Users
DOWNLOAD: The Soft Pack - Answer To Yourself
The Soft Pack just finished recording their debut LP for Kemado with veteran D.C. hardcore knobsman Eli Janney, and already "Answer To Yourself" is out amongst the wolves, with nary an album title or release date in site. That's fine, really–who could sweat the details when we're already sweating to three minutes of Modern Lovers-doing-Hot Snakes jangle. We really weren't expecting an anthem here, but that's what we got.
The Soft Pack - Answer To Yourself
Previously:
The Soft Pack - Fences (Phoenix Cover)
The Soft Pack - Red Headed Girl (Acoustic)
CMJ DOWNLOAD: Screaming Females - Bell
Screaming Females is actually half-misleading–these New Brunswick basement heroes only have one female (singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster), and she doesn't scream all the time. Sometimes she sings like Bob Mould and sometimes she shreds virtuosically. We are not exaggerating. "Bell" is probably the only under-three-minute garage-rock song to boast a guitar solo worthy of Steve Vai. They are playing the Mercury Lounge tonight and two Brooklyn shows on Saturday. Three guesses as to where that info lies.
DOWNLOAD: Mean Jeans - Born On A Saturday Night
Like good Ramones fans, Portland's Mean Jeans want to get you sweaty in under two minutes, tell you they were born with beer in their hands, and then get out before things get boring. If they could play this song any faster, they certainly would. PDX bar Slabtown hosts them tonight, while their LP, Are You Serious?, is out soon via Dirtnap.
DOWNLOAD: The Soft Pack - Fences (Phoenix Cover)
There's something questionable about a deadpan San Diego punk band covering one of the most pants-wettingly melodic groups in existence, but considering we ride for both Phoenix and The Soft Pack (née The Muslims, lest you forget) we indulged this one out of curiosity–and it's pretty good! Sounds like Lou Reed if he'd just been released from prison (or ever went there) and proves Phoenix's wind-at-your-back bombast has less to do with chords and lyrics than we initially thought. Revelations!
The Soft Pack - Fences (Phoenix Cover)
Previously:
The Soft Pack - Red Headed Girl (Acoustic)
The Soft Pack - Call It A Day (Acoustic)
DOWNLOAD: White Shit - Jim Morrisson
So much to love about White Shit–the above cover art; the fact that they have collectively played in Big Business, Karp, Monorchild, Wrangler Brutes, and the Murder City Devils; that their excellently scroungy new album, Sculpted Beef, is less than twenty minutes long; and that they call themselves White Shit, obviously. The LP's out now as a vinyl only release through Dean Spunt (of No Age)'s Post Present Medium, but you can take home its lengthiest cut in MP3 form below. Also, we totally dare you to Google them.
DOWNLOAD: Nirvana - Scoff (Live At Pine Street Theatre)
(Photo: Charles Peterson)
This is bouncing around quickly, but to interestingly little enthusiasm–no one's hitting caps lock and writing "HOLY COW THERE IS A FREE UNRELEASED NIRVANA SONG ONLINE." So we just did that because we think it's justified. Sub Pop is re-releasing Bleach in expanded and remastered form for its twentieth anniversary, and by "expanded" we mean it also includes a full, unreleased recording of the band's performance at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland on February 9th, 1990. Jack Endino, producer of Bleach and a plethora of other insanely great Seattle bands, spruced up the live audio so everything sounds thick and heavy and totally facemelting. That version of "Scoff" is below, you can pre-order the re-release over at the Sub Pop website while we stare at this photo for another fifteen minutes.
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: TV Ghost - The Recluse
The big noise in NYC this weekend is the WFMU Fest at Music Hall of Williamsburg, three nights of packed bills headlined by Faust (tonight), Pissed Jeans (Friday) and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (Saturday). If you like your punk rock dangerous and edged with synth-paranoia — well, first of all let’s be friends, but more importantly, do not sleep on TV Ghost (one of Friday’s openers). On “The Recluse,” the Indiana band imagines surf rock as a very bad trip…and that is a very good trip. The group’s killer full-length debut is out now on In the Red — it’s either self-titled or called Cold Fish, possibly both, these things are not always clear. But if you aren’t within striking distance of Brooklyn, check out the rash of TV Ghost dates after the break.
DOWNLOAD: Turbo Fruits - On the Road
“On the Road” has the casual, off-handed vibe of a power-pop song you’d invent in the shower if you had dreams of being out on the road. Since it’s being sung by Turbo Fruit tour monster Jonas Stein, he’s able to mix that love of being out there with a smelly-dude’s genuine desire to, like, take a shower and sleep in his own bed. Turbo Fruits second album, Echo Kid, comes out today on Fat Possum — nab this power-pop gem below and find two more free tunes on offer here. Then jump the gap to find the Turbo Fruits' gig with Monotonix that's closest to you — tour starts tonight in Memphis. On the road again…
DOWNLOAD: 39 Clocks - 39 Explosion Heats
Before fall swallows up everything, it’s worth raising the flag for one of this summer’s worthiest reissues: Zoned, the compiled works of the severe and shadowy German duo 39 Clocks. These ’80s art-cats split the difference between the Velvet Underground and Suicide and came up with something minimal and pure; “39 Explosion Heats” would sound viciously modern in any age, a deadpan hip-shaker of revolutionary sexiness that the Baader-Meinhof Gang could only dream of achieving. It would appear that 39 Clocks never went anywhere without their sunglasses on, so I’ve decided to follow suit. The least I can do for the cause.
STREAM: The Slits - Ask Ma
No band ever was more squarely at the intersection of punk and reggae than the Slits. Was? Sorry, is—chief agitator Ari Up (see if you can guess which one she is) has had the pioneering ’70s/’80s group back in action for a while now, alongside original Slit Tessa Pollitt and three younger disciples. Now they’ve chiseled their return into stone, with their first new album in more than 25 years, Trapped Animal, coming on Narnack in early October. The record nicely maps the band’s original stylistic moves onto modern cartography, like this’n, “Ask Ma,” with its buzzing, snaky bassline and chanted exasperations.
Site developed by Gelo Factory
