epsilons - s/t + kill 'em deader....

now that all the kids know and love ty segall.....and perhaps charlie & the moonhearts.....

everyone should rewind two years and pretend they were into the epsilons..... 

SF garage rock with a synth punk vibe.....  comprised of ty segall and members of charlie & the moonhearts, they released two LPs that hold their own with jay reatard's lost sounds period.....

jump to static fuzz to download both LPs.....

(or read an old interview with them from skratch magazine.)

carbonas - s/t lp

one of my fav LPs from the last couple of years. i finally got around to ripping their s/t album to share with you all.....

i love the Carbonas, and you should too....so click here to download their self titled lp......

gories seven inch mania

click the gories....

for a collection their very out of print 7 inches, easily downloaded via mediafire.

thanks chunklet for the twitter tip off........

new liars mp3

i'm sure everyone is hip to this already.  but why not make sure.

the liars are dropping their fifth lp in spring 2010, entitled sisterworld.  if you follow this link you can download the first single, scissors, for free.  it's quite the jam.  can't wait for the whole album.

Bad Sports (just as good as a new High Tension Wires LP)

thanks to le blog Teenage Lobotomies for this link......

"Bad Sports are a three piece that features TV's Daniel from Wax Museums and Greg Rutherford from High Tension Wires. Bad Sports are a bit more playful, but don't be surprised if this record reminds you slightly of The Reds or the first Marked Men LP."

jump here to mediafire

black jaspers

king khan is a productive man, running neck and neck with john dwyer from the oh sees for most prolific of 2009.

already we have a new king khan and bbq LP, a tandoori knights 7", the almighty defenders LP (with bbq and the black lips) and his shrines reissues earlier this year.

but now we have the black jaspers, a killed by death style punk rock mess that he recorded with a friend in 2001.....(edit)

one of my fav LPs from the year.....so i took the time to rip the vinyl to share with you all.

click here to find the black jaspers on mediafire.....

luv'd ones - truth gotta stand

DUNWICH RECORDS was home to THE SHADOWS OF THE KNIGHT, chicago's best known garage rock band.......but they also released a little known all-girl garage band THE LUV'D ONES..... these chicago ladies definitely could hold their own with the shadows of the knight, gonn and the sonics.

...and unlike what you may think about 60s girl groups, some actually played their instruments....  the ronettes and crystals were vocal groups, not rock n roll like the LUV'D ONES......

and they played some dark gritty psych influenced garage at that..... i couldn't believe how out there the LUV'D ONES were, they would've made the 13th floor elevators proud....if either band actually heard of each other.....

and damn they need to be recognized for their place in rock history, or at least by fans of garage and punk........

anyway years after the fact, a cd was issued of all know LUVD ONES tracks and you need this in yr collection....

so click here to download the SUNDAZED compiled, TRUTH GOTTA STAND......

and listen below....if you doubt me.....

nikki and the corvettes

Two decades before the Donnas were doing their best to be the "chick Ramones," we had Nikki and the Corvettes, who, besides cranking out some wonderfully catchy pop tunes, had a front woman who was surely many a punk boy's wetdream. Bomp has reissued on CD the band's sole album -- think of a sexed-up punked-up Shangri-Las, fueled by Chuck Berry guitar riffs -- along with their two singles. You get 16 foot-tappin', head-boppin' songs about boys, "Backsteat Love," and dancing that I think would require a supreme effort to NOT enjoy. Bubblegum punk that tastes as good as it looks. 


forget the RUNAWAYS, this is classic power pop/punk you need to have....


click here the grab the NIKKI and the CORVETTES lp......

spaceshits

Mark Sultan (aka BBQ) began his musical career playing drums in a band called Powersquat, a suburban group which combined a number of diverse influences into their notably violent live shows. After Powersquat, Sultan went on to join the Spaceshits, another Montreal-based band whose members approached Sultan in order to procure a lead singer. Sultan volunteered himself for the position and the band began writing songs together. At the time of Sultan's arrival the Spaceshits were composed of Oily Chi on rhythm guitar, Stinky B. on bass, and Skid Marks on drums, though within a few months Stinky B. was replaced on bass by Blacksnake, a Canadian of Indian descent.

