BUMMER VACATION

Terrors - Live at the Hickey Underworld (2008)

2011-11-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

This recording is from the first show held at the Hickey Underworld, back in early 2008. Elijah Forrest, Terrors, opened the night with this set. The Hickey Underworld gets most recognition from its punk shows but that was maybe half of what went on there, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I've seen Elijah approach this project several different ways, from this solo acoustic set to a fourtet with three part harmonies to a spacious shoegaze direction, and lately his music has taken on a full blown ambient drone. The exchange of narrative for atmosphere has given him room to experiment with surfacing his diverse interests and taste in an almost subconscious way. But this set (which I thought to record at the last second at a suggestion) proved to me the payoff in putting care into every detail of writing a song and really trying to connect with the audience. Listening to this today I'm still blown away by the sincerity and care in his delivery.

There had always been talk of this set being released in several different formats. The same night I recorded a set from Drew Pearson and a few friends and I considered releasing a split tape. There had also been talk of a vinyl release, but nothing has happened yet. So until plans go into motion here it is, unmastered with a buzz in it so if it actually gets released you'll want to buy the cleaned up version. Hah.

TRACK LIST

Winter Vision
Bottom of the Second
An Exercise
Open Your Mask
All Dissolve

Download here.

Wild Pack of Canaries - Why is Everyone Still Smiling? (2009)

2011-08-28T22:02:00.001-07:00

When Wild Pack of Canaries started off it was Rudy De Anda and Drew Pearson. I’ve always been a fan of Drew’s music and I had been in a band with Rudy prior to Wild Pack forming. They both fuck with time signatures in a visceral and aggressive way, just feeling around the beat and building on it instead of playing through. They both also have interesting high pitched voices that don’t match with much but luckily match each other really well. There’s a soul presence in the melodies and a punk attitude in the delivery. Drew’s drumming is so stripped down and well written around the guitar parts that the contrasting placements of kick and snare play the melody percussively.

This demo was recorded in several spots throughout Long Beach, including the Hickey Underworld bathroom. It runs lush, beautiful guitar pieces through flat post-punk tones and experiments with a range of sounds and effects adding to the double exposure combination of beauty and dissonance. The band has since continued to grow and try on different approaches. Their lineup averages at around 7 members, and all of the room the two piece’s music has (which is a sort of prog punk charm) is filled out with a sort of indie rock noise party. Rudy has also reinvented the songs with more percussive focus and even an 11 piece with saxophone and trumpet. His eccentric taste, open mind, and enthusiasm are all accurately reflected by his music. The band has since released an album on Mountain Man Records with a few of the songs on this demo reworked with the current band.

TRACK LIST

The Coroner Can Wait
Lose That Touch
In Case of Hornets
El Tiburon
Gilroy/Farm Song
Yo Te Lo Digo
Electric Cow (Tipping Her Over Version)

Download.
Buy the album here.

New Music

2011-04-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to keep posting relics and rarities but for now here's some links to current music I'm around that I'm really enjoying. Something for everyone, really.

Merry Christmas "Teenage Jackie"
Sick jam for a skate video.

Rainman (Self Titled 11-track demo)
Rachel is a great guitarist and writes songs with gut and conviction. She's got a great sultry voice and her lyrics are smart. There's one track with a nice instrumentation recorded in my roomate's studio, and the rest are really solid demos.

Low Places (Self Titled 5-track EP)
Full disclosure, I play bass in this band. But I didn't write anything on this 7". I just joined when it was being recorded, and it's sick as fuck. Heavy sludge with blasts of hardcore punk. We have new material coming out soon.

Luis Gutee "Too Faced (Rough)" and "Numbskull"
I think these are two incredible new works from my friend Luis and I wanted to post the both of them just to give a hint at how many new things he's always trying. This is the tip of the iceberg. If you didn't download Curtains from my previous post, go back and do so. It's this guy.

Twin Steps "Wave Step (Remix)"
This is the fucking jam. This is like listening to what the world looks like on acid. This sounds like the music to the Lion King game on Super Nintendo. It's a remix of my friend's band but I've never heard the original song. He says it's a punk band. I can't stress enough how much I enjoy this song.

Well breakfast is ready. That's all for now.

