The New Scheme #21 by The New Scheme

New Scheme The

CASPIAN

AND: THE FEST 8 PRIZE COUNTRY FEARLESS RECORDS KOWLOON WALLED CITY THE MERCURY PROGRAM

ISSUE 21 :: ISSUE 21 ::

THE NEW ALBUM OUT NOW ON CD/2XLP/DIGITAL

FULL USA TOUR FEBRUARY 20 - APRIL 10, 2010 “...crushingly pretty melodies, Thor-approved feedback, loops and guitar hooks...” - Spin

“Quiet. Crescendo. Shimmering guitar. Crunch and thunder.” -Brooklyn Vegan

Stoughton Printing Co. 5" Single-Pocket Custom Rectangular Gatefold Jacket (“Tip-On” Style) — Front Cover & Back Liner — (6/21/2006)

Note: Special Size. Not for Standard Stoughton 5" Tip-On Gatefold Jacket.

CASPIAN • YOU ARE THE CONDUCTOR

CASPIAN • THE FOUR TREES

DELUXE CD REISSUE IN STORES MARCH 16, 2009

“THESE BOYS ARE TRAVERSING A DREAMWORLD OF MAGIC.” -FOXY DIGITALIS

“ONE OF THE MOST ACCESSIBLE POST ROCK RELEASES...” - SPUTNIK

THE MYLENE SHEATH P.O. BOX 12029 COVINGTON, KY 41012 USA • WWW.MYLENESHEATH.COM 2

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

The New Scheme

www.thenewscheme.com stuart@thenewscheme.com

Issue Twenty One

325 Manhattan Ave. #1 Brooklyn, NY 11211

Editor

Fine Print

Stuart Anderson

Editorial Board/Legal Counsel Yomi Gonzales

Cover Photo Andrew Weiss

Contributing Writers

Joseph Birone, Ryan Canavan, Pat Dixon, Michael Flatt, Dave Quattrocchi, Josh Tyson

Contributing Photographers

Shannon Corr, Todd Fixler, Damian Hade, Jana Miller, Andrew Weiss

Table of Contents

The New Scheme is published electronically four times per year. All contents © New Scheme Publishing Concern, 2010, except contributed photos and text, which is © 2009 by it’s respective creators. Letters are encouraged, but never printed. More information on The New Scheme, digital back issues and advertising can be found at: www.thenewscheme.com This is our motherfucking decade. Hold still.

Editor’s Note I wish that I could take credit for the seemingly-timely nature of this issue. Just a handful of days into a new decade, and an issue of The New Scheme trickles out. #21 was intended as a year-end issue, which didn’t happen. But here we are. If 2009 was moving year, than 2010 will be project year. As always, much is planned for The New Scheme. First and foremost: making sure this is the first of at least four issues this year. It’s been at least three years since issues of The New Scheme came out regularly. Digital-only issues is still taking some getting used to. There are plenty of upsides to it, which will be even more obvious as the website is upgraded. It’s still strange every time a new issue is finished, and all that’s involved next is uploading a few files. It’s hard to miss spending hundreds of dollars on postage and spending hours packing envelopes. But I do. Every issue, right about here, there are big plans or resolutions laid out. But in reality, I don’t know what the fuck will happen next issue, let alone the three after that. For a bunch of reasons I can’t really explain here, it already feels like it’s going to be an interesting year.

Digital Mixtape

Prize Country

Ryan Canavan

Caspian

Kowloon Walled City

The Mercury Program

The Fest 8

Fearless Records

Record Reviews

Links

-Stuart

:: ISSUE 21 ::

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

New Scheme Mixtape issue twenty one

Caspian ‘Of Foam and Wave’

Haymarket Riot

‘If I Were A Transformer, My Name Would Be Bad Habit’ from: Endless Bummer haymarketriotband.com

from: Tertia The Mylene Sheath

Prize Country ‘Cement’

Worn In Red ‘Piled Like Bricks’

from: With Love Hex Records

from: In The Offing No Idea Records

Mercury Program ‘Arrived/Departed’

Sick Sick Birds ‘Committees (Need a Champion)’

from: Chez Viking Lovitt Records

from: Heavy Manners Toxic Pop Records

Kowloon Walled City ‘Diabetic Feet’

from: Gambling on the Richter Scale Perpetual Motion Machine

from: Pale Blue Dot Deranged Records

Portraits Of Past ‘Fire Song’ from: Cypress Dust Witch Excursions Into The Abyss

06 07

Kidcrash ‘Slow Applause’

Castevet ‘Between Berwyn and Bryn Mawr’

from: Summer Fences Count Your Lucky Stars

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Junius ‘A Dramatist Plays Catastrophist’ from: The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist The Mylene Sheath

13 from: Snacks Denovali/Init Records

Vicious Cycle ‘The Waiting’

Blueneck ‘Weaving Spiders Come Not Here’ from: The Fallen Host Denovali Records

This digital mixtape is available for: streaming, download, or as a Podcast. All formats can be found at: www.thenewscheme.com

Words: Michael Flatt

Prize Country

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

Photos: Shannon Corr

Beating the Recession With Love

Aaron Blanchard, vocalist and guitarist of the Portland-based post-hardcore quartet Prize Country, is used to making do. After all, it comes with the territory. “We knew when we started doing this that we weren’t going to be this huge band with sellout crowds,” he said in a phone interview while in Nevada, visiting family with his wife. “None of the labels we work with have this huge publicity push, so we basically have to sell records on tour.” But even in terms of a DIY approach, 2009 has been different. “This last tour was pretty rugged. The recession has really shown its face,” he said. “Fewer people coming out to shows, dealing with the flu.” Blanchard, it turns out, understands the current economic situation rather intimately. “A lot of bands and people were dealing with unemployment, like me,” he said. “I had the same job for six years, well before starting Prize Country. I was a bike mechanic in a pretty sizeable shop in downtown Portland. We just saw the numbers starting to turn.” Nonetheless, Blanchard doesn’t invite sympathy for his situation. “We all take pretty big risks,” he said, referring to touring musicians. “The shop was good to me for a long time, let me tour and come back. I guess that’s half-expected in Portland.” Despite the difficulties Prize Country has encountered this year, 2009 could also be considered a landmark year for the band, as it marks the release of …With Love, their follow-up to their 2007 debut, Lottery of Recognition. There’s definitely a lot to like about being in a band that is reviving a sound that didn’t get much play when it was conceived. The crossover between noise rock and hardcore never quite broke the surface in the 90s, but bands like Rorschach and Drive Like Jehu are starting to get credit now, thanks in no small part to contemporary acts like Prize Country, whose homage to an older sound has reignited interest. The new album demonstrates artistic progress. Where Lottery of Recognition dealt with subjects that were various and sometimes pretty vague, (“Some general ‘fuck you’ stuff,” Blanchard says) …With Love has a more definite target.

“I wanted to do more a thematic thing. The last album was kind of all over the place,” Blanchard said. “I wanted it to be more cohesive on the new album. I had an idea for a more linear thing.” The idea behind …With Love is a cynical take on sex and romance that revels in random hook-ups, drugs and violence. “It’s more of a tongue-in-cheek take on love. It’s way more dirty and perverted than lovable,” Blanchard said. “Initially, I was writing lyrics and I was like, ‘These are awesome. They’re dirty, sweaty, just dirty sex.’” He also said that it isn’t necessarily the nature of the genre he writes in that dictated that his album about love needed to be as filthy as …With Love turned out. “I’ve never been a love song writer,” he said. “I’m not a Paul McCartney, so any of the things I wrote in prose or poetry were always self-effacing or self-bashing.” …With Love also features some impressive package art by artist Mike Wohlberg, which is consistent with the themes of the record. The cover is a somewhat Derek Hess-like image of a woman shoving a man’s face into her breasts, and the man appears to be struggling against it (oddly enough). Inside

the album shows a pair of lungs, and the back of the record is a bloody mess. These images, which illustrate that the man on the cover is being shoved through the woman’s torso by the woman herself, compounds the record’s dark ideas regarding love and obsession. “I stole the idea from [Boz] Scaggs,” Blanchard said. “There’s a Scaggs record called The Slow Dancer. It’s the same thing, a woman in an evening dress and a guy in a tux, and they both look drunk. I basically wanted to bite that whole idea.” A total-package approach to making records, like this one, is often what makes listeners fall totally in love with a record, and Blanchard recognizes this. “I do think artwork can make a record great if the music is great. I don’t like if the artwork has nothing to do with who the band is,” he said. “I think the new record, the lyrics, the music and the artwork all speak to the same theme.” Considering the way …With Love delves into the ugly side of sex and romance, one might wonder how the significant other of the album’s chief writer would take it. (This is especially true if one reads interviews with other members of Prize Country, which can

:: ISSUE 21 ::

offer pretty grisly details about things like the public transmission of STDs. Yeesh.) Blanchard says it isn’t much of an issue. “She’s like, ‘Are any of these songs about me?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, they could be, but they aren’t really about anyone,’” he said. “Everything in there is between real and fictional. If I had to do any explaining, it would be that I write what I know about.” When one considers that Blanchard is the only committed man in a band that began touring the nation right at the cusp of its greatest recession in 70 years, the darker hues of …With Love begin to make some sense. However, humility prevents Blanchard from taking credit for making significant statements on love, the economy, politics, or anything else that fall withing Prize Country’s sphere. “At the end of the day,” Blanchard said, “it’s just a bunch of words on some paper and one guy who’s just the vehicle.” Prize Country // prizecountry.net With Love is available from: Hex Records // hanginghex.blogspot.com

Ryan Canavan

I GO TO A LOT OF SHOWS... OR, HOW I SPENT MY LATE SEPTEMBER So a couple months ago, while in the midst of ever-increasing poverty on a personal level, I said ‘fuck it’ and decided to go down to the city for a few days. The initial goal was to see Rorschach at one of their reunion shows, and it turned out there were a few other good shows happening right within that same week as well. “Somehow I’ll figure it out”, and somehow I did. Here’s a quick recap in notes on what went down... 9.21 -- I barely made the bus going down there. I had never ridden Megabus and didn’t realize there’s no ticket counter at the terminal. Actually called them to buy a ticket while in front of the bus, which it was getting ready to depart. It was still cheaper than Greyhound, and I found out that if you get tickets far enough in advance it’s somewhere between $1 and $10. They took the worst possible route and was supposed to get to the city by 6, but instead got there at 7:30. - Went straight from the bus to the train going to Queens. As soon as I transferred a friend of mine I’d be staying with that night was right in front of me. Small world. What are the chances I’d be on the same train, same car, same time of day? - Found where the show was and it was in the middle of nowhere. It was supposed to start at 8, but due to self-absorbed hipster slackerdom it didn’t begin until 10PM. Every band that night sucked shit and everyone was smoking indoors. I only came to see Teenage Cool Kids, who finally went on at 12:30 and they fucking killed it. Soooo good. The moment they hit their last note I broke the fuck out with the quickness. 9/22 -- Wandered around Brooklyn a bit and realized where I was staying was about a block away from some old Syracuse friends’ place. - Caught the train out to Chelsea and once on the street I almost got killed when some construction crew let some huge metal sheet snap and it swung about two inches away from my face, nearly slicing my head off. For some reason I wasn’t really fazed by this. - Spent the day in Union Square eating and watching weirdos wander around. - Finally walked down to the Fillmore to see Polar Bear Club, Pegboy, and Face To Face. It was the coldest venue I’ve ever been in–Polar Bear Club were real good, but probably not what most of the crowd came for. Pegboy were old and drunk, but decent. They covered “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and I freaked out a little bit. You never see bands cover 8

Mission Of Burma. Watched a bit of Face To Face and then left. Stayed with Syracuse friends in Brooklyn. They were playing some game where you make your own caption for cartoons from the New Yorker and, of course, made them completely absurd and hilarious. 9/23 -- Wandered around Bedford Ave. with my host and realized the people on this street are some of the dumbest schmucks alive. - Met up with a few other random Syracuse kids who happened to be in town and we went to a pizza joint that served vegan pizza–They had a huge Dharma Initiative banner in their store and the Lost fanatic in me got kind of giddy. - My friend Charlie and I split off from the group in Midtown Manhattan to try and see what was up with Lebowski Fest, as I’d never been to it before. It was being held at the swankiest bowling alley I’d ever seen. Security guards and a velvet rope... is this really necessary? - We didn’t stay long enough to see anything great, but did catch a pretty good Dude, Walter, a decent Jesus Quintana, a great Knox Harrington, and a good girl with cut-off toe 9.24 -- Had to get to Jersey today in order to see Rorschach. All day travel. From BedStuy to Penn Station, to Long Branch to Asbury Park. - I was a couple hours early so I wandered the boardwalk for awhile, walked in the ocean for awhile, explored some of the buildings, etc. - The show was held at a bowling alley, which was a weird set-up, but ended up being really cool. Both Black Kites and Torchbearer were really good. Torchbearer covered “Absentee Debate” - Rorschach... nothing needs to be said because no words can do it justice. They played about 16 songs, sounded perfect, and still raged being the old men that they are. - There weren’t that many people there though and they mostly seemed pretty reserved. Then I figured out that everyone in the audience were probably too old to mosh, so ya know, I could feel their pain and limitations. - According to the online information my train was supposed to depart back to the city at 1AM. I got to the station at midnight and my train was about to leave. Good thing I made it in time. - I had to wait at Penn Station from about 2AM until 7AM for my freaking bus back to Syracuse. That was hell. Between patrolling cops, wandering the streets looking for something to read, and being kicked out of nap spots... oh, and crazy people, it was not an experience I wish to ever repeat. 9.25 -- Got home by 1pm, tired, and feeling crappy, I somehow rode my bike from the bus station to my house. Back in Syracuse for about three hours before I hopped in a van and left town again for a few weekend shows with my band... I need a nap. :: THE NEW SCHEME ::

Caspian Long, layered instrumental songs with three guitars and a heavy-handed rhythm section. Winding, pastoral sections that give way to triumphant, rumbling pay-offs. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. I’m not here to argue this formula has never been applied before–or even that it’s not applied far too often these days. There’s a fine line between ambitious and long-winded and a even finer line between eloquent and boring. Post-rock recordings have become the music equivalent of the coming-of-age novel. Someone, somewhere is always churning one out, but on those rare occasions when it’s done right, it stays with you. Over the course of more than half a decade and three records, Beverly, Massachusetts’ Caspian have been barreling

forward. So much about them is common and uncommon at the same time. Four Trees, their second release, was a high-water mark for melodically-dramatic instrumental rock. Without pulling punches or grasping unnecessarily at genre-bending straws, they were doing the same thing the right way. And that is getting more and more rare all the time. Their newest effort, Tertia uses a similar approach, but for an even more welldeveloped result. There is a completeness to every Caspian song, (long or short) that sets them apart. It was not a surprise to find out that most of their material is originated by “jamming it out” to some degree. (I cringe at the term as well...). There’s a collective

feeling to each of their songs, though there’s obviously a brutal editing and paring-down taking place every step of the way. Much like the well-crafted coming-of-age novel, Tertia uses common themes to great effect. It’s carefully-paced storytelling, with multiple relatable, triumphant payoffs along the way. I caught up with guitarist Philip Jamieson, as the band was just a week or two removed from a massive European tour. The glow–and a little of the exhaustion–from it were evident in his voice... “We were there for 56 days total, 52 shows. It was madness, it was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of. We’ve toured a whole lot, but nothing like that. It was–

:: ISSUE 21 ::

psychologically and physically–supremely demanding. “We first went to Europe in 2008 for a month, and played mostly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, around there. We had a great time and obviously wanted to come back, but to revisit the places we’ve been and venture into a lot of new places as well. It just ended up being a lot of shows, and we wanted to have as few off days as possible. I was looking at all those dates this summer, before we did it, asking myself how we could possibly pull this off... But, then you just have to get into the thick of it and see what you can do. I felt like if we could pull that off, then there’s nothing that we can’t do, it’s like putting yourself to the test. I feel like at this point, we could tour for a year straight and be OK, because once you put yourself out there, 9

you get into a groove and settle into it. It was fucking amazing, none of us will ever forget it. We’re not even going to try anything that long again. That’s not the kind of experience that you want to try and one-up anyway.” With Europe conquered for the time being, Caspian are focusing on the United States in the first half of the new decade... “We’re going out in the Northeast in January, for about ten days with a band called the Sainthood Reps. They expressed an interest in doing something short, and we were definitely down. We really need to start focusing on the US as much as possible. Things are really slamming for us in Europe, but it’s obviously more difficult for us to bring crowds in the US right now. In 2006-2007, we did four or five coast-to-coast, ‘sleep on floors’ US tours. That experience was foundational and it really shaped a lot of our work ethic as a band. We’re not afraid to get back out and do that, so we’re doing a little over five weeks this Spring.”

