These are some dudes from Boston. These are some dudes who play music. These are some bad dudes.
Young Adults play rock and roll. Young Adults ARE rock and roll.
Their demo has 5 songs. One song is inexplicably not-so-hidden and it's called "Bummer Summer." It is good but not as good as "Rip It Up" which is the first song on the demo. "Rip It Up" RIPS IT UP. It is post power echo punk that will dance with you then punch you in the mouth.
You can buy a demo for $4. The packaging is nice (slim line DVD case). You can also download the demo for free. You will be a good person if you do either of those things.
Young Adults are playing some shows soon, Girlfriends will be playing some of them too. They will be good shows. Both bands will like you a lot if you go to their shows.
If you live in/around Boston, you should already know who and what the Whitehaus in JP is. It's a big place with lots of people and they all make stuff. It's a record label. It's a place where super fun shows go down. It's like something you see in a movie that is the most awesome thing ever and you want so bad to be a part of it but you realize it's way too cool to ever happen in real life (aka Empire Records). Well, these kids made it happen and the world, or at the very least Boston, is better for it.
The Whitehaus Family Record put out a 2xlp compilation, the Family Record. Clever, right? 27 songs, all different bands, all different styles, and one single cohesive mindset. Yes Wave.
This comp is full of the greatest non-noise Boston has to offer. Unnerving spoken word, dusty Americana, warped bedroom pop, whole hearted folk, tropical drone, expansion psych, hand clapping hootenannies, electro hip hop, delicate guitars, chilled out dance jams, intimate angel choirs, fiddles & banjos, Casios & drum machines, 100% FUN
Monday, February 8 Sequoyah Leaf at Weirdo Records (8:00, donate, all ages) I have no idea. Noise + clarinet? It's at Weirdo, that's all you need to know.
Brandon Terzakis
Tuesday, February 9 Brandon Terzakis at Cafe Fixe (8:00, donate, all ages) One man drone dude will know you out with minimalism.
Wednesday, February 10 Ghost Grass and Retribution Body at Mobius (8:00, $10, all ages) Organic electronic dronescapes to empty the useless shit filling your head.
Ununi, Gaetana Brown, I The Eye by Kelly Alsheimer via
Saturday, February 13 Alto Jeffro, Ununi, Gaetana Brown, I The Eye, Black Steel Peacock at Outpost 186 (8:00, $5, all ages) Nice showcase with bands from No More 60s. You got acoustic punk nastiness, harsh noise, pleasant folk, weirdo electronics, and pretty much everything your fucked up heart could ever desire from a single show.
I hope you remember Ava Luna. Their synth punk gospel doo wop is not a sound you could easily forget. And if you did forget, you clearly weren't paying enough attention in the first place. Anyway, after shaking things up a little bit on the blogs and stuff, they're back with another sweetly handmade CD-R, the Services EP.
I have good news on all fronts about this one you guys. Most importantly, their number fetish is still going strong, with a song called "Eight Nine (Won't You Be Mine?)." And they still don't sound like anything else you've heard (unless you got their debut 3rd Avenue Island). They've taken their patented synth soul punk and smoothed it out. The girl harmonies are silkier than ever, the drums are doing more than just keeping time, and the gritty DIY sound has a thin glaze of cleanliness. And they threw in some violins to keep this shit classy.
In my review of their debut, I said they sounded like if "Todd Lewis of Toadies had some old fashioned glee club girls join him in his church of synth punk to sing hymns" and that's still very much the case. Ava Luna are fucking refreshing. And catchy. And goddamnit they're just making some of the coolest and original shit out there right now. GET ON THIS.
De Jonge Jaren sounds like Machinefabriek making a Notwist/Aphex Twin record. Yeah, tons of electronic beats, pretty poppy, kinda catchy, and really fuckin good.
How I had never heard of Kyle Bobby Dunn before I saw him at the Intransitive Recordings showcase on New Years Eve is beyond me. The guy fuckin blew my mind. Obviously, I went to the merch table to buy something, anything, that had his name on it. Holy fuck. I wasn't expecting this.
The Intimate Rituals Of Kyle Bobby Dunn is a piece of art. Literally. It's limited to 100 hand numbered copies, and every one consists of an abstract pen & ink drawing with a CD affixed to the back of it. And each one is drawn by hand (by Ashley Payne), entirely original, no duplicates or prints. No two are the same. You spend $20 and get an original piece of art along with Kyle Bobby Dunn's new release. Fucking WOW.
So the packaging is easily the most amazing packaging on anything I've ever owned but that's just the physical aspect of it. The music on Rituals is astounding. Dunn's weapon of choice is his laptop and he uses it to craft the most minimal twinkling engine whir wind drone ever. Listening to his music is like studying a canvas purposefully left blank. The canvas is beautiful and the longer you stare at it, the more beautiful it becomes. All of the tiny fibers weaving in and out, the seemingly solid color that shifts ever so slightly from thread to thread, these are the foundations that people use to create great art, but Dunn makes them the art itself.
This is some of the most nuanced and delicate drone I've ever heard. Listening to Rituals idly, or only giving it one of your ears is a severe mistake. It takes little to no effort to get immense joy out of this, just make sure it has your complete attention or you'll be doing both yourself and Dunn a great disservice.
