Monthly Archives: August 2015

In The Pharmacy #85 – Late August 2015

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Fifteen new tracks from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. New music from Royal Headache, The Chills, Diet Cig, Destroyer (pictured), Shannon and the Clams, Beach House, Prison Whites, Saintseneca, PWR BTTM, Low, Palehound, All Dogs, Royal Headache, Duran Duran and Steve Hauschlidt.

Royal Headache ‘Love Her If I Tried’
The first of two tracks from the Sydney band’s second album High (out now, Distant and Vague / What’s Your Rupture /). Currently my favourite track on the album and the epitome of their garage-punk-meets-soul sound.
[Royal Headache]

The Chills ‘America Says Hello’
Classic, sparkling jangle pop from Kiwi legend Martin Phillipps and co. Since1990 they have released records called Submarine Bells, Soft Bomb, SunBurnt, Sketch Book, Secret Box, and Stand By. No surprise then that he Dunedin-based band’s first new album in 19 years is called Silver Bullets (Fire, October 30).
[The Chills]

Diet Cig ‘Dinner Date’
New Paltz indiepop duo with the other side of the ‘Sleep Talk’ single (as featured on ITP #82)“, this is there first vinyl release and follow up to the Over Easy cassette (ITP #70 and #71). Out on September 18, Father/Daughter / Art Is Hard).
[Diet Cig]

Destroyer ’Times Square’
On August 28 Dan Bejar returns with the follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Kaputt, Poison Season (Merge / Dead Oceans). This tracks is, literally, the centre of an album that vies with Father John Misty’s I Love You Honeybear as this year’s most idiosyncratic singer songwriter album.
[Destroyer]

Shannon and the Clams ‘It’s Too Late’
Following on from the downbeat ‘Corvette’ (ITP#81) here’s some sci fi surf pop from the Oakland band’s forthcoming album Gone By The Dawn (Hardly Art ,Sept 11).
[Shannon and the Clams]

Beach House ‘PPP’
Unhurried, hypnagogic number from the Baltimore dreampop duo’s forthcoming Depression Cherry album (Sub Pop, August 28).
[Beach House]

Prison Whites ‘Deceiver’

London via Cambridge three piece playing catchy garage punk.
[Prison Whites]

Saintseneca ‘Sleeper Hold’

Columbus, OH folksters led by Zac Little and featuring All Dogs’ Maryn Jones in their current line up. This is taken from their forthcoming third album, Such Things (Anti-, October 9).
[Saintseneca]

PWR BTTM ‘Dairy Queen’
Here’s another track from the Brooklyn-via-New Paltz queer punk duo’s debut album following on from last month’s title track ‘Ugly Cherries’ (ITP #82).
[PWR BTTM]

Low ‘Lies’
Following on from ‘No Comprende’ (ITP #81) and ‘What Part of Me’ (ITP #84) here’s the third and most track to appear from Low’s eleventh album Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop, September 11). Features a great vocal performance from Mimi Parker about two thirds in.
[Low]

Palehound ‘Cinammon’
Atypical track from debut album Dry Food eschews the 90s influences for some trippy afropop guitar.
[Palehound]

All Dogs ‘How Long’
Maryn Jones pops her head up again with another track from All Dogs debut album Kicking Every Day (Salinas, August 28).
[All Dogs]

Royal Headache ‘Carolina’
Another taste of the new album, ‘Carolina’ highlights another side of the band – lo-fi, melodious, melancholy jangling.
[Royal Headache]

Duran Duran ‘Paper Gods’
Title track of the veteran band’s forthcoming fourteenth album (September 11, Warners), this one features fellow Brummie Mr Hudson, comes in at just over seven minutes long and shifts from minor key distorted gospel influenced intro to bass heavy stadium dance pop banger.
[Duran Duran]

Steve Hauschlidt ‘Where All Is Fled’
Former member of ambient electronica trio Emeralds, this is the title track of Hauschlidt’s first new album since 2012’s Sequitur. Where All Is Fled is out on Kranky, September 25.
[Steve Hauschlidt]

In The Pharmacy #84 – August 2015

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Sixteen killer new tracks from the US, UK and Canada. New music from All Dogs, Kurt Vile, Low, SPORTS, La Luz, Fuzz, Cristobal and the Sea, Ultimate Painting, Dilly Dally (pictured), Fictonian, TRAAMS, Lou Barlow, Wilco, White Reaper, Shopping and !!!. Music that is in turn scrappy, melodic, choppy, angular, slack and funky.


