February Top 10 List

1.   Dead Reptile Shrine- Burning Black Infinity
2.   Bird Names- Metabolism: A Salute to the Energy of the Sun
3.   The Index s/t LP
4.   Dark Day- Trapped EP
5.   Nenavist- s/t cassette
6.   Negazione- Tutti Pazzi EP
7.   Nude Sunrise- So Far

8.   CCR Headcleaner- Uppers and Downers

9.   Killing Joke- what's THIS for...!

10. Confuse- Spending Loud Night EP

Dead Reptile Shrine- Burning Black Infinity

Easily my favorite band of the last few months, DRS is theoretically a black metal band, though I would guess that their ties to the larger black metal milieu are tenuous at best.  Most often they come off sounding like a group of well meaning teenage headbangers who haven't really mastered their instruments yet...terrible off time drumming, unbelievable out of tune riffing, and vocals often so ridiculously shrill and out of key they may actually cause you to spew anything you may be drinking across the room....kinda like a black metal version of the Shaggs or something.  Other times they sound like a very evil folk group.  The vocals are almost always unbearable.   However, like the Shaggs, there is no ironic joke to be in on; the music is real and has real effort and real heart behind it...it just misses the mark by about a mile.

Personally, I love them for reasons that have nothing to do with how 'silly' they are; while I can appreciate that aspect of it to a degree, what really grabs me about this band is the totally un-phased and confident attitude they obviously have regarding their music.  At this point they must have realized that their records are extremely, shall we say, 'unique' in the world of black metal, and surely they are aware of having been labeled as 'outsider metal', 'damaged', and even 'retarded' by some reviewers...yet they continue on, expressing themselves the only way they know how; a pure manifestation of misanthropic teenage ineptness.  What could be more beautiful?

The thing is though, is that this is their fourth full length album in ten years, which means they can't be teenagers; also I keep saying they but it's actually just one guy up in Finland somewhere recording this stuff presumably on his 4-track at home alone.  Right now he's probably in his room, drinkin' orange soda, worshiping Satan, eating beans outta the can, watching sitcom re-runs, maybe casting some spells...maybe droppin' some laundry off with Mom....

anyways, I think I can sum up the appeal of Dead Reptile Shrine by pointing out what they have in common with a group like Pussy Galore or even Three 6 Mafia, and that is the ability to approach extremely absurd premises with extreme seriousness of demeanor.  If there were anything at all intentionally tongue in cheek about this band, I would be quite surprised.  This guys feels it, like hard and it really comes through.  I have no doubt that he is truly as passionate as anyone possibly could be about Satan and forests, and it may sound silly, but for me, hearing someone express themselves so deeply and truly regarding subjects I tend to consider overused and played out can actually be quite moving.

It's also worth noting that despite my rambling on about how unmusical they are, on their last record, A Journey Through the Darkest of Forests, DRS started to pepper their terrain with a bit more technique.  This album as well shows advancement.  The boneheaded jams are still plenty in number, but the killer track on this one has gotta be Skull Crushing Avenger.  Featuring multi-panned swirling background solos, Native American style chanting, and gloom and malice for days, this track shows what DRS is truly capable of.  I suggest you start paying attention.

Currently available as a gorgeous gatefold DBL LP here.

Bird Names- Metabolism: A Salute to the Energy of the Sun

A "pop" band, or so they claim (I think 'highly adept bubblegum decontructionism' is a much more apt description), the 'Names specialize in idiosyncratic musical transmissions which both embrace and explode traditional notions of playfulness and pop-structure.  They are one of my favorite bands and have been for several years.

Luckily, one thing you will never get on a Bird Names record is filler.  All of their records are jam packed with tightly composed and executed songs which usually flow together seamlessly to create a larger work.  This is actually quite a feat considering the dizzying changes and instrumentation often utilized by the band.  Imagine white jazz, twee pop, sea shantys, surf rock, western swing, afrobeat, psych, childrens music, prog rock, and vaudeville (not to mention a bunch of other unidentifiable minutia) all kind of hanging out together intermingling.  It's quite a sight, or sound I guess you would say.

      

This particular record, their newest, finds the Bird Names on an accidental spy mission in some haunted lakeside resort in 1942.  They start out amicably enough, strolling around the lake, skipping stones, staring into each others eyes; soon however a mystery presents itself and before they know it they've had their drinks drugged and are drifting with great purpose to some bizarre nucleus which holds all the answers.  Will they reach it?  Does it matter?

