MELOMANIA calls solids. You call stripes. And it's a 7-ball in the corner pocket! What a soundtrack for our game!
Punk/Pop - Post-Punk - Primitive Folk - Industrial Post-Punk - Singer/Songwriters unlike any others - and Avant-Garde Pop/Rock. All ahead. Nice shot!
THICK - Happy Now [LP/CD](Epitaph/AMPED)
Brooklyn’s Thick shattered a lot of the typical notions about Pop/Punk (and female Indie Rock for that matter) on their surprising debut “5 Years Behind.” For “Happy Now” they return with the same work ethic (and producer,) but have clearly learned how to tighten their hooks to contain that snap that even works well at Pop radio. “Happiness” pounds its pummeling riff out, but never grows tiring instead pushing them into Ramones territory with Breeders-ian vocals. “Tell Myself” is clearly the single pulling together a minimal verse/shouted chorus/serpentine guitar break with a Nineties-esque flair. Lyrically, they shooting for defiance/self-empowerment on “Loser.” While we have heard those proclamations before (and will again,) in Thick’s hands the ongoing repetition is first for them and second for us to acknowledge their honesty.
DEATH BELLS - Between Here & Everywhere [LP/CD](Dais/Secretly/AMPED)
A textbook Post-Punk record on their third time out. Los Angeles’ Death Bells find the right harmonies (“Hysteria”) and angular propulsive drive ("the shoegazer-esque “Space Without A Name.”) In addition, they even toss an Eighties jangle cut into the mix (the Church-ian “Last Days.”) Death Bells is at their best when they slow down and let the evocative tracks slowly take them over. While the opener “Passerby” and the Interpol-with-strings “Intruder” are natural singleworthy choices, the hard rock denouement to Gun Club-esque death waltz on “A Better Resolution” may be the true standout and best hint as to future direction.
THE A’s - Fruit [LP/CD](Psychic Hotline)
Like a streamlined Mountain Man (minus Molly Erin Sarle,) Alexandra Sauser-Monnig (also Daughter of Swords,) and Amelia Meath (also Sylvan Esso, Nick Sanborn helps out) ease their sweet harmonies into an album of Gillian Welch-ian harmony singing over a series of traditional songs, lullabies, covers (the Dezurik Sisters “Why I’m Grieving” is a highlight,) and even originals. The best part is you can hear the pair convening with nature while they play and sing these heartfelt songs (the amazing “Swing and Turn Jubilee” fades out with birds faintly chirping) Finally, while their voices always take the spotlight, The A’s receive stellar help from Gabriel Kahane, Gabe Witcher, Sam Gendel and the glorious voice of Jenn Wasner.
DELILUH - Fault Lines [LP](Tin Angel UK)
Down to a duo, Kyle Knapp and Julius Pedersen moved from Toronto to Europe. “Fault Lines” is a dramatic expansion of their range and captures the feeling of everything around you being foreign. These are songs of conflict, but they never show it. Instead, Deliluh works best when they slowly develop the tension inherent in their songs. Opening with a droning tone poem (“Memorial,”) Knapp’s Stan Ridgway-esque growl makes the abstract “Body and Soul” less Post Punk and more a menacing almost Avant-Garde cut. Pedersen’s piano and their This Heat-ish raw attack get put to the test with the blistering “Credence (ash in the Winds of Reason.)” By the time Deliluh finally sounds like Joy Division (and of course Interpol,) they have laid down enough different ideas for their foundation - its familiarity is welcome in their mysterious twilight world. The album’s centerpiece is the seductive “Amulet” (which exists in its “A” form with the full band dating from 2019 as well.) This is the point where Deliluh’s stark minimalism actually makes a song border on frightening. So the Preoccupations-esque percussive slam of “Syndicate II” packs even more wallop. Thankfully, “Fault Lines” draws to a close with strings-and-sequencer Tangerine Dream-esque “Mirror of Hope” allowing you (and Deliluh) that glimpse that a brighter future awaits.
PENELOPE SCOTT - Public Void [LP](Many Hats Dist/AMPED)
Singer/songwriter/synthesist Penelope Scott may be the year’s most unique writer. As all her online releases begin to appear physically, her best and most exemplary work “Public Void” marks its place as your best starting point. Clever, abrasive, and hyper-melodic, Scott and her video game synth programming sound off on a variety of issues without (too much) of the garden variety navel-gazing lyricism so many others use. Scott pulls no punches (the Hedwig-ian suite “American Healthcare (Glitzy)” and the masterful single “Feel Better”) and spares no prisoners (she names names and destroys the podcast/crime series attraction on “Lotta True Crime. ”) Scott has the wildest ideas with the simplest setup. Her basic drum machine purrs along just enough to push her melodies and riffs around. To say Scott is “fanciful” about gloom is a misnomer. The point of “Public Void” seems to be making a glorious Pop record that is eminently repeatable and soon enough they will all be repeating your lyrics too. Sign this woman. When she hits the right song, her righteous and funny rage will be universal.
