Regulator Watts - The Aesthetics of No-Drag

Regulator Watts existed as a band for roughly two years, '96-'98, and called Washington D.C. their home. The Aesthetics of No-Drag (1997) was their first release by the three-piece group.  Alex Dunham providing vocals and his unique guitar sound. Cret Wilson also provided vocals and handled the bass duties, while Areif Dasha Sless-Kitain was on drums. Dunham had appeared previously in Hoover, and later appeared in Abilene and Radio Flyer. Hoover has bared the brunt of comparisons with fellow D.C. band Fugazi, while Regulator Watts is decidedly the most stripped down straight up post-hardcore/post-punk sounding of the bands Dunham had fronted. I only came upon knowledge of this band in the past year or so through this solid post over at Hardcore for Nerds,
which i recommend for even more indepth review of the band's work.

Regulator Watts' sound has its share of discordant moments, but also enjoys heavy doses of steady riffs and repeated parts that allow the songs to develop enough character to individuate. You can still find places where things are broken down and the guitar is allowed to explore and dance between different volume levels and different riffs. The vocals are mixed a bit too far into the rest of the music, but this may have been purposely to attend more to the guitar and instrumentation itself. The drums sound good, the bass can get lost in the mix at times though.


Regulator Watts - "Mercurochrome"

Soaring feedback gives way to soaring guitar chords, creating Dunham's unique sound on guitar, there may be no better song he has written that exemplifies this. The vocals are called out under the soaring guitar, lyrics are audible but the vocals act as a director for the guitar, often initiating chord changes and overall direction. The bass stands out early on as well providing the steady undertones when the guitar runs up the ladder. The drums are consistent yet choppy, but roll into a more straightforward play at times along with the guitar and bass. You can feel the guitar ratcheting up and down at times. About two thirds through the song Dunham scales up to even higher levels, which is even more rewarding when he returns to the main guitar part. Things pick up towards the end of the song with a greater rush to the finish, particularly from the drums.


Regulator Watts - "The Ballad of St. Tinnitus"

Tinnitus being that ringing in your ear after seeing Motorhead without ear plugs in. You can see where this song goes after a few seconds of quite play from the guitar and drums. I love the way the guitar returns following a moment of silence. More forceful and louder. The vocals enter in as calls out in the distance. Here the guitar leads the changes and is followed by the bass and vocals. Chords are held on for what seems like forever and provide a warm and beautiful sound. Half-way through the drums move to muted high-hat hits and the guitar explores things at a more moderate level. A couple double snare hits signal a return to the predominant guitar parts. With forty odd seconds left things get forceful and turns to crashing play right up to the end note that is held and carried.

This album is unfortunately out of print and though you can occasionally find a few copies available through Amazon, they tend to be on the expensive side (think $35). Fortunately kissmysoundsystem has the whole album available for free mp3 download through mediafire.

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II

The second Crystal Castles formal release, both releases simply going the self-titled route, so I'll make sure to denote that this is a review of the most recent version released this year (2010). The duo that forms Crystal Castles are founder Ethan Kahn (all instrumentation and production) and Alice Glass (vocals). Both from Ontario, Canada. They've toured quite extensively since there inception, and have quite a following growing. A polarizing band to say the least, but I think it has been played up a bit too much (but everything gets played up too much).They play a sort of caustic dance music roughened up by both Alice Glass' vocals and Kahns choice of sounds/samples. Though this album sees them exploring Glass' vocals quite a bit more and to the point softening it up at times giving it an almost Euro-dance quality. I'm still getting a good feel for this album but I definitely like a few standout songs alot and see some of the other songs growing on me.


Crystal Castles - "Celestica"

"Celestica" is a good example of the changes appearing on this album compared to the previous. I really liked the little blips appearing early on panned hard left in the mix. Next we are greeted by softer sung vocals from Glass, while the music builds toward an expansive dance beat and aural experience. Thankfully the beat is broken up a bit and allowing for a chorus that brings this back to being more song like in structure as opposed to dance anthem (which isn't my sort of thing per se and really good for dance clubs but not so much for live shows and regular listening). The song length (3:47) is another key to making it work within the album, nice and short without being too full of itself. The abrupt transition by the next song on the album which happens to be my second choice of songs presented here is spot on as well.


Crystal Castles - "Doe Deer"

The almost "horn section" sound that is chopped up to fit the drum beat blasts right off the top of this song. This is the stuff that really catches me. Its a short song (1:38) that revs things up. Glass' screeching vocals run through the post-production gambit and come out in position to powerfully carry the high-end over Kahn's ultra-fuzzed out low-end creations. Nuanced sounds creep in and out as the song progresses, both in regards to the instrumentation/sounds and in the vocals.

Crystal Castles II contains 14 songs within with only one reaching beyond the five minute mark so it avoids becoming too bogged down. Addmittingly my least favorite song is "Year of Silence" which samples a Sigur Rós song and I just find annoying (to be clear I generally like Sigur Rós). I think the fact that I can find songs like Doe Deer so enjoyable on the same album plays to band's polarization at times, but I think the ultimate end result is better for it even though it means a few clunkers.

Here's a link to their website, Crystal Castles Official Site. You can find a link to purchase the album in both cd and mp3 formats. The 'ole myspace page has a few more songs for listening pleasure as well.

Kaki King - Junior

I've written about Kaki's previous album Dreaming of Revenge not that long ago. Junior was just released last month and Kaki has been on a supporting tour that I was lucky enough to catch at her stop here in Cleveland at the Beachland Ballroom last week. This was my first time seeing her live, and I came away impressed. After giving Junior a few listens through and considering its role in her live show I had just witnessed I have come to think of it as a nice complimentary piece in her portfolio of music, something that was definitely a pleasant part of her overall performance. She continues to move towards more of the pop-indie genre, adding more songs with vocal parts as opposed to her earlier works witch focused almost solely on guitar. Her live shows, I can imagine, have improved because of this. The ability to mix in a few of her newer and catchier songs with some of the those demonstrating her dazzling guitar mastery from her earlier albums (and still occasionally appear on the newer ones), have gone a long ways to broaden the experience of those in attendance at one of her shows. Having Jordan Perlson (drums) and Dan Brantigan (multiple instruments) on stage helped as well as their play was solid in support of her lead.

So now on to Junior, it follows the direction set by Dreaming of Revenge towards increasing the number of indie songs with vocals and reducing the number of guitar focused instrumentals. In the live format, this is a welcome exchange as I mention above it allows her to draw from a wider variety in picking songs to tour on. On this album it works well, but I have to say, you begin to miss the instrumentals to a degree. Now don't be mistaken in thinking that she went off writing stripped down simple songs, that is not the case, and even within the catchier of songs there are still elements of guitar play that peak into the immense-level of talent within her hands. What I see from this album is a potentially the stepping stone towards a break-out successful combination of her talent at playing the guitar and a developing songwriting skill that may espouse itself in her next album.


Kaki King - "Spit It Back in My Mouth"

I chose this song because the beautiful guitar in the beginning coupled with Kaki's soft voice is an example of what I hope to see develop as she continues her writing development in future albums. I encourage extra attention to these struck notes as the dexterity involved is quite impressive when seen in person, and can sometimes be taken for granted when only listening to a cd or LP. I also enjoyed the simplicity of the song structure, its parts aren't overly complicated, and allows the play to enrich the sound. The drumming here is basic, but does a wonderful job working mostly off of the high-hat, snare, and kick drum, with a focus on the high-hat playing speeding the beat up. Dan Brantigan's contributions on whatever that weird instrument he plays help to form the chorus parts and bring a dance element (along with some of the lyrics) to the song as well.

Junior is available through the record label Rounder Records for about $12 in cd form and $10 for the MP3s. She is also still currently touring in support of this album and those dates can be found here at her website's tour page.

Pinback - Arrive Having Eaten EP

San Diego, California's Pinback have been known to offer special tour released EPs over their career. Arrive Having Eaten was one of these EPs and it happened to be released during a 2003 tour. Pinback started out back in 1998 as a collaborative effort Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. I've mentioned Smith before in a previous post on another of his bands, Three Mile Pilot. Pinback had released their second full length album, Blue Screen Life in 2001 and one of the songs, "Seville", appears on this album in a slightly different version. "Anti-Hu" (a fan favorite over the years) appears here as well in a variation from the original which appeared as a B-side on the 2001 CD single, Penelope. There are only four songs on Arrive Having Eaten, but I would support all four being good and certainly something Pinback fans should check out. Those not familiar can expect indie rock with a unique bass sound and very smooth vocals, the duo simply play well off of each both instrumentally and vocally.


