Tropical Trash, Think Back, Kick a Beer

This album was reportedly recorded by Dracula in 2013, so I figure it's good fodder to review this week, what with Halloween coming up. 

I don't think Tropical Trash fucks with me with malicious intention, I just think they enjoy easing into my alveary and then turning on the Sunday chicken dinner afterwards. I think we're going to eat Tacos on a Thursday, but they show up with chicken dinner on a Sunday. What am I supposed to do?

Think Back, Kick a Beer is the band's follow-up to Fear of Suffering, and it's a different mouth. The members have altered some. Jordan Richardson has moved from drums to bass. Kirk Mattingly has moved to a farm. Jeff Komara (of Alcohol Party and Sapat) has joined on drums. Jim Marlowe has lost his gawdamned mind. Everybody is getting tans and working out, burning Playboy bunnies into their skins, surfing, eating louder.

I'm kidding. They all live in a haunted house that eats cats through mouths in the walls and pencil-skinny hands come from the basement to grab broken guitar necks. Besides that, I'm not sure if the switches or changes in members really decided the fact that this seven-inch sounds different than the last one, or if it's the fact that Tropical Trash doesn't fuck around with stagnation. I've been to a lot of their shows, and they keep it interesting. It's never the same. And I appreciate the switches.

Where Fear of Suffering ripped open the cadaver of noise-punk and pulled out its organs and just started sprinting headfirst into an occult, Think Back, Kick a Beer gut-hooks the corpse, lubes it with aloe, sets it on fire and sleds it down Satan's inner thigh with a loathing grin. Jordan makes for a fucking sick bass player. Jeff's drums are a dismaying, frenzied, monstrous attack. Jim screams and harrows his guitar faster than ever. And everything is off-balance again, throwing three songs on one side and giving you the epic three minute, 45 second masterpiece that is "Ritual Bath" on side two. This song was made to drive your motorcycle into a 27 car pile-up. Fuck you, Motorhead.You should have tried to write this.  

These folks are bound together in a snarl of yells and sonic creases that are good for hurts. Recommended.

Out on Sophomore Lounge Records.

Mu + Peeling Wallpaper Ensemble, Mangled Guts

 

This is a tumble into educational madnesses; it's the matricide of my Buffalo Trace hangover that has mothered me all this day. It's how my bowels, neck muscles and brainwaves have functioned for 12 hours: a coarse chorus of bedlam, purposefully vindictive against my sanity. I was already in pain; this is pushing me past it.

Mu is here as Douglas Lucas, playing objects, some of them instruments, some of them not. The Peeling Wallpaper Ensemble are a pickled herring that surrounds, protracting sounds from the air made through some physical manipulations, as well. Jim Marlowe's baritone sax is murderous, clamping on and twisting. Kirk Mattingly has a guitar, which is always dangerous. And percussion is a sleight of hand performed by Raw Thug, a master of ceremonies unto its own entity, tucked behind the wrinkles of guitar feedback and cord tugs.

At points, the percussion is a jazz tap on hi-hats, while high-pitched wails cover the waterfront of the sax, moaning in tumultuous agony. Somebody left the fire going in the still and the moonshine is burnt, but I like my corn blackened. There is a calm in the confusion. A singing bowl is placed near my upset heart and wrung. Strings are plucked as a catgut harp. The beats increase as the sax begins to scale, and hover, ofttimes sounding like a wet balloon being pulled from The Blob. The guitar pinpricks the moon. And at 17 minutes in, everything you thought you could anchor to as nature, stops, strips and reassembles into an orbital crisis zone.

The second half of this barrage goes electronic whir and burr, and the noise begins. Feedback becomes our human geography, except the map was lost in the fiery still. This is when the Invaders take over. We are lost in the audial woods, and the Mu/Peeling Wallpaper Ensemble Blood Clan has the doused torch. The guitar unleashes sheets of fossilized intermetallic ballast and the road is cut. It trips. It flits. They backsource dirt fields and make them unsafe for play. Everyone is left holding their own grinding tooth in their hands, staring at the ground, hearing the ring of copper, getting lost in the guts, wriggling. So what.

This is a cassette released by Loin Seepage. It's available. Get it if you want 38 minutes of instrumentation that knows not of borders. I feel better now.

i got a candy bar. i got an apple. i got a cookie.

i got a rock.

i envy us.