The Spaceshits, just like the Powersquats before them, were well-known for their violent stage shows. Sets typically lasted no longer than 10 to 15 minutes, in which time the band would set off fireworks, start food fights, and create disturbances. Eventually the band's raucous live shows would lead them to be effectively blacklisted from most venues in Montreal, a trend which was compounded during an April 8 1996 set in support of the New Bomb Turks. During the Spaceshits' set, Sultan allegedly threw a full beer bottle into the Cabaret crowd; the beer was consumed by someone in the audience. Later, fellow bandmate Skid Marks threw his drumstick into the crowd, injuring the president of a music distributing company which employed Sultan. The final straw in the Spaceshits blacklisting occurred in April 1999, just before the beginning of aEuropean tour, while the band was promoting a new Sultan Records release. Before the show, the band had an altercation with the venue's co-owner which resulted in Blacksnake's hand being injured. A member of the Daylight Lovers stormed the stage encouraging the audience to demand their money back for a show the band did not intend to deliver. This event marked the end of the band's booking in Montreal.

The Spaceshits went on to complete a European tour; one which would prove to be the last for the band. After the European tour had ended, Blacksnake opted to stay behind. Rather than continue on without him, the bandmembers broke up, believing both that the band had run its course,....

and we were left with some of the best garage punk ever put to records, so what's there to complain about.........get the spaceshits lp MISBEHAVIN (via one of those nifty file sharing sites)

new jams for december

melt banana lite- live melt banana replacing their chaotic guitar with whacked out synth. they're on tour with this line-up right now, but check it out via this link.....these guys make thrash noise like no one else......

high rise- disallow another crazy japanese noise/metal band, described to me as a cross between blue cheer, boris and guitar wolf. from the 90s but who cares, everyone needs something to annoy the neighbors with........

surfer blood - astro coast perhaps the indie darlings of the next decade. catchy reverbed lyrics and power chords little heard in indie rock. think florida's answer to cheap trick, but filtered through built to spill......

life at 45 rpms

two local record labels have been keeping me up to speed on the up and coming indie bands.  Hozac and Trouble in Mind.  both have released a slew of awesome singles, from France has the Bomb to Ty Segall.  Trouble in Mind is run by members of Cococoma and only releases singles, having just started up this year.  Hozac has been around for a while now releasing limited run 7 inches and just this year starting to put out LPs, to much success with the Smith Westerns and Wizzard Sleeve.

look for their records at yr local shop, both are distributed  by revolver, so they're not too hard to come by.  and nearly every release will turn you on to an awesome new band......

garage hangover

holy shit......

....drinking beer and surfing the interweb can be productive. here's a list of blogs which will lead you to all sorts of new garage rock........

garage hangover - a well researched site featuring many obscure garage rock singles and biographies......with a little know how you can grab these singles, but only one at a time. though this site is more a history lesson, then a spot to grab music......

garage music - quite a number of downloads of harder to find garage rock classics......such as the seeds box set and some rare kinks singles........

born in tyme - a site devoted mostly to mixtapes of garage rock and soul......nearly every post made me want to download his mixes...... highly recommended.......also his link section is where i found the aforementioned blogs......check this site out and it will only lead you to good things.......

jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers - disco outlaw

the new LP disco outlaw by
jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers is more of the southern fried garage rock that you'd expect from a member of the oblivians and the compulsive gamblers.

two or three of the tracks are in high rotation in my itunes, but the whole LP is worth grabbing......

which you should do by clicking the link..........

CAVE - psychic psummer lp

cave's psychic psummer LP is six jams you don't want to miss. prog, noise and psych rock rolled into one boisterous mix......

oneida doesn't have a monopoly on freewheeling prog noise..........just another band from chicago that gets overlooked by the coastal hipsters.......

click on the link above to "preview" their important records release......

black math

black math should be the next hype band, if the bloggers paid more attention to what is happening in chicago.....noisy post punk trio that incorporates cello, drum machines, synth with angular guitar and pulsating bass..... all the usual musical references apply but with a unique twist......

click on the link to download their ep.......

more of the best of 2009.

