The Men- Immaculada (2010)

Immaculada is one of my better finds of late, really digging it. This sinus infection I have is less awesome, however. The Men are a noise rock band from Brooklyn, NY. I don't think noise rock quite captures their sound, but certainly if The Men have an overarching philosophy it's something along the lines of "if it's noisy and loud, we're into it." There's a good bit of variance from track to track, but here's some of the stuff I'm reminded of when listening to The Men: Black Flag, Dinosaur Jr., Bleach era Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Bone Awl (that song kinda comes out of left field), Earth and perhaps less surprisingly, some of the Am Rep roster. So I guess that would make The Men a noise rock/punk/grunge/alternative/shoegaze/black metal/drone band. Yep, that sounds about right.

They also put out an album this year that I'm getting right now. If it rules anywhere near as much as this album I'll throw it up on the blog. 

The Men on last.fm



Get it here. (It's a .zip Blaine. You really need to find an .rar extractor)

Ghost cover the Beatles

My interest was piqued when I heard that Sweden's Ghost did a cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun." If you haven't heard about Ghost yet, they've become rather infamous in the metal scene. Part of it is the schtick. As you can see from the photo in the YouTube video below, the singer wears a rather elaborate antipope get up and everybody else in the band wears cowls. Part of it is the mystery surrounding the band, nobody knows who they are. I've heard plenty of theories as their identities, including Swedish death and black metal royalty. Part of it is the music. Ghost play very Blue Oyster Cult sounding traditional heavy metal with orthodox satanic lyrics. For those reasons some people hate it, some people love it. Personally I think everything about Ghost is extraordinary well done, from the aesthetics to the extremely tight, modern take on traditional metal.

Anyway, the cover of "Here Comes The Sun" is everything that a cover should be. The song being covered is recognizable, but Ghost have made it their own, transforming a relentlessly hopeful track into something moody and downtrodden. Check it out for yourself.



In case the cover made you curious, here's a link to Ghost's full length Opus Eponymous.

Fleshpress- No Return & Rebuild/Crumble (2010) METAL ALERT

These are my two favorite EPs from last year. For those of you unfamiliar with Fleshpress, their drummer is Mikko Aspa, the lead singer of the almighty Deathspell Omega. Despite having a member of the best black metal band on the planet, there are only flashes of said genre throughout Fleshpress' music. Most of what Fleshpress plays falls under the heading of doom. What type of doom? I don't really know anymore. A few years ago I would have called Fleshpress a sludge band, but their 2007 album Pillars was a lumbering beast of a drone album. Now they seem to have embraced the genre as a whole, taking elements from every sub-genre of doom. On No Return and Rebuild/Crumble you'll hear elongated drone sections, Eyehategod-esqe sludge (including the faster, punkish parts EHG was also known for), bluesy Bongzilla style stoner doom riffs, psychedelic guitar leads and yes, a wee bit o' black metal. Open your ears and hearts to hate.

Fleshpress on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Dead End Life Crawling Through Shit And Blood Soul Burning, Spiral Filter Forcing You Down To Black Pyramid, Rebuild.

Whirl- Distressor (2010)

One of my favorites from last year, Whirl is a shoegaze band from California. I didn't know much about Whirl (other than the fact that they're excellent) before reading up on them to do this post. It turns out the guitarist from Whirl is also in Deafheaven, the black metal/shoegaze/post-rock band whose album Roads to Judah I posted a while back. Not really surprising as one band is straight-up shoegaze and the other has serious shoegaze proclivities, but awesome nonetheless. If I had to compare Whirl to any band from the late-80's/early-90's shoegaze scene it would be Ride. Like Ride, Whirl cultivates a swirling, kaleidoscopic wall of guitar. Of the 6 tracks on this EP (excluding the intro track), half are perfectly executed, slow-moving shoegaze. However, the other three tracks are where Whirl are at their best, in my opinion. The tracks "Blue" and "Meaningless" are more up-tempo, sounding like catchy-as-shit indie rock with wall of sound guitars. "Child" pairs the meandering shoegaze Whirl excels at with a heavy riff that reminds me quite a bit of My Bloody Valentine.

Beware, this album is extremely habit-forming. 

Whirl on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Leave, Blue, Meaningless, Child

Black Mountain- Wilderness Heart (2010)

Black Mountain is from Vancouver, BC and plays throwback psychedelic rock. Most people mention the obvious Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple influence, so I'll hop on that bandwagon. This album is all over the place, combining mellow acoustic tracks with fist-pumping rockers, soaring psychedelic riffs with slow doomy stoner rock and yet somehow it all works. The tandem/trade off male/female vocals are pretty excellent. One of my favorites of last year. Have a listen. Oh, and how much ass does that cover art kick?

Black Mountain on last.fm





Get it here.

Gems: The Hair Song, Old Fangs, Roller Coaster, Let Spirits Ride, The Way To Gone, Wilderness Heart.

Medications- Completely Removed (2010)

Just about all of you should enjoy this, so check it out. After Faraquet ended, Devin Ocampo (vocals/guitar) and Chad Molter (bass) went on to form Medications. If Faraquet was a math rock band with indie rock tendencies, Medications is an indie rock band with math rock tendencies. Their first EP, which came out in 2005, was more or less an extension of Faraquet with more emphasis on vocals and verse/chorus/verse song structure. The first full length ventured even further into indie rock territory. Completely Removed, their most recent effort, is one of the best indie rock records I've heard. There's still the intricate guitar work that Devin is known for, but now it's part of some extraordinarily well-crafted pop songs. For the first time Devin and Chad trade off vocals, which works quite well and Devin's voice and lyrical capabilities have vastly improved since the Faraquet days. This is some excellent, mellow, intricate indie rock that's perfect for sitting on the porch on a sunny afternoon and sipping a beer (the one partial exception to the mellowness being Kilometers and Smiles which is an oddly awesome combination of rockin' prog riffs and Beach Boys-esque vocal melody). Also, they're playing DC on May 28th, come out.

 Medications on last.fm

Get it here.

Gems: For WMF, Long Day, Seasons, Country Air, Home Is Where We Are, Tame on the Prowl.

Crocodiles Double Dose

Two dudes from The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower playing fuzzy, synthed-out, incredibly catchy, sometimes noisy, pop songs about death. Reminiscent of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Summer of Hate was a decent debut, but Sleep Forever was one of my favorite albums of last year. Both are worth having.

Also, they're playing at the Red Palace in DC on the 25th of April. Zeke and I will be there, let me know if you're interested.

Crocodiles- Sleep Forever (2010)

Here
Gems: All of them. "When the peasants with their pitchforks come, I'm gonna spit blood down on everyone" from Mirrors is one of the greatest sing-along choruses I've ever heard.

Crocodiles- Summer of Hate (2009)

Here.

Gems: I Wanna Kill, Soft Skull (In My Room)