Deep Cuts: Girl Garage

La Luz is a Seattle act that performs a melodic range of retro influenced music. They're an all gal group made up of Shana Cleveland on guitar, Marian Li Pino on drums, Alice Sandahl on keyboard and Lena Simon anchoring on bass.

They have a long list of influences from Link Wray and The Ventures to Shannon and The Clams which is really refreshing to see a band claim. Especially, when next to no one seems to champion Shannon And The Clams - but everybody who has heard 'Sleep Talk' is pretty much blown away by it.

La Luz recently performed as part of KEXP's Icelandic expedition to the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik.



References:

• Bandcamp, La Luz
• Facebook, La Luz USA

Deep Cuts: Indie

California's Shaun Fleming, the alter-ego for Dianne Coffee, has spent some important moments of his life in entertainment. At 15, he starred in the opening sequence of Jeepers Creepers II (2003) where he is quickly mauled by the title monster. In 2004, he worked as a voice actor on two animated films from Disney including The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004).

Moving to NYC in 2005, Shaun became a founding member of the 60's psychedelia and avant-garde band Foxygen with friends Sam France, Jonathan Rado and Justin Nijssen. The band gradually became a hit in clubs and college radio culminating with their album "We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic" released in January of 2013. However, the group's raucous, highly active performances contributed to singer Sam France breaking his leg at a gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis on July 29th 2013.

This freed up Dianne Coffee who was on the back burner for Fleming since December of 2012. Fleming's "My Friend Fish" was released by Western Viynl in October in 2013. It's a stand-out album, featured at SXSW, that blends elements from soul, Motown, classic R&B with 1960's acts like Donovan and The Beatles.



References:

• Wikipedia, Dianne Coffee
• IMDB, Shaun Fleming
• Facebook, Dianne Coffee

Deep Cuts: Techno

Tired of glowing reviews of great underground rock music? Yeah, me too sorta. Let's get to the real ugly stuff like - Techno.

Techno music was, and more than likely still is, not a genre.

Techno is largely an excuse. A reason for disaffected middle-class kids to drop some heavy acid and examine his or her navel for 4-6 hours at a time. The music at these shows showcase piss poor loops and ear shattering monotony. Only a crowd on over-whelming amounts of heavy drugs, clawing negativity and habitual shallow droning could possibly be pretending to listen to this stuff.

This is a sad fact testified to by anything recorded by Detroit's Docile Records. During it's 17 year journey into a jangled clash of boops and beeps - somehow the music never got better. Yet, this music seems like clear proof that even monotonous elevator music, minus substance, direction or style, has an audience somewhere.

That "somewhere" (outside of a group shuffling zombies) is mainly on one German distribution site that rates each of Docile's 24 records of mismatched beats (and counting) with one star of five.

All twenty-four records are long-form tedious loops that lead nowhere except for maybe the bargain bin in American record stores that still carry any form of "techno" music.

Here's a positive review: "Connecting to the random to pull out patterns that can be honed down to construct a logical but abstract funk."

Really? How incoherent is that? How much acid did this reviewer ingest to believe that this gibberish makes sense?

Here's another positive review from 2008: "B1 rocks clip-clop percussion with some skronky bass squirts and a riff that sounds vaguely like something from an Atari 2600." That's positive? When is listening to an Atari booping at 50+ decibels enjoyable?

When exactly do you throw in the towel when your records fail to improve after about 20 years and your music universally rates somewhere between a two telephones ringing, filling your ears with pepper spray and hearing a broken doorbell buzzing?

Below, to illustrate this point, is a clip from the 20th record released in 2011.

A. Garcia - Track 01

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References:

• Facebook, Docile Records
• Deejay.de, Docile Records

Deep Cuts: Rock

Oakland, California based retro rock Shannon and The Clams are a three piece band that combines elements from garage, punk, classic R&B and Motown into their own brand of rock 'n roll. This group, made up of Shannon Shaw, Cody Blanchard
and Ian Amberson on drums, stand out due to the raw clarity of the band's influences and edgy subject matter.

For example, the first track from 2011 Sleep Talk, Baby Don't Do It, features a character running through the darkness with a machete that "glints by the light of the moon" that is sung with shades of The Ronettes with a sharp set of measured guitar chords ringing out with the tight precision of a rhythm section - or maybe a lovelorn serial killer.