To this point, the band has toured almost 10

exclusively on their own, or at least as a headlining band. They haven’t done much, if any touring as an opener, or as part of the dreaded (but often important) package tour. I was curious if this was by design, or just the way it’s worked out for them so far: “One of our goals from day one has been really simple: to play our music for as many people as possible. If we’re in a situation where we can get our songs in front of more people, we’re open to package tours or support. We really spent a lot of time back in the day, doing the D.I.Y./MySpace-booked tours. And we’ll do that again, but we also want to be moving forward, and getting in front of as many different types of fans as possible. I like playing, and having people that don’t typically come to ‘post-rock’ shows end up really enjoying it... with a ‘Hey, I didn’t think I’d like you guys, it’s really weird that you don’t have a singer, but I liked it, dog...’ I think if we were to go out with some bigger band and there were more of those people, I’d like to think that we could win them over. But the only way to do that is to take that leap.”

In the mean time, they’ve booked another potentially-grueling, full US tour early in 2010... “We’re curious, we haven’t been to the West Coast since 2007. I was a little afraid to put us out on another US tour right now, to be honest. We just finished such a long tour in Europe, where we are usually treated so well. The crowds are great, and people are so warm and receptive. It does a lot of good things for the band. When you go play for people that also care about it in the same way, it’s makes you feel better about what you’re doing. Then you get back and do a US tour where sometimes it can sort of feel like shit. I’ve seen that break up a lot of bands that we’re friends with. They soldier out to do another long US tour, and it just throws them out of the game. We’re a little nervous, but we’re interested to see what it’s like.” When asked if Caspian has a “usual” process for songwriting, Jamieson seemed a bit unsure, even though the band has already churned out three lengthy and effective records...

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

“I don’t think the writing process is something that we’ve got a firm grasp on, still. It oscillates between people demo-ing ideas on their own time to just practicing for an hour, then having a cigarette and deciding what worked and what didn’t. Then, we can go back over specific pieces from an improvisation that really worked. We’ve also been recording our practices, to go back over them that way sometimes, too. The communication process is really important and I think we’re all really honest about that stuff. That’s crucial, it means when a song’s done we are all going to be 100% behind it. Writing can be really strange, especially for us. It never really happens one way.” I’m always curious about the songwriting process, especially for a band like Caspian, whose songs vary in length and often so layered. It’s such a collage in a sense, that it seems like it would be tough to know when to declare it finished: “Most music is this way, but I think ours especially can be mostly concerned with storytelling. We want to tell a story–

even though it’s obviously one without words–using a narrative arc to what we’re writing. There’s an idea for the trajectory of a song... when something needs to back off, or when it needs to end, or what it needs to communicate. Shit man, I’ll listen to songs that are recorded and already on our records, and hear things that I feel should be different. The songs never really feel finished, and they will expand in the live setting. Sometimes just because we get bored playing some sections, and expand it that way.” “We’ll start [each new release] by writing a song, or usually two songs. Those two songs will communicate something really specific, and then we build around that. On Tertia we had three songs written, and decided early on that those were going to be tracks that would open the album. Then all of the other songs were sort of built around that story. It hasn’t been a scenario for us where we go in, record all the songs, then put it in order later. But I think for the next record, we are just going to focus on individual songs. Write a song, finish it, then just move onto the next. Then at the end, we’ll put them in an order that we think

flows; we haven’t done that yet...” Caspian are a band with a 30-minute “EP” and two full-lengths that each cover more than an hour each. For better and worse, they are at odds with so much of the mp3 blog/MySpace sampling world. I’ve never been one to look toward discovering bands in short bursts, but it’s obviously the way things have been headed for at least a decade. Jamieson seemed rightfully aware of this, but also, thankfully, unconcerned for the most part: “Well, for our first record, it ended up just being 30 minutes, so we decided to call it an EP. I guess it’s possible for us to cut out some of the so-called ‘filler’ or ambient sections and cut things down to a 35-minute full-length. But we haven’t done that the last two records, though I do think that our next record won’t be over 45 minutes. Both our albums are about an hour each, and we think they’re jam-packed with all the ideas we wanted to explore. But it might be a little too demanding sometimes, it’s a lot on your plate to search through. Especially on the

first couple listens. I’m curious to see what happens when we strip it down a little in the future and get more direct with some of the ideas. It’s trial and error, and I think sometimes it’s better to try and hit people more directly with things. But, we don’t want the current climate of mp3 blogs, or whatever to dictate the way we write music. It can be a cop-out, to base what we do around the way people are listening to music. Of course, you always hope people will come over to your side of the ring. But yeah, it does get in your head. If you can put together that song that’s only three or four minutes, and jumps right out of the gate, you can send that around to people more easily. It’s really a fine line. For us lately, it’s about meeting in the middle. Sometimes, we’d like to write a 20-minute song, and we’d be into it. But we also realize that you do have to play ball in some small way. Obviously, we won’t ever write a two-minute single, or anything like it, with an aspiration to get on the radio or whatever. But it’s also cool sometimes, because it can be interesting to sort of play ball a little–for a lack of any better way to put

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it. It can challenge us to do things differently continually. Any challenge that forces us to do something against our will, can seem like a negative thing. But if we can find a way to work with it and sort of absorb it, that can be a really positive thing, too.” With Tertia out, but the physical versions of their first two releases going out of print, Caspian and The Mylene Sheath are in the process of reissuing both records on CD, and as a three-LP set... “I’m actually on my way now to go over all the new artwork for both formats. We just feel like the original US version of the Four Trees LP artwork just turned out so shitty. The three-LP is going to be have all-new artwork, and I think it’s going to turn out really sexy.”

[Anderson]

www.caspianmusic.net Photos–Andrew Weiss www.andrew-weiss.com

Kowloon Wa l l e d C i t y

Photos – Shannon Corr

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

[Anderson]

Gambling on the Richter Scale is your first LP, and second self-recorded release. Did you decide to do the recording yourselves by design or out of necessity? Given that both turned out well, would you consider having someone else engineer something for you in the future? Design. First off, Scott is an engineer, so he’s got the necessary gear and chops. He’s also an engineer in the sense that he had a very particular sound in mind from the start, and knew how to achieve it. Both the EP and LP were recorded in our rehearsal room in San Francisco. We think they turned out well, too (and thanks for that), and the cool part about recording in your practice space is that there’s no clock ticking away each dollar you spend (I suppose cheapness also played a role). Would we consider having someone else record us? Yes, I think we would, but it would have to be the right match. Whether or not Scott’s at the boards on the next one, I could see us throwing down for some studio time. There’s been talk about how it’d be nice to use a great drum room, for instance.

How did the band first meet, and form? Well, about three years ago, I was playing with Ian in a band called Lord God Bird, and in the meantime Scott was playing with Jeff (whom he met through Craigslist) with the intent of doing a two-piece thing. Ian, true to his tradition of playing in forty bands with forty dudes (non-genderspecific), put up a Craigslist ad that Scott responded to--something involving two basses or something; I forget the exact origin story. Anyway, after they met, Scott ended up recording the final Lord God Bird album, and we all hit it off. Lord God Bird died and Scott asked Ian and me to join his as-of-yetunnamed metal-but-not-metal project. We did, contributing much-needed idiocy and copy-editing skills. Our meteoric rise to being bashed in blog comments ensued.

How do the songs usually come together? Do you keep a whole song/album in mind as you’re writing, or do you tend to go riff-byriff? Usually a song will be built around a riff or two, trying to keep in mind the notion of a “song” or cohesive composition, rather than the more shotgun/shitgun approach of simply pasting a bunch of riffs together. We try and ask ourselves if each part has a reason to be there, usually with vigorous debate. This is a pretentious way of saying we paste a bunch of riffs together. Feelings are hurt, riff-babies are murdered, everything is chopped and channeled forty times over, and when we finally squeeze out a song, it’s like collectively passing a kidney stone. As for keeping the eventual album in mind, I’m not sure we do that. I think that sort of develops naturally as we get songs together.

Sludgy heavy metal isn’t music that gets laid on the first date. It’s rare that it’ll jump right out and seal the deal. But somehow, San Francisco natives Kowloon Walled City have figured out how to pull it off on their first proper full length. Gambling on the Richter Scale is grimy, slow, heavy and detailed all at once. Most metal bands from the Bay Area owe some debt to Neurosis. KWC certainly do. There are nods to the slow-motion desperation of Tragedy as well. Recorded in the band’s practice space, it’s doesn’t sound glossy, but it’s never muddy either. The songs and the production have a very tactile, and authentic feel to them. They use post-Sabbath tone and presentation, but with more subtle, clever riffs. Four guys with day jobs, Kowloon Walled City are great candidates for any extensive touring. But they aren’t likely to burn out any time either. With an immediacy rarely found in legitimate metal, Gambling on the Richter Scale is serious, serious business. This interview was conducted via e-mail with Kowloon Walled City guitarist Jason Pace

It seems like there has always been a really solid metal scene in the Bay Area. But, it does seem like there are quite a few more bands on the East Coast that sound at least semi-similar to you guys. Do you feel like you’re on an island in Northern California, in terms of the music you’re playing? I think we feel more like we’re on a peninsula…. At times I guess we feel that way. San Francisco could be demoralizing for any band–most popular touring bands come through, so people are spoiled, and there’s not necessarily a super-cohesive scene in any genre. That said, people have been very helpful and receptive here, and our particular brand of noise ends up being pretty compatible with lots of different bills, from the crusty to the thrashy to the frustratingly mediocre.

:: ISSUE 21 ::

What are your plans in terms of touring? What does everyone do for work? Does that effect how much you can/want to tour? We hear this one a lot. Right now, our plan is to continue with occasional West-coast, three-day-weekend jaunts, and to do a small tour (a couple weeks) in the Spring or Summer of 2010. Potentially East Coast, as we need to prevent at least one Bostonian from having a coronary. As for day jobs, Scott’s a programmer, Ian and I both do editorial stuff, and Jeff delivers the sausage. Not to lonely housewives--their cold, distant husbands away on business; their hopes washed away like so many bottles of white wine; grasping for anything with a pulse to just make them feel again–but to delis and other food service institutions. Some of us have spent plenty of time in our younger years traversing the country in a stink-van. Now? We do what we can. We have wives, well-rounded busy lives, other creative pursuits, and Scott has a few rugrats. Listen: we’re old, we’re seriously busy, and we get out there when we can. Less is more?

Do you think there’s a risk with giving away the record for free download? Do you think it will help you sell more copies of the vinyl in the long-run? Calling it a risk implies higher stakes. We’re almost out of the EP entirely and the LP is going strong so far. At the level at which we operate–that is, not pressing tens of thousands of albums–it has worked well. People who want to support or who like a nice package (again, Jeff delivers actual sausage–I am referring to the packaging of our albums) have stepped up and bought the vinyl and/or other merch. People who download it for free would have downloaded it for free anyway, and this way we can at least track them and access their bank accounts. It’s actually been shocking to us how much the free download thing has been a part of our story, as far as press goes. It seems a very logical approach nowadays for a band of our status. The Wild West aspect of the current online music space shows no sign of abating, so why not just embrace it and use it to your advantage?

What’s up next for the band? As I mentioned above, we’ll likely be doing a tour of some kind in the first half of 2010. Otherwise, slogging away at writing new songs for the next release, playing here on the Left Coast, and so on. Also in February, we plan to make another Snailface album for the RPM Challenge, since it was so much fun last time around. This one will be all about vocal harmonies, and potentially explore the myth of Bigfoot.

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

www.inthewalledcity.com www.theperpetualmotionmachine.com Photos–Shannon Corr www.shannoncorr.com

:: ISSUE 21 ::

The Mercury Program Dormant for most of the last six years, The Mercury Program have reappeared without even the smallest signs of fatigue. Arriving to a more crowded universe of progressive, instrumental bands than existed in 2003, Chez Viking stands out effortlessly. Lacking heavy guitar riffs to steer, or fill space in the songs, The Mercury Program have gotten by with creative, intricate and fluid arrangements. They have three people contributing percussion, while most of the post-rock crowd have been lugging around three guitar rigs. They stand out in a way that’s clearly different and noteworthy, but never, ever gimmicky. Formed in Chapel Hill in 1997, The Mercury Program’s members are now split between New York and Florida. Bands like Tortoise and Maserati (whom they shared the Confines Of Heatsplit with) are some of their only well-known peers. TMP’s brand of instrumental indie rock focuses on linear, detailed jazz arrangements and active percussion in place of more blunt tools like metal influences or dance beats. The rhythm 16

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

section is fluid and unpredictable, with styles varying widely from song to song. A tasteful and confident vibraphone carries its share of weight, without ever seeming persistent. When combined, the two land somewhere between cabaret in fast-forward and Chicago-area indie/jazz (think Tortoise, Karate, or Aloha). After such a long layoff, there’s little obvious rust anywhere on Chez Viking. It’s rooted in a slightly simpler time, with jazz song structures and a total lack of the usual riffs. The result is more pleasing in general, but also legitimately suspenseful on closer listens. The long, slow “Katos” shows off syrupy bass lines and electronics. It seems like a mellow interlude at first, but turns out to be one of the album’s best tracks. “Stand and Sing” is a much shorter song, with quick and intricate percussion turning it into another unlikely high point. I caught up with guitarist/percussionist Tom Reno just as Chez Viking was finally released. [Anderson]

Explain how and when the band formed. The Mercury Program started in 1997 after our previous band Yusef’s Well broke up. Sander, Dave and I wanted to continue making music together, so we started the Mercury Program. Originally it was just the 3 of us, but Whit joined shortly after we released the first full-length. It’s weird to think of the band before Whit–it seems like a different band really. What has happened for each of the members of the band in the five or more years since your last release? Prior to about 2004/2005 we had been actively touring/recording/writing for the better part of seven years. So after we’d done some touring for the Confines of Heat split with Maserati we found ourselves in place we hadn’t been in a long time. No label, no tours planned, no deadlines, and no real pressure to release anything. As a result, we all gravitated towards taking care of other important things in our lives. There was work being done on the songs that would eventually become Chez Viking, but there was no real urgency to complete them. We wrote the songs when we could all schedule time to get together and we funded the recording sessions ourselves. It’s difficult to answer your original question about what’s happened for each of us because so much has happened during that time. Individually we’ve established careers, moved to new cities, gotten married, started families, traveled, grown, etc... Obviously, there are a lot of down-sides to the band members being so spread apart. Do you plan on continuing the band as mostly a studio project? Or is are there tours in the works? There are definitely some tours being planned to support the record. They’ll be a little more limited that we used to do, but I still hope we can eventually make it to most of the country. I know we’d all love to get back to Japan—and we’ve still never been to Europe as a band.

