rock – Page 14 – 7th Level Music

Fea – self-titled

“Fea” is Latino slang for an ugly girl, but Fea the band (Letty – vocals, Aaron – guitar, Jenn – drums, Phanie – bass) means riot grrl post-punk (or “Fuck ‘Em All,” according to the video below).

Opening with “Mujer Moderna,” the band comes out with chugging guitars and vocals that sound like a Be Your Own Pet B-side. The song is a slug across the jaw to those who blame sexual assault victims for the crime. “Feminazi” is a fast, fun, and fierce call for both sexes to “meet in the middle” and for everyone to know that feminism isn’t fascism.

“You Can’t Change Me” has some of Phanie’s hardest bass as Letty sings about being out and proud and not giving a damn what you think. “Tragedias” will get you moving, because Jenn’s beats will boot your booty out of your chair. Be careful if you’re listening to this while driving. Don’t blame Fea (or me) for any speeding tickets you might get as a result. “Dead End” reminds me of Lunachicks, and that’s a good thing.

“No Hablo Español” might be the loudest cut on the record, because every lyric seems shouted to the streets. “Beat It Out” warns us against succumbing to the pressures of mainstream culture, white noise TV, and crummy relationships. Aaron’s guitar work cooks on it. “Sister K” is a funny story and middle finger to a mean nun Letty had to deal with in school.

“Stuck Like You” changes up the pace a bit with a softer chorus than most of the other tracks, and it works quite well. The riffs on “Poor Little Rich Girl” are outstanding, as are Letty’s Spanglish vocals. It’s some of her best work on the record. “Veins” is a little over three minutes long, but it only seems like half that because the track is so fast. “La Llorona” (“The Crying Woman” – a legendary ghost in Latin American culture) is suitably haunting. Aaron’s guitar sounds like he dipped it in a swamp before playing it and Jenn’s drums are like a funeral dirge at first.

It’s a sharp debut and I hope it leads to more records. Punk rock needed Fea. They’re like a shot of adrenaline to the genre. I didn’t know I needed Spanglish angry Latina punk until I heard this record, and now I want more of it.

Keep your mind open.

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Bleached – Welcome the Worms

Does the current political landscape have you bummed? Has work turned into rote activity you’d rather turn over to a highly intelligent simian? Are you sick of TV and big budget blockbuster flops at the box office? Are you in need of a jolt to break you out of a summer funk? Why not save the money you’d spend on a couple fancy schmancy frozen coffee drinks and pick up Welcome the Worms by Bleached instead? This pop-punk album will make you far happier than any overpriced, super sweet, high fat drink you’ll regret when the sugar coma it provides makes you fall asleep at the wheel.

Bleached are sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin (lead vocals and guitar, respectively), Micayla Grace (bass), and Nick Pilot (drums). Welcome the Worms is a middle finger to living in L.A. when you’re not a movie star, bad relationships, and those who turn their backs on people who live on the fringe.

“Keep On Keepin’ On” bursts off the line with a cool psychedelic sound mixed with Sleater-Kinney anger. Jennifer Clavin throws down fierce vocals while Grace seems to be playing slap bass on a bass guitar. Jessica Clavin’s guitar sounds a bit like a warning siren at times, and Pilot kills it on the first song.

“Trying to Lose Myself Again” is about wanting to disappear in the chaos that is Los Angeles. “I’ve been hanging around this ugly town trying to find myself again…I’ve been getting high every night trying to lose myself again,” Jennifer Clavin sings. The glamour of L.A. hides misery for many, but Jessica Clavin’s guitar work is anything but miserable. It’s scorching.

“Sleepwalking” is a perfect metaphor for most of us shuffling around big cities in the daily grind. Jessica Clavin again shreds while Grace and Pilot seem to be racing each other throughout the track. “Wednesday Night Melody” is a great power-pop track that Weezer and Metric wish they could still produce.