Club El Rancho Episode 10.13.13

Featuring new music from Whips/Chains, Robert Beatty, Black God, J Marinelli, Empiria Vultura, Street Gnar, Tropical Trash, The New Shitbirds, Babirusa, Tiny Tiny, Harpy, Howell Dawdy, Salad Influence, and RED M, plus tunes by Belgian Waffles, Phantom Family Halo, Poor Girls, Gaj Mustafa Cell, Quiet Hollers, Bad Blood, Bill Widener and lots more.

Club El Rancho 10.13.13 by Club El Rancho on Mixcloud

Interview with Ryan Patterson of Coliseum

Coliseum has been breaking it open the last few weeks, tearing through blogs and sites and bandcamps and whatall with news, reviews and talk of their latest LP Sister Faith. The album was released on Temporary Residence at the end of April, and has gotten knocked up for an aeolian glide that has brought accolades from Pitchfork  and Stereogum, as well as this absorbing analysis by popmatters.

This isn't really a surprise. Begun in 2003 by guitarist/vocalist Ryan Patterson, Coliseum has been impressing people with release after release of gripping post-punk/punk rock/loud music/whathaveyou, both in and out of Louisville. Coliseum put out a split seven inch with Superchunk, goddamnit. They were signed to Relapse Records. Their albums are produced by fucking J. Robbins of Jawbox. Echelons have been reached for this band. We always figured they'd return, and they did it boulderish.

Sister Faith is a distorted kit that checks the simple truths of life: death, sorrow, pain. But its not all raw screams. Patterson has graduated passed the level of needing to impress with tilted nongagged anger. It's one of those moments in a discography that seems to capture the energy and grueling effort a band has been cranking through for 10 years and lord over that experience with a personal mantra that glues the treatment together perfectly. Robbins understands this sort of music. Bands like Jets to Brazil have benefited from his input, as now does Coliseum.

Oddly, I knew of Ryan more through his other bands. Black God fucked my mind up at 2am at Cropped Out a couple of years ago. And Whips/Chains destroyed me at a house show in 2012. Plus, we managed to work a few months together at one of our favorite places in Louisville: Wild and Woolly Video.

The Sister Faith record release party for Louisville is tonight, Friday May 10 at Zanzabar. Opening will be Tropical Trash and Anwar Sadat. I'm gonna mouth off and go ahead and say it'll be one of the loudest and best band battles of  the year. I appreciate Ryan taking some time to fire back some answers to some questions.

-------------------------------------

American Gloam: It's been interesting getting to know you and Evan [Patterson] separately since I moved back to Louisville a few years ago. I was just curious if you two have ever collaborated. I know there was the split seven inch between Coliseum and Young Widows, but I meant in the same project (this question might prove some ignorance on my part right off the bat, but I'm willing to throw that out there)...

RYAN: Well, Evan and I did bands together since we were kids, but most notably Evan formed the National Acrobat which I joined after about a year. The Acrobat was one of our first bands to receive a fair share of acclaim and tour a bit. After that band broke up, I started Black Widows with Rob Pennington, Evan was upstairs at our house while we were practicing and since we didn't have a bass player he came downstairs...and joined the the band. Black Widows eventually became Black Cross and we did a couple albums and a lot of touring. Evan also started Breather Resist during that time and I started Coliseum shortly after that. We haven't played music together since Black Cross ended but we often talk about it. I'm sure it will happen again eventually.

AG: What separates Sister Faith from House with a Curse? That popmatters.com article describes the changes since the first album, but from a songwriter’s point of view, what do you feel the biggest differences were between what you have to say now and what you had to say 3 years ago? Or, yeah...lyrically what has changed over the course of the albums?

RYAN: The approach to both records is essentially the same but I guess we always get better as songwriters and players... I think we knew more of who we are as a band during the writing of Sister Faith. House With A Curse was pretty adventurous for us but it maybe lacked on fun a bit, it was really dark and dour, while still being a damn solid record in my opinion. My point of view changes daily, or at least expands with age and exposure, so the lyrics change accordingly. Sister Faith was great affected by death, loss, confusion, and ultimately love and hope.