Best of 2009 continued..... 

Best New Artist:  TIE between Obits, the Strange Boys and the Smith Westerns

Most Prolific Artist:  TIE between Ty Segall and Jon Dwyer of The Oh Sees

Best Solo Project from a Band I love:  Kyp Malone with Rain Machine

Best Live Album:  Greg Cartwright with Live from the Circle A

Best Local Band to Catch Live:  the Yolks

Best band without an LP out yet:  White Mystery

Best Hardcore Album:  Double Dagger

Best Psych Rock LP: TIE:  Cave and Oneida

Best Cover Album: Condo Fucks

Best EP of 2009:  TIE between Deerhunter and GG King

Best 7 inch: Obits

Best split 7 inch: Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard

Best Noise Rock LP:  Mi Ami

Best Electronic LP: Fuck Buttons (with Black Dice a close second)

Best Punk LP: the Yolks

Best Concept for an LP: Pink Mountaintops with their romance novel themed LP

Best Songwriter of 2009: Kurt Vile

Best Reunion Tour of 2009:  Jesus Lizard

Best Record Label:  hands down In the Red.   King Khan and BBQ, the Intelligence, the Strange Boys, the Reigning Sound, The Oh Sees…and that doesn’t even mention that half dozen other awesome bands they put out this year….

Best Concert:  TIE:  Black Lips at p4k fest (it nearly killed me…got partially trampled and concussed) and Double Dagger at a loft show (sweaty fun hardcore dancing, made me feel 16 again)

Best In Store Performance:  Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Bird (he was in both the Cramps and Gun Club, so when he played a furious set of his own songs mixed with those bands, it blew everyone away)

Best Record Store:  Permanent Records (Chicago)

Favorite Record Store that closed this year:  Antiquarium (Omaha)

Favorite Record Store that got hit by a tornado: Electric Fetus (Minneapolis)

Best Venue:  Empty Bottle

Matador VS. SubPop:  2009 was definitely Matador’s year.

Most Overrated Band:  still probably the same as last year, Times New Viking, but Yacht and Japandroids are a close second in this category

Band who I finally started liking until I heard their second LP:  the Vivian Girls

Band who’s new album finally made me fall out of love with them:  the Thermals

Band who ought to be the NEXT BIG THING: TIE: Black Math and Vampire Hands

City I would most likely move to based on LPs that came out in 2009:  Atlanata.

LP I feel most Bi-polar about this Year:  Matt & Kim’s Grand.  At times I couldn’t stop playing it.  Other times, I couldn’t stand its sloppy amateur sound.  I loved it, after I saw them at P4k, but I haven’t listened to it since summer.

Lifetime Achievement Award:  TIE between Sonic Youth and Mission of Burma,  both put out barn burning LPs this year.  and they’re all practically my parents age….and I ain’t young……

Fav older garage bands I just got into this year:  the Seeds, the Mummies

Best mp3 find on the interweb this year:  three extremely hard to come by Compulsive Gamblers LPs….

Best web zine / blog (0verall):  Tiny Mix Tapes

Best web zine / blog (Reviews): Pitchfork

Best web zine / blog (Indie Rock News): Brooklyn Vegan

Festival this year that Best reflected my year:  Gonerfest

this year’s list is in dedication to Sky Saxon of the Seeds and Bobby Ubangi who both passed away this year…

the music lives on……..

the list. top LPs of of 2009.

as i listened to all these LPs a million times, they made the list.

it was just too difficult to narrow it down to a top 10......

so here's my list for 2009....fucking awesome albums,

just didn't imagine this year was going to follow through on its promise of amazing new jams.......it did.....