“Wasted on You” is about the perils of dating musicians and has some of the snappiest beats from Pilot. “Chemical Air” reminds me of early New Pornographers with its bold vocals and big sound (especially Jessica Clavin’s cosmic guitar work). “Sour Candy” is reminiscent of early “bad girl” rock from the 1950’s in Jennifer Clavin’s vocals.

“Desolate Town” has appropriately desolate bass from Grace and slightly distorted vocals as Jennifer Clavin sings about the wasteland L.A. can be for those working in the non-glamorous jobs there. “I’m All Over the Place (Mystic Mama)” is part-trippy psych and part-post punk as Jennifer Clavin mourns a break-up (“I’m all over the place without you…”). It sounds like a rare Fuzzbox single.

“Hollywood, We Did It All Wrong” is the closer, and I’m not sure if Bleached thinks they screwed up living in Hollywood, or if they mean the whole town screwed up what could’ve been a cool thing. It’s a fun track either way.

It’s a fun record, too, even with some of the dark subject matter. The title comes from a weird religious pamphlet the band picked up in L.A. The title might refer to impending death, but at least Bleached is exorcising demons and having fun before they check out of here.

Keep your mind open.

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ORB – Birth

Not to be confused with techno / house giants The Orb, Australia’s ORB specialize in heavy stoner and psych-rock riffs. Their newest record, Birth, even starts with a song called “Iron Mountain,” so you know they mean business. You can’t start an album with a song titled “Iron Mountain” and not have ground-shaking rock to go with it.

“Iron Mountain” does indeed put down two-ton riffs that bring to mind Black Sabbath, MC5, and even early Pink Floyd. The groove of “Reflection” is excellent. The cowbell isn’t overdone, the skronky guitar is perfect, and the psych-bass is solid. The breakdown around the four-minute mark is jaw-dropping.

“Birth of a New Moon” is as heavy as the plunge into darkness the title implies. The song practically oozes incense smoke from your speakers and projects images of beautiful women in hooded robes dancing across hot coals onto the back of your eyelids. There’s some cool synth work in this that makes it even trippier. It’s also an instrumental, which I always appreciate.

“First and Last Men,” the shortest song on the record at just under five minutes, is a sharp fuzz-rocker with some of the heaviest bass on the album. I also like the near-funk drum groove and how the guitar almost switches to prog-rock riffs at times.

The album ends with “Electric Blanket,” which is over sixteen minutes of mind-warping psychedelia that winds from gut-rumbling guitars to early Gary Numan synths and back to more early Pink Floyd madness.

It’s one of the best psych / stoner rock records I’ve heard this year, and further proof that there must be something in the water in Australia that causes that continent to churn out so many good bands.

Keep your mind open.

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Mega Dodo Records releases rare Big Grunt John Peel Session tracks.

UK label Mega Dodo has released a rare recording of John Peel live session tracks from the obscure 1970’s psych band Big Grunt. Featuring members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, the World, and Sean Head Showband. These four tracks (one of which, “Cyborg Signal,” was never released until now) have rarely been heard since the early 1970’s, and Mega Dodo is releasing them for download and on limited edition 12″ yellow vinyl (only 500 copies!).

Keep your mind open.

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The Luck of Eden Hall release new single inspired by Neil Gaiman.

Chicago psych-rockers The Luck of Eden Hall release their new single, “The End of the Lane” today. The single, a great trippy psych tune, is inspired by award-winning author Neil Gaiman’s book The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Gaiman even drew the cover art for the limited single.

The single can be purchase for download, and there are limited blue and black 7″ vinyl versions to be had as well. The B-side is the song “Blown to Kingdom Come” from their excellent album The Acceleration of Time.

Keep your mind open.

