Music for the messes since 2012. Into the obscure, the underground, and the other stuff. Clean Nice Quiet is live on KPISS.FM every Saturday from 5 to 7 PM US Eastern. Live on 8K.NZ every Thursday 9 PM US Eastern. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: E-mail your rad tunes to: matt (at) clean nice quiet (dot) (com). In the body of the e-mail, please include a publicly available file or link. Please do not submit anything under embargo. Feel free to send when it is publicly available.
Lookit this, another post, 3 in a row! I'll be playing a lot of the stuff I've shared here on the blog this week on the Clean Nice Quiet KPISS.FM show, which is now a full TWO HOURS every Saturday, from 5 to 7 PM Eastern! I'm very excited.
The Gents from Hamburg have a really bitchin' new 5 song release on their new label, Creepy Kid Records. Super noisey, super cool:
Check out this no wavey "experimental pop" single from peopling, which is the solo project of Ronnie Gonzalez. It's the lead single of an album that's due out October 27 from Already Dead:
Aggro garage punk single from London's Rifle, off a 5 track EP also due out October 27:
I fell in love with this today, great new punk from Cincinatti:
Ohhhhh man, this is so heavy!!! From an album called Bleed Yourself which, weirdly is also due out Oct. 27. What's up with that?
Fun arty post-punk single from Baton Rouge's SPLLIT, off an album called Infinite Hatch due out...October 27!?!?
From the DuPage County HC archives page, here's a righteous blast of punk from 1993:
It's been a little over a month since my last new music round-up, so here we go. And don't forget tomorrow, Saturday 6/24 at 5p EST is Clean Nice Quiet on KPISS.FM, the golden stream. Here's some stuff you might hear on the show:
Rat Motel's full length The Rat Motel is finally out, it's great stuff, I've been playing tracks from it on the show. Here's a killer new single from The Rat Motel, "Dead Man."
Ginger Root's got a new EP up on Bandcamp, plus vinyl. This came out in September 2022 apparently, but Huntingon Beach's finest purveyor of "aggressive elevator soul" didn't upload it to Bandcamp until this week:
Hip-hop fans should take note of Baltimore's Jay Royale's new full length, Criminal Discourse. 2020's The Baltimore Housing Project is a classic as far as I'm concerned, and what I've heard so far from Criminal Discourse does not disappoint:
My buddy Christo from the excellent Echobox music program The Hidden Fruits of Terra turned me on to this Australian/Dutch failed children's entertainer and art-punk musician, Bumble B. Boy. Fun stuff:
For hardcore fans, Choir Boys from Germany have release 30 Years of Choir Boys. Killer blastbeat, plus they got cassette and t-shirts:
Speaking of heavyosity, here's some righteous noise. It's the debut album from Verminizer, a band from somewhere in the USA, and they describe it as "blackened grindy noisy industrial glitch thrash," and that sounds right. It gets my seal of approval:
Recorded live at the Hi-Res Records Studio in LA, here's new video for Isaac Watters' "Coconut in the Street," it's a cool track, and from an EP called Extended Play 002, due out August 30:
Leeds' Thank can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned:
I've featured Hamburg, Germany's David Wallraf on the blog a lot, he does great noisescape stuff, and he has a new releae on the French tape label Falt. The cassette's already sold out, but you can listen and purchase the digital of course. If you're a fan of avant garde, experimental sound art like I am, you should def check out Wallraf's new release, SANTÉ ET EFFICACITÉ:
Finally, would it be a CNQ round-up without bitchin' new releases from Metal Postcard Records???
It's Bandcamp Friday, and tomorrow, Saturday 11/4/22 at 4PM Central, is Clean Nice Quiet on KPISS.FM, so how's about we look at some recent cool submissions and some of the stuff that's in my Bandcamp wantlist.
