The newest from SF metal band Kowloon Walled City
October 26, 2009
Kowloon Walled City’s new record is called Gambling on the Richter Scale , which is both a homage to their San Francisco roots and an introduction to their sound. Taking a page from bands like Unsane and local heroes Neurosis, the quartet specializes in mammoth, down-tuned riffs — slabs of tectonic impact that seem summoned from the San Andreas fault itself. Built around bassist Ian Miller’s monstrous tone and the sheer amperage marshaled by guitarists Scott Evans and Jason Pace, the band is undergirded by Jeff Fagundes’ heavy-handed drumming and brought to a rousing roar by Evans’ hardcore-influence barks, which evince the influence of sludge-core practitioners like Seattle’s Akimbo.
The group take their name from a notorious Chinese enclave in British Hong Kong, a hotbed of crime, urban squalor, and unlicensed dentistry that was torn down in the 80’s. The group’s pummeling chords, sickly melodies and raw-throated screams are well suited to evoking this kind of urban dystopia, and Gambling… is a masterclass in the kind of thunderous dirges that have made Kowloon Walled City a rising tide in the Bay Area’s ocean of heaviness. Stately, mid-tempo assaults like “Clockwork” and “More Like the Shit Factory” find the band in full marauding-giant-footstep mode, while “Diabetic Feet,” inches the tempo up just a notch, resulting in sludgy, bare-knuckled destruction.
Vetiver – Tight Knit
March 24, 2009
Originally posted at KQED Arts.
The Bay Area has been pumping out some truly excellent folk-rock over the past decade, and few bands have excelled in the genre like San Francisco’s Vetiver. It’s been three years since bandleader Andy Cabic last released an album of original music. 2008 brought A Thing of the Past, a well-regarded collection of eclectic covers that introduced the band’s now-solidified five-member lineup, but Tight Knit–the group’s fourth album–is their first on the ever-evolving Sub Pop Records. Moreover, one hopes and suspects it will introduce them to an expanded indie music audience.
It’s tough to discuss Cabic’s band without referencing the “naturalismo” (to some, pejoratively, “freak-folk”) scene associated with his past collaborator Devendra Banhart. Banhart contributed to the first two Vetiver albums, and Cabic toured in Devendra’s band and produced Cripple Crow. But although the two have co-written songs and co-founded the Gnomonsong record label, their projects substantially diverge sonically. Most notably, Vetiver’s music doesn’t as overtly seek the avant-garde. If anything, it’s more disarmingly conventional–not in the sense of playing it safe, but in embracing and then adapting classic folk-rock sounds and song structures. Mix that with strong songwriting and production, and the result is ten gorgeous songs. [More...]
Window Twins – I’m This Tall City
March 5, 2009
A record as disarmingly personal as I’m This Tall City feels like a rare and special creature. “Personal” might be a little misleading. There’s no indication that it’s lyrically autobiographical in any sense, and it’s not particularly narrative-driven for the most part. Musically, though, the intimate and varied soundscapes that layer the work’s nine songs feel like a trip down the rabbit hole into the strange and fascinating musical psyches of its creators, The Window Twins.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Window Twins – “Maybe It’s Time”
Continue reading the review in it’s entirety at KQED Arts.
Triclops! – Out of Africa
November 26, 2008
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Obama’s election aside, all available signs indicate that we’re already neck deep in some pretty bad times in America, and I think that’s part of why I’ve found myself listening to Triclops!’s Out of Africa quite a bit this year. Bad times call for heavy, feel-bad music to keep the blood boiling as things fall apart, and the band’s first full length release is a slab of acid punk that definitely delivers, fusing a wandering critical lyricism to compositions that draw from a broad array of post-hardcore, prog, metal and experimental rock sounds. [More...]
Mike Relm: Spectacle
November 19, 2008
Mike Relm’s new album is serious. But I don’t mean it lacks fun in any way. The album is both a stray from some of the comedic live mash-ups he is famous for and a symbol of Relm’s recent success and his ascent into the “serious” music business. But what’s interesting to consider is how Relm got to be where he is – he’s always embraced a quite paradoxical blend between the silly and the serious. [More...]
Deerhoof: Offend Maggie
October 27, 2008
I’ll probably get myself in trouble for saying that I think Offend Maggie is Deerhoof’s best project yet. While many critics have been quick to point out that the band has settled into a pattern of similar-sounding experimental music after 10 albums, this project brings a kind of lightness and optimism that is quite new for this band. Many of their previous efforts have necessitated the listener have a certain, shall we say, sonic open-mindedness. [More...]
Winter’s Fall: Winter’s Fall
September 29, 2008
“Indie? Narco-Country?” That’s the question posed by Berkeley quartet Winter’s Fall on their web site, and it’s one that could be asked of a number of the bands dominating alternative music today. In recent years, groups like My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes have emerged as the spiritual successors to Neil Young and his CSN brethren, mixing reverb-saturated vocals and twangy guitars into music that’s firmly rock-pop but with an introspective emotional core. From the moment you hear singer Peter Stanley’s voice, it’s apparent that Winter’s Fall draws from this same lineage, but the band’s first full length album, self-released earlier this year, features strong songwriting and a warm atmospheric feel that have it quickly becoming one of my favorite Bay Area records of the year. [More...]
Birdmonster: From the Mountain to the Sea
September 2, 2008
From the looks of them, the members of Birdmonster are slightly unlikely folk-heads. They are skinny and wear tight jeans. Their hair is disheveled perfection. But when the music starts, it is raw and heartfelt, sometimes twangy — indie-folk tunes with grace. [More...]
