Throat Rip and Nails

The pointlessness of it all. Atrocity breeds atrocity. We find ourselves in a grim future. Welcome to caviar!

Tops type of grindcore from California:

Also from California, of course Nails' 2016 3 song EP Obscene Humanity is bad ass:

Civic (Melbourne); Jumpstarted Plowshards (L.A.); Cecyl Ruehlen (Arizona); Rolando Bruno (Buenos Aries); Boss Rush (Birmingham); Tyvek (Detroit)

Melbourne's Civic has a new vinyl release coming out Oct. 20th, New Vietnam & Singles. I listened to it today, it's rock'n'roll, I give it an overall B or so. The best song was "Street Machine Dream," had a cool Iggy Pop vibe. I listened to the song twice today I liked it so much:

"Plowhards Revenge Potion No.4" is a fun punk single from a new Recess Records release, Round Two, by Jumpstarted Plowshards, due out in October. I didn't know it until just now but Jumpstarted Plowshards is Mike Watt (The Minutemen, fIREHOSE) and Todd Congelliere (F.Y.P, Toys That Kill). Maybe like, mention that on the Bandcamp page. I guess you just have to be in the know. This will be their second release.

Here's some interesting new musique concrete frmo Arizona-based artist Cecyl Ruehlen:

This is older, from 2015, but there's a new physical CD for it. Great combo of cumbia and garage-psych:

I haven't heard from Boss Rush in a while, their new 3 songs are, well, boss. It's from a split they're doing with a band called KinZie, I didn't get a chance to listen to KinZie today. Boss Rush are a married couple out of Birmingham. Great rock'n'roll:

Finally, Detroit's Tyvek has a new album due out in November. The first two songs on the album are available, great stuff:

Alright, 4 days, 4 posts in a row! I'm officially in manic terriority, so soon I'll burn out and you won't hear from me on here for 3 months. But, one way or the other I will be doing the Clean Nice Quiet KPISS.FM show -- remember this Saturday I'm going to start doing TWO HOURS every week, from 5 to 7 PM EST. Can't wait!

Exhumed (California); Riversleem (Canada); Pinback (California)

Hey if you make cool tunes and you want to send me your cool tunes for possible play on my KPISS.FM show (Saturday 5-6P EST) or featured here on the blog, take note that the email to contact me is now matt (at) cleannicequiet (dot) (com). I dunno if I have to spell it out like that anymore, I saw someone do that like 10 years ago and figured it was to confuse bots, so I started doing it too. But I dunno; I'm an idiot. Here's some new stuff from Bandcamp:

Exhumed, rad "gore metal" from San Jose, has new vinyl pressings of their 2017 album Death Revenge and their 2019 album Horror, Horror. I've only recently gotten into Exhumed but I've enjoyed everything I've heard. The line between extreme metal, powerviolence, thrash metal, grindcore, and death metal have really blurred over the last few years, if there was ever lines demarcating them to begin with. I dunno, as mentioned above, I'm an idiot:

Speaking of blurred metal lines, Riversleem are "emo-violence" from Saskatchewan. I listened to their new EP A Second Release today and really enjoyed it. Super heavy and fast, and the tone of the screamage is pro. It qualifies as rock'n'roll to me. I love/hate when I listen to something and I see it promoted as "For Fans Of:" and it's four or five bands I've never heard of. I try to keep up but it's tough, man. You understand.

You can get Riversleem's A Second Release either digital or on vinyl here, from Zegema Beach Records:

And I guess someone found some unsold CDs of this Pinback re-master. My old-timey goodtime buddies are all into Pinback, but I never grokked it. I did catch Goblin Cock once and they ruled. Anyway I listened to the first three songs on this today and enjoyed them enough.

Anyway, send me your stuff, if I like it I'll play it or feature it here. I'm going to make an effort to post more often -- over the last eleven years of doing this blog, I've said that often, and Phantom Liberty just came out, so I can't make any promises. Even if I do fail to post more often than I like, there will be the KPISS.FM show on the reggie, as mentioned above every Saturday from 5 to 6PM Eastern. All songs are considered, as long as you send me a publicly available link or file.

Robert Pollard, Sunny & The Sunliners, Savage Necromancy

I was going over my Mixcloud archives and realized I'm achieving what I've been wanting to do without realizing, establishing a rotation of songs and bands in the fashion of the radio I grew up with. I love there's so many music podcasts and internet music stations, and of course terrestial college stations and WFMU -- and don't forget my new favorite internet streaming station, KPISS.FM -- playing music I appreciate. The Radio Garden app is a must, I gotta tell ya. There's so much content, you could never hear the same song, even the same band, twice.

