Category: Rewind Reviews

Rewind Review: Iguana Death Cult – Echo Palace (2022)

Hailing from The Netherlands, Iguana Death Cult both blend and defy genres on their 2022 album Echo Palace.

Opening with funky post-punk on “Paper Straws,” IDC instantly reminded me of !!! with their quirky dance grooves and solid bass lines from Justin Boer. The title track brought some of Parquet Courts‘ groovier stuff to mind, and Tobias Opschoor‘s frenetic guitar riffs on it are great.

“Pushermen” is a good example of the band clicking together in the studio, as they wrote it in about an hour. It seems to be a song about escaping the constraints of the urban grind (“Living in a box of concrete, how do you keep occupied?…Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Don’t believe the hype. Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Freedom’s in the mind.”).

“Sunny Side Up” is a quirky garage rock track, not unlike early Devo, about how trying to make it through a typical day of work and the “superficial spectacle.” (“I’d give you all of my money if I could borrow some time.”). Benjamin Herman‘s guest saxophone solo on “Sensory Overload” is outstanding. “Conference to Conference” once again tackles the banality of the corporate life.

“I Just Want a House” is a great post-punk track with great back-and-forth vocals between Jeroen Reek and his bandmates as they pine for a simpler life away from the hustle and bustle (“I’ll admit I’m confused on how we even got here. Just want a house where I can lay back.”). “Oh No” is like a lit fuse racing toward a pound of dynamite. Boer’s bass borders on panic, and Reek blasts out trombone honks to inspire more wild dancing in the clubs.

“Rope a Dope” is a good example of Arjen van Opstal‘s “sounds easy but is deceptively difficult for others to place” drumming ability and the keen and subtle use of Jimmy de Kok‘s synthesizers. You realize that a lot of the tracks on Echo Palace wouldn’t sound right without them.

van Opstal’s hi-hat work is on-point on “Heaven in Disorder,” and I love the slight echo effect on Opschoor’s guitar in it – and the neat sense of menace in the last quarter of the song. The album ends with the garage / new wave (How did they mix those genres so well?) rocker “Radio Brainwave.” It’s a great way to wrap up the record.

I discovered IDC when I saw them open for Osees last October. They won over the crowd right away, and I’m keen to see where they go next.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Honey’s Dead (2009 reissue)

The Jesus and Mary Chain came out swinging on their 1992 album (their fourth) Honey’s Dead. First, the title refers to their hit “Just Like Honey” and how they’ve decided to move on from it, so get on the train or get off the tracks. Then, the first line of the opening track, “Reverence,” is “I wanna die just like Jesus Christ.” The song was banned across many BBC airwaves for that lyric (along with “I wanna die like JFK.”) and its repeated apparent references to suicide – which were actually about letting go of relationships and the ego.

There’s no hidden meaning behind “Teenage Lust.” It is what’s advertised. William Reid‘s guitars sound like they’re being banged around in a tool & dye plant. “Far Gone and Out” is still one of JAMC’s biggest hits, and it has Jim Reid singing about a woman he wants to teach a lesson (“No one works so hard just to make me feel so bad.”).

His brother, William, on the other hand, has much better things to say about the subject of “Almost Gold” – a woman who was the closest he’d come to perfection by that point in his life. HIs guitars on “Sugar Ray” roar and growl like angry wasps as he tries to tell a woman that he’s not like “All those boys [who] have fun with toys. All I want is you.”

“Tumbledown” has Jim Reid dealing with the fallout of another lover who’s nothing but trouble, while Steve Monti, bringing a nice return of live drumming to the band, knocks out frantic beats. “Catchfire” is a standout if you love some psychedelia mixed with your shoegaze. The title might be a drug reference. After all, the album was recorded in their studio they’d named the “Drugstore.”

Jim Reid finally finds Mrs. Right (Now?) on “Good for My Soul” – a downright lovely shoegaze song giving praise to a woman who “Ever since she came I’ve been whole, believe me.” “Rollercoaster” is an early 1990s rock gem with William Reid trying to forgive his past after others have already done so (and Monti nails some killer beats in the meantime). On “I Can’t Get Enough,” he sings “Honey, you’re so cool” to a woman, but you really don’t believe him. His brother’s guitar work highlights his snarky frustration.

