Song of the day: Audacity—“Ears and Eyes.” Still one of my absolute favorites in the Volar catalog. I happened to be in LA while they were recording this 7” (released in conjunction with I Hate Rock n Roll Records) with our good buddy Rob Barbato producing (who you might know from Darker My Love and, more recently, La Sera). They were in the middle of trying to get this song—still unfinished—down at the time. I remember looking at Rob and Jon and saying, “we get to release this song?” They’ve since rerecorded this for the upcoming LP on Burger, and keep an eye out for their big US tour in August/September. Cover art by another good bud, Tim Presley (Darker My Love, White Fence). We still have a couple of color copies available here—www.volarrecords.bigcartel.com
#audacity #darkermylove #lasera #whitefence
Songs of the day: the 6 x 2 x 12” Canada/USA post-punk 12”
The Defektors, O Voids, Sharp Ends, Ale Mania, Beaters, Spirit Photography.
“Frozen Stiff” is the latest single off the K-Holes’ newest effort, Dismania which Hardly Art Records released not too long ago. This track reminds me of a more muscular, acid-tinged version of the Psychedelic Furs. It’s loud and it’s strangely a lot of fun.
Song of the day: Uzi Rash—“Garbageland,” off of the I Was 30 in 2012 LP available on Volar. Bay area mutant punk, Pere Ubu/Godz/Monks/the Fall skronk found in a trash can.
A sneak peek at 2012 releases on Volar by Soft Riot, Shannon and the Clams, Window Twins, Northern Tigers, Tar Halos, Aspects of Physics, Tropical Popsicle, Wandering Towns, and Far Corners.
Song of the day: “When You Find Out,” Hunx and his Punx’s cover of the Nerves classic, available on the Under the Covers Vol. 2: A Tribute to Paul Collins, Peter Case, and Jack Lee over at Volar.
When my good friend Matzah over at I Hate Rock n Roll Records and I began putting this tribute together, I tried talking my bandmates in Christmas Island to cover us, but they balked. Seth Hunx decided to try his hand at it, and we were more than pleased with the results. They’re out on tour in Europe right, but after they come back, keep an eye out for the “Gremlins” 7” by Shannon and the Clams on Volar.
Song of the day: Soft Riot—“Holding Cash in Fields of Ash,” from the upcoming No Longer Stranger LP due out on Volar this fall. Download the original EP from Panospria here. Info below.
No Longer Stranger isn’t late night club music, but sounds of dimly lit rooms and dark street corners. Conceptualized a few years back after late nights under an influence, Soft Riot came to be as a musical creation of JJD (Jack Duckworth) of the London, England based psych electronic post-punk outfit Savage Furs.
Tracing a trajectory from his former home of Vancouver BC, the tracks from No Longer Stranger were built in pieces over months and months in his new English home and then completed in a few feverish weeks after a large stroke of inspiration. Themes from science fiction, isolation, fantasy, romance and psychedelia run throughout the course of this collection of “space ballads”. Drawing inspiration from synthesizer-based film soundtracks of yesteryear, drones, minimal wave electronics past and present and a heavy dose of throbbing appregiated rhythms, the tracks of No Longer Stranger are minimal pulsing pop songs coming from the distance with whispering voices weaving throughout.
Credits
Soft Riot is JJD: Voice, electric guitar, synthesizers, programming, found sounds.