I like to hear new stuff, but I also like to hear the same cool stuff over and over, so that'll be my focus with my KPISS.FM show (every other Saturday at 5PM EST). I learned with my previous CNQ podcast that it's real easy to only play new or new-to-me stuff, because there's so much of it. But a lot of bands and singles I hear deserve to be repeated, so I'm going to do so.

Uncle Bob got a re-mastered release of an older album out:

There's a Sunny and the Sunliners best of out, Volume 2. You see a lot of Sunny and the Sunliners 45s down here. San Antonio legend:

Here's the first volume of Mr. Brown Eyed Soul:

Black metal from Phoneix!

A Quick Trip Through 58 Years of People Makin' Music: The Fall, Gene Clark, Clifton Chenier, Todd Rundgren, Julian Cope, Jean Michael Jarre, BLK JKS, Undeath, Mortuary Drape, Accept, Lil Bastards, and the Pastels

Yesterday I added a few new additions to our record collection. Here's what I picked up, as well as some other stuff I've been listening to (and one thing I haven't listened to yet).

The Fall - Slates 10" re-release from 2016. Originally an EP from 1981. I bought this without realizing -- this 2016 re-release doesn't contain the extra Peel sessions tracks that were added on a follow up re-release in 2021. The 2021 release is readily available and for the same amount I bought this one for. I'm ruined! Anyway, it's a great EP, and the linear notes are a typed letter from from former WFMU music director Brian Turner.

Gene Clark - Collector's Series Early L.A. Sessions. This is a remixed and re-released version of Clark's first album with the Godsin Brothers, remixed five years after it's release by Clark and producer Jim Dickson, and re-released on CBS in 1972. The record didn't sell upon original release, so now that country rock was finding more acceptance via bands like Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Clark's former band The Byrds, CBS brought Clark in to re-record vocals and remix these songs. Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were on this album, too, along with the Byrd's Clarence White and Van Dyne Parks on keyboard. Anyway I have With the Godsin Brothers so I thought it would be neat to have this as a companion piece. And it does sound different. Also they took out "Elevator Operator" which I thought was a groovy jam but apparently Clark was embarrassed of it.

Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet! The King of the bayou, Clifton Chenier's 2nd album from 1967, on Arhoolie Records. All of the songs but one were recorded in Houston in '66, except "Ay Ai Ai," recorded in '64. Cool stuff. Zydeco blues. Arhoolie Records started in 1960 and is still around today.

Todd Rundgren's Initiation, from '75, Rundgren's fourth solo album. Rundgren was on an occult kick, so it's got a long proggy jam on the b-side about Theosophical, New-Agey occult stuff. Which, I'm into in theory, but I'm not sure how often I'll be spinning it, which I read on Wikipedia is sorta what Julian Cope said about it:

"When asked if Rundgren had influenced his music, with perceived influences of Initiation on Queen Elizabeth and Rite², Julian Cope responded that he and Thighpaulsandra loved "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", "but we both bemoaned the fact that it was recorded so long before ambient music had been defined that Todd treated it as an ever-evolving, almost prog-rock piece. We both loved huge elements of that piece but found that we never listened to it. So we tried to build that Todd-like transcendence into our own piece of music [with Queen Elizabeth]."

The first side of Initiation is rockin' tho. Meanwhile, from Discogs:

"(Initiation) is a one of the longest running single disc LPs ever issued (1 hour, 7 minutes and 34 seconds; side B's total time is almost 35½ minutes). However, because of its fragility and reduced dynamic range, the following note was printed on the inner sleeve: "Technical Note: Due to the amount of music on this disc (over one hour), two points must be emphasized. Firstly, if your needle is worn or damaged, it will ruin this disc immediately. Secondly, if the sound does not seem loud enough on your system, try re-recording the music onto tape. By the way, thanks for buying the album" The final suite 'A Treatise On Cosmic Fire' was sped up by half a step to fit the disc with ease, this is why 'Prana' on the 'Real Man' 45RPM 7'' single sounds slower, as that was the speed that was intended to be heard, except all discs and CD reissues play the sped up version used for the original LP. To slow it to the correct speed, using software such as Audacity, reduce the speed by -5 percent."

Here's a 2015 remaster of a track off the first side, the rockin' "The Death of Rock'n'Roll." That's Rick Derringer on bass:

I've also been on a Julian Cope kick. Here's 30 minutes of his ambient project, Queen Elizabeth, mentioned in the Cope quote above:

Continuing with the noodly electronic theme for a moment, I also picked up a copy of Jean Michael Jarre - Equinoxe. From 1978, this is the follow up to Oxygene, which I have, and Jarre's fourth album. I was reading about these two albums under "Critical Reception" on Wikipedia, and apparently critics really didn't like the electronic stuff at the time. I dig it though, and certainly I'm not the only one, so those critics were wrong. Go figure! Here's a video for "Equinoxe 5":

I found a copy of the Secretly Canadian release of BLK JKS Mystery EP with "Lakeside" on it, I dunno if y'all remember that song from 2009? Neat atmospheric, indie/post-alt type of song, very groovy. They're from South Africa. Apparently they had an album out in 2021. They fell off my radar after "Lakeside." The rest of the Mystery EP is as great as "Lakeside" -- spooky, rockin'. There's some pretty wild psych guitar on the track "Mystery."