KAMIKAZE PALM TREE - Mint Chip [LP/CD](Drag City/Redeye)
No beauty sounds better than when you discover it in a forest of chaos and uncertainty. Kamikaze Palm Tree approach their music like Captain Beefheart with a dash of the cartoonish vim of Raymond Scott. The duo veers wildly from a jumpin’ “Tropical Hot Dog Night” style hop to string-laden dissonance without a net. “Mint Chip” is filled with outstanding riffs and lyrical shards. “Predicament” is a dark beauty in which the multi-tracked vocals are combined into a swirl with a sickly sweet synth. “In The Sand” is fanciful yet feels like a drunken merry-go-round ride. “Mint Chip” also uses a lot of electronics in a series of interludes that emulate The Residents (“Bongo’s Lament”) or Eighties Video Games (“West Side Syncopation.”) By the time you get to what would constitute their “singles” - you have adapted. “Y So K” is a stark slice of loveliness with cascading melodies and acoustic guitar. While “The Hit” is both effervescent and hypnotic. In any other world, Kamikaze Palm Tree could be the next Fiery Furnaces fusing weirdness with blaring genre-free hooks.
TALL DWARFS - Unravelled 1981-2002 [LP BOX/2CD](Merge/AMPED)
New Zealand a/k/a Kiwi Music in its opening frame is a study of a small group of people drawing inspiration from each other enough to grow in leaps and bounds. Chris Knox’s 4-track made all of the great early Flying Nun singles. He jumpstarted the Dunedin sound with The Enemy and Toy Love. His collaborator in Toy Love, guitarist Alec Bathgate would join Knox as the other half of the magnificent and influential Tall Dwarfs. The main attraction of Tall Dwarfs so many years later is their ability to make massive songs with just instruments and items within their reach. The 1981 recordings that constitute the “Three Songs” EP are all here and they quickly make a case for the real power of Lo-Fi recordings to capture the most electric moments. By 1982’s “Maybe,” the songs are becoming more organized and the recordings more dynamic. The cuts from 1983’s “Canned Music” grow slightly more ethereal and emotional (“Shade For Today”) until more percussion and keyboards enter the raw “Slugbuckethairymonster” in 1984. The Roky Erickson-meets-Gene Vincent strut of “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” brilliantly uses repetition to create a voodoo-like groove. “Pretty Poison” adds piano to the mix - but still very little percussion. The magic of early Knox/Bathgate is their devotion to the song speaking on one level, and the trance they induce on the other level. In fact, when they begin the pursuit of a fantastic album, they need more time and experimentation to find their boundaries (“Sleet” is almost soulful, while a live rendition of “Woman” is their most fiery song yet. The “Velvet Underground Live” Verite recording style even makes it lean toward performance art.) As the pair enter the Nineties, they use their cache to make full-length statements on albums (1990’s “Weeville” steps up the multi-tracking and produces the definitive Nineties Lo-Fi sound out of playing with jangle on “Sign The Dotted Line.”) The later recordings in studios with other performers tend to be more album-oriented. However, Tall Dwarfs were still highly capable of drilling out a single or 12. The second disc of “Unravelled” actually skips the path of “greatest hits” for a trip into the unknown of various compilation cuts and outtakes. If anything, their writing is so solid that anything works. “Think Small” from “Fork Songs” is Tall Dwarfs at their most tender and Beatlesque. “Bee To Honey” recalls their jangle/Casiotone beginnings earnestly, while the clock-tick Westerberg-ian distorted bliss of “Self-Deluded Dreamboy (In A Mess)” feels like one of many fantastic endings they may have been planning. Any way you enter this, these 55 songs (out of over 200 they recorded in total as preserved by Bathgate) are first a huge step in the evolution of Flying Nun/Kiwi music, and second, the incorporation of visceral Lo-Fi recordings into everyone’s repertoire after the Nineties. Endlessly fascinating and rewarding.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
T-BONES Records and Cafe is a full-service fast-casual restaurant and record store in Hattiesburg, MS. We are a member of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. We are the longest-running record store in the state of Mississippi. If you have questions - we have answers … and probably a lot more information just waiting for you at:
tbone@tbonescafe.com
Visit our website for more information and shop in our ONLINE store if you wish.
T-BONES ships the best music all over the United States daily. We also specialize in Special Orders. Let us know what you are looking for - we are thrilled to help.