„Bülbüls are a family of medium sized songbirds. In general they are resistant to human pressures on the environment and are tolerant of disturbed habitat. The song of the Bulbul is described as „the most unattractive noises made by any bird”.

BULBUL started as a one-man band in Wels, Upper-Austria, when Raumschiff Engelmayr, outfitted with guitar, drumcomputer and vacuum cleaner released a CD with a 600g handmade steelcover and began playing concerts disguised as space-indian. Then a bassplayer and two jazz reeds joined, then reeds quit, and a drummer has come. One of the most interesting bands in Austria.

Hirn Fein Hacken 2xLP (2014) repress OUT NOW by ROCK IS HELL RECORDS. Silkscreened cover, yellow vinyl: limited to 297 copies, clear vinyl: limited to 47 copies. Buy here

& SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL: here are the first 3 of Hilfreich Seit 1996 20th anniversary 10 + 1 single series. The bonus single only available at ten special anniversary shows, and when you pre-ordering the complete set. On the first 3: recordings with different line-ups, soundtracks for horror movie and cartoon, music for radio play, tour field recordings, unreleased songs, unused melodies from between 1997 and 2014. Limited to 84 copies/item OUT NOW by ROCK IS HELL RECORDS. Buy here.

Or: NEXT SPECIAL EVENT: bul’n’bul without skins’n’strings: just organ, synth and e-drums at Rhiz in Vienna on 23.4. More dates

Keel Her / Claire Cottrill split cassette

Keel Her aka Rose Jayne Keeler-Schäffeler is a London based alien-obsessed hyperactive girl from Brighton. Makes high standard lo-fi sometimes noisy bedroom pop. And managed by Satan. In 2012 the godfather of lo-fi, and World Champion of DIY home recordings, R. Steevie Moore invited her to play together at his studio in Memphis. And she is in The Bin Bags where playing violin, keys and vocals. Just released their first EP on Permanent Slump Records. (The third song in this playlist is from them.) She said in an interview: Being a female musician: it’s really fun, but sometimes lonely. I’m an outsider, but I always have been, regardless.

Claire Cottrill is a very young girl from Boston (Massachusetts, US). With her guitar she makes music under the influence of sixties soul and r’n’b and Korn.

Split cassette on Third Floor Tapes (Ardmore – formerly Athensville -, Pennsylvania, US)

SURF HARP plays – they say – fuzzy artcore. It is something weird eclectic funny pop music. It has started as a personal surfgaze project of Phil in Baltimore (Maryland, US), but

Chris: Aaron, Dennis, and I were recruited to perform the Galápagos EP songs live, and eventually Jeff was too, and we were just playing what was already there. Then, with playing new songs as a group, the material evolved differently, especially because we were playing live pretty often and tweaking the songs as we went along.

Their music is inspired by

Jeff: In terms of my bass playing and songwriting, I am inspired by a wide range of artists. Everything from Scott Walker to Pavement to Mingus to Aphex Twin. It is difficult to explain the direct effect that this inspiration has on my songwriting. I never say “I really like Neu!, how can I write a song like „Hallogallo”. But I guess the verses of  „Pomegranate” are a direct result of my love for Krautrock.

Phil: The biggest influences for me on the songwriting and tones of the album were probably Devo and Ween. Actually, there was one part during the mixing where I asked Mat to pitch shift the rototoms on “Pain Kills” to sound like the opening of Mayhem’s album Deathcrush.*

Moreover there are violin, cello and marimba on their first album which has been released on CD and cassette by Friends Records (US). When I was listening to it two bands came to my mind: Brattleboro (Vermont, US) art rockers Happy Jawbone Family and early Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

*From an interview on bmoreart. Listen to all from SURF HARP! I love them.

In my mind there are some cases when a band suddenly changed radically its style. For example when hc/punk Beastie Boys changed to hip-hop in 1983. When new wave synth pop Ministry became an industrial metal act around 87. When Metallica lost himself in 90. When one of the most thrilling thrash metal bands Voivod made a psychedelic rock album Angel Rat in same year. When industrial band Laibach became a successful cover band first, and then became a synth-pop band during the years gradually. And now here is the long awaited new Lantern album Black Highways and Green Garden Roads. And as if it were made by an other band.

After their sensational wild rock’n’roll album they have released an easy, almost distortion free, sometimes dark psychedelic folk rock album, „taking ideas from the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Carl Sagan, and Mikhail Bulgakov”. „It’s an exploration of the natural world and the cosmos, and a celebration of the wonderful, the serious, and the absurd.” They also said that it’s a result of many oversteeped pots of black tea.

It was recorded at The Bottle Garden, a home studio in Montreal filled with vintage gear and an array of instruments during 22 non-sequential days over a year and a half in 2013/14. More so than previous recordings, it is a collaborative effort born of studio improvising and collective exploration. They used new, unfamiliar instruments, such as organ and kalimba, and they experimented with tape loops and group harmonies.