Pinback - "Hohum"

Sometimes it can be a little difficult picking out the guitar from bass on certain songs as Smith's playing although unique in regards to the sound he pulls from his bass guitar, is all over the fret board map at times. "Hohum" starts out with what sounds like both guitar and bass playing through each other as both Crow and Smith do wonderfully, and some simple drums setting a moderate beat. High-hat is opened during the vocal parts adding emphasis initially. Catch that little piano/keyboard break at about 0:43 in the song? Its a nice little preview for a return around the 1:37 mark were it acts to bring some charisma on top of a rolling guitar and drum part. The song is increasingly catchy at this point as the following lyrics are sung:

you forget I'm awake
I forget I'm awake
you forget I'm awake
I forget I'm awake

There is a break away from the drums that occurs before the final portion of the song. My favorite moment on the whole EP (though the intro to "Seville" is close second) is this little ending piece, both for the lyrics, "I want to breathe in blue", and the songwriting. It emotes elements of a rough seriousness yet also a softened exasperation.

You can find all of Pinback's available releases at their website and website store. I was lucky enough to catch them playing here in Cleveland about a year and half ago and I have to say their shows do not disappoint. They have a west coast tour planned for July, you can see the dates listed here at their myspace page.

Infest - No Man's Slave

No Man's Slave's recording spanned roughly five years before completion in 2000. This was because the instrument parts (drums and guitar) were completed in the Summer of '95, while the lead and back-up vocals weren't done until 2000 as the band had disbanded in '96. So this release was done posthumousness (like Tu-Pac!) and actually not fully available until 2002. Infest is, or at least should be, one of the most well known American hardcore bands. Their sound fits into the power-violence grand scheme of things (faster than fast music and hoarse vocals). Their lyrics are fairly straight forward, socio-politcal though often through a personal viewpoint. The recording on this album can be perceived as their cleanest though it is rough enough and fitting of the band's sound. Song lengths average under one minute per song, so you can get an idea of the pure thrash fury in short bursts. One of my favorite hardcore bands.


Infest - "Behind This Tongue"

Hey a Infest song that starts out relatively slow!. "Push me, test me, Bring out the best in me". These lyrics still have meaning to me to this day, even in their simplicity. Reframing opposition as simply a building block for the self through converting it into motivation.


Infest - "Terminal Nation"

And here's a relatively long Infest song (1:31). The principal thrash onslaught gives way to a rare instance of a slower, groovier riff, and of course the song swings back and closes at full speed.


Infest - "Contact"

I love the drum roll - vocal paring here, which flies in between open guitar chords and lots of high-hat and crash playing on the percussive end.

This 19 song album is only released on vinyl (12") as far as I know. You can purchase it over at Deep Six Records, for $10 in the U.S., a bit more for outside of the U.S. The "link within" widget down below should have a fun time pairing this up. I'd say check out my posts on Born Against, Man Afraid,, and to a lesser extent Assault, if you are into this stuff.

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything

I was in Bela Dubby, which is a coffee shop type place here in Lakewood, the other day and this album was playing on their small stereo and found myself really honing in on each song. Between this album and their second album Loveless (1991), I had always leaned toward Loveless as my favorite. It took the shoegazing super distorted guitar sound up ten notches and really just stood out in my music collection because of it. But something really kicked in that day in Bela Dubby, as I heard these songs again for the first time in a long time. I'm finally giving this album a second thorough exploration these past few days.

My Bloody Valentine formed in Dublin, Ireland in the early 1980s, but during their long career only released two full length studio albums, amongst a number of EPs and singles. The band was composed of founding members Kevin Shields (guitar/vocals) and Colin Colm Ó Cíosóig (drums), along with Bilinda Butcher (guitar/vocals) and Debbie Googe (bass). Their sound on Isn't Anything (1988) was, as I mentioned above, less about distorted guitar and more traditional alternative/indie in sound, though a fair level of distortion and sound experimentation existed. The song structures tend to be simple, though variety exists thanks in part to the experimentation in sounds and occasional lead vocal switches between songs.


