny Mix Tapes writer who proclaimed that Women is prefect for anyone who “gets their dick up to Animal Collective.” I was certainly intrigued after that statement, especially since he said the word “dick.” And while I would concur that the Calgary band sometimes evokes the more menacing material on Here Comes the Indian and Danse Manitee, Women are by no means a knock-off. Whereas Animal Collective has always exuded a playfulness and childlike veneer, here be dragons within Women. The crescendo of the excellently titled “Lawncare” wants to pillage your village and breed with your women (pun intended, motherfucker).  I would also be somewhat remiss to not recognize the pretty spot-on review courtesy of Jagjaguwar’s one sheet: “Sometimes light and spacious, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight, this self titled album touches upon Velvet Underground, Swell Maps or This Heat while not really having any obvious precursors – a lo-fi masterpiece cloaked in layers of vibrato and guitar wash.” That’s certainly true, as Women adopt the traditional instrumentation of gritty garage punk and stretch its potential across ’60s Nuggets-ready psychedelia, early ’80s no wave, and contemporary, slightly-askew pop peppered with noise flourishes. You also get a heavy-dose of the elusive hummable anthem with “Black Rice,” Fahey-esque guitar noodling on “Sag Harbor Blues,” and a nihilistic Madchester zeitgeist-meets Boredoms thirsty on bloodlust hodgepodge on “Shaking Hands.” The insanity and panning production on “January 8th” attacks your brain with holy water sprinklers. January 8th, as a fun fact, is David Bowie’s birthday. Women’s “January 8th” sounds nothing like David Bowie.

MP3 :::
Women – Lawncare

05) INDIAN JEWELRY – Free Gold

I had the pleasure of suffering moderate brain damage for a sustained period of time after seeing Indian Jewelry in October of 2005, a few months shy of their debut Inevasive Exotics dropping like hot magma.  They were playing a show with some friends of mine whom I came out to see.  I had never heard of them and offered no expectations.  Dudes started wrapping the stage in hundreds of feet of aluminum foil betwixt multiple strobe lights, animal skulls, fog machines, and a large Lone Star state flag backdrop (certainly a sinister symbol in the middle of W’s second term).  It was total brutality.  And while Inevasive Exotics was an excellent albeit very evil album, Free Gold furthers Indian Jewelry beyond shock and swells of noise, moving away from the mechanical squall of their influences like Suicide or Swans.  Free Gold is rich in hooks and melodies, and they’re not necessarily subtle either.  But Indian Jewelry does not completely abandon their destructive forces.  Just about every track is stacked high with sludge, fuzz, and squelches, and all songs remain unequivocally foreboding.  But the song structures are not freeform anymore, but rather, concise, crafty, and almost, gulp, electric folk.  Free Gold’s midsection is flawless and so cohesive that it almost comes across as a suite, starting with “Walking on the Water,” and ending abruptly with the quite, curveball all acoustic Erika Thrasher track “Everyday.”  Indian Jewelry is doing a rather new thing, as far as creating moods of almost-fright within songs that balance catchiness and chaos.  It’s rather unfortunate that Free Gold has not been more celebrated, but alas, that’s the inherent issue with being ahead of the curve, as it were.

MP3 :::
Indian Jewelry – Nonetheless

04) GROWING – All the Way

From 8.20.08: I’ve seen Growing twice. I witnessed them offer a very competitive opening set for Mogwai. Though there was nothing much to watch, per se, hearing their very warm and resonating drone assault, as suffocatingly prominent as their rapid-fire fractured guitar architecture, over a 8,000 watt PA felt like marching into Mordor. Shit was powerful. Growing has often been described as doom. I don’t really agree. Perhaps it’s because I saw them later at a party cracking wise and crushing Rolling Rock on top of a washer/dryer unit, but mostly because their harmonically complex jam hives sound almost hopeful – vast and assuring – like trying to look over the curve of the Earth. Growing seems to be taking a new direction now, offering a more shimmering, melodic approach, not too far removed from Cloudland Canyon [Bloggins note: see blow]. “Innit” is a big fuzzy bit-decimating tremolo defibrillator. “Green Flag” has a charming, delightful little breathing monster under its surface. This is profoundly good.  Growing likes to rip a big hole in the sky only a couple meters above your dome.