I had originally went to the record shop to pick up the latest Undeath album, It's Time...To Rise From the Grave, which is killer old school death metal from Rochester, put out by Prosthetic Records. The band really nails it. Here's the video for "Defiled Again." Brutal fun!

But I got home and I had the wrong album -- they gave me Mortuary Drape's latest, Wisdom-Vibration-Repent instead. Mortuary Drape is Italian death metal. I've listened to about half of this now, and it's good - competent, enjoyable:

I took the Mortuary Drape EP back and it turns out someone else who wanted Mortuary Drape got my Undeath album. So instead I picked up a copy of Captain Beefhart and the Magic Band's Strictly Personal, their second album.

This is The Fall doing "Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones" for a Peel Session in 1996. "Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones" is from Strictly Personal.

When we were driving to the record shop, the wife and I heard for the first time Accept's "Pandemic," released on Nuclear Blast Records back in 2010. Why wasn't this song playing everywhere the past few years??!?

Though I didn't buy it, we did look up this single when we got home. Wish I would've bought it! Lil Bastards' "Bitch Get A Job," from the halcyon days of 1992. Youtube comments mention this is the earliest work from a producer called Dougie Diamonds -- I'd never heard of him. This 12" put out on Livin' Large Records appears to have been Lil Bastards' only release:

I've also been getting into the Pastels. Here's "Yoga," from 1995's Mobile Safari. There's a video for this, but the only available version I could find was a shitty upload from someone taping MTV2.

Finally, not as poorly recorded but also not exactly hi-fidelity, check out Julian Cope and backing band pretending to do "I Gotta Walk" on Top of the Pops in 1994:

"I know what your father is saying right now...and he's wrong."

Kale Ogle and the Light (Arkansas); Armstrong (Wales)

Clean Nice Quiet is going on it's tenth year. Ain't that somethin'. I can't imagine too many readers see the webpage version of the blog anymore, but if you do, you may notice I did some tidying up on the sidebars. Specifically the submissions guidelines, the Noisy Neighbors blogroll, and the Other Cool Sites sidebar. I split the Other Cool Sites up into 3 smaller lists: radio shows, labels and distros, and then misc. cool stuff.

I used to be stupidly proud of the enormous blog roll I had created on the Noisy Neighbors blogroll. I daydreamed it was the biggest collection of amateur music blogs on the web, and hell, maybe at some point it was. And I wanted to use it for my own ends, to keep up with other blogs, comment on them, and maybe build a sense of community with these other folks doing both similar and different versions of what I'm doing here. Doing that was actually how I started CNQ; I enjoyed a number of music blogs at the time and wanted in on the fun. Over the last decade blogs have come and gone, of course. And I've trimmed Noisy Neighbors down previously, removing links to blogs that stopped posting or simply ceased to be. This time I went a step further and took out blogs that either I wasn't very intersted in, or were just sharing download links without context, a few that rudely didn't have CNQ in their own blogrolls (out of spite), etc. So it's still an unwieldy thing but it's trimmed down enough now that I've told myself once again I should use it for my own purposes -- to read other people's blogs, listen and engage more. We'll see.

I did leave a few up in memorium (Crud Crud, The Sunday Experience); and a couple in hopes they come back one day (Movie Ink, Killed By Death Records).

For the Other Cool Sites sidebar, mostly those were sites that didn't have an RSS feed for the blogroll when I first linked to them. A lot of them do have RSS feeds now and are active, so I moved them over to Noisy Neighbors. The radio shows in the new Radio, Radio sidebar are all aces, so you should check them out, and same goes for the labels under Record Labels and Distros.

So yeh, ten years. First post was Sunday June 3, 2012. Nothing special planned for the anniversary, just hope to keep chugging along and doing what I do here. Occassionally I do think about getting back into sharing obscure vinyl on here, but it's not something I'd say you should expect any time soon.

And of course I left up the ever present Doctor Nod Top Tips cassette listen and purchase link. I still have a few of those cassettes left, so go ahead and order one. That album rules and you're missing out if you haven't heard it yet.

