mmoss - only children

Don't write your year end best of lists yet. At least not until you've heard the new album from , entitled Only Children.  In a year filled to the brim with creative and unique psych Lps, TROUBLE IN MIND pressed up one of the best mind altering lps of the year; a long player definitely worth forgetting your credit card debts to buy.
MMOSS

Most of the current wave of psych bands wear their influences on their sleeves (might as well have a jean jacket full of patches of their favorite bands) and end up sounding like rip offs.  But MMOSS somehow bring a whole new level of sonic alchemy to the game.  

They seamlessly meld the guitar tricks, the acid folk stylings and the druggy haze of variant strains of psychedelic rock as we historically know it into something current and mesmerizingly new.  By adding elements such as krautrock's drone, prog instrumentation (yes flute and crazed organ solos) and garage's forcefulness, Only Children is in a class all it's own.  

Mmoss is somewhere out in left field near Cave, Olivia Tremor Control and The Oh Sees, but for sure blazing their own trail in hallucinogenic wilderness.  "War Sux" is an expansive motorik psych blaze of glory, space rocking on for a mind melting ten minutes.  While other songs like "Another Day" are short and sweet AM gold jangle meets acid casualty woozy garage anthems.  Mmoss stretch it out and explore the outer reaches of psych while not forgetting to give us quite a slew of haunting pop psych jams on Only Children. 

Few bands can mix West Coast hippie psych (think Love, Spirit and Public Nuisance) with the art damaged forays of the late 60s/early 70s UK avant rock scene (Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown, Hawkwind and Soft Machine) into such a eerie and potent elixir.  You're gonna wanna take this trip with Mmoss over and over again 'cause Only Children is the real thing, not some pretend psych rock for the trendy.

Listen MMOSS' ONLY CHILDREN below 

and don't wait for your man, hit up Trouble In Mind now.  

watch MMOSS at AUSTIN PSYCH FEST this year......

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.

woollen kits - four girls

not only are the WOOLLEN KITS no slouches, but they're writing some of the best jangle pop tunes i've heard in quite some time.......

so if you didn't pick up or hear their s/t debut from last january on RIP SOCIETY, now is the time to introduce yourself to the WOOLLEN KITS....and their new banging lp FOUR GIRLS out now on TROUBLE IN MIND......

WOOLLEN KITS effortless concoct a blend of noisy lo-fi jangle pop that's both sugary sweet and rough around the edges in just the right proportion.   indie rock hasn't sounded this exciting since the mid 80s, when there were no rules.....  think THE CLEAN, MODERN LOVERS and BEAT HAPPENING all on one mixtape and you'll get what WOOLLEN KITS are aiming for on their new lp FOUR GIRLS....and you gotta love a band that boils rock music down to its core, both sonically and lyrically.  i mean aren't most songs about girls?  and FOUR GIRLS gives us, guess what, four anthemic songs about GIRLS.....what could be better......?

especially when its through the lens of their rollicking frenzied indie rock that's part K Records shamble, part noisy jangle of FLYING NUN's kiwi pop and a whole lotta garage beat...  Woollen Kits keep the spirit of guitar rock alive, outta the dusty dollar bins of neglected records stores and back into the spotlight.......  the kids need earnest catchy noisy rock n roll songs like this....... after all it's not like we can still go to a TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, VASELINES or HALO BENDERS show every time we need a fix like this.........

ANOTHER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LP FROM TROUBLE IN MIND? 
YES! 
ANOTHER AWESOME AUSTRALIAN BAND YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT NOW?
YES! 
ANOTHER CONTENDER FOR YOUR YEAR END BEST OF LIST? 
YES!
ANOTHER LP FULL OF FUTURE MIXTAPE ROCKERS?
WHY YES!

DUDE FORGET YOUR XMAS SHOPPING LIST, JUST BUY EVERYONE A COPY OF WOOLLEN KITS' FOUR GIRLS AND CALL IT A DAY............!!!!

