05 | December | 2014 | Heartbreaking Bravery

December 5, 2014

Beliefs – Tidal Wave (Music Video)

Now, despite all the content that’s already gone up tonight, there’s still a lot that went down over the past week and a half while the site was dealing with technical complications. To that end, the approach in coverage is going to be slightly different this time around. Full streams, single streams, and music videos will all be covered- but they’ll be branched off into categories. Each entry will get a line or two and then when everything’s been accounted for, there’ll be a feature spot granted to Beliefs’ ridiculously entertaining clip for “Tidal Wave”. So, without further ado…

SINGLE STREAMS

Pet Cemetery – Giants: The newest near-perfect post-punk entry into Art Is Hard’s perfect Pizza Club series. | Deer Tick – White Havoc: A fuzzed-out Holiday stomper courtesy of one of today’s more intriguing acts. | Sun Hotel – Tropic of Cancer: An incredibly compelling and slightly damaged folk-leaning exploration. | Abi Reimold – Workshop: A folksy DIY pop masterpiece that doubles as a perfect contribution to a great compilation series. | The Soft Moon – Black: Nightmarishly menacing ambient music that tilts into industrial territory. | Sleater-Kinney – Surface Envy: Video game guitar lines. Corin Tucker’s vocals. Total madness. Sleater-Kinney is back. | Victoria+Jean – Holly: Seductive art-pop that flirts with expectations and capitalizes on tension. | Menace Beach – Blue Eye: An ambient noise exercise that only gains intrigue as it quietly builds towards its finish. | Deerhoof – Exit Only (Perfect Pussy Remix): A terrifying reimagining of an already terrifying song, courtesy of Shaun Sutkus. | Moon Duo – Animal: Menacing and minimal psych-punk that isn’t afraid to bare its fangs. | Grand Vapids – Aubade: Indie pop that isn’t afraid to subvert or challenge aesthetic expectations. | Howlin’ Rain – Wild Bush: A pastoral folk throwback jam that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. | California X – Red Planet: Another triumphant, scorched-earth preview of what looks to be a career-best effort. | The Sidekicks – Jesus Christ Supermalls: Subtle, stunning, and lovely. The Sidekicks‘ finest work to date. | Seagulls – Swimmin’: Unbelievably winsome and completely enchanting folk-centric indie pop. | Elephant Micah – Slow Time Vultures: Gently gorgeous and effortlessly arresting ambient folk reminiscent of Vic Chesnutt. | Future of What – Daydream 99: Boldly stylish indie pop that crafts its own brand of magic. |

FULL STREAMS

The Goodbye Party – Silver Blues: The latest DIY punk-pop gem to grace the impossibly reliable Salinas roster. | Littler – Get A Life: Relentlessly propulsive weirdo punk. | Bonny Doon – Fred’s House Demo: An impossibly overlooked (and impossibly great) folk-tinted basement pop masterpiece. | School ’94 – Like You: Graceful indie pop with gargantuan scope that still manages to come across as refreshingly breezy. | Forth Wanderers – Tough Love: Defiant and subtly venomous basement pop with an unbelievable amount of inherent charm. | SUSAN – Just Call It: Surf-indebted basement pop with enough punk bite to please a purist. | Githead – Waiting For A Sign: Leftifeld post-punk and new wave from a quasi-supergroup that features members of Wire, Compact, and Scanner. | Furnsss – Silent Gold: Deranged slacker punk and basement pop for the actively lethargic. | Thelma & The Sleaze – Heart Like A Fist: Incendiary basement punk with a heaping of 80’s hardcore influence. | Cave People – Older: Treble-heavy basement pop that leans towards sentiment and presents a genuinely memorable vision. | Terrorista – Purple Tape: Hard-charging basement punk that thrives on the notion that everything could fall apart at any second.

MUSIC VIDEOS

Young Statues – Run The River Dry: Visually stunning and endlessly intriguing, “Run The River Dry” shines a bright light on Young Statues’ promising future in the visual format. | Christian Lee Hutson – Late November: A simple concept that becomes a wrenching experience as it transforms into something inexplicably moving. | Flashlight O – TV Time: Staunchly DIY and weirdly hypnotic in its collage-heavy presentation. | Highway Cross – Open Eyes: Furiously paced and brilliantly edited, this is a perfect example of how emphasizing details can pay off in unexpectedly huge ways. | Luluc – Tangled Heart: Beautifully arranged and enhanced with simple, creative effects, “Tangled Heart” winds up feeling like something worth treasuring. | Johnny Marr – Dynamo: The iconic guitarist has always had a visual flair but those tendencies reach new, modern heights with this clip. | Run The Jewels – Oh My Darling (Don’t Cry): Like the group, this is a video driven by outsize personality- it’s unabashedly weird and it’s absolutely glorious. | Bass Drum of Death – For Blood: Bikers and gangs collide in deliriously entertaining fashion throughout this brilliantly executed tracking shot clip. | Blonde Redhead – Dripping: A sensual and highly stylized video that wields atmospherics and soft touches to stunning effect. | Communions – Love Stands Still: Classically composed and unwaveringly endearing; a perfect reflection of Communions’ indie pop. | A Place To Bury Strangers – Straight: A hallucinatory collage of striking imagery backed by one of the band’s most insistent songs to date. | Liars – Mask Maker (Extended Version): Characteristically bizarre and replete with a whole mess of yarn. | Tinkerbelles – When Puppies Cry: Extraordinarily damaged basement punk made weirder by one of the most insanely warped clips of 2014.