Really fine songs – except for the cover version of Solomon Burke’s Cry To Me from 1962. It’s a mistake, just like the Rolling Stones’ version. (Listen to the original one.) The songs come Roy Orbison, 60s Rolling Stones, psychedelic era Voivod, and Illés (Hungarian beat legend) to my mind. And there is the bass theme of Dead Kennedys’ Holiday in Cambodia in the song We Are Here:

But the album is too long. And unfortunately badly edited, so it is hard to listen from first to last. It would have been better if there an LP with 10 songs and an EP with 4 (He Is A Pinball; Wait, Wait; Cry To Me; We Are Here Again) had been released.

Cassette by Fixture Records (Can) & LP by Sophomore Lounge (US)

Listen to it here

Russian band uSSSy originally played noise-rock with elements of blues, techno and black-metal. By the third album of the band they became a drum’n’guitar duo, and development of the band went in the direction of Middle Eastern music. The unique sound of the band is the result of use of a specially modified baritone guitar, which were mounted additional quarter-tone frets, just as those made by Middle Eastern instruments. In 2014 Artem has left the band. Pavel continuous to play by his own as Holy Palms.

A digital compilation album out now by Aussie label Tenzenmen: noise-rock with elements of blues, techno and black-metal and Middle Eastern tunes. Frenetic

All uSSSy albums

5 limited edition singles on 16 April by Superior Viaduct (US)

New York synth punk duo Suicide first 2 singles Cheree (1978) and Dream Baby Dream (1979)

Manchester punk band The Fall debut 7″ EP Bingo-Master’s Break-Out and the single The New Thing both from 1978

New York no wave trio DNA first and only single You & You from 1978

Cheree + The New Thing + You & You

buy all

The Ar-Kaics from Richmond (Virginia, US), play troglodyte teenbeat 60s-style punk. S/T LP > full album stream stream > buy

the brand new Brazilian/Danish garage rock and roll duo The Courettes! 7″ single > buy

Die Böslinge, Punk Kultband aus Wien. 7″ EP reissue 1981 > buy

Bachelor Records FB

NP221 Daisy Chains „Above Board” C26 (full album stream here)

Daisy Chains is a very responsive Minneapolis trio. Minimalist fuck you pay me post punk leanings intersect slow country drawl and rock and roll swagger in interesting ways to create something unique that also nods to greats such as Dead Moon, Beat Happening, and Opal.

NP223 Stefan Christensen „Isreal (Its More of the Same)” C32 (full  album here)

Stefan Christensen was the lead man in long running New Haven Connecticut arty DIY punk outfit the Estrogen Highs (e.g. Trouble in Mind, Telephone Explosion, Dead Beat or Southpaw Records), and hc-punk band Iron Hand.

He has walked away to a more abstracted discordant and subtle area of the post punk. Kiwi influences such as This Kind of Punishment, the Dead C, Alastair Galbraith and the Xpressway label sound stick out along with the Mike Rep Ohio scene of weirdo rock and the general goodness of early UK DIY as prime vantage points.

He is running C/Site Recordings. Now they have launched a store with releases available from Estrogen Highs, Stefan Christensen, Pieces of Fruit, Worn Leather, Mountain Movers, Medication, Phemale, and Jon Eriksen. First batch of cassette releases coming in the spring, which will include releases from Stefan Christensen, Medication, and more.

Jesus Franco & The Drogas
un gruppo di musica proto punk e garage punk Italiano

DAMAGE REDUCTION 10″out NOW

on Bloody Sound Fucktory

bandcamp

The Liminanas is a French 60’s style guitar pop duo. Their every song is excellent, like this new one with Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) on bass and vocal

but if you listen to one of their albums the second song: so good, third one: so-so, forth: boring. I could not listen to a Liminanas album to end yet. And I like this style. I hope I will do it in the case of the new album. Malamore will be released on Because Music in April.

Clever – Your Eyesore’s Sweet

from the album Kewdi Udi by Homeless Records (AUS)

There is a fuckin good rock’n’roll band in Philadelphia. So ultra fuckin good that Goodbye Boozy also released them three years before. And at long last here is the new, the second LANTERN album! Black Highways and Green Garden Roads.

This has written about it by their labels: „Taking ideas from the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Carl Sagan, and Mikhail Bulgakov, the new album is an exploration of the natural world and the cosmos, and a celebration of the wonderful, the serious, and the absurd. More so than previous recordings, it is a collaborative effort born of studio improvisation and collective experimentation. The resulting collection is a diverse and sophisticated 14-song program that balances concise pop and lush psychedelic rock with weirder, headier jams.”  And it „is an ambitious and distinctly ’60s-inspired rock ‘n’ roll record, rich with surf, soul, and hard rock textures.”

cassette and digital by Fixture, vinyl by Sophomore Lounge Records

And here is the brilliant first album Rock’n’Roll Rorschach