As a practical matter, there are a lot of things that are made tougher by being so far apart. But are there ways that you think this benefits the band? Does it change any of your individual approaches? I can’t see any real benefit, it pretty much just sucks. That being said, I’m the only one that doesn’t live in NYC right now, so things might be easier when we start writing the next record. How did the writing process work for Chez Viking? The songs on Chez Viking seem even more cohesive than your previous efforts in some ways. How much were you able to all get in the same room while writing? The way we work really requires us to be together in the same room. We all contribute equally to the material, and never (or at least very rarely) come to rehearsal with any preconceived ideas. There are times when our writing method results in two days of working on something that goes nowhere, and then there are times when we basically write an entire song spontaneously. Other than the long spans between writing sessions I don’t think there was anything different about our process for the songs on Chez Viking. The cohesiveness of the songs is probably more a result of us growing individually and collectively as musicians. How much of the lengthy time between releases was spent actually working on the songs for Chez Viking? After we released the split with Maserati we were working on songs here and there. Once most of the songs were done (October 2006) we spent a few days in Athens at a place called Nuci’s Space working out some arrangements and completing a few details before we went into the studio. After we finished the initial tracking things kind of lingered (unfinished) for quite a while. Dave eventually got fed up with the lack of progress and recruited Jeremy Scott to help him get the mixing done. I give him a lot of credit for that; we’d probably still be sitting on the thing if he hadn’t taken

charge. The process went really smoothly from my perspective–they would send mixes to me and I’d give my feedback. Any suggestions I had were very minor–I really felt like all mixes I got were pretty much spot on. There were some significant periods of time where we weren’t working on the record– but that’s blessing/curse of working on a record with no real deadlines. Things started to move a little quicker once Mike Triplett from Fin Fang Foom helped get us connected with Lovitt. Brain (Lovitt) has been awesome to work with– it’s a good place for us. Your songs are really layered, as are many of your peers’ songs. But your music has always seemed a bit more seamless to me than most similar bands. Is it tough for you to know when a song you’ve been working on is “done”? How much of each members’ parts are nailed down completely before you hit the studio? Knowing when a song is done? Hmmm. I don’t really know how to explain that. I think after playing together for so many years we just kind of know. That’s not to say that it isn’t discussed, but I don’t feel like we debate it very much. To answer the last part of that question... basically everyone’s core parts and the structure of the songs are decided before we get into the studio. We might make minor tweaks and/or add some percussion here and there but overall the songs are solid before we decide to record them. On previous records we’ve written one or two songs in the studio, but they are usually very simplistic structurally. We actually wrote a song in the studio during the Chez Viking sessions, but it got cut from the record.

:: ISSUE 21 ::

What’s next for the band? Some small tours, some good times, some new songs.

www.mercuryprogram.com Chez Viking available from: www.lovitt.com

I suck at journalism. I’ve been involved in it, in some capacity for a long time. I’ve rarely been able to travel more than a day’s drive to "cover" shows. But this year, I made an impulsive, financially short-sighted decision and trekked to The Fest 8 in Gainesville. A handful of bands that I rarely/never get to see, friends also heading down and the need for a real vacation all conspired. Almost 300 bands were descending on Gainesville for the weekend, and Tony was kind enough to offer me a press pass. And just like that, it was official. I had just planned the first "business trip" in almost a decade of running The New Scheme. I'll go ahead and spoil it for you now, in case you wanted to keep score. The results were–in terms of me playing journalist–a complete failure. Bands interviewed: zero. Photos taken: one (some of my best work): 18

But in every other possible way, the weekend was overwhelmingly successful. Next year, I might even interview a few bands. I never got super into any sport, a religion, poker, New Age sweat lodges, or typical 'festival' bands. Thus, I've largely missed out on the annual clubhouse element of American society. Any pack of adults can congregate for a party, a big game, or a weekend in Las Vegas. But there is a lot to be said for the annual pilgrimage element. At least 1,000 strangers, who all sat at the same middle school lunch table in one place at one time. The mixture of a handful of close friends, and more than a handful of bands from all over, left me wondering why I missed the first seven Fest's. Generalities aside, there are plenty of things that set The Fest apart from Bonnaroo, the big college football rivalry, or your next hopefully-nonlethal sweat lodge retreat. First and foremost, a palpable, positive and genuine vibe permeates from everything Fest-related. It's one huge party/punk show all weekend. But without the jocks, hangers-on, teenagers, meathead bouncers, barricades, big venues,

musical trend-hopping, rockstar attitudes, or any other things that ruin 98% of similar events. Some observations from the weekend: • Coliseum have been a good, even really good band since they started. But if what they showed with a brand new drummer and brand new songs on Friday night are any indication, they are rapidly becoming a GREAT band. Easily one of the most powerful and engaging sets of heavy music I've seen in years. Tough, precise and wide-eyed in the least naïve way. • Russian Circles are running straight through people right now. You can tell by their stoic/confident demeanor onstage that they know it. Live it up boys: you earned it. • Torche: I don't get it, and I've tried more than once. Seems like what would happen if the semi-cool jocks you got stoned with sometimes in High School started a metal band. It seems sincere, and some of the crowd seemed really into it. I just find everything about their songs completely uncompelling.

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

• Coalesce is still one of my favorite bands of any era or genre. Even on a somewhat off night–playing last, at the end of a long show, after too many cheap beers and a up predawn wake up to drive from Atlanta–they are still great. If they aren't the most powerful hardcore band still functioning (if only parttime) I don't know who is. The purists can talk shit and repeat the same breakdowns all they want. Coalesce still rules. • Crust punks are almost exactly as annoying to me at 28 as they were to me at 15. Thankfully, the $60 pricetag seemed to keep all of them a safe distance from official shows. $60 for 300 bands? Someone must be getting RICH off this scam! Regardless, here is a quick tip: when asking for spare change, leave the brand new skate shoes, 200-dollar Chrome bag, and your poor hot and thirsty dog at home. • PBR – They are geniuses of aggressively marketing a product, while seemingly never marketing it at all. They were the only really visible sponsor of the whole Fest. Even more omnipresent throughout the weekend than they've already become at every bar catering to loud music. I am glad they are supporting

Coalesce — Todd Fixler

The Fest with money, or at least free beer. Too bad their product is awful. I begrudgingly put down one and a half of them the first day, but I'm proud to say that's all. Thanks to $3 Red Stripe tall boys, I dodged that foul PBR aftertaste all weekend. • Look Mexico – Probably the biggest surprise of the whole weekend. As they started, I was happily holed up in one of The Atlantic's precious few booths. Their set didn't get me out of my seat physically, but might have in any other situation. I remember hearing a record of theirs on Lujo a while back, and it didn't do much for me. Too many stop/start rhythms packed into every song, but it showed promise. I think they played mostly new stuff from an upcoming split 7" and full length coming out early next year on Suburban Home. Still plenty of jerky rhythms, but harnessed in a more concise, impactful way, with just enough late-90s melodic emo tendencies to make it work on the first listen. • Hawks and Doves / Planes Mistaken For Stars mini-reunion – Gared's new band is filled out by three guys that I believe all reside in Gainesville. So, I don't think they actually get to play together often. You wouldn't

Look Mexico

have guessed it, as they were air-tight and the handful of songs they played were great. Loud and powerful, as you'd expect, but surprisingly melodic as well. With 3/4 of the final Planes lineup already in town, they decided to a impromptu set of a few songs. It was the weekend's worst-kept secret. With Drew from Git Some filling in on drums, they hastily threw down a few songs in the second half (and then some) of Hawks and Doves' set time. It was less than a full "reunion" show, but a bit more than the happy accident that Gared called it. Whatever it was, the place came immediately unglued. It was maybe the funnest 15 minutes of a very, very fun weekend. If you don't think "End Me In Richmond" is one of the five best punk rock songs of the last decade, then we can't be friends. [Anderson]

PLANES photos © Jana Miller: myspace.com/janamillerphotography COALESCE photo © Todd Fixler: universalcynic.com

:: ISSUE 21 ::

Fearless Records, ten years after In/Casino/Out How did this:

Turn into this? Blessthefall

Breathe Carolina

Earlier this year, while gearing up to move and packing up what’s left of my CD collection, I happened to notice the Fearless Records logo on the back of At The Drive-In’s In/Casino/Out. One of my favorite records, of any era or genre, I never thought of it as being a part of any specific ‘scene.’ But it still took me a few minutes to wrap my head around the Fearless Records logo on the back cover. It’s been fully a decade now, and At The Drive-In’s time on Fearless was little more than a coincidence to begin with. But, it got me thinking. I’ve had direct contact with most of the current Fearless roster pretty recently, at a job managing an all-ages venue. Needless to say, I would never confuse anything related to Fearless now with any element of what made In/ Casino/Out practically perfect. After a little research, I decided to try to actually sit down and make sense of this un-fathomable gap. I’ve spent more than enough time absorbing what’s become of youth culture-centered independent music to know—at least generally—the race to the bottom it’s become. And it’s not as if Fearless has anything near a monopoly on these bands. They don’t. But plenty sticks out about their surprisingly streamlined roster. The In/Casino/Out dichotomy only adds an air of further absurdity to the charade. I’m comfortable with the fact that I’m 28 years old, which makes me more than a decade older than the well-defined Fearless ‘target audience.’ And I’ve never looked to make The New Scheme the legitimacy/cool police. But the further I dug into this, the worse it stank. I pitched the idea of trying to make sense of this whole thing to Yomi. She endured many of these same bands at the same job, and readily agreed. We each did “research”—wading through (read: enduring) a collection of recent Fearless releases. When we met to discuss our findings, we’d shared many of the same observations, big and small. Some were obvious; for one, it was borderline impossible to sift too far into the hours of music in front of us without needing regular breaks. It was daunting. We both discovered many odd, and consistent threads between these :: THE NEW SCHEME ::

bands. They couldn’t all be coincidences. It’s obvious that there’s a very focused marketing machine behind Fearless that’s cynical and unconcerned with actual content or concept of art (even by the low standards of American youth culture). It’s transparent, ruthless, and streamlined to a point that’s pretty impressive—if it weren’t making a hollow mockery of a few things we hold so dear. We’re presenting this summary of our findings for a few reasons. First, almost every note of every record was an over-the-top car wreck. Taken individually, they’re funny in the same way as an internet video of a stranger getting hit by something heavy. Taken together these bands, these songs and this “scene” are an absurd current-time capsule. If it’s a race to the bottom, here’s to hoping we’re as close to it this seems. If culture’s pendulum is always swinging, we’ve got to be quickly approaching the furthest extreme.

Band By Band: A Skylit Drive — Lodi, California First line of the first song: “Stand up, this is a fucking ovation.” [It is not]. Then, from “Eva The Carrier”: “Please tell me that this is for real.” [It is not] Heavy, heavy autotune on the vocals (even though it seems like the kid can sort of sing); “Good Apollo, I’m ripping you off” vocal style/hooks aped directly from Coheed and Cambria. The melodramatic soundtrack of disaffected suburban puberty (something that’s true for most of these bands). Everything about the songs/production is super streamlined, heavy parts are never intense, melodic parts are just silly instead of catchy. All of it is predictably epic—a concept which didn’t exist until just now. A Static Lullaby — Chino Hills, California The forgotten old men of the Fearless roster. Started as another sing/scream momentary-sensation seven years ago, which is at least a century compared with the rest of the Fearless roster. Since then, it’s been middle-of-the-road tours, lineup changes, and a filing down of every rough or potentially noteworthy edge on a sound that wasn’t exactly sharp to begin with. I was making a concerted effort to really listen to this, and still kept forgetting there was music on. If The Refused are a stiff

cocktail, A Static Lullaby barely register as a sip of room-temperature water. Everytime I Die rip-off, melodic riff-metal. I hope they have the beards and bellies to back it up (which they don’t), so we’ll stick to Cancer Bats, or something more unique. Britney Spears’ “Toxic” cover, which is a fun thing for any legit band to do, except that they spent the money to make a video for it. We get it: you want to rock _and_ party with hot chicks. Oof. Alesana — Raleigh, North Carolina Really sounds like the final–though long, long overdue–death rattle of overthe-top sing/scream garbage. The songs are obviously an afterthought, if a thought at all. Each “song” is just a slightly-altered collection of the same sections. Fake-ass blast beats, hollow screams, a couple Solid State-redux breakdowns and a bunch of melodic riffs to moisten the high school girls too young to get into prom. The “metal” parts make Puddle Of Mudd sound like Carcass. Easily the most annoying “screaming” vocals of any of these bands. First track: Auto tune no workie that day? Even the computer couldn’t save this one; the worst combination of Cookie Monster/ baby crying. Hot lyric: “Beautiful eyes/ beautiful lies”. Good one. Holy down syndrome Iron Maiden riff. Over and over. Artist Vs. Poet — Dallas, Texas The synthetic xylophone-style keyboard is considerably louder than the guitar. This should tell you all you need to know. Band name–is a band not a poet, and vice versa? They need a new band name, and we’re here to help. Something fitting for their sound and the level of thought put into this. They should be Tremendous Treble, or maybe Treble Trouble? Sounds like a High School band, with the bass blown out of every speaker. Hot lyric: “There’s a Let’s Get It girl in my bed and I haven’t even met her?” This whole thing wouldn’t be aimed at pre-teen girls, would it?

Blessthefall — Phoenix, Arizona Traded in their white belts for V-necks and hired a new, attractive-boy singer. He’s the shirtless emo boy next door with the bathroom self-pic that just tried to friend you on MySpace. And to top it all off, his name is Beau. The screaming isn’t nearly as earpiercing as much of the rest of the catalog (ahem, Alesana...), what the fuck is up with all the “Baby’s”. Hot lyric from the title track— ”Surely as day, we’re so better off...” Ladies and gentlemen, the lyrical stylings of Lauren Conrad... Nothing religious at all for supposedlyChristian band. The songs all seem to be about the relative awesomeness of a few particular chicks. “God Wears Gucci” is dissing The Devil Wears Prada; which is a bit like Roseanne calling Delta Burke a fatass.

