What kind of government would send a lunatic artist, whose idea of self expression is smashing amplified glass against his face, off to China to become a cultural ambassador? Australia the lucky country of coarse! And that’s’ exactly what happened to Lucas Abela (Justice Yeldham) and this album, Mrs Rice is it’s result. With under two months in Beijing he formed the pick up band Rice屎Corpse, (named after the Chinese character for shit, 屎 which itself is the combination of two characters "尸" corpse and "米" rice), jammed with them four times (two off which were recorded for this album) before heading off for a ten city tour of China.Sydneysiders Naked On The Vague offer whatever debris came out of The Blood Pressure Sessions, nine deliciously primitive tracks of harsh electro-doom punk played in monotonous ways with thumping bass, plodding drums and demented electronics. A male and female singer pitch their mannered shouty vocals to evince every emotion from bored, nihilistic resignation to a fevered, insane anger. Only in places (’Brown Sun / Sydney Lane Rd’) do these undergrounders approach anything that might fit in with the school of benign psychedelic droning such as their fellow countrymen Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood do so convincingly. Rest of the disc is just packed with good, seething menace. Hard to believe it’s just a duo making all this racket; almost as strong as early Royal Trux.
Toxic Lipstick have released Poopin’, a sickly monster decorated in a garish and excessive cover of elaborate eye-searing collages, while the inserted booklet is a hideous pastiche of teen-girl magazines. 10 of these 11 tracks are ‘classic’ pop-song length, nothing over 2 ½ minutes, and their extremely provocative titles promise much psychological mayhem and wanton sexual hi-jinks, lifting the lid on the obsessions and libido of an imaginary teenager in a stark no-holds-barred manner. It takes some constitution to endure the shrill and squeaky voices which scatter their random vocals over these hyperdriven beats and sick electronic thrashy noises (this record’s contrived cheepniss makes Bow Wow Wow sound like Mozart), but fans of Space Streakings or Melt-Banana will be quids in.
Al Duvall’s Recluses Unite…appears to be an attempt at a Tiny Tim revival, as Brooklyn-based songster Duvall picks up his banjo and sings 17 songs which are freakish pastiches of Edwardian, Music-Hall and early country songs (the sort of material for which Tiny Tim had genuine affection, and he included a vast cache of near-forgotten material in his repertoire). Even the CD label is printed to look like an old 78 disc. Al Duvall’s variant on these genres is to add a slightly more salacious and disreputable streak to these songs with his inventively twisted black-comedy lyrics, throwing in dirty punchlines and shades of modern depravity that our Edwardian ancestors would have blanched at. There’s also however an equally strong streak of utter weirdness and lowbrow surrealism, not too far away from the malarkey of Charles Gocher or Revd Fred Lane. When delivered in Duvall’s deadpan singing voice, this tends to leave a very odd taste in the mouth.
Sissy Spacek’s French Record, extreme as it is, finds this listener on slightly more familiar ground. This John Wiese noise project of long standing includes, for these sessions, Kevin Drumm, C. Spencer Yeh, Kate Hall, Sam Ott and Corydon Ronnau playing in various combinations, resultant tapes quite possibly edited extensively afterwards by Wiese to reduce the whole affair to sonic rubble and cut off any energetic bursts of improvisation at the knees. Much impolite and awkward repellent noise seeps forth, creating the sort of spiky, angular effects that tend to repel most civilians. Another gloriously anti-social release from Wiese."
Not to be confused with the Purple Loon, Purple Diver, Purple Grebe, Purple Gallinule or Purple Coot the Purple Duck is the more common name for the best MC in the world. Yes he’s very very good, well hot enough to burn down a herd of yobbo MC's like pieces of wood. Plover fans would undoubtedly remember the duck from his appearance on the seminal ‘Suicidal Rap Orgy’ album ‘ Genital Warfare’. On this his debut solo album ‘Duck Side of the Moon’ we find the less threatening side of duckmania. Here the great purple quacker displays that his masterful emceeing skills are not his only talent. You will not only find dope duck styles hip hop tracks here, alongside come a quick succession of genres flying think and fast, the album having everything from the punk rock anthem of 'Love Tampon' to the tear jerking Balladeering of 'Everyone’s Dying'.
Hailing from deepest France, via everywhere and nowhere, Vialka are a devilishly high-spirited nomadic duo whose frontier-touring has taken them to all corners of the globe on a seemingly permanent world tour since their formation in 2002. Deriving their influences from traditional and modern underground music from around the globe Marylise Frecheville (percussion & voice ) and Eric Boros (baritone-guitar & voice) create music that skips joyfully across borders, channelling desert blues, Chinese folk songs, scatter rock and European gypsy song dynamics. A whirlwind dervish energy, that combines endless gypsy punk folk rock tales, hard hitting poly-rhythms, yelps and howls into one feverishly danceable and intoxicating brew. Like ‘A Hawk And A Hacksaw’ or ‘The Ex’ their openness to new sounds and cultures makes you feel alive.