LISTEN TO SOME CHOICE CUTS OFF FOUR GIRLS BELOW........
   and hit up TROUBLE IN MIND for yer copy now........






AND WATCH WOOLLEN KITS LIVE BELOW.....
   (it's their whole set from a show earlier this year in seattle......)

hellshovel and acid baby jesus present VOYAGER 8

what if two of yer favorite bands got together in the studio to jam out and record new songs?  you'd be stoked of course........so hold onto yer hats man, and get ready for VOYAGER 8........  two of SLOVENLY RECORDS heaviest hitters, HELLSHOVEL and ACID BABY JESUS, have teamed up for a little 10 inch gem of an ep that they entitled VOYAGER 8.......

the satellite reference is more than apt, since this is a slab of some heavy mind blowing PSYCH ROCK N ROLL..... full of keyboard swirling, layers of reverb, acid fried jangly guitars and prog bent space rock sonic explorations........  VOYAGER 8 has two collaborative songs from ACID BABY JESUS AND HELLSHOVEL, and one new unreleased song from each band.......  making it one highly recommended dish that you'll wanna spin over and over again.........

fans of either band as well as those into king crimson, white fence, demon's claws, can, spacemen 3, hawkwind, the seeds, the oh sees and anything garage, psych or space rock oriented will DIG THIS 10 INCH, i promise........

this will tide us over over until we get new lps from HELLSHOVEL and ACID BABY JESUS for sure.......  so don't miss out..... this ep won't gather any dust at SLOVENLY HQ that's for sure.....

LISTEN UP BELOW........



AND WATCH VOYAGER 8 LIVE BELOW.....
thanks to april novak....

drunk pixels - king khan and bbq

THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE.  THEY SAID IT WOULDN'T EVER HAPPEN AGAIN.  BUT THEY WERE WRONG.  FUCK OFF ALL YOU HATERS............

KING KHAN AND BBQ ARE BACK......they absolutely destroyed the empty bottle last week, i mean fucking killed it...... one of the best shows of the year hands down.....

so it case you missed it.......watch below..... 
   (thanks to sei jin for the drunk pixels)  

HOLY SHIT, LET'S ROCK N ROLL MOTHER FUCKERS !!!!!!!!






WITH SURPRISE GUEST NOBUNNY !!!!!



ENCORE !!!!!!! LET'S GET SWEATY AND DRUNK !!!!!!!

dirtnap records 2012 sampler

hey kids just in case you forgot to get yr fix of dirty lo-fi punk this year, DIRTNAP RECORDS has dropped a sampler of greatest hits from their 2012 releases.........it's a great place to start out if you haven't heard some of these awesome punk bands......

included are killer jams from the new MIND SPIDERS, WHITE WIRES and MEAN JEANS lps......as well as some fucking banging chainsaw punk tunes from SOMETHING FIERCE, STEVE ADAMYK and SONIC AVENUES...... as well as songs from perenial faves of TINY GROOVES, HIGH TENSION WIRES and BAD SPORTS......

2012 has flooded TINY GROOVES with so so many good releases it's been hard to feature them all..... and everyone of these bands and their new lps and singles should've made it on the blog earlier this year if they didn't........  this shit is highly recommended high volume listening pleasure.

SO DO YERSELF A FAVOR AND GET TO KNOW ALL THESE BANDS NOW........  

and thanks DIRTNAP FOR MAKING SURE PUNK IS NOT DEAD.......

rock n roll below..................

ono - albino

MONIKER RECORDS has released what just may be THE STRANGEST DARKEST AND MOST MESMERIZING LP OF THE YEAR: ALBINO by ONO......

a experimental swirl of shadowy influences from punk to gothic blues, as well as no wave, gospel, noise, dub and proto industrial......ALBINO is a truly AVANT POP MASTERPIECE...... musical reference points for ONO are ALL WAY OUT:  Captain Beefheart, Can, Tools You Can Trust, Birthday Party, Throbbing Gristle, Faust, Public Image Ltd, the Residents. Controlled Bleeding, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks and Suicide.....  just listing all those bands makes my head swell, but believe me ONO swallows all those diverse strains of musical exploration and makes one crazed hell of an album........

