Solids “Traces”

This is a song for driving.

A flying song.

A fuck you song.

Thank you song.

Algiers “Black Eunuch” – Video Single

These talented Atlanta cats are poised to drop their self-titled on Matador.

Definitely worthy of more than a cursory listen.

Can’t wait to hear the full LP.

Is Algiers a reference to Old Bull Lee’s LA. home? Or the the capital city of Algeria?

There’s some voodoo in this tune.

Keep an ear open for the ghost of Joan Vollmer.

Best Records of 2014 – A List

Records of 2014

For a full list of favorite Wrongstring tracks, check the Spotify playlist at the end.

That D’Angelo album is incredible. Get the Vinyl. Expand your sonic landscape. So funky.

Memoryhouse by Max Ricther is probably my favorite record of the year. It was a surprise in that it’s classical, not my usual choice. Something about the way I heard it and when I guess. Being that we’re all fans of music, that little bit of magic is what makes it all worth it, keeps us looking for those diamonds in the rough.

Another surprise for me was Run the Jewels 2 (download). Hearing it, as I did, in context with the Michael Brown grand jury verdict amplified the frustration and anger for a situation in American history that makes me want to scream. Especially the track “Close Your Eyes (and count to Fuck).”  Its the riot soundtrack in my mind each time I think about Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and the kids in Ayotzinapa.

Viet Cong “Cassette” EP is incredible. The production. Guitar work. Songs. The aesthetic of the band and sonic richness of the record is inspiring. Just like the Women “Public Strain” album, this one is a new classic (if you haven’t heard Women yet, check them out, for fans of Joy Division, Velvet Underground and Television).

A new “Old” discovery was Tim Maia’s Luaka Bop compilation, Nobody Can Live Forever. Funky and soulful. It was released in 2012.
“Que Beleza” is a standout.

One of the strongest contenders for bleakest and catchiest albums of the year came from Detroit in the form of Protomartyr Under Color of Official Right. That’s right, bleak as a smog filled skyline in a city on the eternal decline. Abandoned music.

The funk apocalypse will be scored by the genius soul purveyors of The Budos Band. Their Burnt Offering transmuted power and groove.

The Twilight Sad Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave is a career best for the Scottish post punk band. There’s significantly more guitar on this album. It is bigger sounding.

Below is a spotify playlist to some of my favorite tracks of the year.

Does It Explode Live at Soda Bar

Does It Explode is playing with Life Leone and Foreign Film tonight at the Soda Bar in San Diego.

We (Does It Explode) go on at 9:15pm.

$6

21+

Weatherbox “Pagan Baby” – Live at Braund

Summer heat makes the blood run hot.

That’s when you switch from “craft beer” to something in a can that comes in a six or twelve pack, not a bomber or four pack.

Hang up the sultry spring albums and bring out the records that sound great in a car without A/C.

Weatherbox season. Half-pipes and fun-boxes and never-landed kickflip varials. Frustratingly fun, even for my old bones.

Brian Warren. Dudes’ been writing hit songs for years in the criminally overlooked, under-appreciated Weatherbox for years. Lyrics are top notch too.

They’re new record Flies in All Directions was released this year from Triple Crown Records.

Standout tracks:

Pagan Baby

Kick-flips, with a nod to the refrain, “My Body is a Bomb.” Undeniably catchy.

Does It Explode – Live at Tin Can Alehouse February 22, 2014

The punk rock collective, of which I provide guitar sounds for, Does It Explode, will have their live debut, Saturday Feb. 22 2014 at the Tin Can alehouse. We’ll be playing with our compadres in Flying Hyenas and Deep Sea Thunderbeast.

9pm

$5

21+

Cloud Nothings “I’m Not Part of Me” – New Single

2012’s Attack on Memory by Cloud Nothings was and remains one of my most visited records. The fucking breakdown in “Wasted Days” is one of the most intense and inspiring I’d heard in years. How these guys could remind me of the best parts of Fugazi and Sonic Youth and make it their own still astounds.

