SEVEN NOISES

Meth Teeth came along after the frustration of Mattey, a guy from Portland, that was fed up of the bad endings of his previous bands, so he started a project of his own. At the beginning Meth Teeth was an acoustic project, mostly focused on folk and americana music with guitar, violin and piano. Listening to their current sound this is hard to imagine although the roots sound is still there. Then his friend Kyle, now an official member, approached him and they started to change the sound of those songs adding a lot of distortion and punk attitude. And that's how they started to develope into what they are today and what we could hear in their first 7" on Sweet Rod Records, which has sadly been long deleted. Two months ago they published their first proper LP, after a cassette on Ick Ick Records, this time for Woodsist which have made them incresingly popular thanks to the notoriety of this label. And look out for a future release in Sacred Bones, a double 7" with Christmas Island anytime soon. here you have a song included in both their first single and album for you to enjoy.

Yes! This already is my 100Th post so I felt like having a bit of review and talking about what's been the blog so far.
First of all I want to reinforce the main idea and purpose of Seven Noises; this is to promote new released 7 inch singles, to make you find out they are there for you to buy them as there's nothing more beautiful than owning these songs in physical format, in the oldest of them all, with the covers and artworks and the static noise when you play them. You can see I have links on the right side of the blog where you can get most of these releases but if you can't find them there you can also try to get them through the record label (which I always mention) or through the bands' Myspace sites.
I sometimes review 12" singles as well or have a generic post about a new band or a not particularly known one for you to discover some bands I have that have spoken to me in one way or another.

Having said all that, I would like to thank all the people who have been following the blog and leaving comments. I would feel very stupid writing here if nobody was interested to spend a bit of time checking it. And I also wanted to apologize for the irregular frequency of posting as it depends on my free time and the amount of new records I find interesting enough to comment here.

Anyway, I hope you all continue checking here and finding interesting music to make you buy the records and go to the gigs. See you around

There are many different facts that can make you approach a band you don't know: A favorable review in a magazine or website you trust, a new release in a label you have other items from, a recommendation from a friend, the cover of the record or even the name of the band. A really good name can make you take interest and the same works the other way around, a really bad name can completely put you off. And then, sometimes, a bad name that results funny because it's so bad can also make you approach the band and this is what happen to me with this single. I would say both bands have not the best choices of names but can get you feel interested to know what's behind these name choices.
Baby Birds have already plenty of cassettes and CDRs but this has been the first time they put out something on vinyl. They perform highly instrumental quiet/loud/quiet music sometimes with loops and drones and sometimes more melody friendly. 3 is not an exception, starting with a loop to later transform into a more conventional song and back to the drone again.
This is not the first Boo and Boo Too record either. They are friends of the same ambient and atmospheric landscapes sometimes but, as it's the case of this song, closer to noise pop than their partners on the A side. Whats more, in I Am the Lorax they sound as if they were possessed by the spirit of Calvin Johnson.

Boo and Boo Too - I Am the Lorax.mp3




For the ones they don't know Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk, as I don't like to upload both songs of the same 7", here you have the song from the Chomp Womp Compilation, Eating with Horses

This is the second release from The Bitters. If you read the review I posted here about their first EP or even more if you have a copy of Wooden Glove, there's not many new things to say about this 7 inch. Two more cave pop songs from this Toronto duo in the same label they released their presentation, this time even a bit darker, more Lo-Fi and slightly more experimental and schizophonic, but still infectiously enjoyable, specially East which could have been somewhere in between Siouxsie and the Banshees' Scream, sharing the same type of obscure guitar riff and monotone drums beats.
And if you enjoy this you better prepare your wallets as they have plenty of releases coming up: An album for Woodsist, a 7" in True Panther Sounds, a Split cassette with Little Girls, a 12" EP on Sacred Bones, another cassette on Hi Shadow, another 7" on Wild World and a 10" record. Either they have spent the last months inside their cave in a strict workaholic diet or they've been touched by the inspiring muses of creation. And although they were supposed to be just a release project with no intention to perform live, they are actually doing some gigs here and there.

Released 28/09/09

The Bitters - East.mp3

Frankie Rose, of Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts fame, has left us already the coolest of the CVs you can have in just a couple of years. Apart from being a member of these two bands and quitting both of them, she's played live with Dum Dum Girls, Crocodiles, Blank Dogs and many other people. But if this wasn't enough, and quitting the drums for this project to take the lead role, she has her own new band, taking only her name for her first single Thee Only One, but already preparing her live debut with her new backing band, The Outs. And this single is everything you can expect before listening to it: the perfect mix of her two previous projects, a love for 60s melodies, noise-pop and a contagious dreamy chorus. Everything in 2.23 minutes. The b side, Hollow Life, it's more calm and dark but as infective as the title track.
Wait to see how she will soon reach or even overcome the fame of her previous contributions. And of course, is out on Slumberland records on a beautiful green vinyl.

