Miss Autopsy - Caterpillar (Lens, 2009)

Miss Autopsy - Caterpillar


Miss Autopsy isn't a "Miss" at all. It's actually a guy! HA! His name is Steve Beyerink. And in case you were looking for someone to give you an uplifting pep talk (aren't you always?) then STAY AWAY from Miss Autopsy. He's not gonna help.

I think Caterpillar is taking heavy influences from Albini and Slint except this is way way scarier. But not in the Gnaw Their Tongues hellish torturing scream filled nightmares kinda way. No, this is more like the "let's just back away from this dude 'cause he's giving me the fucking creeps" kinda scary. There's a lyric on the title track about him meeting a caterpillar in his garden who wanted to be his friend, but he squishes him with his fingers. Granted, he does also say afterwards that he can't sleep anymore once he kills the caterpillar BUT STILL. Definitely not the kinda guy I'm going to go out of my way to be friends with.

I think the vocals are what really do it, though. I mean, yeah, the minimal percussion and folky post-punk guitars definitely give off an eerie vibe but man his voice. Sometimes it's like an atonal pedophile dragging his claws down a chalkboard. Sometimes he sounds just like a regular depressed guy, but then you notice he's hiding a fucking meat cleaver behind his back.

There are a few tracks on here that could be considered pretty normal & digestible, though. Like "El Paso." Just a laid back solo guitar with Steve singing sad. And "Dead Loner Blues" is dark thematically but is otherwise not totally upsetting. Like your mom wouldn't think you were weird if she walked in while you were listening to it.

I'm sure Beyerink is a really nice guy in person but I'm guessing Miss Autopsy is a source of catharsis for him because it makes him seem sad or mad or both. Caterpillar is about as unsettling as it gets. It's fucking great if you like that sorta thing (aka miserable as fuck, disturbing, never ever catchy, anti pop). And it just so happens I do like that sorta thing. So Miss Autopsy, keep this shit up! It's awesome.

Monster Caves & Mario Karts

Braden J McKenna - Feedback From A Ghost


Braden J McKenna (Navigator, WYLD WYZRDZ, himself) has unloaded some more free awesomeness for everyone. I swear, he is the number one guy out there putting out consistently amazing music for free on a regular basis. <3 him.

Independence Day is from a band of his called Mario Kart with another guy named Stephen Walter on drums. It was written and recorded within 4 hours this past 4th of July and that's including a break to play Mario Kart (duh). It's more aligned to his Navigator work, lo-fi garage punkish tunes. And it's great.

Gigantic Monster Cave is some solo stuff under his actual name that is full of wide-eyed child magic songs, a lot of them dealing with a gigantic monster cave. His signature nonabrasive whine is sure to be found, but the music itself is more shiny pop-folk than the rest of his stuff. And it's great.

Download that shit. Then go to Magic Goat and download more shit from their Digital Magic Series. Totally worth it. TRUST ME ::nudge nudge::

Jungle Gym Vaginas - Wavy Caps (Scumbag Relations, 2008)

Jungle Gym Vaginas - Side A (untitled)


JUNGLE GYM. VAGINAS. Did you hear that? Say it. Out loud. JungleGymVaginas. Have you ever heard something so wondrous? So mysterious? So charming? So fucking hilarious?

There is ZERO need for me to describe the music to you. Because this band is called Jungle Gym Vaginas and that is ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW. For real. You think it matters what kind of music they make? Well you're wrong.

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Lost In Reflections (Killer Pimp, 2009)

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - What I Wouldn't Give To Feel Alive


Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is one Thomas Ekelund who created Lost In Reflections after being diagnosed with a "near crippling mental disease." How long after I don't know. All I know is that this was recorded in 05/06 and there have been many Dead Letters releases since then. Not that I think that context is necessary to fully appreciate Lost In Reflections. It helps, but it's not going to make or break the album.

Listening to Lost In Reflections is a strange journey of dynamic drone. However you don't realize just how strange until it's over. The first song, "The Room Seems Empty Without You," is a real slow burner. Something from way out west, like you've been dragging your feet through Death Valley for days on end with no water. It could be the foundation for some Godspeed song except here there's no grandiose climax (not yet). It's just you, the heat, and the endless horizon of sand and sky.

"Lost & Losing" goes from desert to ocean as you're floating face up, being dazzled by the sun beams shimmering through the water, listening to all the pops and cracks of the crustaceans scurrying along the sandy floor. Then "What I Wouldn't Give To Feel Alive" keeps you underwater, although now you're closer to death, hearing every little detail. Each guitar pluck echoes through the sea as if glimpsing a whale's heartbeat from miles away.

After you've made your way through the water, you become detached from Earth and drift through space. The stars buzz with their solar signals and the dust of the universe flows through your ears. And all of this up until now, going from land to sea to air, was the quest for "Himmelschreibenden Herzen." And the monumental 19 minute closer is absolutely worth that voyage. It's like traveling through a black sun, getting closer and closer to the core. Deafening bliss. Terrifying monstrous shrieking dark drone. Beautiful heavenly sunshine euphoria. Completely fucking amazing.

Lost In Reflections is something I couldn't even begin to imagine making. It's a record so deep and beautiful that I can hardly wrap my brain around it. This is of such high caliber, I'm surprised it's not exploding all over the place. Dead Letters should be a name up there with Fennesz and Eno. If Reflections wasn't the record to do it, I can't wait to hear the one that will.

Video: Garrett Davis & Kirsten Lepore - Story From North America

Ok, this is going to be difficult to explain. I know I get really excited about a lot of things and routinely profess my love for them. But you see, this video is different. It's different because I love it SO MUCH MORE than all of those other things.



I love the rhythm. I love the flow. I love every single lyric. I love the story. I love the animation. I love the imagery. I love the dad. I love the dad's voice. I love the son's voice. I love the old timeyness. I love the (faux?) outsider feeling. I love the dad's long nose and weird hair and worm nipples. I love the opening line. I love the dad caressing the spider's delicate legs. I love the page turning. I love that the dad decided to teach his son a lesson about morals upon being woken up in the middle of the night. I love that it ends with the dad saluting the spider and wishing him "Godspeed." I love every single thing about this video. I love Garrett Davis and Kirsten Lepore for making this. I hate Garrett for not making more music. In the past 4 days, I have watched this more times than I can count. I am currently memorizing every word.

Show Worthy 7/6 - 7/12

Daniel Harris via
Monday, July 6
Daniel Harris at Weirdo Records (donate, 8:00, all ages)
Harris uses instruments like the cello, glockenspiel, melodica, banjo, etc to make soundscapey folk tunes. Good stuff.




Tuesday, July 7
Animal Hospital, Quoins, Manners, Battle House at Great Scott ($8, 9:00, 18+)
This is gonna be a great show. Animal Hospital is blowing it up with his electroacoustic ambient post rock fantasticness. Quoins is new to me and there's no music on their Myspace so... Manners you should know already. Chill acoustic folky stuff. Real good. And then Battle House, who I've yet to see live, sounds like a mix between Wilderness and The Shipping News, doing that grandiose post punk thing. Like I said, great show.



Wet Hair via
Wednesday, July 8
Dianetics, Wet Hair, Happy Jawbone, Dead Luke at The Butcher Shoppe (donate, 9:00?, all ages)
It doesn't even fucking matter. Wet Hair people!! Ex-Raccoo-oo-oon! COME ON!



Big Bear
Friday, July 10
Big Bear, Child Bite, Ketman, The Gondoliers at PA's Lounge ($10, 8:30, 18+)
Big Bear & Child Bite put out a split 7" and this is the release party. You get a free copy of the 7" just for going. Shit, even if neither of them were playing that would still be worth it. Plus, the cover art has awesome alien walrus spiders on it. It doesn't get any better than this.



Nathaniel Bartlett via Tiffany Norman Fieldhouse
Sunday, July 11
Nathaniel Bartlett, Loop 2.4.3 at 119 Gallery ($10, 8:00, all ages)
Bartlett is performing as Immersive Music where he plays solo marimba and processes the shit out of it with his computer and eight channel cube of speakers to create "three-dimensional, high-definition, computer-generated sound projection." Um. YES PLEASE. Loop 2.4.3 is a couple of dudes making all sorts of transformative percussion. Super cool.




Sunday, July 11
Peter J Woods, Instinct Control, Sewer Goddess, Bereft, A Snake In The Garden, White Suns at The Butcher Shoppe ($5, 7:00, all ages)
Man The Butcher Shoppe is on fire this week. This is a killer noise show. The poster says it all. Harsh noise + circuit bent insanity = dead astronaut

Haiku Review: Bullion - Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee (self released, 2008)

Bullion - Caroline, No


Bullion
Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee (download)
/the other pet sounds/
/with rad cuts and bitchin beats/
/someone do bowie/

Ilyas Ahmed - Goner (Root Strata, 2009)

Ilyas Ahmed - Out Again


Drenched in lo-fi echo crunch and laden with loops. These tracks have the hypnotic quality of drone while still retaining some of the traditional song structures.

Full review on diskant.

Apple Jackzzzzz - Naptime's Over (self released, 2009)

Apple Jackzzzzz - Tamagotchi


Every time it's like "I can't believe I'm still actually listening to this." But I'm pretty sure everyone feels that way when listening to Apple Jackzzzzz's Naptime's Over. You see, the very first thing you hear when you hit play on this CD is a bunch of fart sounds. And the maturity level only drops from there. If you can make it past the first song, though, you're golden.

Naptime's Over is self described "Inner Child Rock." Still not getting it? There are songs like "I Just Want A Bigger Penis" and "Faking Sick > School" with lyrics such as "Liking cookies is not a crime. Why should I have to do hard time?" The songs are filled with poor rhyming and the occasional swear. It's written (and sang) in a style that makes it sound like a 5th grader wrote (and sang) it.

Listening to Apple Jackzzzzz is confusing. I'm pretty sure it's meant for electro obsessed ironic 20-somethings longing for the nostalgia of their childhood (yes I purposefully just described hipsters). But it's easy to think this is geared towards kids upon first listen. The drum machine beats and Casio melodies are super fun but nothing that's super amazing. It's like some Brooklynite thought it would be a good idea if Raffi made an synth dance rock record and knew there was no way in hell that would ever happen so he took matters into his own hands. I bet there are plenty of music critics who would tear this a new asshole because it's not really of objective high quality.

But Naptime's Over is SO much fun to listen to and not just for nostalgia's sake (although that has a lot to do with it). There's an infectious charm that, yeah, makes me feel like a kid again. Whenever I laugh listening to Apple Jackzzzzz singing about the sweet shapes that peel out of Fruit Roll-Ups, I know I'm never going to be 100% mature. And I'm totally fine with that. Something tells me I'm not alone.

Jason Crumer - Walk With Me (Misanthropic Agenda, 2009)

Jason Crumer - Pining


I must be a serious fucking idiot. I first heard Walk With Me about 3 months ago and became instantly obsessed. I felt about this like I felt about last year's And Still, Wanting by Prurient. It was love at first punishment. But the weeks went by and I stopped listening to it as much and I still hadn't blogged about it. I think I went almost a month without listening to it again and when I finally stumbled across it on my iPod Monday night, I almost punched myself in the face for not reviewing it yet.

Walk With Me is the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. You think it's sweet old grandma at first but it's not. Sorry little girl but it's a wolf. Which is great for me because it pleases both of my sensitive and masochistic sides.

The contrast on this album is what makes it. The light and the dark. The docile and the sadistic. Anyone can make a nonstop ear fuck but Crumer must have taken notes from Mogwai with their near-patented loud-quiet-loud method. It's like Walk With Me is saying, "Look at me I'm a pretty little Max Richter princess wait no I'm a motherfucking Merzbow demon whose sole purpose is to tear your lungs out through your chest and shit on your fucking heart."

And the final two songs on this masterpiece flow together in such a beautifully disastrous way, it brings a tear to my eye and a drop of blood from my ears. "Walk With Me" starts out with an unwavering Niblockian buzz that slowly accelerates down the runway until it gains enough speed to take off and becomes a fleet of twin engine Cessnas flying in perfect formation. After dazzling the audience with their majestic skillz, one of them fucks up and crashes into another, sending them all careening into a fiery spiral on "Pining" where they explode on the ground in a massive mountain of molten metal. Fucking epic.

Jason Crumer has scrambled right up to the top of the noise ladder in my heart, sitting right next to Prurient. I knew that I'd eventually find my noise record of the year but I had no idea it would come from a guy I'd never heard of. Now I sit patiently and wait for him to come to Boston...

Steven Norton at Weirdo Records

More photos on Flickr.

How serendipitous! I was supposed to be to work yesterday at 11 AM but showed up at 4 PM instead. Whoops. But hey, night off! Right? I still had time to catch Steve Norton's show at Weirdo Records. Which, if you've never been, is a TINY place. Like, the size of a large walk-in closet. And that's not counting all the CD racks and such. Luckily, including Norton, me, and two employees, there were only 6 people. So not exactly cramped but not too roomy either. But these are the best kinda shows.

So Steve's forte is reed instruments along with some strange percussion and bird call things. He started with some tin can rattling, shaking everything between two drumsticks like he had Parkinson's and was trying to use chopsticks to eat his food. Then he moved onto the saxophones (alto and soprano) which made me feel like I had teleported into some strange future where classic instruments could be played backwards. I don't know what he did but he is able to make the sax sound like it's being slowly rewound on a cassette tape. So bizarre.

In between each reed instrument, he would do some haphazard percussion, such as when he emptied a box of tiny wood panels and tin can lids on the floor, throwing them around, organizing and reorganizing over and over again, like he had OCD. But every little sound mattered, including dragging the things back that went flying across the floor, scraping them along the wood floor, or putting the instruments down on their stands. Everything had this kind of premeditated feeling while still being completely improvised as if he had an insanely fast brain that would see something and know exactly what to do to make it sound perfect.

And he saved the best for last. The bass clarinet. Man, the things he can do with that clarinet are fucking astounding. I have never heard a reed/brass/woodwind instrument be played so differently than it was meant to, including Greg Kelley's trumpet. I'm pretty sure he was circular breathing at times. And he could make it sound like a didgeridoo without repositioning his fingers. It was all in his throat and it was the most amazing thing ever. Sometimes it didn't even sound like a clarinet, sometimes it just sounded like some tight snare drums. Other times it sounded like it had a filter of static. I have no idea how he did any of those things but trust me this guy is totally worth seeing live.

Sperm Whales - Endless Sea Of Clouds (Little Fury Things, 2008)

Sperm Whales - Floating Forward


If you live anywhere near Boston then you know it's been fucking gray as hell and raining for what feels like 2 months straight. Fucking bogus. Thankfully, we got Sperm Whales here to give us our antidote, a big dose of vitamin D.

Endless Sea Of Clouds is a shimmery minimal ambient affair with lots of guitars and electronics, each taking their own turn. It's kind of like a cross between Eluvium and White Rainbow, except with Whales, I don't get the same psychedelic third eye mind expansion feeling that comes with White Rainbow's stuff. Imagine running through the forest to get to the beach and you're on the right track.

One of the best parts of Endless Sea Of Clouds (other than it's highly appropriate name) is the third track, "Floating Forward." It reminds me so much of one of my all time favorites movies, Flight Of The Navigator. I don't know if it sounds like it should be in the movie or if it just gives me the same feeling as shooting across the Everglades at Mach 10 but either way it's the fucking best.

Sperm Whales hasn't done anything especially innovative with Clouds but sometimes it sure feels like it. All of the varying instrumentation and (faux?) field recordings constantly come as a surprise. Maybe its just because I have it in my head that this is a guitar loop record but there's plenty of plinking toy piano sounds, electronic wackiness, and chirping birds. Like when "Prismatic Inquisition" comes on with it's 8-bit melodies and cacophony. I can most certainly say I wasn't expecting that. Nor was I expecting to hear the sound of grabbing a coin from Super Mario World on "Reproductive Adaptation." That's probably one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in listening to a record in a long time.

Endless Sea Of Clouds is a record that delights me to no end. The name of the record, the artist's name, the music itself, the packaging, it's all perfect. The CD comes in a little burlap pouch with an insert and an elaborately designed CD-R.

P.S. Check out the Sperm Whales Vimeo page for tons of amazing music videos.

Show Worthy 6/29 - 7/5

Duck That w/ Steve Norton (left) via
Monday, June 29
Steve Norton at Weirdo Records ($5, 8:00, all ages)
"laser-focused dip into solo reeds"



Sus & Jakob via
Wednesday, July 1
Jakob Olausson; Concord Ballet Orchestra Players; Sus & Jakob; Peace, Loving at PA's Lounge ($7 21+/$10 18-20, 8:30, 18+)
Jakob's on De Stijl, with a folky chill out echoey fanciness that I'm sure translates into a fantastic live performance. Sus & Jakob involves Olausson and some girl named Sus making eerie ghost in the woods rattling drugged out flutes and percussion kinda shit. CBOP and Peace, Loving are hometown awesomeness that rounds this show out to be totally fucking great.




Friday, July 3
Sick Fix, Coke Bust, Smart Cops, Blank Stare, Foreign Objects at Gay Gardens ($donate, 7:00?, all ages)
Not much else going on this week so I thought I'd throw this punk/hardcore/thrash/garage stuff at you. You might be interested. Smart Cops are Italian punk, so there's always that.



7 Ton Hand via
Saturday, July 4
The Boy Who Spoke Clouds, 7 Ton Hand, Live Footage, Topu Lyo, Skidmore Fountain, Mike Thies, Birdorgan at 119 Gallery ($10, all ages, 2:00pm)
Fourth Of July BBQ going down at the 119 Gallery in Lowell. Cookout starts around 2, music around 4. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds coming all the way from fucking Australia with their smoothed out minimal sound/maximum instrument folk. This show is gonna be killer. Tons of awesome bands. Mike Thies with his electro-acoustic beats and Topu Lyo with his processed cello, this shit is gonna be amazing. I know it's the 4th and you probably already got more plans than you know what to do with but if you end up in Lowell, make sure you stop by and check this out.

Haiku Review: Radio Scotvoid - Fragment (Consider Revising) EP (Earth Monkey, 2008)

Radio Scotvoid - I Love Special K (Crunchtime Mix)


Radio Scotvoid
Fragment (Consider Revising) EP (free download)
/strange electronic/
/lost voicemails and foreign beats/
/no, you're not on drugs/

The Golden Sores - A Peaceable Kingdom (Bloodlust, 2009)

The Golden Sores - Klonopin


Alright guys. This is it. The one you've been waiting for. The drone record to come from some new band you've never heard of and completely kick every other drone record's ass. And where did they come from? Chicago. Duh.

By now, everyone has become supersaturated with drone. It seems like every kid these days is mashing the keys on their thrift store synth and burning it onto a CD-R in about as much time as it takes me to eat my morning bowl of Kashi's Honey Sunshine. But The Golden Sores know the virtue of patience and quality. This is their second record (the first, Ashdod To Ekron, I reviewed on diskant and is available as a free download) and sweet Jesus they've already made their masterpiece. I mean, Ashdod was amazing and all, but where the hell are they gonna go after A Peaceable Kingdom? I can't really imagine them making anything better.

The drone on Kingdom is made of the kind of heavenly tones that are essentially instrumentless. It could be coming from a guitar or a synthesizer (and, in fact, comes from both) but you'd never know and it doesn't even fucking matter. It's the kind of unwavering/wavering blissful static that keeps you turning up the volume every 2 or 3 minutes as your ears adjust, gently demolishing your eardrums.

I can't heap enough praise upon The Golden Sores and what they're doing for the drone community. Not only are they showing all the impostors how it's fucking done but they're giving us euphoria seeking music obsessors some of the highest quality shit out there. This record is so good the Sores could break up right now and it would hardly even matter.

Coolest thing EVER sidenote: I literally screamed and blushed like a little girl when I saw that I'm in the thank you list on this record. It consists of about 15 names and I'm one of them. I assume it's because I reviewed their first record but whatever the reason, I've only felt this cool once before in my life (when Aidan Baker knew who I was). So, yeah, if you're reading this Sores, thanks for the thanks. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Final note: I just realized that my review of A Peaceable Kingdom is strikingly similar to my review of Ashdod To Ekron. I think, if anything, this is a good sign. I'm happy to know my opinions are steadfast and that The Golden Sores have thus far been consistently awesome in all the right ways.