Canadian garage rockers Dead Ghosts have announced that their new album Automatic Changer, will be available on vinyl, cassette, CD, and streaming on April 24, 2020. The album will be Dead Ghosts 3rd release with southern California independent label, Burger Records.
Automatic Changer is a record that formed over the past half-decade, and serves as a sort of collage of the band’s experience and changing songwriting over that period. Vocalist/guitarist Bryan Nicol said of the writing/recording process and the resulting album, ”parts have been recorded in a studio, our basement, and a barn. Some songs are abstract, lyrically built around words we like the sounds of and others are more personal.”
Formed nearly a decade ago in Vancouver, Canada, Dead Ghosts grew out of founders Byran Nicol (vocals/guitar), Drew Wilky (guitar), and Mike Wilky’s (drums) desire to hang out, listen to records and play music. After the trio uploaded a few demos to Myspace, this was 2008, after all, the group were offered the opportunity to release a single via a small Iowa-based punk label. The single quickly led to the group’s first full-length self-titled album. By 2015 the group had joined the Burger Records roster and released two more albums, Can’t Get No and Love and Death and All the Rest. With time the band added two members, bass player Mauricio “Moe” Chiumento and organist Craig Pettman. Playing a distinctive brand of swaggering, blues- infused lo-fi rock, the five-piece quickly won over transatlantic fans and scored fresh fodder for their lyrics with their punk-rock antics.
In preparation for their upcoming release, the group has decided to embark on a short West Coast tour starting in late October. The show set will include several songs from Automatic Changer. Oct 26 – Olympia – Cap City presents @ Le Voyeur Oct 28 – Reno – HP presents @ The Holland Project Oct 29 – Costa Mesa – Live Nation Presents @ Constellation Room Oct 31 – LA – Minty Boi Presents Halloween @ El CID Nov 1 – Phoenix – Psyko Steve Presents @ Lunchbox Nov 3 – SF – Folk YEAH Presents @ The Chapel Nov 4 – Portland @ Star Theatre Nov 5 – Seattle – The Crocodile presents @The Sunset Nov 6 – Vancouver – MRG Presents @ The Biltmore
Keep your mind open.
[You can get automatic updates to your e-mail inbox when you subscribe.]
Hailing from Norway, Hans-Peter Lindstrom has delivered a four-song album (the shortest track is 8:49) of ambient-disco-lounge music that is almost more of a feeling than a genre – On a Clear Day I Can See You Forever.
The title track (which was mostly improvised, and the rest of the tracks, while pre-planned, were done in one take) opens the album with synthwave subtlety that floats from your speaker like a three quarters-filled helium balloon moving across city rooftops in a low breeze. The rave synths and beats of “Really Deep Snow” move in so effortlessly that they catch you a bit off guard.
“Swing Low Sweet LFO” is the soundtrack to a 1980’s crime film set on Venus. The closer, “As If No One Is Here,” almost sums up the entire album. Lindstrom creates musical soundscapes that seem to be perfectly at home if no one is listening. They are songs of synth dreams that come to you as you sit in a train car warmed by the rising sun. They are strange yet pleasant visions you can’t explain. They are the sound of an artist enjoying free expression without limits.
“Please call us to your party. Riding on a bison’s back, singing Flying Jelly Attack. We’ll be there,” lead guitarist Naoko of Shonen Knifesings on the first track, “Party,” of their new album – Sweet Candy Power.
It’s a perfect opening for a fun record of power hooks, punk rock drumming, and good time grooves. Any Shonen Knife album is a breath of fresh air and a vacation from the blues and bad news of the world, and this one is no exception.
“Dizzy” is a garage rocker about not feeling well to the point of putting on your pajamas wrong, but it’s nothing that a good night’s sleep and a cup of coffee can’t cure. The title track is already a crowd favorite at their live shows, and it’s no surprise. It has a great shouting chorus and chugging riffs that get you moving like you just ate a handful of Pop Rocks.