From Hamburg, Germany, Against Evil Company by Philomena Lauprecht is, according to her Bandcamp page, "her re-working of the songbook Divine and Moral Songs for Children, first published in the 17th century." It's produced by noise/soundscape artist David Wallraf, who've I've featured on the blog before:
Experimental jazz combo No Base Trio have a new video out for "ST 7," a track off their new full length release, NBT II, which I've also featured before here on the blog, and played on the show:
More wild sounding experimental jazz -- Then Through Now by Henry Dagg and Evan Parker, courtesy False Walls out of the UK:
Keeping in line with tonight's experimental theme, Metal Postcard Records' latest release is the first solo effort from Russ Spence, the vocal half of CNQ faves Salem Trials, mixed by Neon Kittens and produced by the other half of Salem Trials, Andy Goz. The EP is called Attempted Soundscapes:
Another new release from Metal Postcard, this is "See Ya Mate" from the album Dance of the Predator by The Conspiracy:
Desborde is three piece punk from Argentina, their new three song s/t EP is a ripper:
So Clean Nice Quiet is now going to be live every Saturday, at 4PM Central / 5PM Eastern on the mighty golden stream, KPISS.FM! I'm so stoked. So catch me on KPISS coming up on the 1st for some fun tunes. And I'm still going to do CNQ Live via caster.fm when I feel like it -- if you see me on air on the embedded player at the top of the blog, press play! Am thinking I may do a caster.fm show tonight, actually, but don't want to commit in case I decide to stare at my shoes instead.
Catching up on submissions here from August and September. Lot of great stuff!
London's experimental slide guitarist Geiger von Müller has a new full-length album out called Slide Sonatas I. Very cool stuff:
Pete Um from Cambridge has a new full length minimalist synth album out called Surface Zero. Solid:
Also new in the experimental electronic genre, harse noise enthusiast Into the Buzzing Room has a new EP, his first, called Excessive Focus. Into the Buzzing Room is from Münster, Germany. I've featured their previous demo before. Killer diller:
New York's Strange Neighbors reached out to me with three super rockin' singles, "Whoa! Is Me," "Hotline Psychic," and "Window Watching." I like all three but I think I'm leaning towards "Window Watching" being my fave:
Crass Lips Records has a new release from HOTMOM out called On TV. HOTMOM is from Austin, they've been around for a while. I featured a track from them on the old CNQ show all the way back in 2018:
Finally, Alien Nosejob has a new record out on Total Punk in the US, called Stained Glass. The first single, "Beatles VS Stones," is a ripper, as we've come to expect from New Zealand's Jake Robertson (Ausmuteants):
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."
Ukraine invasion is a wild thing. Pray for peace - that's always worked before.
Step Below is a hardcore band out of London, and it seems like I don't get too many straight up hardcore submissions from England, so that's interesting. Their single "Walk Away" is a minute long blistering blast, I dig it. They have a 5 song EP called S.B.H.C. coming out March 4 that will be available on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. Check out "Walk Away":
Montel Palmer is a three piece electro-outfit from Cologne, Germany. Their new album Catastropheland is nine tracks of experimental, ambient, dub-inspired synth. Pretty cool and available on vinyl on their Bandcamp page. Here's a video for the track "Cross Eyed," off the album:
Buffalo NY's Science Man has a new album called Nines Mecca available for pre-order on their Bandcamp page. The two singles available on Bandcamp are my type of hardcore garage punk. The full album will release March 18. There's vinyl co-released by Swimming Faith Records and Feral Kid Records, and also a VHS tape featuring videos, which I've already ordered and am excited about. We hooked up an old VCR/DVD combo late last year and have been having fun with it.
Feral Kid Records is also based out of Buffalo, and they have a tape subsidary called Tetryon Tapes. I did a deep dive through their catalog a few days ago and had a lot of fun. Here's some of the coolest stuff. All available on cassette, as Tetryon Tapes' name implies.
I ordered these on Feral Kids' Storenvy page, got a confirmation from Storenvy but haven't been notified when they'll ship yet. It's only been a few days, tho. I did unfortunately have to sign up with a storenvy account and immedietly regretted it as I got inundated with their spam trying to sell me macrame backpacks. I unsubscribed but have still been getting them. Goes on my list of Modern Life Greviances I'm keeping. O well, at least I don't currently reside in a warzone:
This Erik Nervous release Bugs!! is probably my favorite of this batch from Tetryon Tapes:
Finally, Dallas, Texas' own bedroom midi-core artiste Girls Against Bots, who also happens to be me, has a new single called "Jade Armor," as well as a lesser freak out called "Moon Dung." Is it just me foolin' around with a midi controller, or an act of unmitigated genius? Maybe it's just unmitigated foolin' around:
Thanks for reading. Stay safe. Don't inundate yourself with Twitter-fied terror-porn. Drink lots of water. Support these musicians, if you got spare cash to throw around.