Fever Kids - Homesick (Unreleased, 2008?)

2011-02-24T13:05:00.001-08:00

For years now I’ve been trying to remember how I met Barry Johnson but we both have no clue. The best theory is that it was at the Smell in LA during high school and that we were both drunk, as that was a good amount of high school for the both of us. The first memories of our friendship I can recall are shows that our high school bands played together. Barry had a band called The English Work Standard, it was a pretty sick suburban punk band.

After TEWS Barry and a couple members moved on to form Fever Kids. They recorded some songs, played a couple shows, and dissolved before I even got to see them play. I don’t think all the songs I have here are necessarily from that band, but they are from Barry and from that time. Barry tells me that they weren’t any good, mostly because of his “shitty attitude” at the time. Sometimes shitty attitudes make bands great.

These songs are perfect reflections of where their lives were at the time. The foundation is undeniably punk, and there’s still some nerdy high school interests that aren’t fully shaken off (like ska parts, be forewarned), but it’s also that peak of emotional and sensitive music before popularity and self awareness turn it into something that’s more of a presentation.

Shortly after Fever Kids, Barry formed Joyce Manor and took a couple of these songs with him. They’ve since changed and evolved quite a bit, and I think the biggest influence that shines through is the time spent playing shows at the Hickey Underworld in Long Beach with some of the best punk bands touring the country. An example would be “Homesick”, my favorite Fever Kids song from this collection, which has an almost Modest Mouse-like quality at parts. It’s been rehashed on Joyce Manor’s new LP as “Derailed” and while it may not have the softness and broad range of approaches that Fever Kids had, it’s so much more focused and perfected and above all cool.

This small collection is a gem from our youth and sure to be a real treat for Joyce Manor fans. If you’re familiar with neither bands then this is sure to leave you wanting more, and lucky you! Joyce Manor has a new LP and is currently touring.

TRACK LIST

Word Problems
Ode to Lace
Stairs
Cassius Clay
Homesick

Download.
Joyce Manor's new album available here.

PS The “album art” is just some clip art I found years ago when I Google’d “Homesick”. These files jumped around between a few friends and when I finally got my hands on them to post here the image was still attached. My friend didn’t know where it came from but he liked it, so I guess it works.

Rock Goggle Fantasy - Society of the Spectacles (2003)

2011-01-16T16:58:00.001-08:00

This is the first time I've actually ripped vinyl for this blog. I think it sounds pretty good. And it was easy with this six track EP that's hardly over 5 minutes.

Society of the Spectacles is, at least by name and image, modeled after Guy Debord's 1967 series of theses The Society of the Spectacle-- a Marxist book on the degradation and replacement of society and social life with its own image as a sort of drugging and distracting tactic largely on the government's behalf. Basically a really hip French book with a really cool looking cover and a now classic counter culture message.

It's a classic Los Angeles area punk band thing to do to both have an underlying reference to anti consumerism and at the same time have a great sense of humor and play fast as fuck. Another way that this 7" seems like a punk rock modern classic to me is the performance; it reminds me of X in that they've put forth the effort into writing fully developed songs with great hooks and good melodies but play with as much aggression, conviction, and attitude as any other bonehead hardcore punk band. They're creative and at the same time listenable, and on top of it all there's an excellent Minutemen cover. And a final confirmation that this is Southern California punk at its finest is the label: We're From the Beach Records (with a Manhattan Beach address).

TRACK LIST

Tootsie Roll Pop Art
Dance Marathon
Paranoid Chant (Minutemen)
Ladies Wear White
Kamikaze Limo
Tangling with the Grappler

Download.
This band is defunct. I found this for 3 dollars at a record store, keep your eyes peeled.

Brett Cutts - Beautyfull Birds (2006)

2011-01-03T14:15:00.000-08:00

I wish I could just post this album and not feel compelled to share my story in relation to it. But it's all I think about when I hear it and I'm so proud. Brett Cutts is my cousin and he lived from 1977 to 2006. I was probably around 16 or 17 when I really started to bond with Brett beyond a family level. He had moved back to Long Beach from his parents' place in Washington (where he recorded most of this) and I was just starting to play in my own bands. Looking back I must have been that nerdy, overly eager younger cousin but he always had encouraging and powerful things to say to me. He also gave me the only lesson in guitar I had ever taken.