“My Independent Country” encourages all of us to take care of ourselves and stand for our beliefs. It’s a heavy rocker with hits of British metal with Naoko singing lyrics like “There are no rules. I make laws by myself. I’m a ruler and loser. Everything is in my hands.” “Wave Rock” brings in some surf riffs, which makes you think it would be a song about the ocean but it’s actually a song about desert rock formations.
The band’s drummer, Risa, takes over lead vocals on “Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches” – a song about her two favorite foods coming together to create the greatest culinary treat on Earth (to her at least). It’s as fun a song as the name implies. On “Never Never Land,” Naoko sings about losing her sunglasses on a Disney park ride. It has a bit of a Green Day vibe to it with its slow groove and synths.
“Peppermint Attack” has a wicked bass grove by Atsuko and her sister, Naoko, singing about being attacked by mosquitos and engaging in a “great battle” with them using peppermint spray, alcohol, and water. Atsuko sings lead on the bright, sunny “California Lemon Trees,” which I imagine was inspired by the trees in her backyard in Los Angeles. The final song on the album is “Match 3” – a salute to games like Candy Crush and Bejeweled, to which Naoko is hopelessly addicted (“Match 3 in my brain, Match 3 in my mind, Match 3 in a train, Match 3 in my bed.”).
There’s nothing to not like about this record. It’s fun from beginning to end and just what everyone needs right now.
Despite the hot (literal and figurative) cover image of two naked women standing in a dried out lake and staring at fiery horizon, Endless, the third album from Australia’s Holy Serpent (Dave Bartlett – bass, Nick Donoughue – guitar, Lance Leembruggen – drums, Scott Penberthy – guitar / vocals) is heavy on ocean imagery. Stories of coasts, waves, sea trenches, undertow, and frightening denizens of the deep are all over the doom metal album. It almost threatens to drown you.
Penberthy has said that the album’s title refers to the endless nature of the ocean and the story of two lovers standing on opposite sides of an ocean as they long for each other is weaved through the lyrics. The opening track, “Lord Deceptor,” is heavy fuzz with giant tortoise-level sludge prowling along its edges while Penberthy sings about ocean graves. “Into the Fire” is perhaps the story of the two women on the cover or the tale of sailing straight into a blazing sunset at sea (“Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be waiting…”). It’s a blistering track either way with Bartlett’s bass growling like a wild animal and Leembruggen’s drums smashing like an icebreaker.
The guitars on “Daughter of Light” push against the reverb-laden vocals while Leembruggen’s cymbals crash like waves against sharp rocks. I once described “For No One” as a tidal wave you see coming but can’t avoid. It’s a monster bearing down on you and there’s nothing to do but let it wash over you. Penberthy’s vocals sound like he’s tumbling inside the wave while Donoughue, Leembruggen, and Barlett sould like a shark racing up to meet him. The title of the final track “Marijuana Trench” is a play on “Mariana Trench” – the deepest place on Earth. It starts with acoustic guitar chords and sea shell-echo lyrics before space rock guitars zoom in and flatten you.
Endless is practically a soundtrack for a modern Conan movie if someone finally decided to shoot a movie about the famous Cimmerian’s adventures at sea. Someone should get on that, and you should hear this record.
Keep your mind open.
[No deception here, just music news and reviews when you subscribe.]
Recorded across the span of three shows (July 15 – 17, 2015) at San Francisco’s Chapel, Thee Oh Sees’Live in San Francisco captures the band in full sweaty, raw power that threatens to blast you to smithereens.
Starting with the hard-charging “I Come from the Mountain,” the band (John Dwyer – guitar, vocals, synth, Tim Hellman – bass, Ryan Moutinho – drums, and Dan Rincon – drums) takes off like a rocket and barely gives you time to catch your breath between tracks. The “Whoa-oh!” chants of “The Dream” combined with Dwyer’s gasoline fire guitar work instantly invoke moshing (or at least the desire to do so) wherever you hear it. “Time Tunnel” sounds like that gasoline fire has spread across the rest of the stage and Hellman’s bass is dumping wood on the blaze. The song stops on a rough dime for a jarring effect.