AG: That being said, what about the changes in musicians between the last album and now.

RYAN: Kayhan Vaziri joined the band on bass and we clicked into gear in the best way possible. He and Carter, our drummer, are lifelong friends and have played in countless bands together so their chemistry is incredible. We were all operating at the same level and able to make these songs the best they could be.

AG: I’m so impressed (and jealous) that you have recorded with J. Robbins of Jawbox, a band I listened to in the 90s. What would you say he has brought to the sound of Coliseum? To me, it makes perfect sense, considering the sound of Sister Faith. Bands like Jawbox and Shudder To Think and even up through to stuff like Jets to Brazil, Robbins brought a mixture of post-punk aggression mixed with extremely personal lyrics, which I feel is existent on Sister Faith.

RYAN: J. helps us perform at our best and make the songs as good as they can be, makes them sound great, documents them in the best way possible. He feels like a fourth member of the band, he's a great collaborator, a great friend. He makes you better by being supportive and excited, also by helping to create and capture very wonderful tones and sounds of the instruments, amps, and vocals. J.'s bands were big influences to me, along with a lot of the bands he recorded like Kerosene 454 and Monorchid, and the bands that were his peers like Girls Against Boys, Fugazi, Shudder To Think, etc. He's the perfect match for what we're doing because we're coming from the same perspective and in some ways he's part of what shaped that perspective in us.

AG: How long is this tour and how do you plan on keeping your sanity during it?

RYAN: This tour is never ending! Well, this specific run is about five weeks across the Eastern part of North America, then we'll head back to Europe & the UK for a couple weeks to do some festivals over there, then come back and do some midwest and East Coast stuff before finally going out West again, then probably going back to Europe! I just try to stay as chill as possible, get as much sleep as I can, stay healthy. It can be difficult but luckily I have great bandmates and we all get along really well.

AG: Are you or will you be working anymore with Black God?

RYAN: Yeah, Black God and my other side project Whips/Chains are still active, but both bands are mostly on hiatus for the rest of the year. Black God just finished our third 7" EP and it will come out sometime later this year on No Idea Records.

AG: Only asking you this knowing we're both huge movie nerds: were you a Ray Harryhausen fan? He was one of my biggest idols. Been on my mind a lot since his death yesterday. Seems like someone you might have been into. Just curious.

RYAN: Of course! I grew up with stop motion and Harryhausen's effects and the people he inspired. I loved Clash Of The Titans as a kid, along with the Sinbad movies, all the various monster and dinosaur movies he did, Might Joe Young...all that stuff. It was such a big part of movie magic, it didn't seem real - it seemed beautiful and magical. I really hate CG, I'm tired of it and mostly bored by it. I love practical effects, even when they aren't that great. I'll definitely miss Ray Harryhausen and hopefully stop motion won't die with him.

Tropical Trash. The Dreebs. Guerilla Toss@Quills. 2013.01.08.

Tropical Trash

 The Dreebs

Guerilla Toss

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 Thirty Five: "Tropical Trash - 'Fear of Suffering.'"

Tropical Trash made me cut myself today.

I was listening to their new seven-inch "Fear of Suffering" while shaving. One of the sides ended unexpectedly on my record player. I jumped to run and grab the record before the needle spilled and scratched into the label hole. That jump cut my face with the razor, straight into the cheek. Blood, pain, fear of suffering.

Jim Marlowe granted me access to this latest marshy exploration of porphyrized sound Tropical Trash has delivered unto the masses (or the lesses, who knows). Everything here is juggernautish, rhythmically, aesthetically, and artistically. It's some of the best disjointed rock ever put onto rekkid. It's a tomcat, or maybe a tomcod, or a tomboy, or a tombstone to most things before and after. I'm trying to say its definitely in the running for my favorite release of 2012.

The music contained within this disc is a challenging assault on reality. The band made my listening experience confrontational from the start. My hands were shaky enough from too much coffee, too much beer from the night before. Pulling out the 45, the inner sleeve came out. I was too inept to push it back in. The white vinyl is armed with a white unlabeled label. What side do I play? What speed? Fuck it, I put it on and figured it all out. All of it. I understand everything now. It's all clear. And scary. And I think I accidentally spilled sweetened condensed milk on the right upper hand of the record's cover, unless it came like that. As I became engrossed in the music, I began to imagine that they did put a smudge of sweetened condensed milk on every cover, just to thatch people's brains a little more.