I'm aware that I didn't really give any actual description of the music in that last paragraph...but just calling it psychedelic pop really does not do it justice...A mind blowing record for sure.  Highly recommended for anyone who wants to hear extremely weird music without a bunch of yelling and screechy feedback!

Check it out here.

The Index s/t LP

Ultra-obscure late 1960s garage psych from Michigan.  This was their first record (only record?), and if what I've heard is true, only one hundred copies of it were ever pressed making it a sort of holy grail for collectors.  I guess digital copies of it been have circulating around the net for at least five years, but I was just recently made aware of it through one of my favorite websites, shit-fi.

The album features a selection of original tunes, instrumentals, and covers and there's not a stinker among them.  The songwriting is in the folk/rock variety comparable to perhaps the Kinks or the Yardbirds but played in a kind of  'shambling' fashion and filtered through massively thick layers of reverb shimmy.  The result is some very off-kilter music that often sounds very dark in tone and as if it's being played in slow motion. It's been pointed out before that, though the band is all male, the vocals are very comparable in style to Nico, and I can't disagree; they are quite deep and often sound as though they are being sung against the music rather than with it.  The instrumentals all rip pretty hard managing to sound both discordant and bluesy (Turquoise Fe sounds like a bar band jamming really hard on 'ludes; Feedback sounds like that same band having a very bad trip).  The covers range from the inspired (traditional English ballad John Riley) to the absurd (the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On), but are always interesting.

It's pretty tough to imagine what these guys were thinking when they recorded this back in 1967 or '68, but I have to assume that they loved playing together as I would guess the audience for this music during that time was small at best, if not altogether non-existent.  According to FM Shades the band gave away most of the albums they pressed to their friends, and original copies now fetch around three-grand (!).  Hopefully there will be a quality reissue in the future.  Until then, get it here.

Dark Day- Trapped EP

At some point earlier this year the mental dam broke for me and I decided I could no longer live without owning both of the No Wave books (here and here) published way back in 2008.  Though I was already familiar with most of the artists covered in both books (the No New York bands, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Lydia Lunch, Bush Tetras, etc.) and I really enjoyed reading about those artists, my favorite thing about the books, and the main reason I bought them, was the opportunity to dig a little deeper and find out about some of the artists in that scene that don't get discussed as much.  I really enjoyed finding out about bands like Y-Pants and Ut, and I may soon be writing about them, but my favorite band that the books turned me onto was Dark Day.

Dark Day was the project of former DNA keyboard player Robin Crutchfield after he quit the band in part due to it's increasingly chaotic direction.  In sharp contrast, Dark Day pursued a sound that was painstakingly composed and carefully executed. Deviating from the guitar heavy sound of his peers and former bandmates, Crutchfield chose instead to put the synth out front, leaving the guitars either buried in the background or used sparsely to build rhythms with the synth.  This, combined with live drums and Crutchfield's melodramatic vocal style gave the music a very goth-y type feel too it, very dark but still sort of groovy and danceable at times.

In addition to the musical differences between Crutchfield and other no wave bands,  Dark Day also tended to have a much more personal feel to their music than their contemporaries.  While many no wave artists claim to have been purging from deep within to find their musical directions, the feelings being expressed were often abstracted to the point of obliteration.  Crutchfield's lyrics on the other hand often focused quite obviously on feelings of alienation, sorrow, and longing.

This particular record, released in 1981, is my favorite of all the material I've heard by the band, and is supposedly also among Crutchfield's favorite releases.  Sort of a concept record (not in the storytelling sense), it consists of only the nearly eight minute title track on the a-side and six short remixes of the title track on the b-side; while it's interesting to hear the different ways the band 'exterminate' the song in the remixes, the real attraction here is the song itself.   Likely as close to 'epic' as the band ever got,Trapped, with its creepy, sweeping synth melodies, dissonant, buried guitars, plinking pianos, and claustrophobic lyrics is, in my opinion at least, a near perfect distillation of the bands sound.

Previously unbeknownst to me, it appears Robin Crutchfield has been quite busy lately as well, releasing several albums in the past few years that you can check out here.  I haven't heard any of them, but I think it's about time I did pretty soon.  In the meantime, you can grab the Trapped EP here.