Here's a couple of things I found while doing all this housecleaning today. Somehow I completely missed Kale Ogle (of the aforementioned Doctor Nod fame, and whose website can be found over in the also aforementioned Other Cool Sites sidebar) released this 9 song digital album in November 2019, with a backing band. Kale Ogle & The Light:

Armstrong is the solo project of Welsh musician Julian Pitt. His latest 20 track album, Under Blue Skies also came out in 2019, and is available on CD from The Beautiful Music in US and Canada and Country Mile Records in the UK. Pretty, pretty, pretty indie power pop:

Brian Bordello and The Bordellos; bigflower; Bordello and Clark; Vukovar, and Beauty Stab (UK)

The Bordellos have announced their 4th and penultimate double A-side of the year. I've had the golden opportunity to preview the two tracks. The first song, "All Psychiatrists Are Bastards", is a playful ditty written by the younger Bordello Dan, the velvet-voiced frontman also of Vukovar and Beauty Stab. The song's a hoot, usually you don't hear Dan this playful in his songs. The second A-side, "Will I Ever Be A Man," was written by Dan's pop, Brian, with the Everly Brothers in mind, shortly before Don passed away.

Y'all know I think Brian's a genius of a songsmith, and if "Will I Ever Be a Man" doesn't prove it to you, then you and I just aren't on the same page with it. And that's fine -- but you're wrong. With my own recording projects I always ask myself, "What would Brian Bordello do?" And the answer is always the same: he would make it fucking rad.

All Psychiatrists Are Bastards/Will I Ever Be A Man will be released for download/streaming on Metal Postcard Records August 28th.

Brian has been as busy as ever. Here's another recent release from him and Ivor Perry, who has an amusing story about the time he replaced Johnny Marr in the Smiths. Perry's current project is bigflower, and that's what this release is filed under. It's the first track recorded by Brian, 30 years ago, dug out, dusted off and revisted. A great song:

The long awaited Atlantic Corssing is finally due out September 24, from Think Like A Key Music. Brian and American guitarist Ted Clark have teamed up for a 12 song album that you can pre-order from Think Like A Key's Bandcamp page. I can't wait.

And for the road, some Brian Bordello genius level material you may wanna rub your ears against. First, probably my favorite Bordellos song ever. I think that's Dan singing:

And a killer track from Brian off a recent Dream Society Records comp:

Of course you should check out Vukovar and Beauty Stab if you haven't already:

And here's a boss Ivor Perry bigflower song, "Criminal," released back in June. Recorded on a phone with an acoustic. 100% cool:

I conclude: if you aren't listening to any of the above, then it's like man, you just don't even know what's happening.

O yeh and don't sleep on the Metal Postcard EP Brian and I did together, Heart to Heart. The song "Pig Fucker," and this is really odd but true, is the best song ever recorded:

Roland Bruno (Argentina); Palberta and Sunk Heaven (New York); The Ducks and Salem Trials (UK); Call In Dead and 2Amature (Florida); The Shifters (Australia); Franck Racket (France); and Adam Holtz (Alabama)

Back in 2016, Buenos Aires based Roland Bruno released a 7" single called "Cumbia Reaction." Apparently Switzerland's Voodoo Rhythm will have a new release from Bruno soon. Absolutely rad Latin garage psych:

Is "rhythm" the weirdest word in the English language or what? I find it impossible to correctly spell it the first or second time. It never looks right.

On May 7, at 7PM Central, Palberta is doing a livestream on Bandcamp where they'll play their new album Palberta5000 in its entirety. Ten bucks, and an electro-noise artist called Sunk Heaven will also be playing. I've got my ticket, and got an e-mail from Warf Cat Records today letting me know my Palberta5000 record has shipped. They still have vinyl for sale on Bandcamp:

On May 19, 7PM GMT, Brighton two-piece The Ducks and something called Super Nothing TV will present "The Ducks Will Fxck You," "a live stream set from The Hope & Ruin in Brighton, a collection of sketches and music videos." I'm intrigued:

Also from the UK, prolific CNQ faves Salem Trials have a rad new track on Soundcloud:

SalemTunes · In the Future lies the Past

Released today, DCxPC Live Volume 1 Presents: Call in Dead and 2AMature Live at the Danger Room in Orlando, FL, is the first 45" put out by new punk label DCxPC. Limited to 200 copies, you can get one for $10. The Call in Dead side is a mishmash of hc and pop punk, crust/screamo, metal, and unfortuntely, a little bit of ska ("Summer Camp"), but despite the skanin' in "Summer Camp," it's quality r'n'r. The 2Amature side leans towards pop/surf but has an edge, and the whole live split is a success at capturing the sound and energy of a kinetic punk show. Recommended:

It's quaint to say I miss going to live shows, but I do. I know some folks have already started going back to live events, but I'm not ready for it.

