Month: December 2019
-
Top Records of 2019
- Helms Alee – Noctiluca
- Hurry Up Shotgun – This Crystal Vessel
- Djunah – Ex-Voto
- SEMINARS – Iniquity Signals
- B. Hamilton – Nothing and Nowhere
- Big Business – the Beast You Are
- Austerity Program – Bible Songs 1
- J. Robbins – Un-becoming
- Tropical Fuck Storm – Brain Drops
- Drug Apts. – Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances
Honorable mentions: - Christian Fitness – You Are the Ambulance
- Nervous Curtains – I Tried To Fight It But I Was Inside It
- CUNTS – CUNTS
- Multicult – Simultaneity Now
- Magpies – Terrain
Alternately (and sometimes simultaneously!) heavy as hell and laden with soaring beauty, Helms Alee are the oncoming storm. No band currently working effectively works in such a deft and unique field. That’s because there are none like them. What can I say? This is an essential record and I listen to it regularly. Not many bands can put out their 5th album and having it arguably be their best.
Helms Alee, long may they run.Hurry Up Shotgun – This Crystal Vessel
Both brooding and soaring, intense but never boring… Oakland’s Hurry Up Shotgun have yet again delivered one of the best records of the year. Not explicitly any one genre, but pairing innovative arrangement and discordance with melody and harmony, HuS continues to took away and make adventuresome and worthy records that most people have never heard. Recommended for fans of the Chavez, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Les Savy Fav and the more danger laden QOTSA stuff.
Stunning work!
I’ve said a lot about Djunah, and I imagine I will in the future. Remarkable band with a unique sound, an iconoclastic presence and a leg for a bass player. Weighty and worthy art worth paying attention to. Dive in and see what they have to offer. RIYL: Brainiac, Marnie Stern, Oxbow, Le Butcherettes, early PJ Harvey… but they really have a voice all their own.
SEMINARS is a badass band, and everybody oughta know. Still the downstroke kings, but now introducing elements of moodier post-punk and nuanced rhythmic interplay. The songs are great, the sound is top notch, what is not to love?
B. Hamilton – Nothing and Nowhere
One of the most iconoclastic, yet easy to understand bands I can think of that almost nobody knows. It’s been literal years since B Hamilton’s last record and civilizations have risen and fell since then.
There’s still a melding of Kevin Shields like guitar atmospherics with Frank Black style noisepop, but the blues is strong with this record. Without ever sounding a bit like Blues Hammer.
B Hamilton can be a hard band to describe, because they are more inventive, interesting and downright enjoyable than most bands that are genre adjacent to them.
Also, drummer Raj’s work in Once and Future Band and now Black Crowes (!), means that B. Hamilton remains a jewel of a treasure for those that know and a new favorite band for those that don’t.
45 and Straight is a slice of octave laden insistence that ought to be a well known hit, but there isn’t a weak song on the record.
Sounding both completely of it’s time and timeless at the same time. It’s the: “ok boomer” of rock records, but I mean that as the highest compliment.
- Spotify.
- Bandcamp: bhamilton.bandcamp.com
- Facebook: B.HAMILSTAN
- Twitter: @B.HAMILSTAN
- Instagram: @B.HAMILSTAN
Big Business – the Beast You Are
Whoa! Big Business come out ripping with an absolute monster of a record. Heavy use of keyboards and melody paired with assailing rhythms makes this record one of Big Business’s best with a vitality and ear for melody rarely found in “heavy” music.
For a guy that gets REALLY sick of “dudes yelling” over heavy riffs, Big Biz manages to be very tuneful while maintaining both intensity and heavy riffs.- Spotify.
- Bandcamp: bigbigbusiness.bandcamp.com
- Facebook: bigbigbiz
- Twitter: @bigbigbiz
- Instagram: @bigbigbiz
Austerity Program – Bible Songs 1
the Bible, but just the dark and weird stuff. The world of the austerity program has not changed, it’s still bombast, indignance, drum machines and bullet points. In this case Justin and Thad’s focus on “the good book”, allow for some thematic Old Testament style brutality that fits like a dogmatic glove.
- Spotify.
- Bandcamp: austerityprogram.bandcamp.com
- Facebook: theausterityprogram
- Twitter: @usterityprogram
- Instagram: @theausterityprogram
Utter badassery by J. Robbins of Jawbox, Burning Airlines. etc. mature and vital yet simultaneously wiry and energetic. You get everything you could hope for, erudite and hooky wordplay the jagged and melodic and much more.
