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Terry Malts
Killing Time
Slumberland

Self-described as sounding like Black Flag Tambourine, or as I prefer to call it, Jesus and Mary and Johnny and Joey and Tommy and Dee Dee Chain, the San Francisco trio Terry Malts, a band equal parts punk and pop, but not punk-pop,  have put together a chainsaw of an album in Killing Time quite unlike anything in recent memory.  Sure, many have used a similar formula in the past — Stomp on the pedals until ears start to bleed and then hit ‘em with a likable melody, but few have written songs so effortless and memorable; Few have been so in tune in that perfectly out of tune, crunched, mashed and blasted to oblivion way as Phil Benson (bass/lead vocals), Corey Cunningham (guitar, backing vocals), and Nathan Sweatt (drums/backing vocals) are on their debut album for Slumberland Records.

And the lyrics, while certainly clever, never leave anyone out of the joke.  You don’t have to have the right books on your bookshelf.  You don’t have to have the right records in your record collection to enjoy these 14 songs.  A soul might help, but even that one is optional.  For in “Not a Christian,” Terry Malts have written the ultimate punk rock anthem for all of the atheists, agnostics, and humanists of the earth, a track which culminates in a wash of piercing guitars and whirl of words that read like a humanist manifesto: “If there’s no power over me/I take responsibility/All prayer is empty air when no one’s listening/There’s no god and there’s no master/There is no happy ever after/There is life, there is death/I live my life and do my best/To cherish all experience ’til I lay down to rest.”

On the subject of love, Benson, Cunningham, and Sweatt are equally as endearing.  “I’m Neurotic,” consists of a single stanza, “I’m neurotic/That’s what she says/I won’t let it go to my head/Maybe she’s right,” repeated, and twisted to the point where its hard to tell whether instability is a badge of honor or a cause for concern.  While “Waiting Room,” not the Fugazi song, and “Tumble Down,” not the Jesus and Mary Chain Song, both take down the tempo a notch without losing any intensity or immediacy.  The guitars are still delightfully shrill and the sing-a-longs are still there, waiting for your extra backing vocals, and the rhythm section still has that thumping, pogo beat.

With a frightening pattern emerging of the most hyped artists being the least ready for the spotlight (Hello, Sleigh Bells and Hello, Ms. Lana Del Rey), Terry Malts provide an alternative to the unhealthy cycle of buzz and disappointment with an album that is proof positive that pop music doesn’t have to be finely polished and doesn’t have to sound modern to be successful in the 21st Century.  More important than having the right look, the right connections, or the right influences is simply having songs that people will want to hear time and again. I can think of 14 songs off the top of my head that fit the bill.   10 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

MP3: Terry Malts – Tumble Down
MP3: Terry Malts – Nauseous

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Sleigh Bells
Reign of Terror
Mom and Pop

Before they became the second New York buzz band of 2012 to put in a shit performance for Saturday Night Live, Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells were already a divisive group in the underground. For while there’s little doubt their sound is a modern one — Heavy metal guitar riffs lifted from the Mullet Rock compilation, cheery vocals and scattershot, electric beats — There’s always been the counter argument, “Is this really the sound of now we want?”

You see, subtlety, is not Sleigh Bells thing. The title to Reign of Terror’s lead track, “True Shred Guitar,” explains all you need to know about guitarist Derek Miller’s infatuation with ’80s metal.  Every sound out of his guitar is of the one-foot-on-the-amp, explosions-in-the-background-of-the-video-shoot, sexed-up-female-model-rolling-around-on-the-hood-of-a-red-convertible variety.  While Alexis Krauss sings every line, be it during a rocker or a ballad, in her best cheerleader voice.  In moderation, in the middle of an iTunes mix, let’s say, there’s a real chance you’ll find yourself cranking up a jam like “Comeback Kid.”

