My God, these kids are incredible. Barely out of high school, and they’ve already released a full length and toured with the likes of Girls and Nobunny. Their debut album on HoZac Records is easily one of the best albums I’ve heard all year, if not THE best. It has this perfect blend of garage, power pop, and glam that I eat right up – did I mention it’s loud? I love everything about this album, from the power pop-esque song titles (“Diamond Boys,” “Be My Girl,” Gimme Some Time”), to the upside down Nirvana Nevermind cover art. These boys show a lot of promise, especially after hearing the newly recorded “Imagine, Pt. 3,” which very well may be their best song to date.

Tracklisting below:

The Smith Westerns – The Smith Westerns

01. Dreams
02. Boys Are Fine
03. Gimme Some Time
04. Girl In Love
05. We Stay Out
06. Tonight
07. Be My Girl
08. The Glam Goddess
09. Diamond Boys
10. My Heart

Ok so today we’re gonna review six 7′’s released this year. six bands, two songs apiece, to see who you hate the least.

hahaha, ok.

Fergus & Geronimo – Harder Than It’s Ever Been bw/ Last Letter (Woodsist)

I don’t know if they meant for it to be like that, but it was recorded very rough, and as usual, I’ve heard it all before, nothing great about it but it’s fine-ish.

Sic Alps – L. Mansion bw/ Superlungs My Supergirl (Slumberland)

sounds like a very amateurish rendering of early Beatles stuff.

are you saying they have the potential to become ‘the greatest band in the world ever’?

haha no! they are just imitating the early work of ‘the greatest band in the world ever’.

they have a lot to learn.

these guys are a school band, the guys from sixth form playing at the end of  year concert.

Frat Dad – Greg the Nerd bw/ Freak in Nature (Underwater Peoples)

did they just record one of their rehearsals?

they haven’t decided which colour to paint with.

basically, what I’m saying is they don’t know what to do.

they’re hoping people can’t hear how bad it is under the muddled mess.

NEXT!

Nodzzz – True to Life bw/ Good Times Crowd (What’s Your Rupture?)

boring, dreary, amateurish, like….yeah? well, everything like that.

not good.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Cave Weddings – Bring Your Love bw/ Let’s Drive (Hozac)

these guys are second best so far, after Geronimo and whoever.

again it’s all so totally predictable, school band stuff. no real musical ideas, no real… it’s derivative, all of it.

remember when I’d go see you playing at battle of the bands things? it’s like that.

it’s not surprising though is it? there are so many people making music these days, you can’t expect them all to be good.

it’s like when I used to teach in Dun Laoghaire, out of a class of twenty, you’d be lucky to have one real talent.

I wonder how many bands there are in America? tens of thousands surely.

in good times…maybe 1% would be good? and out of that 1%, 5% might be really excellent.

of course, we are….well we forget that the reproductive media have raised the expectations of our standards, you watch premiership football on the telly, and suddenly everything that isn’t premiership football is ‘crap’. even though it actually isn’t at all crap it just seems that way because we’re fed the best.

same goes for music.

and really, bands like this you should really listen to in context, and listening to it on record is wrong, you expect recorded music to sound professional, I should go see these guys play in their local village hall, with people having beers and just enjoying the music.

we’ve still got one more to go, maybe they’ll turn everything around for you.

Real Estate – Fake Blues bw/ Green River (Half Machine)

They are WAY ahead of all the rest.

are you just saying that because the recording is cleaner than the others?

no, no, they actually have ‘a sound’ they know what they’re about.

they also sound modern, all the rest sound so dated, they could’ve come from the early sixties or whenever.

Real Estate are the winners, I actually like that.

I don’t dislike Fergus & Geronimo either but Real Estate I would probably buy.

The others? if they came on the radio…I would switch it off.

http://www.myspace.com/fergusgeronimo
http://www.sicalps.com/
http://www.myspace.com/wearefratdad
http://www.myspace.com/nodzzz
http://www.myspace.com/thecaveweddings
http://www.myspace.com/letsrockthebeach

Photo from France Has the Bomb’s myspace

France Has the Bomb apparently chose their name because they wanted something that when you heard it, you wouldn’t immediately know what they sound like. It worked. Based on their wasn’t sure what they’d be like, but since they just put out a single on Hozac I had a pretty good idea.   Based in Minneapolis, but with roots in Chicago their sound straddles influences from both of those cities. Their songs have lots of scratchy, jagged guitars and vocals front and center. They’re certainly not trying to hide behind any of that lo-fi distortion du jour.