Some songs would not be out of place on a new Jawbox record, while others are different thing entirely and would seem at home next to Brian Eno soundscapes and wiry lost post-punk classics.
I really hope this album doesn’t get lost in the mix, because if I didn’t have the slightest idea of who J. Robbins is. i’d love it.Tropical Fuck Storm – Brain Drops
The inexorable & indefatigable Aussies are back and they mean business. Braindrops is an utterly befuddling and “wrong” sounding record that is oh so “right.”
There isn’t a clear monster single like “tyres” on this one, but the whole thing has a snakey, baked in the sun vibe that works its way into your subconscious.
I’m fully present for TFS brand of non-euclidian geometry rocking.
RIYL: Polvo, Bad Seeds, Dead Rider, Leonard Cohen, the KnifeAt this point: they just sound like themselves.
- Spotify.
- Bandcamp: tropicalfstorm.bandcamp.com
- Facebook: TFSBand
- Twitter: @tfs_theband
- Instagram: @tropical_fuck_storm
Drug Apts – Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances
The propulsive and relentless Sacramento rockers come back with their most fully realized and articulated record yet.
Evoking the creativity and free feelings of the Ex, while sounding very well slotted into the more nuanced side of the noise rock revival. Drug Apts are both immediately familiar, and enjoyably offputting.
Angular guitars, insistent vocals, and a rhythm section that can groove while it grinds.
Recommended for fans of Unwound, Gang of Four, Wire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Talking Heads and The Ex
Honorable mentions:Christian Fitness – You Are the Ambulance
The indefatigable and unstoppable Falco strikes again! Staggeringly clever, ceaselessly hooky and required listening for fans of mclusky and future of the left, who are seeking new sounds. Gleefully irreverent music of consequence.
Nervous Curtains – I Tried To Fight It But I Was Inside It
The Kings of Dallas synth are back at it with a strong offering. There’s more sequencing this time, and the song material veers towards the explicitly political. The record rides an interesting line by being explicitly psych oriented, but lyrically grounded in harsh and brutal reality. Music to canvass to.
- Spotify.
- Bandcamp: nervouscurtains.bandcamp.com
- Facebook: nervous.curtains
- Twitter: @nervouscurtains
- Instagram: @nervouscurtains
A Brutal and confrontational name, but fitting for the name and surprisingly song oriented. Recommended for fans of KARP, and noise rock infused hardcore. The record is deliberate and irreverent, while being deadly serious about what they are doing. Featuring members of Qui, Retox, Dead Cross and hepa.titus. The music of Cunts fills in nicely between noiserock weirdos like the Jesus lizard, the Cows and Butthole Surfers, while not sounding like a worshipful retread of any of those things. This is very smart music in a relatively dumb genre and it’s got a 2×4 on its shoulder, not a chip.
Tense. Terse, nervy and insistent. Multicult is a relentless machine of precision and tenacity. There are hooks to glom on to with their proggy sojourns, it never gets indulgent, it just invites you along to the adventure.
Missoula’s magpies would be indie darlings if they weren’t based in Montana. Strong songs paired with mid-period sonic youth discordance allows for magpies to have free reign in a genre that few others travel in. Moody, and assured. This record has certainly flown under the radars of most. That’s a shame. It’s great.
…
Past Episodes (General Feed)
- Ep223: The Tunnel (Jeff Wagner, Michael Jacobs, Sam Black)
- Ep221: Brian Teasley (Man… or Astro-Man?, Servotron)
- Ep220: Eddie Rivas (Distorted Pony, Leopold)
- Ep219: Darren Jackson (Kid Dakota)
- Ep218: Heather Smith (Bone and Bell)
- Ep217: Greg Saunier (Deerhoof)
- Protonic Reversal – Top 20 of 2020: Best Records of the Year.
- HELLS BALLS – An AC/DC Round Table special, with Brian Walsby and Tony Ash
- Ep216: Syd Butler (Les Savy Fav, 8G Band, Frenchkiss Records)
- Ep215: Tobias Nathaniel (The Red Step, The Black Heart Procession)
Ep218: Heather Smith (Bone and Bell) https://www.protonicreversal.com/2021/01/02/ep218-heather-smith-bone-and-bell-2/ @boneandbell #podcast #protonicreversal
Youtube
Archives
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- April 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014