TIDAL WAVE

Okay, so the bold font probably wasn’t necessary but it’s late- and this is a really great video. Beliefs first gained an uptick in notoriety when they paired with the similarly-minded Greys for one of 2013’s best splits. Since then, they’ve been on a tear, steadily building a name for themselves on the strength of their powerful new material and formidable live show. If “Tidal Wave” is any indication, they may be able to add great music videos to that list as well. While it mostly finds inspiration in the trends of classic clips from the 80’s and 90’s there’s a certain playfulness here that’s missing from a lot of homage-style videos. That playfulness comes to a head nearly halfway through when they manage to seamlessly work in something genuinely unexpected and ridiculously perfect. It’s too good of a moment to spoil completely but it’s also one of the more endearingly appreciative moments of recent memory. By the time all the effects have worn down and “Tidal Wave” reaches its tongue-in-cheek epilogue, it becomes abundantly clear that this band has big things in mind for Leaper (the forthcoming album “Tidal Wave” is taken from) and for themselves. Beliefs aren’t a band intent to keep quiet and if they keep going at the pace they are, we’re all in for one hell of a ride.

Watch “Tidal Wave” below and pick up Leaper from Hand Drawn Dracula as soon as it’s available.

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December 5, 2014

Toby Reif – 2014 (EP Stream)

Photograph by Matthew Gilbertson

One of the best benefits of running a site is that it opens up the floodgates to great new music via unsolicited submissions. A few personal favorites have fought their way through that weird, uncharted territory that would otherwise have slipped by, potentially unnoticed. From Mulligrub to Spit to Space Mountain, it’s allowed the unearthing of a jaw-dropping assortment of treasures. Add Toby Reif’s vicious EP, 2014, to that list immediately. 2014 is a towering achievement that unleashes itself on the listener from the outset, courtesy of “Bug”, a snarling track that’s instrumental save for the layered ambient vocal samples towards the close. Equal parts post-punk and shoegaze, it falls into a territory not too far removed from the majority of Happy Diving’s excellent Big World.

“Skullkid”, 2014‘s ensuing track, flips the emphasis over to the (heavily distorted) vocals, which lash out of the speakers and make exacting cuts with no remorse. Once again, it’s a viscerally punishing track that sounds absolutely massive without bothering to cater to anything except for Reif’s formidable creative drive. Everything closes with the slow-burning “Going For A Walk And Then A Run At Night When I Should Be Sleeping”, which starts off on a delicate ambient tone before blooming into something much stranger. It’s a fitting end-cap to a genuinely great EP that should, if not anything else, establish Reif as an artistic force. Here’s hoping 2014 and Reif both find the audiences they deserve.

Listen to 2014 below.

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December 5, 2014

Liam Hayes – Fokus (Stream)

Every once in a while there’s a record, a video, or a song that comes along and shakes things up in the best of ways. Enter: Liam Hayes’ “Fokus”, a song that coasts on the kind of timeless punk-leaning powerpop that Ted Leo built his name on steadily perfecting. Hayes and Leo also share a similar timbre and delivery, along with their penchant for sunny melodicism and driving rhythm sections. Everything feels propulsive and joyous, from the light psych influences to the Byrds-ian jangle. “Fokus”, more than just about any other song to have been released over the past few months, has felt like a sunray forcing its way through the cold to provide some relief. It’s a charging whirlwind of a song that deserves to land on several summertime mixtapes next year- and operates just as effectively as a preview of Slurrup, which deserves to be met with anticipation. Keep the volume up for this one and use it to soundtrack an upcoming road trip, it’s built for travel.

Listen to “Fokus” below and pre-order Slurrup from the reliably great Fat Possum here.

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December 5, 2014

Space Mountain – California Blue (Stream)

Yes, Space Mountain sounds an awful lot like Trace Mountains– and not just in name. Make no mistake, though, while Dave Benton (also of LVL UP) and Cole Kinsler do share similar voices, similar solo project names, similar aesthetics, and similar deliveries- Space Mountain is still very much Kinsler’s own project. There’s a very strong identity that infuses both “California Blue” and “Love Song“, the two tracks Kinsler’s using to tease the forthcoming Wilderness Explorer. All things considered, the Space Mountain project may actually be veering closer towards Spit‘s incredible Getting Low. “California Blue” toys with a lot of different kinds of damage; personal, aesthetic, and structural being chief examples. It’s effortlessly compelling and carves out a place as an artist to watch for Space Mountain with genuine ease. Enchantingly layered and utterly heartfelt, this is the kind of lo-fi, left-of-center bedroom music well worth anyone’s devotion.