As an album experience, however, the Sleigh Bells trick gets grating right quick.  Remember kids, there’s a reason Nirvana made hair metal obsolete overnight, and it wasn’t due to collusion of the record companies, record stations, and MTV.  No, once the public were reminded that rock music could do more than communicate strip club scenes and hot teacher fantasies; That rock music wasn’t just for drop-outs and jocks and muscle cars, and those wanting to relieve their drugged out, drop-out days in the high school parking lot, the music stuck in that mold was revealed to be every bit as cheesy as it always was.  The facade, and thrill, was gone.    5 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

VIDEO: Sleigh Bells – Comeback Kid

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Earth
Angels of Darkness Demons of Light II
Southern Lord

Crafted from the same sessions as 2011′s Angels of Darkness Demons of Light I, and split into its own album, Earth’s Angels of Darkness Demons of Light II is heavy in tone and tempo, but not in volume as it takes a solemn, reverential and unique approach to American roots music.  For just as metal no longer seems an apt way to describe the output of Dylan Carlson (guitar), Adrienne Davis (drums and percussion), Lori Goldston (cello), and Karl Blau (bass), neither do folk, rock, or country.

At times it’s as if Earth have crafted their own branch of American music, steeped in the same traditions as familiar forms like rock and country, but distinct from both.  “His Teeth Did Brightly Shine,” for example, is a folk jam unlike any other.  It lulls the listener in the low end and features little, if any percussion as Goldston and Blau caress Carlson’s slow, sinewy guitar melodies.  In the process, it unearths an alternate spirituality, one separate from the Christian traditions of gospel and bluegrass.

While “Waltz (A Multiplicity of Doors),”  could be classified as a dance by virtue of having a 3/4 time signature.  However, Earth’s version is creaky, creeping and mournful, with a beat like an unsteady rocking char and Goldston’s cello sounding withered, decrepit and distorted.   Its pace is not one of joyfulness and freedom, of celebrating life and music, but of someone staring eternity in the eyes as they take their last, staggering steps.

Blues music also gets the Earth treatment on “The Corascene Dog” and “The Rakehell.”  The former features Carlson, Blau, and Goldston trading the same basic melody in the style of a showcase jam, slyly adding complexity as its eight minutes gradually unfold.  While on the latter, Carlson steals the show, as he patiently picks his chords, then meticulously layers one guitar track atop another; Some become complementary melodies; Some are nothing more than quick jazzy flares; And others, more elongated, meld seamlessly with Goldston’s cello and provide extra texture in the form of feedback.  During its twelve minutes, larger truths begin to emerge as themes of permanence, peace and majesty can be visualized in the quiet mind.

Yes, enlightenment can still be found in the oldest of forms, but with Earth, more so than any other band, one must be open and one must be dedicated.  One must be free of cell phones, laptops, and tablets blinking, beeping, and singing look at me.  One must basically detach his or herself from the modern world as we know it.  Patience may still be a virtue, but it’s one often lacking in 21st Century life and art, and when one comes across such an expression, as on both parts I and II of Angels of Darkness Demons of Light, it can be as jarring as any bass boy’s obnoxious, screechy, and synthetic beep.  9 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

MP3: Earth – His Teeth Did Brightly Shine

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Mark Lanegan Band
Blues Funeral
4AD/Beggars Group US

Recently, I marveled at Mark Lanegan’s voice, that deep and leathery, wavering and seductive voice, and noted how I would not only listen to Lanegan reinterpreting the catalog of pop songstress, Katy Perry, but I would buy that collection, too.  That’s the power of having the voice of Rock ‘N’ Roll.

Blues Funeral, Lanegan’s first solo collection since 2004′s Bubblegum, presents the listener with a scenario tantalizingly close to my own dream/nightmare.  Squeezed in the middle of Blues Funeral’s twelve songs is a number called “Ode to Sad Disco.”  It’s a not a blues song about being at a discoteque.  It’s a disco song.

Those surprised that Lanegan would choose to go electronic should go back and peer through his long list of post Screaming Trees collaborations.  There’s Pj Harvey, Isobel Campbell, and Queens of the Stone Age; The Twilight Singers, and his album with The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli as Gutter Twins; And listed  under the heading of other collaborations, there’s Soulsavers, and UNKLE.  Spot those last two?  Those are the electronics coming through.  They come through loud and clear on the rumbling doom of “Gravedigger’s Song” and again on the stomp and pomp of “Riot in My House.”  On “Harborview Hospital,” the beats are skittery and elastic with guitars and keyboards blurring the upper reaches, obscuring the bleakness of a broken life detailed within.  While “Deep Back Vanishing Train,” uses the studio to add ambiance and texture to what would otherwise be a barren landscape.