The Shifters - Live In Gaul was recorded live (on an iPhone!) back in 2019, and put out on cassette this year by French label Arvo Disques. The cassette has already sold out, but a repress is on the way. Meanwhile you can listen to the full thing on Bandcamp. Fun, jangly, lo-fi rock'n'roll, and it's nice to hear a crowd having fun:

Also from France, Franck Racket is a grungy two-piece and their 5 song release Dark Ages is available digitally or on CD. I've been on a '90s hard rock kick lately and this release from back in February hits in that spot:

Finally, longtime CNQ fave Adam Holtz has a new song and video he made called "You." Always a pleasure to hear a new song from Adam:

New Stuff for Bandcamp Friday: Lo-Fi, Underground Hip-Hop and Rock'n'Roll from Houston, Chicago, California, Chile and Argentina.

Gearing up for Bandcamp Friday, which if you click that link you'll find out it's April 2nd. Let's check out some new sounds:

Valentine Snow is from Houston. "Basket Case" is a short and sweet 3 song EP of keyboard-heavy, bedroom-produced, indie hip-pop:

Wheards is also from Houston. RTS & CULTR is a 12 song digital album, these three songs they've made available from the album are righteous:

VIBRASOUNDS by Olaf-O from Chile. 4 tracks of fun beats and turntablism:

Here's a cool older split available on Dupage County Hardcore, "created to preserve and make available (for free) the wealth of punk, metal and hip-hop related music released in suburban Chicago in the '80s, '90s and early '00s." The only notes on the release say Bleeding Kansas was from California, so one assumes La Mantra De Fhiqria was from Chicagoland. No idea what year this is from, my guess is early oughts:

From Argentina comes the inscruitably named ♏, they have a new single which is ok, but check out their May 2020 release, ✉, which is 10 tracks of excellent alt-rock:

This two song EP also from the same band, or label, maybe, I'm not sure, since they use icons instead of words, released in May, 2020. Whatever they're called, I'm into it, great sound in an alt-rock vein:

HC from Argentina, Noise Rock from Germany, Indie from Chicago, Alt-Pop from the Netherlands, and new Genghis Tron from Poughkeepsie

This post wraps up me playing catch up from being on hiatus. If you would like to submit something to CNQ for future posts, I'll be more inclined to listen and share if you send me a Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or Youtube link to matt at clean nice quiet dot com. I get contacted on the CNQ Facebook Messenger page a lot, but it's easy for me to miss those, just a heads up. I'm not on Twitter anymore, or Instagram or any of the Tick Tocks. Just not my thing. I shouldn't even be on Facebook, that company is swine. But, there's no ethical consumption in capitalism, yadda yadda.

I get requests for me to review an album and I'll mention once again, I'm probably not going to do that. I mean I might, if I get a wild hair, but in general if you submit something I like, I'll share it here with a quick sentence of who the artist(s) be, where they're from, what it sounds like, and that link to your baller-ass sound.

If it's not for CNQ I may or may not respond, apologies one way or the other. But if I don't respond about one thing you send me, please feel free to continue to contact me if you have something else you want me to check out. I enjoy a variety of music and if one thing you submit isn't for CNQ, that doesn't mean the next thing won't be.

And then you'll get listened to by all 4 or 5 of CNQ's dedicated readers/listeners (that number includes me).

Let's get to it:

6 song demo from 2020, Argentina's Emboscada is raw hc done right:

BITE is quality noise-rock from Münster, Germany. This is off a 6 song album released in November 2020 called "Never Satisfied," and you can still get the CD or cassette release, or digital from Bandcamp, of course:

Rick Treffers is a Dutch singer-songwriter and this single released digitally on Bandcamp back in February is choice:

Here's another track from Treffers released this month, "The Best of Your Days." Very pleasing alt-pop from a forthcoming album called "Looking for a Place to Stay." I'll be digging into Treffers' back catalog moving forward for sure, and this makes me very interested in what the new album will sound like. Fans of Belle and Sebastian take note:

Chicago's Nonagon is a three piece outfit who just released their new album "They Birds" on Controlled Burn Records earlier this month. 12 songs of righteous late 90s-inspired indie, reminds me of Cap'N Jazz and what they used to call emo before the kids made that tag mean something different:

In the mail today I received this new Genghis Tron, "Dream Weapon," on vinyl from Relapse Records. It's the Macha-est thing since the last Macha album, however long ago that was. Previous Genghis Tron I've not been able to grok; this, however, I can really get behind. Maybe it's the new singer:

There was a Nintendo game called Ghengis Khan that I loved to play as a kid. I would stay up all night playing that game, finally fall asleep, and then wake up and play it some more. Loved it.