Released 19/10/09

I've never been able to get over the magic lyricism of Philophobia, one of the most beautiful albums of the 90s. Everything Arab Strap did afterwards, although it was always good, could never reach that album, perfect to play at any time of the day. While they were together, both Aidan and Malcolm, had parallel projects being Aidan more focused in the relaxed melodies of Lucky Pierre and Malcolm in classic acoustic pop songs. Since they split some years ago both have been pretty productive. Aidan has parked his instrumental project to work more in an opposite direction, placing the lyrics and the stories in a main position like he did in his album I Can Hear Your Heart, a compendium of bedtime stories occasionally accompanied by music and lately with his new band the Best Ofs, with a more classical approach to the concept of song and a beautiful package including a board game. From this last album, but in a different version, is where this single comes from, a song dedicated to his new born son who was still about to get born when he wrote it. The back photo and the video for the song are stills from the moment his son was about to be born. Once again, Aidan feels no fear to share his most intimate life with us but this time is not about sex, but the result of having it. The b side, an unreleased track, it's a children's story. It looks like paternity has really got into him, so can't wait to hear new songs about nappies, baby food or the joys of joining nursery school.

I'm always excited every time I go to a gig and find out that, at the little stall they put by the entrance of the venue with merchandising from the band you came to see play, they have special items only for the people who bother to go to their gigs, even more when these items are 7 inch singles. I missed the Atlas Sound gig the last time he was here in London. I went to see Deerhunter the previous day but couldn't make it for his solo gig the day after. Not sure though if these two singles that have only been available to buy at his gigs before and now you can get in some exclusive online stores (I got mine at Juno), were available to buy at that gig.
Bradford has always been very generous with his followers. Through his blog he delivers regularly a bunch of free songs and free "virtual singles" for us to download and enjoy. And now that he has just released his second official album Logos and finally has fulfilled his dream of being Mary Hansen in Quick Canal, we can enjoy these four tracks which are in fact a bit closer to the sound of his first album. In the first single, the pink one, we find a respectful rendition to VU's I'll Be Your Mirror and another one to Mark Sultan's Unicorn Rainbow Odyssey and in the orange one, two originals you should never miss. Both singles are presented inside a fabric sleeve and there's no reason why you shouldn't get them.

Atlas Sound - I'll Be Your Mirror.mp3

I am happy to announce that another pile of Captured Records stuff has come out this week. Between the stuff, this time, we can find the first Ganglians release they put out in the market after the admired 12" on Woodsist and their first LP Monster Head Room on Weird Forest Records, both earlier this year. They advanced on their website that these two tracks were the finest Ganglians songs so far, fact that Ganglians themselves agreed with, and that they were so happy to be the ones to publish them, and I have to agree. Both tracks are addictive, specially the A side, Blood in the Sand, with a start that reminds Black Lips's Katrina, the song is an infective garage-folk-rock anthem. This release marks the umpteenth connection between the two best labels of the year, Captured Tracks and Woodsist, who normally share artists, tours and other events, and make me want to move to Brooklyn.

Released 05/10/09

Hype. If you look at the dictionary for the meaning of this word it says "Promotion or advertisement; especially, exaggerated claims". In the music business it's a common thing to exaggerate about the value of a song, and album or a band, even more on the British press and especially in publications like the NME that has become little by little in a music version of a gossip and sensationalist magazine. How many "the best new band, the best record of the century or the best debut of all times" can we possibly have? So well, The Drums are full of hype all around with reviews containing some of the sentences I've mentioned before. And the question is: are all these reviews objective and true? I personally have my objections with this. Let's Go Surfing is an effective pop song that you'll probably get stuck in your mind for the rest of the day after listening to it, but this is not always a good thing. The lyrics are beyond terrible but yes, the melody is good. And I can understand that they can also be quite annoying sometimes.
But you always have to think that a band is not to be blamed for the hype they can get around. So let's just say that this is a good single, not a great one but a good one, but don't expect them to change anything or be the best new something.