In an interview with the blog Still In Rock from 2014, the group says they met in 2009 while attending the California College of the Arts.

"We had a class together and thought one another was lame until we saw each others videos in class. We realized we were the only cool freaks in the class and have basically been best friends ever since."

The group has three studio albums to date including: I Wanna Go Home (2009), Sleep Talk (2011) and Dreams in the Rat House (2013).

Shannon And The Clams - You Will Always Bring Me Flowers

References:

• Official Site, Shannon And The Clams
• Facebook, Shannon And The Clams
• Still In Rock, Band Interview

Deep Cuts: Alt-Folk

Quilt is a Boston, Massachusetts based alt-folk group featuring John Andrews on drums, Anna Rochinski on guitar and organ, Shane Butler on guitar and Keven Lareau on bass with all members contributing to the vocals.

Their 2011 self-titled album is a "complete" album with songs that are composed in a series of layers. Some come like gentle waves and other like tidal waves that are slowly built up refrain after refrain. Key tracks include Cowboys In The Void, Penobska Oakwalk and Milo.

In Kentucky in early March of 2014, while touring for their new album Held In Splendor, the band flipped their tour van after blowing a tire and totaled it. They walked away from the accident but could only do one more show in Austin, TX. Right now, they are on a sponsored European tour but they only have until the 25th of April to get a working van or bus ready for the spring leg of another US tour. They may have to cancel all US dates and there are many.

4-25 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle (w/ Woods)
4-26 Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel (w/ Woods)
4-27 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter (w/ Woods)
4-28 Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight (w/ Woods)
4-29 Athens, GA @ Masquerade (Purgatory Stage) (w/ Woods)
5-1 Houston, TX @ Mango’s (w/ Woods)
5-2 Austin, TX @ Austin Psych Fest
5-3 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada (w/ Woods)
5-4 Lawrence, KS @ Seed Co. Studios (w/ Woods, Blood on the Wall, Your Friend, Oils)
5-6 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway (w/ Woods)
5-7 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean (w/ Woods)
5-9 Toronto, ON, Canada @ The Great Hall (w/ Woods)
5-10 Montreal, QC, Canada @ Cabaret Playhouse (w/ Woods)
5-11 South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground (w/ Woods)
5-13 Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery (w/ Woods)
5-14 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair (w/ Woods)
5-15 Kingston, NY @ BSP Lounge (w/ Woods)

The band is asking for donations, both large and small, for help towards getting another vehicle for this tour. I think they deserve it. Please go to the official Quilt page for more information.




References:

• Official Site, Quilt
• Bandcamp, Quilt
• Facebook, Quilt Music
• Allston Pudding, Quilt & Happy Jawbone

Deep Cuts: Experimental

Woods is an interesting three piece band based in Brooklyn, New York since 2005. Their instrumentals are complex and rollicking and Woods even go so far as to have a "tape player" G. Lucas Crane who acts as a DJ, soundman and back up vocalist on stage.

The group's leader, guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Earl uses one style of vocals, an eerie falsetto, that is so close to the female register that a listener could swear to it being female. While this is great, in the tradition of Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, to have a unusual vocal style - Earle's same falsettto is over used on each song on each album. To make matters worse the emotional effect of hearing the same worried falsetto voice creates a sense of impending failure that becomes hard to hear repeatedly.



References:

• The Woods, Official Site
• Wikipedia, Woods Band

Deep Cuts: Godzilla Rock

No not Pink Floyd's The Wall or Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans but concept rock with 500 foot tall monsters being battled by an elusive group of brave superheroes called Daikaiju (pronounced DIE-kai-joo).

Kaiju and specifically Daikaiju means giant monster and "godlike" giant monster respectively. The terms originate from the Japanese film genre where Godzilla and Power Rangers emerged from. Very appropriately too because the members of the band have discarded their actual identities and are known as Secret-man (guitar), Rock-man (guitar), Hands-man (drums) and Rumble-man (bass).

Self-described as a band that "creates divine psychic wind for your special defense!" the group is known for their national tours and transcendent live performances. Their sound comes from the best of surf and garage is like seeing to a Man Or Astroman? show with Dick Dale playing lead. Very little of the bands origins or current base of operations is known at this time.