It's a mysterious recording, but I've always enjoyed the mystery a seven-inch can convey. Hearing something unsolvable ups the ante for me. Keeps things uncontrolled and darkened; makes you wonder who these people are, what they do. Are they some cult locked in a cave somewhere making these noises. Maybe.

Side one is "Baltimore," and it takes up that whole side. I tried listening to it in my normal record-listening stance: sitting on couch in front of the player. Instead, I was immediately twisting large populations of hair from head, pacing the room in anxiety, wringing my hands, stasis achieved.What have they done? What are they doing? "Baltimore"'s punched lyrics drive in-between a looming bit that sticks like metal in your mouth. Guitar sounds crash into each other until suddenly entering a "jazz" phase of improv'ed noise spread that sounds as if the band is destructing its guitars at a dank anchored correctional facility somewhere under the ocean. Then it all comes back, and that strange punching lyrical assault becomes a spiritual hand to lead you through to the end.

Then side two squashes all hope. "False Crypt" starts the side off hammering your pores away with overlapped vocals and Jordan's drums careening and jolting into time travel. I think the song is - what - a minute long? You could call it "related to black metal" but that would be wrong. It's just fucking fast and loud ugly and amazing. And then before you can stop cutting your legs with the razor you kept from the bathroom, "Pentagram Ring Finger" starts making you bob your head to what I guess might be mid-tempo in the Tropical Trash Fields of Gold.

"Raw Mind" delves left with a riff that sounds like it was recorded backwards, but was not. And again, those strange lyrics. It's demise makes you think something might resolve, but you are left to hold your head and weep, digging until callouses form on the tips of the digits. Horns have shown up at this point in the recording, and I don't mean those of the devil, but rather the instruments, playing the devil's music. "Burning Ghost" ends it all with a prankful stomp forward that at points comes the closest to something resembling straight punk on the record, but it actually doesn't.

This oddly balanced, frightening seven-inch is pretty perfect in that it sort of blankets Tropical Trash's sounds, which can range in a lot of different directions. They are soldiers constructing bridges between full-blast noise quests leading into improvised sparseness that can then shoulder a variety of tempos and styles in-between. Jim, Jordan and Kirk have assembled some intense and creative rock, bolting it down with clamps to a blab board and letting it wean. Highly recommended.   

Available on the Sophomore Lounge/Tropical Trash bandcamp, and at fine record stores in Louisville (including at Jim's new one, Astro Black Records, I would assume).

Chapter Twenty Three: "Save it for the Birds: Recordings in 2011."

"Save that bullshit for the birds."

That's what Joe Rothman says to Lou Ford in Jim Thompson's 1952 noir novel "The Killer Inside Me."

Year-end lists can be bullshit. I guess my issue with them is that the idea of rating things, putting them in some kind of order, is stupid. I've never been a person that can really participate in the arguments that center on ranking music or bands. When music nerd arguments surface - "who's a better guitarist: Jimi Hendrix or Brian Causey?" -  I tend to lose interest, back away, roll my eyes. Music isn't a contest, and its always a roll of the dice with semantics and opinions, which have nothing to do with facts.

  

Year end lists do serve the beneficial purpose of reviewing the year and all the happenings and releases. So for that reason, I'm officially going to attempt mine. It's a blog, and I feel a certain responsibility as part of the Universal Blog Organization of the Universe. My budget does not really allow me to purchase a large amount per year, so I missed out on a lot of releases I will probably pick up in 2012. About 99% of these are regional releases, with a few outsiders thrown in here and there. 

The one thing I've heard several writers and opinionated folks hark is that 2011 sucked as far as new music goes. I can't go along with this at all. Every year there is a ton of new music that comes out that floors me. I can't keep up with one percent of the things I want to hear. These were just the releases I managed to get a hold of; I missed a lot I'll have to buy retrospectively, and I apologize to the bands/artists I didn't fit on here that deserve it.  

In no order whatsoever...