Captain Ivory – No Vacancy

Captain Ivory (Robbie Bolog – guitar and lap steel, Seth Maschari – drums and vibes, Brett Smith – bass, Jayson Trayer – vocals and guitar, Steve Zwilling – piano and organ) describe their sound on the cover of their new album, No Vacancy, as “greasy rock ‘n’ roll.” I can’t do much better than that. The whole album is full of power pop, swamp rock, and blues rock grooves that are so greasy you could fry a donut in them.

“Broken Light” introduces you to Trayer’s fine vocal style, which is somewhere between Kings of Leon, Howlin’ Wolf, and Jethro Tull. Maschari’s vibraphone work on the title track takes the song to a level above garage rock that other bands are still trying to reach. Zwilling’s keys take us into psychedelic territory on “Skinning the Hand,” and the rest of the band puts down a great blues groove while Trayer sings a fun song about a desperate man in a desperate card game that could put him on Easy Street or kill him.

“Cascades of Spain” is a lovely song about a man’s journey through old Europe. “Paper Towns” has excellent guitar work throughout it. “Hello Love Goodbye Fear” is a vicious attack on the current political landscape. “Every time I think about the western dream I let loose ‘cause I know it’s a lie,” Trayer sings. Zwilling’s keyboard work is jaunty, despite Trayer’s angry lyrics, and those stadium rock riffs are great. “Never Mind” is a classic rock song about heartbreak, and the breakdown in the last minute is outstanding. I love the way “Come Down” switches from a rock ballad to a sweaty, gritty blues-powered rock cut. The closer is, fittingly, “Epitaph,” which brings in some delightful soul touches.

I discovered these guys when my wife and I saw them play at a street festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan earlier this year. They are a crackerjack live band and worth your time if you enjoy greasy rock ‘n’ roll.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Royal Blood – self-titled (2014)

File this one under: Bands I Like Who Slipped Through the Cracks. I’d heard a few tracks from Royal Blood’s self-titled debut album two years ago on the Out of the Black EP, but kept forgetting to buy the full record. I finally found it at a Target two months ago.

It’s one of the best rock records to come along in recent memory. Royal Blood is Mike Kerr on bass and vocals and Ben Thatcher on drums. That’s right, no guitar. They bring new meaning to the term “drum and bass,” because that’s all there is (apart from vocals). It’s all bass – wonderful, cranked-up, fuzzed-out, wall-flattening bass – and drums – excellent armies of Mordor-marching, Jason Bonham-honoring, avalanche-producing drums.

“Out of the Black” was their first big hit, and rightly so, as they belt out a rocker about an angry break-up. It’s a common theme on the record. The lads are angry, lonely, and frisky, but there isn’t a damn thing they can do about it except pour it all out on this record. The follow-up to the “I’m so pissed I could kill you” anthem of “Out of the Black” is “Come On Over,” in which Kerr has dropped belief in God (“I went to church and stopped believing.”) and thus the religious dogma that held him back from engaging in naughty sinful behavior. We go from bad break-up to sinful sex in the span of two songs.

“Figure It Out” has a wicked drum groove that barely touches on pop-punk as Kerr struggles to determine why his girl won’t talk about what went wrong in their relationship (“I said I’d go, ‘cause I won’t see you later and we’re not allowed to figure it out.”). It makes sense that the next song is “You Can Be So Cruel,” which has Kerr standing outside his lady’s door thinking of her (in his stalker-like eyes) loneliness and his depression.

His lady’s continued distance from him leads to more anger on “Blood Hands.” “I’ll curse the ground where you kneel till I grow my hair to my heels. Spike your water, your wine while you waste my precious time.” Kerr’s bass work on it sounds like he’s playing two guitars at once.

Kerr tries to move on to another romantic conquest on “Little Monster,” but still borders on creepy as he sings, “I’m gonna love you no matter what you say.” and “I say run little monster before you know who I am.” The song was another big hit for them, and it couldn’t miss. Thatcher’s drums are like something from a Mad Max movie and Kerr’s bass work on it is pure stoner metal.

