A recap on (mostly) local releases from 2024 for every day in December 2024...
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 1/31. NOOSEBURN
Once again gonna spend some words and time at the end of the year ruminating on a batch of recordings from the last year that have involved local/Sacramento-ish folks. Good stuff that has captured my attention in 2024 that I think people might want to check out.
Starting off with NOOSEBURN. A band I know very little about. I do know they involve a couple of folks from around here who are in a buncha different projects, but I don’t know if they’ve ever played live in Sacramento. Irregardless, they put out a fantastic demo in early 2024 that you can get on bandcamp &/or cassette from the consistently excellent Ambush Records outta Seattle who put out stacks of really high quality fast stuff {you very well may want to check out Elephant Walk (rawtranshardcore extraordinaires) and Influencer (old school pv), and Straggler (quality hc/pv stew) and a just a whole bunch of their other stuff}.
The Nooseburn demo is a couple of songs encompassing seven minutes of powerfully layered hardcore crust hellaciousness. It’s heavy and mean and fast and echoey and crunches and builds from sludge into manic grind and then back into a slow burn that then unleashes into more total mayhem with bits of black metal and galloping crusty crunch. Recorded with echoey vocals coming from 7 directions and absolutely massive pounding drum blasts. More than a little Scandi and Japanese influence channeled into a NorCal sound that is huge, nasty, and wonderful, and is one of the coolest things I’ve heard all year.
Would love to see Nooseburn play live and see how their sound carries in that setting, but I don’t know if that will happen. It’s still cool though, cuz they put out this recording and it absolutely rules.
You can and should track it down at https://ambushrecords.bandcamp.com/album/demo-4
Through the month of December I plan on posting a daily ‘Words on Sounds’ for folks interested in hearing about local music that I think they might want to be hearing.
If you want to go back and read last year’s, you can find it here: https://www.sacramentopunkshows.com/p/words-on-sounds-end-of-2023.html
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 2/31. GENTLEMAN SURFER
Continuing to dig into local releases from the last year that made me yip with joy. GENTLEMAN SURFER is one of the best Sacramento punk bands that you - or they - may not even know is a punk band.
A new Gentleman Surfer release is always cause for celebration. They’ve put out a half dozen recordings over the last decade and in Fall of 2024 their latest, “Bacterium Tremendum” was released to the world. All are really good. Because I live in the present, this one is my favorite (til the next one)
A trio of drums/guitar/keyboards with the drums often taking the lead in gently guiding or roughly yanking you into unexpected places. This is music that goes everywhere with an intensity and precision that amazes. They are everything that excites me about punk - powerful, fast, thrilling, daring, challenging, unconventional, revolutionary. And they sound like no other band around.
At times, the keyboards burst forth with washes of sound, or the guitar jumps out and does things you didn’t know guitars were allowed to do. Through it all, the drumming makes you reconsider the possibilities of what a drum kit is there to do. As chaotic as it all sounds, most of the time Gentleman Surfer makes total sense - they are just reordering and presenting sound in ways you didn’t realize it should be presented. The chaos always feels deeply controlled and thought out. While it goes places, the precision and focus feel extremely intentional and are deeply effective at keeping it from going all over the place.
Mostly instrumental, staccato vocals burst out on occasion. The last couple of tracks feature guest work from other members of the Bafus/Raskin/Shiurba Trio (see 2023’s Words on Sounds for more on them). It adds even more complexity, depth, and power and is a perfect way to close the album as it makes you want to jump back in and go for another 40 minute ride with this wild and wonderful shit. Great album art to top it all off.
You can get “Bacterium Tremendum” - and much other great Gentleman Surfer excellence in digital and a variety of physical forms at https://gentlemansurfer.bandcamp.com/
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 3/31. DIVIDED YOUTH
It was over a year ago that I saw DIVIDED YOUTH for the first time. They had been playing shows for several months and everybody was already talking about them. Within seconds of them starting their set I knew why. What an absolute shitload of energy, enthusiasm, and spirit all tied in with a sincere love for old thrashin’ hardcore punk!
Since then, they have maintained - and even multiplied - all that energy, enthusiasm, and spirit along with sprouting increasing excellence to the point where they are now undoubtedly one of Sacramento’s best live bands.
They play uncompromisingly fast and clean old hardcore skate thrash, taking the spirit of early ‘80s hardcore and bringing it to our faces a quarter of the way into the first century of this millennium. The influences are obvious - in part cuz they do a great job of throwing in well-done covers of a handful of them - but they bring a level of vitality and excitement that few bands are reaching these days.
With a live show that good and fun and so full of bounce, I wondered how it would all transfer to the studio. On their 2024 demo, they totally pull off and capture what makes them so great. The energy, enthusiasm, and excellence still shines through, but on the demo you really have a chance to really focus on the songwriting . This is some should-be classic shit.
Supremely catchy,-hi quality thrashin, with tons of rapid hooks and really great choruses (chorusi?). You will sing/shout along. There will be raised fists of enthusiasm. You may skank in your kitchen.
“Demo’24” is the perfect ep length: 7 songs in 10 minutes allowing you to play it through 5 times before you gotta go do something else. You have a great opportunity to see them live this Thursday, December 5th when they get to open for The Avengers and The Zeros’77 at the Cafe Colonial.
What a highly recommended show especially if you savor those 1977-1983 years of punk rock! You can probably get the demo at the show. I think you can also hear it on spottyiffy and there’s a live set from last summer’s Benefit for Palestine on the Divided Youth bandcamp page.
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 4/31. THE GLOBS
Picked up a cassingle at a GLOBS show.
The cassingle - everybody’s favorite format - has a couple of Globs songs that I remember as being old songs, but it says “recorded in 2018 & 2024,” so here we are.
I’ll take it as an opportunity to talk about songwriting genius. There’s this guy named Mike who writes some of the best songs that have ever been written in the history of Sacramento songs. First met him in the Horny Mormons back in the late 1980s. They were the bees knees. Later, he was a part of The Bananas who roamed the globe and received more than a bit of fame, if not fortune, for writing the bestest songs. Later came Knock Knock as well as others along the way adding up to about four decades of a whole lot of stupendous songs with a distinctive sound
That sound is rough around the edges, scritchy scratchy punky, yet deliciously poppy, beautiful and moving and deep and heart-wrenching. It is some of the most striking of songwriting. Terribly unique in approach, terrifically moving on impact.
And the Globs continue that tradition. They’ve been around a while, playing here and there and when and then. Shifting members around - making great use of the deep and sweet talent pool that makes up Sacramento’s underground. And they continue on in 2024, still doing their thing. That makes me happy.
Still crafting beautiful songs - instantly recognizable, stirring to the soul, and delightfully underground. The cassingle has two great songs on it (shouldn’t it be called a cassdouble?) filled with pure anxious joy, give and take vocals and harmonies, fuzzy guitar, keyboards, jaunty rhythms, dynamic twists and turns. This is a classic sound that sounds both totally original AND totally Sacramento. Makes it all worthwhile to keep flipping the thing over so you can sing along to both songs again.
Got the tape at their recent show with Recess Records label mates Night Court (who are so great!). Hopefully, Globs’ll keep playing shows and you can get one too or go to their bandcamp and hear a bunch of the great songs they’ve been sporadically dropping on us since since 2016….
https://globsfromoutterspace.bandcamp.com/
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANTING RUMINATIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 5/31. DESIST
More local 2024 excellence: DESIST put out a demo last summer that just got released on cassette by ThrashTapes (catalog #916) as a co-release with the always fast and fantastic 625 Thrash (which gives you an idea of the quality of this stuff).
Desist is made up of a buncha Sacto scene stalwarts who came together to make the most fantastically deliciously harsh and in your face hardcore/fastcore/whatevercore. If god made a picture dictionary, under the word ‘gnarly’ would just be a picture of Desist. If you wonder what happens to folks who get kicked out of the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association, Desist is the answer.
They take one of my favorite old genres of music - fucked up nasty antisocial dark and edgy (but not edgelord) hardcore punk. The kinda shit perfected in the early-mid 1980s in the middle of the country. Not any of that sweet melodic Socal sound nor the tough guy chunky stuff from the upper East Coast, this was shit churned up in the basements of the Midwest while snowstorms or tornadoes spun by carrying cattle to new locales. It was some of the best music ever made (hit me up if you want suggestions of some of the greatest of this stuff).
They nail that nasty old disturbed hardcore punk shit, and then periodically dial it up to triple speed in a powerviolence blender that serves to magnify the potency. This is the evolution of great old punk rock fired through a fuckin cannon right at your faceholes. Six minutes and eight songs of just pure visceral, powerful, and wonderful punk at its extremes.
Their recent tape release show at the Attic was evidence of how powerful this stuff can be when they gather together and retch it out in a live and loud setting. Just perfect absolutely unrelenting stuff.
A great band who put out a great tape on a couple great labels doing fine service to fastness, thrashness, and blastness worldwide. Track it down from Thrashtapes or from the good folks at To Live A Lie…
https://thrashtapes.bandcamp.com/album/desist-demo-2024-thrash-916
https://tolivealie.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 6/31. HUMAN BODY
Human Body put out an album earlier this year. It was on the edges of my radar. Then, I heard that a sweet old friend who I was in a band with back in high school (40 years ago!) had joined the band. I checked them out on bandcamp and I liked what I heard, but at the time I didn’t give it the focus it deserved. Recently, Human Body played a couple shows in town that I wanted to get to, but family weddings and sactown speedfests nudged me away from them. Then, a few weeks ago, I wandered into Phono Select and sitting right there staring at me was a big old Human Body lp.
I’m glad I finally got around to putting Human Body more in the center of my radar cuz they are really doing something good. They play music that feels comfortable embracing a lifetime of influences and pulling them into a big old stew.
It sounds to me like they are standing at a crossroads of noise-rock and art rock - heavier than the arty stuff, more finesse than the noisy stuff. And I hear healthy doses of post-punk in there, slashes of punk, a pop-tinged hard rock sensibility in some of the hooks. It’s a lot of sounds, but it is coherent, not too mixed or messed up.
I hear what feels like folks who know what they are doing choosing to create something original and intentional that leans on a world of sounds they have absorbed through the decades. The songs are succinct and effective, only breaking three minutes once in the 11 songs on the album, yet the arrangements allow for spaciousness and focused sonic freakouts in the midst of jacked up throbbing rhythms. It all works fabulously as an album - each song a distinct and powerful part of a larger whole.
I sense themes of exhaustion and frustration, disappointment and survival, and ultimately the perseverance of creativity. Striking and original guitar punches, big ass bass sounds, pounding drums, and vocals teetering between desperation and possibility. It’s a thrilling emotional ride of an album and I’m so glad it found its way to my ears.
You can probably find it at Phono Select or hear/download it here: https://humanbody2.bandcamp.com/album/humanbody
WORDS on SOUNDS: RAVINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 7/31. IN RETROGRADE
Every mid-sized city should be lucky enough to have an IN RETROGRADE.
Primarily cuz they sound really fucking great (much more on that in a minute), but also cuz they are one of those bands that just makes things happen. In and around Sacramento they are booking shows, promoting them, willingly jumping in to help touring bands at the last minute; crossing genres in a way that makes them perfect for many different types of gigs; and then they show up and deliver a top notch set whether the room is packed or has just a few folks awkwardly nodding their heads in the corner. In Retrograde is DIY at its most impressive in so many ways.
Their sound is fantastic. Rooted in post-punky/gothy/deathrocky/whatever stuff, but crossing over into many different styles and moods. Recently, their very full-length album was released on Transylvanian (along with a bunch of other Sacramento stuff - stay tuned) and it is just a treasure chest of thrillingly bummed out moody music that moves. The fact that their greatness can keep my silly 15-second blastbeat attention span focused for over 40 minutes of this album is a testament both to the quality and uniqueness of In Retrograde’s sound
Inexorable bass and drums propel a danceable depressive drive that is splendidly accented by flourishing guitar and keyboard. This album begs for headphones as the vocals will take on a whole new dimension. Growling sensual eerie deep vocals get whispered in my ears punctuated by occasional frenetic desperate yelps. It kinda makes me tingle. And wanna dance both depressively and expressively.
You can see In Retrograde play December 9th at Cafe Colonial with a bunch of good bands on a wonderfully diverse lineup. You will be impressed. Get their album there or get it from…
https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/in-retrograde - along with tons of other stuff from Northern California and around the world from a massive variety of genres. Transylvanian has a fantastic sale going on for the month of December - take advantage of it - get great music - support local underground bands - give your money to one of the coolest labels in the world.
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 8/31. ALEX JENKINS TRIO
The depth and breadth of Sacramento’s music scene continues to thrill me. There are so many different scenes and sonic worlds and shows and recordings that I don’t get to spend as much time with as I would like.
This last year, the Sunday jazz series at Old Soul in Oak Park has helped me connect and appreciate a sliver of the brilliance that exists in the jazz world in these parts. I’ve seen a number of great artists in a casual Sunday afternoon setting and almost always leave feeling renewed by whatever it is I may be hanging out and hearing on any particular Sunday.
Not too long ago I stopped by when the Alex Jenkins Trio was playing and I had the chance to hear them play their new album, “Black Bird” live from beginning to end. It was excellent. Took home their cd and it has been in the stacks of stuff I keep coming back to. It’s a great listen, and whilst only tangentially related to grindcore, I highly recommend it.
As the name would suggest, it’s a trio - sax, upright bass, with drums provided by Alex Jenkins. There’s a wonderful open spaciousness to their music with every part shining through. The bass undergirding it all - subtle yet strong - sometimes taking a lead role, sometimes keeping pulse. Deep drumming skills exploring the possibilities of percussion comfortably jumping to the front or leaning back to support with a bevy of striking sounds. Saxophone - and occasionally clarinet - floating on top and winding through the air like the birds flying on the album cover. It’s gentle and clear and powerful music exuding a quiet strength. A thoughtful and reflective approach running through, it engages and comforts me every time I listen.
Six originals - half written by the bass player. Three covers including Beatles, “Blackbird”, Charlie Parker’s “Segment” and a closing spiced-up funky take on Cole Porter’s “What’s This Thing Called Love” cap off a wonderful 40 minute listen. Give it a spin.