By the time we get to “Sundown,” William Reid is ready to give up. “The planet poisoned me. It’s a sick place to be. I’ve got a taste for it. Now I’ve gotta leave.” “Frequency” is the sibling to “Reverence,” which much the same lyrics but with William Reid on vocals and extra guitar crunch and shredding sprinkled on top.

Honey’s Dead was (and still is) a good record, and a second launching point for the band to explore more options and sounds. Don’t skip it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Vuelveteloca – Sonora (2017)

I discovered Vuelveteloca at the 2017 Levitation Music Festival where they played a great show at the now long-gone Barracuda club. I hadn’t heard them before then, but their Chilean version of metal, psych, krautrock, and stoner metal was something to behold. I snagged their Sonora album from their merch table…and it got lost in a stack of CDs in my office for years. It’s a shame I’m finally getting around to reviewing it eight years later, because it’s a slick record.

First, you should know that the band’s name translates as “Go crazy.” in English. That lets you know what you’re in for with this record. It’s a fitting name.

The album’s title translates as “Sonorous” – which implies something deep and powerful. Opening track, “La Niebla” (“The Fog”), stomps the gas pedal to the floor and charges through the titular weather with reckless abandon. The brief moment of coasting (around the 3:30 mark) lets you feel the wind on your face for a bit before the guitars from Marcos De Iruarrizaga and Tomás Olivos come back to melt it.

“Alta Montaña” (“High Mountain”) displays their love of stoner metal and cosmic rock, as Juan Gili hammers out mantra-like beats to induce rhythmic head-nodding. “Ataque Masivo” isn’t necessarily a tribute to the band “Massive Attack,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if Massive Attack were an influence on them. The track has krautrock leanings, but also synth touches that lean it a bit in Massive Attack’s direction.

The fuzz returns in full force on “Carnaval,” sending us on a trippy journey down streets full of masked people who might have dark intentions. “L.A.” slows things down into 1960s psych-rock. It’s a neat change in tone from the heavy stuff that’s come before it as the song builds in power and volume. “El Lado Frio” (“The Cold Side”) takes that power and volume and uses it to cause your brain to swirl in your skull.

“Tormento” (“Torment”) is a song you’ll want to blast while competing in a demolition derby. “Chepical” dives back into krautrock, but adds soaring cosmic rock guitars to the mix. Ending with the interestingly titled “Cientologia & Altiplano” (“Scientology & Plateau”), the album uses Jose Navarrete‘s bass grooves to maximum effect and creates a great jam track with limited vocals and maximum head-trip riffs.

It’s a wild record, and one I slept on for too long. Don’t do the same.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Automatic (2009 reissue)

The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s 1989 album (their third), Automatic, is the second one to be made by the Reid brothers, William and and Jim, with backing from a drum machine and synth-bass. Some fans derided this back in the day, but the album is now considered another classic from them.

Opening track “Here Comes Alice” is a full-out rock ode to a hot lady on a hot summer day. “Coast to Coast” is another sizzler and perfect for fast driving down long highways (“I got a cat-scratch engine, takes me on the road. Wheels get back rolling to the world I know. Take me just as far as I can go.”). The guitars on this are great – roaring one moment and squealing the next.

“Blues from a Gun” is one of TJAMC’s biggest hits, even reaching the top spot on the U.S. “Modern Rock” charts back in 1989. It’s about someone misreading a situation that they think is romantic but is strictly platonic (“If you’re talking for real, then go cut a deal. You’re facing up to living out the way that you feel.”). It’s no surprise it was a big hit, because it hits all the right notes. The chugging guitars and sharp but simple electric drum beats perfectly mix together.

“Between Planets,” a song about a woman who might be schizophrenic, is so catchy it could’ve been the theme to an MTV show in the late 1980s. The programmed drums are heavy on “UV Ray,” and the machine-like guitar riffs (mixed with a bit of surf!), give the song a bit of an industrial dance club feel. “Her Way of Praying” has Jim Reid singing about a woman who drives him crazy with her “hip dippin’ trick of all time done right.”

“Head On” was so popular that Pixies went on to cover it on their Trompe Le Monde album. It’s easy to see why it was an influence on them: Quieter verses mixed with loud choruses and louder guitars. “Take It” is about giving yourself to a lover and not worrying about anything else.

