Some Recent Acquisitions

So I lost my job almost a year ago and it’s been rough out there. I took it as a sign that the restaurant and retail management sector is no longer for me. So I’ve had to really curtail my music purchases. But here are a couple I picked up in the past couple of weeks. I had to scrounge to do it too.

Cursed: The Last Session 7”

I’m a Cursed fan, I’ll proudly admit that. These are recordings were done at the BBC on their ill fated European tour. Man it’s a dense bunch of jams. People are snatching this 7” up like hot cakes and deservedly so—Cursed is just bad ass. The best way to describe them is imagine if some 90s edge kids listened to My War, the Melvins and early Celtic Frost and said “Oh I get it…”—So anyway all the songs have been released on the their prior full lengths—just with a lot more crunch and energy. Some pressing info from the High Anxiety blog:
First Press Info is (was):
100 black mix
250 purple mix
650 grey/salmon

Fatalist isn’t on the 7” but it’s a good song.

http://highanxiety416.blogspot.com/



Heiress 7” on Hellfish Records

Man, there must be something in the water in the Pacific Northwest. Over the last ten years this areas put out some great bands-Kiss It Goodbye, Botch, and more recently Narrows and recently deceased These Arms Are Snakes. So, this band is fronted by none other than John Pettibone—yes that John Pettibone—Undertow, NineIronSpitfire, Himsa , Iamthethorn.
The tunes remind me of what the missing Kiss It Goodbye record would sound like; sorry I’m not trying to be lazy in the description and it totally drives me nuts when people use the term sludge-y (almost as nutty as southern fried metal)—so as a frame of reference, sonically its closer to Iamthethorn’s raw power than Himsa’s virtuosity…did that make sense?
The 7” comes on white vinyl with 3 songs and includes a 5 song CDR—yeah, RAD! There’s a forth coming split with Narrows coming out sometime in the spring on Deathwish—definitely need to pick that one up.

http://www.hellfishfamily.com/hf/Products.aspx

My Bloody Valentine,The National, Richmond, Virginia, July 30, 2009

1. I Only Said
2. When You Sleep
3. You Never Should
4. (When You Wake) You're Still In A Dream
5. Cigarette In Your Bed
6. Come In Alone
7. Only Shallow
8. Thorn
9. Nothing Much To Lose
10. To Here Knows When
11. Slow
12. Soon
13. Feed Me With Your Kiss
14. You Made Me Realise

Such a good show. This was the LOUDEST show that I've ever been to, it felt like standing next to a jet engine at full military power. The venue provided earplugs(thanks The National), but the earplugs eliminated all the higher end frequencies and all I could hear for the first three songs was bass and low frequencies...I took them out and everything was better. Kevin Shields' effects rack was HUGE, he must've had thirty pedals on there. Debbie Googe's effects rack looked like a church organ...there was a couple of times during the show when the band missed their counts but that only added to the charm. They had a really cool light show behind them---MBV is a guitar nerds band, and it really showed tonight, it was a Fender guitar and Marshall stack love-fest on stage---looked like all vintage Jaguars and Jazzmasters--no lockdown of course, but that's what guitar techs are for. There's an urban legend about Sunn0)) trying to get that low frequency sound that makes you lose control of your bowels...well MBV were working it tonight with a twenty-minute drone/feedback/ solo...all in all a pretty cool night got to hang out with some friends and meet some cool people, fun rides up and back from RVA oh and My Bloody Valentine were totally worth the ten year wait...will post more pictures later

Narrows-New Distances

Narrows-New Distance

Let’s kill it at the beginning, this isn’t the missing Botch record. The music is a dense bunch of jams, let’s say mathcore (wink, wink) on downers; that familiar Verellen growl along with some instrumental pieces. A bunch of folks are talking about maturity and they would be correct. There seems to be more emphasis on mood and texture as opposed to the hardcore stalwarts of velocity and density.

Great layout and packaging-something you miss in these days with digital downloading. Especially the tactile overprints of London and Seattle on the CD jacket. You’re missing something if you don’t get this.

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