Michigan's Ryan Allen of Extra Arms and Thunderbirds Are Now! has a new solo album out:
Pittsburg's Merce Lemon has a cassette re-release of their great 2020 album "Ride Every Day."
And Seattle's Mommy Long Legs has remastered and re-released Life Rips (2014) and Assholes (2015) onto vinyl:
Richter Scale Records has a lot of cool new releases out but check out this slammer from Indonesian band SPAD:
Specular-D is a sample-based electronic musican out of London. His new release on Bandcamp You Do You has a single available, "Don't Overcome Directly." It's a trip, man:
DIY label Antigen Records out of Ipswich has a couple of new rockin' releases out. "Silver Thread" by Anna's Bones is a single from someone who may or may not be named Becky Blenko. Cool song with a cool video:
And then "Spooling," the available single from an upcoming full length by Pissabed Prophet, is the tops as well:
On April 21, Lore City Music will will release the debut solo album from visual artist and musician, Eric Angelo Bessel, called Visitation. Intrumental, atmospheric, very groovy:
Finally, a couple of websites to check out. Pop Thruster is making a running list of the Best 1000 Albums Ever. An ambitious project and I'll keep an eye on it, I love lists.
Metal Postcard Records honcho Sean Hocking has a new site for his Bottom of the Pops show, aptly titled Bottom of the Pops. Sean's the man, if you want to have any hope of staying cool, you need to follow Bottom of the Pops.
Speaking of Metal Postcard Records, a trio of excellent new releases from the best digital label on the planet:
June 3, 2012 was my first CNQ post. Not quite the apocalypse the Mayans didn't really predict, just a hobby I've kept up with for a decade now. Pat myself on the back. I had plans earlier in the year to keep up with the blog better, which is always a first of the year goal anyway, but this time I meant it.
But it turns out I didn't. I've been posting occasionally as the mood strikes me and that's fine, it's a hobby and what has kept me doing it for a decade.
I also thought I'd do a nice hour or so of a Mixcloud show for the CNQ ten year anniversary, and maybe that'll happen, I dunno. If I feel like it. I've been doggin' Shadowrun: Dragonfall (The Director's Cut) on Steam the past two days. Killer top-down RPG from 2014. I've never played it before, but I played Shadowrun Returns a while ago. There's Hong Kong as well, but I can't remember if I played that, so I don't think I did.
I finished Shadowrun Returns (I always wanna say I "beat" a game, but this is more a completed, fun task than something I won by being good at it). Anyway, both games have been well written, but Dragonfall especially so. The text is immersive and presented in a way it feels like you're listening to your Game Master. The mechanics are a blast, building your little character to spec is well done, and Dragonfall has just been a hoot since the opening scene. Few games scratch that table-top itch like these Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes do. I looked up to see if there's going to be another one, and didn't see any news of a new game, but the trilogy is porting to Switch in 2022. I also read that the IP is owned by Topps. Go figure.
To kick things off, how about a little shameless self-promotion. I'm working on a dumb little video to go with this dumb little song, which is also my best work to date, in my IMO. You can check out the whole Legless Crabs album, "Always Your Boy," over on Metal Postcard's Bandcamp page. It is overall a solid noise-slop effort, in my humble IMHO.
Also from me, a couple of new Occult Character tracks. Electro-slop, as I do. These are all Pay What Thou Wilt, so shell out some cash, wouldya? How else am I gonna afford the payola to get this crud on the radio?
And if that wasn't enough from me, how about this new Legless Trials, also from Metal Postcard. Son of El Borko from The Legless Crabs and Salem Goz from Salem Trials team up again for two new tracks, "X-Tyrant," and "Has An X Feel." I dunno why we're on about X but we are, for sure. That's ol' Salem himself on vox on "X-Tyrant," and Son of El Borko barking "Has An X Feel." Salem does all the music and pixie dust, hence why these sound, ya know, good:
Speaking of Salem Trials, the unstoppable UK duo have a lot of new stuff out -- they're one of the few bands I know more prolific than me, and their stuff is actually listenable, so I don't know how they do it. From just a couple of days ago, here's two new rockers, "Dynamite Truck Parts 2 & 3" and "FEAR is All I Can Do":
And, from Metal Postcard, a new nine song, 30+ minute digtial release, Vegaland. I haven't listened to Vegaland yet, but Andy and Russ don't do anything shitty:
I have listened to another Metal Postcard recent release, The Bordellos' I Hate Pink Floyd Without Syd Barrett, a compilation of previously released Bordellos tunes that further prove they're the band that matters most:
The Bordellos have also recently released Onion King Tapes vol. 8, another batch from back when the band was called Onion King. I'm not sure the time period that woulda been -- sometime in the last twenty years, Dan Shea of the band isn't that old, and was a teenager when he started singing in it -- and I'm not sure he was a part of Onion King. At any rate, great stuff, the Bordellos rule:
Metal Postcard has a bunch of other new releases, putting cool stuff out at a frenetic pace, go check it out. One of those recent releases is Super Hit, the solo project of Kyle Handley, who I think is up Portland way? He wrote a 6 song EP where each song is a song he sang to his departed pup, Baby Jean. I made up songs to sing to my cats when they were alive (I haven't re-upped on a pet since they passed a few years ago), so I can relate. Catchy, sweet, Baby Jean forever!
