Dope Body – Natural History (2012)

El cambio que ha tenido Dope Body en Natural History tiene más su origen en el desempeño del guitarrista Zach Utz entregando sonidos más variados y frescos. Para esta entrega la banda ha calmado su ambición de crear música que te llega como un huracán a la cara; sin embargo, la rudeza original sigue ahí, no por ser un disco más melódico es menos fuerte, este cambio en la ejecución de la música puede que tenga su origen en el cambio de disquera, la legendaria disquera de música underground Drag City Records.

El espíritu experimental en rock con el que se presenta Dope Body en este disco representa la música de su nueva disquera, Natural History combina sonidos del Punk Hardcore, Sludge Metal, Noise Rock y Post-Hardcore. A pesar de esto, el LP no representa la actitud de ninguno de estos géneros, no es un disco enfadado, oscuro, emocionalmente afectado, dolido; algunas veces tiene la frontalidad de estos géneros pero mezclándose con estos estilos también se percibe una claridad amable y divertida del Party Rock. Detrás de toda la agresión brillan los ritmos más amigables, podría bien digerirlo una persona que no sea tan rockera en una fiesta tanto como una persona fiel a la rudeza originaria de los distintos blends del álbum.

La causa por la cual el estilo del álbum puede apegarse a un público mucho más amplio y variado es porque la banda toma toda la agresividad y efecto abrasivo de estos géneros y los ejecuta de la forma más primitiva o la más pura, de manera que la fidelidad a un género se compromete y se abre a ser disfrutada por personas con distintos backgrounds musicales.

Canciones como “Lazy Slave” o “Out of My Mind” intercalan momentos de mucho ruido y distorsión con interrupciones de ritmo, rudas y oscuras. Pero también se combinan con aventuras sonoras como “Twice the Life” que suena con influencias tropicales y fuertes intervenciones del bajo y la guitarra dándole el borde violento al ritmo festivo. También piezas como “Weird Mirror” y “Road Dog” que presentan con claridad el poder diverso y creativo de la banda en combinar distintos elementos y hacerlos divertidos sin afectar su crudeza.

El álbum es uno de los más aventureros del rock del 2012, sin duda no puede pasar desapercibido por aquellos que buscan pintar un cuadro completo de las distintas escenas musicales.

Tracklist:


1. Shook 
2. Road Dog
3. Beat
4. Twice the Life
5. Powder
6. Out of My Mind
7. High Way
8. Weird Mirror
9. Lazy Slave
10. Alpha Punk (bonus track)

 Rate: 8.3/10

Yuck – Yuck (2011)

When it comes to the trend of Lo-Fi and Shoegaze artist there is not that much innovation and experimentation around it, most of the successful artists that pursue this sound go straight to the point with a simple formula, such is the case of bands like Wavves and the list goes on, where the songs are not too long, they keep a basic beach fun and fuzzy feeling, and just do what they do in this kinds of productions; this sound has been so successful that’s also a trend these days. If this is the case, what’s a band like Yuck bringing new to the table, why everyone is talking about the relevance of their music and what are they doing different than the other bands that have the same kind of production and sound? The answer is not a straight one, but I’ll try to take my shot and say what I thought about this record.

Yuck is a band that comes from the continued project of two of the members of the UK band Cajun Dance Party (Max Bloom and Danny Blumberg), that teamed up with guys from other countries and music backgrounds; Yuck forms part of the long list of artists that attempt the revival of 90’s sounds. The point in where Yuck sounds different than all the other bands comes in the different influences, they don’t sound like the standard garage rock like Wavves or Best Coast or Ty Segall, etc, but they have the influence; also some songs go from the standard less produced mainstream alternative rock of the 90’s like Hole or Foo Fighters to the more serious sounds like Pavement, never forgetting the profoundly British sounds of bands like Belle and Sebastian. Another important aspect of the band is the naivety in which they present emotions; a sort of expression of the sentiment without giving very serious thought, something very common on indie pop productions.

This said, though everything about this band come from pretty standard good stuff around, they focus in presenting it in an uncommon way, much longer song structures of the same catchy riff, good guitar solos, even moments of something that sound like elevator music between Belle and Sebastian (ish) acoustic guitars. Each song bring something new to the table and the common ground ends up being the production, each song could be from a different band, with different genres but still Yuck maintains all of this sounds sounding part of one big picture.

The album is very enjoyable, and wont lent down to the people that was following them through out the EP’s and singles, a lot of ballads (something I didn’t expect) and in the end a very youthful modern sound, appealing, with Lo-Fi Indie Pop quality and a Garage Rock overtone, mixed with reverb and Shoegaze and even a bit of Grunge. Definitely it’s the most accurate record I’ve found around that has nailed perfectly the reinvention of 90’s alternative rock and pulled out a really cohesive well produced album.

Stream the Album and Enjoy!