My Bloody Valentine - "Lose My Breath"

"Lose My Breath" gives example of a Bilinda Butcher led song. The pace is a wonderfully methodically slow plod during the sung lyrics. The breaks formed during the softly sung chorus part act as beautiful clearings amongst the darker portions surrounding. The percussion moves to a tom roll that though lost somewhat in the mix is really the difference maker in the pacing/tempo of the song. This is also an example of the simplicity of song structures that fit into the more introverted dazed feel of the shoegazing genre.


My Bloody Valentine - "[When You Wake] You're Still in A Dream"

Kevin Shields takes the lead on this catchy guitar and vocal driven song. The backing vocals soothe as they are sung behind Shields' smooth lead vocal delivery. They act similarly to the softly sung breaks in  "Lose My Breath" as a juxtapose to the rough guitar driven instrumental parts of the song. Once again song structure is simple yet effective as the song length is relatively short.

The fifth song on the album, "No More Sorry", is a departure in structure and make-up from the remainder of the album's songs and appears to omit any percussive beat choosing to be more string instrument based. "All I Need" provides a peak into the type of guitar distortion and sound that would evolve into Loveless. "Sueisfine" is one of the more straight up catchier songs within, while "Nothing Much To Lose" stands out with it's extended drum rolls appearing around the song's mainline parts and could be judged as good as anything else on the album.

My Bloody Valentine myspace page,  album available in the U.K., and in the U.S..

Polvo - In Prism

Friends Dave Brylawski (vocalist/guitarist) and Steve Popson (bassist) worked during the late 1980s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to form what would later become of the more important 90's indie rock band's, Polvo. The band released four full length albums between '92 and '97 along with numerous singles and EPs, before disbanding in '98. It was a pleasant surprise that they reformed in the past year and released this album, In Prism, along with an upcoming European tour, which you can read more about at their myspace page.The music is influenced with Eastern and Middle-Eastern musical tints which appear at times in the percussion and guitar. The vocals are sung, while lyrically it can be out there at times. The recording is clean yet the low end packs a punch (see the third song, Beggar's Bowl, for an example). Musically, they fall into the post-punk/progressive rock arena, with a stronger leaning toward the prog-rock end of things on this album, but mostly avoiding the self-indulgence that sometimes plagues the genre. Though the song lengths aren't overly too long, they typically rest around the five and half mark with a couple songs reaching into the eight minute territory.


Polvo - "Right The Relation"

Single guitar layer is followed by second guitar, drums, and bass. Math-rock elements are evident in the writing here, but not overly disjointed or harsh. In fact the guitar parts, broken when they are, work extremely well to accent and add perfect little hooks over the rhythm. The vocals took me a little time to warm up to, but now I think they fit extremely well with the music, sung toward the higher end of things, clear yet powerful. There's a guitar led solo about half-way through the song that doesn't last all that long, before the main instrumental line returns with vocals. The second half of the song mirrors the first mostly, though it ends in a bit of a big finish fashion.


Polvo - "Lucia"

"Lucia" starts off softly, with reverbed guitars, light cymbal taps, and calming vocals. This lasts almost two minutes, before snare hits signal a crashing of drums and guitar, which briefly recedes only to return with the main line and chorus and wonderfully catchy guitar parts that play off of each other and end in cymbal accented crashing closure each time. The Eastern sounding hand played drums lead into an interesting middle portion of the song, that includes multiple instruments (sounds like violin/viola, maybe a sitar as well). Because of this interlude, the return of the chorus is even stronger, and those catchy guitar parts pack even more of a punch this time. The last forty seconds of the song returns to the softness of the beginning, trading in reverb for a clean guitar sound.

When Polvo decided to reunite for this album they also decided to do it on their first label (well in regards to LP releases), Merge Records. They are selling the cd and the flac and mp3 files for download through the Polvo site there. Its always interesting to see how well a band does after years of being apart, and away from each other. Its good to see that Polvo still has a knack for songwriting and avoiding staleness in their sound.