Some submissions to get to, but tonight some excellent brand new hardcore Bandcamp releases. There's a Bandcamp Friday coming up so flag these for purchase on that day, a few of them are available on cassette as well and I'm a big proponent of that, get yourself a tape player, assuming you're solvent otherwise:
One of my favorite sub-genres of noise/experimental/ambient/electronic music is the "score for non-existent film scores for film" category. Back in college in the late 90s I took a poetry class and I remember being very proud of a particular poem I wrote called "Invisible Movies." I don't have it handy but it began with something like
"This is the soundtrack for a movie that does not exist"
Maybe it's not as cool as all that, but for years, before and after I wrote that poem, I did make soundtracks for movies that didn't exist (i.e., mixtapes on cassette and then later on burned CDs). And then when I began my Will Feral electronic project, the goal was to make scores for films that, of course, don't exist. My most recent cyber-punk themed attempt was "Hellweb," which is out on Metal Postcard Records:
At any rate in recent years I've seen several other people use the same terminology about making non-existent film scores, and I think that's pretty neat. I'm not saying I invented it, of course. It's not a difficult concept to think up (especially if you're, to quote Jon Stewart, "on weed," or maybe you're just a sober yet creative individual, whatever); but it's fun and interesting to be contributing to a micro-genre mini-zeitgeist.
David Wallraf is a noise artist and researcher out of Hamburg, Germany, and his latest release, Subsongs, is also "supposed to function like the soundtrack to a nonexistent film," a non-existent film about birds, according to a pdf he supplied about the release. It's availble on cassette, and limited to 30 copies, from German experimental label Econore. 10 tracks of fascinating noise textures, complete with field recordings of birds. Very impressive and inspiring. Here's the second track from the album, called "Parliment of Birds," which, according to the PDF linear notes for the album, "refers to both a fictional secret language in William Gibson’s 2014 novel The Peripheral and the ancient Persian poem ر الط منطق ("The Conference of the Birds") by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar." Too cool:
Over on Wallraf's own Bandcamp page, he has a number of releases, both digital and physical cassettes, and the most recent, released back in December, is a 20 minute, two track release that is panic inducing at its heights and highly recommended for noise freaks:
Lars Haur is an experimental artist from Oklahoma, and his latest release is a 4 song EP called Valences :2:2:2:2:. It releases Jan. 31, but you can hear the first two tracks already on Bandcamp. Of the EP, the artist says it is an "uncomfortable ambient EP created through a combination of typical writing and heavy use of semi-random generation of melodies. These semi-random melodies were then processed through a long chain of varied FX that were combined in a likewise semi-random fashion. The name of the EP derives from the characteristic of elements that dictates what other elements they may combine with."
Pivoting from noise to more straightforward hardcore punk, The Usurpers are out of Salt Lake City and have a split with Russian band Night of Rage, a cassette is due out this month but the Bandcamp page doesn't mention it. Fans of DIY hardcore should enjoy:
Captain Average is a 3 piece fronted by László Sallai, who I'm told is "one of the most active member of the Budapest underground," playing in various underground bands and running a cassette label and DIY booking agency. Captain Average "mixes post-punk with krautrock vibes and the lyrics are reflecting on Eastern Europe’s political issues." Their first album is an 11 song digital release called Heaven Capitulates. The single, "In The Post-Future," is a fun listen:
And, finally, it wouldn't be a CNQ post without new releases from the aforementioned Metal Postcard Records. K. Board & The Skreens Langue - EP is the debut album from the Italian group with only one member, and MP describes it as "bedroom electronic 8-bit chip music and add the magic of Italo." Sounds right to me. Super-tight:
The Conspiracy I assume are British. MP says: "Old songs re-recorded and released on Metal Postcard Records...It's like listening to the missing link between Squeeze & The Clean and World Party. They also have the uncanny knack of creating choruses that conjure up echoes of Steve Harley & The Cockney Rebel." Highly listenable:
