MELOMANIA back with a six-pack of delights for you

THE HARD TRUTH

Apologies for missing last week. The simple fact is there is not a lot of music lately that makes the engine whirl with delight. In our humble opinion, we continue to deal with a slate of releases that is either feast or famine. Nonetheless, we keep bringing dishes to the table for you to sample (including a couple from last week.) We are grateful for each and every one of you.

208 - Nearby [LP](Big Neck)

The sound of music going to tape at a high enough volume it makes it wobbly and screechy is quite thrilling. Add to it, the fiery guitar and drum rumble of 208 and you have Garage/Punk Rock that is set to destroy. The songs here are blistered fragments that come off as Beefheart-meets-early 2000’s White Stripes. “Fountain” is dangerous. Its drunken hallway stagger feels like you are seeing the killer come to get you - and you are frozen in the stare. “That House” turns the other way venturing into raucous celebration with the screams of Kyle tamped down. Mixing one crushing extreme up front and the other masked in the background makes you weather 208’s storm to hear it all. Explosive.

MESAVERDE - KY [LP/CD](Apollon/Redeye)

Like Dad Rock-ers who like Steely Dan and taking considerable influence from the Bay Area’s The Once and Future Band, Norway’s MesaVerde maximize their Prog/Pop with beautiful synth swoops (“Dreamers”) and the pronounced vocal style (“Grace”) that makes you dig around for that old Bourgeois Tagg tape. The harmonies here are fantastic and on their best tracks (the driving “Like You Used To”) balance their tough riffs with a smooth sound. However, even their epic “The Way I Want” weaves through intricate chord changes while always tugging the heartstrings of classic AOR/Pop Radio. Mesaverde makes nuance dangerous again.

THE STOOLS/TOEHEADS - Watch It Die [LP](Drunken Sailor CAN)

Detroit’s The Stools definitely show their undying love for classic Gun Club (their three-minute maximum opus “Harsh Green River” is a blistering throwback to “Preachin’ The Blues”) on their five songs from this split. However, listen to them filter Rockabilly bang through Punk squelch and screaming (“Fascist Cupid”) and it is not hard to see them as less Garage and more Detroit Rock N’ Roll. “Strong Street Stranglehold” is a nerve-pounder with MC5 flourishes and their pugilistic yowl. With the exception of the more straightforward gallop of “Evil,” most of The Stools blast sounds like it could be an import from present-day Melbourne, Australia.

Toeheads have even more in common with Rockabilly raging through their over-distorted tales of bad nights (“Wanna Be Alone”) like classic Blasters without the croon. Once they veer out of control on the swirling Punk of “Painkiller,” they come up with some inventive additions that bode well for their future. The Dead Kennedys-esque “Water War” adds some great harmonies and the closer “I Want To Be In Your Life (So I’ll Die)” is like Johnny Thunders playing with Sonic’s Rendezvous Band.

ROBOHANDS - Giallo EP [LP](Bastard Jazz UK)

We have told you about UK multi-instrumentalist Andy Baxter before (10.14.22.) However, in looking back on two separate reviews of his previous efforts, “Giallo” is almost a complete 180. Unlike the previous Jazz excursions (“Violet” still remains in play,) “Giallo” dares to sound like Radiohead (“Fear,”) Tangerine Dream (“For The Different”), and Pye Corner Audio (“Float By Like Clouds.”) Baxter still knows how to lay down a groove, but “Giallo” is such a departure it needs multiple listens to sink in. Too often the problem with many of these “instrumental Jazz-based records” or even “synth-inspired meditation” is how the tracks all begin to sound too similar. Baxter has ingeniously blended the two and created a whole new direction.

SLUG - Thy Socialite! [LP](Daylight Saving UK/Redeye)

Like those other Sunderland wonders Field Music and Nation of Language, Ian Black plows through Rock (the blinding closer “Cut of Your Jig”,) Glam (“Instant Reaction,”) Pop (the showy “Lovingly Legerdemain”,) and Prog (the 10cc-ish “Silly Little Things That We Do”) with a bevy of hooks and bright harmonies. “Thy Socialite!” is a bit like Field Music produced by Todd Rundgren as sung by Queen (“Please Turn It Up.”) Black’s derring-do shows in blending time shifts and thick riffs with massive overdubbed vocal lines. “Casual Cruelty” and its Split Enz-meets-Big Star’s “Sister Lovers” make a strange choice for a single. However, its myriad changes and mood shifts are the single best introduction to Black’s talent. Slug may get abstract and even busy, but it always leads you back with a sugary sweet lick that is hard to resist.

OOZING WOUND - We Cater To Cowards [LP/CD](Thrill Jockey/Redeye)

With Metal going in every direction now, listening to the Sludge/Thrash squelch Metal of Chicago’s Oozing Wound is a pleasure because it adamantly refuses to do anything but RAWK. “Bank Account Anxiety” is so grungy and dramatic it could be overdubbed into Cameron Crowe’s “Singles.” While the punishing instrumental “Crypto Fash” is like the Melvins with horns (possible show opener?,) at their most hair-raising (“Midlife Crisis Actor”) Zack Weil typically hides his screeching vocals behind the wall of noise. Kevin Cribbin and Kyle Reynolds bang every track into submission. “Total Existence Failure” matches the brute force of Chat Pile with the slap-back echo of Butthole Surfers for a truly towering crusher. Oozing Wound’s songs are undeniably heavy, but they always carry that Albini-esque airiness in the production that lets the bass lines move like a bulldozer and those drum figures feel like a jackhammer. The songs of “Cowards” are lumbering monsters whose best riffs smash into you like bombs dropping to earth. The single “The Good Times (I Don’t Miss ‘Em)” is almost like a Sabbath-esque/Darkthrone-like start/stopper run through classic Stooges technology. When Weil screams “Why?” over and over again while wildly bending the notes on his guitar, “Cowards” becomes an eye-opening experience. Then, he throws down an insane Duane Denison-ish solo that hangs above you like an air raid. For too long, “Grunge” has been a bit of a pejorative. Oozing Wound makes a brilliant case that it has returned slimmed down to its blaring bare minimum.

There is a method to the madness we promise. To us, the best playlisting songs come two ways:

1. When you are just skimming an older playlist/segment - see a track - and it starts playing in your head.

2. When a cut surprises you. When you are listening to the random array run together and that song plays that makes you race over to find out what it is.

So thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and supporting the artists we introduce via this online platform.

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