MP3 :::
Growing – Rave Pie Only

03) CLOUDLAND CANYON – Lie in Light

From 8.15.08: About 10 years ago, Art Bell, then host of late night alien and conspiracy theory-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM, aired the frightening urban legend recording “The Sounds From Hell.” It’s an unsettling clip, but also morbidly fun. It’s also completely a hoax (literally speaking, not theologically). The origin of this sound is as follows: Soviet scientists drilled a hole nine miles deep in the heart of Siberia to study plate tectonics. When they hit a heat pocket, their drilling equipment was destroyed, followed by the sound of millions of screaming souls. As any good scientist would do, they whipped out the mics and recorded it…  I tell this anecdote as it relates the feeling I get when I hear Cloudland Canyon, and subsequently, when I feel my face melt off my skull. I don’t believe in hell, but I believe in nine mile deep holes. And at the entrance of such a tremendous cave, portal, the dark and cavernous chasm reaching deep into foreboding stretches beyond our measly surface existence, is the sound of Cloudland Canyon. It’s huge, it’s beautiful, but it’s teeming with trepidation. If they ever make a film adaptation for Mark Z Danielewski’s House of Leaves, Cloudland Canyon should produce the sound of the ever-expanding house. This is the biggest thing on the planet. Cloudland Canyon, should their discography get too prolific, will knock our planet right off it’s fucking orbital plane.  Fans of Lichens would do well to take notice, as well as folks who like to go get some shit done.

MP3 :::
Cloudland Canyon – You and I

02) HUSH ARBORS – Hush Arbors

From 10.23.08: Hush Arbors, as far as the whole freak folk/New Weird America thing goes (I begrudgingly use this term), has always struck me as the obvious choice for ambassador of the aforementioned movement, as he offers the perfect median point for the disparate sounds found therein. Wood’s take on psychedelic folk demonstrates that it is not necessarily his intent to destroy strong structures, nor is it his intent to play it straightforward and traditional. However, Hush Arbors has gone above and beyond comparison to similar artists. It’s no longer fair to say “this is a great offering from the New Weird America camp,” it’s only befitting to describe this self-titled record as a monumental collection of music that stands up against any album, anywhere. I’m not trying to overhype this really, but Hush Arbors rules so hard. Hush Arbors’ adventurous, wide-ranging sonic paintbrush invokes the past whilst thrusting the very notion of folk rock into future territories. In short, Keith Wood just dropped the type of album that separates the men from the boys…  As a contributing member of Six Organs of Admittance (not to mention Current 93, Wooden Wand, Sunburned Hand of the Man), you certainly hear the familiar Fahey-esque, drone note heavy guitar noodling that defines the Organs’ catalog through each and every track on Hush Arbors. But the riff-heavy structures only accent the music, never existing as the sole focal point. These are well written, melodic, solid songs – simple enough to hum along, layered enough to overload your headphone technology and melt your brain. Also different than Six Organs is that Hush Arbors keeps his weirdness prominent and economical. Whereas contemporaries Ben Chasny and MV & EE like to break down into drone examinations and take lengthy journeys down sunken catacombs, Hush Arbors keeps his ideas contained within fairly concise, brightly colored, accessible songwriting. The album’s rollicking psychedelic folk, with vintage AM radio influences like classic Mayall-style R&B and Byrds-helmed feel good bucolic flourishes, is a shapeshifting exercise in sonically diverse, cosmically dense, warmly welcoming electric folk.  Fuck Chinese Democracy, this is Hush Arbors’ time, as far as I’m concerned.

MP3 :::
Hush Arbors – Gone

01) DEERHUNTER – Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

From 8.27.08 and 8.29.08: What other album released this year has a real legend behind it?  The secret album, the accidental self-inflicted leak of the secret album, the ensuing drama, the strange tours, the countless articles always having to mention Bradford Cox’s physical appearance – not to mention lineup changes, ample shit-talkin’, and general boobish antics.  Trouble finds Deerhunter more than the visa versa, though.  Yet they emerged victorious with a massive, sprawling statement.

Deerhunter exists in this strange chasm between fuzzy sludge and krautrock. Though they don’t sound like Neu or Faust, per se (except for “Slow Swords” perhaps), “Calvary Scars II” and “Nothing Ever Happens” are fiercely motorik. If you were fighting in a medieval battle, but rode high on unicorns instead of steeds and bested your opponent with candycanes versus lances, 4:03 – 7:31 of “Calvary Scars II / Aux Out” is the best battle cry you could have. This track could also act as triumphant shag music (it is Deerhunter’s deontologial duty to please that booty). Shit is crucial.

I like Cryptograms a lot. I sorta like Flourescent Gray. But goddamn, I did not expect Deerhunter to slay me. Twice! I’ve been twice slain! Microcastle in conjunction with Weird Era Cont. is one of the most significant, important releases of this decade, hands down. Neither one is better than the other – they’re one sick unit.

And I now take umbrage with the idea that an album is either pop or experimental. Though I’d like to think that the Beatles’ last four albums debunked that myth, the label-happy world of the blogosphere has again segregated these term, shall we say, “terms” when reviewing music. It’s lazy journalism. Weird Era Cont. is a flawless example of toying with pop structures and creating a soundscape that’s both catchy and mind-melting. You can hum along or you can rip the bong. Each is equally appropriate, and Deerhunter does this with an increasingly recherche panache.

MP3 :::
Deerhunter – Calvary Scars II / Aux Out

One of the best compliments you can receive as a musician is the notion of irritating music writers.  The Dead C has always been one of the most difficult groups to describe.  Like many psych rippers and no wavers, much of the Dead C’s repertoire specializes in noise and structure breakdown.  But simply labeling it as noise is shortsighted, as the Dead C operates as more of an improv group.  There’s always been “structure,” more or less, and if you listen closely, the Dead C often comes across as a damaged Spacemen 3, Space Needle, or other fuzz-heavy, post-punk-informed groups with the word “space” somewhere.  There are solid songs throughout, always head warping, and always fed through multiple demonic filters to cultivate that otherworldly presence.

However, the recently releasedThe Secret Earth takes a large stride toward songdom.  “Plains” is the most impressive example of this.  A 9-minute sprawler (but also one of the shorter tracks), “Plains” lurches and squawks like a Suicide jam session, roughens the noise guitar edges like Loop’s most interstallar work, and comes replete with wrist-heavy jazz drumming juxtaposed against Mike Morley’s faint, paigned throat exercises.

Paul Haney from Tiny Mix Tapes sums the Dead C’s latest rather nicely:

Secret Earth finds The Dead C providing the comfortable thrills of their skewed take on rock music across an entire long-player without hitting cliché or repetition. As the band has remained consistently vital and perplexing over their 20-plus-year career, it’s not terribly shocking that Secret Earth is one of their strongest releases, but one still gets that tinge of immense satisfaction hearing them produce a record this far into their career with every wrenching noise and dissonant sonic standing unrelentingly strong.

MP3 :::
The Dead C – Plains

Gotta shout out to Evan at Swan Fungus again for locating more difficult-to-find holy relics.  Today, it’s a Dead Meadow bootleg, sometimes referred to as a Live on WFMU recording, though Evan points out that it’s actually a somewhat lost Peel Session.

Dead Meadow releases some of the highest caliber Hawkwind-esque mind-melters today.  Of course, in the studio, you can saturate each track with reverb and panning techniques to make anything sound pretty good.  This is where Dead Meadow prove themselves as an awesome band – they absolutely smoke live.  “Drifting Down Streams” is cultish.

Rumor has it, though, that if you book them at your event or club, you have to clean up a lot of paraphenelia.  This is just what I hear.  Anyway, you can, for a limited time, snag the whole recording at Evan’s diggs, so hop to it.

MP3 :::
Dead Meadow – Drifting Down Streams
Dead Meadow – Indian Bones (Peel Session)

I’ve been violently cranking Religious Knives as of late. I saw them once with, I think, Wizzardz (a Lightning Bolt side project). Or maybe it was Zodiac Mountain. I don’t remember. Either way, Religious Knives is boss, and reminds me of one of my forgotten favorites – Loop. More on that in a bit.

Religious Knives‘ latest is called Resin, just released on No Fun with my friends Hair Police. For those who haven’t roomed with pot dealers like I have, resin is the residue left in pipes and bongs after, um, religious marijuana use. I think pothead lexicons are funny, and New York-based Religious Knives makes no bones about what they’re, ya know, about. Or perhaps it’s tongue-in-cheek. You can never tell on paper. Regardless, tune in, turn on, drop out. Hallucinogenic anthems abound.

Loop was a nasty, abominable scourge on the pop-friendly C86 camp in late ’80s Britain. Foul beasts they were, Loop demonstrated their intent to keep music solemnly evil with 1989’s Fade Out. Neither image above is the cover of Fade Out, by the way. The one on the left might be 16 Dreams, which I do not have. There just aren’t a lot of Loop photos floating around.

Lore has it that Spacemen 3 hated them for reasons that remain unclear. They’re often compared to Spacemen 3, but Loop is decidedly closer to Blue Cheer and Hawkwind. They never changed their sound, so all their albums are equally good. I just tend to gravitate toward Fade Out, I guess, because it has the best hooks. Loop albums are extremely difficult to find. I nabbed my burned copy from my college’s radio station about four years ago. Best stoner metal ever recorded, in my not-humble opinion. Loop got off the couch long enough to start a MySpazzz for your soc-networking pleasure.

Since we’re dealing with some evil, sinister psych that you might hear at an Aleister Crowley-hosted dinner party… dude, czech out these skulls. Animated GIFs are awesome. Skulls are awesomer. CRUCIAL!

Throw them horns up.

MP3 :::
Religious Knives – In the Back
Loop – Black Sun
Loop – Fade Out

I’m going to bat for Bradford and pals. Deerhunter has been good to us. On their blog, bandleader Bradford Cox is pretty great about providing new songs and sneak peeks of forthcoming material. While posting a link to the new Atlas Sound single, via Mediafire, Bradford unwittingly provided a public portal to all of his uploaded material, including two not-yet-released albums, unfinished demos, and the famous Deerhunter “micromixes.” In essence, his diary was discovered. As you can imagine, a free-for-all ensued. Old dude made it over to the At Ease Message Boards and posted all the files. Do you think Captain Yorke and the boys would approve of this, brah?! I’m a blogger too and all, but I’m sorry guys, that was a bitch move on your part, indie dorks. For shame.

This is not nice stuff to hear from one of the few new bands that doesn’t suck:

“It’s stuff like this that made Jeff Mangum stop Neutral Milk Hotel.”

“If you have no respect for my privacy I will no longer be giving music away on this blog… The biggest irony is that those who distribute my demos and unreleased material are stealing from me when I was trying to give away something else for free.”

“I have no idea what people want me to do. I’m not trying to be a cunt to anyone. I will finish the fucking album and stop bitching. I honestly really truly do not want attention from this. Sincerely. I wish none of this shit would have happened. I was just trying to give away another virtual 7″. Now everyone that reads this thing is going to think i’m a fucking lunatic. I just have nothing to do. I guess I’ll go clean my room.”

One of the “discovered” files was a surprise second album to be released with Microcastle called Weird Era Cont. – theorized, for obvious reasons, to be the more noise-oriented, old school Deerhunter response to all of the seemingly poppy new songs. That idea was pretty much stymied. However, most egregious was the leaking of unfinished demos. Something that people who aren’t, or haven’t been, in bands before don’t often understand is that there’s nothing more violating than seeing an unfinished product being heard outside the band and their circle of trust. Though rabid fans will like just about anything you do, no artist wants anyone to hear something that he or she isn’t 100% satisfied with. That’s a cardinal principle. So yeah, I don’t think you’re a lunatic, BC. I think you’re completely justified in being livid.