*Eleanor Murray  - "Thunderling." (Talking Helps Records): I became familiar with Ms. Murray's music in a very roundabout way, but I'm glad all the pieces fell into place the way they did, because I've grown to love this record. I booked a show for visiting musician/friend J. Marinelli (another member of this list) at The Rudyard Kipling, paired him with locals The Teeth and was told by the restaurant that Murray needed a show that night. We were happy to have her, and I'm so glad we did. Her show was pretty damn amazing. This album is wonderful and I plan on A) bringing her back  and B) buying more. "Thunderling" is a collection of live material from her 2010 album "Oh Thunder". Murray's songs are hauntingly aggressive in their own melodies, and show she is definitely creative as hell. "The Whale," "Scream" and "When a Heart Becomes a Heart" kill me.

[editor's note: have no idea why this switches back and forth from double to single spaced. just go with it.]

*J. Marinelli - "Pre-Skankery Sessions" (Commodity Fetish Analogue): Since meeting and seeing James Marinelli at Goodfolks Fest, I've been a fan. When he moved to Lexington from West Virginia, I was super-excited, and even more excited we became good friends. And he's a prolific motherfucker. Besides playing in Arcane Rifles (another pick here), he continues to crank out lo-fi wonderful solo one-man-band recordings that blow my mind with their naked songwriting and irremeable sound. I believe this was officially released near the end of 2010, but its goodness carried over into 2011 easy. Marinelli has a new recording heading our way in '12.

J.Marinelli

*Dane Waters - "Dark Waters" (Self-Released): Brilliant winter music from a very involved member of various facets of the Louisville music scene. I just reviewed the album, so check that out for a detailed look into this disc. And GO SEE HER LIVE.

Dane Waters

*Tropical Trash - "Acts of Reversal": It was in '11 that I finally became aware of the feedbackings of Tropical Trash of Louisville. Like the aforementioned Ms. Waters, two members of this trio are from the anchor band Sapat, and have created some powerful music mixed with experimental sound structures and improvisation. Their live shows are intense (as discussed here and here and here). "Acts of Reversal" is the second collection of recordings the band released in 2011, the first being "Docetic Necro."  These two documentations of what I consider one of the best bands in town, and can be downloaded at their blog site, along with another EP and live recordings. The rumor mill chunked out the possibility of a cassette release soon.

Tropical Trash

*Natives - "Loose Secrets" (Rad Tantrum): I walked into Cahoots to see the noise rock duo Lightning Bolt making a rare appearance in town, and stumbled onto a loudness that I think I liked even better. Natives are Louisville natives, and although I couldn't see the band perform, I was impressed by their set, and was happy as hell to hear they would later open for own of my all-time fave bands Man Or Astroman? later in the year. Their debut album plays at 45rpm and is a pitch perfect platter of heavy thoughts and sounds. Them peeps have a future. The album sounds like aloof anger in the forest as a swirl of guitars shelter the vox in an over-cover of reverb. If you don't want the vinyl, go download it.  

Natives

*The Seedy Seeds - "Verb Noun" (Eurodorable Recordings):  The Seedy Seeds come from up there in the North in a mysterious town called Cincinnati. I first became aware of their perfect pop selves back circa 2009 during a brief run I had as a part-time sound guy at the The Rudyard Kipling. Of course, I fucked up some of Margaret Darling's vocals because of  a mic error on my part during part of the show. Yet, they still played a set that somewhat set me on my ass, and I've made it a point to see every live show they've played here since. After the show, I apologized to the band, and they scolded me by handing me a tour EP featuring tracks from their 2008 release "Count the Days." In February 2011, the band released this beautiful full-length follow-up. Vocals are shared by multi-instrumentalists Darling and Mike Ingram, and the tracks are swoony pop. Some make you want to dance, some cry, some smile, which is what pop music should do. Check out their bandcamp site to hear and purchase.

*Bosco - "B is for Bosco" (Sound Workshop): Another EP I reviewed in a previous chapter, Bosco started up in Marchish 2011 and have already released two recordings, the first being "Basura Blanca" in June, and "B Is for Bosco" on cassette/online in November. Originally a three-piece, the band has grown into a four or five piece (depending on the show) and create some of the catchiest,scratchiest punk-country here in Louisville. I still can't get the chorus to "I'm Not Sorry" out of my head. Both albums are available here. 

