goodbadmusic has an excellent summary of the Tooth and Nail compilation I played last Saturday. Particularly poignant is how they say it's one of those records where when you put it on, "you totally focus on the sound, the songs and you wish you could shoot it all up your veins, sniff it, eat it, breath it, drink it". Not because I feel the same way about this compilation, but because I feel that way about a large number of songs; at the moment it's the track "You ;- think!!" by This Poison. It's just one of those songs whose sound waves I wish I could crawl inside and stay for even a little while. Since the scans of the lyrics on the goodbadmusic site are so tiny and awful I scanned the lyrics sleeve we have. They're posted at the bottom of this page, click the thumnail for a bigger picture.
I have a feeling the band Magic Bullets may have had similar feelings from the sound of their 7" "Lying Around"(Mon Amie Records), which we recently received here at KDVS. They've been described as "Smithian" but "Lying Around" sounds to me like they were grade school friends in 1983, made a mix tape of songs like "I'll Tumble for Ya" and "Age of Consent" which they consistently passed around between them, forgot about when their musical taste matured, veered away from top 40 a couple years later, but found and listened to on repeat while recording songs for a June Brides/Wedding Present/Bodines-inspired band. Only the record came out this year and not in 1986. If that's too confusing a description try: over-the-top vocals balanced by jangly guitar and a nonchalant but melodic bassline. Just listen to it. They're playing a show in San Francisco at Bottom of the HIll on Sunday, May 30 at 9pm. If you're broke like I am you can use a "hang out in the bathroom of the Amtrak" discount an spend your $25 on merch instead!
If you like romance but prefer it to be strung out, manic and obsessive check out Iceage, The drums are aggressive, one guitarist sounds as though he is having a blast playing surf-y riffs while the other's ina catatonic state of of repressed distress and the vocalist sounds as though he's given up on caring, yet they sound really polished, like they somehow manage to focus during band practice. Or maybe they are so hive-minded they don't focus at all it just comes out sounding good anyways. The only low point I found on the entire ep is the excessively loud pounding of the snare drum at the end of shadows, but all the noise and fuzz and make up for that so this ep is just about perfect. I love how the Silk Flowers review comments on their teen age, saying "I think the oldest member of this band is 18, and I think they play like they’re not going to make it past 20". They're from Denmark and (I think) haven't come to the U.S. yet but might soon since MRR recently interviewed them. Hopefully they'll bring 2nd presses of their 7", which is unfortunately sold out, and hopefully they won't die before they do.
Another band from Denmark is Cola Freaks who cite their influences as being "60's psychedelica, 70's genesis, 80's new wave, 90's poison idea and 00's art fags". How cute. The drums and guitar are so co-dependent that it's easy to ignore the bass, meaning super-danceability factor, even on songs like "Ctrl Alt Del" (which actually does suggest 90s Poison Idea as an influence, just 90s Poison Idea that was accidently played at 33 instead of 45).
You're reading about these Danish bands because a friend of mind sent me a nice list of artists to check out. Expect to hear most of them next Saturday. In fact maybe this upcoming show will be all about Denmark because why not and who doesn't like mesh shirts and windmills.