1 obits- i blame you

2 black lips- 200 million thousand

3 ty segall- lemons

4 the oh sees- help

5 jay reatard- watch them fall

6 smith westerns- s/t

7 handsome furs- face control

8 pink mountaintops- outside love

9 double dagger- more

10 the yolks- s/t LP

11 strange boys- and girls club

12 wavves- wavvves

13 health- get color

14 the reigning sound- love and curses

15 girls- album

16 bobby ubangi- inside the mind of...

16 mi ami- watersports

17 almighty defenders- s/t

18 king khan & bbq- invisible girl

19 intelligence- fake surfers

20 lightning bolt- earthly delights

honorable mentions to the following:

kurt vile

condo fucks

crocodiles

white wires

box elders

rain machine

oneida

swan lake

sonic youth

mission of burma

jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers

white wires

catchy lo-fi garage punk goodness,

my fav band of the month.......

the white wires......

Self Titled - The White Wires

the chicago scene in one easy to check webpage.

go to victim of time's

website for a fairly complete listing of shows around town....

which includes some of the house/loft show scene.

they list bands playing at the automatic collective,

bloodline and the ottoman empire...

shows which are difficult to find out about unless

someone gives you a handbill in the ukrainian village....

that's the inside track.......

friday night at the hideout

with cococoma (chicago, goner records) and the hex dispensers (austin, douchemaster)....

can't wait til tomorrow........

jay reatard on A>D>D

check out JAY REATARD playing live for PITCHFORK....


TOTALLY FUCKING CLASSIC, btw.....

the outsiders

also found the outsiders' LP, time won't let me. a bit scratched but good soulful garage pop....you'll recognize the title track, but they were one hit wonders, though you should pick up any of their LPs if you come across them.......

generation x

just scored gen x's kiss me deadly lp for cheap......

the mummies....

greg cartwright at goner fest

the seeds on american bandstand

the litter....minneapolis at its best.

when you think of the twin cities, it's always prince, husker du and the replacements.......

what about the litter? garage, psych rockers from the late 60s. they put out an amazing three lps all of which you should grab .....

listen below...

$100 Fine - The Litter

must see blues control.

empty bottle on saturday october 24th.  blues control with chinese stars.

marking my calendar for experimental noise weirdness.  

record labels.

everyone should check the goner records blog before they read tiny grooves. about every band i've mentioned lately either is on goner records or played their annual garage rock blow out in memphis......

in fact i almost want to move there just to hang out at goner records and be friends with the oblivians and jay reatard........

anyway look for the gonerfest 4 cd/dvd in november.....everyone on it is worth checking out.....

and i have gonerfest 2 if anyone is interested in grabbing it from me........

the mummies - never been caught

the mummies

never been caught LP

these guys are so fucking awesome i can't believe i didn't get into them sooner.....so punk, they refused to release a CD ever, though someone eventually did release a bootleg or two with their tepid permission.........

(i have ripped versions of several of their 7 inches which are all awesome, they'd make good x-mas gifts for me.........)

watch the REATARDS live...

before the LOST SOUNDS and his solo work, JAY REATARD tried to destroy the world with his noisy garage punk band, THE REATARDS ....... probably one of my fave bands of all time...... all their recordings are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.....!


but just in case you don't know them yet, watch some REATARDS live below.....holy shit, this is fucking rock n roll as it's meant to be played......








and here's a set from GONER FEST 6, with a reunited fucking REATARDS just killing it...

the yolks LP

my fav chicago garage punk band......

the yolks.

click here for their s/t LP.......

compulsive gamblers

click here to "enjoy" two hard to find LPs and one live

by the compulsive gamblers....

greg cartwright on the radio

greg cartwright (reigning sound, oblivians) playing over two hours of his personal 45 collection, yeah its awesome. jump with this link to another blog where you can download the whole thing...obscure garage, amercana, country and r&b.....so totally worth the space on yr hard drive.......

finally.....the almighty defenders

super group i could only dream of.....king khan, mark sultan (aka bbq) and the black lips.....gospel garage madness......yup.....

listen below......

The Almighty Defenders - The A...

be wary of shitty lo-fi

i'm still underwhelmed by the vivian girls. their new LP is still more lackluster ambiguous sounding garage influenced indie rock. though you can tell that their song writing might be aiming closer to the hype the always seem to elicit. maybe LP four or five will finally merit the blog hype, or maybe they'll be broken up by then......

what unnerves me though is that the indie webzine engine keeps looking for the next big thing. right now the genre of choice seems to be some sort of lo-fi garage rock....which i've been a fan of for years. but most of the bands can barely keep a myspace page up and running and have little of no excitement to their music.

a couple of examples.

times new viking... maybe the sonic youth kim gordon thing can be sifted out of the shit noise, but to me nothing is there.....

the beets....captured tracks brooklyn based band that toured with the vivian girls. and that may be their only claim to fame. lo-fi songs that sound like bad campfire sing-a-longs.....

woods....though the neil young via sebadoh thing might work out. more recent listens make me wonder why i even took the time to download something this drab.......

anyway, use lala before you buy the next big thing.....you might save yourself some money. i'm glad i didn't mistakenly buy any of the vivian girls LPs.

some friends have said the same for wavves and the crocodiles, though personally i like both these bands, but i can see why there are some detractors. nowadays bands put albums out as soon as they can, while the PR is right. and many of them just don't bother to hammer out their songs......

and they use the LO-FI label as an excuse. fuck that.....don't buy into bad lo-fi, just cause pitchfork says its the best new music..........

there are so many good bands out there to seek out.......

loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies

i was at the first pixies reunion show in minneapolis. you can see me in the crowd for a second....

but really enough about me, who doesn't love the pixies........

click on the link below to watch the documentary......

loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies

Shared via AddThis

three LPs getting my attention

ty segall......lemons. pretty much the soundtrack to august.

health...get color. noise rock with a beat. much more accessible than their first LP, in a good way.

strange boys....& girl's club . 60s garage if sung by a deranged dylan back by the 13th floor elevators.....so good.

reigning sound

been waiting for this LP for awhile, check it out.

Love And Curses - The Reigning...

fred anderson.

a and i are going to see chicago free jazz legend, fred anderson, at a lakeshore park tonight in evanston. so excited.

check him out below....

Dark Day + Live in Verona - Fr...

milkwauke avenue arts fest

got to check out some awesome local bands at the logan square street fest, so fun........

so i missed michael columbia at p4k fest, but i got to see them today. chicago's answer to oneida but more yes than suicide, with some 8 bit video game synth thrown in for good measure...... i hope they put an LP out sometime.......

next up was mass shivers, a angular 70s rock mashup with mathy dance rhythms that the indie kids all love. the chicago reader compared them to captain beefheart and i see that, but not much......a nice mix of influences that becomes mostly their own sound. could share the stage with the foals comfortably, but also black mountain..... recommended.

then there was white mystery. as always i love em......brother sister garage duo, their hozac single is excellent, and their label will put the new LP out at the beginning of the fall (hozac's second LP, the first was smith westerns).......you must see them sometime...........

holy shit GONER FEST.

check out brooklyn vegan's article on goner fest and ty segall.

a reunited reatards and compulsive gamblers headline the fest in memphis september 24-26.

in addition ty segall, nobunny, the intelligence, the oh sees and about every other garage punk band you should know about are playing. pretty much blows away the p4k lineup.

and guess what, i have to be in philadelphia for a wedding. m.f. bad timing.......

obits on the radio

the obits featured on the twin cities' the current.

listen below.....

top ranking LPs this year so far

i have listened to these albums non stop all year long. these are my top ranking picks for 09 so far. by year end, it'll be a top 20 at least......

but since we're half way through the year so far, i thought i'd make my list for you.....