Brett was no stranger to the Long Beach music scene. He ran with the Southern California 90's hardcore scene and grew with it into the Long Beach music attitude that many local bands hold today; and place between nihilism, street life, and enjoying every minute of both. The popular Long Beach punk band Le Shok had written a song poking fun at the last name called "Brett Cutts (Himself)", a joke still used on me from time to time. When he moved back he joined the FM Bats, which was stitched together by members who were collectively in dozens of LA-based bands, including the first drummer of Jail Weddings and the singer of Le Shok. It was swampy and trashy and a lot of fun live, and if you paid attention you could catch Brett playing the most beautiful and lush guitar pieces while everyone else was still setting up. This album is based primarily in that beauty he could write in the middle of the struggle and sweat reflected in his other bands, places he lived, and personal demons that dominated much of Brett's adult life.

In the summer of '06 I put out a 7" with a couple of his songs on it. A few years later I realized I'm no businessman and closed up shop, but I've still got some copies in the garage. Leave a comment if you're interested. I couldn't bring myself to go through the emotional investment of releasing his music again and put out the full length, so here it is. Download it, enjoy it, remember it, and PS if anyone has any recordings of his project No Ghost, No Zombies please put them up for everyone to download.

TRACK LIST

...and Everybody Loves You (i)
In A Museum Basement
Miss Homa Gangei
Crawl All Over
...and Everybody Loves You (iv)
Untitled #1
Rabid Teeth
Soon One Mornin'
Mercyfull
Beautyfull Birds
O.R.
In One Night
Maggie's Farm

Download.

Stephen Steinbrink - You Are Dead (2009)

2010-12-23T17:46:00.001-08:00

The first time I heard Stephen Steinbrink's music, he was playing in my back yard while touring with his band the French Quarter. The band is from Arizona and the music has a strong folk influence. We spent the night drinking and listening to Neil Young after the show. I was so satisfied with the picture he had painted with folk music that this album, You Are Dead, took me a little getting used to. It wasn't until I saw him touring again and playing this material that I really figured out how lucky I am to see him come through and further develop this beautiful sound and try different genres through his own filter.

This album still has the familiar simple beauty of his folk music, but also has some grooves like you wouldn't expect. "A Tiny Seed"'s bass line is reminiscent of Michael Jackson and "It's Not Just Kissing" is downright sexy, but still subtle and beautiful with smart and layered guitar parts, soft drumming, and soft hushing vocals.

TRACK LIST

You Are Dead
A Tiny Seed
No More Night Driving
Growing Up Is Easy
It's Not Just Kissing
The Cops
Warning
Wet Cloud

Download.
Stephen's Blog, with links to music and labels to buy his other great records.

Curtains "Forced Thoughts on the Humdrum River" (2010)

2010-12-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Curtains' "Forced Thoughts on the Humdrum River" is another alter ego solo project from my friend Luis Gutierrez. Luis is not only wildly prolific but his music is surprisingly complex considering the large amount of material he writes. It sounds like it would take years to dream up such illuminated and imaginative music. Before this tape I had always thought of Luis as a drummer before anything, but his songwriting and widely reaching experiments with guitar have shown once again that he is full of surprises.

The album starts off with a monster jam of heavy drumming and vocal-drowned effects. There's some great heavy guitar work here and there, like "Treat You Like", and a lot of jams that blend cool atmosphere with the Residents, like "Yucca", "Up The Coast", "Stupid Bedsheets", and "Uhu". The whole album keeps this bubble of atmosphere like being in your bedroom on LSD drawing morbid pictures of people being tortured while blasting the Cure to try and drown out your sister's 80's pop bleeding through the wall. The album was released by Broccoli Tapes, a good friend of ours who has a lot of great releases already out and more to come.

TRACK LIST:

No Worries Ever
Over The World
Yucca
Treat You Like
Up the Coast
11 Weekly Lows
DOWNSTAIRS
Coming in Third
Talk About Old Nows
Stupid Bedsheets
Uhu
Lower Strata (Internet Only)
I'm Ready (Internet Only)
Moons (Internet Only)

Download.
The Artist's Page.