Martin Månsson Sjöstrand's This Heel has a new EP called Invisible Space, due out October 16 on Bandcamp. I got to listen to the 6 track EP today and it is This Heel at its lo-fi psych-pop rock'n'roll finest. Sjöstrand keeps getting better and better at what he does. "Cave Boy (Blow The Flower A Kiss)" is from the new album, give it a listen:
Also, all true Sjöstrand fanatics should check out volumes 2 and 3 of his Arkivkollage series. I featured #1 in the series a while back, and since then there's been two more -- each 20 minutes or so of songs from Martin's archives, collaged together into a must listen for purveyors of weirdo lo-fi psych-pop extended freak-outs:
Nashville's Hans Condor is that now sound, man. I got a sneak peak at their new full length, Breaking and Entering, which you can pre-order ahead of it's November 16th release on their Bandcamp page, and it's a total ripper. Here's the single, "Breaking and Entering," it's a blister-fest:
Ab Ex is the new electronic solo project from Dallas-based musician Jason Hensel. Lost When Waking is 11 instrumental tracks of giallo-inspired darkwave, good stuff, check it out:
Speaking of darkwave, Swedish occult punk outfit Pink Milk have a new track available called "Here Comes The Pain." Atmospheric to the max! Music to lose your virginity by:
Los Microbios is the home-recorded project of Lance Jones, of Vermont. The 15 track Cognitive Thinning is a real lo-fi wonder, with covers of "Child of the Moon" and "Oh Yoko" to boot:
Brooklyn's Women of the Night have a new album available on Bandcamp, Sub Rosa, 14 tracks of bluesy, gritty, Stones 'n' Springsteen inspired rock that genre hops between proto punk, dream pop and psych, and Americana/indie/alt rock. I like story songs and songs about dirt bags, so enjoyed these:
Oceanography is another solo project, this one from Oakland musician Brian Kelly. Thirteen Songs About Driving Nowhere in Alphabetical Order is the album, also in an Americana/indie/alt rock vein, but much poppier than Women of the Night:
The Gents, from Hamburg, have released Multiple Attack on Bandcamp, a 4 track garage punk effort. Fun stuff:
Carbon Fields is another solo instrumentalist, I believe from the UK, and their new 3 song EP/mini-album is called Petrichor. Each song is around 7 minutes, and, per the artist, "combines field recordings with strings, down-tempo beats and an experimental instrument called a bow chime."
Pretty cool -- you can listen and download on the Hiru Recordings Bandcamp page. Hiru's Bandcamp About says: "Hiru Recordings is home to a collective of experimental musicians, noise makers and field recordists. We release new and archival sonic explorations in the fields of electronica and drone music." And as such, Carbon Fields does not disappoint:
Naqoy is a two piece electro-noise-rock outfit from Budapest. Their new Bandcamp release is called Four, and it's four noisey tracks that blend electronics, noise rock, post-punk and drone. The final track, "Fabric," is mesmerizing, and the artwork for the release is cool too:
Moving through August submissions backlog. A lot of music came out last month. I mean, a lot of music comes out every month. It's overwhelming and disappointing I can't seem to get around to listening to more than a tiny percentage of it. That's not because there's too much, or because I don't have the time to listen to more. It's because I'm not dedicated enough. I listen to music as much as the next music nerd -- but I'm certainly guilty of listening to the same stuff over and over as much as any normal classic rock fan stuck in whatever year she graduated high school, or any casual radio listener. I gotta try harder. But, as I've often said, as soon as keeping up with this blog starts to feel like a chore, or a job, I immediately lose interest and it takes me a while to get my blogging momentum up and going again. But y'all don't wanna hear me, y'all just wanna dance:
Holy heck, BIB has a new free download single, "The Healing Room," that I totally missed. I'm a big fan of this band out of Omaha -- noise, psych, hardcore, thrash, all meld into the sonic psychotic breakdown that is every BIB track I've experienced so far. "The Healing Room" continues their streak - truly boss. It's going to be featured on an upcoming Triple B Records release called America's Hardcore Volume 5, a 2 disc set that's already sold out on pre-order.