I caught them live in Austin with UME and Portugal the Man. Cloud Nothings have this lightning in a bottle approach to guitar music that grabs me by the throat and dares me to live better, try harder and quit fucking around. It’s likely reverse psychology at work on Attack on Memory. By contrast, the material and lyrical content are dark and filled with rage, longing and melodic guitar lines. When Baldi sings, “I thought I would be more than this,” you exchange the “I” for yourself and can’t help but wonder similar things. Is this all I am capable of? How can I not trip on my own two feet walking down the street?

I mean, everyone wonders the same thing. Right?

It doesn’t matter. Because as soon as that noise-drenched interlude gets 2/3’s of the way through and the drums are pounding you forget what it was you were asking in the first place.

Their forthcoming album Here and Nowhere Else (out 3/26 on Carpark/Mom + Pop (Mom + Pop put out last year’s AMAZEBALLZ record Shulamath by Poliça)) promises much earned levity and based on the recently released single, “I’m Not Part of Me,” we can expect a bend in the elbow to the mouth of Baldi’s Fuck It All approach from the previous record. Layered production. More refined song writing. Great guitar playing. Stellar arrangements. How can he not be stoked with the critical acclaim of the past album?

Maybe a smile?

See these guys live.

STREAM: “I’m Not Part Of Me” – https://soundcloud.com/cloudnothings/im-not-part-of-me

Hit the Ground Running in 2014 – Does It Explode (music)

I’ve been working on a project with Gary, my editor for Caustic Soda, on a new musical endeavor called Does It Explode. Mark, with whom I played in Cabron is also in the band as well as my friend, Veronica. Veronica did a few covers with Awakeners, including a slamming version of Portishead’s “All Mine.”

When Gary and I began writing for this project we both wanted to do something outside our comfort zone. Gary is a lead guitar player mostly but plays bass in D.I.E. and I am a mostly rhythm guitar player, but in D.I.E. I’m playing my version of “lead” guitar.

Earlier this month we did a rehearsal studio recording with my friend and creative collaborator, Dan Maier. The tracks turned out quite well. In fact I’m really proud of it. Demos are great because they are raw and help formalize the songs as well as create ideas for refinement of what eventually, will become studio tracks.  No overdubs. We did several takes and on both songs, used the third. Minimal editing. You can hear one ‘wrongstring’ flub in the pre-outro in Pink Crosses.

LISTEN at http://doesitexplode.bandcamp.com/

*Photo courtesy of Charles Shannon

Black God “Everyone’s a Friend”

This glorious piece of melodic punk popped up on the InterZone comms this afternoon and I thought I should share it. http://www.theelementaryrevolt.net/2012_03_01_archive.html drew comparisons between The Wipers and Fugazi and I was sold, plus the band’s DNA, members of Young Widows, Black Cross and Coliseum.

And the album is on No Idea. ‘Nuff said.

Future of the Left “A Guide to Men”

“To Hell With Good Intentions” on seminal sound document, Mclusky Do Dallas was one of those rare songs that no one asked to be written but as soon as I heard it, I couldn’t imagine a world without it. Or rather it’s absence from my iTunes library.

Wait…it was on compact disc, purchased from Double Entendre along with Casket Lottery’s Moving Mountains and Small Brown Bike’s Dead Reckoning, fall 2001?

Hard to forget the rawness of the soundtrack to post 9/11. Never saw Mclusky live though. Damn.

Falco’s carnival barker delivery weaves in and out of the two-note bassline, juxtaposed by the droning serpentine guitar until it explodes in a noisey chorus, “And we’re all going straight to hell!”

Falco went and created a new band called Future of the Left.

They’ve been operating for a few years but their latest is a testament to guitar based music.

It’s guitar boner-iffic.

I’m anxiously awaiting postal delivery of the new LP, How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident.

I speculate some top 10 albums of 2013 action if this song is any indication of a deeper dive.

“Civilized people don’t fuck bears // civilized people don’t play fair”