WRUV Reviews

9/11/10:::Kiwi Hits

Currently in the year 2010, New Zealand is known for two things: Lord of the Rings and Flight of the Conchords. Little does the rest of the world know that New Zealand has been the center of a thriving indie music scene for the last few decades. With the establishment of indie punk label Flying Nun records in the early 80s, kiwi pop bands such as The Clean and Toy Love came into prominence. Standout tracks include the first two from the band, Die! Die! Die!, a kiwi noise punk band.

Enjoyable Mississippi swamp blues with a mix of the religious and the carnal. It’s all good, though you should avoid “Poontang” for FCC reasons.

Great swamp blues, as per usual, with moments of Southern soul and rock thrown in. Play all. The final track is a duet with Derek Trucks.

Hard-rocking blues album: his second out this year. (The other was a live album.) Trout verges more to bona-fide rock with a Southern blues edge than typical, classic blues, so play it after smoother artists only if you want to shock your listeners awake.

This is Charlie’s first album in four years (and his first with Alligator in 14 years). He’s recorded dozens of albums, but this is his first album with all-original material. The disc is solid throughout, with new classic blues. Liner notes tell you what life event inspired each song.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

9/29/2010:::B-Music

Thanks to B-Music, some of the rarest records of all time have been reissued for our listening pleasure. Their most recent obscurity presents a 1974 collaboration between French progressive rock star Jacky Chalard, and science fiction writer Gilbert Deflez creating a heavy psychadelic sci-fi concept masterpiece. The synth and guitar driven instrumentals backing the story dialogue are incredibly composed and recorded and the album includes a previously unreleased instrumental. The musicianship is unparalleled and the songs surf between progressive and psychedelic rock infused with elements of French pop music. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.

9/25/10:::Silver Hornet

The Rebel Set are a three piece garage rock group from Phoenix and when I say “garage” rock band, I’m not talking about the recent trend of noisy lo-fi music. These guys are a real “garage” rock band. The trio takes from early sixties punk, surf, and psych. The guitar kicks ass, the songs are even dirtier, and the production sounds like that of an old sixties garage punk 45. Standout tracks include, “Poison Arrow”, a dark brooding garage cut with an extremely catchy verse, “Martian”, with guitar that harkens back to Apache, and an eerie theramin intro, “Birds and Bees”, a 60’s punk throwback that is impossible not to thrash to, and “Muckraker”, which sounds like an early Iggy Pop song. Overall, this album rules and these guys should be proud for creating something new and awesome out of something old and awesome.

Play: 2,4,7,14

9/22/10:::Everloving

The Growlers like to call their style of music “beach goth”, however with their second release, I’m hearing a lot more than that. Hot Tropics is all over the place, and it’s really really good. As a whole the album is pretty psychedelic with instances of surf, garage, gypsy folk, eerie reverb, and a lot of howling. Standout tracks include, “Nosebleed Sun”, a banjo driven track that will literally make you as sweaty and as thirsty as if you were endlessly roaming a desert, “Sea Lion Goth Blues”, which opens with a really sweet surfy guitar riff and sounds like the Jim Morrison backed by The Black Lips (how awesome is that?), and “Let It Be Known”, a brooding dark folk song with an eerie surf chord progression. These guys have written some really cool material in the past couple years, and Hot Tropics is most certainly the summit.

Play: 1,4,5,8

9/23/10:::Narnack

Sisters are a Brooklyn high energy pop duo. Named after the 1987 Sonic Youth album “Sister”, Sisters create sugarcoated noise punk highly influenced by 90’s alternative and indie rock yet sounds extremely relevant. Ghost Fits is a big messy ball of catchy pop fueled by overdriven guitar and drums. Standout tracks include, “Sky”, an intense punk song lead by awesome screeching guitar lines, “Highway Scratch”, a happy pop cut which starts with a bright keyboard melody and is later joined by fuzzy power chords, and “Courthouse”, a crazy track full of intricate musicianship and “la las”.

RIYL: No Age, Sonic Youth

Play: 1,3,4,7,10