All Dogs ‘That Kind of Girl’
“And I know that I am always fucking up your world / you are better off not messing with that kind of girl”.
Treble heavy female-fronted melodic indie rock with 90s inclinations, first featured here with in September 2013 with ‘Lovesong’ (ITP #41) and back in January with ‘Georgia’ (ITP #70).
[All Dogs]

Kurt Vile ‘Dust Bunnies’
A drum machine and a repeating guitar pattern ground this song in rhythm while keyboard and bass are aloud to meander and explore the edges of the melody and KV’s distinctive stoner vocals take us on a tale of having a “headache like a shot vac coughing dust bunnies”. Elsewhere it’s all red with white noise, bars and “an invigorating fix and a black lung” from puffing on a cigarette. The song pivots with a nod to Sam Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ and by the end our hero is ready to get away from the fog “it’s hard to think with a squashed brain…I can’t talk over all that racket / what’s there to feel but totally wacked…I want to to put out the cigarette, leave it behind, hold you real close, take you by the hand. We’ll walk away.”
[Kurt Vile]

Low ‘What Part of Me’
After the low end gravitas of ‘No Comprende’, this initially feels lighter. A drum machine and Mimi Parker’s wordless vocals intro the song over some distorto-fuzzed bass and some trebly, metallic guitar. Then the vocals proper kick in it and it seems to be about the alternating wonder and claustrophobia you might experience in an intense 20+ year relationship. “What part of me don’t you know? What part of me don’t you own?” “Sometimes it scares me to death / sometimes it takes all my breath”. This duality has it’s own mirror in the music when the fuzz drops away to reveal the beautiful clarity of Alan and Mimi’s voices. Taken from the new album Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop, September 11).
[Low]

SPORTS ‘Washing Machine’
There’s a country inflection to Carmen Perry’s vocals that complements the rough edges of their fuzzy, melodic, garage punk power pop. Taken from forthcoming second album All of Something (Father/Daughter records, 30 October).
[Sports]

La Luz ‘I Wanna Be Alone (With You)’
Brooding, near-other worldly sci-fi surf pop from the band’s excellent new album, Weirdo Shrine (Hardly Art, out now).
[La Luz]

Fuzz ‘Rat Race’
Sabbath-indebted number from Ty Seagll’s heavy psych rock outfit’s forthcoming second album, the aptly titled II (In The Red Records, October 23).
[Fuzz]

Cristobal and the Sea ‘Fish Eye’
“Around the lake with a girl that I know…she licks my neck like I’m gellato”. More excellent stuff from the Anglo-Spanish-Portugese-Corsican quartet. Self-described tropicalia pop, though afro psych pop would also fit the bill.
[Cristobal and the Sea]

Ultimate Painting ‘Kodiak’
Lazy, VU indebted meandering guitar art pop from the band’s second album Green Lanes (out now on Trouble in Mind Records).
[Ultimate Painting]

Dilly Dally ‘Desire’

This gets better with every listen. Raw vocals from Katie Bell and guitars that are equal parts The Breeders and Blue album-era Weezer (they self-identify as #softgrunge). From the Toronto band’s debut album, Sore (October 9, Partisan Records).
[Dilly Dally]

Fictonian ‘Little Blue Book’
Waltz-time number with judicious use of piano, whistling and the New London Children’s Choir from the buzzy UK multi-instrumentalist.
[Fictonian]