Nenavist- s/t cassette

I ordered this tape by Bulgarian black metallers Nenavist along with some others from the Cocainacopia distro awhile back.  Though I love Cocainacopia for being, by far, the most reliable metal mailorder I've ever dealt with, they aren't too big on descriptions of the music they are selling.  The description for this tape, for example, was simply: "debut album now available on cassette".  So, when I get ready to drop some cash on black metal, I usually have to spend a few hours researching and trying to figure out the specific meanings of ambiguous adjectives used to describe black metal over and over again such as raw, depressive, evil, bizarre, pagan, etc.  Though it can at times be a bit annoying, I kind of also dig the no description / brief description thing; it reminds me of ordering hardcore records by bands I'd never heard of as a teenager on the basis of descriptions that were just as ambiguous such as "fast as fuck thrash" or "killer metallic crust".

Anyway, I don't really remember what I read about this band that made me interested in them (though I know it wasn't the silly description provided by Wraith Productions, the label that released the CD version of the album) but somehow, I wound up ordering their tape, and I'm glad I did.  What we have here is some very fuzzy, lurching, mid-paced black metal with reverby vocals that sounds like it was recorded in a garbage can the size of a grain silo.  The style in which the songs are composed isn't necessarily that unique (sorta sounds like a crappier version of Burzum) but the execution makes it incredible.  I mentioned a moment ago that most of the album is mid-paced, but what I didn't mention is that the reason the group often sound mid-paced is that the drummer, instead of matching the speed of the guitar parts, usually plays half time to the manically fast riffs.  At several points on the album, the drums and guitar slowly drift out of sync with one another, eventually becoming completely disconnected, and sometimes, briefly creating this kind of awful anti-musical headache trance vibe where everything just sounds like it's being blasted in opposite directions, the guitar and drums refusing to coalesce.  I have their second album downloaded but haven't checked it out yet.  As long as they didn't try to make it sound any better than this, I'm sure I'll love it.          

Get the tape from Cocainacopia.

Negazione- Tutti Pazzi EP

Fantastic, insane hardcore from Italy. This EP is from 1985; the title apparently translates loosely to "everybody's crazy", and it's quite apt. From the moment this starts, it seems obvious that the level of intensity that these dudes maintained was way over the top for their time.  You can almost see the veins about to burst in their foreheads when you listen to this.

While most of the tracks are fast and brief, the band shines most, in my opinion, on the mid-paced burner Niente. I'm not usually a fan of guitar leads, especially in punk, but this song is full of some of the most twisted, gnarled leads I've ever heard.  Played on what sounds like a broken or detuned guitar, every wrong note is forced into place creating a sort of off-key circular melody.  It's actually just a simple back and forth riff, but the dizzying effect it creates seems mighty advanced for a group of ordinary young punkers.

This band had a ton of other releases I'm still lookin' in to, this one just happened to be the first one I checked out after being blown away by a track they had on the Emma comp from 1986.  I couldn't tell you if this is the best place to start with this band, but it worked for me.  Get it here.

Nude Sunrise- So Far (2010 Tour CD-R)

Every since I started going to smaller shows when I was a kid, my favorite way of learning about new bands has been to see them live with no expectation whatsoever, often having never or just barely heard of them, and have my mind blown.  The bands and artists that accomplish this tend to stick in my head the most and often greatly influence my listening habits as by following them, I will inevitably become aware of any small labels or other bands they are associated with, influenced by, etc.  I feel fortunate that the list of artists that have fallen into this category for me is a pretty long one. Off the top of my head, Hickey, XBXRX, the Sic Alps, Blues Control, Byron House, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Kyle Mabson, Temple of Bon Matin, Ed Schrader, and Occasional Detroit all make the list.  And as of last summer so does Chicago psych rock trio Nude Sunrise.

Weirdly enough, the night I saw Nude Sunrise was actually a very long and stressful one.  They were touring with Teaadora Nikolova and scheduled to play in a friend's basement.  I'd never heard of them or Teaadora until earlier that week, but I was assured by the friend that set the show up that I would dig them.  Unfortunately, somehow two ska-punk bands got jumped onto an already over-crowded bill and wound up playing forever and delaying the sets of the bands my friend was so certain I would enjoy for what seemed like hours.  When Nude Sunrise finally got started it was almost 3 AM and if it hadn't been for the quality of the third act on their tour, Names Divine who played before the ska bands, I probably would not have stuck around.