The subject of “Little Monster” must have taken Kerr’s advice of running away, because Kerr sings about “Shouting through your letter hole like there’s nobody home.” and referring to her as an “ice queen licking on a guillotine” in “Loose Change,” which has Thatcher putting down a groove so nasty it should be twiddling its moustache.

Kerr admits he’s screwed up everything on “Careless.” “I wish I could care less, but I’m afraid I don’t. You couldn’t care less, so I guess you won’t change your mind again.” In “Ten Tonne Skeleton,” he knows his ex-girlfriend has moved on, and now he regrets the way he screwed up his chance.

The final cut is “Better Strangers,” and Kerr realizes he has to get far away from this woman before he gets flattened again (“I’m a thousand miles from danger if I make a better stranger of you.”). He repeats the word “hollow” to echo the empty feeling in his gut, but he fills it with scorching bass work.

This easily would’ve been in my top 5 records of 2014 if I’d kept track of such things then. Royal Blood were in the process of writing a new album when they toured with Foo Fighters in 2015. I hope they release it soon.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: L7 and Radkey – August 06, 2016 – Chicago, IL

The closest I came to seeing L7 in their first heyday was when they were on the 1994 when they were on the Lollapalooza tour. We got to what was then known as Deer Creek Music Center (and is now know as Klipsch Music Center) in Noblesville, Indian a bit late and we could hear L7 wrapping up their set with “Pretend We’re Dead” from the parking lot.

I wouldn’t have the chance to see them again for another 22 years. They played a sold out show at Chicago’s Metro (one of my top favorite venues in the city) on August 06, 2016, and it was definitely worth the wait.

Punk trio Radkey opened the show with a damn fine (and prompt – 8pm sharp) set that sounded like a combination of the Damned and the Misfits. The crowd was appreciative and they got everyone geared up for more heavy rock.

L7 came out to a packed house of punks, Gen X’ers, MILFs, DILFs, gays, straights, and at least one woman in her 70’s I saw heading up to the balcony to watch the show. They opened with “Deathwish,” and immediately proved they haven’t lost a thing since that Lollapalooza gig.

“Deathwish” – Charles Bronson would’ve been proud.

Donita Sparks belted out the “Deathwish” lyrics and everyone in the packed, hot crowd was in the band’s hands within seconds. Suzi Gardner then bellowed “Andres” and Jennifer Finch knocked out “Everglade.” They came out swinging with three hard rockers and everyone was on their heels with joy and dizziness.

“Monster” (with Dee Plakas‘ much-beloved cowbell in full effect) and “Scrap” had everyone grinning. “Fuel My Fire” had everyone jumping, and it’s easy to forget how heavy “One More Thing,” “I Need,” and “Slide” are until you hear them live.

There’s no mistaking “Crackpot Baby” for anything but a fist to the face, especially with Sparks singing so loud that I’m sure people in the SmartBar downstairs could hear her. Two cuts from The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum followed – “Must Have More” and the always-excellent “Drama.”

The rest of the crowd and I were happy to chant and pump our fists to “Shove,” and “Freak Magnet” was a nice lead-in to my favorite surprise of the night – Finch (rocking age 50 and a Misfits-logo bass) and crew performing her song “Shirley” (a great tune off Hungry for Stink about NHRA drag racing champ Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney).

Don’t you dare pinch her ass. Suzi Gardner knocking out “Shove.”

They closed with, of course, “Shitlist,” which had everyone completely batshit by this point.

The encore was “American Society” (another great rare cut), “Pretend We’re Dead,” and the (finally!) mosh pit-inducing “Fast and Frightening” (which, if you didn’t know, has perhaps the most rock lyric of all time).

It was a great show with a great crowd. The Metro blasted Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” after the encore and nearly everyone was dancing on top of crushed plastic cups and spilled beer (myself included).

Thanks, L7, for reuniting and giving us these shows. We needed them, and I hope it won’t take me another two decades to see you again.