TRAAMS ‘Succulent Thunder Anthem’
Chichester skewed pop band who blend influences such as Iggy Pop, Krautrock, McLusky, Women, Abe Vigoda and Pavement to come up with the likes of this undeniably catchy driving garage punk number that heralds their forthcoming Modern Dancing album (FatCat, November 13) the follow up to 2013’s Grin.
[TRAAMS]

Lou Barlow ‘Moving’

The Dinosaur Jr / Sebadoh / Folk Implosion man teases his first solo album in six years Brace the Wave. Lest we forget, Lou was championing the ukulele way before it was all the rage (though he avoids the worst excesses of that instrument by modifying with heavier strings). His voice has taken on a richer, almost Vedder-like resonance over the years. It suits both him and this song.
[Lou Barlow]

Wilco ‘Taste the Ceiling’
Lovely understated number from Wilco’s superb surprise released new album Star Wars (out now, dBpm).
[Wilco]

White Reaper ‘Friday the 13th’
Another highlight from the Louisville, KY garage punks debut album, White Reaper Does it Again (out now, Polyvinyl).
[White Reaper]

Shopping ‘Why Wait’
Following on from the international release of their debut album earlier this year, the London post-punk trio give us the first taste of the follow up Straight Lines (out September 11, FatCat)
[Shopping]

!!! ‘Freedom! ’15’
Sacramento dancepunks tease their forthcoming fifth album with a funky monster that nods back to their earliest records. If there’s one criticism of this tune it’s that it’s so good it could stand to be a good few minutes longer. Extended dance mix please!
[!!!]

Tequila Dementia (1988)

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Honolulu Mountain Daffodils 'Tequila Dementia'Honolulu Mountain Daffodils

“I’m going to all tomorrow’s parties / popping mescaline like smarties.”

Tequila Dementia is the second of three albums recorded by the Honolulu Mountain Daffodils, an overlooked cult 80s band probably best known for containing among their ranks Adrian Borland, of that other overlooked cult 80s band The Sound. Here, like the other members of the band, he appears under a pseudonym (Joachim Pimento).

I’ll admit, I picked this one up out of curiosity more than anything. I recognised the cover from back-in-the-day and liked the thanks on the cover to “the music of Neu, ENO, B.O.C., VU MK1”. I wasn’t expecting much more than a thin, dated sounding late 80s indie guitar album, but this turned out to be real gem.

Proto-punk and psych influenced grungey noise rock (‘Disturbo Charger’, ‘Death Bed Bimbo’, ‘Tequila Dementia’, ‘Mule Brain (Brain of Mule)’), Krautrock (‘Also Spracht Scott Thurston’) and gothy art rock (‘Collector of Souls’, ‘Menace in the Font’) delivered with plenty of fuzzed up guitars and keyboards. The songs themselves all have plenty of character, each with its own identity but working together as an album should. There’s also some tasty locked groove noise at the end of each side.

There’s not much information available online about the band, and what there is doesn’t make for happy reading. On the sleeve of Tequila Dementia it reads “Drink Until Death & Beyond”. Two of the band’s members, Lord Sulaco (Pete Williams) and Daiquiri J. Wright (Graham Pearson), died as a result of alcoholism. Borland, who also had a drinking problem, died by suicide in 1999, after years of struggling to live with a mental illness that made him severely depressed and agitated and gave him auditory hallucinations.

But the music remains, cherished by those who were there at the time (Pete ‘Sonic Boom‘ Kember is a fan and there’s a glowing review of their third album Aloha Sayonara over on Julian Cope‘s Head Heritage site). It’s also ripe for discovery by those of us who may have missed it first time around, though it appears absent from most legit streaming services, most of the album can be found on You Tube.

Here’s the near-instrumental Iggy Pop sampling ‘Also Spracht Scott Thurston’…

…and the completely different opening track ‘Disturbo Charger’

…and an excellent appraisal and tribute to the band from their contemporary Adrian Janes (drummer with Borland’s pre-The Sound band, The Outsiders).