Andy Matter, Pacific Midwest

I think it was winter.

"Look for his car; I never know which house it is unless his car is on the street."

Soon inside, we hovered over Albini's version of Cheap Trick's In Color. We drank, smoked, rolled. On an exercise ball. It's here I heard some of the first rough cuts of Pacific Midwest. Shawn saved my notes and read them back to me:

Bullfrogs.
Tom Hanks in Big.
"Is it like you were milking a cow?"
"You have chosen wisely, son."
Jack journals.
"Don't take the Chalice from the palace."

I don't know what any of that fucking means (except jack journals, which I'll explain in person next time I see you), but I'll try and remain true to my gut drafts and fit them in here.

Andy Matter's kick-drummed himself into being a basic constituent element of the physical reality that is Louisville music. The Touched, Red Light Relay, Health and Happiness Gospel Band, Opposable Thumbs, Mimi Von Schnitzel, Furlong, Adventure, Butter, Legba Bentonia, Whiskey Dick, etc...His hands have been in so many cookie jars, both his crumbs and crud rock are strewn throughout this music scene.

Pacific Midwest has been a labor of love for the multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter. It's a potage that stews the experiences, sounds, influences and flat bullfrog weirdnesses Andy has performed and survived into one catchy postcard that culminates into a fun read. Almost like TOM HANKS IN BIG, Andy has moved from the toy store to dancing "Chopsticks" on the giant piano.  (wow...I can't do it anymore. that was painful.)
 
Less of the Stooges-influenced crud rock Andy marauded his drums to in the early 2000s, Pacific Midwest is more of a dissolve into a collage of garage anthems pitted with heart-on-sleeve vocal deliveries in almost storytelling frames. It's a mix of personable observations that builds upon clever lyrical delivery through a voice that hovers between assertiveness just as it might waver into a bettering worriment. Lines from these tunes are as likely to get across someone with ire and frustration as they are to put across something with aspiration and hopes.

As much emotion is worn on truth, so are influences. The melodic rock of Guided By Voices, The Replacements, even Sugar, posture themselves into tunes that create golden choruses. This has the drive of a bombastic rattled rock that can morph into the pleasures of a bouncy jangle pop and back again in a snap. The vocals can waver and shake like Eric Bachmann or Doug Martsch. Check out the first video from the record, "Carbonation," a barnburner brandishing a nailed slap-backed riff:






Carbonation - Andy Matter & Ten Wet Dollars .m4v from Andy Matter on Vimeo.
(directed by Shawn Price)




Pacific Midwest is loaded with these types of hooks: "Nova No Va," "Alive for Days," "Final War," "Tonight and Every Night," and the track list goes on. And more aces from heartful sleeves are pulled with bandmates from other L'ville bands guesting throughout the album, including J Glenn (Mimi Von Schnitzel), Bob Dixon (Health & Happiness), Eric Suplee and Bill Montgomery (Opposable Thumbs), Jaye Wood (Red Light Relay) and Benn Lally and Jason Walker (New Bravado/Ten Wet Dollars).

Fuck it, let's all just put this album on and go swimming at the quarry. Good beginning to summer.

PS: Is it like you were milking a cow? See: jack journals.

Andy Matter's record release show for the cassette + download Pacific Midwest on Gubbey Records will be Saturday, May 17 at Modern Cult Records. Also on the bill are The Teeth and Tag Team Guys.

2012 Music Review.

It was a busy year locally and regionally for original music in and around Louisville and Lexington. So much so, I couldn't keep up with all of it. While this is in no way a complete list of all the great stuff that was released in '12, it's a list of the recordings with which I spent the most time. And as with the American Gloam summary that existed last year, they are in no order whatsoever. This ain't a contest.

Cross - "Die Forever" (Sophomore Lounge): Definitely one of my favorite releases of the year, if not my favorite. R. Clint Coburn's channeling of  Ian Curtis and Jim Morrison through Ma Turner's resinous Sabbath riffs have garnered nothing but repeated listenings on my part. A complete flag wave of influences rechurned into something pretty damned creative and new.

J. Marinelli - "Young Spillers" (Stencil Trash) and split cassette with The Elsinores (Karmic Swamp/Space Cadet): Banging and clanging one man band that goes in the red and seeps out some of the best melodic breaches of songwriting I know from this region. This man is a songwriting machine, and the songs have stayed in my head all year.

Plastic Bubble - "Treble Treasure Chest" (Carpathian Cassette Label) - Louisville power pop that breathes the atmosphere of twee in such catchy manners. A decade long vision realized by singer/songwriter Matt Taylor finally fruiting and well worth the wait. Lo fi orchestrations and brockled with so many shades and colors it's beautiful piece.