Listen to “California Blue” below and pre-order Wilderness Explorer from Space Mountain’s bandcamp.

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December 5, 2014

Title Fight – Chlorine (Music Video)

Title Fight, one of ANTI- Records’ most recent acquisitions, are building their lead-in campaign to the forthcoming Hyperview with a compelling amount of style. For most of their career, the band’s been an anomaly, eluding the pigeonholes of definitive genre tags with a determined finesse. While the band has eased up quite a bit on their surface-level snarl, they’re tapping into something that’s arguably more worthwhile: a snarling subtext. Which is why the subtly haunting video that accompanies lead-off single “Chlorine” feels like an appropriate mission statement. A new emphasis on shoegaze has emerged and, in turn, pushed the band to the brink of what feels like a revitalization as much as it does a reinvention. Gone is the screaming, leaving a feeling of suspense and dread in its place.

It’s a powerful new look for them and it suits Title Fight well. “Chlorine” sees them embracing the new direction in full and the accompanying Jonny Look-directed video only enhances the band’s new vision. Mark Burnham is at the center of the clip, as a man who can’t seem to escape the confines of a boat. It’s a relatively simple premise that grows more intricate as it progresses before finally curling into a quasi-nightmarish finish. There’s gorgeous cinematography throughout and a real sense of sorrow permeating Burnham’s engaging central performance. The only real lingering question mark is whether or not the rest of Hyperview will be able to live up to its memorably unnerving first look.

Watch “Chlorine” below and pre-order Hyperview from ANTI- here.

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December 5, 2014

Screaming Females – Empty Head (Stream)

All of the evidence Screaming Females have been providing us of late seem to indicate that their upcoming album, the exquisitely titled Rose Mountain, could easily become their finest work to date. While most people seem intent on calling Ugly their crowning achievement, the debate over their previous “best record” had been endless. Even with Ugly in the mix, the separation between that record and, say, Power Move, isn’t all that sizeable. All of their records are absurdly strong pieces of work that feel gargantuan and genuinely complete, yet the songs they’ve been teasing Rose Mountain seem to exceed even that absurdly high level. “Ripe“, “Wishing Well“, and even “Let Me In” (the B-side to “Wishing Well”) all rank among the best songs the band’s ever done and that winning streak’s being extended with their most recent teaser track, “Empty Head”.

As was the case with “Wishing Well” and “Ripe”, the band seems to have opted to eschew their more abrasive tendencies to create something that pushes their arresting melodic sensibilities to new extremes. Bandleader Marissa Paternoster seems to be dragging her main project towards the realms that occupied the extraordinary Holy Hell, the last album from her solo project, Noun. There’s an undeniable pop bent to “Empty Head”, which features yet another chorus that finds the band swinging for the fences and connecting with a startling emphasis. It’s a less intimidating affair than a lot of the band’s past work but yet another indication that basements simply won’t be enough to contain this band or their sound. If Ugly was their breakthrough effort, expect Rose Mountain to push them into even higher echelons. Just don’t expect them to lose sight of their roots. For all they’ve accomplished in terms of stature, Screaming Females are still a band who are very comfortable with where (and who) they are.

Listen to “Empty Head” below, with it’s brilliant Paternoster time-lapse art video, and order Rose Mountain as soon as it’s out from Don Giovanni.

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December 5, 2014

Chandos – Cobra Points (Stream)

Carpark Records seem to have made a habit out of releasing extraordinary albums towards the start of the year. Cloud Nothings’ classic Attack On Memory and Popstrangers’ dazzling Antipodes were both released in either January or February and both of them found their way into a healthy handful of year-end lists. Chandos has a shot at repeating that trend with their antagonistically titled Rats In Your Bed when it finally arrives on January 27. Chandos (who used to go by the name Chandeliers) already unveiled the visceral “..Pretty Sure It’s ‘Tang Top’” about a month back and they’re following it with the equally raw “Cobra Points” in the run-up to the record’s release.

Expertly fusing post-hardcore, 90’s emo, and post-punk into a sound that seems to be constantly on the verge of catharsis, Chandos have managed to create something that hits with force and meaning in “Cobra Points”. Furiously frenetic and unwaveringly aggressive, it sounds like it’s constantly on the verge of collapse without ever giving out. There’s a very subtle math influence that seems more obvious when considering the song’s hairpin turns and terrifying precision. Vocals are barked out, the drumkit’s brutalized, and the guitars become nothing short of weaponry throughout the two and a half minute runtime of “Cobra Points”. Everything culminates in an ending that takes a stunning sharp left and is more than enough to raise the stakes on the anticipation level that Rats In Your Bed deserves.

Listen to “Cobra Points” below and pre-order Rats In Your Bed from Carpark here.

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