Nobunny : Secret Songs (Reflections From The Ear Mirror)

Nobunny's wild punk stylings have been strutting through just about every bar, basement and bunny-hole there is to play the world over since around the turn of the millennium.   Previously Nobunny's released three flawless full length albums as well as a gritty live recording on Third Man, 'Secret Songs : Reflections From The Ear Mirror' is his latest installment and second LP for Goner Records.  From opener "Bye Bye Roxie" 'Secret Songs' examines life's detritus and turning garbage into gold. Nobunny rolls out fourteen thrilling party stompers utilizing his flare for carefully marrying decades of rock 'n' roll ideas into short bursts of adrenalin.  There's no half-hearted play on having a good time on 'SSRFTEM' (yeah - that can be a thing?!), "Do The Stooge" features brilliantly scuzzy, cackling vocals sounding damaged from whatever he smoked the night before alongside swaggering beats, guitar and a big gulping bass.  Other highlights like "Little Bo Bitch" and "Pretty Girls" further celebrate American rock 'n' roll history while staying ahead of the curve of punk today.  Nobunny continues his salacious odes to girls, drugs and questionable life decisions to his already illustrious career whilst making sure he, and everyone else has a good time along the way. YESBUNNY!

Freakapuss/Sic Alps split 7"

New split single out on Drag City features Freakapuss (Zarjaz formerly of Tronics) and Sic Alps.  Freakapuss designs a cosmic opus about golden elephants, crazy experiments and jeweled rock pools in track "Here Today Here Tomorrow".   This side of the single plays out feel good rock 'n' roll guitar alongside bongos, with cerebral teasing lyrics adding a psychedelic twist to the track.  Elements from the verse are depicted in Unica Zurn-esque drawings on an eye grabbing sleeve, a fitting image for Freakapuss' first vinyl release.  Regarding the reverse side Sic Alps offer up "New Trawgs III" featuring sun-kissed guitars, hand percussion and strung out vocals.  "New Trawgs III" follows on nicely from "Here Today Here Tomorrow" in its rock swagger and stripped down approach.  The cohesiveness of this release shows Freakapuss and Sic Alps a perfect pairing for a split single, well worth grabbing a copy.

UK copies here
US copies here

Ty Segall & White Fence 'Hair'

Psycho rock troubadour Ty Segall combines forces with fellow West Coast artist White Fence for a very special release on Drag City. Since releasing solo material in 2008 Ty Segall already has a prolific output that has gone from strength to strength following rock music down it's many avenues and alley ways. White Fence is fronted by Tim Presley who is making waves with his ethereal psychedelic folk on a sold out record for Woodsist at present. The duo bring you 'Hair', a meeting of freakish folk making folk freaky with gallivanting guitars, somersaulting keys and jarring rhythms running with the pulse of rock today whilst channeling sounds of the 60s.

Roused by "Time" the album opens with a mantric "1,2,3,4", giving off stoner vibes with hypno-harmonies, strung out strings and layers of fuzz drifting in and out of focus. One thing that stood out on this record is how rhythms curiously chop and change, pushing and pulling you all over the place and while you may feel out of control listening, Segall and Presley are very much in control when playing. This is best shown on "Scissor People", playing out frenetic beats alongside unaffected vocals and joyfully feral guitars flexing every rock and psych muscle at breakneck pace before abruptly buckling. Clocking in at around the 30 minute mark these eight tracks hit all the rock, pop, folk and psych pleasure centres whilst leaving you wanting more. This is a fantastic collaboration between two people fully testing the limits and taking rock 'n' roll further into the unknown.

Copies of 'Hair' at Drag City Norman Records

The Lonesome Savages 'All Outta Love' EP

The Lonesome Savages are a group formed in Madison, WI made up of members from Dead Luke and Zola Jesus lead by Max Elliot, the four piece feature drums, a duo of guitars and keyboards alongside howling vocals. The Lonesome Savages offer up a struttin' punkabilly sound that recall acts like The Cramps and Vince Taylor. Crunchy guitars, thudding rhythms and bluesy keyboards dominate four love songs sung with a snarl. "Got Love" best shows the band's fondness for 50's rock 'n' roll with ragged, scaling keyboards and feverish guitars fronted by Elliot's wailed out grunting vocals. The highlight for me is closer "Train Kept A Rollin'" that's simply a great contemporary rock 'n' roll song, not challenging what's come before but having fun with it. Limited to 350 hand numbered copies - first 100 on coloured vinyl - the 7" also comes with two download-able Dead Luke tracks one of which is previously unreleased, the other cover of Suicide's "Ghost Rider", grab it while you can!



Find copies at Kind Turkey

The Lonesome Savages Bandcamp Facebook

Something Men 'Birdy Roof'

It's surprising a band like Something Men are from the UK given that their songs heavily rooted in Rock 'n' Roll fit so well in with the recent garage rock revival across the pond. The foursome have just released with their debut single 'Birdy Roof' on EZPZ Records. These guys definitely sound like they spent their formative years listening to Bo Diddley and absorbing all the garage rock bands that followed him, 13th Floor Elevators immediately come to mind. And sure enough, Something Men put a contemporary spin on the genre much in the way The Beets do in their rock 'n' roll-slacker demeanor. This is another fine example of a band not challenging the past but having fun with a type of music they clearly love.

(These guys are looking to do some shows in London up until the end of the year if you know of anything - somethingmen@gmail.com)

Something Men- Mud Brown Mistress by ezpz records

Something Men Tumblr Facebook

Human Eye 'They Came From the Sky'

'They Came From the Sky' is Human Eye's third album and first full length for the mighty Brooklyn label, Sacred Bones. This futuristic piece features Johnny Lzr (keyboards), Hurricane William (saxophone/percussion) and Brad Hales(bass) who along with Vulgar are based in Detroit. Stories of space travel and encounters with aliens are told alongside heavy-duty psychedelia rooted in rock 'n' roll resulting in eight songs that depict carnage on an apocolpytic scale. Firey, sinewed guitars, thundering rhythms and Vulgar's oracular vocals are an assult on all senses, and, the more I hear Timmy Vulgar's otherworldly freaked out songs (also check out Clone Defects and Timmy's Organism!) the more I like his stuff. When you let Vulgar take you into his universe it's clear to see everyone has their own way of losing their mind on record, and 'They Came From the Sky' certainly doesn't hold back.

Copies can be found at Sacred Bones

Cum Stain 'Hurry Up and Kill Yourself'

Burger Records, how I love you. The folks in California have come through with another fine release, this time with Cum Stain's debut album 'Hurry Up and Kill Yourself'. All of the songs are written and recorded by Sean Starling, with Venessa Lamb, Stephen Valle, Raul Esparza and Brian Kim joining the party to make up a live band. 'Hurry Up and Kill Yourself' is an amphetamine pumped, juvenile rock and roll record played with a whole lotta gusto blasting through twelve tracks on the A Side of the LP. For fans of Personal and the Pizzas, Nobunny, Hunx and His Punx, Outdoorsmen, 100 on puke green with handmade art by Starling, 500 pressed in total. When you enjoy listening to something this much there's no need to question it.

You can find copies here

Cum Stain Band Camp

Death 'Spiritual Mental Physical'

Following it's original release in 1975 on Columbia, Death's universally loved 'For the World to See' was rescued by Drag City in 2009. But, this album only had seven tracks on it. When the band were initially picked up by Columbia they began to record however, the label implored the brothers to change their name to something commercially pleasing. When the group refused Columbia withdrew their support during the recording process hence why only seven songs made it to 'For the World to See'.

Detroit's Proto Punk trio survived by members Bobby and Dannis Hackney still had amo left in the Death cannon, and here it is. 'Spiritual Mental Physical' compiles 10 songs taken from original reel to reel recordings made between 1974 and 1976. What won't be surprising is it's rock and roll down to the core (you expected anything less?) and every inch as gritty as their studio recorded album. These newly unearthed songs gives the listener a sense of being a fly on the wall during the recording process. You can hear the band screwing around, trying out ideas and just plugging in to belt out some jams. Building on the seven songs we are familiar with 'Spiritual Mental Physical' helps to further shape what we understand about the band Death and their sound.

Drag City calls this release a 'victory lap' for Death, and I can't think of a better way to put it. With liner notes by Bobby Hackney describing the songs this is for any and all Death fans.


Read full review of Spiritual / Mental / Physical - DEATH on Boomkat.com ©