Catching Up

Been enjoying the fact TT.FM is back. Playing a little catch-up tonight. Better late than never.

From the EP "Coming Soon to an Alley Near You," released back in December. Toronto-based hardcore, super-cool:

TheSlime · The Day the Earth Stood Still

Dream Society Records is a new Amsterdam-based "female-lead yin label," headed by artist/producer Bloom De Wilde. Here's a 10 track introduction to the label, featuring my main man Brian Bordello on one track. Great stuff:

Mother Water House is from Austin. "no.angel" seems 80s goth inspired, until it gets heavy and becomes its own thing. I love it. "The only angel here is Abandon" is a great line:

Blues rock usually not my thing recorded, but I enjoy seeing it live. There's nothing wrong with this, Jacob Green is from Vermont, and this is from the album "Little Courage," released February 2020:

From the same promoter, Ryan Summers is from Wisconsin and while the album on first listen isn't for me, this track caught my ear. Released back in October, the album "captures his experiences deprogramming from an internet cult over a decade ago," which is interesting:

Epilogues is from Leeds, and this track is from an EP called "me," which was released back in November. Subtle singer-songwriter type stuff, highly enjoyable:

Epilogues · Me

Pleasant pop from Manchester:

CNQ Top 20 Sunday Countdown

20. Proto Idiot: “Difficult Questions” (Fub, Rigmarole Records, 2020) 19. Shanique Marie: “Freak” (2020) 18. Máscaras: “Braidwaves” (El Morán, 2017) 17. This Heel: “Cave Crickets” (Cave Crickets, 2020) 16. Salem Trials: “Head On Rong” (Metal Postcard Records, 2020) 15. Tall Black Guy Productions: “Gimme Mine feat. 80s Babies” (Restless As We Are, 2020) 14. Harmonica Lewinski: “Poison Pill” (Human BBQ, 2020) 13. Coffin Club: “Rain” (Nowhere Nowhere, 2020) 12. You Will Flood The River: “Evil Frank Is Dead” (Metal Postcard Records, 2020) 11. Damu the Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp and Raw Poetic: “Learning To Breathe (Album Version)” (Ocean Bridges, Redefinition Records, 2020) 10. Sparkle Division: “Oh Henry!” (To Feel Embraced, Temporary Residence Ltd., 2020) 09. Science Man: “That Shadow” (Match Game, Swimming Faith Records, 2020) 08. Liiek: “Waterfall” (s/t, Adagio830, 2020) 07. Big $ilky: “Baby Shower” (Big $ilky Vol. 1, 2020) 06. The Men: “Cool Water” (Mercy, Sacred Bones Records, 2020) 05. Yuvees: “Yr Not Invited” (Human Dance, 2020) 04. Santa Sprees: “Getting Married All The Time” (Sum Total of Insolent Blank, 2020) 03. Brian Bordello: “So Sad” (King of No-Fi, Metal Postcard Records, 2020) 02. Brandy: “(Wish You Was) Madball Baby” (The Gift of Repetition, Total Punk Records, 2020) 01. Night Shop: “Waiting” (The Fountain, Salinas Records, 2020)

Singles Night: Shanique Marie (Kingston, Jamaica) and Moon Hooch (Brooklyn, NY)

Shanique Marie, cool single and the instrumental dub I guess b-side from Kingston, Jamaica:

Moon Hooch -- a skronk single from Brooklyn:

Montagne and PGP

"Black Waterfall" by Montagne is 6 tracks of sludgy/doomy/post-metal from Paris, France. It will be available on vinyl mid-October, but you can listen and pay what thou wilt on their Bandcamp page. Certainly worth a listen if you're into heaviosity or French metal in general:

PGP is two brothers, Everett and Aaron Parks, and their new album "PGP Goes Punk" is available streaming, and the 9 and a half minute EP can be heard here in this video as well. Worth a listen if you're into pop-punk:

Harmonica Lewinski and Billy Dunz's "Mr. Disco Pants"

Harmonica Lewinski is from Rochester, NY. A great band name and the video for their song "What's Behind the Veil" is the f'n s.

"What's Behind The Veil" is off their 10" "Human BBQ," physical copies still available on Bandcamp. Human BBQ was released back in April, 9 tracks, a little over 20 minutes of weirdo lo-fi surf-and-psych-tinged garage rock...highly recommended, and looks to be their first release since 2018.

This great Tarintino inspired stop-motion video is by Billy Dunz, the creator of a web series called "Mr. Disco Pants." I've never heard of it, so I watched the first episode. Mind. Blown.:

Swimming Faith Records

Might have a new Mixcloud show in the works, if I get around to it. I've been playing Dwarf Fortress a lot and I think maybe I am a dwarf who lives in a fortress now.