The psychedelic surf swing of “Tidal Wave” is is a great example of the dual drumming of Moutinho and Rincon as they play different parts in different time signatures that match up at the best times to induce organized chaos. “Web” ramps up the reverb to send you into a calmer state, as does “Man in a Suitcase” (which is not a cover of the Police song, although I’m sure that would be outstanding) before that song’s wild guitar solos and heavy cymbal bashing smack you back into the present.
The happy, swelling grooves of “Toe Cutter Thumb Buster” practically make your speakers pogo. You’re almost exhausted by the time they get to the calm opening guitar chords of “Withered Hand,” but the song soon erupts like Old Faithful and dares you to keep up with it. “Sticky Hulks” gives you a little break with psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a warm place between mosh outbreaks.
The last two tracks, “Gelatinous Cube” and “Contraption” sound like riots. “Gelatinous Cube” has more precision drumming from Moutinho and Rincon while Dwyer’s guitar roars and soars all over the place and Hellman’s steady bass groove is like a gravitational pull keeping the rest of the band from blasting through the ceiling. “Contraption” brings in garage punk shredding and pounding and psychedelic freak-outs to powerwash off whatever’s left of your face by this point.
The vinyl edition of Live in San Francisco came with a DVD of the performances. This is widely available on YouTube as well. This recording is as close as you can come to being in the crowd at an Oh Sees show because it captures the incredible playing and the manic energy of one of their gigs so well. You owe it to yourself to get to one of their shows, but this album will hold you over in the meantime.
I’m still a bit stunned that I was able to conduct an e-mail interview with pop-punk legends Shonen Knife this week, especially with them finishing their North American tour and about to embark on their Australia / New Zealand tour. Many thanks to them for taking the time to answer this humble writer’s questions, and to Andrew Scott for setting up this treat.
7th Level Music: First, I want to say thanks for stopping by Chicago’s Subterranean during your “Sweet Candy Power” tour. It was a fun show. I read your blog posts about the tour and also wanted to thank you for writing about the Mitsuwa Market. I didn’t know about it until I read your blog. Do you always stop there when you play Chicago?
Naoko: Yes, we do. There are some Japanese supermarkets in the U.S. When we have time, we try to stop there and eat lunch and buy Japanese food. I love Japanese bakery. I often buy Japanese pastries there.
7LM: I also read how the night before the show at Subterranean that you played the stage at a Hardee’s restaurant parking lot in Springfield, Illinois. I saw photos from the show and it looked like you had a great time and there was a big crowd. Were you surprised by the size of the crowd?
Naoko: I was very surprised and glad for the big crowd. It is the only restaurant which has a stage in a big parking lot. People there made lots of effort to make a fun event. The audience was very positive. They came to the venue to have fun. The atmosphere was very peaceful and happy. It was a great event.
7LM: Were there any other shows during the tour that were especially fun or surprising?
Naoko: We had very good reaction in all cities in Canada. It was the first time after a few years to come to Canada. The audience seemed to be enjoying our show a lot and I was happy, too.
7LM: I know you’re off to Australia and New Zealand next. Do you have any favorite venues there?
Naoko: I love all venues but especially I like to play at music festivals. We’ll play at The Lost Lands festival this time. I’m looking forward to playing there. I also like to play in New Zealand. It will be a rare chance to play there for us. Our audience in Australia and New Zealand are very cheerful and friendly like people in North America.
7LM: The new Sweet Candy Power album is very good. The title track got a big cheer from the Chicago crowd, and I wondered if there are American candies that you love that you take back with you to Japan? Also, are there any Japanese candies you wish you could get while you tour the United States? I, for one, love Japanese green tea candy and buy it whenever I can find it.
Naoko: I bought Halls throat candies during the tour. “Candy” we say “amé” in Japanese means “hard candy” in Japan. We have various kind of hard candies in Japan. I don’t have any special brand but love natural mint candy which doesn’t use artificial sugar. Green tea candy is good, too.
7LM: One thing I noticed on the new album is that it has a lot of different rock influences – punk, pop, garage, British metal, and more. Did you decide to play the different styles before recording began or was it something that you explored as you worked on the record?
Naoko: I wrote all the songs in [the last] 10 years. I listen to various kinds of rock and am inspired. I especially like 1970’s and 60’s rock and R&B, funk, disco music. Everything began from when I write songs.