A Skylit Drive

Let’s Get It — Dayton, Ohio First song title pretty much sums it up: “Duck, Duck, Grey Goose.” Shameless, idiotjock dance anthems. Lots of melodramatic inhaling-into-the-microphone reverse-singing. Not even the Kanye-style auto-tune can save it. Songs seem built just for FM radio, but will likely never make it anywhere near it. If the phrase “Yo, you chicks look like want some Jäger” were a band, it wold be Let’s Get It. Non-stop auto-tune–it’s really the worst yet, a full-on T-Pain vibe. Multiple samples of huge, cheering crowds. The music recording equivalent of a sit-com laugh track, and much less believable. The Maine — Tempe, Arizona First song lyrical gems: “She makes me feel like shit, but I can’t get over it” / “She’s everything I asked for, and so much more” / “She looks better without her clothes” - It’s magnetic fridge poetry: boy-band edition. One of the few of the Fearless bands that makes no nods toward punk or rock music in any way. Admirable in principle, still hard to listen to. The hooks are mostly too low-impact/gutless to land on NOW... compilation. Holy fucking shit - they are actually on the cover of Cliché magazine this month. You can’t even make this shit up. It’s like we set out to make fun of

See if you can guess the common fashion trend, from each “different” Fearless Records band: Last Year: This Year: The Maine

should know better than to give her what she wants. I picked her up and she was threefourths gone. She passed out before we even got to talk.” That’s a line on an album titled Ssh, Just Go With It. Seriously. And on top of it, their music helps make even date rape downright boring. Every song’s big payoff seems not-too-loosely based on the melody line from the “Growing Pains” theme.

angled themselves to be the next faceless band you hear in the background. The best- and worst-case scenarios for Mayday Parade are pretty similar: Find themselves hopping up and down awkwardly on a windy, minor college football bowl game half-time stage. They are still working their way up to it now, racing feverishly toward the middle. The songs aren’t particularly good, but at least–unlike most of their labelmates–they are at least songs. We can’t speak for all of their choices, but we say stick with the Olan Mills vests. It’s tough to go wrong with those on your side.

Every Avenue

Every Avenue — Marysville, Michigan The oldestlooking guys on the whole label, 27 going on 15. Their second record is actually called Shhh, Just Go With It. A hot line from “Where Were You”– ”Home for the weekend, looking for a good time. Ready or not, I think I’ll give this a shot. I

Mayday Parade — Tallahassee, Florida Overall, probably the most tolerable of the bunch. Hot lyric: “Call my name, if you’re afraid, I’m just a kiss away” Ugh. The word “Baby” is constant throughout, like annoying punctuation. They’ve generalized tween “Baby, I miss you” pop-rock” to a point that’s made for the Disney network. It’s a last day of school scene–everyone tearing the papers out of their

lockers in slow motion–and Mayday Parade have

Mayday Parade

Breathe Carolina — Denver, Colorado Every single song seems intended as the background to—and written about—dry humping. They stab wildly at European vocal techno, mixing in hollow mall-emo screams. For some reason. The combo is somehow even worse in practice than in theory. Which is by far their biggest accomplishment on Hello Fascination. Horny, misguided suburban angst is a common muse. But it can’t ever hope to hold the interest for more than 30-seconds of anyone who isn’t either a female under driving age, or a male looking to talk that girl into something. Ridiculous club beats, all of which are canned and totally lifeless. I will pay to see the day it’s “Live from Ibiza’s suburbs: it’s Breathe Carolina. Singing a dance-pop song called “Dressed Up To Undress” is, at the very least, silly. When you hit the road to blast it at pre-teens, it’s somewhere between embarrassing and creepy.

something, and reality beat us to it. A nameless, faceless, uninteresting and unimportant “she” is the subject of, and the only intended audience of every song. Probably the only of these Fearless bands currently selling records on any legit, chainstore level.

:: ISSUE 21 ::

With so many recurring themes, it can be difficult to keep Fearless’ current roster straight. To help you out, we’ve created this handy diagram:

Excessive Auto-tune

Purple

It started years ago–cleaning up a couple vocal lines here or there. It’s dripping off every note of most of these. FM Radio hip-hop thinks these kids are over-doing it.

Over a dozen bands, and not a single female on the whole roster, but that won’t keep most of these dudes from dressing like high school girls. Bright-ass purple everywhere.

Elaborate MySpace I know that a ton of bands have perfected their MySpace page. Fearless have that shit streamlined, with swoopy bangs, pensive YouTube videos all around. Synergy.

Sing/Scream, & Repeat “Blaarg, blaarg, blaaarg” right into “Baby I miss you” Coheed/Saosin hook. Be sure to repeat for dramatic effect. Now 12 more times to get the song over the three-minute mark.

Swoop Hair

Neon & Diagonal Merch

At a melodic rock concert, for the under-25 crowd any time recently? You know these guys. You’ll never be able punch every dude with this haircut. But it’s worth trying.

Usually it’s bright-ass purple. Sometimes it’s even bright-ass green or even pink. Plenty of Hot Topic skulls, and some pseudo-urban posturing. Better stock some XXX-Larges.

Statutory Lyrics

“Baby...” this/“Baby...” that

Attention females too young to purchase cigarettes: Saving it until Junior Prom night? If so, the boys in these bands know just what you want to hear. Dumbed way down. Baby.

Long a staple in sappy music, most of these boys are squeezing it in every single time they need two more sylabbles. “Baby” little more than patronizing, lazy punctuation.

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

:: ISSUE 21 ::

Reviews

By – Stuart Anderson // Joseph Birone // Pat Dixon // Michael Flatt // David Quattrocchi // Josh Tyson

The Accüsed

Aneurysm Rats

The Ax

The Curse of Martha Splatterhead

Dying to Live

Versions

Our Queen Of Dirt

This is what I like to see: 14 songs, and not one over three-and-a-half minutes long. “Splatter Rock” is a great way to describe this. Half way between Motörhead and Exhumed, The Accüsed have been around forever. Originally formed in 1981 near Seattle (don’t even think about comparing them to Pearl Jam, or I will revoke your Metal Card). These guys pretty much pioneered punk/metal fusion. Old-school thrash metal that influenced all your favorite bands (Lamb of God, Pantera, Pig Destroyer, SunnO))) just to name a few), The Accüsed return after a six-year sleep in the grave with such future classics as “Festival of Flesh,” “Scotty Came Back,” “Hemline,” “Die Violently,” and (I love this one) “Fuck Sorry.” Fast and furious, The Accüsed define this genre. If you’ve ever considered yourself a fan of thrash, you owe it to yourself to get this disc. These dudes will tear your head off with this crunchy, nasty, dirty and fast thrashy goodness. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go slay some virgins. [Dixon]

The consolidation of hardcore seems like a logical offshoot for the sometimes longwinded and wordy genre. When hardcore embraced metal somewhere along the line, songs sometimes slowed down to plodding, intense sludge-fests. The windmilling and swinging double- or triple-timed the tempo of the actual song, and before we knew it, a lot of “hardcore” was really just some sort of accessible metal. Bands like Anerysm Rats trim all the fat off this brand of hardcore. Similar to likeminded speed addicts Ceremony and Trash Talk, the Rats’ songs rarely approach the two-minute mark. Essentially, their take on hardcore wrings out any excessive tendencies, and leaves you with insane bursts of energy that sometimes resemble half an intro. This is a trade-off, though, because if you’re looking for expansive entries into the musical world, Dying to Live is a structural nightmare. The Rats’ resumé reads like a group of guys not trying to record Dark Side of the Moon, though, with ex-members of Paint It Black and None More Black. A good entry point is “Whats Your Real Name,” an epic by their standards at 1:38, which trades off between tough-guy cut-time posturing and a cool Slayer-type riff, before the songs ends with a military-style drum line and acoustic guitar. The Rats can mix it up when they want, but they can also get in and get out quick; half the album’s songs either barely cover a full minute. So at times it feels like a sample disc, until you realize you have to actually flip the 12” over to hear the other half. [Quattrocchi]

It’s almost 2010, and along with a lot of lamenting the absence of flying cars and hoverboards, I’m bracing for repeated utterances of the cliché: “out with the old, in with the new.” It’s a fine sentiment, especially if 2009–or the entirety of the ‘00s–was plagued by compulsive drug/alcohol/butter use. But the obsession with new shit is something that has beset humanity for ages (I’m guessing it started with a certain biblical someone refusing to cross the desert without a different pair of sandals for each day of the journey). I like old shit. Almost all of my favorite possessions were culled second-hand and many of them were modified using other old shit making them (I’m thinking of a diptych collage of Time-Life photos glued to old cabinets) the most uplifting pieces of property imaginable. This brings me to AU, a fantastic Portlandbased outfit who charmed my thrifted boxer shorts right off with 2008’s Verbs–a bombastic battery of whimsical, expertly wrought expressions of joy. Hard to be cynical about a record that feels like your best day walking down a sunny sidewalk, and it’s equally hard being cynical about their latest release: Versions. Half of these songs are sparse versions of material on Verbs but the record still sounds fresh as baby 2010’s gleaming bottom. There are also some surprises like the straightforward poppy fella “A Violent Yet Flammable World,” though turns out that’s just Au Revoir Simone coming up next on iTunes. Still there are surprises: mainly that artists can continue to make such optimistic free-jazzy music as the world turns to brand-spanking-new shit all around us. I need some butter. [Tyson]

Portland two-piece The Ax are a guitar/ drums-only proposition. But thanks to noisy (and prolific) guitar-playing and an all-hands-on-deck approach in general, the result has plenty of girth. This brawn is obvious right away, though plenty of brains are involved as well. Some of their Northwest lineage is obvious, especially Karp or Enemymine (though The Ax are less heavy than either). Their sound is heavy because of the notes and beats they don’t play, as much as those they include. Repetition also aids in the depth of the songs, especially on tracks like “We Are The Pagans”. They repeat a handful of parts, which arrive in a linear fashion and the result is daunting and off-putting in the best way possible. It’s too bad, in a way, that The Ax are a two-piece band. Not because of their sound, because it’s working for them. But I just know there are mouth-breathers all over that will want to compare them to The White Stripes. On paper, that works. It is the same lineup. But the vocals on Our Queen Of Dirt don’t sound like a tiny dog getting an ice water enema and the drummer’s great rack-to-chops ratio is exactly the opposite. I’d assume they don’t have a colorcoordinated outfit on-stage, either, but I could be wrong. Either way, this shit is for real. [Anderson]

www.southernlord.com

www.myspace.com/assassinatedrec 24

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

www.aagoo.com

www.myspace.com/whoaboatrecords

Blueneck The Fallen Host

Castevet Summer Fences Hearing Castevet, and then finding out they are from Chicago is like putting on a new Weezer record and then finding out it’s fucking dreadful. You knew immediately, but had to verify it for some reason anyway. Everything about Castavet’s sound points right back toward their hometown. I’m not saying it’s narrow or predictable; it isn’t. There are a wide variety of bands from Chicago, though whatever undefinable thing so many had–especially for most of the 1990s–Castevet harnessed it perfectly on their first record. The opener “Between Berwyn and Bryn Mawr” starts off like a stronger version of so many current post-rock bands. Slow-building, atmospheric dual-guitar noise gives way to a big breakdown a little over a minute in. You know the story. But then something else happens just as quickly. Gruffly-thoughtful vocals and choppy guitar/bass lines intertwine like a more muscular American Football. Castevet go from obviously current to just as obviously nostalgic, within the first half of the record’s opening track. As the record progresses, it leans more toward the last decade than the current one. This mixture is seamless, welcoming and rewarding. Most of the eight songs on Summer Fences easily break the five-minute mark, with two that are over seven. Surprisingly, it only takes a couple listens for it to sink in that they’ve earned every second of it. With a lot more than a typical loud/soft/loud/ soft dynamic, each song has its own personality, within a set sound. Braid’s melodically-choppy rhythms, and the winding, angular dual-guitar work of Cap’N Jazz are both quoted liberally. The occasional, gruff (though never heavy) vocals and delivery that’s never melodramatic give their sound too much breadth to fit into any pigeonhole. It’s heavily informed by their hometown circa 1997, but never limited by it either. What/where/whenever Summer Fences reminds me of, it’s never one-dimensional. And most importantly, it’s a solid and engaging debut from beginning to end. [Anderson]

www.cylsrecords.com

Expansive, theatrical independent rock has found itself almost circling all the way around to classical music in some weird ways lately. Bristol, UK’s Blueneck are a great example of this–a loud version of classical music–with layers of guitars mostly replacing strings. Blueneck’s roots are firmly planted in the early-00s output from Mogwai, Godspeed, Sigur Ros, and the like. But their interpretation bends it further toward a noisy sort of post-classical. Vocals are used sparingly, but always solid and confident. Slow, steady build-ups, adding one fragment at a time to each section are old tricks. A few hundred years old, at least. But as modern indie bands slowly turned songs into compositions, they were running against history. The whole point of rock and roll was to boil compositions back down to their rudimentary–often simple– parts. Blueneck spend all of their second record finding ways to jump over what’s left of “post-rock” toward something more complete. A patient, genuinely ambitious approach to songwriting is rarely as effective as The Fallen Host. Grand ideas put together with such a delicate touch don’t come along very often. Fragments of “post-” this and “post-” that have lead Blueneck to a sound that seems more like “pre-” something great. [Anderson]

www.denovali.com

The Bomb Speed is Everything Some of the best records made by former hardcore musicians can evoke this strange nostalgia. Usually, it’s in the guitars. Whether it’s Walter Schreifels or J. Robbins or (insert your favorite singer here), the combination of all the parts has a power that can make people collect everything they’re ever done. And demand reunions while they’re at it. Well, rather than get another Naked Raygun run going, Jeff Pezzati and crew have released another Bomb record, and it’s pretty brilliant. Most everything about this album is tight, whether it be the backing vocals on “Not Christmas :: ISSUE 21 ::