From the UK, CNQ fave bigflower has a new single released yesterday, "The Pill." Mellow psych:
And from last month, an uptempo track from Ivor, "Harder." Psych goodness as always:
Noise artist Dave Wallraf, from Hamburg, Germany, has a new piece out called Cutting Up Men, I listened to it today, it's like listening to whalesongs in space. Super cool and at times panic-inducing, but I had it up really loud in my earbuds to drown out chatter at work. Loved all 40+ minutes of it. There's a limited edition CD you can order as well. Noise enthusiasts should definitely check out Wallraf:
The new UFO Över Lappland, Spökraketer is killer-diller, real deal psychy krautrock from Sweden. Gotta get the vinyl (or CD, or cassette), put out by Philly's Burnt Toast Vinyl:
I have a ton of chrome tabs open on my phone, stuff to share on here. I'll try and whittle that down with each post. Here's japmn, friend of a friend in Portland. Cool stuff from August 2021:
And the soundtrack to a short film, from December, 2021:
I'm gonna play some Shadowrun: Dragonfall.
I started off the last new music post with a new single from Liverpool's Bigflower, so why not do it again? Solid motorik just under the 3 and a half minute mark, dig it:
New San Franciso label Color and Time Tonight's first vinyl release is from Ohio's Wild Wings. Foil Landscape is 4 tracks of killer psych-punk r'n'r, listen below and order the vinyl from CTT here.
Brooklyn solo act Sunk Heaven has a new release on Crass Lips Records called Porous Mirror. Nine rad tracks, a must listen for fans of experimental/industrial noise:
Total Punk Records is an unstoppable force, they've got new Buck Biloxi and Alien Nose Job coming out which I can't wait for. In the meantime, check out this amazing racket from Montreal's Tha Retail Simps, Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shot in tha Dark, due out March 1 and Total Punk's first release of the year. You can listen to three of the tracks already on Bandcamp, and there's videos for "End Times Hip Shaker Pts. 1 & 2" and "Rock and Roll." Described in the TP hype e-mail as equal parts Velvet Underground and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs; I can't argue.
Speaking of unstoppable labels, Metal Postcard has a number of new releases that all bear repeated listens. First for your consideration is the latest from Brian Bordello, Cardboard Box Beatle, what Brian says is his final acoustic album, and it's probably his best, which is a feat. 11 tracks of heartbreakingly excellent tunes. The words I always use to describe Brian's songs all apply across the 11 song album: raw, honest, amusingly caustic, caustically amusing, and just absolutely beautiful, man. Songs like "Cat Food on the Floor," "Here Comes Eric With His Dead Child Song" and "Salamanda Fruit Fly" are Brian continuing to show us all how it's done. I've been singing "Any Room In Your Life for a Song and Dance Man" in my head all week.
Next up from Metal Postcard, Super Hit is former White Fang guitarist Kyle Handley's solo project, and this 18 track self-titled release is super-solid:
Kyle has another project called The Tyrds and their 8 song release on Metal Postcard is called I Got Shit On My Mind. Fuzzed out!
Salem Trials has a new full length, Foe Fact, and on top of that is releasing a new single every Sunday through February on Metal Postcard. Unstoppable seems to be the secret word for tonight's post, as Andy and Russ from Salem Trials are absolutely unstoppable as well:
Andy Goz from Salem Trials and Son of El Borko from Legless Crabs (who happens to be me) teamed up to release Legless on Main Street, a 9 song effort that features Andy at the top of his game and me just trying to keep up with his undeniable ability to write a bad-ass rock'n'roll song. I like to think of it as the Stones and the Velvet Underground meet Wesley Willis and the Shaggs. It's the best thing I've ever worked on and I'm super proud of it! Here's a track called "Singer" about abusive singer songwriters from the 1970s:
Finally from Metal Postcard, Italy's K. Board & the Skreens have a new EP, 4 tracks of mind-blowing Italian outsider electro-pop. So frickin' good:
Speaking of Legless Crabs, I've been busy with my made-up Naive Noise Rock Collective over on my own Bandcamp pages. Here's three new releases of naive noise rock I've put out. Enjoy at your own risk:
More submissions to come. I got other shit to do now tho. Look out!
Mone is a Dutch alt-pop artist. "Rat" is from an upcoming album "Crocodile Kisses," to be released on Famous Gold Watch Records. Cool stuff:
Les Robots are a Dutch instrumental rock duo who teamed up with Dutch singer Floor Elman aka "Fleur" to make a really amazing neo-ye-ye album. Back in June 2020, Spanish label Bickerton released this, and now Richmond, Virginia's 6131 Records has a stateside pressing available for pre-sale, featuring updated artwork and insert, with a newly added b-side, previously only available on a 7" single. It's great, check it out:
Les Robots' last release on Bandcamp was August 2020, Project World Control. Just absolutely rad instrumental rock'n'roll -- vinyl tapes, and CDs still available:
Portland's Girlsville has a great new release called Spoiled Legacy you should check out if you're into lo-fi alt-rock. They say it's a domestic U.S. release of a Germ House tape that came out on German label Detriti Records in 2020, and the Girlsville version adds 7 compilation rarities to the b-side. You can pre-order the cassette, but I just got the second to last one, so good luck:
I also just picked up a digital download of the new Boys Age. He's got CDs limited to 25, with only 9 remaining of this writing. Boys Age is always such a pleasure:
"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: