rock – Page 11 – 7th Level Music

Goat – Requiem

Sweden’s voodoo-psych weirdos Goat have returned with a record that steers a bit away from their usual blend of frenetic, world music freak-outs and slows the pace. Whereas their first two records, World Music and Commune, were cosmic journeys around and sometimes into a wormhole, Requiem is a leisurely drift down the Nile in ancient times.

“Djorolen / Union of Sun and Moon” starts with birdsong as Goat’s two female lead singers give a lovely send-off to your catamaran as it pulls away from the Egyptian shore. Then, the drums, guitar, and a playful flute burst through your speakers like a bunch of minstrels running around the deck of the catamaran in a celebration of what will be a blessed journey. The lyrics speak of rejecting negativity and traveling through space and time.

“I Sing in Silence” is an instant chill-out song, with flute, guitar, and hand percussion that is perfect for our journey down the Nile as the sun warms us and an ibis glides alongside the catamaran. “Brother, I am your sister, you are my brother, we have each other,” they sing. It’s a song of inclusion desperately needed here in the U.S. this election year.

“Temple Rhythms” is appropriately named because the drums beats and handclaps at the outset will get you moving like you’re offering up a dance to appease whatever deity you worship. The song is spearheaded by flute and piano. It’s a wild track that sounds like something from a cool late 1960’s European jazz festival.

Speaking of the 1960’s, “Alarm” is 60’s psych – as evidenced by the acoustic guitar work and tripped-out percussion throughout it. “Trouble in the Streets” brings in Caribbean beats and guitar styling (and even bright, bash keyboards), again perfect for a lazy ride down an endless river. They go back to psychedelia on (no surprise) “Psychedelic Lover,” which includes Middle Eastern chants / calls to prayer.

“Goatband” is nearly eight minutes of instrumental psychedelia that reminds me of early Love and Rockets tracks with its free jazz saxophone in the background. “Try My Robe” is a great example of the “Goat sound” (if there is such a thing) – hand percussion, wicked drumbeats, female vocals, mantra bass, and crisp guitar. It flows straight into “It’s Not Me,” which sounds like something Jane’s Addiction wish they’d written (dub bass, reverbed vocals, slick drumming). It’s one of the loveliest tracks on Requiem.

“All-Seeing Eye” is probably a reference to the Illuminati or the sixth chakra. Either way, it’s a good psych instrumental and lead-in to the rocking “Goatfuzz” that hits hard for almost seven minutes and has some of the fuzziest guitar on the record. Another epic psych track is “Goodbye,” which starts with guitar that would belong in a Euro-western from the 1960’s and ends with those hypnotic beats Goat does so well, backed with body-moving bass.

“Goodbye” isn’t the last song on the record. That distinction belongs to “Ubuntu,” which ends with samples from “Dirabi,” Goat’s first track off World Music. The three albums become an ouroboros – the snake that eats itself, the wheel of reincarnation. The end is the beginning. The journey along the Nile ends with the ocean. The end opens into a new world. Requiem isn’t about death and doom. It is about exploration and embracing what lies ahead.

Keep your mind open.

Detroit’s Echo Fest sets lineup for 2016.

One night only! Detroit’s Echo Fest has announced another great lineup for the psychedelic rock festival. Returning to the newly renovated Magic Stick, Echo Fest boasts Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, Holy Wave, Wolf Eyes, Rogue Satellites, Heaven’s Gateway Drugs, Nest Egg, festival curators Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, and many more cool bands.

It’s a great way to spend the day, so get your tickets now.

Keep your mind open.

Rewind Review: The Flaming Lips – Embryonic (2009)

The Flaming Lips (Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Michael Ivins, Kliph Scurlock) aren’t known for making traditional albums. One album, Zaireeka, was meant to be played on four different stereos at once while you stood in the middle and let the sounds wash over you. The Terror was a doom-psych record about dour subjects. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was a psych-pop masterpiece. Embryonic is a wild, trippy record about the illusions of reality and breaking free of them and the transmigration of souls.

“Convinced of the Hex” is loaded with poppy synths, empty swimming pool vocals, and distorted drums as lead singer Wayne Coyne sings about a woman who has seen things as they really are while Coyne wallows in illusion (“She says, ‘You think there’s a system that controls and affects. You see, I believe in nothing and you’re convinced of the hex.’”). “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine” has Coyne wondering what it might be like to shake all illusions (“What does is mean to dream what you dream, to believe what you see?”) as the band knocks out drum and bass beats with psych-synths behind them.

“Evil” has Coyne regretting his inability to warn a friend of people who would betray him / her. “See the Leaves” is a haunting song about death and reincarnation, with heavy synth bass, haunted house guitar stabs, and industrial drums. “If” is another song about the dark side of others, and the follow-up, “Gemini Syringes,” might be about the space race, the zodiac, or both. I know it’s a lovely, trip-out tune with water drop-like drums and ice cream truck keyboards.

The zodiac is a prominent theme on the record. There are instrumentals called “Aquarius Sabotage,” “Scorpio Sword,” and “Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast.” There’s a song called “Sagittarius Silver Announcement” in which Coyne sings about being “free to be slaves to this silver machine.” Is it an actual machine? Is it Coyne’s laptop computer, and thus the World Wide Web? Is it something he saw in a vision? We may never know.

“Your Bats” is a heavily distorted song about a person’s nightmares, whereas “Powerless” is about a woman trying to convince Coyne that everything isn’t as bleak as he thinks it is. The distant feel of the song makes it seems like he’s not entirely convinced. “The Ego’s Last Stand” is another cut about destroying our illusions. Coyne sings, “The only way out is destroy all traces, oh, destroying yourself.” The bass purrs like a great cat and the song briefly explodes into fuzzy rock before settling down into a mix of birdsong, synths, and lyrics that border on beat poetry.

“I Can Be a Frog” is about a woman wondering how she might return in her next life, be it a frog, a tornado, or anything in-between. A woman (Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs no less) laughs and makes animal sounds behind Coyne’s playful vocals. You can hear him chuckling a couple times in the song. The heavy fuzz of “Worm Mountain,” and its rat-a-tat drums, is great. MGMT help out on the track, bringing additional vocals and synth grooves. The song is a reminder that death will come to all of us (“Through the mist, a bell rings clear, but the ring is just a sound of your starburn burning out.”), and we can all hope it’s this trippy and cosmic.

“The Impulse” is written from the perspective of an angel or, by the sound of Coyne’s heavily synthesized vocals, an alien (or are they one and the same?) trying to free someone from their illusion of reality, but the person would rather stress over their appearance and “shapeless urges.”

“Silver Trembling Hands” is a tale of a woman who covers up her fear and paranoia with heavy drug use. “Watching the Hands” reminds us that not all is doom and gloom as Coyne and Karen O sing that “the sun’s gonna rise and take your fears away.” The song is like a mantra with its beats and continued chants of “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.”

It’s a lovely and creepy record. Facing truth can be frightening, but the Flaming Lips remind us that the reward at the end of such a journey is freedom and peace.

Keep your mind open.

Stooges documentary “Gimme Danger” to premiere just in time for Halloween.

Jim Jarmusch, director of cult hits like Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Dead Man, and Only Lovers Left Alive, has produced what looks to be a powerful, great documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges – arguably the greatest rock band of all time. The documentary, Gimme Danger, premieres October 28th on Amazon, and the first trailer already makes it look like essential viewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fgiW_S2Hgk

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Rewind Review: Dead Meadow – Feathers (2005)

I’ve seen Dead Meadow (Steve Kille – bass, Mark Laughlin – drums, Cory Shane – guitar, Jason Simon – guitar and vocals), twice in concert – once opening for the Black Angels in 2011 and then again at Levitation Austin (when it was still known as the Austin Psych Fest) in 2014. They put on a heavy, trippy show that I enjoyed both times, so why it’s taken me so long to pick up Feathers is beyond me.

Feathers is not only heavy on riffs and percussion, but also themes of heaven, life, death, and reincarnation. “Let’s Jump In” is a great start, inviting us to jump into their heavy psych sound as they sing about springing from “the face of the Almighty” and jumping into life with both feet (often literally at our births).

The lyrics in “Such Hawks, Such Hounds” sound like something out of a Tolkien story, which isn’t a surprise since Tolkien is an admitted big influence on them. “From the boughs of the oak tree, three ravens wail over his cold bones lying as they are.” It’s a haunting story of a warrior’s death and his hawks, hounds, and maiden protecting his body from scavengers.

“Get Up On Down” is a lament about being caught in the wheel of reincarnation. “If I’m back again, I’m done after the next one,” Simon sings. The guitar work swirls around like incense smoke and builds to a soaring send-off. “Heaven” is more cosmic psych and a retelling of the story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac. “At Her Open Door” is Lovecraft-like prose (“From the heights of the town her handmaids will announce her undying presence within her seven-pillared house…”) as guitars swell and fade with near-surf rock touches before smoothly cruising into Eastern Indian rock, and the drums are great all the while.

“Eyeless Gaze / Don’t Tell the Riverman” is a great example of the “Dead Meadow sound” – ethereal vocals, mantra-like cymbal work from the drummer, and breaking dawn guitar work that almost overwhelms you at times. Like early Pink Floyd? You’ll love “Stacy’s Song.” “Let It All Pass” is another dreamy psych track about fading from this life to the next (“All things in time when nothing will last. Lord, I don’t mind. Let it all pass.”).

The CD version of Feathers ends with a 13:44 untitled bonus track that is nothing but epic cosmic psychedelia. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wrote it after walking out of a sweat lodge. The guitars come at you from all angles, the solid drums keep you from floating away into the ether, and the vocals are like distant chants you hear on the wind.

It’s a spiritual record, a psychedelic record, and a bit of a haunting record. You have to be in the right mood or have the right kind of weather for it, but it’s perfect when you need it.

Keep your mind open.

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Deap Vally – Femejism

Deap Vally’s (Julie Edwards – drums and vocals, Lindsey Troy – guitar and vocals) Sistrionix was my favorite album of 2013. I bought it for three different people and turned on at least one other to it. It shouldn’t surprise you, then, that Femejism, apart from having the greatest album title of the year, is one of my favorites of 2016.

With production help from Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Femejism is full of swagger, sweat, and shredding. The first single and track, “Royal Jelly,” demands you crank your stereo volume to 11. It’s a power anthem / warning to others who want to live the rock life. “If you wanna be queen bee, then you better make honey. If you want to be miss thing, then you better start hustling,” they sing. Don’t whine and bitch about it. Get out there and do it.

“Julian” is a send-off to an ex-boyfriend who missed his chance at something great, and it has some of the fastest guitar work from Troy. “Gonnawanna” has Troy planting a flag for riot grrls everywhere, declaring she’s going to do whatever she damn well pleases and no one’s going to stop her. It’s powerful, near-stadium filling rock (Favorite line: “I’m on a psychic safari, and I’m not sorry.”).

Speaking of powerful rock, wait until you hear “Little Baby Beauty Queen.” It’s frantic post-punk madness with John Bonham-style drumming from Edwards. “Smile More” brings back the distorted blues rock Deap Vally does so well and deserves to be on every woman’s mix tape from now until eternity.

Zinner’s touches can be heard on “Critic,” as it sounds like an early Yeah Yeah Yeahs track (and that’s not a bad thing) with Troy lambasting critics, Internet trolls, and haters. “Post Funk” is layered with reverbed vocals as the band sings about getting out of dodge (both in terms of places and relationships) before things get stale. It has some of Edwards’ best percussion on the whole album. She absolutely cooks, and I’m sure this song hits even harder live.

“Two Seat Bike” has Troy willing to get it on if her lover would just turn off the damn camera and quit insisting on shooting amateur porn. “Bubble Baby” has that crushing guitar sound I love so much from Lindsey Troy. It’s full of chugging riffs, alarm-like squeaks, and blues chords (and her vicious vocals) blasted to the back of the room. “Teenage Queen” has the band going after more haters who ask them if they plan to live their lives the way they do into their golden years.

“Grunge Bond” is as grungy and grimy as you’d hope, complete with call and response vocals, Edwards’ go-for-broke drumming, and Troy apparently playing a Hammond B3 organ by beating it with her guitar. That’s how it sounds to me at least, meaning it sounds great. Her guitar on “Turn It Off” is loud yet distant, much like her lyrics about not wanting to succumb to her attractions. On “Heart is an Animal,” it’s so heavy and fuzzy that it feels like Sasquatch breaking down your door.

Femejism is a strong record that buzzes with power. Listening to it is like meditating next to a power substation – dangerous, thrilling, and possibly illegal.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Early Indiana Punk and New Wave: The Crazy Al’s Year(s) 1976-1983 (2014)

I’m a Gen X’er, which means I grew up in the 1980’s, and I was among the first and last true punk rockers at East Noble High School. I was in a garage band (Stranger Yet) and spent my Sunday nights at a punk rock club (after which this blog is named) in a dive bar attached to a seedy hotel on the east edge of Fort Wayne, Indiana. So, the Early Indiana Punk and New Wave: The Crazy Al’s Year(s) compilation is right up my alley.

It’s a stunning collection of rare singles and live cuts from bands that mostly played in the Bloomington, Indiana area (the location of the short-lived club Crazy Al’s). Where Time Change Records found some of these cuts is beyond me, but I’m guessing they had a lot of friends involved in the punk and new wave scenes back then who contributed some of the recordings. I’m also guessing Time Change Records employs some of the best crate diggers of all time.

The two-disc set has many standouts. The Jetsons’ “Genetically Stupid” sums up how many people felt about us punk freaks back then, and Dow Jones and the Industrials’ “Can’t Stand the Midwest” sums up how us punk freaks felt about everyone else back then. Your Grocer’s Freezer’s “We’re All Gonna Die” is a perfect example of the nihilism that was always on the edge of the scene, especially when we all thought nuclear war was coming any second.

Want pure punk? Repellents have two solid punk cuts on the collection – “Technorama” and “AFC!” – and the Slammies’ “P-U-S” is another good choice. Cheeses from France’s “Heart of Gold” is wonderfully weird and almost a krautrock track. The Gizmos proudly display their love of the New York Dolls on “Mean Screen” and “Mommy’s in the Kitchen.” Joint Chiefs’ “I Hate Pretty Girls” is an anthem for awkward guys who were spurned or insulted by the cute girls in school.

It wouldn’t be an Indiana punk collection without the Zero Boys, and they have two fine tracks here – “Commies” and “I’m Absent.” We’re Jimmy Hoffa were a punk band that loved John Carpenter movie soundtracks, and their song “Rock ‘n Roll” is something you’d expect to hear at a club in Carpenter’s future NYC as Snake Plissken cracks heads on the dance floor.

I can’t help but think that the parents of the lead singer of the Panics were laughing as he sang “I Wanna Kill My Mom,” because the song is pure snotty punk hilarity. Dancing Cigarettes’ “Pop Doormat” sounds like the Kinks if the Kinks decided to become a new wave band. Last Four (5) Digits bring in a goth touch on “Don’t Move” that is somewhere between Bauhaus and early Wall of Voodoo. Cast of Thousands brings an angry Brit-punk sound on “War Maker.”

Amoebas in Chaos bring back the fun with “Have You Slugged Your Kid Today?” and “Ronald Reggae” (which is live punk chaos with saxophone and plenty of guitar feedback). E-in Brino’s “Watch Alarm” is fine post-punk with heavy synths and and near-frantic vocals. Vibrato Fetish rounds out disc 1 with the rocking “Surf Bandits.”

Yes, all that’s just on the first disc.

There are plenty of prime cuts on disc two. The New Avengers’ “Mary’s in a Coma” is a lost 1980’s track you swear you’ve heard before and is even better than you remember it. The Positions’ “Follower of the Space Race” is great new wave, sounding like a mix of Devo and the B-52’s. Your Parents’ “Whiplash” is heavy post-punk, and “No Substitutions” shows their Ramones influence. The Race Records’ “Baby Take Me Back” brings rockabilly into the mix.

Lip Service’s cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)” is full of skronky guitar and peppy organ, and MX-80 Sound’s cover of “Paint It Black” is a slick instrumental. The Obvious’ “Feelings of Love” sounds like an early Blondie track. Hugo Smooth’s “Won’t Play Bumpum Cars” is so new wave that it wanders into a jazz lounge hosted by Frank Zappa. Club Pressure’s “Slinkin’” is fine punk-reggae, and the Shouts’ cover of “Gloria” (which seems to have always secretly been a punk song) is outstanding.

It’s an essential mix of Midwest punk and new wave acts, and God bless Time Change Records for putting it out there for us old schoolers and new fans alike.

Keep your mind open.

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New David Bowie box set includes an unreleased album from 1974.

The David Bowie estate has released a second box set of remastered early works – Who Can I Be Now?

The set covers the years 1974 – 1976 and includes some of the Thin White Duke’s funkiest records – Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, and Station to Station. It also includes two versions of David Live, a remastered version of David Live Nassau 1976, a disc of B-sides and obscure singles, and The Gouster – an album produced in 1976 and never released until now.

The original producer of The Gouster, Tony Visconti, has returned to remaster the album from the original tapes, so it’s in good hands.

It’s a staggering release of material at a fair price, and The Gouster and the remastered two live albums would be a great set on their own.

Keep your mind open.

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Public Image Ltd. offer 4-disc/album “Metal Box” and “Album” sets.

Post-punk legends Public Image Ltd. are offering impressive “super deluxe” sets of two of their classic albums – Metal Box and Album – through a PledgeMusic campaign.

Both records are available on either CD or vinyl and include remastered versions of the albums, a live record, unreleased tracks, art prints or posters (depending on which version you get), B-sides, BBC session cuts, and a lot more.

Metal Box was first released in 1979 as three 12″ singles in one package (a literal circular metal box) that made up the entire album. Album came out seven years later (and, full disclosure, is one of my favorite albums of all time).

The signed versions of these deluxe sets sold out on September 20th, so don’t wait to get an unsigned copy if you want one.

Keep your mind open.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-GGeNPQEg

Earthless announce December U.S. tour.

Colossal rockers Earthless have released dates for a December tour throughout the U.S., and I plan to see them on opening night at Chicago’s Empty Bottle. Don’t miss your chance to have your face melted and consciousness expanded. Earthless always puts on a great show. They’ll be with Ruby the Hatchet as well, so it’s a fine double-bill of psych / stoner rock power.

Keep your mind open.

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