Night,” the rhythm section effortlessly carrying the first half of the anthemic “The Rescue,” or Pezzati’s vocals that entice you to follow him wherever he goes. With nods to great bands of old (e.g. a “New Rose” homage at the beginning of “Holiday”; a liner note shout out to Johnny Thunders), the Bomb’s music has a pervading sense of nostalgia. Somehow, Speed is Everything still sounds like an album released in 2009. This may be thanks to producer J. Robbins’ invaluable talent for stamping his name on everything he touches without homogenizing any of the bands. The cover of “Space Age Long Song,” featuring Bob Nanna on backing vocals, even had me going as an actual Bomb song until I finally put together the melody and lyrics. The record’s just that cohesive. So yes, we have a winner here with Speed. As an added bonus, ‘Integrity” features trade-off vocals between Pezzati and Dan Yemin, and the song just shreds your face right off. So any potential listeners expecting to hear a trip down memory lane with a band phoning it in behind Pezzati, think again: The Bomb has put together an exceptional record that stands up with any punk record that came out this year. [Quattrocchi]

www.noidearecords.com

Brainworms

pummeling out of the speakers like cars on a train, one after another. But really, the main attraction at this circus is vocalist Greg Butler. It’s not that he has an incredible voice, but man can that guy go off. If you put a schizophrenic in charge of issuing commands to mobilize ground forces, he might sound something like Butler. The guy belts out a hundred lines a minute, and if the anyone heard a capella recordings of any of these songs, they’d expect to hear a doctor interrupt the patient’s wailing at any moment. That said, I don’t think Butler’s crazy at all; he’s just an incredible showman. He seems to embody this whole “sweatyfucked-up-and-having-a-good-time” element of punk rock perfectly. But Brainworms is much more than a fun band to play songs in the background of your beer drinking. They’re one of the most interesting bands existing in punk rock today, and truly deserve that credit. Though I’m still trying to decide how this LP holds up against Which Is Worse? (an absolutely essential collection of live recordings and an early cassette release), I will say that Swear to Me is definitely the most cohesive material this band has put out, and the track “Whatever, That’s How You Get Famous” will doubtlessly go down as one of my favorite songs of 2009. This is an incredible release from an outstanding band, and if you haven’t bothered to give them a fair listen yet, you’re really only hurting yourself. [Birone]

www.rorschachrecords.net

Brainworms II: Swear to Me “I’m abouuut to have a nervous breakdown.” Brainworms are back with their second LP (though I suppose their first proper full-length), in the form of Swear to Me, a ten-track collection of the Richmond, VA band’s eccentric, wigged out music. Fans of their previous work will whole-heartedly love this, and those who haven’t yet heard them won’t even know what they’re getting themselves into. Sure, there are hundreds of bands playing spastic, goofy hardcore all over the world, but much of it is utterly forgettable. The members of Brainworms, on the other hand, have a veritable knack for crafting succinct, punchy three-minute numbers that really stand apart from the rest of the noise. No one holds back, and every song comes

Child Bite/This Moment in Black History Split 7” Detroit’s Child Bite is eccentric in a slightly jarring, and slightly progressive way. Coming off like a mid-to-late 90s Midwestern indie group (complete with saxophone and yelping vocals), they sound like a comfortably outsider-ish group, pleased to challenge listeners with quirky, chopped up music. Their contribution to the split, “Mammal Manners,” is all freak-out, full-band stomping, juxtaposed with solo-tremolo guitar picking. The pace varies by part, and the outcome of the song is very frantic. It is an interesting song, but it seems the band has the weird knob 25

turned to ten, sometimes arbitrarily. Cleveland’s This Moment In Black History also brings the eccentricity, but in a slightly different way. On their contribution, “It’s Everything We Do,” they spend the first 40 seconds of the twoand-a-half minute track working out a drum intro that bears no relation to the song proper. When it does get going, they introduce robotic telephone sounds with panicked drum patterns before more yelping singing takes place. It’s not very difficult to see why each of these bands wanted to do a split together, as they share similar sonic qualities. This split’s definitely going to mix up your usual 7” fare, but if you’re not in the mood to figure out if these bands mean it or not, skip out on this silly mess. [Quattrocchi]

www.forgeagainrecords.com

Chinese The Conquest of Tomorrow Today An instrumental two-piece from Seattle, Chinese are here to bring the stoner goodness. Much like Karma To Burn, these stoner rock instrumentals are a weakness for me. Starting off with the groove-laden “Fingertraps,” Chinese bring the rock. Drums and guitars only, you really don’t miss any other instruments. This debut full length transports you to a new planet–or maybe this planet in the future. The press sheet states that these guys are experimental punk with a penchant for pop, but let’s call a spade a spade. This is riff metal with some punk thrown in there from time to time. Furious tunes like “Saganomics,” mix with the surf-like grooves of “Momewraths” and give way to sludge in “432-XMU.” These guys are great at this stuff; mixing all different styles within one CD. Never taking things to seriously–I love a band with song titles like “Tyrannosaurus Wrecking Ball,” “Lego Bunker,” and “Guitar Solos are Counter-Revolutionary”–Chinese are a force to be reckoned with. Most tunes hover around two or three minutes, with the longest just over four. Short songs keep you interested, and Chinese certainly do not leave you hanging with too much repetition. The cover art is straight out of Futurama, and very fitting for this very solid debut. [Dixon]

www.myspace.com/whoaboatrecords

Dominic Nord Though the album titled isn’t making any effort to hide it, there certainly is something clearly Norwegian going on here. Dominic’s take on hardcore uses bright guitar tone, half-sung/ half-screamed vocals and frantic, unpredictable rhythms. Generally similar to Kaospilot and directly-traceable to any era of JR Ewing–both Norwegian exports and two of the more powerful European bands of the last decade or so–Dominic are in good company. The songs vary a lot more in length and dynamics than they do in tone or form. They’re driven by confident rhythm section work that’s driving and intense, though sometimes oblong and scattered. Each of the guitarists have their own approach, with a a brain-to-brawn balance that’s similar to The Refused. It works, as Dominic’s clean guitar tone leave the songs way less muddy. All the subtle details of the dueling guitar parts are easier to make out, and it separates their sound from most of their peers. It’s dynamic, thoughtful post-hardcore, which is exhilarating in a way that has stripped every single “metal” element from the equation. The typical chugga-chugga parts, the grandstanding frontman, and the screechy or muddy guitar sounds are all completely absent from every second of Nord. Those things usually work–at least in doses–for a lot of very similar bands. But their absence gives this a unique edge, as oddly Norway-specific as it is becoming. [Anderson]

www.denovali.com

The Dutchess and the Duke Sunrise/Sunset Everyone’s favorite Mick and Keith for the 00s are back with Sunrise/Sunset, a studio album that finds the duo sounding significantly less M&K and slightly more Starbucks-ready. This new batch of material, plus one rerecorded song from She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke, is definitely good, but I can’t help missing the raw simplicity of the other record. At least there’s still that glut of tambourine, though in this situation it calls to mind the famed SNL cowbell sketch. I like to imagine Christopher Walken bursting out of the studio, broadcasting a fever than can only be cured by more tambourine. The tambourine guy–he’s neither the Dutchess nor the the Duke–brightens up and barks something about the sweet rattle rattle of his metal chips. Woooo! But then he has to sit down while they record “When You Leave My Arms” and “The River.” Of course, he keeps getting caught up in the

moment and rattling his saber at the crescendos causing everyone to throw up their hands and yell, “Donnie!” Then the Duke is all like: “Look, Donnie, I’m the Dutchess and she’s the Duke! No wait, She’s the Duke and I’m the Dutchess ... arrrrgh! Just no tambourine on this one, ok? We can try out the song you’ve been working on next, alright?” Hyperbole aside, it’s exciting that this band is getting the attention they are due, but I hope this studio business doesn’t signal some sort of Iron and Wine cliff-dive into boring, dense, overproduced sludge. All these badasses really need is guitars, harmonies and, yes, tambourine. [Tyson]

www.hardlyart.com

Eagle Twin The Unkindness of Crows Fans of Tuvan throat singing will be pleased with this new project by ex-Iceburn frontman Gentry Densley. As odd as that sounds, Densley may have actually found the perfect vocal style for sunnO)))-style doom. Guitar drones have become as much a foundation of metal as guitar melodies, Densley’s singing marks a similar departure from more traditional metal vocal styles. This is consistent with the monastic themes that sunnO))) has made popular in doom, and Eagle Twin bears a number of other similarities with the work of their label’s owner. As a two-piece that often emphasizes drone, sparse percussion and some downright head-slappingly grandiose lyrics, it’s hard not draw parallels. But where sunnO))) finds a transcendent quality in their persistence with long-form drone, Eagle Twin gives in to the temptation to let it all explode a bit more often. When they do decide to rock, these fuckers fucking rock. Guitar solos and grooves reminiscent of Earthless pop up on this record just a handful of times, but they are moments worth waiting for. “Birds of Black Hot Fire” may feature the best such moment. After about five minutes of intermittent droning and stomping, Densley launches in the kind of guitar work that would make Hawkwind proud. My feelings on this record are mixed, as the music is good, even great at points, but I find the themes and lyrics downright idiotic. Part of me wants not to care, but when you sing about birds while saying nothing about them, as in “Storytelling of Ravens,” in which Densley sings about “the storytelling of ravens, the slither of snakes, the pride of lions, the screech of sea gulls, the wake of buzzards, the shimmer of

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

hummingbirds” without ever attributing a verb to any of these groups. What are they doing, Gentry? I understand it’s metal, and in metal, anything “dark” will do, but come on. Maybe stick to the guitars and drums. Just groan some nonsense syllables, if you have to. At least it won’t take away from the experience. [Flatt]

www.southernlord.com

Esprit de Corps Under Constant Influence (EP) I thought we all agreed that we were going to move on, past this kind of heart-on-my-sleeve screamo babble. Everyone indulges in some of this stuff once in a while, but even some of that “classic” stuff feels a little silly now. After six-hundred-thousand kids have gone through screaming about their intolerable suffering, it kinda gets old after a while. The newest wave brings us bands like Esprit de Corps, a Colorado five-piece that plays fairly mediocre rock with overly-dramatic vocals. In all fairness, the musicians are capable, and I might have liked their band a bit better if they scratched these lyrics and told their singer to get a grip. With lyrics like “scream 1-2-3 I’m not even here / I’m not even anywhere” and “You’ll never find another boy quite like me / I promise you that” being wailed over and over again, I can only picture a very dissatisfied high schooler throwing a tantrum about... well you can probably guess. I will commend them on the handsomely printed chipboard cases and what seems to be a committed DIY ethic. I don’t want to hate on their band because anyone who puts the effort into producing an album on their own has my respect. I just really wish that bands like this would step it up with the effort in their lyrics and maybe try an angle other than “scarred ex-lover seeking revenge on selfish female.” But hey, I’ve written plenty of shitty poetry in my day, too. [Birone]

www.myspace.com/theedc

Fin Fang Foom Monomyth After a lengthy break, _Monomyth_ is the first new Fin Fang Foom record in six years. Their sound is similar to what I remember from them (though most of 2004 is pretty hazy). Surprisingly layered and complete for a trio, FFF play dynamic, mid-90s shoegaze in fast-forward. The result is meaty in the same way as Shiner, with Hum-style dynamics. There’s a more sleepy tempo and tone to a lot of it, that’s still loud and energetic, like

Haymarket Riot Endless Bummer The idea–and often the practice–of ‘just plugging along’ tends to have a really negative connotation, especially when it comes to music. Most bands prefer to spend their time and energy knocking the socks/heads/panties off their audience. But let’s face it, very, very few bands actually succeed in doing that, and when they do it’s rarely for long. Haymarket Riot have been plugging right along for almost exactly a decade. There have been plenty of tours, a handful of records (Endless Bummer is their third proper full-length), some lineup changes and a hiatus here or there. But they’ve turned out consistently strong music the whole time, while maintaining a sense of humor and blue collar aesthetic. Endless Bummer is a melodic pummeling, finding a unique niche within the thickly-reinforced walls of Chicago post-punk. The production, courtesy of Steve Albini and Greg Norman furthers the second city saturation. But it also serves the songs perfectly, with powerfully-bright bass and drum sounds, a counter-point to abruptly dense dual-guitar riffs. Shellac is a reference point that’s both obvious and apt, in terms of structure and the delivery (which is tongue-in-cheek and serious as a heart attack all at once). But Haymarket Riot move from one idea to the next more rapidly than Shellac, or most other Windy City torchbearers. They also have more of an ear, and allegiance toward melody. The rhythms are thick and varied, but they serve the often-catchy guitar and vocal parts. Most of Haymarket’s peers tend to approach it from the

opposite direction. Over the course of eleven songs, there are no less than 20 distinct, separate melodic riffs/payoffs. Some of them appear multiple times in a song, and others pass by just once. Almost all of them is wrapped in some sort of subtle ass-kicking, so you have to earn it just a little. “Jake Dahir Does What He Wants” is probably the best summation of the record that exists within a single track. Kevin Frank’s mostly-sung/partly-shouted vocals set up rock solid hook, while the guitars maintain one of their own. They alternate between the two, even happening at the same time once. The result would be a muddy mess in the hands of most any other band, in almost any other studio. But Haymarket Riot make it work perfectly on this song, much like they do on the rest of Endless Bummer. For that matter, it’s in much the same way it’s worked so well for the last ten years. It may not burn up the blogs or chalk up MySpace plays at a furious pace, but they are plugging right along. And you know what? They still fucking rule. [Anderson]

haymarketriotband.com

June of 44 or Juno. Three people crank out an impressive array of moving pieces, all working together seamlessly. Longer, more expansive tracks like “Deathless” are Fin Fang Foom’s bread and butter. They’ve taken the melodic indie rock song, and stretched it out carefully. The result is loose and complex, but still catchy. Right after it, “Exploding Coast” is short, choppy and terse, but equally-rewarding. The song features guest vocals from Milemarker’s Dave Laney, another band with roots in Chapel Hill and a similar approach. It’s been thirteen years as a band, and a scant three records for FFF. This means that the vast majority of musical peers when they started, are long gone now. But rather than get too sappy or nostalgic, these guys rely on earnestness and subtle innovation. The result is a complete, detailed and interesting full-length. Every five years or so. [Anderson]

www.lovitt.com

Friends of Friends Deep Search From Tallahassee, FL comes Friends of Friends, a group that has self-released Deep Search for free download. The fact that they’ve already made a small buzz for themselves online makes musicians and listeners feel good for a band doing it on their own and making it happen. Of course, coming through with good music is the most essential aspect of any album, self-released or not. And really, Friends of Friends have put together a pretty decent album. Somehow capturing the dread and despair of pragmatic adulthood as twenty-somethings, this punk band has done more than rage against the machine. They’ve conveyed an honest sense of disgust and yearning to stay healthy and alive. It’s kind of refreshing, right? Take the album’s centerpiece, “The Search for the Perfect Wage,” an already musically-strong song, :: ISSUE 21 ::

where Nick Serino and Stephen Lamberti yell in unison, “I never thought it’d cost this much to stay alive/It’s getting hard to keep the roof over my head.” They’re simple lines, but when taken in context with later lines, “I can’t afford to fall asleep if I forget to brush my teeth/’cause basic needs like dentistry are unobtainable luxuries,” tell me practical concerns are actually floating in front of these guys’ minds. And that’s heavy. On the other hand, it’s easy to group most of this album as being run of the mill, short on new ideas, and seemingly incapable of taking their sound to the next level without completely deconstructing their entire approach. And yeah, I could do that. But sometimes the fun about punk records is the immediacy and urgency of what the band’s screaming about, how much energy the songs have live, and the connection you have to the songs 5, 10, 20 years on. So sure, Friends of Friends and similar bands probably won’t evolve into something to appeal to your older brother working on his Master’s degree. They’re supplying a voice for those not inundated with existential mires but, rather, those who have pragmatic concerns about what their next paycheck is going to cover. And sometimes we need somebody to address that heaviness. [Quattrocchi]

www.myspace.com/tallyfriends

Hawkes MMVIII (EP) This four-song CDR originally came out last year, and it seems that the band may already have broken up. It’s fitting, as Hawkes remind me of a handful of other frantic, post-hardcore bands who also never got much pre-death attention. There are elements of the slower Saetia songs, Shotmaker, or even Portraits Of Past (before their recent resurrection). The first two songs are both slow, with a choppy tension and half-sung/half-screamed vocals. The big standout is “Fleeting