Released 28/09/09

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing.mp3

It was the beginning of the 90s. I was a teenager and as a teenager you have to have a musical idol, somebody who you admire more than the rest and makes you sometimes overview the fact that they are just musicians. Most of the people at that time had Thurston More, Kurt Cobain, Black Francis, Stephen Malkmus or Morrissey as their idols, to name a few. The closest I have been to have one it would probably be with Lou Barlow, although I also had admiration for many more. I applauded his versatility with different projects or even inside the same one, his productivity releasing numerous records under different names every year, most of them with more than 20 songs and close to fill in all the blank space of the format, and the democracy he applied to the projects he shared with more people. All these things left a mark on me when judging all the stuff I've heard since then. I understood that lo-fi is a way of expression apart from a lack of resources. I also understood that an acoustic ballad can be pretty punk. And that sometimes the magic of an unfinished first take of a song that lasts less than a minute can be left as the final take if you feel that's enough.
From all his projects, which I obviously got into them through Sebadoh, I ended up feeling more comfortable and close with the releases under the Sentridoh name, which is to say, the stuff he used to write and record on his own. And when he released the album Emoh under his own name I was happy to find out that he still was in pretty good shape and, although the album was quite produced, it still contained the magic of his previous albums.
The Right is the first single of his second effort releasing an album under his own name and, after hearing it, I have to say it continues the style of that first album. And in that particular song, you have summarized, not only the spirit of the whole record, but also of all his career. It has the intimacy of Sentridoh, the rhythm of Folk Implossion and the band sound of Sebadoh. And it gives you a pleasant and nice sensation of deja-vu as if you had heard him sing this song before. And I don't mean it in a way as if it sounded too much like any other song he's made but in the way it sounds so naturally his it's hard to believe he didn't come up with this 20 years ago.

Released 28/09/09

I've had this Omo track for so long I absolutely forgot about it, and about them. I actually found out about them thanks to the connections they have with The Chap, so the fact their first release is a split single with them is no surprise at all. This duo has actually opened for them before and some The Chap members have collaborated in their soon to be released first album, so it's kind of normal their simple but weird melodies and surrealistic lyrics can remind of them in many occasions. Their minimum is maximum philosophy applies as well to the size of their instruments trying to use only small ones that can fit in their small apartment, for space reasons basically. Oversized is a minimal Casio tune about eating and getting fat while The Chap's song, that could have fit perfectly in their last album, is about congratulating somebody who did something right, which is refreshing to listen to between so many songs about loving, losing and getting back someone, parting, celebrating, dancing or moving parts of your body. In a world where cheap fake poetry is understood as a passionate overflow of feeling, stupidity can sound so intelligent sometimes.

Released 07/09/09

Omo - Oversized.mp3

There's not much information about Kindness in the web. I've read it's basically one guy from Germany with a little help from friends who has only played two gigs so far with different band members and has two more programmed in the following days. He's a fan of Arthur Russell which is palpable, if not so much in this forthcoming first single, at least it is in some compositions you can play on his Myspace, which I really recommend you to listen. Most of them are unfinished demos or sketches or finished songs that sound like sketches. Between them you can find two great covers, Neil Young's Tell Me Why and a beautiful rendition to the version Anita Dobson made of the Eastenders tune in 1986, Anyone Can Fall in Love. This single, to be released by Moshi Moshi in two weeks, it's a Replacements cover that sounds like a collaboration between Junior Boys and Talking Heads. It looks like if DFA had something to do with the tune which they hadn't and could open a door to the future sound of the band but something makes me think he will surprise us again in the future, taking into account the variety in styles and approaches he takes in all his songs. The hypnotic result of this song has had me playing this song on repeat for a day and I'm still far from getting tired. I hope it has the same effect on you.

Released 05/10/09

Kindness - Swinging Party.mp3

The first thing to admire about this band is that they will soon be the second British band to release something on label of the year Brooklyn based Captured Tracks, after next week's release of the Spectrals 7". Only for this reason they have my true devotion and applause. If, appart from this, they make infectious melodies as the two tracks they have posted on their myspace page, then the adoration is double. They share members with Your Twenties and Sexy Kids, or have shared them before, and they have a love for all the C86 bands or Comet Gain. Taking into account their sound they could easily publish on Slumberland after the Captured Tracks release, sharing the dark side and the pop side of both labels and standing in the middle without tending to any of them dramatically.

This London four piece will soon perform as part of this year's Nail the Cross Festival at Amersham Arms this October together with Deep Sht, Arch M, Joy Orbison and Trailer Trash Tracy's between others so not a line up to miss. There's not a release date yet so keep track of them since then.

This 7 inch has been out already for a while so it won't be news for many people I suppose but i discovered it not long ago and finally managed to get a copy last week after browsing online as it's sold out on the record label page, the Chicago based Weird Hug Records. TeePee, is Eric Lopez from Miami who's been releasing Tapes, CDRs and a couple of 7's so far, practices the kind of music you never think somebody from Miami would do, from the point of view of somebody who's never been there and has a stereotyped idea of sun, Cuban sounds, breast implants and Hawaiian shirts movies has sold us. His songs are full of fuzz and feedback, particularly slowed down and with crawling melodies in this single. The T side is So Sure That I, a song about marrying and killing someone that is dark and spacey, while Mbiso, the P side, is a bit more upbeat. Both songs though, share exactly the same guitar drone on the background being like a trademark for the EP. Check for some other available stuff he has, all of them sharing this drone punk with drum machines Lo-Fi spirit and wait for the release of his debut album anytime soon in his new formed label Senzei Records where he's also going to publish other bands around the Miami area.

TeePee - So Sure That I.mp3