Slipped Discs June 2010
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
The Melvins
Initial Thoughts
Heralding the feast of summer festivals; June’s musical sustenance stirs up digestive titles whose flavorful menus are certain to nourish the soul. From bold, chamber-folk negotiations in TYPHOON’s deeply moving, “Hunger and Thirst,” to imaginative guitar-wizard STEVE HACKETT’s phantasmagorical, “Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth,” early summer simmers with delectable selections, including indie-pop collective HERE WE GO MAGIC’s melodically scrumptious, “Pigeons,” and post-punk appreciators FRIENDO’s lo-fi cornucopia, “Cold Toads.” Bon appétit.
Disc Reviews
Wailing Wall - Low Hanging Fruit
Wailing Wall
Album title: Low Hanging Fruit
Record Label: JDub Records
Bonfire ballads lit with chivalrous rhymes, TWW’s well-plucked couplets blossom into raga-flavored frolicking while fiery folk-rock waltzes rise from modest woodland musings. Shy asides and grand finales merrily massaged, “Fruit,” touches bare-bone beliefs through studio hobbit mischief, reflective convictions wholesomely arranged in swollen brass and wheezing concertinas, spritely poems from nature’s pulpit.
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The Wailing Wall online:
• Website
• Download Low Hanging Fruit from Amazon
• Purchase Low Hanging Fruit on Amazon
Glitch Mob - Drink the Sea
Glitch Mob
Album title: Drink the Sea
Record Label: Glass Air
Scorching, satin cybernetics unfold steam-cleaned dreams and menacing denizens, vaporized sighs and translucent movements swim in thick blips and coarse chords rocking around fashionably agitated, polychromatic boogie. “Sea” swirls around wordless subterfuge and programmed stamina, slithering between stun-gun lunges and chrome-plated thunder; sanctimonious moments colored in killer curves and choreographed flashes. The Glitch Mob perform their razor-sharp magic August 21st at Madison’s Majestic Theater and August 22nd at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall.
(2811) Page Views
The Glitch Mob online:
• Website
• Download Drink the Sea from Amazon
Unbunny - Moon Food
Unbunny
Album title: Moon Food
Record Label: Hidden Agenda
Tangled twang and open-hearted ardor fuel songs of mythic biography as Unbunny’s uncanny ability to encapsulate uncertain times turn slacker happiness and gypsy encrypted majesty into ragged sagas anchored to penetrating perspectives. Mired in barbed-wire honesty, sweeping sleepy weepers and passive pilgrim passions, “Moon,” eclipses with soul-baring whispers, solitary thoughts and rousing gun-runner-rock blisters.
(3142) Page Views
Unbunny online:
• Website
• Download Moon Food from Amazon
• Purchase Moon Food on Amazon
Quitzow - Juice Water
Quitzow
Album title: Juice Water
Record Label: Young Love Records
A sassy blast cushioned in glossy hopscotch and electro-pop pep rallies, “Juice,” moves and grooves, mixing unflinching studio gizmos, catchy caffeinated effervescence and socio-pathic party-girl pronouncements for a rad platter of fresh, funky fun. Daring, digital dalliances romp through slap-happy vamps as East Coast upstart Quitzow trips happily past punk-diva poseurs into post-millennial sentiments.
(2984) Page Views
Quitzow online:
• Website
• Download Juice Water from Amazon
• Purchase Juice Water on Amazon
Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts - How Snakes Eat
Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts
Album title: How Snakes Eat
Record Label: Fire Records
Slightly skewed views delivered in gentlemanly eloquence, “Snakes,” charms sweet hayseed hallucinations from classically daft English pandemonium. Civilized seaside psychedelia, Sawyer and friends conjure toddling obsolescence and creaky vaudeville civility beneath surreal jaunts and subtly pastoral poppycock, slyly embellishing miniature moon-struck show tunes, art-house ironies and breezy, parlor mysteries.
(2880) Page Views
Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts online:
• Website
• Download How Snakes Eat from Amazon
• Purchase How Snakes Eat on Amazon
Tobacco - Maniac Meat
Tobacco
Album title: Maniac Meat
Record Label: Anticon
Bots gone amok in tilt-a-whirl curls and crunchy bungee-jumping plunges, Tobacco’s bionic bubblegum conundrums makes unrestrained graininess and over-modulated mayhem rock and rumble, hiss and fizzle. Molten sunshine pours over bristling synth-grunge dance-pop, sinister vintage plays abrasive cabaret, stomping out beefy, belching bass as, “Meat” grills electro-static sludge; brash pneumatic habits punctuating eerie, super-saturated riffs.
(2984) Page Views
Tobacco online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Maniac Meat from Amazon
• Purchase Maniac Meat on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Besides welcoming back long-absent artists SARA MCLACHLAN, THE STEVE MILLER BAND, DANZIG and TEENAGE FANCLUB, June swoons with unsettled feelings. From multi-cultural funkateers KARTICK & GOTAM’s cosmopolitan fusion of ambient contraband, “Business Class Refugee,” to honky-tonk pop-rockers PERNICE BROTHERS’ cooing venom-urgent romance combo in the smart, “Goodbye Killers,” while the savagely savvy MELVINS’ slice of corrugated cacophony, “The Bride Screamed Murder,” gets aired at Madison’s High Noon Saloon June 26th.