Memories,” the third track. It opens with melodic gang-vocals, which set the stage for a more mid-tempo, oddly-catchy track. Rather than obsessively try to find some brand new recipe, it seems that Hawkes just focused on getting it right. I hope that if this band is actually dead, their native Montréal at least soaked it up while they could. At least if they got their due at home, they got it somewhere. This shit is hot. [Anderson]

www.mon-oeil.org

The Helm Home There are few, if any adjectives you can use to describe heavy music that don’t sound silly. Even in context, words like “sludgy” and “crusty” might be hard to drop in earnest, but it’s tough to describe The Helm without using both. Few punches are pulled on Home, which is The Helm’s second record. Cascading, tense post-metal riffs and gravelly vocals both nod toward fellow-Northwesterners Tragedy. But The Helm’s version shows a bit less urgency, with slower tempos and lower riffs. A hardcore band more in spirit and tone, than tempo or vocals, the melding of the two is unequal but seamless. The songs tend to be short, giving the whole record a frantic, uneasy quality. A three-minute anthem–“Because We Can” and post-D-beat dirge “New Favorite” stand out right away. Taking the relentless grit from crust, but matching it with the off-balance metal of new East Coast bands like Trap Them or early Coliseum. Rather than wasting precious energy adding obvious detours to an overwhelmingly ‘heavy’ sound, The Helm focus it into something more daunting. Home barrels downhill through ten tracks, anxious and unimpressed with branching out just for the sake of it. [Anderson]

hanginghex.blogspot.com

Her Name Is Calla The Heritage

Junius The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling records of all-time for a reason. Every time a high school kid in America gets stoned and straps on headphones for the first time, there is a 60% chance this person will purchase it within a week. Junius are a bit like that magical moment, made into a life’s work for four bearded men from Massachusetts. This doesn’t sound exactly Pink Floyd by any means (though there are some spots, especially early in “Letters From Saint Angelica”). It’s more the overall tone and melodically-epic feel to everything they do. This is a concept record (go figure, right?) about a controversial scholar Immanuel Velikovsky. He had some ideas about history and space and some other trippy shit, which I can’t attempt to even summarize here. All ten tracks are about Vlikovsky’s ideas, including scattered recordings of him preaching his gospel of the universe and all that. Musically, they lean on Jupiter-era Cave-In, the more melodic Hum material and My Bloody Valentine, all in pretty even, tasteful) proportions. Winding, slow guitar crescendos and soaring vocals are the two most prominent things holding it together. But these aren’t the usual repetitive, and/or predictable stoner epics. There is very little of the same riff over and over for some hypnotic effect. Instead, simple layers steadily accumulate into something daunting. All of this is fed to the listener at a moderate pace. At first, the songs seem slow and confusing, then after a few listens they seem faster-paced. And more confusing. And Junius earn it every step of the way. They recorded this at one of Hollywood’s huge, high-budget studios (but through the night and on other off-hours). At times– especially at first–the glossy recording seems to work against the songs in a way. It’s almost too clean, like a girl that’s too good looking and put together to really get down with. But after a few listens, it starts to really work–which, you may have noticed, is sort of a theme here. “Epic” like so many other previouslymeaningful words has been hijacked by lesser bands to just mean long-winded or selfindulgent. But Junius are rarely masturbatory in their approach; they earn it. So strap on those headphones, kid because tonight it will all make sense. [Anderson]

mylenesheath.com

There’s some sort of chill in the air. The sense of fingers slowly wrapping around a neck. Her Name Is Calla’s latest release, The Heritage, is a downright lonesome experience. The songs are expansive and dreary and void of hope and thus... beautiful? Imagine a rain-soaked car ride in an old Packard in a city you don’t know with a driver you don’t trust. The view out the window is incredible, but the ride itself feels very unsafe. This UK-based outfit manages to weave altogether remarkable movements, yet the mood of the album is dark and abandoned. It’s the kind of thing you know you shouldn’t listen to as you’re going to sleep, but you will anyway. Lots of quiet, calm moments building into greater shining pieces, and an overwhelming bleakness cover the whole thing. Listeners with even a passing interest in the post-rock universe will definitely want to check this out. There are also points here and there that sound reminiscent of Murder By Death’s Like The Exorcist But More Breakdancing, albeit in a more drawn out setting. The band sure knows how to write an endearing set-up and follow it with a powerful climax, so they should hopefully be able to dole out a few more albums of material of this high caliber. [Birone]

www.denovali.com

Higher Giant Al’s Moustache 7” I kept spinning the disc I have of this in my car, wondering how I’d write a review for this young group of punk kids who are victims of listening to Epitaph bands and Journey while growing up; becoming products/victims of the blurred lines from internet overexposure to all genres and iPod shuffle mind-numbing. “These are just kids,” I thought, “they don’t need some lame critic tearing their demo apart.” I avoided the bio or any press on the band until I came to write the review, so as not to be influenced by the review that bands’ PR companies would like you to copy and paste into your zine. :: THE NEW SCHEME ::

Then, I looked at the bio. This is the music members of Token Entry, Grey Area, Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Paint It Black and Warzone made? The pristine production and good-guy-to-the-max vocals are inexplicably unnerving. The structure of the songs and the musicianship is obviously, technically sound, but Higher Giant lacks a noticeable quality that would’ve made it all come together. In four songs, they manage to play four songs, and that’s about it. [Quattrocchi]

www.theblacknumbers.com

In The Face Of War Everything You’ve Heard Is True Middle-of-nowhere angst has long been a catalyst for aggressive music. Kokomo, Indiana (not the Kokomo that inspired the Beach Boys song, as you probably guessed) is the launching pad for In The Face Of War. I had never heard of Kokomo, so I hit up Wikipedia. Now I know that it is the 13th-largest city in Indiana. Which is sort of like being the 13th-toughest motherfucker in the pit at a They Might Be Giants show. Everything You’ve Heard Is True shares the stripped-down tone and vocal style of fellow middle-ofnowhere-core luminaries Modern Life Is War. Loose (but rarely sloppy) rhythm section work and treble-heavy production set this apart from most hardcore bands. They also give it a very Midwestern feel, beyond just the fairly obvious MLIW parallels. It’s one of the better examples I’ve heard lately of comprehensively metal-free hardcore, something that’s getting more and more rare. The slower, semi-breakdown sections find ITFOW at their most memorable, especially on “Red Herring” and “We Keep On Fighting”. Everything about these guys may not jump right out at you. Their Midwestern grit, anxious and genuine intensity, along with a complete lack of tough-guy posturing or pseudo-metal riffs combine to make it a refreshing listen, though. Like any worthy hardcore band, witnessing this live would likely be the clincher. [Anderson]

www.initrecords.com

In The Hollows Self-Titled (7”) This Maryland outfit contains members of recent hardcore heroes Ruiner, Champion, and Pulling Teeth, so this slab of wax should be able to sell itself without a proper review. But for amusement’s sake, let’s jump into it. ITH does not really sound like the runoff of any of these particular bands. If you had to pick one to draw a comparison to, it’d be Ruiner, but I still wouldn’t have guessed it. Folks who pick up every Bridge Nine release are obviously going to want this, and even if that’s not normally your thing, you still may enjoy it. Tight musicianship, strong vocals, and a very full sound to the recordings make this undeniably satisfying. The first track, “Move Away,” gets things going on the right track, and for a few moments the band resembles a grittier This Is Hell, with a bit more grease on the pistons. The next track, “In The Static,” is the highlight of this release, barreling through like a hellstallion that knows just where its going, trampling ground along the way. The third and final track is called “Looking Glass” and while it does seem to go on a little too long, it also is the sole song on the B-side, so I can’t really fault them for making use of the space and stretching the song out a bit. I’d like to hear a full-length from these guys, and I’m sure one must be underway. This act is clearly strong enough to stand separate from its affiliated parties, but only time will tell if In The Hollows becomes a household name. [Birone]

www.myspace.com/ inthehollows13

Incoming Cerebral Overdrive Controverso When it says “For Fans of : Converge, Botch, Goblin, Refused, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan,” it better deliver. Both Stu and I are huge Converge/Botch/Refused fans, so these are tough comparisons to make. From the first second of opener “Reflections,” you can tell these comparisons were not taken lightly.

Kidcrash Snacks

Over the last few years, Kidcrash have shifted their base of operations from Santa Fe, to Olympia, and now to Portland. These changes haven’t had any obvious impact on their sound, and there’s nothing regional about it. But there is an always-shifting, restlessness that’s obvious in every note of Snacks that parallels their city-hopping perfectly. Their sound is still an unlikely, but extremelyfunctional marriage of mid-90s, Midwestern emo and slightly more recent screamo. Melodic, winding guitar lines mingle with choppy rhythms in a way that should be a confusing, off-kilter mess. But Kidcrash get it all to align in a way that’s just uneasy enough to be engaging, with execution that’s air-tight. The complexities that set Kidcrash apart from many semi-similar bands are never obvious at first. Instead, there are 100 tiny curiosities that are buried throughout. The guitars work together, in a way that’s a nimble combination of Kinsella-esqe jazz/emo and dense post-hardcore. Guitar lines are melodic as often as they are complex, working together seamlessly without overlapping. The result is daunting on the first listen, and hypnotizing in a good and bad way. After a couple close listens for the songs to start to sink in, at which point you’ll already be hooked. The rhythm section compliments the more prominent guitar and vocal work nicely, rarely hogging the spotlight or fading too far into the background. More than even the outstanding Jokes, Kidcrash have found an elusive sweet spot between off-balance and catchy here. It’s rarely either, but is often both at the same time. It’s the earnestness of 90s emo without the melodrama and the intensity of later screamo without, well, the melodrama. And, as you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s badass.

[Anderson]

www.denovali.com / www.initrecords.com

Fast, technical, and layered, “Reflections” definitely meets the criteria of the bands it’s been compared to. Vocals have both a growl/ shout and a screech that fit the rest of the furious music perfectly. Next up we gasp for “Oxygen” as the dissonant chords punctuate the aggressive drums and bass before a fantastically Botch-esque run. Just when you think you have it figured out, a bass and drum fill speeds up and clean guitars make way for a chaotic and speedy end. “Controversial” features off-kilter timing and harmonics before punching you in the face with a disco-like beat. The speed of the intro riffs for “Science” are then contrasted with a contorted bass line before jumping back into the disharmonies, making way for some really tight runs. The stop/start timing is insane with this one, which fade within the same song to an almost swing/ stoner beat. This theme permeates the last half of this tune, blending perfectly with the next, “Magic.” Swirling and slow to start with, “Magic” is the longest tune on the disc clocking in over six minutes. The tempo doesn’t increase as the song gets heavy. Again it throws a curve ball with psychedelic 70s synth and an almost “Johnny Get your Gun” groove. It speeds up and moves and swarms, builds and decays, a fantastic use of the time and space. Mixing is great as it blends right into “Sound,” a fast, punchy hardcore-like song. The guitars cut down and then go into a tight counterpoint with the bass and drums. “Colours” picks up the pace even _more_, if you can believe it. The great thing about this is that I’m almost done with the album and there hasn’t been a ‘Oh this is obviously the verse/this is the chorus’–more like themes. What the fuck was that?? They just made some really cool 70s haunted house noises and busted into more dischordant crunchy goodness. Ok, it’s official. I love this disc. “Colours” gets really huge towards the end, fading into the closer “There.” This one starts off with just the guitars, then variations on the theme as the drums and bass come in. More synth cues the rest of the song to really begin, as the whole band shifts to a new direction based on the original theme. A shift, a swerve, a slight adjustment of where the song goes without ever losing that central theme. A masterful closer, this doesn’t even have anything close to vocals until well after the four-minute mark–with wails and screeches that barely sound man made. Amazing album. These guys have nailed it on the head. I like Converge. I love Botch. I love Incoming Cerebral Overdrive. [Dixon]

Into It. Over It.

Kill To Kill

52 Weeks (2xCD)

Fighter (EP)

Into It. Over It. was the project of Evan Thomas Weiss, who some may know from time spent in bands like Damiera, The Progress, and that band with the long name taken from the Contra code. This project was birthed from enduring a long creative drought and the decision to push himself to be more productive. Starting on his twenty-third birthday, he wrote, recorded, and mixed one song every week for a full year, chronicling it in the form of the aptly titled 52 Weeks. With admirable ambition, it’s obviously the execution that matters. Fact is, this is a remarkable effort for any songwriter. There’s well over two hours of music here, and much of it is quite good. For having essentially written four albums over the course of the year, Weiss provides an intriguing spread of music. Hopping between somber acoustic tracks and upbeat splashes of pop-rock, most listeners will find something to enjoy. One track will have that Through Being Cool-esque magic of late-night excursions, then the next will be reminiscent of the intricate scenarios and personal content explored by Kevin Devine. Next, he’ll crank out something that sounds like it could have been a Get Up Kids or Hot Rod Circuit song that no one’s heard before. What’s most satisfying about this release are the diary-like lyrics. It wouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a bunch of hooks and bust out yet another generic versechorus-verse youth anthem every week, but Weiss took a different approach. Each track is written as a personal reflection about that week’s occurrences, and when going through the accompanying lyric booklet, it reads as if you’re just leafing through a year’s worth of a stranger’s diary. Many songs are observations it seems the writer has made about his life during that week, while others seem based on specific incidents; an overnight drive or some friend who turned into a stranger. And it seems like Weiss burned quite a few bridges during the course of writing this album, but hey, that’s what happens in life. This is an entertaining display of one year of one stranger’s life, and when absorbed in one sitting, it shows that even the mundane things we drag ourselves through aren’t so boring after all. There’s more honest, personal writing here than in the average zine, and it’s accompanied by over fifty songs to crank with the window down once spring comes back around. [Birone]

Kill To Kill’s sound is a mix of two very specific, but very different ideas. Their dual-bass and baritone guitar instrumentation isn’t heavy, more slow and cathartic. But then singer/bassist Sylvia Izabella’s voice is high, melodic and at times, melodramatic for better and worse. Despite the huge space between the two main ideas, the songs on Fighter tend to work anyway. “Radical Flyer” is a great opener, and probably the best song here. It’s sort of like a much heavier, more intricate, stoner version of later Veruca Salt. Sounds strange, right? But it works. Then, “Kid Whore” arrives right after, and it’s probably my least-favorite track. Izabella’s rapid-fire vocal line leads to a lot of really audible inhaling into the microphone. I know what she’s going for, but it comes off a bit silly. The rest of the tracks find a middle-ground between the two extremes. “Cliffhanger” features another grating vocal performance, which is also really loud in the mix. But the good outweighs the band, covering a lot of ground for an EP, with well-developed songwriting. There is a lot of fighting for space in the mix, with so much lower-register sound all at once. It’s occasionally muddy, but legitimately heavy more often than not. “Melodic shoegaze” sounds about as appealing or possible as “quicksand staircase” but Kill To Kill have assembled a working version of it. [Anderson]

www.supernaturalcat.com :: ISSUE 21 ::

www.nosleeprecords.com

www.guiltriddenpop.com

Lipona Pigeonholed (CDEP) On this disc, Florida’s Lipona unleash five songs of alternative rock with punk characteristics, reminiscent of early Thrice with cleaner vocals. It’s nothing I’d typically seek out on my own, but if these guys were playing an in-store while I was shopping, I would most likely tap my foot. I probably wouldn’t leave with their album, but I wouldn’t mind hearing it while perusing for others. It seems like something that would float with the “new” Epitaph roster, if you know what I mean. Still, I’ve listened to this thing close to ten times by now, and I don’t dislike it. They could lose the acoustic track, but others might disagree. I will say that the first track’s the best one here, and the singer sounds sorta like Jeff Ott for a minute, before going back to the cleaner vocals for the 29

remainder of the EP. Though I wouldn’t claim it to be anything amazing, my interest was held enough that I would check out another five songs from these guys. Sure, why not?