Hit up https://www.instagram.com/sactodrummer/ to find out about upcoming shows or track down the cd - they play around town quite a bit and are definitely worth seeking out.
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 9/31. SECRETION
I think it was last Spring when a newly discovered secretion started to develop in the gastrointestinal tract below the underbelly of the Sacramento punk scene. While there was a certain familiar tang to the name, this blossoming was a very new Secretion, and what they were secreting certainly did not suck.
Pretty much as soon as they had burst forth from the tragically backed up toilets of local house show locales, they had put out a tape/digital release, “Fetid Odors from the Drainage Pipe” plumbing the depths of raw blasting mayhem. The recording displayed a band already fully formed - taking hunks of chunks of grind, gore, dbeat and ridiculously raw hardcore punk, and packing it all into a shit sausage of awesomess.
Eight songs in about 7 and a half minutes of pure power. The sickest and rawest riffs, intestinal stirring bass bashing, brilliantly ignorant ponky ponky drums leading into phenomenal pex pipe shattering blast beats, and the most disgustingly delightful shared vocal growls/screams/gutter vomit sticking to you like a deep dive into a cesspool of divinity.
I love this shit nearly as much as I love my special time in my garderobe. And while you could blast shit like this out at me and I’d be grinning like I just took an AGG dump of my life, the truth is Secretion is out there making this horribly wonderful noise and writing really fucking great songs. The arrangements, pacing, and structure of these brief songs are so perfectly constructed. They know exactly what sonic horror they want to inflict and they do it with a creativity, consciousness, and cohesiveness that stands out.
Absolutely fabulous stuff that makes you pause and appreciate two of the greatest inventions of all time: sanitation and grindcore.
Tapes on Mullet Death Records, may be available at Dawgpound Skateshop in Sacramento or get it on bandcamp…
https://secretion916.bandcamp.com/album/fetid-odors-from-the-drainage-pipe
WORDS on SOUNDS: RAMBLING on ‘bout lo-Cal RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 10/31. ADDALEMON & LOKEIGH
Stay Tough Records is a SoCal DIY label that has been putting out stacks of releases since 2020. They’ve let loose a couple of really fine ones from up here in Sacramento in the last year or so.
2024 saw ADDALEMON’s “Bad Idea” show up on vinyl & tape. A 6-song 12”/tape EP of very well done poppunk with a really big sound. It opens up with a bit of piano before jumping into the title track single and then winding their way through many flavours of rousing and poppy punkers all the way through an ending acoustic emo track. If you dig well thought-out poppunk songs you will absolutely love this release. A ridiculous bounty of great melodies abound. This is finger snapping stuff with a slight melancholic edge and a complexity to the strong structure that keeps it provocative. Tension and frustration leak out between rousing choruses. Hits me the most when they start to rage a bit, but there's another side here for people a little more mature than me exploring loss in relationship in different threads culminating in that tasty restrained closing song.
Addalemon is playing Cafe Colonial later this week - Friday, 12/13 - with a buncha cool bands and will revisit their debut album, “Ripe” from several years ago. All ages.
Stay Tough Records has also blessed this world with the great LOKEIGH “Destined to Eat Your Flesh” ep on tape/digital. It came out in 2023, but I didn’t actually get it til 2024, so here we are.
Lokeigh is such a quality and creative powerpoppy punky emo’y cabaretfolk kinda bandthing with wonderfully distinctive vocals and endless hooks. Intergalactic space pop which feels to me like a future take on glam. Occasional growls and chunky riffs add another dimension to it all. 4 songs here - all very distinct but connected tracks. “Analog Lover” is such a great song with a delightful new wave edge and an addictive chorus that should make it a huge hit. This is one of those tapes you just flip over repeatedly to play over and over.
Lokeigh is playing live at the Press Club, 12/21. 21+.
If you can’t either of these stuff locally, hit up https://staytoughrecords.bandcamp.com/
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 11/31 - LOOSE CHOIR.
First time I heard LOOSE CHOIR I thought I was listening to some indie-pop hit from the 90s alt-charts that had slipped from my consciousness or that I’d missed the first time around. Took me a while to realize the band was from right now (2024) and right here (Northern California) and that I should pay a little more attention. Upon closer listening, I discovered so much more was going on.
Loose Choir’s “Shy Side” is a pretty genius pop album - on a couple of labels known for a lot more than pop - Protagonist & Transylvanian. The genius lies in the depth, diversity, and intelligence of what is going on here. “Shy Side” is not an album to listen to in the background - it is something to sit with and let wash over you and marvel at the choices being made to create such cool songs. The pop lies in how this shit goes down easy when it hits the ears filled with hooks and lines that will grab you.
Immediately I notice the excellent vocals that are in total control of the songs and convey so much emotion through the phrasing - sadness, power, regret. The band is completely locked in and slides effortlessly through a variety of genres while keeping the sound rooted in alt/indie pop. There’s chunks of indie-folk and even a bit of country, emo that hangs at edges and then slashes out, spacious psych jangles, touches of riot grrl, shoegazes into sunny 60s pop, melancholic musings, understated verses leading to big beautiful, harmonious choruses all taking it back to the core of great songs. This is just a great pop album covering a wide territory with a sweet sweet gloss.
Loose Choir is playing a record release show Saturday, December 14th with Renewer and MRS (more on them very soon) as well as Pastoral setting the sonic stage. Cafe Colonial, ALL AGES, and very recommended
I’m pretty sure you can grab the album at the show or if you want to hear how great they are right now…
https://loosechoir.bandcamp.com/album/shy-side
WORDS on SOUNDS: REFLECTING on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 12/31. RENEWER
RENEWER is another band with an excellent 2024 release on Transylvanian Records that will be playing the Loose Choir record release show at the Cafe Colonial on Saturday, December 14th (along with MRS & Pastoral).
The first Renewer recording I heard “fadin,” came out a couple years ago and I was impressed with its power and grace and the way it captured mood. Seeing them live that really helped lock in the impact of the band. They are making ritual music using electric guitars with some drums and keyboards. Soul-stirring stuff that takes you on a ride through the atmosphere, and then occasionally overwhelms with layers of volume before embracing a sonic spaciousness you can relax into.
Their latest album, “Sunne” takes that process and just deepens it. Sliding between ethereal soundscapes, massive crescendos of distorted guitars and pounding drums, and artfully constructed infectious shoegazey rock, Renewer creates an otherworldly road trip with every song. Most of the tracks are 5-6 minutes long and travel paths that demand you pay attention. They mix in sweet little touches - keyboards floating through, guest vocalists adding depth, brilliantly thought out swatches of strings - which just deepen the mood of it all. This is music that is simultaneously sorrowful and thrilling, subdued and emphatic. Been listening to this one a lot - and it keeps revealing more. It’s an album that tends to stick to my turntable.
Sometimes music of this sort doesn’t always grab me, but Renewer does. Part of it is they do spacey drone - a place I like to hang out in - really well. Part of it is they do smashing guitar fuzziness - another place I like to hang out - in a rather mammoth manner. And a lot of it is the vocals - I am absolutely enraptured with the sublime high-pitched voices winding over and through these songs.I hear sadness and joy and hope and loss, and I kinda wish more people sung that nicely, but I’m kinda glad they don’t cuz then I might not appreciate Renewer so much. And I appreciate Renewer a lot.
Methinks it is likely you will too, if you listen and pay attention.
https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/renewer-sunne
WORDS on SOUNDS: RECAPPING local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 13/31. MRS
MRS had a couple things come out on Translyvanian Records this last year, their own “Blood Drive” ep as well as a nifty split with Shop Dog. Much good stuff.
MRS is hella-grunge. So, if you are one of those people who are anti-hella grunge you may want to vacate this chat, but on the other hand, if you find your pulse racing at the point when a band is going from real soft to real loud in a big way, you really oughta hear MRS. They do the tension/release thing so well. Even when you know it’s on its way, when it hits you’re gonna get a thrill as you hang on that edge and then, all of sudden, everything lets loose.
While they are certainly mining the history of grunge - from the noisier headthrashin stuff to the poppier elements - MRS stands out by throwing in cool distinctively post-punky vocals and even nailing an ass-shaking deathrock groove at times. They mix it all with a bit of a 21st century sheen that makes even the raw and jagged edges go down smooth. “Blood Drive” is a mighty fine recording and yet another Transylvanian Records release that I feel like I get more from the more I listen.
The MRS/Shop Dog split-o-rama is a good one. Shop Dog is outta the Central Valley somewhere. MRS are some NorCal phemoms. It hangs with the slim stack of splits that totally work as each band's tracks strengthen the others and the songs aren’t throwaways, but instead some of their best work. Both bands are hanging out in an alt-rockin world of moody maneuverings leading to Big-ass Riffs with anthemic hooks and they complement each other in such super swell ways.
You can grab stacks of MRS (along with Shop Dog, and oh so much more) here:
https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mrs-blood-drive
To hear all this stuff that I’ve been yammering about the last few days played live, go see Loose Choir, Renewer, MRS & Pastoral, Saturday night (12/14/24) at the Cafe Colonial, all ages. What a special show.
Endless thanks to Transylvanian for continuing to provide an opportunity for so many of these great Sacramento area bands to get their recordings out to the world.
WORDS on SOUNDS: REFLECTING on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 14/31. POORSPORT
The last few years Sacramento’s emo scene has been doing some of the coolest stuff. Bands popping up - and popping off - all over the place. House venues and sweet places like DNL Studios nurturing a vibrant DIY scene centered on creativity, expression, mutual support, and some wild-ass wonderful music being made by folks right here in Sacramento and some exceptional bands coming through on tour. It’s been inspiring to see it all rising up from our Northern California underground. One of the very cool bands in the center of that world are POORSPORT, purveyors of a particularly powerful potion of emotive twinkly mathy scramsy diy punk stuff.
Back in the middle of 2024, POORSPORT put out “songs we wrote for our friends to sing” - an 8-song/20 minute release available through digital/streaming. Not sure if there is any other way that you can fondle it in your hands, but your ears are ready for it now and soon your voice will be joining in as well.
POORSPORT slices off hunks of sparkly, spacious music that builds up into ecstatic choruses of rousing group sing/shouting. I absolutely love the sparse moments where jagged undistorted guitar does some mathy twinkly off kilter shit with the drums and bass off wandering on their own paths and then suddenly it all coalesces into an urgent mass of rhythm and slash and strained shouting and the power of voices and instruments consolidating in unison.
Tons of feels in the mix - this is raw, dynamic, and effective music that is recorded as though it is happening right in front of your face. It’s honest, desperate at times, but ultimately hopeful stuff just absolutely loaded with passion. Nifty stuff made by nifty folx and well worth your attention.
Hear it here….
https://poorsport916.bandcamp.com/album/songs-we-wrote-for-our-friends-to-sing
Next Poorsport show I know about is not til February 26th when they play with Oolong (oooooh!<long>), Aren’t We Amphibians, and Day Hike at the Cafe Colonial which gives you plenty of time to learn the words to sing/shout along, “maybe tomorrow I will try again, maybe tomorrow I will sustain.”
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANTINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 15/31. SPAWN
SPAWN. Holy shit. Fresh old school death metal from Sacramento that feels like it just hatched outta nowhere to smack you upside the head as a fully formed entity.
Last week, a fabulous death metal lineup came to the Cafe - the always spectacularly dramatic deathgrind of Deathgrave; the technically artistic death thrash kaiju metal of Oxygen Destroyer; and the band I could not wait to see: Kontusion. I will pause here to just say, Kontusion is such a phenomenal band. Had been loving their tape for the last year - an exquisite and original raw punk/death metal mash up unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Live they exceeded expectations - adding noise to the mix and some of the angriest drumming I have ever seen.
But, this is about SPAWN. Spawn had the both enviable and intimidating task of opening up the show. What an opportunity and challenge for a new local band playing - what, their 3rd show?! - to open up such a dream lineup. They more than rose to the challenge and held their own setting the stage for a night of precise chaotic intensity.
SPAWN’s new/first release, “Excessively Rotted,” came out the week before and I grabbed a cd (the ultimate death metal format), and am even more blown away with it. 3 songs and 15 minutes of demented death metal nastiness. This is a new band, but they already have a distinct, powerful locked in sound.
“Bot Fly Propagation” opens up the ep with a delightfully annoying buzzing being taken over by whammy bar mayhem leading to a slow crushing riff that builds with regurgitated growls until it unleashes into fantastic shredding metal. They keep up the pace through the rest of the release. Galloping rhythms, superior and creative riffage, death vomit vocals, gorgeously sick bass bashing, squeaks and squeals in all the right places. This is all so well developed and already fantastic. Just so impressive
Spawn is playing Gory Christmas 2 on December 21st. To get info on that or how to track down a copy of their ep hit up @spawn_death_metal on instagram. Or go stream it somewhere. Methinks you will be quite pleased.
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 16/31 - THE FRENCHMEN
After 20 years, the Frenchmen are back. “Sorry We Ruined Your Party” came out around two decades ago and has now been reissued appearing on vinyl for the first time. They even reunited to play a couple shows this last summer.
They plant themselves near that legendary Sacto-specific juncture of indie-pop and punk rock that manages to avoid being any version of ‘poppunk’ except the particular brand that spurted up in the 1990/00s around downtown Sacramento. The Frenchmen load up with two minute blasts of raw fuzzy amped up pop full of chiming guitars over punk rock drumming. Fabulous trade-offs and fresh harmonizing in the vocals. Upbeat songs with a touch of melancholy and doubt. There’s a hyperspeed tempo and unrelenting rhythmic pace that keeps your eyes and ears wide open and brings the melodies to the forefront. This whole album is a head-nodding, finger-snapping, hip shaking good time. An honest, direct, charming, and very catchy listen. What a delight to have this slice of Sacramento music history resurface.
The Frenchmen returned to play the wonderful Charles Albright Fest outside at Phono Select back in August. A day of great music and a reunion of choice for many of us. Showgoers got comped a cd or tape comp full of tracks from bands connected to the show - a sweet local baker’s dozen of fuzzy harmonies and diy attitudes over 30 minutes. Kickin off with the twisted swam dirge of SusDMs followed by the great Monster Treasure (who have 2 songs here!), there’s also a delightfully raging quick Whoreified track, sugar sweet powerpop boppers from Knock Knock and Motorcycle, acoustic Vasas, and a stack of friendly, funny, and feeling tracks from a wealth of local overlapping underground talent before it all wraps up with the warped and touching extended jam that also serves as the title/them for the comp, “Friends Like These.”
Where are you gonna get this stuff? Track down Charles Albright and Sacramento Records.
The Frenchmen are hanging out on bandcamp….
https://thefrenchmen.bandcamp.com/album/sorry-we-ruined-your-party
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANTINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 17/31. Hidradenitis Suppurativa
Hidradenitis Suppurativa popped up in the Spring of 2024 leaving a brief yet inflamed mark. And then, I think they disappeared. Never to be heard from again?
“Goreality Beyond Belief” claims to be an “LP w/ 187 traxx + bonus traxx” spread out over 14.5 minutes, but I’ve listened a bunch and only counted 183. In spite of the potential deception, and because I have uniquely dubious tastes in music, it remains one of my favorite local releases of all time.
The entire album consists of someone beating the shit out of a drum set and what I think are extraordinarily distorted vocals. The drums I can recognize as drums - being beaten to crap. The ‘vocals’ sound to me like a fluid filled sewer pipe flowing through my brain twisting and turning, cracking, squealing, and gurgling. A sonic flooding of my brain cavity. Pretty spectacular. They call it gorenoise, I call it love.
Sounds made for walking on foggy, dark mornings or lying back with stupidly bright strobe lights sucking it all in leading to unsettling thoughts, meditations, and reflections that take you to those dark, very not-chill and anti-demure corners of your mind if you dare to explore. Beyond its mind-expanding potential, it sounds very cool in a terrible way.
Hidradenitis Suppurativa also put out a handful of shorter releases from early demo stage through later stuff (as in one month later in the history of this iconic local band). Most striking to me is the few minutes recorded for a split with Anal Birth hinting at some new sonic developments on the horizon that may never be explored cuz it seems like they just stopped.
I like when bands exist, do something wonderful, and then just end. I think that may be the case here. Although, maybe 20 years later they will get back together and put all this stuff out on vinyl like The Frenchmen did (see post 16/31).
More likely, that couple of months in the year of someone’s lord, 2024, is all we are gonna get. And probably all we deserve. If so, that’s cool cuz they left us with…
https://hidradenitissuppurativa1.bandcamp.com/album/goreality-beyond-belief-lp
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 18/31 - CLEVERLY DETACHED
“Cat Fight” by Cleverly Detached came out in 2023, but I didn’t hear it til I stumbled across it in the local cd stacks at Phono Select earlier this year, so I’m counting it as 2024. Plus they are playing this Friday and I can tell you about that as well.
By the way, those few rows of local cd’s at Phono Select really do provide a great - and affordable - opportunity to explore local music history. Go drop $20 on a few things you’ve never heard of before - or bands you’ve heard of but never heard - it can be a sonically rewarding adventure (and on occasion, quite painful).
Cleverly Detached is not painful at all. “Cat Fight” is a half dozen songs in a little more than twice as many minutes of genre hopping coolness rooted in a rockin punk sound. The vocals here are something special with a unique smoky bluesy tone that adds a depth and stretches out their sound. Songs hit on garage, power pop, punky alt-rawk and occasionally an essence of an old-school new wave vibe that I really dig. There’s moments of really great guitar and bass bits sprinkled throughout and some truly addictive hooks.
Part of the strength of this release is that Cleverly Detached doesn’t mess around - they have a ton of musical ideas, but fit them neatly into quick power-packed songs that keep you interested and never wear out their welcome. Clever lyrics wind throughout, “Did it to Myself” is a certifiable hit single, and it all wraps up with the beautiflly-titled “Math Test Escapee” that starts as a hella rhythmic garage rocker and two-thirds of the way through rips out a rapid-fire ending leaving you wanting more - one of the key signs of a quality ep.
Cleverly Detached is playing the Press Club on Friday, December 20 with Aggravated Assault, Hellcatraz, and Abstract Creatures. 21+.
You can stream “Cat Fight” in a bunch of places. I found a cd of it at Phono Select, maybe pick one up at their show or listen here: https://cleverlydetached.bandcamp.com/album/cat-fight
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 19/31. AEQUOREA & WOLF LICHEN
Fiadh Productions has been inundating the internet with metallic, dungeonesque, crusty, wild, and enchanting sounds from an explicitly anti-fascist, pro-queer angle while providing extensive support to animal welfare efforts. Had dug them for a while, but when they reissued Aruspex’s great “Hawthorne & Henbane” album on tape, I was hooked and really started paying attention. Their catalogue is vast and mighty, and they release several new recordings almost every week so worthy of your support and so generous in their sonic offerings. This last year, they dropped a couple other great ones from the nearby foothills and mountains…
AEQUOREA is one of a handful of bands who make me stumble when I try to put their name on the Sacpunk shows calendar. They released their album “Departure” on Fiadh in April 2024. From up around Nevada City, Aequorea makes heavy, desperate, thoughtful music. Five songs in 40 minutes allow them to spread out and take you places in each song. The common thread is a combo of fierce heaviness with spacious thoughtful emotional sections. Prog meets melodic and metallic crusty doom with a psychedelic deathrock cummerbund or something like that. Irregardless it works. A moving and inspired album.
Stumbled across Wolf Lichen in the virtual stacks of Fiadh stuff. Black metal inspired by the Sierra Nevada mountains ‘resolutely opposed to capitalism, settler colonialism, imperialism, fascism and bigotry.’ Wolf Lichen’s “Empyreal Alpine Lysergy’ starts off with a short calming acoustic track leading into the centerpieces of the album - two ten-minute tracks of searing and soaring black metal - heavy on the atmospherics with pretty phenomenal layered guitars and gutteral vocals screaming from the mountain tops. After 20 minutes of that intensity it wraps up with a stirring ambient track. A fantastically constructed album by a mysterious trio recorded and captured beautifully right here in River City at Earthtone Studios.
Fiadh stuff here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/ Explore with abandon and be sure to locate Wolf Lichen, Aequorea, (& Aruspex) - all so wonderful!
WORDS on SOUNDS: RAVINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 20/31. WORST WAYS
Worst Ways is part of the reason I wrote this and you are reading this right now. I decided to spend every day this month posting about a local recording that came out in the last year cuz Worst Ways album is so fucking good that I wanted to climb up on my rooftop and scream out, “YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS ALBUM!” Since my H.O.A. rewrote their bylaws to specifically ban that behavior after last year’s ‘incident,’ I decided to figuratively scream from the rooftops right here. I hope you can hear me. You need to hear this album.
Worst Ways developed out of a bunch of other bands. When I saw them, I thought they were quite good. Then it was announced they had a release coming out on legendary hardcore label New Age Records. Then I heard it - and holy shit! - completely blown away.
I often tell anyone who will listen, and many who won’t, that punk rock is at its best RIGHT NOW. Much of that I attribute to the new generations of folks coming in and reinventing and evolving punk in new directions. Some I attribute to the fact that bands today have a long-ass history of great music to pull upon. There is a cumulative inspiration of decades of great music and how it is refined now is both fascinating - and often much better - than in the past.