Furlong/Sick City Four split seven inch (Gubbey Records): Gubbey's split series continues with this combination of the erect lo-fi of scene staples Furlong meeting the sax-cornet-guitar-drum rumble of the legendary Sick City Four's style of jazz that always seems to explore sound in general.

 Humongous - "Miniature Pinschers" (Black Velvet Fuckere Recordings/Adept Recordings/Consanguinous Records): Up there as one of the most creative rock recordings released this year, Humongous mixes genres and influences into something that is basically undefinable. From catchy country melodies next to frantic cornet rock to exploratory garage jazz, this is one of the most inventive albums released this year. Any year.

  Kirk Kiefer - "Sailing Stones": Singer/songwriter Kiefer's return after the demise of long time band Yardsale, this album is a soulful and blissful mix of catchy and intelligent country/folk/roots-based fun. A layered culmination that shows love for 60s pop defined in a variety of territories that all seem to work.

The Debauchees - "Schrodinger's Cat Is Dead": Self released masterpiece debut from a band of 19 year olds that can only mean insane things to come. This female fronted trio has continued to catch attention with their creative mix of new wavish mirth. They have definitely developed into an original sound that is not present in any other act in Louisville that I've heard. So impressive.

Giving Up - "(Peace Sign/Frown Face)" (Sophomore Lounge): Warbly, energetic, melodic, harmonic duels between organ and guitars that sing-songs through sad and happy in some unreal lo-fi heaven. Really. It was hard for me to stop listening to this album. I'm mad at how good it is.

French Letters - "In Tongues": Not a regional release, but a Seattle band featuring Kentuckian/Ohioan poet/singer Michael Crossley, this is swagger in the form of a bluesy combination of the Stones and the Stooges that is cemented by Mike's mind bleeding and orgasming all over the page. Songs about guns, drugs, girls and the love of fried chicken taken to a religious place.

Tropical Trash: "Fear of Suffering" (Sophomore Lounge): The seven inch of seven inches this year, Tropical Trash confused and melted me with their strange disjointed, confrontational rock. This record reached into my prostrate. I made me anxious and happy with its scariness. Loud destructo-insanity noise.

Ninnie - "Freedom Rings Placed Within" (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts): Once an outlier of warblish country music that reflected creative introspection on classic female country music (Cline, Lynn, etc), Ninnie's music here grows sparse and oftentimes mysterious, anchored in an electric dulcimer and her voice and her mind, which goes unpredictable places. I liken this to breaching country and instead mining into the drones of Velvet Underground areas.

 Tender Mercy - "The Road to Good Intention Is Paved with Hell":  Mark Kramer's concentrated meld of guitar and voice that creates a lush, moody album that braves through minimalism into a propounded beauty of a project.

 Madame Machine - s/t seven inch (Noise Pollution): A recording of scene veterans Salena Filichia, Stephen Shoemaker and David Cundiff delving into their own frazzle of prog-rock and synthish new wave that blew my mind upon its release. "Snakeface" gets my vote for best song of the year.

The Bottom Sop - "The Bottom Sop": Definitely one of my favorite releases of the year, this debut EP from rests easily in the realm of older, classic country, while still sounding 2012. Sure, full disclosure included that this features my brother, singer/songwriter Derrick Wade Manley, but I've explained that already. I'm completely impressed with his Haggardish vocals harmonizing and dueting with Lindsey Anderson's powerful voice. A recorded honky-tonk.

Seluah - "Red Parole" (Karate Body Records) - The return of Seulah saw the band sink into a noirish setting of Sabbathy thick rock that teeters between Blue Cheer riffs and villainous electronics. At times it almost gets trails into ambience that could be the soundtrack for some unreleased film.

Adventure - "Brou-Ha-Ha":  A wonderful mix of upbeat power pop and great tearjerkers with a lean into country and garage territories, always straddling the line between the two. Both Joe and Phil Medley's songwriting skills are heavily evident all over this disc.

Benanthrope  - "Saddest of Bastards": Intriguing debut from multi-instrumentalist Ben Anthrope (aka Ben Lally), this EP walks through various lo-fi/experimental versions of blues, country and folk. Each song is crafted as a soundscaped house for some great lyrics, all incorporating a variety of instruments.

Whistle Peak - "Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls" (Karate Body Records): Released earlier in 2012, this album offers some amazing experimental pop that soothes itself in a layered pop. Elements of folkish pop bathed in electronics that gets memorably dream-like real fast.

J. Glenn - "Magick Eagle Ate the Magic Snake": Total DIY second release from J. Glenn, formerly a one-man-band, always experimental in his directions and presentation. Glenn's songwriting always gets to me, being founded in country elements, but rarely staying in one place, placing punk and garage in loosely.