Bosco

*Louisville Is for Lovers Summer 7" Series: These were all winners. Well, OK, I admit, I accidentally missed the Bad Reeds/Workers split due to work. The colored vinyl 45s released by curator John King and friends over the summer months contained some of my favorite tracks by some of my favorite bands in the River City. The series leaned toward pop sounds made by Louisvillians and I spent many a late night flipping them over and re-listening through the whole group. Besides the one I failed to grab, the other bands include the Deloreans, Second Story Man, Scott Carney, The Gallery Singers, Adventure and Whistle Peak. All of them were really great, although I'll admit my favorite two were Whistle Peak's "Ribbons" and Adventure's "The Green Is Always Greener," which might be my favorite love story set to song. I know both Adventure and Whistle Peak have full-lengths being released in 2012.

Scott Carney

Adventure

*Arcane Rifles - "Green Eye Will Save You" (Louella Records): Alright, alright, alright, alright...if I have to admit a numbero uno for me this year it was this seven inch from the shiny city up 64 called Lexington, a former hometown for me. Aforementioned one-man-bander J. Marinelli plays the percussion with both arms here, which bucks and kicks like a wild horse. One of my guitar-singer-songwriter heroes Ben Allen plunges through with the smell of feedback that breaks into an irreligious fight with his guitar. It's fast riffing that's lacerated by Phillip Farmer's mountainous bass. No angularities or footing around and through the genre; this is fast noisy rock. Allen's voice calmly screams at you to "Get Up and Off It" as though that was what you were supposed to have been doing all this time anyways, and I did and do every time this thing was put on my turntable this year. Fucking wonderful. Word I hear is they are currently recording more, which makes 2012 already awesome.

Arcane Rifles

*J.Glenn - "Magick Eagle Ate the Magic Snake" (Position High): I've been pals with one-man-band J. Glenn since I moved back to this city in 2005 and have been a fan of his music since then, as well. His 2010 album "Long Time No See" is one of my favorite recordings from this state, and this follow-up is pretty amazing, as well. It's got KENTUCKY written all over it, and features some of the most introspective songwriting out there. Lo-fi DIY psychedelic banjo-keys-guitars-drums that stab at the head and heart like a backwoods basement toothpick. Favorites include "Laws" and "Old Friends Make the Best Enemies," which to me sounds like a lullaby for a stabbed brain. Hopefully there will be some local shows.    

*Phantom Family Halo/Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "The Mindeater" (Sophomore Lounge): I missed out on earlier incarnations of Phantom Family Halo. At this point, the band almost seems like a supergroup of Louisville musicians: Dominic Cipolla (Dead Child), Neal Argabright (Sapat/Natural Geographic), William Benton (Lucky Pineapple), and Alan the Egyptian (softcheque). The first official release from Phantom Family Halo following the move of half the band to NYC, 'The Mindeater" plays like a beautiful and spooky concept album based around madness its relation to loneliness, which made me like it immediately. Will Oldham leads the vocals on all songs, and is joined by Slint bassist/Wild and Woolly Video-owner Todd Brashear harmonizing on a cover of the Everly Bros. tune "I Wonder if I Care As Much." Side Two of this creation blows my mind a little. A record that can make any moment of the day feel like 3 AM. The Phantom Family Halo has a new full-length recording due in February. 

*Ma Turner and Weepjoy - "My Wheels Are Your Wheels and Your Wheels Are Fire": Ma Turner's latest project Weepjoy plagues my mind with its pointed colors and shifts in songwriting. Turner, also the brain behind Warmer Milks and the guitars of Cross, is a prolific one, grinding out gold and silver psychedelia like a hostile millstone. He's taken to releasing music nearly every other month or so. These are some of my favorite tunes he's put out there so far. The melodies lean into an almost virtuous pop realm, but stray along a contoured line that puts it into sadness and joy on some crumpled map he's following. I swear he touches late 60s country-rock on parts of this album. "Tonight" makes me almost cry.

These are the 2011 recordings I found myself listening to over and over. Definitely looking forward to 2012. Besides those mentioned above, there is word of new music coming from The Bottom Sop, Cross, Old Baby, Kirk Kiefer, and Alcohol Party, and a whole lot more my mangled mind won't let me recall at this sitting. 

Buy stuff. Listen to it.