Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale

Kowloon Walled City is a band I never really got until recently. I heard their first EP and dug it...but only to the point of half-listening to the first few tracks, agreeing with a riff here and there then veering off to listen to something else.

Sentiments of the "ass-heavy", "low-end", and other popular buzzwords (or conjugations, whatever) used by people, including myself, to describe this band barely do justice to express what's special about this band, and more specifically, their new record Gambling on the Richter Scale. If you're familiar with their EP, think of this as the track 'Turning Into Bricks' expanded into eight tracks, heavy riffage and verse-trailing solos included.

Using the word "heavy" to describe their music may prove deceiving. The bar has been raised so high in music in terms of technical ability within the past decade that the definition of "heavy" has transformed from the indulgence of a slow complimentary solo to shitty soulless tech-grind breakdowns. It's debasing to say what they've created is simple...less technical songs display a different sort of musical ability than masturbatory solos and string fingering.

Compare their music to what Soundgarden was doing before they fizzled out in the mid-nineties. Dark, heavy, depressing kind of shit. The ability to conjure emotion with instrumentals is what defined their heaviness...and this stands as the same case for KWC. Track for track, this record is a slurry of voluminous thick spirited and urban-centric songs rooted by this strong backbone of murky music born by the many grit-toothed noise rock (and grunge) bands that came before them. Although, most of the tracks do embody this sort of slow dark-melodic sort of feel, they do indulge in the kind of heavy-flesh-grinding minimalist sludge comparable to Corrupted.

And that's just what makes KWC so attractive...they have this awesome dynamism that sounds great, but doesn't make their records incohesive. Check it out:

Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale

(COME TO MARYLAND)

--fred

Carusella - Self Titled

Carusella is from Israel and they fit somewhat outside of the music that we usually post here. They bridge the gap between garage-indie and noise rock, but bring something heavier that defies that troublesome "indie" tag. The record starts off establishing the band's pummeling presence, before Tamar Aphek (vox, gits) chimes in, bringing a lighter feel to the atmosphere. Her voice wavers a bit at parts, noticeably untrained, but in a charming way. Aphek's vocal tracks are the more melodic and catchier of the few peppered throughout the record, which was most likely a deciding factor in their decision to front "Star Quality" at the head of their promotional push. Guy Schechter's (vox, skins) vocal tracks are typically the heavier tracks on the album, with more off-kilter moments that slip into something akin to Unsane or Helmet. Carusella is, without a doubt, another band you should keep an eye on in the next few upcoming years.

This album rocks like no other:

Carusella - Self-Titled

--fred

Mclusky Do Dallas

Lightsaber Cock Sucking Blues. Nuff Said.
(Really catchy noise rock)

Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas

The Jesus Lizard - Liar and Head/Pure

This is a request from a friend

The Jesus Lizard. If you don't know who they are, fucking hell...

Two excellent albums by a band that fucked it all up by signing up with Capitol

Liar plus Head/Pure all in one convenient .rar!

Melt-Banana (Cell-Scape & Bambi's Dilemma)

Good News, you don't have to feel like a tool box for liking Melt-Banana!

Sure, they're popular, have a nasally-voiced Japanese woman as their singer, and have "wacky" song titles like "Pigeons on my Eyes (Go to Bed!!!)" but they're a legitimate band I swear.

Inescapable comparisons to the zeuhl-y Ruins or the noise-y Boredoms are abound so I won't bore you. Check this shit out son! Their two most recent Al-Bums

Cell-Scape (2003)

Bambi's Dilemma (2007)

Faucet - Self Titled

This one's a grinder-exclusive (as you can't find it anywhere else on the fucking internet!). I've been looking for the album for a very long time and I finally stumbled across it earlier today--this is Faucet's Self-Titled and final record. Their first album, Bleeding Head, sounds like early 90s alternative mixed with some psychedelic flourishes here and there. However, this album displays more of a noise influence than anything else. Give these guys a listen if you're a noise-rock kinda guy (or girl):

Faucet - Self Titled

Here's Faucet's First Album, "Bleeding Head (You Can't Laugh All The Time)" over at [shiny grey monotone]

Don't Mess With Texas.

--fred

Cows Super Post

This shit is fucking impossible to find. You have no idea.

Orphan's Tragedy
Sorry in Pig Minor
Peactika
Daddy Has A Tail


Enjoy and tune in on Monday--we'll be discussing the geopolitical agenda of the United States and their conquest of the Middle East...or how much we hate Axl Rose.

Helios Creed - Kiss to the Brain

As appreciation for the wonderful blogger who posted the first Helios Creed album on Lucidmedia (lucidmedia.blogspot.com), here is Kiss to the Brain by the aforementioned. I only own this one album by him, but what an album this is...


Imagine listening to The Residents, at half the RPM, on LSD. The opening track, XL-35 and Throw Away the Rind (which we played on the show) are my favorites.

You're doing yourself a huge favor