Luckily, I did of course stick around and watched Nude Sunrise play an amazing set of southern-rock tinged, swirling, psych.  With dueling guitar lines, soaring crescendos, and enough delay and reverb to bring Phil Spector to his knees, the band quickly destroyed any doubts anyone in the audience may have had about sticking around so late.  Amazingly, the band managed to facilitate a very relaxed vibe, even when the tunes they were playing were very densely layered and 'wall of fuzz' sounding.  Naturally I quickly snapped up all the merch I could get from them including this CD-R which contains their first cassette release 'Hunks Like Us' as well as, I believe, some demos that were recorded prior to the sessions for the cassette release.

I was quite pleased to find out that the recordings are also really, really good.  Retaining a unique and consistent aesthetic throughout, the band cruises through a few different moods, sometimes sounding very mellow, almost romantic, and at other times sounding very much like a geared up party band.  Since the band doesn't have a drummer, they frequently rely on triggered beats to carry the songs, something that sometimes bugs me if it sounds a certain way, but even this is usually very well executed.

It's strange, there is really nothing retro about this band, they certainly have their own distinctive sound, yet their music still often makes me think of a more abstract post-modern take on that sort of Dazed and Confused, teenagers cruising around and getting high in the70s vibe.  Maybe it's the long hair.  Anyway, this is really great stuff from a band that's just coming up, and very much worth your attention.

Check them out here.    

CCR Headcleaner- Uppers and Downers

CCR Headcleaner are another band I caught live without any expectation of what they sounded like.  If you want to read my spiel about how much I love it when this happens, check out the section on Nude Sunrise above.  I can't quite remember why I ended up at this show in the first place, but I know there had to be a reason as it was in Nashville, and I never go to Nashville for shows without a good reason.  Maybe a friend of mine was playing?  Anyway, it doesn't matter, I'm just very glad I went as CCRH's set was nothing short of amazing.

From what I understand, CCRH is made up of three quarters of the now defunct Athens, GA based psych band Long Legged Woman, who were also quite amazing, though had a very different vibe.  While LLW was definitely way out there in terms of their level of psychedelic weirdness, their songwriting style was often reminiscent of 80s style indie rock producing a sound perhaps comparable to early Dinosaur Jr., but way more fucked up.  I would even go so far as to say that amidst the chaos, LLW's sound could sometimes be considered 'warm'. 

Maybe it was the move to the Bay Area, or maybe they just traded in their Replacements CDs for Discharge records, but whatever happened, the band I saw that night had way more in common with crust punk and Sabbath influenced sludge rock than anything resembling warmth.  What really made them interesting though, was the fact that the psychedelic elements were kept firmly intact producing a style so strange and unique I wondered if it even existed before these guys started doing it.  I was absolutely blown away.

Strangely enough, this album displays little of that sound (it can be heard quite prominently however on the 'Live at WNYU' EP, which I will no doubt be discussing here very soon) or of the sound LLW were known for.  Instead the sound here mostly consists of totally over the top guitar / vocal meditations which at times remind me of a more aggressive, badly recorded mid-period Black Dice.

There are of course some occasional traces of the band I saw that night, as well as of their former band's bright and poppy songwriting style, though the latter moments are decidedly way noisier than anything I've ever heard by LLW.  I suppose it's possible they played several of these songs when I saw them and I just don't remember them because I was so taken by the thrash elements and because it's been so long (over a year).  At this point, it's impossible to tell.  This record however stands firmly on it's own and presents a very bizarre young band blasting weird for the weirdos.  If that includes you, this record is definitely worth your time.       

They used to have a website with tons of free downloads which is where I got this, but it appears to be down.  You can check them out on myspace here.

Killing Joke- what's THIS for...!

What can I say about Killing Joke that hasn't already been said much more eloquently than I can manage?  Probably nothing, but shit I love this band.  The style they cultivated was so original, both danceable and foreboding, sounding something like Gang of Four's bigger, much meaner brother. To this day I'm unaware of any band that has made music combining tight grooves and aggression the way these guys did.  Nine Inch Nails you say?  I don't think so.   

This record, their second full length, sees the band moving into less harsh territory than their debut, though just barely.  The guitars are still very tinny and the beats are still pounded out in odd patterns so monotonous they become hypnotic. The overall effect is a sound that often manages to somehow seem heavily layered and stripped down simultaneously and is so repetitive it's almost nauseating.