Worst Ways illustrates this as a band that has no problem pulling from the long and storied history of hardcore punk taking influences from all over the musical map and constructing hardcore excellence. Their songs are amalgamations of the best of the history of hardcore brilliantly and originally strung together for maximum impact. Over 10 songs and 20 minutes they weave together so many influences into a coherent whole that is powerful, catchy, heavy, and just so rad.
Vocals simultaneously pissed off and melodic. Songs that coherently veer from sick breakdowns to thrash bits to hard-edged emotion. Fantastic recording that picks up every change of vocal tone, every pick slide, every cymbal splash, every crushing riff, packing pure power.
You can get it from New Age Records or direct from…
https://worstways.bandcamp.com/album/worst-ways-s-t-lp
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 21/31. BLOUS3
Blous3 is unlike any other band around here. Their sound is wild and raw and well thought out while being noisy and chaotic and totally beautiful.
They’ve been putting out a bunch of consistently high-quality music over the last few years. At the end of 2023, when I did an end of the year recording recap, I took a look and listen to their “Illusion of Traffic” tape as part of a focus on the great local Research Chemical label that put out a bunch of great local stuff last year. Research Chemical seems to be taking a nap for a bit, but that Blous3 album - and the other stuff they put out - was really good and I think you would be lucky to hear it.
This year’s “Synchronized Swimming” album feels like a movement forward as they even more fully realize their sonic vision. It came out on tape/cd/digital on the excellent Bay Area label Cherub Dream. It’s still chaotic and delightfully jagged and messy in all the best ways, but these songs are so well-written and conceived. Hanging with a desperate tension on a wire threatening to break at any minute.
Guitars in your face slicing and dicing and doing battle; throbbing rhythms keeping scattered time; fierce breakdowns that feel like psyche breakdowns. Shared shouted / sung / sotto voce / screamed / spit vocals sometimes above the blare, sometimes creeping up from below, and sometimes joining in battle with the searing guitar sounds. Surprising melodies - sometimes hidden, sometimes sneaking up on you, sometimes smacking you upside the head. One of those recordings that reveals more each time you listen.
Totally unique and wonderful sounds that are beautifully difficult and different music. It’ll be quiet and slightly off center for a bit and then explode into intense and noisy, passionate and physical music. The kind of shit that makes me feel so giddy cuz it’s so good and unique and mindfuckingly addictive. Another must hear from around here…
Check out the Cherub Dream bandcamp (lots of good stuff): https://blous3.bandcamp.com/album/synchronized-swimmin
WORDS on SOUNDS: REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 22/31. BRIANNA CARMEL
Brianna Carmel has been doing great stuff around Sacramento for over a dozen years. Including creating fabulous music in various incarnations, booking diverse diy shows with 916 Growth Gigs, and curating a series of great benefit compilations. They are such an incredible force for good in our town.
2024 saw the release of a few new recordings that are some of their best and most powerful stuff they’ve done. The core remains the same: absolutely stellar vocals that manage to soar while staying grounded with vulnerable confessional lyrics willing to dig deeper than most would dare into emotion, identity, survival, mental health, and relationships. They make music that comes from deep personal places and through that incredible voice, brilliant phrasing, and driving rhythms encourages you to reach into those spaces yourself. Every time I hear their songs, I feel an impact.
“Bri Earned the Power of Self Respect” is a fantastic ep of 4 songs of truth telling tales from moving from darkness to surviving into thriving. Bri’s rhythmic ukelele playing is joined by electronic backing from folks like Lucy Broom and Octomammoth who add a powerful dimension to the songwriting.
They also released the great single earlier this year, “Never Said (a Platonic Love Song)” - a beautiful song of relationship that is exactly what the title says. The single is just voice, uke, and a bit of glockenspiel, and is delightful by itself, but then it was handed over to comrades for the ‘Remixes’ ep who added poppunky, hyperpop, and dance dimensions to the original track. Much cool
“Live on Upper Case split ep” takes stripped down performances of Little Tiny Knife, Blooming Heads, and Brianna solo on KSSU this last Fall and compiles them into a splendid sampler for you.
You can hear Brianna Carmel live with Blooming Heads tonight (Sunday 12/22!) with Push to Feel & Jeffy Spaghetti, and at their 27th Birthday bash with Little Tiny Knife along with Lucy Broom & the debut of Gator Show on January 5th. Both shows at Golden Bear, 21+.
All this and much more here: https://briannacarmel.bandcamp.com/music
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANTINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 23/31. KILLER COUTURE
Killer Couture has been thrilling and stunning for quite awhile now filling our world with striking sounds and powerful performance. Their new album “Everything in Normal,” released on Halloween, is their most fully realized and impactful recording yet.
For me, it is the massive wall of nasty guitar sounds throughout that draw on a variety of influences: that early punk sound that had one foot in hardcore and one in deathrock; metal at the juncture of NWOBHM and thrash; noise-rock that brings the noise, but knows how to rock. Filled with fist-pumping, weighty, head-banging original riffs. “Teeth” sounds like an industrial Oi! Anthem, there’s damaged surf soundscapes; sheets of shrieking feedback; the feeling that something (everything?) is about to crack.
Those riffs are piled upon layers of jackhammer rhythms - programmed and organic (there’s a lot of metal here in many different forms), layers of samples and sounds (headphones will yield a minefield of discoveries), and a spirit of vitriol. This album never lets up. Addictive choruses of forcefully shouted warnings of the impending - and acknowledgement of the existing - apocalypse. From beginning to end, this is filled with an unrelenting attack, but it’s also really catchy as shit. Hooks, albeit nasty as fuck hooks, are everywhere. One you want to come back to repeatedly.
See Killer Couture on January 3 at Cafe Colonial with 13th Sky plus In Retrograde (#7/31).
You can stream this album all over or grab it from - once again -Transylvanian Recordings. It sounds completely different from anything I posted about from Transyvlanian earlier this month. They have just put out so much great and diverse stuff this last year - including so much from around Sacramento.
Transylvanian end of the year sale continues - so pick up Killer Couture (and much more) starting here: https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/killer-couture-everything-is-normal and keep your eyes on your toothbrush for a pretty monumental announcement from Transylvania soon of the resurfacing of a lost recording of a monumental Norcal beast of a band.
WORDS on SOUNDS: RAVINGS about local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 24/31. PISS BAPTISM
Piss Baptism is perfect for your Christmas eve playlist. Fantastic and fabulously nasty blackened grinding death thrash. A maelstrom of swirling and pounding noise, but with provocative intricacies that only serve to heighten the power.
With 1.5 releases coming out this year on Transylanian Recordings and a live show that is sure to stun, amuse, impress, and make you angry smile, Piss Baptism is here for you this holiday season. “Relapse Straight Back to Hell” is a 3-song, 8 minute tape of chaotic fury. This release shows Piss Baptism expanding their sonic palate - still as intense, but there’s a lot more finesse running underneath.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Piss Baptism a lot over the last couple of years cuz they tend to play some of the best shows that happen in Sacramento. The last few shows I have felt that they are developing a depth in their songwriting that is taking them to new levels of mayhem. This release captures it perfectly. Still anguished and demonic as hell, but with an intentionality to the intensity that turns up the impact. Building structures of sonic destruction from tempo, shred, bash, and growl.
They also released a great split tape EP with Carrion Bloom featuring swirling chaotically controlled black metal dialing up into unrelenting grind that devolves into mammoth doom howling before returning to supersonic shred (and that’s just the first track!).
Carrion Bloom - who have some connections to Wolf Lichen (#19/31) - have released great stuff on the Transylvanian and Fiadh labels including “Heretic Howl” which is one of my favorite albums of the last few years. A blissful and desperate mix of raw punk / black metal / crust that you need to hear, and a perfect band to share a cassette with Piss Baptism. Another killer split from Transylvanian. Both these releases by the Pisser Family Duo belong in your stocking.
Piss Baptism is playing Cafe Colonial January 11 w/ Cartilage and Trencher. ALL AGES.
Get Piss Baptism (and much more) starting here: https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/piss-baptism-relapse-straight-back-to-hell
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on REVOLUTIONARY RECORDINGS to end 2024. #25/31. TRAИƧA
The world we live in is a better world because of transgender and genderqueer people. As someone who is fortunate enough to be surrounded by trans family, friends, and community, I get to experience this simple truth every day. For this, I am so grateful.
TRAИƧA is a massive recording project that captures a bit of this truth. A huge project conceived and implemented by the Red Hot folks over three years and released in late November, it is the only thing that I have listened to for the last month that is not a ‘local recording.’ Over 46 tracks and 4 hours broken into 8 chapters - Womb, Survival, Dark Night, Awakening, Grief, Acceptance, Liberation, Reinvention - songs, sounds, and stories reveal a new and ancient, evolving and splendid reality.
Featuring incredible collaborations with some big indie names showing up working with trans and genderqueer artists to create powerful covers / reinterpretations and so many fabulous originals. A spacious relaxed spirit gliding through ambient, experimental, electro-soul, indie folk & pop sounds. The most raging track is a fabulous rockin duet with Laura Jean Grace joining Jayne County for a take “Surrender Your Gender” backed by members of Bikini Kill, Sonic Youth, and the Patti Smith group. A month later, I am still reveling in the sounds and discoveries of this beautiful project.
Available for download / streaming. A 6 lp art box set can be preordered, but for now you can grab a single lp ‘TRAИƧA Selects’ which includes Sade’s first release in years - a heartbreaking apology to her trans son; Lauren Auder with Wendy & Lisa (of the Revolution) reinterpreting Prince; Sam Smith’s joining up with Beverly Glenn-Copeland; as well as the entire 2nd side being a 26 minute mind-expanding track by Andre3000 with the perfect title/advice, “Something is Happening and I May Not Fully Understand But I’m Happy to Stand for the Understanding.”
The more I listen, the deeper it reaches. My recommendation is so high it is having trouble standing up. Lots of places to track it down - start here….
https://redhot.bandcamp.com/album/tra-a
WORDS on WORDS (on SOUNDS & More): # 26/31. ZINES
ZINES! Their very existence makes me smile. Here’s a few from 2024 that I loved - all very different, yet coincidentally constructed by Sacto-ans currently living in San Francisco.
LUCKY - Girlboy zines has been putting out great writing and art for several years and has done so much to promote print. LUCKY is the latest creation and it is marvelous. Almost 100 pages, and a fantastic read from beginning to end. The highlight for me was the extensive interview with Rose Melberg digging back into days at McClatchy High, growing up in Sacramento, and starting Tiger Trap. One of the most interesting musician interviews I’ve ever read. This issue also features a great interview with photographer Chloe Sherman on 90’s dyke culture in San Francisco, and loads of personal and powerful writing on friendship, Graham’s transition, and dealing with getting stuck in ruts. Fabulous! You can also get it with a mixtape of the music that inspired it - available here: https://www.girlboyzines.com/
RECORD TIME - a big old 100+ page magazine labor of love published by Scott Soriano digging into the stories behind all those albums you can find for cheap at used record stores. 2 issues came out last year - 1st was such a delight and the 2nd was even better; 3rd one on the way. You want to hear about Sex Pistols knockoffs, Dutch prog, female impersonator albums 1950’s, NBA rap, Wisconsin polka?!? Of course you do! (No really. You do. This mag/zine will convince you with so many great stories/history). Get it here - and oh- there’s even a calendar! https://recordtimeorg.wordpress.com/
NOISE POLLUTION - Pure enthusiasm for the power of music. Join Shaun’s journey as they jump into a love of metal while moving from ‘mento to ‘ancisco. A short zine perfectly expressing the discovery of life-shaping music. Show reviews from small gigs to Aftershock; Metallica love; AAPI in the metal scene; thoughts on transitioning; and so much more. First issue last month was overflowing with great writing and excitement. Can’t wait to see what comes next. Get it here: https://noisepollutionzine.carrd.co/
Advice for 2025: Make more zines!
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024. # 27/31. BUILD US AIRPLANES
Build Us Airplanes last put out an album way back in 2011. And then…BOOM - surprise! A great new album appears at the end of 2024 on Sell Your Heart Records. “All Things Expire” shows they still have plenty to say and to play more than a dozen years since the last one.
Build Us Airplanes is a band made up of good folks including some who are in a stack of other fine bands quite well-known for making raucous ruckuses in the region, but “All Things Expire” stands on its own taking an approach teetering ‘tween and twixt indie rock and emo and melodic hardcore and a whole lot more. There’s a pop sheen to the hooks, a unique artistic take to the arrangements, sweet vocal harmonies, and enough punk in there to punch it up and keep moving forward.
Build Us Airplanes sound like a band who can do whatever they want at this point and this is what they wanna do. I love the really original guitar lines chiming throughout, the taut and jaunty rhythms, and the expressive voices. Build Us Airplanes is not bound to genre at all, just wanting to create great songs. And there are so many great songs here - somber bummer verses leading into enthusiastic and addictive choruses; chunks of rootsy americana bits slipping in and out; tracks building tension and hanging on jagged edges before resolving into powerful anthems. An album full of a wide variety of sounds that is a complete and coherent listen from beginning to end.
Thoughtful lyrics about a myriad of life’s struggles run throughout, and the whole album captures so many moods so very well. It wraps up in a tidy 25 minutes and I always find myself wanting to listen again, in part cuz that last track, “Before We’re Tired” is just so fuckin good, “All things expire in this lifetime, but I need more time….This will never be. Give it all away! For free…”
See Build Us Airplanes play live on January 9th at Cafe Colonial with the most excellent SWEAT.
“All Things Expire” available here…
https://buildusairplanes.bandcamp.com/album/all-things-expire
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANDOM REFLECTIONS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024 # 28/31. SHOTGUN SAWYER
Holy fuckbubbles, I am digging this one so much. SHOTGUN SAWYER put out a new self-titled album recently and it is tapping deep into my not-so-often discussed love of the blues. We should discuss that sometime - as well as my love for banjo-forward old time string band, dub, rebetika, and tuareg musics - but not right now. For now, let’s just talk about Shotgun Sawyer’s new album. It is a total fuckin scorcher (in a non-powergrindviolencecore type of way). Sometimes bands playing the blues can suck, SHOTGUN SAWYER plays the blues in a way that fuckin rules.
SHOTGUN SAWYER was always a band kinda on the edge of my consciousness. They hadn’t played too many shows recently. I had seen them a time or two through the years, and I thought of them as a pretty solid bluesy grungy rock band from up in the foothills.
They resurfaced this last year with a new self-titled lp - I think it’s their third - which I have absolutely loving cuz it is so fuckin solid, and cuz it reminds me of how much I really dig well-done electric blues. Throw in some occasional harkening back to deep delta roots, occasional forays into heavy as hell grungeblues riffs, and even trippy psychy doomer shit, and you got a spectacular stew.
The guitar on this thing is just nasty as shit. Phenomenal string attacking lickery dripping with fuzz and touches of killer slide. Ass-shaking chunky funky rhythms with drums sounding so deep and bass so heavy. Expressive and howling vocals. A band who clearly knows what the fuck they are doing and do it so well, with so much spirit and passion. It all sounds simultaneously ancient and so very very in this moment. You gotta hear this.
Shotgun Sawyer returns to the stage on January 24 at the Cafe Colonial with Samavayo - all the way from Germany on their way to Planet Desert Rock in Vegas - and most delightful Vinne Guidera and the Dead Birds back at it to fill show listings with 6-word band names.
You can and should grab Shotgun Sawyer here…
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/shotgun-sawyer
WORDS on SOUNDS: RAPID RAVINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024 # 29/31. THE TEST DREAM / THE Q-ZARS / UNPLEASANT
3 quick delights:
1) THE TEST DREAM: Last night chunky punchy gig at F.O.E. Hall such a perfect hardcore show to end 2024. Big room, great sound, 200 people going off, every band killing it from start to end. For me, standout amongst all the stalwarts was The Test Dream who are packing so much into COREness that verges on chaos, but then they always bring it back with hella hunky crusher riffs. Desperate vocals; noise guitar; screamo flashes; drums all over the place in all the right places; breakdown; pile on; squidgyshred guitar into ultraheavy mega-riff. Spectacular! Got their s/t ep (from 2023, but out in cuddleable form on Home to the Heart records in 2024). It rules. Two days ago they released a split with Watch You Fall (so good last night too), listening on youtube and it’s even better, more fully developed shredding and chaotically raging. Find it all @thetestdream #sactostyle
2): THE Q-ZARS: “I’m A LIttle Worried, Actually” showed up in my life a week ago. Solo project or full band? Don’t know, don’t care. It’s strange, swirling, Sacto-riffic with rockin guitars, out there synths, mixed up delightful sounds full of surprises. Rooted in blurry indie-punk rock, but blasting out into space from a janked up launcher planted askew in a swamp of oddness. Wrap your earholes around this one for #adifferentkindasactostyle
Get it here: I'm A Little Worried, Actually | The Q-Zars | Slow Hair T Rex Recordings
3) UNPLEASANT: One person far away with a plentitude of local connections, and this is anarcho-punk, so I say it belongs here. “Controlled Demolition” is 8 songs of hi-quality lo-fi bedroom anarcho with a couple of covers/reinterpretations in the mix. Choppy rhythms, ranting vocals with a twisted take on class consciousness and rebellion, fuzzed to the fuck bass, noisy interludes, anarchy crunch. Love the way it simultaneously leans on radical influences of the past, and processes and regurgitates it all into a new form moving forward. So much splendidness. Hear it here: https://unpleasant.bandcamp.com/album/controlled-demolition #anarchostyle
WORDS on SOUNDS: RANTINGS on local RECORDINGS to end 2024 # 30/31. COCKRING
COCKRING may be my favorite local band. Don’t tell all the others, cuz they might get jealous. I’m not supposed to play favorites.
Chatting with my dearly departed mother, she rolls her eyes and says, “But of course they are one of your favorites, they are queer to the core and call themselves, ‘Cockring.’”
“But mom, they are sooooo good!”
Cockring’s new album “Altar Call” is out on vinyl & tape on the impeccable NoTime label and takes the excellence of their 2022 demo & 2023 split with Fastcase and gets even deeper into capturing what makes them so grand.
The power of Cockring has always been the horrendously and beautifully nasty twisted sound they capture. This is soul churning stuff reaching into the depths, fighting to stay alive, but then moving beyond mere survival to liberation. Yeah they’re gay as fuck, AND, holy fuck these songs are monsters of mayhem. I love it all so much. Being able to see them grow musically to this point is so thrilling.
Their songs are gut wrenching forces of power unafraid of digging into anguish through dissonance. The twists and turns and hardcore weirdness are so wonderfully affirming. Vitriolic vocals, crushing rhythms, guitars doing really sick and wild shit you gotta hear. They drop staggering - and unique as shit - breakdowns, and rage with abandon when the moments call for it.
I also appreciate so much seeing how much they have grown into their role as local hardcore icons supporting other queers, freaks, and nifty people. Not shying away from using their voice and making a space that affirms folks, and breaks through cycles of abuse and self-hatred that has caused so much of the anguish and suffering which is so beautifully and horribly reflected in this incredible album.
This is the kinda band that helps people stay alive. For that, I am so thankful. Recommendations so high that my straight edge self is giving me hella side-eye.
Record release show February 22nd w/ All Beat Up, Ingrata, & Indrid Cold @ Demo Spot
Listen here: https://cockring.bandcamp.com/album/altar-call
Buy stuff you can fondle here: https:notimerecords.com/cockring
Words on Sounds: Reflections on Local Genius to end 2024. #31/31. ANIME ALIENS
Anime Aliens is Charlie Passarell making music solo and in collaboration, and is one of the most prolific, and I would argue important, musical entities to ever exist in Sacramento. Should you doubt the veracity of my hyperbole, I ask only that you listen to all 142 albums posted on their bandcamp before challenging my assessment.
At the beginning of covid lockdowns in April 2020, I listened to and wrote about the first 15 mostly guitar-centric albums posted on the Anime Aliens bandcamp, found here: https://www.sacramentopunkshows.com/p/anime-aliens-april-2020.html
But, that was then.This post is about the last 20 Anime Aliens’ albums, #’s 123 through 142. Some kwik-maths tells me that means they have put out over 100 albums since 4/20.
Last Fall, Anime Aliens temporarily transformed into an ambient / electronic / new age / dungeon project creating fine synthy sounds for deep listening, reflection, and meditation. The work ranges from good veering into magnificent ,and will take you on sonic journeys if you dare. One of my favorite genres of music when done right, and Anime Aliens often get it right. My highest recommendations for your travels are albums 125, 127, 130, TM Practices, and Ancient Geode (136).
Cuz the creativity never ceases, Anime Aliens has been on a free jazz trip as of late. This includies a moving solo album (138) “Reflections on the Imminent Death of My Father,” as well as “Passing Tones” a duo set with his dad (the great local jazz/improviser Tony Passarell). Album 140 is a swell burning group free jazz freakout, and be sure to check out the most excellent solo work of #141 which strives to magically weave together all these threads. Still trying to wrap my head around that grip of spiritual electronic jazz experimentation, but I know I love it. Most recent is #142 out on 12/22/24 - a sweet tribute to Wendy Carlos and Ravel. Another album probably came out while I was editing this. If so, it will be good. Try to keep up at https://animealiens.bandcamp.com/
Upcoming Anime Aliens shows:
1/25-w/Lokeigh & Yseulde @ Musiclandria.
3/29-w/Rent Romus @ Bunker
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