To date they’ve got two singles, one on Dusty Medical that was released last year and one on Hozac that was put out at the beginning of this year.  Both remind me of the 80’s midwest postpunk scene and bands like Bitch Magnet and Big Black from Chicago and Husker Du from Minneapolis.  The band are working on an album according to their MySpace, no word yet on when and where it will be released.

mp3: France Has the Bomb -Invisible Angle (buy the Hozac Single)

Back in the early 90’s Simple Machines put a pamphlet that they called the Mechanic’s Guide. It was a how-to guide for putting out a record and starting a record label.  The guide outlined the steps it takes to put out a 7 inch record, cassette and compact disc and covered all the bases from designing the sleeve, to getting the tracks mastered and finally how to sell them.  Back in the day, you used to have to write them to order a copy, now you can click a link and read it for free.  It’s still relevant, and I would bet it still gets read and used as a resource for people starting out.

In the last few years, out of thin air, or more likely sweat and hard work, a bunch of labels have been materializing with a fetish for vinyl and a similar aesthetic for noisy, treble heavy bands that are decidedly lo-fi.  These labels seem to be championing bands that creating a garage revival except the these are bands without garages.  I don’t know if any of the labels have read the Mechanic’s Guide, but their grass roots efforts and limited editions have much in common with what Simple Machines did in their time.  There are a handful of labels at the core of this scene, and it is certainly a scene because these bands and labels seem to switch between each other for releases and even team-up in some cases to make new bands.  There are a number of well established labels that have been putting out records that fit this description like In the Red, Goner and Castle Face, but it seems like a few newer labels have really caught the imagination of a lot of people of late (or at least mine).  At the center of the scene I’m talking about, are HoZac in Chicago, and Woodsist and Captured Tracks in Brooklyn.  A little bit on the periphery are Art Fag and Zoo Music out in San Diego.  Like so many indie labels of the past (Merge, Teenbeat, Dischord, Matador, Creation, Simple Machines to name a few) Woodsist, Captured Tracks and Art Fag are run by music obsessed guys who are also on bands.

Woodsist is handled by Jeremy Earl who is also in bands Woods and Meneguar while Captured Tracks is run by Mike Sniper who records under the Blank Dogs moniker.  Earl’s Woodsist label has grown out of his Fuck It Tapes label which only releases tapes (of course).  Woodsist started back in 2006 and not only release vinyl, but they’re not afraid of putting out a cd either.  The label’s track record is already stellar with released by by Sic Alps, Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls.  He also put out last year’s Wavves record, a Blank Dogs ep, and just released the first 7 inch from Seattle’s Idle Times.  Up next for Woodsist are new albums from the Woods and Meth Teeth, a Psychedelic Horseshit 12 inch from Columbus, Ohio pot-smoking noise rockers and a full length from New Jersey band Real Estate.  Sniper’s Captured Tracks label is much newer, brand new in fact, with release number one and two having just hit the streets.  They’re both four song 12 inch eps, one by Sniper’s own Blank Dogs who get a lot of Joy Division comparisons, but I think they sound a lot more like a warped Tubeway Army,  and the other buy Dum Dum Girls, who are a one woman band based out of Los Angeles sounding a lot the Vivian Girls but with less controversy.  Coming up on Captured Tracks is a single by the Mayfair Set which is a Blank Dogs – Dum Dum Girls team-up and from what I’ve heard of it is definitely more than the sum of it’s parts!  Also look out of singles from the Woods, and San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors.  The Brilliant colors are an all girl three piece that sound a bit 80’s New Zealand and a bit like Life Without Buildings currently have a 7 inch out on Make a Mess a label  run by Nodzzz drummer Eric Butterworth who put out last year’s excellent Nodzzz’ I Don’t Wanna single) .