Pre-dating the genre of industrial music as it's thought of today by almost a decade, I wouldn't think it at all a stretch to claim that the industrial genre likely owes much more to KJ than Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire combined.  While that may not seem  like something to brag about, it's important to keep in mind that what was adapted from KJ by the artists that would begin to receive the 'industrial' tag in the early 90s really isn't any particular part of their sound, but instead the idea that mechanical sounds previously considered non-musical can be altered to produce unique rhythms.  As we now know, many artists have used this idea for evil rather than good (Rammstein anyone?); but the fact that such bands can't hold a candle to this record, which is now thirty years old, is a testament to how great this music really is.

Think about it like this: while latter day industrial bands almost always attempt to feign toughness in order to come across as intimidating, Killing Joke never did because they never had to; their sound was tough enough to intimidate on it's own.
Check it out here, then buy the re-mastered special edition import DBL LP with bonus tracks here.

Confuse- Spending Loud Night EP

Confuse were a totally beyond fucked up hardcore band from Japan active in the 1980s.  This particular record was recorded in 1983 (though not released until four years later) which is amazing, as these songs are buried in so much fuzz and hiss, that at first listen it sounds almost completely incomprehensible.  I can't even begin to imagine how people reacted to this when it was first released.  Basically, it's about as out there as any hardcore band can get and still be considered a hardcore band, and let me tell you, it fucking kills.         

Though amazing in their own right, except for the overbearing amount of insanely noisy guitar, the tone of the first few tracks isn't too dissimilar from other Japanese hardcore bands of the 80s: fast as shit, hoarse vocals, and a vibe that despite being obviously aggressive, also somehow seems to come across, to me anyway, as fun loving and playful.

But the real gem here is the title track.  Forgoing all characteristics of the previous tracks except for the hoarse vocals (and that nutty guitar tone of course), Spending Loud Night appears to be some odd attempt at making heartfelt pop music, complete with a brief spoken introduction, sweeping (almost) melodic chorus, and psychedelic guitars.  Weird doesn't even begin to describe it.  It must be heard to be believed, and I highly recommend listening on headphones for maximum bizarro effect.  But be very aware of what you're getting into, as this is absolutely the last record you would ever want blasting too loudly directly into your ears.  Seriously. Get it here.

It's worth noting that this is another record I was tipped off about through the fantastic shit-fi website.  I could probably go on about that site forever, and in fact may do so at some point, but until then, you should probably just go check it out for yourself.

Greetings

Hello, and welcome to Private Leisure.  Though this blog shares part of it's name with the independent label I run with my friends, Private Leisure Industries which you can check out here, the blog at least for now, will have little to no direct association with the label except for the fact that I'm behind them both.  I just decided to start this blog because I enjoy writing about music.

As of now, I have no real ambition to do anything with this blog except to write about ten records each month.  All it really means for a record to make the list is that I've listened to it and enjoyed it more than a couple of times in the last month.  Though the records will be ordered from one to ten in each new post, the rankings are somewhat arbitrary.   I chose to use the "Top 10" format because I really enjoy making lists and also in order to create a specific point for myself at which I can be done writing for the month, as attempting to write about every record I listened to in a month would be too daunting.  Once a record appears on one list, it won't reappear on another even if I jammed it more than any other record on the list that month, otherwise, this shit could get repetitive real quick.    

My tastes tend to lean toward the obtuse, the obscure, and often the incompetent as I'm much more interested in the feeling that's put in to and which comes out of music than I am in any traditional concept of 'talent' or what is good.
 
Generally I'm quite uninterested in any type of intentionally revivalist or retro music as well as most music that is made specifically to appeal to the broadest audience possible.  My feeling is that if you're serious about making art of any sort, then you should be trying to move creatively beyond what's been done in the past.  In short, I usually tend to regard artists who are only interested in creating within rigid, predefined parameters of genre or style as bland and uncreative.

If you think that makes me an 'elitist' or a 'music snob', that's fine;  I'd much rather be thought of as an elitist, or a hipster, or a music snob, or whatever, because of the fact that I've thought about something enough to be able to confidently state my opinion on it than to be trapped in the confused and ambivalent mindset I have witnessed in individuals who really don't seem to know what they like or why they like it.

Really, I'm just a person that loves music and enjoys writing about it; if I tend to come off sometimes as an asshole with way too many opinions, it's only because I actually care about what I'm talking about.

That's it for now.  Thanks, and enjoy the show.