Check out these releases from Buffalo, NY's independent label Swimming Faith Records:

I featured this Science Man release, "Match Game," a while back, and it remains super-cool. 9 quick blasts of noisey fun. The 7" vinyl is still available from the Bandcamp page:

"Til It Explains" by The Midnight Vein is a two track EP, also available on 7" -- spacey r'n'r their Bandcamp page describes as "Roland S. Howard bleeding over a Spiritualized demo," and I think that pretty well sums it up:

"The Shape of Walter" by The Hamiltones is surf rock inspired by Halloween novelty songs, also available on 7" -- "edition 300 all pressed on royal blue vinyl with a randomly chosen album cover color out of 25 possibilities" -- the cover with The Creature from the Black Lagoon in his crumby digs cracks me up:

Swimming Faith has a lot of other stuff to check out, "punk and all adjacent, post-whatever sounds," as their bio says, so head over there and give it all a listen. Quality stuff.

GAR GAR, Boss Rush, Coffin Club, Brandy, Emboscada, Jay Royale

"GAR GAR !!" by Gar Gar: 7 track EP released on vinyl August 21 by Portland's Pleuracanthus Records. Gar Gar, the mutant from the swamps of north Lousiana, is back with his one-man band blending of Misfits style punk sprinkled with rockabilly, dada and dark humor. It starts off with some weird swamp friend sounds and what may be a squeaky clown shoe that leads into a drum solo that sounds like it was inspired by a 60s exotica percussion album, then we get to spend around 18 minutes inside the mind of a mutant whose backing band when he plays live is a gumball machine, a mannequin, and a Halloween skeleton. The album is a celebration of a lot of things Gar Gar holds dear -- Austin ("Austin"), brain eating amoebas ("Amoeba"), sno-balls ("Sno-Balls"), and above all, nostalgia -- for breakfast cereals ("Cereal"), the Gong Show ("Gonged"), and goth ladies from TV and bands Gar Gar crushed on growing up ("Not Peggy Sue). I love references in lyrics to specific places (the Waffle House on 18th Street in Monroe; Hoeks Pizza in Austin), and the songs are full of fun pop culture references, from Power Trip (R.I.P. Riley Gale) and Mojo Nixon to Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles, Chuck Barris, the Addams Family, etc. The love song to Austin ("Austin"), gets on my nerves a little because A) Austin is an over-crowded, over-priced dump and shouldn't be romanticized, and in the song Gar Gar disses Dallas as the pits (Dallas is fine). But that's a personal hang-up for me, the song is good otherwise. The album is fun kicks all the way through, and there's even a little branching out from the punk wheelhouse in the neo-psych pop intro to "Sno-Ball," a song about how much Gar Gar likes Sno-Balls. Also the vinyl packaging features fantastic cover art by Andrew Goldfarb, plus lyrics on the sleeve and pics of Gar Gar, the bitchin' green mailtruck he tours in, and "the band." Highly recommended:

"Happy Fucking Whatever" by Boss Rush: a new single from an 8 track digital album to be released September 22. Boss Rush is husband and wife duo Eric (guitar, vox) and Daina (drums and occassional vox) Mason from Birmingham. The single for "Happy Fucking Whatever" has a video on Youtube you can watch below. Treading a line somewhere between Superchunk, aggressive punk, and early century pop-punk, the album shines when it's more raw and raucous than pop-inflected, and mostly it sticks to the former, with pretty bleak lyrics that I can get behind. A solid effort from this DIY couple. This video is funny, too. At some point, a child is pushed down (the kid deserves it):

"Nowhere Nowhere" by Coffin Club: Debut EP from this Auckland three piece, released August 19. Well produced alt-rock in the vein of No Age. A great, energetic debut:

Brandy: "The Gift of Repetition": The second LP and first release on Florida's Total Punk Records, you can pre-order the vinyl on Bandcamp, it's due out on September 18. Brandy is also a three piece, from New York City. The single and first song on the album, "(Wish You Was) Madball Baby" is the most infectious thing I've heard in a while, and I couldn't get the chorus out of my head for a solid week after hearing it. I immedietly pre-ordered the album on Bandcamp, and you get the rest of the songs that way too. While there's nothing else quite as mind-blowingly fun as "(Wish You Was) Madball Baby" on the remainder of the album, it's still a fine release -- 8 tracks of chaotic punk with some synth sprinkled in for good effect. You're not going to get bored, but you may still be singing "wish you was madball baby fucking oh my god" over the chorus to the other songs:

"Demo" by Emboscada: Two track demo, released August 13, from Argentinian band Emboscada. Each song under a minute -- hardcore punk with rar rar rar vocals, I can dig it:

"The Baltimore Housing Project" by Jay Royale: Sophomore full length release from Baltimore rapper Jay Royale, released on August 7. Holy geeze, this is excellent. Is it excellent enough for the $19.99 digital release price tag on Bandcamp? Yeh, I think so. Is it excellent enough to pay $25 for a tape or a CD plus $5 shipping (ships out September 1st)? Yeh, probably. Has my cheap ass shelled that out yet? Not yet. But give it a listen and see why so many on Bandcamp have. An instant classic:

That new Bully, SUGAREGG, is just ok, y'all. I'm a big fan of the previous two albums, and I'm glad she's getting a lot of accolades for this one. But it feels like these are just lesser versions of the rockers on Feels Like and Losing...just treading the same post-grunge ground, with nothing to keep me all that interested in repeated listening like the previous albums.

Andrew Anderson & 14 Friends: "Be My Guest"

CNQ fave Andrew Anderson has a new release out today called "Be My Guest." It's a collaboration project featuring the Manchester musician and 14 of his friends. Each track is written and recorded by just Anderson and another individual friend.

I'm hard pressed not to enjoy an Anderson release, whether it's a solo release (late 2019's excellent Clean Yrself, and the quaratine-inspired Music Album Idea), or one of the bands he's a member of (Freak Genes, Hipshakes, Proto Idiot), and this album is no different. Anderson is a powerful talent. If you don't go and immedietly listen to this, followed by the other links presented below, you're only doing yourself a disservice.

"Be My Guest" is freewheeling, super-fun, experimental lo-fi bedroom pop. I'm reminded of Television Personalities, The Kinks, and occassionaly Swell Maps listening to it. So good.

The 14 track album is available on Bandcamp for 5 Euros, and all proceeds go to Booth Centre, Manchester, which supports people coping with homelessness in Manchester; and Black Lives Matter UK, a coalition of black activists and organisers across the UK.

Great music for a good cause? Grip this now.

After you're done with "Be My Guest," check out Anderson's other two solo albums and these other bands he is involved in:

And then here are some releases from the artists Andrew teamed up with for "Be My Guest:"

Music Videos New & Old

I've missed watching videos for a long time and feel silly I'm only just realizing I've been able to watch them on Youtube on my TV this whole time. Or at least since we've had Roku, or before that, Chromecast, which has been for a hot minute now. Here's a few music videos I've enjoyed over the past couple of days. Also, for Christ's sake, just vote Biden. What kind of uncaring monster/ignoramus are you otherwise.

Brian Bordello, YUVEES, and LIEEK

"The King of No-Fi," the second solo album from Merseyside's Brian Bordello, is now available as a digital release from Metal Postcard Records. 14 tracks of just Brian and his acoustic, recorded at home over furlough during quarantine in an "automatic" style (see the last CNQ post for an interview with Brian for more on that).  

Both guitar work and vocal delivery combine for some of the best melodies I've heard from Brian, be it solo or his work with The Bordellos, and the album as a whole is a singular, stunningly ethereal work.

As Brian touched upon in our interview, there's not as much amusingly caustic cynicism in the lyrics as in previous releases. There are still many touches of his dry wit slash wry humor (the track "Motherfucker" comes to mind, and the lyric off "Rock and Roll is Dead" -- "The air is full of everybody's sneezes/and I don't care if I catch the diseases/Rock'n'Roll is dead"), but for the majority of the record there is a tender, nostalgic theme that connects each song to the other. At various points it is simply heartbreaking in its honesty and emotional directness ("Lone Piper," "In My Dreams," "God Bless You Jesus," "So Sad"), and with each song Brian manages to make you feel like you're sitting in the room with him as he's recording. And maybe he's even glad you're there, despite lines like "not being deceictful/but I don't like many people," from the track "So Sad." He's not going to give up being wryly caustic all at once.

Brian is always a formidable underground talent, and this album cements his position as "King of No-Fi." I've been waiting for "King of No-Fi" since it was announced earlier in the year -- is it possible I wasn't going to enjoy it? Odds were low I wasn't going to at least get a kick out of it, but I sure didn't know it would exceed all my expectations, and be an automatic contender for album of the year. 

These next two releases I discoverd recently, and were released earlier in the year. YUVEES are from Portland and their album "Human Dance," released back in May, can be ordered on cassette or downloaded digitally. LIIEK is from Berlin, and their self-titled album was released in April. It can be dl'd digitally or ordered on vinyl from adagio830.

Both albums are instantly recognizable post-punk in their separate ways, each still sounding fresh enough to not feel like tired, boring rip-offs of the bands who pioneered their respective sounds. I fell in love with both these albums on first listen - maybe you will too: