verma - sunrunner

chicago's VERMA are back with another mind melting platter of intergalactic kraut damaged psych rock entitled SUNRUNNER.... out now on TROUBLE IN MIND RECORDS!!!!!!!!

yes PSYCH ROCK seems to be the new IT GENRE these days, but few bands kicking around can meld the SOARING GUITARS OF SPACE ROCK, the THROBBING PULSE OF KRAUTROCK and the OFF KILTER MIND EXPANDING SWIRL OF PSYCH into one MESMERIZING SONIC ADVENTURE LIKE VERMA DOES ON SUNRUNNER.........

fans of newer bands like COSMIC DEAD, ANTHROPOPHH, BLACK BOMBAIN AND CAVE as well as junkies for the classic bands like HAWKWIND, PINK FAIRIES, NEU! and AMON DUUL will need to SINK THEIR EARS INTO SUNRUNNER STAT!!!!!!!!!

one song is all it'll take to get HOOKED, 
so take yer first with VERMA below.....

    and don't' forget to grab SUNRUNNER from the dealer man over at TROUBLE IN MIND!!!!!

cosmic dead - easterfaust

HOLD ONTO YER HATS cuz yer gonna want to blast off into the outer realms with COSMIC
DEAD's new epic psyched out album EASTERFAUST out now on SOUND OF COBRA !!!!!!!!!!!!

this new lp is TWO SIDE LONG JAMS chock full of DRONED OUT, WARPED, OPIATED RnR SURE TO OVERDRIVE YER MUSICAL RECEPTORS !!!!!!!

taking their cues from HAWKWIND, POPUL VUH and CAN as well as more contemporary interstellar travelers ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, THE HEADS and LOOP, COSMIC DEAD is totally obliterating what you may think you know about instrumental, propuslive psych rock.........      guitars soar, drums motorik you into hypnosis and the bass lines drag you straight down the wormhole!!!!!!!!!   and when the tone arm retreats, you'll be have a sonic hangover that'll leave you thirsty for more........

i've been spinning EASTERFAUST nonstop and if yer looking for the sound of the FUTURE, look NO FURTHER THAN COSMIC DEAD.........these UK kids just fucking slay........

RIYL - CAVE, VERMA, WOODEN SHJIPS, EARTHLESS, WHITE HILLS, PHARAOH OVERLOAD and/or any other HEAVY SPACED OUT PSYCHEDELIA!!!!!!!!

LISTEN TO EASTERFAUST BELOW !!!!!!!!!!!!
   and click here to grab yer very own vinyl copy!!!

verma - coltan

even though their debut lp EXU only came out six months ago and is still clinging to my turntable, VERMA couldn't wait to put out another killer dose of spaced out psych rock..........this time entitled COLTAN....... out earlier in the year as a tape on NOTES AND BOLTS, TROUBLE IN MIND RECORDS couldn't let such an epic piece of mind altering atmospheric psych rock stay super limited, so they rereleased COLTAN on wax where it belongs......!!!!!!!!!!

picking off where EXU left off COLTAN combines the best elements of krautrock experimentation with droning noise rock, eerie psych and soaring post rock into one wholly engrossing repeat spin..... not to mention nods to some of the best in avant soundtrack work from GOBLIN to JOHN CARPENTER, after all COLTAN was composed with a VICE mini web documentary on the congo in mind........

though a little less straight forward than their live sets or previous work, COLTAN shows just how in the pocket VERMA is......  this new lp finds them honing their improvisational skills and their more out there tendencies......so much so i can't wait to hear what they're gonna do next!!!!  COLTAN builds and builds and slowly sucks you so far deep in the grooves, but the time you hit the final track, you're in for nothing short of a sonic epiphany!!!!!!!!!!!!!

COLTAN is super recommended for those into HAWKWIND, AMON DUUL, CLUSTER, CAN, AGITATION FREE, FAUST and/or NEU!  (yes experimental music junkies take note!)...........as well as any of their contemporaries such as CAVE, ENERGY GOWN, WOODEN SHJIPS, MIND!, TORTOISE, ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE and/or TJUTJUNA..........

this one's gonna rank super high in my year end list,
and it way recommended!
but grab one quick, before it's limited pressing is gone!!!!!!!

and LISTEN to COLTAN below........!!!!!!!!

unmanned ship - for whom the bowl tolls

rising from the dilapidated warehouse spaces and dark alleys of chicago's house show scene is a forceful new monster of a band that you must check out now, UNMANNED SHIP..... they play stoner noise caked space rock like you've never heard before, super mesmerizing, all instrumental, genre bending, creepy and loud as fuck.......  and their new lp FOR WHOM THE BOWL TOLLS out on ROTTED TOOTH is one of the best lps birthed from the unruly chicago noise scene in quite some time.....

sharing members with fellow scenesters OOZING WOUND, you'd be right to expect an unholy racket emanating from UNMANNED SHIP.......  similar to the feedback laced sonic explorations of chicago's other noise makers, CACAW, MAKO SICA, RUNNING, NONES and MAYOR DALEY, UNMANNED SHIP teeter on the knife edge of psych blowouts, stoner metal, prog pyrotechnics and noisy post rock....swirling together quite the heavy riffing groove that you'll wanna spin over and over again.....

need more words to get you to check out UNMANNED SHIP....???
     read what lance from permanent records has to say about
the newest banger from ROTTED TOOTH.......

  "Unmanned Ship are active stoners.  The difference between active stoners and lazy stoners is obvious.  The active ones do cool shit while they’re baked and the lazy ones do lame shit.  Unmanned Ship stay busy as bees in Chicago.  One of the rad things the Unmanned Ship dudes do is make fucking killer instrumental rock jams.  The three of ‘em concoct quite a hypnotic brew.  It’s the kind of bubbly, dark, sweet porter I bee nectar fermenting into at the end of summer under less honey-friendly conditions.  Coincidentally, their brand of stoner rock has the geometric and psychedelic qualities of a honeycomb.  These grooves are repetitive and technical, but never too flashy and by no means boring. A grounded rhythm section is nicely complemented by hydrodynamic guitar lines and extraterrestrial effects.  Not exactly what I’d deem space rock, but a bit arthropodic to be sure.  In fact, this whole record would score an Apoidean documentary quite nicely.  With the majority of the footage shot within the hive and featuring a substantial amount of bee carnage of course, this would make the PERFECT soundtrack to a Planet Earth chapter on bee fights.  I’d buy that for a dollar!  This hyper limited, hand-screened, hand-numbered LP full of heavy, buzzing, intoxicating rock is HIGH-ly recommended for stoned drones.  The Queen would never approve, but fuck that bitch – she’s fucking all of us."

fans of lightning bolt, sunn o))), unholy two, sleep, pelican, spacemen 3, boris, don cabellero, the melvins and liquorball will find something to get excited about in UNMANNED SHIP's new lp.......

yes....it's another highly recommended release from ROTTED TOOTH........

LISTEN TO FOR WHOM THE BOWL TOLLS....
  and grab it from ROTTED TOOTH here......
limited to 300 hand numbers copies, all marked 420 out of 300......


WATCH UNMANNED SHIP LIVE BELOW.....



Unmanned Ship @ The Dust Bowl 10/01/11 from Joe Martinez Jr. on Vimeo.

kraus - sumpreme commander

the back story of a band doesn't matter.  never really has.  even though the blogs / zines / the hype generating media saturated world we live in would suggest otherwise.......IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC........i could care less where an album came from or who made it.....it could drop from the sky......and onto my turntable and if it catches my attention and sucks me into it's little grooves, THAT'S WHAT MATTERS..........

who is KRAUS?  i've heard he was part of new zealand's finest space punks THE FUTURIANS, but that might just be a rumor.  he is a mysterious fringe musician for sure, and i'd rather let the question of back story remain vague.  i'm sure he's from the same musical corner of the universe as SUN RA, MOONDOG and BRUCE HAACK.....but that is as far into researching as i want to go with KRAUS......anymore context would just detract from this wonderfully obscuro rock record that just appeared one day on my turntable.......

MONIKER RECORDS might just wanna keep the secret to themselves anyway......after all KRAUS' new album SUMPREME COMMANDER is a BY FAR ONE OF THE MOST WAY OUT THERE PSYCH RECORDS OF 2012......and you wouldn't want some other indie label just stealing him away if you were MONIKER, right.....?

SUPREME COMMANDER starts off somewhere in the realm of KING BLOOD and PURLING HISS with it's crunchy blown out psych riffage, wondering to and fro, melting away anything that comes close to pop structure....... what KRAUS aims for is more of an experimental / electronic / analog sound collage that's part sci-fi b-movie soundtrack and part post krautrock mind expanding......and a whole lotta OUT THERE SOUNDS....... think TANGERINE DREAM covering FLOWER TRAVELIN BAND.....or CAN and KRAFTWERK playing NINTENDO together (or making a soundtrack for their epic video game battle)..........but probably more to the point, GOBLIN and THROBBING GRISTLE getting high and collaborating on SPACE ROCK album together...........   

yes KRAUS has made a wholly unique and interesting AVANT ROCK LP THAT BEGS YOU TO LISTEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN.   experimental music is not just for the knob twiddlers and feedback sculptors......KRAUS proves that with a guitar, a keyboard, some effects pedals and a drum machine (and occasional drums) that you can record something exceptional....with no pro-tools foolery......just the kind of analog tricks and tape manipulating that made all those ENO and RESIDENTS lps SO GROUNDBREAKING.........(both of which are also influences on KRAUS)

do yerself a favor and check out SUPREME COMMANDER below... 
        because it's another highly recommended platter from MONIKER......


and watch KRAUS' video for SUPREME COMMANDER here......

Kraus "Supreme Commander" LP from Kraus on Vimeo.

n.e.c. - last point of radiation

N.E.C. (or natural extension concept) just released a killer slab of feedback drenched shoegazing space / pysch rock earlier this year entitled LAST POINT OF RADIATION via SPECTIVE AUDIO........  and it's a release you need to check out now........

channeling the outer reaching sonic explorations of SPACEMEN 3, LOOP and RIDE as well as the proto space psych of HAWKWIND and the krautrock jams of NEU and CAN, N.E.C. pack plenty of mind altering punch in their latest full length........layers of guitar, propulsive bass lines, walls of droning noise and plenty of psych freakouts....... the warning label on the LP ought to suggest YOUR MIND MIGHT MELT AFTER REPEATED LISTENS........  these under-the-radar atlanta rockers ought to make more of a name for themselves in the future, as LAST POINT OF RADIATION is quite the FULLY FORMED PSYCH ROCK NUGGET READY TO BLAST YOU OFF IN SPACE NEVER TO RETURN......

fans of CAMERA, CARLTON MELTON, WOODEN SHJIPS, CAVE, TORTOISE, DISAPPEARS, ONEIDA, BARDO POND and MY BLOODY VALENTINE will DIG THIS FAR OUT ALBUM FOR SURE........ it's kinda like throwing CREATION RECORDS shoegaze into an atom smasher with 70s psych and any of yer fave epic SPACE ROCKERS.................

LAST POINT OF RADIATION is a HIGHLY RECOMMEND INTERGALACTIC TRIP YOU NEED TO TAKE NOW.........

LISTEN SIX AND DEATH TRAINING VIDEO OFF THE NEW LP BELOW......



and watch NEC take you higher and higher live below......

hawkwind - do not panic

HAWKWIND is one of the most influential and creative bands from the 70s...... their blend of psych , proto metal, space rock and noisy prog was like nothing anyone had ever heard back then, and it still is some of the most astounding and unique rock n roll you can throw on your turntable today.......  quite a few of the bands reviewed here on TINY GROOVES would not exist if not for the ground HAWKWIND broke with their genre defying lps in the 70s........ and if you don't know anything about HAWKWIND, that needs to change right now......

watch the excellent BBC documentary DO NOT PANIC about HAWKWIND below.......  it's super HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.......!!!!!!  and after yer done watching, go buy yerself some HAWKWIND lps......

james arthur manhunt - s/t (2010)

James Arthur was the guitarist and architect behind a bunch of the noisiest, nastiest garage bands of the last couple of decades: Fireworks, Necessary Evils, A Feast of Snakes, Golden Boys. He's been holed up in a shack in the wilds of Texas the last few years, slowly cataloguing on his four track the evil filth that excretes from his addled brain during long nights lost to the whiskey and mescal that fuelled them. The results were sifted through by the folks at Aarght!, who compiled this LP. You get half a dozen actual songs mixed up with a mess of instrumental chaos......


and man YOU DON'T COME ACROSS A BAND LIKE JAMES ARTHUR MANHUNT EVERYDAY...  these guys are out to rock whether yr listening or not........


Terminal Boredom sez: ''Mostly (but not all) instrumental and dealing in arid tumbleweed lore and sci-fi rotgut seizures, MANHUNT gives JAMES a reason to get all schnockered up and expel his inner demons via 4-track....A smashed southern R&B and garage sound in the same vein as his recent namesake singles or 68' Comeback...if they was NUTS. Messy and fun all around."

Goner  Records  sez : ''Fuzz, reverb, guitar overload from James Arthur. Manhunt was described in Australia as ''Psychedelic Vomit'' and we're not disagreeing. Suicide, International Harvester, Chrome, Davie Allan, Jeff Evans, Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle, and the ghost of 68 Comeback's Jack Taylor all live in this thing. It's dense. It's wild. It's great!''

SPACE ROCK smashed to pieces by some southern acid fried garage punks........  Think the OBLIVIANS or the LAZY COWGIRLS covering HAWKWIND or SPACEMEN 3 with LOU REED's METAL MACHINE MUSIC scorching levels of destruction..........  

anyway this is one of those releases i slept on, but reports from GONER FEST this year tell me that these guys are not to be missed....... so go ahead and.....click here to download the s/t lp from 2010


(thanks goes to SMASHIN TRANSISTORS for the tip on these guys as well as several people from chicago who sadly went to goner fest without me......)


watch  below......