Monday, March 24, 2008

Some Good Things In Small Packages.....7" Reviews




A fair amount of snazzy 7"ers has come waltzin up to the door here at Siltblog. One or two is care of old pals, others from newbie's. Some careers will be forged, some dreams will be shattered but ain't that a day in the life anyhow?

Little Claw done an excellent lp last yr that I'd meant to include in my year end top picks but in my haste to ge the thing up, I inadvertently skipped it. Now they done this little fella in conjunction w/some western tourin & I was lucky enough to get one after an amazin performance at some record shop last wk in Austin. The 3 tracks included herein ably summon forth the bizarre beauty & mutant psychedelic frug once exclusively patented by Christchurch & Dunedin sodbusters whose names begin & end w/both vowels & consonants. I mean really, do I have to name them for you? This thing leads off w/the scratchy creeper crawl Little Claw is known for while the additional tracks work inside a space devoid of gravity yet brimming w/neon & helium. The exhale is pure ecstasy. This bunch just keeps gettin better. Edition of 300; www.myspace.com/littleclaw

Meth Teeth was unknown to me before this 4 song ep . It's on a label called Sweet Rot that I seem to recall released a Blank Dogs 7" last yr. Like Blank Dogs, I get the impression Meth Teeth is but a solo space ranger. He's got a cool detached sound very reminiscent of a past underrated hero of mine, Mike Runnels. If you's is familiar w/Mike's small but solid body of work, Meth Teeth is gonna seem like the prodigal son home for a bbq. Cool stuff. www.myspace.com/sweetrotrecords

Besides Country Teasers, Lamps is far & away my next favorite act on In The Red. I keep hearin good things by & about them & while their 2 lp's is proof as to an unabashed raw greatness, I ain't had pleasure (yet) of the live blood letting. Like Regan said in the Exorcist, In time, in time'. So while they's still not playin out east, they done this 7" for Hook or Crook & it's as swell as a cold beer on a hot day. On one side they gouge out a cover of Drunks With Guns 'Cowboy' while on the other shatterin some original-an ode to the bass player-that sounds like a pair've Mecht Mensch forceps extractin the teeth of Leather Nun. Your pain is their gain. www.myspace.com/hookorcrook

O Voids is probably the 1st band outta Montreal I've heard this year. Their approach & sound seems pulled right outta 82-83 American post punk, not all that dissimilar to Mission Of Burma. I've no doubt there are certain masonic like devotees who believe that NO ONE could EVER deliver like MOB & that a mere comparison to Boston's most hallowed band of all time are the words of a heretic. Guilty as charged, bub. What can I say? O Voids remind me of Mission Of Burma & sometimes that's a good thing. Even on here. www.myspace.com/theovoids


1st there was Meth Teeth, now Metal Teeth? Comin from a label named after one of the greatest blasts of punk sputter ever recorded, I'd expect some serious droolage. And maybe it's happenin, just not emittin from my lips is all. Sure there's a couple tracks that hover around Planet Cramps (good!) but there's others that plunge into the hokum cesspool of Girl Trouble (____!). If I didn't know this label was from K-Zoo, I'd have sworn it was a muffin direct from the cute little bakery known as K. How about that? http://www.ufodictator.com/

I don't know about any you's, but I'm havin a hard time cottonin to a band named after a Pavement tune. But I felt the same way about that band Driver UFO from a few yrs back too. I guess I ought to be happy they ain't called Math Teeth or somethin. Box Elders is from Omaha on a new label called Grotto. I was scared they might be some mewing emo outfit like Bright Eyes but that ain't the case. They's more like a cross between The Box Tops & The Bats. So what's that make'em, the corn husker answer to Able Tasmans? I guess that'll do for now. www.myspace.com/boxelders

The one thing that's consistently great about John Laux is his bands/projects is always on the outside lookin in. Lot's of folks want to have it that way, affectin all manner of weirdness to give you the impression they's for real oddballs & whatnot. But with Mr. Laux it's just how the DNA oozes.Slicing Grandpa is incredibly prolific & I'm goin on record as sayin they's at their best w/the 7" format. At least to my ears. This latest ep entitled Methset boils down more of the leftfield fat, ala Nervous Gender, that they'd set about torchin on the 'Chaos Midnight' 10" from last yr. Sinister squalls, long howls into the night, this is the dark side of psychedelic's where God is a dog & the wretched rule earth. Outta sight! Another primo Laux dropper is an ep from Count Fistula whose assemblage of Rock-gore takes Goth out to the woodshed & pulverizes it's fanny w/some good old fashioned wah-core sort've like the late, great Cleveland band, Numbskull. It's funny, but I only knows a handful of folks that's keepin up w/John & his output. One of these days all them 7"ers is gonna be history & your gonna be a simperin sap kickin yrself you slept gettin'em way back when. Maybe someone'll take pity on ya & compile'em all on an lp. Then again, maybe not. Can you afford to take that chance? Me thinketh noteth. http://www.myspace.daisycutterrecords/
& http://www.scatologicalliberationfront.org/

If you'd have asked me yesterday if I needed to hear another cover of the Stooges 'Wanna be your dog", the NO would've resonated like one of them Alps yodeller's in the Riccola commercial. But after hearin Titmachine's version of said overdone classic, I's liked to have choked to death on my cough drop. A tremendous neanderthalic, witchy all-fem DIY sucker punch right between the eyes of any of the greatest punk primitief classics you can name, right up there w/Kleenex & Manisch Depressiv. I'd have pegged'em as Swiss too, but they's Dutch & much like their infamous elm disease, Titmaster is more than capable of complete devastation. The B-side a wondrous mess as well & I am goin to the front of the line to wait impatiently for their next amazing release. C'mon, let's have it! NOW!
http://www.meeuw.net/ & www.myspace.com/titmachine

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