7LM: The Subterranean show was the second time I’ve seen you live. The first was in Tucson, Arizona during the Ramen Adventure tour in 2017. I remember Risa saying during that show it was only her second time in the U.S. I’ve never been able to learn how you met Risa. She is a beast behind the drum kit. How did all of you meet? Risa, how did you start drumming and who are some of your drumming influences. Do you have any thoughts on the passing of Ginger Baker?
Naoko: Risa plays the drums in her family band called Brinky. Her father plays the bass and her sister play the guitar and vocal. They covered Shonen Knife songs. Our manager and I found them playing our songs through YouTube. Risa was a high school student at that time. Then there was an opportunity that Brinky opened for our show. We got to know each other.
Risa: When I was 14 years old, I started to form a band with my friends. I was asked to be a drummer from my friends. Then I started to play the drums.
I was influenced by Atsuko because she is the original drummer of Shonen Knife because I’m a fan of Shonen Knife. I set cymbals and tom toms like her. Other than her, I like John Bonham, Taylor Howkins, and Chad Smith.
I was listening to Cream a lot when I was a child because my father liked them. I’ve never seen Ginger Baker’s drumming. If I go to heaven someday, I would like to see him playing the drums directly.
7LM: I know Atsuko makes your show outfits. Atsuko, do you design the tour shirts as well? You were all out of my size (medium) by the time you got to Chicago, but I’m glad you sold many of them.
Atsuko: I’m inspired by 60’s and 70’s fashion. Naoko designs some T-shirts in these days and for [our 2019] U.S. tour T-shirts, Miyoko from Good Charamel Records, which release our albums, designed it.
Naoko: I’m sorry that we had many sold out sizes. We will prepare enough next time.
7LM: I always like to ask bands this: Are there any bands back home that you think more people should know? Are there any other bands from Osaka or elsewhere in Japan you think your fans would like? I recently discovered High Rise and Bo Ningen in the last few years and think both are great.
Naoko: I like Extruders and Convex Level. Extruders is a very unique band. Their music is one and only, I think. From Osaka, Yellow Machinegun is cool. They are all female band of 3 pieces and play hardcore.
7LM: Lastly, outside of music (and candy and ice cream and capybaras), what else do you love to talk about or what other hobbies do you enjoy?
Naoko: I like to play tennis and watching men’s pro tennis matches. Atsuko also likes it and we have matches when she comes to Osaka or I go to Los Angeles where she lives.
Australian quartet Holy Serpent share a new track from their forthcoming third album Endless on RidingEasy Records today via CvltNation. Hear and share “For No One” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Brooklyn Vegan recently hosted lead single “Lord Deceptor”HERE.(Direct YouTube.)
The forthcoming third album by Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent could likely be its defining moment. Seemingly bottomless in its relentless heft, with billowing and suffocating riffs leading glistening melodies, it’s the sound of a band that has locked on to something unique. Endless is fully conceptualized throughout, encapsulating an oceanic theme from the lyrics and art, even to the very structure of the sounds themselves.
“Lyrically, it’s heavily influenced by the ocean,” explains vocalist/guitarist Scott Penberthy. “Lots of ocean metaphors and imagery was used. Also the title of the album Endless, is an homage to the ocean: Its mystery, power and its ability to give and take life.” The album loosely follows the lyrical theme of two lovers, oceans apart, waiting for each other on the shores of eternity. Their love is so strong, they eventually walk into the water, ending their lives to be together in the afterlife.
Fitting to these themes, the band experiments with sound throughout the album, such as layering in a wobbly synth sound reminiscent of tape push and pull, mixed just loud enough to blend with the instruments. “It’s sort of a haunting sound which gives the album an ebb and flow, much like an ocean’s current or tide,” Penberthy says.
The 6-song, 40-minute album finds Penberthy, guitarist Nick Donoughue, bassist Dave Bartlett and drummer Lance Leembruggen expanding their melodic hooks while simultaneously taking listeners on a rigorous journey. It was written over the course of 2 months, then recorded in seclusion at Beveridge Road Recording Studios near Australia’s beautiful Dandenong Ranges with head engineer Marc Russo and mixed by Mike Deslandes. Surrounding themselves with nature and no distractions allowed the band to focus on every detail of the album as a coherent whole.
In the time since their self-titled RidingEasy debut in mid-2015, Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent have gained a lot of attention for their rather punk version of heavy psych and metal. Their 2016 skate-metal leaning album Temples further defined their more experimental blend of early Soundgarden, Saint Vitus and Kyuss that eschews simplistic 70s-worship in favor of shimmering sonics and uncommon production techniques. Nonetheless, Endless is like all of the band’s earliest visions fully realized and honed into an album beyond easy classification.
Starting with the slow, exaggeratedly compressed 4/4 drum lead in to “Lord Deceptor” — something of a hi-dive anticipation before we plunge headlong into the ensuing depths — crushing and crackling guitars burst in as Penberthy sings in low baritone, “ocean grave, carry me upon a wave / I’m hypnotized in prophecy, what Is left for you and me?” Harmonies drift in and out of the main motif as it sways along into the tempest of “Into The Fire.” Here, a churning riff gathers intensity as the rhythm section builds to a lurching 3/4 time. Reverb-soaked vocals sing, “where the ocean meets the sand, I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting there.” Elsewhere, on “For No One,” impossibly low droptuned guitars slink along as the music swells with space rock abandon. Album closer, “Marijuana Trench” is a play on the Mariana trench, the deepest place on earth. Appropriately, the song plunges from gently strummed acoustic guitar into a tsunami crest that pulls the listener under the dark and enveloping weight of sound as Penberthy’s soothing vocals seem to ease us into the end, subsumed in the album’s powerful allure.
Endless will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 18th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Preorders are available HERE.
Alexander Ahmadi and Derek Cowart, the core members of Los Angeles’ psychedelic rockers Cosmonauts, went back to basics on their new album, Star 69, recording it “as live as possible,” as Ahmadi put it.
The opener, “Crystal,” has them declaring, “Life is confusion.” It certainly can be, and is for most of us skittering around from deadline to deadline or trying to live in a past long gone or a future that doesn’t exist. The repeated chorus of “Are we clear? Are we crystal? Do you feel me in your system?” behind sharp psychedelic riffs is both a plea for understanding and a bit of a joke, as psychedelic rock is all about altering perceptions.
“Seven Sisters” is one of my top singles of 2019, and will make anyone who hears it crank up the volume. “Everybody’s trippin’, everybody’s falling down,” Ahmadi sings, and he’s right. Everyone is either stumbling over their egos instead of being in the moment or purposely falling on their faces for more YouTube or Instagram hits. “Medio Litro” is a witty take on partying and the rock and roll life and how they can be exhausting (“We’ll go to the party if we can find parking. We’ll go to the show, but we don’t have any money.”).
“Cold Nature” is a solid shoegaze track with some early 1990’s Brit-rock beats. “Wicked City (Outer Space)” kicks off like a roller coaster racing to make it up the first hill and then shooting down it for the first loop. It slows down just enough during the verses to let you catch your breath and then lulls you into a mellow bedroom with an exotic lover playing old tunes all night. “Heart of Texas” continues swirling the incense smoke around you with guitars and tribal beats that evoke spaghetti westerns and a lovely addition of female backing vocals in a song about lost love (i.e., “I’d give anything to be with you again.”).
“Faces for Radio” has a fun title, referring to someone with a great voice but not enough looks to be on television, and a fun groove throughout it. “Molly on Glass” ups the shoegaze fuzz while Ahmadi sings about struggling to get through the boredom and rat race of everyday life. “I’m still trying,” he sings on “Humming,” a bright song that seems to be about dusting yourself off and moving on from heartbreak. “The Gold Line” almost ends the album on a downbeat, but the final track, “Suburban Hearts,” brings back dance drums and plenty of reverb and distortion to send you off strutting down the street.
It’s good to have Cosmonauts back and inviting us to their party…and making sure we get home okay after the rough afterparty.
Mixing power doom riffs with shoegaze, psychedelia, and, for all I know, mystic rituals carved onto pillars in Atlantean ruins, Blackwater Holylight‘s second album, Veils of Winter, is another fine, mysterious, heavy album from them.
The opener, “Seeping Secrets,” is doom metal perfection, and those doom metal riffs continue onto “Motorcycle” – which even puts into krautrock beats and synths. “Spiders” is so close to post-punk grooves that I kept expecting to hear a saxophone solo in it. We get spooky house synths instead, which is even better.
“The Protector” seems to be about some sort of forest spirit that is an absolute beast if crossed. The heavy drums and fuzzed guitars sure seem to indicate this. The haunting vocal harmonies on “Daylight” are counterbalanced by war hammer bass and drums. “Death Realms” has a foreboding title, but it’s a lovely track with some of the brightest guitars on the record and dreamwave-like synths. It’s a great example of Blackwater Holylight‘s love of musical contrasts and toying with the listener’s expectations.
“Lullaby” has a hypnotic, repeating three-note structure that builds into a lush, trippy track with a neat fuzzy punch near the end. The album’s closer, “Moonlit,” combines psychedelia with Middle Eastern rhythms and more fascinating vocal harmonies.
I’ve tried to figure out what “veils of winter” could be. The first image that came to mind was a winter day with a cloudless sky and bright sun but bone chilling temperatures. The sun is a veil over the cold. Another was a moonlit winter night over a snow-covered landscape with the moonlight reflecting off the snow to push back the veil of the surrounding dark.
I could also be reading far too much into the album’s title, but those images that came to my mind seem fitting for Blackwater Holylight’s music. They veil and unveil their musical influences throughout Veils of Winter whenever the mood strikes them. It becomes mysterious, thrilling, and sometimes chilling.
Keep your mind open.
[Take a ride to the subscription box and subscribe while you’re here.]
With so much happening in the world right now (in terms of pop culture, existential ennui, outsider art, and politics, at least), NYC post-punks BODEGA have a wealth of material upon which to draw for inspiration. I’m surprised they don’t put out at least an EP every three months.
Their newest one, Shiny New Model, is another one with a stinging name (the first being their debut full-length Endless Scroll), stinging jams, and stinging lyrics. The title track opens the record, and the first line is, “You will be replaced by a shiny new model.” They’re right, of course. All of us are fated to be replaced by someone or something else in our relationships (“Swipe!” is repeated throughout the chorus.), jobs, discography, and lives. Lead singer Ben Hozie sings an ode to an old ATM in the back of a bodega that, like everything else, is being replaced by the newest technology. It’s an allegory for all of us, of course, our reliance / addiction to modern technology, and our willingness to dehumanize our lives.
“Treasures of the Ancient World” has Hozie looking for lost love while Heather Elle‘s bass groove behind him is downright wicked. “There’s no vanguard revival, and I bet there never was,” Hozie sings on “No Vanguard Revival.” – a fast, brutal truth of a track. “Knife on the Platter” has some of Madison Vandam‘s best guitar work on the record, ranging from post-punk stabs to Andy Summers-like explorations.
“Domesticated Animal” is a funny, sharp takedown of mansplaining and sexism sung by Nikki Belfiglio. “Realism” is a quick tale of a woman at the end of a bad relationship.
The end of the album is two different versions of “Truth Is Not Punishment” – a cut from Endless Scroll that has become one of the band’s favorites for improvising while onstage. The song is about how many us want the truth yet refuse to accept it when it is delivered. The “long version” has Hozie singing Chuck Berry‘s “No Particular Place to Go” in the middle of it. One of the most impressive parts of the long version is how new drummer Tai Lee keeps her beats perfect and sounding the same for over ten minutes. The whole “sound the same thing” isn’t a slam on her at all. Listen to the beat she puts down and then try to play it yourself for over ten minutes without error. Your arms will feel like they’re going to fall off within three. The short version of the song is snappy and no less hard-hitting in its lesson and sound than the long one.
It’s another excellent record from BODEGA…until the next one comes along and replaces this with the shiniest, newest model.
Keep your mind open.
[Subscribe now and replace your old music news and reviews feeds with a shinier, new one.]