“Catch me ’cause I’m falling apart,” Jim Reid sings on “Halfway to Crazy” – a song about, you guessed it, going mad in a world that’s even crazier than you are. “Gimme Hell” is appropriately heavy as Jim Reid sings / growls about a cantankerous relationship that threatens to singe both parties. The drug reference of “Drop” is hard to miss, as William Reid sings about seeking solace after a breakup (“I should have guessed when I took that pill. Do I love her still?”). The album ends with the drum-heavy instrumental “Sunray.”

It would be interesting to hear these tracks with live drums and bass, but they’re all good and all influenced generations of musicians.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Darklands (2009 reissue)

The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s second album, Darklands (from 1987), was the first without a drummer. Bobby Gillespie had left the band to become the lead singer of Primal Scream, so drum machines were used for the percussion on the record. The Reid brothers, Jim and William share vocals throughout the album.

William is on lead vocals for the opening title track, which dials down the fuzz tones of Psychocandy, but doesn’t lose any of the groovy hooks JAMC can create. Jim sings on “Deep One Perfect Morning.” William’s strumming guitar chords on it create a shimmering effect that turns into a driving storm on the following track – “Happy When It Rains.” It’s a song about being caught in a bad relationship that sometimes feels like you have a good thing going.

Jim Reid sounds exhausted as a young man on “Down on Me,” with lyrics like “Twenty-five years of growing old. It just hangs in front of me.” William’s guitar work on it is excellent, even bringing in some surf-rock elements. “Nine Million Rainy Days” has William back on lead vocals, and he sounds like he’s been devastated by a lover (“As far as I can see, there’s nothing left of me. All my time in hell was spent with you.”). It’s a sad, haunting track and, upon hearing it again, makes me realize how much JAMC are an influence on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Jim asks for answers from a departing lover on “April Skies,” which was the first single released from the album. “Fall” (which seems to have influenced The Raveonettes) brings back some of the growling fuzz of Psychocandy as Jim tries to explain to everyone how he’s dried up from constantly being pressured by the world. “Cherry Came Too” is easily the naughtiest song on the record and a tale (with doo-wop touches!) of kinky sex and obsessive compulsion.

William returns on lead vocals for “On the Wall,” a song about being stuck in time and place and not having much motivation or opportunity to change the situation. Despite the many songs on Darklands about bad relationships, misery after a breakup, and the motivations behind love, the album ends with the hopeful “About You,” in which Jim thinks maybe it can work out this time (“You and me, we’ll win, you’ll see…There’s something warm in everything…There’s something good about you.”).

Many were expecting another loud, raucous shoegaze record after Psychocandy, but the Reid brothers took the band and their sound in a different direction for the follow-up. It was a good decision.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Flat Worms – Live in Los Angeles (2022)

I have yet to see Flat Worms live. This seems like a crime to me. They’re a great power trio with darkly humorous lyrics and power you cannot deny. So, Live in Los Angeles (recorded in 2019) will have to do until I can catch them at a somewhat dingy venue that feels like a sweatbox and smells like beer mixed with incense.

“Pearl” starts off the raucous set with Will Ivy‘s guitars sounding like a sped-up hotel fire alarm and his vocals bringing angry post-punk lyrics about keeping up with the Joneses to the crowd. “Motorbike” roars like its namesake and Justin Sullivan‘s chops on the drums turn on a dime at any given moment. The live version of “Into the Iris” slows it down a bit but doesn’t lack in power. It’s almost a sludge rock tune in the first half and then kicks into near-punk fury for the second half. It’s songs like this in which Tim Hellman excels on bass. He can lock down any track at any speed and in seemingly any genre, and he plays like a time bomb is about to off on “Plaster Casts.”

“Condo Colony,” a great takedown of gated communities and HOA madness, absolutely slays on this. It’s impossible to choose which of the three is killing it more. The short-instrumental “Scattered Palms” explodes into the snarky “11816.” The album ends with “Red Hot Sand,” and yes, it’s blistering. Hellman’s bass is frantic, Ivy’s guitar is a race car tearing up a dirt track, and Sullivan’s drums threaten to crack the floor under you.

It’s a great capture of a trio clicking on all fronts and crushing everything around them. If you can’t see them live, this is a worthy alternative.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Slowdive – Pygmalion (2011 reissue)

This might be one of the most divisive albums ever made.

It’s rare that you find someone like yours truly who thinks Slowdive‘s 1995 album Pygmalion is “Okay.” People seem to either love it or hate it. The lovers contend that it’s an ambient dream music masterpiece and the haters think it’s an atmospheric Neil Halstead vanity project that barely qualifies as music.

The first thing that strikes you is that there’s almost no percussion on this album. Drummer Simon Scott had left the band, and was replaced by Ian McCutcheon…who doesn’t have that much to do apart from making background noises. Don’t expect massive drum fills, cymbal crashes, or rock beats on this album. They’re not here. Acid jazz beats are, albeit quiet ones.

The album opens with “Rutti,” which is over ten minutes long and I think is about death, or perhaps embracing the process of aging. I know it’s mesmerizing if you give it a chance. “Crazy for You” starts to let more sunlight through the clouds, and Slowdive fans back in the day were probably thinking, “Here come the roaring guitars!” during its first minute…but they never arrive. It’s just mantra-like guitars and vocals for almost five minutes.

“Miranda” has unintelligible vocals from Rachel Goswell, who co-wrote it with Halstead, and looping synths that border on becoming white noise. The same goes for “Trellisaze,” but the synths are replaced with guitar strums and slow, almost mechanical hand percussion.

The quick instrumental of “Cello” leads to “J’s Heaven” – a song about depression (“Why am I so low? Isn’t life cheerful?”) with Goswell’s vocals sounding like they’re coming from a haunted well. Goswell’s vocals on “Visions of LA” are clearer, and are a beautiful song to a friend she’s trying to calm as he battles with fear.

“Blue Skied an’ Clear” is the most upbeat song on the album (even with the slow, faint drums and airy guitars and vocals), as it’s about finding encouragement in life when a lover tells you, and means it, that everything will be okay. “All of Us” seems to be about aging, and the realization that it comes to all of us at some point.

This isn’t an album you crank on your hi-fi. I wouldn’t listen to it while driving, as it might make you fall asleep some late night behind the wheel. It’s a classic “headphones record” that is best for times when you just need to lie back and look at the sky while everything races past you.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Slowdive – Souvlaki (2011 reissue)

Slowdive‘s second album, Souvlaki (originally released in 1993), didn’t make much of a splash at first, but everyone pretty much now agrees that it was, and still is, a shoegaze classic.

“Alison” starts off the album in one of the best ways you can start a shoegaze record – with a song about a pretty girl and getting high. You’d think a song called “Machine Gun” would roll out the heavy walls of guitar feedback, but instead they up the hypnotic synths and let Rachel Goswell‘s morning mist vocals about succumbing to a flood come to the front.

It’s no secret that Goswell and Neil Halstead broke up not long before the band started the writing sessions for this album, and Halstead’s heartbreak is all over the album in his vocals, lyrics, and guitar work. He wrote “40 Days” while on a two-week break in Wales to come to terms with it. The song is a bit loose and jangly with Simon Scott‘s drums doing a little shuffle here and there.

“Sing” and “Here She Comes” were cowritten and produced by none other than Brian Eno. The band, and especially Halstead, wanted Eno to produce the whole record, but he declined. He contributes synths to “Sing,” a song about loneliness with Goswell’s vocals making you wonder if she was reconsidering the breakup. “Here She Comes” is about the hope of finding warmth in the arms of a lover, but knowing it could be a long winter before that happens.

“Souvlaki Space Station” is more psychedelia than shoegaze, and goes to show Slowdive can pull off either genre at will. Despite being one of their biggest hits among fans, bassist Nick Chaplin and guitarist Christian Savill, didn’t think “When the Sun Hits” should be on the album. It hits all the “wall of sound” notes you want in a shoegaze track, and they’ve changed their mind on it since.

“Altogether” has Halstead watching Goswell from a distance, knowing things probably aren’t going much further between them, and the sad guitar work on it only emphasizes that belief. “Melon Yellow” continues this distancing (“So long. So long. It’s just a way to love you.”), with Halstead’s voice sounding far away and Scott’s drums almost mournful. The closing track, “Dagger,” is about, as Halstead put it, “a fucked-up relationship.” It, like many songs on the album, refer to Halstead watching Goswell as she sleeps, perhaps telling her what he couldn’t bring himself to say while she was awake and admitting “You know I am your dagger. You know I am your wound.”

It’s a heavy record, and not just from the sound. It’s gorgeous and sad, so, yeah, a shoegaze classic.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Slowdive – Just for a Day (2011 reissue)

Slowdive were one of the best shoegaze bands to come out of the 1990s, but also one of the best-kept secrets in the genre for a while. I don’t know if I, or anyone, can explain this, because they’re widely praised among the genre’s enthusiasts and have been playing sold-out shows across the world since their comeback self-titled album released in 2017.

Just for a Day was their 1991 full-length debut, and it’s full of classic touches that make you realize how much they influenced many other bands. The opening somber notes of “Spanish Air” are as good as anything The Cure was making back then, and just as hypnotic. “Celia’s Dream” seems to be a love letter from Neil Halstead to the girl in the title as he sings about shadows drifting away from her, but also her drifting away from him.

“Catch the Breeze” was the lone single from the album, which makes sense when you consider the big, fuzzy wall of sound that hits you in the chorus. “Ballad of Sister Sue” sounds like it could’ve been recorded in an abandoned church with its echoing guitars, mysterious vocals, and distant drums. “Erik’s Song” ends side one of the album with ethereal, instrumental bliss.

Side two begins with “Waves” – a song about leaving a relationship and the freedom that can sometimes bring (“You’re knocking on the door I closed today, and everything looks brighter.”). Speaking of things being brighter, that’s the theme of, you guessed it, “Brighter” – a song about finding hope when things look dark and trusting that tomorrow can bring something better.

“The Sadman” has Rachel Goswell‘s astral plane voice telling us of a being who calls to us when our hearts are broken. Is it someone she knows? A mythical figure? A guy she met outside a gig who looked broken down but still tried to make her laugh? I don’t know, but this needs to be in a movie somewhere. The record ends with “Primal,” which might be the best pairing of Nick Chaplin (bass) and Simon Scott (drums) on the album. They snap and thump in perfect rhythm with each other and never overpower Halstead, Goswell, and Christian Savill. That’s not easy to do when those three are playing shoegaze riffs that grow and grow like a sunrise through rainclouds.

It’s a nice debut record that hinted at bigger things to come and is now considered a bit of a classic.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Windhand – Soma (2013)

I don’t know how I missed Windhand‘s Soma album until now. Shame on me because it’s another heavy, stunning part of their catalogue.

Garrett Morris‘ guitars on the first track, “Orchard,” sound like something is crawling out of the dirt while Dorthia Cottrell‘s vocals sound like they’re coming from a deep hole found under the floorboards of the cabin on the album cover as she contemplates death by gunshot – either hers or someone else’s.

Parker Chandler‘s bass crushes on “Woodbine,” a song about calling out to the devil out of desperation and the danger that comes with such a summoning. Morris’ guitar on “Feral Bones” is the sound of Rodan waking up from deep slumber inside a volcano. The song is about how time catches all of us sooner or later.

The acoustic “Evergreen” is a stunning showcase of Cottrell’s voice in a song about wishing a loved one could stay young, and alive, forever, but knowing that’s impossible. The massive “Cossack,” at over thirteen minutes long, has few lyrics, but no shortage of crushing riffs and spooky, heavy drumming from Ryan Wolfe. Morris’ guitar solo on it will stop you in your tracks.

Is that not enough doom for you? Well, the final track, “Boleskine,” is over a half-hour long. It stars with creepy wind sounds and simple acoustic guitar strumming, and then proceeds to come at you like the Blob or a Creeping Doom spell. You see and feel it coming, but you can’t stop it for about twelve minutes, when it drifts back into howling winds and lonely acoustic riffs. That’s just a fake-out, though, almost like a jump scare out of the shadows, because the massive riffs re-emerge from their sarcophagi and swarm you. It’s the kind of doom song that will overtake you.

The whole album will overtake you, but, as a doom fan, that’s what you wanted, right?

Keep your mind open.

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