The Intimate Rituals Of Kyle Bobby Dunn is the very first release from Songs From Under The Floorboards, a sub-division of Intransitive Recordings. Looks like it'll be a bit difficult to get ahold of, seeing how the label doesn't really have a proper web presence at the moment, but you could shoot Kyle an e-mail and he might be able to hook you up. And trust me, you want to get hooked up.
P.S. Watch out for the gator feedback attack at the end. He's pretty nasty.
Nick Hennies' grandfather, Charles Nichols, would randomly recite poems and Nick's aunt insisted he record some of them, which he did, and eventually forgot about. Fast forward a few years, Nick found the tape and was enthralled, motivated to create something inspired by his late grandfather. Lineal "is not a memorial to Charles Nichols; it is an homage to memory."
Lineal starts out with a 9 minute track of some beautifully minimal wine glass tapping and rubbing sounds, soft high end drone with non-invasive clicks and dings. Glitchy in a smooth and relaxing way, the sounds of sunlight dancing on water.
While the opening track is super gorgeous, it's the second track that's the focus here, running for almost a half hour. It starts with Mr. Nichols, in his weathered and resonant voice, reciting "The Day Is Done" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We're told the poem is complete with a wine glass ding, like Reading Rainbow gone Masterpiece Theatre. The drones that follow are much less heavenly as before, instead sounding like a frosted winter wind, howling through power lines and open fields. The squeaking of blades being sharpened are heard in the distance and the storm is on its way.
Another wine glass rings, signaling an abrupt shift in mood. Birds chattering, trickling water, insects scarfing leaves, and a faint twinkling guitar precede "What I Said And What Christ Said" by George MacDonald. The sweet ambience lingers for a while once the poem is over, until it shifts gears again into something more sublime, more organ like, as if we just listened to nature and Nichols conjuring Belong, only what appears is merely the spirit of Belong, a bare bones version. Blissful, but 10 times more minimal, just a half dozen layers of tinny drone, waiting for Nichols to jump into "Home" by Edgard A Guest.
The last 5 minutes are spent slipping back into the wine glass drone on the first track, ending bizarrely with an old fashioned party song and one final wine glass ding.
Is Lineal your average drone record? Fuck no. And that's precisely why it's so awesome. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.
Donoso is the head honcho of Semata, one of the best things Boston has going for it right now. He puts out records from amazing local noise/drone acts and he organizes/hosts some of the best noise shows in town. He also happens to make some noise himself, and Zerovinteum is his latest foray into dark ambient soundscapes.
The title track is a frightening affair, with giant sheets of metal gliding along, seeping long resonant tones through the atmosphere. Super awesome. The B side, "Plate Fourteen," starts out with a deep earth rumble, goes through a long stint of beautifully minimal bowed cymbal doom, and ends in a locked groove of hissing seismic aftershocks.
Highly recommended and totally fucking great. A limited edition 7" that's wholly worth your $7.
Saturday, February 6 Bone Zone, General Interest, World Map, Thunderhole at Problem House / House 11 (7:00, $5, all ages) Use your money to benefit Haiti and listen to awesome DIY stuff.
...for 30 minutes, your ears go on a magical journey with blissful beds of warm fuzz creating the foundation for mostly melodious wheezing tones and weaving chords.
Here's a crazy idea: Put out a tape dedicated to a Nordic skier who competed in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Here's a crazier idea: Do a whole series devoted to various skiers from said Olympics. Not sure who thought of this, but sir, I would like to shake your hand.
The great thing about a split on Sunrise is that even though the chances are that I'll only know 1 or 2 of the bands involved (in this case, only German Shepherd), I still fully expect to be won over by everyone involved. For Gunde Svan is no different. It's the first in a planned series and on this one, 4 artists gets 15 minutes each to speak their mind.
Tuluum Shimmering starts things out with a vaguely Asian sounding rhythm drone. Guitars and wooden blocks go back and forth, weaving a Zen like tapestry while chimes twinkle throughout. Cheb Samdoun goes almost 100% guitar, with melodic loops laid on top of a wall of fuzz that gets into a real solid groove, almost like some mellow psyche jam. That piece dies out and another scarier one emerges. The once dreamy fuzz has turned into a more ominous static. It's full of recycling feedback that sounds Skullflower made an easy listening record.
Flip the tape over and you're treated to the best guitar drone Wisconsin has to offer. German Shepherd makes sweet cloud static that is unmatched in its tranquility. His piece here is as blissful as ever, making the most beautiful un-guitar like sounds rise from his axe. The subtle soft silver sheets (alliteration ftw!) of delicate tones are fucking top notch. Finally, Zac Keiller closes the tape with his feathery Stars Of The Lid style chords. It's got some rainstick/stream sounds that skim through under the guitars a little bit, until the mood changes to something darker, like some sort of nightmare lullaby about buzzsaws made of marshmallows. I couldn't think of a better way to end a tape dedicated to Gunde Svan.
Like most things Sunrise, this little diddy is limited. Only 100 copies made. High quality pro printed folded inserts with plenty of liner notes plus a yellow tape with perhaps some screenprinting going on? Very nice indeed.
I Want To Review Your Music If you make music and you want it reviewed on my blog, just send me an e-mail. I would love to hear what you're making and give you a little more exposure in the process.
Disclaimer All of the music on this site is for promotional and sampling purposes only. If you enjoy it, please consider buying the record or going to see the band live. They will appreciate it, I promise. If you own the rights to a song on this site and you would like it removed, please contact me and I will do so as quickly as my tiny paws allow.
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