Life Partner - "Dogs" (Sophomore Lounge): Based in Chicago, released by Louisville-based SL, this is the pet project of Aaron Osbourne. A down-strummed, distorted acoustic piece that elevates depression and humor onto stilts. Low-burning songs that stay in your head after you hear them once.

Black God - "Two" (No Idea Records): Goddamn awesome real Louisville hardcore. This band does no wrong. They blew my mind at Cropped Out in 2011. The recordings are just as good.  

She Might Bite - "Feral": So good. "Feral" captures the heavy harmonies so well laid down by Tara Kimes, Miranda Cason and Kathryn Slaughter that make this band so unique. All three musicians on this record bring so much energy to their instruments, swinging through plunked bass, surf guitar and pounded drums. I can never get "Gimme Orange" out of my head.    


Again, not even close to a complete list of some of the great stuff that came out in 2012 in and around the area. Check out some of the other summations of the year on these fine Louisville-based blogs:

The Decibel Tolls
Louisville MUSICulture
Backseat Sandbar
Never Nervous

And sorries to the bands I didn't make it to. So many good recordings out of this region this year, it was difficult to stay ahead. Onward.
 

Chapter Forty Four: "Sick City Four/Furlong."

It's a small orange platter dotted with green smudges. Ever since I got it I keep putting it on at various hours of the day or night. I tried it at 6pm once. Tried it at 3am and my upstairs neighbors feet pounded down on my head.

This is the split seven-inch that preserves the sounds of two longtime Louisville groups Sick City Four and Furlong. It has been released by locals Gubbey Records, a label that has been around since 1994 and has released material by The Shit House Poets, The Touched and Rare Treats, as well as several other River City-based bands.

Furlong has been around since at least 2004 and comes from that heartfelt fucked-up lo-fi garage terrorism present in such earlier Louisville punk bands as Shit House Poets and The Touched, which was some of the first live Louisville music I found myself asway in a few years back. The song "Sex Bunker" drives, with the merciless guitar of Dave Rucinski gripping the neck and plunging fast into it along with the buzz of Jim Hall's bass. The vocals are raw and despite being basement rock, the collective plays the tune tightly. This isn't farmed from wads of Nuggets impersonations, but instead preoccupies your next door neighbor's secret cool party; it's fast rock n roll from under the floorboards.

Furlong (not my photo)

And then there is the Black Sabbath section. I don't mean a dark, slow, mean Iommi riff. I mean that when the band suddenly breaks it down and goes into whittled insanity-land. As the song crescends, the synths hit and smelt you with a bizarre secret lead out that pitches the rest of this description void. And I always love to hear drummer Andy Matter play full-out.   

Sick City Four are a hard classification. The band itself features Dan Willems on baritone saxophone, Heather Floyd on trumpet and flugelhorn, Bart Galloway on drums and Chris Willems on guitar. They hail from Bloomington, began circa 1987, and have been relocated in Louisville since 1995. Sick City Four's members have been associated with some of the most creative and influential bands between Bloomington and Louisville, including a couple favorites of mine, The Belgian Waffles and Black Kaspar.

Their contribution is a tune called "Burundi Punchclock." The title makes me think of clocking in at work in one of the world's poorest, most violent countries. I have no degree of knowledge what that would be like, but listening to this record at 3am makes me imagine and wonder. It starts with a muscular rumble of Dan Willems' saxophone. I mean a real rumble that is matted in the guts. From there it erupts into a conflict, trumpet and drums wrangling and squaring-off in tense growlings and brawls. Galloway's drums are an attack; he just becomes a pounding weapon on the percussion, bending time, crushing the snare, doing I don't know what-all at a hyper pace. Heather weaves in and out of the jungle, flailing on the trumpet and flugelhorn, followed by Chris' big guitar, which at first sounds percussive and disconcerting, then rupturing into runs that boggle me.

     
I'm a new fan to this quartet since seeing them fight and defeat a roomful of mentally-challenged basketball fans (are there any other kind?) following a game downtown last year at Harley's. Even though their set was eventually cut short, I feel like they won. They definitely won my attention as one of the more interesting bands in town that breathe no sighs of conformity. It's an aggressive rake of jazz. This record is barbwired sax, drums, trumpet and guitar that doesn't lounge in expected free jazz configurations. It grabs your midcage and rips it up like a root vegetable.

With nicely bizarre artwork by Galloway and a full-color layout by Heather, this is a 45 that needs to be on your record player. Highly recommended.

Both bands will be playing a record release show along with Humongous (also releasing their record, reviewed here) at Quill's on Saturday, Oct 13.