References:

• Official Site, Daikaiju
• Facebook, Daikaiju
• Bandcamp, Monsters Of Surf

Deep Cuts: Indie Rock

The Vaccines are an indie rock group formed in West London in 2010 by Justin Hayward-Young (lead vocals, guitar), Freddie Cowan (lead guitar, vocals), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals) and Pete Robertson (drums, vocals). The band has released three albums Melody Calling in 2013, Come Of Age in 2012 and their excellent debut from 2011 "What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?". "What Did You Expect..." features several key tracks including the anthem-esque "Wet Suit".

The Vaccines have earned a great deal of popular and critical success. They were named MTV's Best New Band and played at SXSW in 2011, they've opened for the Arctic Monkeys and count Debbie "Blondie" Harry as a fan. With just the right mix of uplifting performances and razor sharp lyrics grounded in strife and struggle - it appears that this band has arrived in top form.

The Vaccines - Wetsuit
References:

• Official Site, The Vaccines
• Wikipedia, The Vaccines

Deep Cuts: Neo Psyche

The Mystic Braves are a neo-psychedelic band, original named Blackfeet Braves, that formed in Los Angeles in 2011. The bands' line-up is Julian Ducatenzeiler on guitar and vocals, Tony Malacara on bass, Shane Stotsenberg on rhythm guitar and Cameron Gartung on drums.

In October 2012, the group released their self-titled album with Lollipop Records. That album is now available both digitally and on vinyl from Bandcamp along with a follow up two track 7" titled "Please Let me Know". The group has managed to team up with another southern California retro/roots rock act, the brilliant Growlers, to open for them as they tour in support of their own first album.




References:

• Official Site, Mystic Braves
• Bandcamp, Mystic Braves

Deep Cuts: Psyche Rock

The Make-Up formed in 1995 in Washington D.C. and played their own version of garage rock and soul until 2000 releasing four studio records, two live albums and a compilation CD of singles and B-sides.

All of these albums were originally released on independent record labels such as Dischord Records (Minor Threat also a DC band), K Records (Beck's first record label), and Southern Records (Crass).

The band recorded with a number of artists including Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye while touring extensively with many groups like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Ted Leo and Blonde Redhead.

The Make-Up reformed in Spring of 2012 to perform at I'll Be Your Mirror a music festival in Camber Sands, East Sussex, England.

The Make-Up - Pentagon
References:

• Wikipedia, The Make Up
• Dischord Records, Make Up

Deep Cuts: Garage Grunge

This two piece from Minneapolis is made up and Dustin McChesney(guitar/lead vocals) and Jared (drums/vocals) and named after a small, cave-dwelling vesper bat found in western Canada, Mexico, and the western United States.

Their 2012 album "Skate Is Surf" shows the duo's awareness of their own musical influences such as Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Sonic Youth's inventive chord and song structure and even features the track "Henry Rollins" named in honor the long-time frontman for Black Flag.

The group has a show coming up June 11th at Medusa at 1154 Hennepin in North Minneapolis with Hanusa and Twilight + Terror. Medusa is a new rock venue located south of the Warehouse District and north of Loring Park at Hennepin and North 12th Street.




References:

• Bandcamp, Myotis
• Facebook, Official Page

Deep Cuts: Americana

The Felice Brothers are a folk/alt-country group formed in Upstate New York and are rumored to have been founded at performances in the NYC subways in 2006. They've released nine albums to date including their fifth album from 2008 the eponymous "The Felice Brothers". This record features two out-standing tracks: "Whiskey in my Whiskey" and "Frankies Gun".

This album easily earns our collective forgiveness for touring with the Dave Mathhews Band in 2010 with these incredibly effective approaches to song structure and story-telling through songs. This last part is important due to the fact that today a song is seen as a formula to connect to the shallowest and most uniformed portion of the music buying public. The importance of oral history is less emphasized and more lost each time a Rhianna, a Timberland, a Bieber, or the newest incarnation of New Kids On The Block releases an album full of meaningless garbage.

It's important to note that even substantial and culturally significant groups like the Beatles have sold less albums than Rhianna while groups like The Felice Brothers have barely cracked the Billboard 200.

The Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun
References:

• Felice Brothers, Official Site
• Wikipedia, The Felice Brothers

Deep Cuts: Americana

The unusually gifted and soulful work of Jamie N. Commons has been prominently featured in TV's runaway smash hit show The Walking Dead on the AMC network. His track "Lead Me Home" seems like the work of a much older blues troubadour, singing to a dusty, mostly empty Mississippi roadhouse, opening up for a grumbling Nick Cave. But, this work is in fact from a 20-something musician from England.

Commons' debut album Rumble And Sway was released March 5th 2013 and performed live at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 14th. It features even more brilliant song-writing from the dry, harsh places in America. There are tales of greedy priests and a failing search for a connection to God in the middle of stinking corruption. It's all told in Commons' unmistakable vocal style and frantically intricate guitar picking.

Jamie N. Commons - Lead Me Home
References:

• Jamie N. Commons, Official Site
• The Guardian, Interview

Deep Cuts: Americana

Blogfoot heard something in the woods. Sounded like alt-country meets John Cougar Mellencamp with influences from Walking Dead soundtrack artists like Jamie Commons. Turns out it was Canadian singer/song-writer Ryan Van Sickle who makes his home in New York City today.

Usually, artists with perfectly crafted images do not appeal to Blogfoot. After a few listens to Van Sickle's album "Ghosts Of The Brokenhearted" released in March 2011, me was very skeptical. His new EP, "Somewhere In America", changed Blogfoot's mind about him. Sickle's work has become much more emotionally raw and musically complex by distancing itself from the pop sound on his previous album. This development comes just in time to soften the blow of lyrics like "Somewhere in America the brave are growing old, fire is slowly dying, hearts are turning cold ... and all the seeds have blown away".

In this long economic Depression in America, it's refreshing to hear an artist confronting the reality of the situation rather than pretending that "things are swell" as so many modern top 40 artists do with their perfect, flavorless bubble-gum musical contributions to blissful ignorance.




References:

• Ryan Van Sickle.com, Official Site
• Bandcamp, Ryan Van Sickle

Deep Cuts: Noise/Sludge

Chrisakes are an Athens, Georgia band. Athens is famous in the south for being the flashpoint for bands like R.E.M., Danger Mouse, Drive-By Truckers, Harvey Milk and Of Montreal. With so much distinctive and good music coming out of one town it's hard to get noticed as a band - unless you are Chrissakes.

Part Jesus Lizard, part Big Black and part Seattle sludge rock, Chrissakes was formed in 2007 with Drew Smith on Guitar/Vocals, Helen Rhinehart on Bass and Rob Thomason on Drums.

The band broke up in 2012 after Rob Thomason left the group but has left a strong impression among rock music fans with the LP Convocation, released in March of 2011, by Buffalo's One Percent Press.




References:

• Bandcamp, Chrissakes
• One Percent Press, 100% Independent Music
• Facebook, Chrissakes

Deep Cuts: Soundtracks

What do you do when you are tasked with organizing the soundtrack for one of the most shocking and disturbing b-movies made in the past 50 years?

Do you: A) play it safe and use an eerie combination of sparse sound effects as in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre? B) Implement the "Troma school" methodology and use canned public domain tunes? Or, C) Compose, perform and gather together one of the most entertaining, original and fresh soundtracks to grace a motion picture since Jerry Goldsmith's original Planet Of The Apes score in 1968?

The answer is C. The Taint (2010) features a brilliantly executed score by a series of artists including the 80's/8-bit synth-rock righteousness of an artist identified as Hot Convict aka Drew Bolduc the director of The Taint. This score takes the best of cheesy, "futuristic" synth soundtracks like Tron, Escape From New York, New Wave pop, and the editing ability of The Faint then makes them into a high-energy, adrenaline-fueled musical melt-down.

The sound track also features an amazing hair metal inspired ballad "We'll Meet Within the Shadows of Love" by Philip Heesen, Robert King and Brian Beck that recalls the strange spectacle of late 80's rock acts like Kix and White Snake.




References:

• The Taint, Official Site
• IMDb, The Taint (2010) Soundtrack

Deep Cuts: Experimental

Philadelphia's Power Animal is a experimental, modern music production that is the brain-child of the well-liked and well-respected Mr. Keith Hampson and his ever-shifting group of musical collaborators.