Since it’s initial 2007 release, Naked on the Vague’s debut album ‘the Blood Pressure Sessions’ has gone on to floor people across the globe landing them with a enviable vinyl re-issue on the influential US imprint Siltbreeze and commanding reviews like “like something from a claustrophobic horror-movie soundtrack” from Pitchfork, “Co-ed duo wanderings of a decidedly dark and altogether chilling nature, either bending in a beautifully ebbing continuous tone meander, or thumping chest with steel-eyed intensity” from Dusted, and "if this was released 30 years ago, it would be studied and discussed with fervor just as other No Wave classics are getting treated today." - Jackson Glass. The album is a deep dive into the depths of apocalyptic pop and psychedelic weirdness. Disparate vocals grip onto stabbing keys and menacing hook-laden bass lines, pushed on by a relentless drum machine, far past its warranty period, giving the whole of their sound a sonorous curtain of ecstatic foreboding. Essentially a ‘punk’ assault ranging from some almost dance-able short and sharp ‘hits’ to gloomy extended freak-outs. Lucy and Mathew take direction from where the short lived no-wave movement ended, expanding on what that imploded scene could have garnished had it not succumbed to its own fatalistic shortcomings.
Now in its second edition as demand for the album increases across the globe, the band are about to descend on their third US tour including a 2nd appearance at the auspicious SXSW festival in Austin.
Naked On The Vague
USA Tour March 2009
7 Mar 2009
The Shank (98 Bayard Street Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
(Make the)Product 2nd Anniv: w/ Blank Dogs, Pink Noise, Gary War, Led Er Est, Silk Flowers
Brooklyn, New York
12 Mar 2009
The Khyber
w/ The Renderers (NZ), PW Long, Pink Reason
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
14 Mar 2009
Williamsburg Music Hall
w/Crystal Stilts, Women, Blank Dogs, Silk Flowers
Brooklyn, New York
15 Mar 2009
Howlers
w/ Woods, Blank Dogs, Tusk Lord
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
16 Mar 2009
The Summit
w/Times New Viking, Woods, Blank Dogs
Columbus, Ohio
17 Mar 2009
The A/V-Aerie
w/Woods, Blank Dogs
Chicago, Illinois
18 Mar 2009
The Love Garden
w/Woods, Blank Dogs
Lawrence, Kansas
19 Mar 2009 (afternoon)
SXSW: Sacred Bones Day Party (non-official) @ Beerland
W/ Blank Dogs, Gary War, Factums, The Pink Noise, Zola Jesus, Dead Luke, Absinthe Minds, Daily Void
Austin, Texas
19 Mar 2009
SXSW: Siltbreeze Showcase @ Soho Lounge
w/ Ratas del Vaticano 8:45 p.m. Eat Skull 9:30 p.m. Hank IV 10:15 p.m. Psychedelic Horseshit 11:00 p.m. Naked On the Vague 11:45 p.m. U.S. Girls 12:30 a.m. Los Llamarada 1:15 a.m. FNU Ronnies
Austin, Texas
23 Mar 2009
Black Market
w/ Blank Dogs, Turpentine Bros.
El Paso, Texas
24 Mar 2009
Trunk Space
w/Oh Sees, Blank Dogs, Eat Skull
Phoenix, Arizona
25 Mar 2009
Soda Bar
w/Eat Skull,Blank Dogs,Christmas Island,Blessure Grave
San Diego, California
26 Mar 2009
Part Time Punks @ Pehrspace
w/ Blank Dogs
Los Angeles, California
27 Mar 2009
Acrobatics Everywhere @ UC Irvine
w/ Blank Dogs
Irvine, California
28 Mar 2009
Luigi’s Fungarden
w/ Blank Dogs
Sacramento, California
29 Mar 2009 (6:00pm)
All Ages Day Show @ The 21 Grand
w/ Blank Dogs
Oakland, California
29 Mar 2009
Knockout
w/ Blank Dogs, Nodzzz, Brilliant Colors
San Francisco, California
30 Mar 2009
Hemlock
w/Dutchess and the Duke and Blank Dogs
San Francisco, California
31 Mar 2009
East End
w/ Blank Dogs, Eat Skull, Meth Teeth
Portland, Oregon
1 Apr 2009
The Northern
w/ Blank Dogs and Little Claw
Olympia, Washington
2 Apr 2009
Funhouse
w/ Blank Dogs, Idle Times
Seattle, Washington
press play for a preview of 'mothers footsteps'