Portraits Of Past Cypress Dust Witch (EP)

[Birone]

San Francisco’s Portraits Of Past’s original run as a band could hardly even register as a “blip.” Active for a little over a year, from 94-95, releasing the 01010101 LP and some split/compilation tracks. Then, they disappeared just as quickly as they’d arrived. Solidly ahead of its time, the songs on their records took frantic post-hardcore in new, more nuanced directions. Their scant recordings gradually found an audience in the years after the band broke up. Eventually their lone EP on Ebullition sold out completely, leaving Portraits Of Past another exciting hardcore band that appeared and then disappeared before anyone really “got it.” I’m in the same boat as 95% of Portraits’ fans–discovering their songs long after there was hope for any follow-up. Last year, Ebullition finally released Portraits of Past’s brief, but still-powerful discography on CD and the band started playing assorted shows. A few festival and coastal performance, and a short tour of Japan preceded the recording of this new EP. There isn’t really any conventional wisdom on how to approach writing and recording a follow up, 15 years removed from the original. But Cypress Dust Witch wastes no time getting to the point, and starting right back off where they were the first

www.myspace.com/lipona

Morrow Self-Titled

time around–pushing post-hardcore in genuinely new directions. Maintaining most of what made their original material so lasting and effective, these four songs also charge straight through the last 15 or so years in forward-thinking hardcore. The desperate, frantic and acrobatic riffs, and strained vocals are all still there. But they’ve been pulled in every direction, gathering assorted musical tangents and working them in along the way. “Fire Song” melds a choppy scorcher directly into a tribal post-indie rock breakdown, and back again. All in three minutes. The title track is a couple steps slower, but somehow much louder and more climactic. It’s as hard-charging as anything in the 90s Gravity/Ebullition scene, but with the graceful rhythmic intrigue of the Dischord bands since. “Through To An End” harvests ideas from the most disparate sources, which makes it the best summation of Portraits. Dual guitar lines are discordant and downright catchy, winding methodically from one part to the next. It’s steeped in straining desperation from beginning to end, without seeming desperate for a second. This sort of composition by collision tends to work much better in theory. Getting opposing ideas so close together is how progress happens. But when it comes to music, it’s almost always more of an unpleasant screaming match. So in theory, “Through To An End” is five minutes that should become an episode of Jerry Springer. But Portraits of Past turn all this contrast into a rousing, but orderly and productive sit-down with Charlie Rose. Somewhere in the boom years of the 90s, hardcore music became more about ideas than energy. I tend to identify more with the latter, but you can’t have any of one without the other. How Portraits of Past were able to sample the best of each extreme is commendable. How they did it after 15 years off, in just four songs is motherfucking astonishing. [Anderson]

www.excursionsintotheabyss.com

Morrow hail from Bloomington, Indiana, started as a solo project for guitarist and singer Jarod Isenbarger. It’s obvious that some of the songs were solo guy/guitar songs originally. The band is cohesive overall, with all four members pulling their weight, though Isenbarger steers the songs. With so many bad examples these days, I hesitate to even use the term ‘Americana’ to describe Morrow. There’s an earnestness to Morrow that usually isn’t found in most other Americana bands. But there’s also very little about this that’s country-related. Instead, it’s more like a combination of post-hardcore and American folk music. The divide between the two is wide, but Morrow bridge it gracefully here. Much of the record is mid-tempo and even-keeled dynamically, using subtle twists and turns and guitar/vocal nuances to guide the songs. There are a few faster/louder tracks, especially “White Elephant,” a definite highlight. The slower songs remind me of recent standouts Ladyhawk, especially vocally. A few spots nod toward Micah P. Hinson, or a darker Okkervil River as well. In general, the straightforward nature of Morrow’s sound will probably not grab most people on a short listen. But what they lose in the mp3 blog world, they more than make up for the old fashioned way. When taken in even slightly-longer doses, there is a ton going on here. It’s short on gimmicks and long on content. To call it refreshing seems like an understatement. [Anderson]

www.excursionsintotheabyss.com

Night Owls Self-Titled (EP) On their first proper release, Night Owls already have a well-developed sound. Decidedly a hardcore band, but without a majority of the usual trappings of hardcore. The songwriting style and energy of hardcore is mixed with the tone and song structure of a driving rock band. Elements of Hot Snakes and old 7 Seconds are clear, while earlier

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

post-punk like National Acrobat or Bluetip aren’t far from the surface either. There are three band new songs, and a three-song demo here, along with final track that has 17 minutes of live material. Recording quality doesn’t vary too wildly from the newest recording to the demo, while the live material sounds alright, but acts more as a bonus than anything. The rhythm section is strong and air-tight, but without throwing any unnecessary curveballs along the way. Both guitar parts are mostly played like late-90s hardcore, but with a much brighter tone. “Fake Blood” and “Fun & Games” are the standouts, though there aren’t any weak spots on any of the six songs. Night Owls seem to be a part-time endeavor, but I could see a full-length being noteworthy. In the mean time, this is a unique, wellrounded and energetic start. [Anderson]

www.hanginghex.blogspot.com

No Friends Self-Titled No Friends are, through and through a side-project/genre band. Featuring Tony Foresta from Municipal Waste 3/4 of New Mexican Disaster Squad/Gatorface, it’s a part-time endeavor for everyone involved. Musically, they’ve chosen a pretty narrow slice of melodic hardcore’s history and they’ve nailed it. Zeroed in on where the 80s and 90s meet, Descendents cut-time energy and Dag Nasty’s guitar- and vocal-line tradeoffs are easy to come by. Short songs and similar/ identical themes makes for a fast-paced record, without a lot of serious left or right turns. Some of the usual genre milemarkers are updated along the way, without watering down the recipe. It’s a record that more than makes up for what it lacks in surprises with fun and familiarity. [Anderson]

www.noidearecords.com

Preying Hands Through the Dark So, Canada is always a little behind the US, musically speaking. The End came out a couple years after Dillinger Escape Plan, Ion Dissonance a few years after Burnt By the Sun, Alexisonfire a few years after Boy Sets Fire. However, each of these bands pulled something new out of their influences, exuding the sort of heartfelt honesty we’ve come to expect of our frosty neighbors.

This holds true for Montreal’s Preying Hands. What a relief it is that their melodic, hardcore-infused punk lacks the snarky irony that almost every American punk band has wallowed in for the last decade. And what a relief, also, that they know how to write a goddamn hook. The first track on Through the Dark, “Preying Hands” (they gave a song their band’s name! adorable!) is a legitimate single, something you’ll put on because you’re aching to hear it again. Holy shit! Preying hands will make you feel like a 15-year-old again, but without reminding you that you had no idea what music was when you were 15. The vocalist, who goes by Spoke (which has to make you smile), writes some decent call-to-arms lyrics and she delivers her melodies with an enthusiasm that matches the and fast and straightfoward harmonized guitars. I’m a big fan of the artwork here as well. Some nice black-and-white horizon photography of a flock of sheep stuck in a storm. The metaphor isn’t going to bring a new epistemological dawn, but that’s not what you’re looking for in melodic punk is it? Speak to me about nonconformity, Spoke! If you enjoy yourself some genuine maple syrup on your honesty flapjacks, check out this 10-song EP. 10 songs? That’s a double album and a short-run appendix here in the States. See what I mean? Universal health care won’t turn us into a nation of free-loaders! [Flatt]

www.inimical.com

Self-Evident Endings Somewhere between old Thursday, Armor For Sleep, Pinback, and Tool lives Minneapolis’ Self-Evident. The disc starts off with “Everything All at Once,” a taste of what’s to come, with clean guitars and atypical drum beats. Bass isn’t just following the root note, bringing its own melody and rhythm. “Holding On” is second, and has an almost Perfect Circle-Maynard vocal line over off-beat grooves. This is certainly one of the better songs, hinting at a bit of overdrive and dirt on the guitars. “Nonlocality” has an almost early emo/Pinback sound to it. The first three songs are the strongest on the album. Expanding to more than just a simple 4/4 verse/chorus format, _Endings_ has some high, and low points. Certainly the first three songs are great, but “Before

the Beginning” is trying too hard to be Fugazi for me. Fast forward... “Temporary, Confused” is a good way to bring me back into the rest of the disc, with an interesting harmonic guitar run and a nice ambience to the background. When the vocals cut in it loses me a little since it doesn’t feel to flow as well as the first three songs. The doubled shouts also don’t really do it for me. “The Future” comes back with the clean Pinbackmeets-Perfect-Circle style of the second and third track. Harmonics and off-beat stop/ starts keep this song pretty interesting. “Apprentices” slows it down and draws me in, with a penchant for creating atmosphere with the rest of the instrumentation. “The Past” is a pretty lackluster closer. I listened to this a couple times through before sitting down to write the review, to make sure I gave it time to grow on me. The first few songs are pretty good, but the rest kind of loses me here and there as the vocalist really doesn’t use his voice as well as in the first few songs. Overall, it’s decent–nothing Earth-shattering or near the level of some of the other discs in this issue, but good. I’d be interested to hear a follow up and see if it’s any better. [Dixon]

www.doubleplusgoodrecords.com

Shrinebuilder Self-Titled What do you get when you mix Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om), Dale Crover (Altamont, Melvins) and the legendary Wino (The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan)? You read that right. For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past few years, this project finally yielded fruit. Shrinebuilder’s EP has been released on Neurot Records, and it is worth the wait. We start off with a mixture of Spirit Caravan and Neurosis on “Solar Benediction.” Wino’s voice is still amazing, and as Scott Kelly’s patented crow comes in, you can’t help but smile. The song then draws in molasses and slows down to bring the Neurosis/Sleep influence in. Noise a la the Melvins, this brings a perfect balance and mix of all these amazing contributors. The song then cleans up to end, and it’s over before you realize it. Next we have “Pyramid of the Moon,”a dirge worthy of the name. “Blind for All to See” comes in third with groovy bass, drone-y guitars, and even bells. Yes, I said bells. A slow drive that hypnotizes you. “The Architect”

Russian Circles Geneva Chicago’s instrumental trio return, with their third offering to the Gods of Rock. Geneva continues where Station left off, with soaring instrumentals unique to Russian Circles. RC’s claim to fame is their active use of loops. No, I’m not talking about samples–they play a riff, and essentially record it and play other licks and leads over it. Geneva brings us seven tracks of bliss, showing their mastery of layering parts upon themselves, even in a live setting. Guitars are soaring and glassy-clean, then huge and fuzzy, then dripping with reverb. Sometimes they’re all of those at once. The bass brings some overdrive and crust to the mix, while the drums navigate through the sonic euphoria created. “Fathom,” opens, slowly fading in until the rhythm of the drums and bass begin to work as a heartbeat. The layers start to mix in slowly, getting you accustomed to the style. This is five minutes of genius, making the listener appreciate the musicians as well as the music. Yes, they can and do perform all of these intricate textures in the live setting as well. Second up is the title track, a quick and pulsing tremor in the cosmos. Mixing volume swells on both guitar and bass, “Geneva” grabs you until the syncopated drum outro. “Melee” is next, and is one of the best post-metal songs ever written. There is no argument here: this song is perfect. Seven-plus minutes of sheer bliss, starting with an almost keyboard-like drone–indeed there are guest musicians on this one playing string arrangements. The bass fades in and out while drums hold a stick/snare/hi-hat beat that is just phenomenal. As the guitars come in, the violin and cello begin their meander, and an almost acoustic guitar tone is faint in the background. “Melee” transcends audio; the crescendo will take your breath away, and

conjures up the feeling of soaring just above the cloud line. It’s hard to follow a masterpiece like this one. “Hexed All” comes in fourth, and succeeds in keeping you interested to continue on, rather than hit “infinite repeat” on “Melee.” More strings are included on this slow and luscious song. Drums don’t come in until very late in the four-minute track, adding a little bit of softness to the overall tune. “Malko” fades in next, and brings the pace back up. I can’t stress enough the fantastic mix of this album–each song flows very well into the other. “Malko” is a catchy tune, and you’ll find yourself humming this one hours later. Layering upon a tapped lick on the guitar, “Malko” brings up the pace and volume, adding a touch of heaviness back into the mix. “When the Mountain Comes to Muhammad” is next; a change of pace from Russian Circles as there is a spoken word sample in the background! What? A VOICE?! A clean guitar brings you back to the Russian Circles style, and at eight minutes this tune really has some depth and space to move. “Philos” is our last tune on Geneva, opening with a soaring, reverb-drenched guitar and soft-mallet cymbals, before fading into clean volume swelled guitars (oh how I love ye, volume swells). Strings add another layer as the theme becomes apparent. They saved the longest tune for last–a 10-minute opus that really closes the album nicely. The pace starts slow, but picks up with a great ringing riff before dropping back out, making space to add horns to combine with the strings. It sounds almost like these guys have a full orchestra in the background. It drops out again, bringing back the sense of peace and well-being. Fading out, it circles back around to a slower rendition of the intro. I love this band. Judging by how crowded it was when they played in Denver recently, I think it’s safe to say I’m not alone. [Dixon]

www.suicidesqueeze.net

:: ISSUE 21 ::

completes the EP (“Science of Anger” is a track you have to buy the EP to hear–it’s on order), bringing back the groove of “Solar Benediction” and Wino’s distinctive voice. Overall, there’s not much to say about this album; given the lineup, it is hard to deliver to the expectation. You have the stoner sludge/doom super group to end all super groups, and it is exactly what you were waiting for. Intense and groovy, loud and crunchy, Shrinebuilder is not an album to be missed. [Dixon]