California's Starflyer 59 has released 'Sunrise,' their 3rd single from the upcoming full length album Vanity, to be released on Velvet Blue Music on 10/15. Great single -- quality alt-rock that any fan of Echo and the Bunnymen ought to be floored by, if you're not hep already:
This 6 track demo from German producer Into The Buzzing is what I'm talking about. Noisy electro, buzzy bass, experimental beats, heck yeh. I haven't heard a Mouse on Mars album in 25 years, but this reminded me of it:
Difficult Art and Music is a new experimental music label based in the UK. Per its press release, the label is "specializing in research-orientated music and art releases...in lavishly designed, limited edition packaging."
Sounds pretty interesting to me. They have three releases out now, here's the latest -- The Tender Appropriation, by J. Lynch. A noise experiment using the cut-up method and recordings of his late grandfather. You can pre-order the cassette on Difficult Art and Music's Bandcamp page. Fascinating:
If So Why have released their debut EP, World Eater, you can buy the cassette on their Bandcamp page. The single, "Indifference is Futile," is a nice blast of noisy, sufficiently aggressive alt-rock. If So Why is from Melbourne:
Philidelphia psych-rockers Slomo Sapiens' new single, "We Could Be Gone," is good stuff. I'm not sure where one goes to purchase this, but you can listen here, and it's streaming too:
Acrobat Shonen is pop punk from Nagoya, Japan. Fun song and video, my critique is it goes on about a minute longer than it should, but that's probably related to my hang-ups about pop-punk. The genre is not my favorite thing in the world, and pop-punk stuff often makes me cringe upon listening. This is a good effort though, from people clearly enjoying themselves -- which matters more than my shitty opinion:
Chastity Belt are out of their "Cool Slut" tees and hoodies already, but they still have a "Cool Slut" beanie for sale, neat merch. I haven't heard a Chasity Belt song in a while. Here's the last thing they released on Bandcamp, from May, 2020:
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:"
"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:
With Bandcamp waiving its vig again this Friday, there's my usual roster of cool bands and artists I have lined up to throw some chump change their way. But I thought, here on this Wednesday evening, it would be fun to do one of my old "What's New On Bandcamp?" posts, wherein I dig thru some Bandcamp new releases, and see what kind of noise I uncover. These all seem like good candidates for your chump change. Lo-fi, bedroom recordings from around the world, plus some hardcore from the Philippines, to wit:
From Detroit, a three song EP by a band called Weed Nap. Yo La Tengo-ish:
Two song EP, lo-fi bedroom pop type stuff from Barcelona called Los Tarzanillos. Dig that neat echo-y effect they use in both songs:
Three song EP from Weimar, Germany's JD & EU. Another lo-fi bedroom recording, this appears to be their first release.
From Struggle Records, out of Naga City, Philippines. Struggle Records says they're focusing on local punk and indie bands from the Bicol Region. This is a three song hardcore EP:
Here's some new rock'n'roll I think is cool. I see headlines for think pieces about how rock'n'roll is dying. You know the old chestnut, "live everyday like it's your last?" It occurred to me this morning, you know, on the last day of anything, most people just half-ass it.
Well.
I dunno if any of the bands below half-assed it, but if they did, good for them, because it's all rad as the af, like the kids say.
Chained Bliss is new punk rock out of Philadelphia. Their first release, Stained Red Promo CS, is available digitally now on Bandcamp for pay what thou wilt, and a cassette is due out soon from Where's The Pleasure Records, which I couldn't find any info on. The four track release is garage punk "influenced by The Vicious/Red Dons/Jay Reatard." I'm not familiar with The Vicious or the Red Dons, but I did get to see Jay Reatard play at a bar in Memphis back in '98 or '99, so I'm still cool, right?
It's a fun 10 minute listen, check it out:
I stalked Chained Bliss a little and found this band Neophobe, with band members in common. Neophobe S/T was released in 2017. Crazy garage punk. The cassette has sold out, but you get the 5 song EP for NYP on Bandcamp. Great stuff:
Trigger Cut is a three piece, noisy post-punk outfit from Germany. My love of Jesus Lizard extends to things that remind me of Jesus Lizard, and this definitely reminds me of Jesus Lizard. Playing in the vein of a popular band without directly apeing them is a tightrope walk, but Trigger Cut seems to pull it off. Released back in May of this year, their 10 song album Buster is available for 8 euros digital, 14 on CD and 18 on vinyl. Highly listenable. Here's the 2nd track, "Blind."
Buddy Records is a rock'n'roll label out of Paris, France and has a bitchin' catalog you should check out. Their most recent release, from September, is Special Friend, a French-American duo with a 5 song S/T that you can get digitally for 3 euros and a 10" vinyl for 10. Highly enjoyable lo-fi pop:
In June of this year, Buddy Records released a 19 song primer for NYP called Buddy #6 - La Messe Est Dite:
To reiterate, the Buddy Records Bandcamp page is definitely worth browsing:
Post-Script: I was going back over old posts after posting the above (because I'm a narcissistic freak) and noticed that, weirdly, it has been exactly a year since I posted that I had put the podcast to bed, and put the blog on semi-hiatus. It is a testament to how much I enjoy doing this that I thought about it quite a bit over the year -- what I wanna do with the blog, I mean. I had some big ideas, relatively speaking. Yet here I am, back, just doing the same thing I've always done with it.
I had a blast listening to the tunes and making this post tonight. I've said it often enough: I'm no critic, just a doof who enjoys all sorts of music. I share what I like with a little color commentary and that, I'm afraid, is all you'll ever get from me. CNQ's never been a music review blog, and I don't think I ever presented it that way, despite numerous requests to review new sounds.
Feel free to submit your music to me -- matt at clean nice quiet dot com. If I like it I'll be sure to share, but please don't expect a full review. Unless I feel like doing it, to which I reserve the right.
Ha, ha.
If I don't like what you've submitted, you may or may not here back from me, apologies in advance. That's just the way I am.
Maybe I've had a few alkie seltzers, but allow me to post a manifesto for moving forward: CNQ is just a hobby blog, for me to share music I like and the occasional thought on this or that that I'm interested in or feel an emotion towards that is worth writing about. For in-depth, critical analysis of an album or a band or a song, you'll have to look elsewhere, friend-o.
But if you're ok with me just doing what I do, stick around and we'll rock some tunes.
First up, Jay and the gang over at Dynamite Hemorrhage have posted their first show of 2016. An hour's worth of quality weirdo and underground punk rock radio over there.
I found this courtesy of Nashville's Nervous Nelly Records facebook feed. Long Gone is from Boston, and it's Shannon from Nervous Nelly and folks from two bands called Curmudgeon and Disipline. It's alt-rock with a bit of a twang to it, Silver Jews-esque:
The label Song, By Toad put out my favorite comp of 2015, David Cameron's Eton Mess. Plastic Animals is from Edinburgh and Song, By Toad will be releasing their new album Pictures From the Blackout in February. Cool alt/krautgaze:
Here's the aforementioned Curmudgeon. Hardcore from all the way back in 2013:
And here's Disipline, queer BDSM punk! This is from a split cassette with a band called Stranger, released this past April. Totally rockin':
Here's a song off the Strangers side of that cassette. All of these bands are from Boston:
Also from Boston, hep R&B from Kenya born, Uganda, Canada and Boston raised Pastel:
Off Total Punk Records, the band is from New Orleans:
Horsebastard is from Liverpool. This is the video for a new song from a December released split with Madrid's Rageous Intent:
Always a pleasure to hear new hip-hop from Austin's Mirage512:
Finally, some more rad weirdness from outsider artiste Howard Blake:
Donald Trump sucks! That being said, let's get further caught up with email submissions and bandcamp updates:
Alt-rock from a Dublin based band that's been around for six years, but are now calling it quits. This is from their final album, called "Takes Forever."
Psych-pop Krautgaze from Sweden:
Detroit based resident producer for Mello Music Group:
California hardcore stalwarts BL'AST are back after a 20 year interim, with a 2 song EP and Dave Grohl on drums:
Rest of the set list tonight is grindcore and/or powerviolence. After a few years now of enjoying both, I still dunno the difference between them. This is from the UK:
A two song EP from Massachusetts:
Belgian political grindcore band Agathocles has been around for a while, apparently. This is from a full length album originally released in 2001, newly re-released by Poland's Self-Made God:
I tend to like just about everything Baltimore's SPHC puts out. Agathocles and California's Godstomper actually have a split together, from an '89 live show. I'm not sure when this song was originally released:
That brings us up into November for CNQ submissions and updates. More to come.