Whether or not Lanegan can do electronic music is not the issue.  He’s done similar work with UNKLE and Soulsavers and even his album as the Gutter Twins had an electronic spin to it. Like I said earlier, Lanegan could add his voice to just about anything and the resulting recordings would be captivating enough to require an extended listen (Doom Metal Mark Lanegan?  Yes!  Punk Rock Lanegan? Yes!  Gothic New Wave Lanegan with eyeliner?  Umm…OK…Yes!).

The question now becomes where does Blues Funeral fit within his larger body of work.  When was the last time you played any of the three albums he’s done with Isobel Campbell?  Have you listened to the Screaming Trees’ Sweet Oblivion lately?  More than Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, that album has help up extremely well for coming out during the grunge explosion.  I’ll say it.  It slays.  That album was glued to my turntable for entire night, A side then B side and back again and repeat and repeat while I was supposed to be going over my notes on Blues Funeral.  Does that help?   6 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

MP3: Mark Lanegan – Gravedigger’s Song
VIDEO: Mark Lanegan – Gravedigger’s Song

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Pop. 1280
The Horror
Sacred Bones

The Horror is dirty, no filthy, no filthy as fuck. The Horror is a brutal, bulldozing, skronky, scuzzy, and screechy, dystopian cyber-punk rock record steeped in the tradition of The Jesus Lizard, SST Records, and John Carpenter soundtracks where “Two dogs fucking” is both the opening line and perhaps the most comforting line on its two sides.

And yet, for all the choice adjectives and all the ace references, something is missing from Pop.1280′s first full length for Sacred Bones Records, something keeping The Horror from being that brutal, skronk rock masterpiece of its own tortured dreams. That something is a song. Even the Jesus Lizard, that nasty, corrosive beast of a band from Chicago, the band against whom all scuzz monsters must measure, would break up the nasty with a two or three minute, blissfully, cathartic jam (See “Nub” on the album Goat, for example). The Horror, meanwhile, becomes numbing after a while. There’s only so many bruises a body can take and Pop.1280 delivers more than a fair share of bruises over songs like “Burn the Worm,”, “Bodies in the Dunes,” and “Beg Like a Human.”

Closing number, “Crime Time,” should be that song, the triumph where all of the elements, all of those adjectives come together — The spooky, sci-fi synths, the rhythmic, dance-rock beat, gnarled guitars, and an actual melody with a shouted punk rock chorus, but instead of claiming its place on the A-list of the American noise-rock scene, it feels more like a relief.

Something else The Jesus Lizard keenly employed in their arsenal was negative space, relying on the rhythm section and David Yow’s pipes to do the dirty work when the obvious ploys got old. Once Pop.1280 learns that beatings and melodies aren’t mutually exclusive, they will be that next great skronk rock band. As the old saying goes: You can pummel some of your listeners some of the time, but you can’t pummel all of your listeners all of the time because you’ll have no one left to buy your records and merch and then you’ll have no choice but to take that soul-crushing, cubicle job your Aunt Judy tells you about at every family gathering. 7 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

MP3: Pop.1280 – Bodies in the Dunes

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Thee Oh Sees
Carrion Crawler/The Dream
In the Red

Not the wandering, goofy goodness of Castlemania, 2011′s first LP by the San Francisco garage-rockers, Thee Oh Sees, Carrior Crawler/The Dream is a more concise, more direct, and significantly heavier affair. Part of this can be traced back to the album’s genesis. Originally conceived as two separate EPs, principal John Dwyer, and the rest of the band, ended up cranking out an album’s worth of material in one week of studio time. Just as important was Dwyer’s desire to make this record more representative of their live shows. So while the offbeat and exaggerated vocals of Dwyer and Brigid Dawson still earn quick comparisons to the B-52s, the music which surrounds them suggests something entirely different, namely early proto-punk from Detroit and Seattle. “Carrion Crawler” and “Crushed Grass” both hint at what Iggy and the Stooges would have sounded like had they had a sense of humor — Driving, intense, but not so serious that they wouldn’t beep and blurt a bit of nonsense along the way. “Chem-Farmer,” meanwhile sees the band heading north and west for inspiration with a bass line that go-go grooves and guitars snapping back with measured attacks. Later, “The Dream,” answers the previously unasked question, “What if Austin Powers got his hands on something like Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid?’” It would be surprisingly danceable. Surprising, that’s a fine way to describe Carrion Crawler/The Dream. If you’re familiar with Thee Oh Sees previous work you may have a hard time imagining how any of these songs could work — Those vocals, that whimsy, paired with traditionally heavier strains of rock, just can’t. Yet, after a couple spins it does, and does so well.  8 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

MP3: Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler
MP3: Thee Oh Sees – The Dream

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Wolves in the Throne Room
Celestial Lineage
Southern Lord

Similar in scope to Sunn O)))’s masterpiece, Monoliths and Dimensions, and even recalling the grandeur of instrumental rock greats like Mogwai or Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Celestial Lineage, the latest release by Wolves in the Throne Room, does more than redefine black metal for the American audience — It renders the very notion of genre pointless.  And unlike much of the popular music that comes from the Pacific Northwest these days (Folkies Fleet Foxes immediately come to mind), brothers Aaaron and Nathan Weaver do more than craft quaint, pretty harmonies out of the region’s natural beauty, they draw on the full power of nature, both as a creator and a destroyer.  For within these seven songs, blackened chorals share space with rapid, robust drumming and high, arching guitar melodies, transcendental melodies that take the listener out of the depths of despair and skyward to places both ecstatic and triumphant.  When the listener returns to ground, there may be a light, uplifting voice, a portending interlude or a demonic howl.  Yes, when the vocals of angelic half, Jessika Kenney subside, there’s the harsh, hoarse, unpleasant death breath of Nathan Weaver lurking around the corner.  To put it more bluntly, there’s screaming, lots of screaming, the likes of which less adventurous listeners will shun without a barely giving it a chance.  That’s a shame.  In a world filled with dubstep, chillwave, and Coldplay, is Nathan Weaver’s demonic howl really so bad?  9 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

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The Horrors
Skying
XL/Beggars US

Although Skying is technically the third album by The Horrors, it feels more like the follow up to a debut.  For the band that is The Horrors today, while the same in name and same in membership, is so far removed from the 2007 buzz band who burst onto the scene with an electric and frenetic take on the gothic punk of bands like The Cramps, that it hardly seems relevant to bring up that album, Strange House.  Gone is the style.  Gone are those cheeky nicknames of Joshua Von Grimm, Faris Rotter, and Spider Webb.  Gone is that sound.

With the aid of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, they completely remade themselves between albums one and two, working elements of krautrock, new-wave and shoegaze into their mix, trading in the brashness of youth, and a short shelf-life, for more refined arrangements and the beginnings of a real career.  Adding to the feeling that this is the real album number two, is the fact that Barrow, a man undoubtedly responsible for much of studio geekery on 2009′s Primary Colours, removed himself from the recording of Skying, instead opting for the role of mentor or guru.  He basically slapped the lads on the back and sent them on their way to go it alone, confident in his belief that he had taught them all they needed to know.

To that end, Skying plays as a continuation of Primary Colours.  Lead singer Faras Badwan has become stronger and more confident (His voice bears an uncanny resemblance to The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler at times), while he and his bandmates have retained Barrow’s method of building songs with carefully stacked layers and obscure textures.   On the opening track, “Changing the Rain,” Badwan sings in long, exaggerated, and slightly accented tones (Again, think Butler) as he is accompanied by elegantly swirling keyboards and a beat which can best be described as a backwards shuffle.  The melody, meanwhile, is pure John Hughes romanticism, fit for an ’80s, coming of age movie soundtrack.  The breathy “You Said,” works in more trickery as guitars, samplers and keyboards are twisted and processed into tidy, chopped bits in the back of the mix with larger, sweeping notes occupying the front along side Badwan’s tender croon.  Another early highlight is provided by “Endless Blue.”  It builds on the airy, delicate vibes of the album’s opening numbers, there has to be four, maybe five, maybe more keyboard melodies stacked in the intro, before a throbbing, almost-industrial guitar riff appears, inspiring Badwan to take on a glam-like persona akin to Bowie’s space alien.

Barrow has indeed taught these boys well.  While each song is loaded with tasty headphone nuggets, numbers like the new-wave ballad, “Still Life” and the dream-pop of “Wild Eyed,” where the drums are seemingly the only instrument to survive extreme tweaking, still manage to work as pure pop songs.  Key here is no matter how many tracks are stacked in a particular song, and no matter how much those tracks were fretted over in the studio, there’s always more room.  Not every instrument is played at the same volume at the same time, a tactic often missed by young bands with dreams of grandness.  Consequently, when The Horrors do stray from their basic formula, as they do on the motorik, work out, “Moving Further Away,” and again on the album’s closer, “Oceans Burning,” which itself  incorporates elements of ambient drone and one head swirl of a climax, they don’t feel like indulgences, but rewards, for both band and listener.

MP3: The Horrors – Moving Further Away

VIDEO: The Horrors – Still Life

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Thurston Moore
Demolished Thoughts
Matador

Similar in tone to recent offerings by Kurt Vile and Dinosaur Jr’s, J Mascis, Thurston Moore’s Demolished Thoughts features a musician who’s been known to rip things up from time to time working in a more thoughtful, deliberate, and sedate manner.  Gone is the fuzz, buzz and squalor which has marked much of Moore’s work with his legendary band, Sonic Youth.  In its place there’s Moore and his acoustic, violinist Samara Lubelski, and harpist Mary Lattimore, and producer Beck, meditatively piecing together unsuspectingly lush arrangements with few highs, fewer lows, and one long and smooth, mellow groove.  The fact that nothing immediately stands out, shouldn’t wholly be taken as a negative.  For, again, like those records by Vile and Mascis, it’s in the subtly plotted details where this one really shines.  It’s there, in the stretched and wavering notes which close “Illuminine;”; In the juxtaposition of Lubelski’s agitated violin melodies with Lattimore’s stubbornly, elegant harp throughout “Benediction;” In how Lattimore, Lubelski, and Moore are able to mimic a noisy, crescendo in the traditional Sonic Youth style on “Orchard Street,” but do so quietly, and at a measured pace, with dissonant melodies and loosely played strings taking the place of relentless static and overloaded amps.  Demolished Thoughts may not be what we expected, or what we thought we needed from an alt-rock guitar idol like Moore.  And it certainly won’t help bring about a sea change to the Rock ‘N’ Roll landscape like Sonic Youth’s classics.  However, this album, like J Mascis’ Several Shades of Why, are both bold statements in their own right as they prove the old adage, “Is it better to burn out or to fade away?” is no longer an either/or proposition.  There’s a middle path emerging –  To age with dignity. 8 out of 10 on The Rockometer

MP3: Thurston Moore – Benediction
MP3: Thurston Moore – Circulation

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Belong
Slumberland

If the cleaner, bolder, alt-rockin’ sound of Belong, the new album by the one-time twee, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, catches you off guard, I suggest going back over those liner-notes.  In it you’ll find Belong was produced and mixed by the tandem of Flood and Alan Moulder, a duo who worked with some of the biggest alternative bands in the late ’80s and ’90s, including the likes of U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins and The Jesus and Mary Chain.   Flood and Moulder don’t do twee.  They do hits.  So, again, don’t be surprised when Belong is essentially ten attempts at scoring an alt-rock hit.  The guitars on “Belong” are big enough for the Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and it follows that soft-loud-soft pattern so prevalent in the ’90s, too.  While, the keyboards on “My Terrible Friend” and “Heart in Your Heartbreak” have a distinct Disintegration feel to them, like they were salvaged from the very studio where The Cure recorded one of their most beloved albums.  Later, it’s the machine-like beat and fuzzy guitars which point directly to Honey’s Dead and The Jesus and Mary Chain.  Yes, Flood and Moulder went full on Alternative Nation in a bid to break The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  Does it matter that in all these attempts at hits, they only come close and, then,  they always sound like someone else’s band?  If you’re concerned about authenticity, the answer is a resounding yes.  If you’re only looking for a forty-minute good time, then by all means, play Belong again and again.  And while you’re at it, cue up some Mary Chain and some Pumpkins.  Trust me, you’ll be in the mood.  6 out of 10 on The Rockometer.

VIDEO: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Heart in Your Heartbreak

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