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Robert Fagan for getting me a press pass to the show, the lady working the press table at the Metro for being so helpful, and to Hannah – my +1 for the night. I’m glad to have met you and that you had a good time.]

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Goggs – self-titled

Ty Segall, not content to be involved in at least three bands, has joined / started a fourth – Goggs (Charles Moothart – guitar, bass, drums, Ty Segall – guitar, bass, drums, Chris Shaw – vocals). Their first album is a bonkers rock ride not unlike an old wooden roller coaster that thrills and beats you up at the same time.

“Falling In” has a great Stooges feel to it in the bass and drums and a Sham 69 (or should I say Cult, since Shaw is the ex-Cult vocalist?) feel to the vocals. “Shotgun Shooter” has bass so loud, fuzzy, and heavy that Lightning Bolt will be envious. “She Got Harder” is snotty punk, both in the instrumentation but especially in the vocals. The way Shaw belts out the lyrics while his guitar shreds and Segall destroys his kit is great.

Speaking of drums, they’re even crazier on “Smoke the Wurm.” The self-titled track starts off weird and quirky and then turns into angry goth-punk. “Assassinate the Doctor” is just as odd. It’s almost a meltdown. “Needle Trade Off,” is back to the angry post-punk with fierce bass and lyrics practically spat into the microphone. “Future Nothing” is so old school punk that it even sounds like it was recorded in 1981.

“Final Notice” adds what sounds like old video game noises to the ritualistic beats and bizarre screams and chants. It’s a weird (mostly) instrumental that goes into the closer – “Glendale Junkyard,” which hits hard and loud before fading out with snare drum taps and distorted guitar fuzz.

This is easily the most punk record I’ve heard so far this year. It’s crazy, loud, squeaky, weird, and just what you need to drown out the noise of an election year.

Keep your mind open.

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Wolfmother – Victorious

Australia’s Wolfmother return in 2016 Victorious. It’s a proper name for the album, because the band (Andrew Stockdale – guitar, bass, and vocals, Josh Freese and Joey Waronker – drums) can claim victory in the world of rock with it.

The opening riff of “The Love that You Give” instantly lets you know Wolfmother means business with this record. It’s fast and like something you’d crank as you race across the desert flats of Oz. The title track has Sabbath-like chugging as Stockdale’s vocals rise to give praise to a powerful woman snatching victory from outside forces trying to destroy her. The breakdown on this cut is outstanding and like something you’d hear blasting out of your brother’s customized van in 1978.

The heavy organ on “Baroness” is the magic touch on it, and the boot-stomping drums are an added bonus. “Pretty Peggy” is, believe it or not, a lovely ballad that has Stockdale singing to the back wall of the club. It has a bit of a psych-rock feel that I like.

“City Lights” gets back to the rock with Stockdale’s guitar practically singing backing vocals. It’s a great summer driving song. The drums and cymbals on “The Simple Life” are anything but simple, nor is Stockdale’s shredding. His riffs on it are some of my favorite of the record. “Best of a Bad Situation” has a nice pop ring to it, especially with the acoustic guitar and handclaps, and Stockdale’s vocals are light-hearted on it.

“Gypsy Caravan” is a classic cosmic rock track from the band. Stockdale’s reverbed vocals mix well with the groovy organ, fuzzed guitars, and Keith Moon-like drumming. The caravan seems to be travelling more around Saturn than through a dusty outback town. “Happy Face” has synths that remind me of ELO songs. Imagine ELO as a psych / stoner rock band and you’ll get the idea. The album ends with “Eye of the Beholder,” which is heavy enough to be about the multi-optic monster from Dungeons & Dragons. Stockdale brings some of his best “epic rock” vocals to the closer, the drums go for broke, and Stockdale’s guitar is more like a bullet train racing by you.

Victorious is a nice return for Wolfmother. They are currently on tour, and I recommend you see them. They pull no punches on stage and leave you humming their songs for days afterwards.

Keep your mind open.

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