Stereogum is bringin’ the hate on BC, which I don’t understand. He’s an artist who embraces the Internet fully, constantly giving fans the jump on new material, talks with everyone all entertaining-style on his consistently interesting blog, makes public disses on the Vampire Weekend assclowns just how I like, and always gives you fun interviews to read. The man was trying to post his new 7″ as a convenient download – totally swell thing to do (as he mentioned above)! And this is what he got! Though it was his mistake, I just don’t find this to be an overreaction, especially considering that Bradford (and company) was cool enough to include a free surprise for everyone who purchased Microcastle in lieu of the leak, and not to mention the band’s general generosity toward giving away free jams. This was their property. And you, Gumguys, have the audacity to make fun of him? I know that you have this nice little concluding paragraph saying “all right guys, cut it out,” but anyone with a little perception can see you mocking him, trying to cutely analyze this as an exercise in the five stages of acceptance. And then you re-published his emotionally-based replies to sensationalize the article and make him look like he was acting unreasonable when he wasn’t. Fuck you, Stereogum. Go wank to the new Bloc Party cut or whatever. Mouthbreathers, the lot of ya. I hate music blogs.

Sorry to be all dad-like and call you kids out on your bullshit. Whatever. I’m gonna clean my room, too.

One quick note. The “secret” album, in some ways, wasn’t super secret, as you can see the title in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover art. Regardless, what they were at least aiming to do was pretty rad. Though nothing is as it seems with Deerhunter, so maybe this whole thing was orchestrated all along (but I doubt that):

Yep, thar it is!

UPDATE! ACHTUNG! Looks like D-Hunter’s taking the high road, mixin’ up some lemonade, saying “fuck it,” and is offering the entire Microcastle album for download on iTunes.

Alright… and finally, worth quoting more than the ol’ blog issue is Bradford’s very astute assessments on the My Bloody Valentine assault that is set to occur here in Chicago in… lemme check… one month and eight days. Total damage. Judging solely on the thoughts he publishes and the music he digs, I think I like Bradford. Seems like my kind of dude.

1. Debbie Googe is a badass.

2. Is the cathartic noise-burst at the end (which you’ve all probably read or heard about or perhaps even experienced firsthand) really cathartic since we all know its coming. Does this reduce its impact?

3. My Bloody Valentine are a folk band. Their music transfers experience in broad, ambiguous terms utilizing simple chords and melodies.

4. The sound guy (who also does sound for Mogwai) deserves some kind of huge reward for being a brilliant sonic architect.

5. This is not a point of debate but an observation: During the final 20 minute nihilist noise assault I went from excited to tense to happy to sort of depressed to feeling ill to feeling absolutely nothing. It is the closest I have come to complete meditation or a hypnotic state in a long time. I actually did not think at all for about five minutes.

6. Moses noted that “Belinda had the same facial expression when she was staring at the ground playing guitar that a elementary school teacher has when operating a photocopier.”

7. Whitney who has never heard of MBV and was dragged to the show by the rest of us looked up to me at one point and silently mouthed the words “what the fuuuuuck” to me. She also smiled a lot before her fucking face melted off.

MP3 :::
Deerhunter – Never Stops
Deerhunter – Neither of Us, Uncertainly
(Neither song is from this weekend’s leaks, and you will respectfully NOT find any of that here)

Wouldn’t it be totally lulzy if I posted a picture of the Seattle landmark and was all like “no, not that Space Needle, silly?!” Oh em gee, that would be hysterical. But since I have no sense of humor that I’m aware of, that won’t happen. Instead, I’d like to talk about how Space Needle (the band) is the fuzziest ever. I’m talking Snuggle Bear fuzzy. And by the way, this is not product placement, I’m really into Snuggle Bear. I fucking love talking bears.