The band's seminal "People Songs" from January of 2010 launched the band on a national tour with a brilliant and sometimes introspective record. It's required listening for fans of lo-fi, indie and experimental work like Daniel Johnston and Sebadoh. The album is a look at how people interact badly with each other but is told with great vocal performances from Hampson and a reflective personal warmth that is impossible to mistake.

The newest release in October of this year is entitled Excorism which was followed by a re-mix album (much like Beck's Odelay Deluxe Edition). Power announced on Bandcamp that for every $2 that you pay for Exorcism on Bandcamp, $1.50 will provide 3 meals for those in need through Philabundance while the other 50 cents will go toward funding future charitable projects with Human Kindness Overflowing.




References:

• Bandcamp, Human Kindness Overflowing
• Facebook, Power Animal
• MySpace, Power Animal

Deep Cuts: Psychedelia

The Laurels, formed in 2006, are a very talented and well-rounded alt-rock act from Sydney, Australia. The group made a strong showing at the 5th annual Austin Psych Fest in April in Texas and are currently looking for American distribution.

The Psych festival, itself, showcases underground acts such as The Black Angels and The Brian Jonestown Massacre (this year's headliners) and is a growing platform to launch acts into the national arena.

The Laurels are strongly influenced by periphery 90's rock acts such The Jesus And Mary Chain as well as a strong resemblance to the later Beatles "looser" song structure. There are also comparisons between the band and early Oasis vocal harmonics as heard in their first EP, Mesozoic, released in July of 2011. Their new full-length album Plains was just released in July of 2012 on the Australian Rice Is Nice label.




References:

• Bandcamp, The Laurels
• MySpace, The Laurels
• Austin Psych Fest, Show Information

Deep Cuts: Jazz

Austria based Diving Bell (not to be confused with the Seattle prog-rock band The Diving Bell) is a hard to define mix of cabaret, jazz and Americana.

Much like Cincinnati's Over The Rhine they share the similarity of a extraordinarily gifted female vocalist and each of their influences have become so numerous that they become an original combination when performed.

Singer Claudia Schneider's vocals lead out a down tempo orchestral procession featuring saxophone, trombone, piano and double bass in a melodic, moody album called Alpine Fantasy, their first album released from Pharmacy Records released in 2003.

Diving Bell - White Flag

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References:

• Pharmacy Records, Diving Bell
• MySpace, Diving Bell

Deep Cuts: Demoscene

A preview of a demoscene app by programmer Paul Grenfell with music by Matt Westcott.

In a world where "cloud" based music players are the future of music distribution and digital downloads - MP3 albums completely leave album art behind in the name of efficiency.

By doing so, this "streamlined" digital delivery method robs audiences of iconic images like The Doors self-titled album, Hendrix's cover art for Electric Ladyland, Robert Crumb's work on Janice Joplin's Cheap Thrills, Radiohead's Hail To The Thief and The Beatles' Abbey Road.

These important images no longer get into fans' hands to set the tempo of an album and it's done in the name of progress. What is left is an anonymous 50x50 pixel icon of... what? A blank CD? No one w/out a microscope knows for sure.

Enter an unlikely answer to this problem of faceless music. Demoscene, a computer art subculture that produces advanced demos and apps - audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer. The main goal of a demo is to show off programming, artistic, and musical skills - apply this to an album release and what do you have? Virtual Viynl.

With these interactive MP3 players, a label or a band can take all the imagery that would normally go into an album and re-purpose it for a "virtual" album release. All photography, video and music elements once commodified as a website, CD-ROM, DVD or "enhanced" CD are now available as a downloadable application much in the same way a MP3 album is - only with all art and video included. In fact, in order to maximize the release a Demo can contain a full MP3 album for use in iTunes and other MP3 player applications.

And you thought that the music industry was getting less interesting, huh? No way. And to further that point web sites such as The White Stripes, Flaming Lips and The Black Angels feature on-line multimedia galleries in a way that even 5 years ago seemed impossible.

To see for yourself, please download the verified and valid application here.

Gas Man - Paranoid Android

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References:

• Wikipedia, Demoscene
• Matt Westcott, Pimp My Chips
• Evil Paul.org, Download PMC
• Pimp My Chips Mirror One, Pimp My Chips
• WinZip Mirror One, WinZip

Paranoid Android by Radiohead, Parlophone, Capitol Records 1997.