1 obits- i blame you

2 black lips- 200 million thousand

3 jay reatard- watch them fall

4 smith westerns- s/t

5 double dagger- more

6 pink mountaintops- outside love

7 matt & kim- grand

8 handsome furs- face control

9 mi ami- watersports

10 wavves- wavvves

honorable mentions to the following:

ty segall

kurt vile

vampire hands

intelligence

kid congo

deerhunter

jack-o and the tennessee tearjerkers

condo fucks

crocodiles

animal collective

grizzly bear

mstrkrft

mannequin men

shadows of the knight

shadows of the knight are my classic garage rock band of the week.

check out this "best of" below by click here......

their LPs aren't that hard to find. rhino reissued "gloria" but if you find an original pressing in vg+ it will be pricey.........i recently found a real beat to shit copy of their first LP for five dollars and it was worth every cent.......

they are highly recommended.

garage punk classics - the oblivians

garage punk might not have been invented until the OBLIVIANS formed..... the memphis trio released nothing but the best loud catchy soulful garage punk ever recorded....... i love every album, single and ep they made......  to say i'm obsessed with this band is an understatement...

if you don't have any of their music, now is yr chance to change that.......

click below to grab some of my favorite albums of all time.......

popular favorites

soul food

six of the best ep

sympathy sessions

play nine songs w/ mr. quintron

never enough ep

best of the worst 

p4k wrap up

i have more to say about pitchfork fest, but for now all i can say is friday and saturday blew my mind.

friday having tortoise, yo la tengo, jesus lizard and built to spill play back to back was incredible. but jesus lizard definitely stole the show......

saturday was a dream show come true. ponytail, wavves, matt & kim and the black lips all playing the same stage and almost one after another was fucking awesome. black lips tore the house down........you really ought to see those guys at some point. they live up to their reputation for bat shit crazy shows..............

also i discovered so new favorite bands, killer whales and disappears both from chicago. i know now that i hate flaming lips fans, and am sad that grizzly bear had to play their entrancing set while most people jockeyed for positions close enough to see wayne coyne.......

many of the hyped bands at p4k seemed just that. vivian girls and japandroids were good, but nothing special. same for doom, m83 and the national. the thermals kind of rocked it...but again most bands are better to see live when there's less than a hundred people crammed into a small space.......which is where i'd still prefer to see them. also i still don't like the new thermals songs....which is disappointing cause i love their first three LPs..........

anway, i could say more. and i will. but that's my recap for now. p4k was awesome, but not quite as transcendent as i hoped for......

chicago scene

the smith westerns have their new LP out, glam garage punk perfect for summer afternoons. the hozac LP is distributed through revolver so you ought to be able to get it anywhere, though i think they made less than 500 of the vinyl.

white mystery played their 7 inch record release party at permanent records yesterday. two piece garage that makes you need to dance. their hozac single is super limited so it might be gone this week.......find ms alex white and grab yr copy soon........

the yolks have a new LP out as well, good ol fashioned rock n roll. i still need to pick it up, but i think a band that lent its songwriting abilities to nobunny for a track know how to write a good song.

aside from the garage rock, noise makers cacaw have a new LP out, which i need to buy after seeing them open up for double dagger. fucking abrasive royal trux-ish noise.....in vein of all those old touch and go records that are slowly getting recognized as classics.........i'll try to find some of their track to post here later.................

disappears

check out chicago's disappears, by clicking here. on their blog, you can download mp3s from two of their seven inches and a live cd.

drone garage rock.....very awesome.

they opened pitchfork music fest on saturday and totally destroyed cymbals eat guitars, who were playing at the same time. fuck the hype. download their songs instead........

jay reatard LP pushed up to august 4th.

jay reatard's new LP watch me fall leaked last week, and so matador has apparently pushed up the release date for the vinyl from august 18 to the 4th.

make sure you buy the LP when it comes out (or pre-order it now from insound, matador or jay himself), but if you can't wait, it's not too hard to find.......

the LP will feature an mp3 download at 320kbps, which is always better than the shit bitrates music pirates share on the internet anyway............

the dirtbombs on pbs

We Have Signal: Live From Birmingham - The Dirtbombs from We Have Signal on Vimeo.

also from alabama public television's we have signal are shows featuring health and parts & labor...so check it out....