I want this shit, for real:

Space Needle hailed from the always forward-thinking Providence, RI scene in the mid-’90s, recorded some choice cuts, suffered serious identity crises, and retreated back to the bat cave by ‘97. In 2006, a retrospective, Recordings 1994-1997, was released to salvage these psych gems and make them accessible to a new generation raised on the Flaming Lips. Lush pop interwoven with noise experimentations and blissed-out astral jaunts, Space Needle laid the groundwork for a lot of what’s going on right now without proper attribution.

“Sun Doesn’t Love Me” sounds like a crafty, masterful prophecy of what was to become with The Soft Bulletin and the like. “Old Spice” features a minimalist approach with an amazing, driving, dilluted pitchshifting riff that melts into a squarewaving static explosion. Less is more. The totally viscous “Scientific Mapp” is my favorite, though. It makes the eyes dart back and forth. It’s also really fuzzy, as mentioned.

MP3 :::
Space Needle – Sun Doesn’t Love Me
Space Needle – Scientific Mapp
Space Needle – Old Spice

Deerhunter just released some more non-NIN shows coming up this fall. Bradford Cox is buying some new dresses for the occasion, too! By the way, BC has my heart, because he understands something that I understand, but very few others do. Quoted in Analogue Mag: “I’ve pretty much given up on indie rock. I hate indie rock. I never listen to it anymore. Because indie rock to me is safe. Like college rock in the 80s. It has a lot to do with economic oppression. It has a lot to do with rich kids. When I think of indie rock recently I think of sort of bands whose names I won’t mention appropriating African music.” Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Deerhunter.

10/31 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
11/01 Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
11/02 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
11/03 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
11/04 Washington, DC – Black Cat
11/05 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
11/06 Princeton, NJ – Terrace F. Club
11/07 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/08 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
11/10 Boston, MA – Paradise
11/11 Montreal, Quebec – Theatre Plaza
11/12 Toronto, Ontario – Lee’s Palace
11/13 Pontiac, MI – Crofoot Ballroom
11/14 Cleveland Heights, OH – Grog Shop
11/15 Chicago, IL – Metro
11/16 Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
11/17 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club
11/20 Vancouver, British Columbia – Richard’s on Richards
11/21 Seattle, WA – Neumos
11/22 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
11/24 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
11/25 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
11/28 San Diego, CA – Casbah
11/29 Phoenix, AZ – Modified Arts
12/01 Dallas, TX – Palladium Loft
12/02 Austin, TX – Emo’s Alternative Lounge Outside
12/03 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
12/04 Baton Rouge, LA – Spanish Moon
12/05 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks
12/06 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree

Oh, and if you haven’t seen this, it’s new to you! The cover art for Microcastle. Sick early ’90s font:

MP3 :::
Deerhunter – Never Stops

I’m a little late on this one, but fucking hell, The Verve is dropping a new record in two weeks! Shit! I would run outside naked and do my happy prance, but it’s Orange Alert right now and I’m scared. The album is called Fourth, because as you know, psych rock and shoegaze dudes just can’t do any better these days (Darker My Love’s new album is 2, Dungen’s forthcoming is called 4, and the next Brian Jonestown record will be Dos Equis). Regardless of the moniker, this dystopian world we live in, in which dongcore bands like the Ting Tings are just tres awesome, needs a group like the Verve to be resurrected a la the Phoenix to plow some motherfuckers over with Twin Reverb Combos. You can pre-order it now.

I do have to say that this new song is fairly… meh, at least compared to stuff from their first two majestic records (A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul), but hey, good to have you back, Richard & Friends!

MP3 :::
The Verve – Love is Noise

Fun fact! Darker My Love’s rhythm guitarist is known as “The Sandwich.” I want a nickname like The Sandwich. Leave your suggestion(s) as a comment below. Don’t be a jerk, though.

MP3 :::
Darker My Love – Two Ways Out