www.neurotrecordings.com

Sick Sick Birds Heavy Manners Sick Sick Birds began after the demise of The Thumbs, who are in a long line of really great 90s punk bands you may never have heard of. The Thumbs played gritty, melodic punk rock, with shades of un-ironic new wave. The Thumbs were known for hard work and relentless touring, something they maintained for the better part of a decade. When the band ended, core members Bobby Borte and Mike Hall started Sick Sick Birds. The days of Borte and Hall embarking on marathon tours may be over, but SSB are no retirement band. Heavy Manners is a debut full-length, though the band have existed for nearly five years. It’s obvious that they put in the time, as there’s something fully-realized about every song. While The Thumbs mixed some new wave in with their punk rock, SSB tend to mix a little punk rock into a formula that mixes power pop with a little new wave. Everything about their sound is earnest and grounded in history, but never stuffy. It reminds me of Chisel, or even Crimpshrine (if you could somehow vacuum every trace of punk rock off of their sound). It’s like the best non-punk things about the greatest punk bands, mashed together into one record. It’s melodic, even poppy throughout. But the vocals and slightly-oblong rhythms give it an anxious, almost tense feeling that, in the end, makes the record. Heavy Manners is a mature, engaging, slightly-nostalgic and still wholly relevant rock record. The conventional wisdom has always been that punk rock can’t–and probably shouldn’t–age gracefully. Sick Sick Birds are proof that while that may be true, punks themselves certainly can. [Anderson]

firestarterrecords.com/toxicpoprecords

Snack Truck Spacial Findings 1-7

The first four songs from this recording 32

session were already released as a 7”. The last three, along with a remix were included for the CD version, combining into something dizzying and complete. Stuck somewhere between antsy punk rock and wide-eyed psychedelia, Snack Truck manage to make both work in their favor. Much of their sound is obviously the result of some studio tinkering and experimenting. But their songs tend to be energetic and tight enough never to seem like self-indulgent jams. “Second Level” stands out, taking pieces from early Hella, The Mae Shi and Don Caballero, it hurries and shines where so many others might linger and wank. “Life Prism” uses the Lightning Bolt template, but add a much more varied approach to the songwriting. The melodic payoff in the middle is as much post-hardcore breakdown as it is indie-psychedelic freakout. Somewhere between their sound’s two extremes, Snack Truck set up camp and really thrive. Much more than just a fattened-up and rereleased 7”, Spacial Findings is a document of a band experimenting broadly and successfully. It’s something so refreshing because it’s also so rare, and Snack Truck are running with it. [Anderson]

set-up for something huge. These sorts of constantly-crescendoing and descrescendoing songs are not uncommon in today’s doomy, post-rocky metal landscape. What has always made albums like Neurosis’s Enemy of the Sun stand apart is their ability to also provide songs that reveal new textures and new dimensions of darkness through unique guest instrumentation and unpredictable structures. A Storm of Light delivers on that level as well. “The Light in Their Eyes” opens with some tasteful strings, a military percussion and a soft chorus of vocals, later punctuated by some dense, ringing guitars. This could have been the soundtrack to Napolean’s 1812 march into Russia, where 400,000 French soldiers would die. That is, if that march could take place in just under six minutes. A Storm of Light takes an ambitious tack in their pursuit of what one would think was an exhausted topic in metal, but they achieve everything one could imagine possible. [Flatt]

www.neurotrecordings.com

www.rorschachrecords.net

Subarachnoid Space Eight Bells

A Storm of Light Forgive Us Our Trespasses Two drummers. A synthesizer. An end-times concept album. This would be a recipe for disaster in the wrong hands. But with members and ex-members of Tombs, Red Sparrows and Unsane at the wheel, A Storm of Light navigates Forgive Us Our Trespasses through the icebergs in its path. Founder Josh Graham has been contributing visuals for Neurosis for almost 10 years, and comparisons to that group are valid. A Storm of Light treats its impossibly heavy subject matter with the lightness and deftness of touch you could expect from an Ingmar Bergman film. The album opens with some heavy soliloquizing by a Gollum-like voice. “We come spinning out of nothingness / scattering stars,” and so on. But some soft, slow banjo plucking swoops in to rescue this dramatic gesture from melodrama. That’s the sort of deftness, the kind of measured give-and-take one needs to pull off an album of such scope. “Amber Waves of Gray,” in its nearly eight minutes, gives the listener a good idea of what to expect from the rest of the record. Huge guitars, huge percussion, huge melodic vocals, and a huge range of intensity. Everything huge, all the time huge. Even when they pull back and offer some great, quiet instrumentals, one knows it’s a

This is Subarachnoid Space’s first new disc in three years. Classified as “Contemporary Acid Rock,” it certainly does not disappoint. Instrumentals that drip with depth and space, this really does feel like traveling through the cosmos. Just when you think you’ve got this band pegged, they throw a curve ball at you with strange shifts of sound. Making their guitars almost scream, “Lilith” is an excellent introduction to this masterpiece. “Akathesia” starts quickly, a hypnotic delayed guitar riff that sucks you in before they toast your mind with some really strange effects. Subarachnoid Space has been around since 1995, and released three other albums, all on Relapse Records. Just as you reach the sky, the panning and phase threaten to bring you back down. Ah, but you didn’t realize you could go higher as the pace quickens and the guitars drone once more. “Hunter Seeker” picks up the pace a bit as you launch yourself into the stratosphere once more. Subarachnoid Space are one of the best at this genre, mixing drone and psychedelic rock. In 2003, the band shifted toward a more metallic and song-oriented band as one of the founding members left the band in the capable hands of Melynda Jackson. Moving ever-heavier, Subarachnoid Space create an “active” ambient– this certainly isn’t background music. Hypnotic and deep, Eight Bells is not to be missed. You’ve probably seen these guys on a bill with Yob,

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

Khanate, Sonic Youth, Red Sparrowes, Boris, etc. [Dixon]

www.crucialblast.net

Terminal Lovers As Eyes Burn Clean “Press the Bank” starts us off on As Eyes Burn Clean. Ambient to begin with, before the drone/improv starts up. This is something straight out of the psychedelic 70s–a jam-like band for people who, like me, hate Phish. This feels like it should have been made 30 years ago, as it slowly builds and changes four minutes into the opus. Old school Zeppelin, avant garde, almost Primus-like jams, and groove make this fit with almost anything. Indeed, the lineup of this band contains heavy hitters in the Cleveland hard rock scene, including members of Keelhaul, Boulder, and Midnight. “Shadow Driver” picks up the pace a bit and chugs through into “Steve Ashby,” another ambient/esoteric drone filled with some really interesting use of percussion (not just drums–there are parts that sound like they’re opening a creaking door). Then, acoustic guitars and vocals come in, tying the whole thing together. “Sacred and the Man” brings a little bit more psychedelic heaviness. Vocals on this tune are strange and a little nasally. Overall this is a really interesting disc, but not for everyone. Terminal Lovers certainly play the kind of music that black lights and LSD were created for. Very cool, I definitely dig it. [Dixon]

www.publicguilt.com

Tournament Years Old There will always be an element within heavy music, aspiring just to be the heaviest they can possibly be. This race to the bottom of the sonic spectrum is inevitable, and not necessarily the worst thing. But at some point, it just gets out of hand. Eventually, they’ll find a way to release music in a format that you can’t even hear. It’s so heavy that you can just feel it. Brooklyn’s Tournament are heavy alright. If fact, I’d say that they’re heavier than your average heavy band. But rather than engage in this hopeless pissing contest, they spike their sound with (get this) rock and roll. Not “Oh yeah baby, tonight!” Zeppelin-worship, but more like gritty, angular AmRep-style rock. The combination works well, resulting in something that’s actually quite a bit more daunting than the most down-tuned stoner sludge. The muddy, mid-tempo “Something

Temporary” will earn them plenty of Jesus Lizard-meetsMelvins comparisons. This is fair (and, if you think about it, most bands could do much worse), but it’s also incomplete. There are odd and effective guitar riffs that pop up throughout the record, and one of the best is toward the end of “Something Temporary.” Right on its heels, “Smokelore” is another standout track, showing off the other end of Tournament’s sound. It’s a meandering, sludgy jam that mixes a healthy dose of early Sabbath worship and an angular, bass-led riff that brings to mid Breather Resist. Overall, the ten songs here cover a ton of ground without ever losing momentum. Relevant, but with a strong sense of history, Years Old is wise beyond its years. It’s heavy enough that you’ll need to lift with your legs, but without going overboard just for the sake of it. [Anderson]

www.forcefieldrecords.org

or dynamics. They rely on slow, gradual build-ups that are accented by clean vocals in the quieter parts and really gruff vocals during louder sections. Similar to Cult Of Luna or Envy, this uses post-metal tools, but is much more careful than most peers when it comes to dynamics. They have clearly spent a lot of time on these songs, never going for the usual (and easy) quiet/loud/quiet/ loud tricks. The result is a solid debut, with plenty of staying power. Hopefully When Icarus Falls can expand on this when putting together a full-length. This is a great start, and worth looking into. [Anderson]

www.getaliferecords.com

Worn In Red In The Offing

Victor! Fix The Sun Person, Place or Thing (LP) Victor! Fix The Sun is what I would imagine you would get if members from the defunct Bear vs. Shark spent a year listening to Refused- and At The Drive In-inspired punk and decided to start a new band. I don’t know for sure if the main vocalist has a beard, but it’d be hard for me to picture whoever is singing these lines not having one. This LP offers six full songs of sometimes hectic, sometimes tense, sometimes serene, sometimes brash punk rock with postwhatever influences strewn throughout. Some of the songs are a bit forgettable, but for the most part this is a solid effort worthy of multiple listens. Their influences are apparent, but not as painfully obvious as some other bands would show, and they seem to have carved out a comfortable niche for themselves. Plus, they may have won my vote for song title of the year with “Infested, Mother Approved.” Nice one. [Birone]

www.frictionrecords.net

When Icarus Falls Over The Frozen Seas (EP) Hailing from Lausanne, Switzerland, these three songs represent the first output from When Icarus Falls. Each of the three songs are over ten minutes each, and in fact are all within 20 seconds of being the exact same length. It’s hard to imagine that happened on accident, so it’s interesting if they set out to write three equally-long tracks for their debut. The tracks break up a 30-minute release into three equal pieces, with a similar arc to each. Over The Frozen Seas is certainly heavy, though the guitar parts are never really the source of it. They are mostly atmospheric and haunting, with desperate, slow vocals. The combination of the two is very reminiscent of Cult Of Luna, but rarely to a fault. Strong piano interludes are mixed in throughout as well. The piano performances may not win any concerto competitions, but is much better than most of the stoned keyboard fiddling usually included in similar projects. Overall, there aren’t a ton of obvious shifts in tempo

With the decade coming to a close, it’s been long enough to officially start fetishizing the 90s. That doesn’t mean that most of it is worth rehashing, though Virgina’s Worn In Red have packed most of the worthwhile bits into eight songs. Contemporaries from identical zip codes a decade or so earlier have their fingerprints all over In The Offing, though it’s hard to nail them down too directly. Early Frodus, Sleepytime Trio, Hoover and even pg99 all rear their melodically-ugly heads from time to time as promised. Worn In Red update the well-established sound in often subtle, but complete ways. Usually a step or two slower, and considerably more layered than most of their 90s, mid-Atlantic brethren. “And You Knew” is a great example of both these updates. Melodic dual-guitar leads carry wrenching vocals and a slowed-down tempo that adds automatic heaviness. It’s somehow catchy and sludgy at the same time, without seeming much like either on the first couple listens. Tons of bands have alternated between loud/ soft, fast/slow, melodic/heavy, and that’s because when it works, it’s all you really need. But Worn In Red seem to be spending much of their time being most, or all of those six things. Sometimes all at once. I don’t know how they do it either, but after a handful of listens I’m glad they figured it out. These songs were recorded over the course of something like nine months, which is no surprise. Complete more than they are complex, and more huge than they are heavy. These guys have crammed the best things about 90s post-hardcore, and updated each one of them just enough to make this one of the most complete debuts I’ve heard in years. [Anderson]

Vicious Cycle Pale Blue Dot Often billed and written about as an ‘experimental hardcore’ group, Canada’s Vicious Cycle seems either poised to completely dismantle the way we all think of hardcore, or spin a violent 180 on the thought of what it is in the first place. Case in point: Pale Blue Dot, their latest album out on Deranged, is one Hell of a rock record. It may seem insincere to call a band like Vicious Cycle simply ‘rock,’ because they are obviously steeped in the punk tradition. Take a listen to Pale Blue Dot, though, and you’ll soon discover that there’s a lot more than hardcore going on here. Vicious Cycle has opened up shop closer to John Reis’s many projects rather than Refused or Black Flag. Take “The Waiting,” the first of many great tracks on the album, and you’ll hear music that wouldn’t be entirely out of place on Suicide Invoice. The ferocity of the track is monstrous and fucking cool. In the guitar breaks before each verse, singer Nico Taus lets out an “Oh!” that will knock you on your ass if you’re not paying attention, and the band hits it on every level. The garage rock touchstones that seep through don’t stop at Hot Snakes comparisons, as Nico’s voice also has a touch of Jered Gummere from the Chicago band The Ponys (who also uses a sort of distorted reverb effect on his voice). This is not to say that Vicious Cycle does not do their best to bend and break hardcore in general. Tracks such as “Vertigo” and “Black Dot” are fast-paced songs executed with intelligence and ingenuity. “Black Dot,” with its soaring chorus of “I believe in the human race,” is the undisputed winner for most intense track on Pale Blue Dot. Pale Blue Dot is a concept record, as noted in their bio, that “represents the dire state of our planet.” But don’t expect any classic rock posturing a la Cave In’s Jupiter. With guest appearances by two members of the mighty Fucked Up (with Damian Abraham adding vocals for “Blur,” and Jonah Falco producing),Vicious Cycle has made a record about the place we live in, giving a shit about it, and providing a very fine soundtrack to these contemplations. Hell yes. [Quattrocchi]

www.derangedrecords.com

www.noidearecords.com

:: ISSUE 21 ::

THE MYLENE SHEATH P.O. BOX 12029 COVINGTON, KY 41012 USA WWW.MYLENESHEATH.COM 34

:: THE NEW SCHEME ::

Links // Issue 21 The Mylene Sheath

Haymarket Riot

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www.haymarketriotband.com twitter.com/haymarketriot

Denovali Records

Caspian

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www.caspianmusic.net twitter.com/caspian_

Lovitt Records

The Mercury Program

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www.mercuryprogram.com myspace.com/themercuryprogram

Excursions Into The Abyss

Kowloon Walled City

The Fest www.thefestfl.com

Hex Records hanginghex.blogspot.com

Andrew Weiss

www.andrew-weiss.com

Shannon Corr

www.excursionsintotheabyss.com

www.inthewalledcity.com twitter.com/kowloonwalled

Forcefield Records

Prize Country

New Age Dad

www.forcefieldrecords.org myspace.com/forcefieldrecords

www.prizecountry.net myspace.com/PrizeCountry

www.elasticizedwaistbands.com twitter.com/thisisnewagedad

Gilead Media www.gileadmedia.net

Portraits Of Past

Two Dudes Radio

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:: ISSUE 21 ::