Moving out of Brooklyn and out to Chicago where HoZac was born out of the Horizontal Action zine that Todd Novak  and Brett Crossout wrote until 2005.   The duo reformatted and resurrected the name into a record label a little over two years ago.  Their label specializes in limited releases of 7 inch records which includes the afore mentioned Blank Dogs as well as Nobunny, France Has the Bomb and the Dutchess and the Duke among many, many others. There limited runs go out of print pretty fast so you gotta jump fast when one hits the street.  The big news earlier this year from HoZac was that they were going to do a singles club which promised records from many of the bands I’ve already mentioned like Idle Times and Dum Dum Girls  as well as Teeth (a Blank Dogs side project) and Box Elders.  The singles club 500 subscriptions is sold out, but you should keep your eyes peeled for the first LP from the Dum Dum Girls and Medication from Connecticut who sound like the Mama’s and the Papas trapped in a cave.

It’s almost overwhelming, the number of releases that these bands and labels have put out and are planning to release, and I haven’t even mentioned a couple new San Diego labels, Art Fag and  Zoo Music.  Zoo Music was the first out of the gate this year with a cd-r ep from the Dum Dum Girls and a killer Jesus and Mary Chain-esque single from San Diego’s and former Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower,  the Crocodiles.  Art Fag is run by the Crocodiles, but they won’t be allowing themselves to put out their own album.  They’ll be entrusting Fat Possum to do that on 28 April.  Instead, they will be releasing a mighty fine split 7 inch featuring the Pens, Crocodiles, Graffiti Island and Dum Dum Girls as well as a full length from Philadelphia’s Ye Olde Maids. With all of this action going on down here in the underground, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn about a few more labels this year taking the initiative and doing it themselves, economy be damned.
mp3: France Has the Bomb – Invisible Angle (buy it from HoZac)

Bold Ones – Open Your Mouth 7″ EP (listen)

Plexi 3 – Know Better 7″ EP (listen)

Headache City – Teenage Grease 7″ EP (listen)

This triad of awesomeness is now available for pre-order from HoZac records. You might even get in on the “Gold” versions of these records if you act now. Cryptically, this means a “limited magnetic sheet” Bold Ones 7″, a “hand screened sleeve” for the Headache City 7″ and “I don’t know” for the Plexi 3 7″. I’ll cover each of these when they come in, I just figured there were a few of you not on the HoZac mailing list who might be into this.

Also: why aren’t you on the HoZac mailing list?

____________________________________________________________

PAYPAL account is : todd (at) horizontalaction.com (indicate which records you want)
USA
one 7″ – $6.00 ppd (*NOTE : just 1 copy of Bold Ones record = $6.50)
two 7″ – $10.75 ppd
three 7″ – $14.00 ppd
four 7″ – $17.50 ppd
five 7″ – $21.00 ppd
six 7″ – $23.99 ppd

CANADA/MEX/South America
one 7″ – $6.95 ppd (*NOTE : just 1 copy of Bold Ones record = $7.50)
two 7″ – $12.75 ppd
three 7″ – $16.75 ppd
four 7″ – $20.25 ppd
five 7″ – $23.25 ppd
six 7″ – $26.25 ppd

EUROPE/rest of WORLD
one 7″ – $9.95 ppd (*NOTE : just 1 copy of Bold Ones record = $10.75)
two 7″ – $15.50 ppd
three 7″ – $20.95 ppd
four 7″ – $25.50 ppd
five 7″ – $29.25 ppd
six 7″ – $33.50 ppd

a: Calculated Romance
b1: You I’ll Be Following
b2: Perfect Stranger
Listen at Myspace
Purchase from Dusty Medical Records

This is perfection on wax, and hell if I can’t get enough. This Plexi 3 single came out last summer on Dusty Medical Records, and like everything good I am a year late on this. Oh well, better late than never. Imagine – mod styled garage rock and roll stylings over pitch perfect three part harmonies in the vein of every awesome song on that Rhino Girl Groups box set (which, sadly, I do not own). This seven inch contains two originals and a really nice cover of Love’s “You I’ll Be Following.” Mind blowingly good pop record here.

First 500 copies are sold out, but there is a limited 100 run reissue on Clear Wax (I suppose it pays to be late sometimes?), so act fast! Also: Look for a second single in March on HoZac records.