Yuck – Yuck by Yuck

Tracklist:

1. Get Away
2. The Wall
3. Shook Down
4. Holing Out
5. Suicide Policeman
6. Georgia
7. Suck
8. Stutter
9. Operation
10. Sunday
11. Rose Gives A Lilly
12. Rubber

Rate: 8.3/10

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Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (2011)

I don’t know if it’s accurate to say that Smith Western used to be a Garage Rock Lo-Fi band of Chicago, Illinois until this LP came along; this because Dye it Blonde takes distance from the fist Self-Titled album with a much more produced sound and much more catchy structure.

Dye it Blonde is the LP to really put them in the map, they’re now touring with MGMT and approaching to a wider audience, in 2009 they were just another good indie Garage Rock band, and though the garage feeling is still here in this record the reverb and the smell of oil is less present to instead charm the listeners with a much more classic rock sound with smell of beach and summer smell. Imagine, Pt 3 for example has a very 60’s Shoegaze sound, and the 60’s inspired melody reminds the good old Phil Spector era that never goes out of style, a feeling that is always on the single Weekend (also the first song) that sets the best mood to start the record.

All songs are really amazing, in The Smith Westerns of 2009 they had a very youthful kick that has matured in this LP and probably fans of the previous record or fans of the Lo-Fi trend will think of this LP like a step back, but in my opinion they’re just exploring new ways of recording and moving forward.

Definitely the influence here are bands like Beach Boys or The Beatles, a lot of guitars, elaborated chorus with uh uh’s and ah ah’s that gets you loving and gets you moving, I simply adored this LP and wont get tired of recommending it, deffenetly one of the best LP’s of the year.

P.S: When listening don’t forget this guys are kids…that makes it even more amazing!

Tracklist:

1. Weekend
2. Still New
3. Imagine, Pt. 3
4. All Die Young
5. Fallen In Love
6. End of the Night
7. Only One
8. Smile
9. Dance Away
10. Dye the World

Rate: 9/10

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Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be

Dum Dum Girls is an all female band from LA with a garage sound that doesn’t necessarily can be considered a garage rock band, and this LP shows a lot of influences; you can clearly have the sconce that this band is taking music from post punk bands like Black Tambourine, or shoegaze stuff like The Jesus And Mary Chain with indie noise pop like The Vaselines. Of course also The Ramones and The Ronettes, making the genre a little bit shoegaze and noise pop than a really indie pop or post punk related album.

Still the production makes this garage project sound very good, with a well managed reverb of the guitars and good tone of the echoes that makes the singing just pop out, the female vocals on top sound loud and the background create the shoegaze feeling creating harmonic noise on top of the guitars and drums.

But despite the fact that the influential line is very clear, the Dum Dum Girls don’t really commit to it 100% because it’s hard to know if the pop is on top or the shoegaze instrumentation and noise is the main thing, that’s why its not easy to say what the Dum Dum Girls are about in this LP, its a perfect introduction to shoegaze to those that think that Black Tambourine or The Jesus And Mary Chain are too noisy, because they put it down a little bit and let the pop thing going on be more intelligible.

Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

Dum Dum Girls “Bhang Bhang, I’m a Burnout” from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

Tracklist:

1. It Only Takes One Night
2. Bhang Bhang, I’m A Burnout
3. Oh Mein M
4. Jail La La
5. Rest Of Our Lives
6. Yours Alone
7. Blank Girl
8. I Will Be
9. Lines Her Eyes
10. Everybody’s Out
11. Baby Don’t Go

Rate: 7.5/10

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Harlem – Hippies (2010)

The sound of garage rock has a lot of popularity and it has a lot of repetition in almost any band that plays it, if you like garage rock you’ll like this LP, the thing is that these guys make it fresh and angry and funny, the sound quality and the production is pretty standard, but it gives you the feeling that its being played on your basement, with echo on the drums and straight forward feelings.

This guys say what they want and don’t really give a sh*!t, I can’t imagine where they can go if they started to matter about the impression than a lyric or an album can make.

The music is very ironic compared to the lyrics, because you have fun guitars and easy drums and the lyrics are going all “Someday soon you’ll be on fire / then you’ll ask me for a glass of water / and I’ll say nooooooo /you can let that sh*!t burn”. And this is just the opening track. There is a lot of fun and a lot of obscene writing.

In other note, they signed a worldwide distribution record deal with Matador Records so this is the first record made with a deal; Matador did re-released their first LP that was self made and you’ll be happy to know that the self-made sound is not going anywhere, they still conserve the the sound.

Tracklist:

1. Someday Soon
2. Friendly Ghost
3. Spray Paint
4. Number One
5. Be Your Baby
6. Gay Human Bones
7. Torture Me
8. Cloud Pleaser
9. Faces
10. Tila And I
11. Three Legged Dog
12. Prairie My Heart
13. Scare You
14. Stripper Sunset
15. Pissed
16. Poolside

Rate: 7.4/10

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