ONO's music is a post apocalyptic nightmare dream sequence filmed by david lynch, sure to shred your perception of reality......filled with no wave clanging guitars, cacophonous industrial beats, gospel moaning and a fierce off kilter coat of feeback looping and droning, this lp is as PUNK, EXPERIMENTAL and  OUTSIDER as you can get.......  imagine going to see ONO back in the early 80s when the whole chicago punk scene were bands like naked raygun and mentally ill......  THIS SHIT WOULD'VE PROVOKED FIGHTS, IT SOUNDED SO STRANGE, OUTTA THIS WORLD AND AHEAD OF ITS TIME.......

the mysterious ONO has been lurking around chicago for thirty years now, in the shadows and so far off the grid as to not even warrant a proper allmusic entry, but hopefully with ALBINO this will all change.....ONO's back story is quite hazy as are the album details, but fortunately MONIKER RECORDS has done their research before releasing this album, so read on -

 To non-locals, ONO's stunning Albino might have fallen from the sky, but to an enlightened and ever-growing bunch of Chicago heads the band is already full-on legend, and the release of their first recorded music since 1986 is a majorly epic landmark that needs no introduction. For the rest of y'all: ONO is a unit of transcendent noise-making now in its fourth decade. Both notorious and neglected in their early years, ONO's unholy bitches' brew of noisy snarl, avant-garde R&B, gospel-heavy blackness, queer sensibility and extravagant, performance-art theatrics (they once played a concert at Navy Pier in which singer travis was dragged through the audience in a steel cage, naked but for a jockstrap) was in a whole 'nuther galaxy from the macho Chicago punk scene that spawned them.

Reemerging in the late 00s with astonishing vehemence and an expansive, multi-generational lineup, they've been embraced by a more fertile and experimental Chicago scene, and are about to explode skulls internationally. travis has always referred to fellow-founder P. Michael ONO as the 'leader of the band,' but anchor might be more appropriate—P. Michael's groundswelling bass and nasty, insectoid beats are unquestionably the glue that binds the sprawling noise. But then there's travis, whose fierce brilliance carries echoes of punk prophets like Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and Gil Scott-Heron but is always pure, raging ONO. As for the rest of the band, check the sick, Beefheartian groove of Veil, or their revelatory cover of the Velvet Underground's All Tomorrow's Parties, which manages to excise much of the song's innate sentimentality while upping its sonic generosity, the wall-of-sound sprouting weeds and flowers in its cracks.

ONO's original mission statement (1980) runs through this music more truly and deeply than ever, so to quote it in full and let it speak for itself: ONO1980// Experimental Performance, NOISE, and Industrial Poetry Performance Band; Exploring Gospel's Darkest Conflicts, Tragedies and Premises. Some deep-listening shit--beyond recommended! 

this is one album that just can't be explained--words are not descriptive enough to encapsulate the haunting power of this record, one that i wasn't sure i would even like but now can't stop spinning.  you gotta just listen for yourself, and be saved by the redemptive dark magic of ONO.....ALBINO is truly unique music, that rips down the illegitimate walls we put up between sub genres of rock n roll.......  after a couple of spins you might just find yourself putting ONO on your best of the year list........ 

SO LISTEN TO ALBINO BELOW....
    and grab it from MONIKER RECORDS now......limited to 300 copies.

watch ONO's video for MODEL BRIDE filmed in 1983.....



and for further listening track down ONO's first two seminal recordings, MACHINES THAT KILL PEOPLE (soon to be reissued) and ENNUI.......both VERY RECOMMENDED...........
hit up youtube for a listen, there are avid ONO fans that have done us a favor and uploaded these two lost and classic album from THERMIDOR RECORDS.............