Monolith Cocktail Blog

CULT NO-FI ICON BRIAN BORDELLO REVIEWS ANOTHER BATCH OF RECENT AND NEW RELEASES (UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE, ALL RELEASES ARE OUT NOW)

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Annie Taylor ‘School Girl’
(Taxi Gauche Records)

‘School Girl’ is a ram jam minute and a half of rambunctious melody and indie guitar rock, a workout of pure pop indiedom. Plus, why don’t more people release songs under two minutes anymore? If it was good enough for Buddy Holly is certainly good enough for everyone else. Well-done Annie Taylor.

Nails ‘Nail Me’

What a splendid racket. This is the debut release by a brand-new band made up of a gang of teenagers all aged between 16-18. The sound of youth, the sound of a band that is still in the development stage when everything is fresh and exciting, with the sound of hormones surging from their guitars.

There are a number of exciting young guitar bands around at the moment and Nails are another one to add to the watch out for list. They have youth, excitement and by the sound of it, the inklings of songwriting talent and a variety of influences: surely Nails are too young to remember the Cardiacs, but at certain points during ‘Nail Me’ the Cardiacs do spring to mind alongside Queens Of The Stone Age. Yes, indeed Nails are the sound of the dreams of the local rehearsal room where anything is possible and where the magic happens. 

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A.R. Kane ‘A.R.Kive (1988 to 1989)’
(Rocket Girl)

Songs that soar and scrape the sky; plowing through the subconscious separating despairing grey clouds of pollution and lost hope, clawing kisses substituting the tick tock of the slow hand taunting you through the everyday workday blues, knowing when that slow hand eventually reaching the magical five, the five that will explode in a star-shine feedback beauty, whispering, swaying, you will once again be free. Be free to soundtrack the small town existence or your lost in the city hustle. A muse, a music that will make you feel special, make you feel like a select and secret club: this is how one of the disciples must have felt. It must have been how one of those teenage girls felt stood inches away from the leather cladded four head monster from Liverpool in that dank cellar full of noise before they erupted and changed the world. Surely you are experiencing the second coming. Surely the moistness, the orgasmic nature of teenage sexual high has never been quite this sexual: never quite taken you this high. This is how the flowers of ‘67 must have felt as Hendrix strutted and pouted biblically, leading the chosen ones to a land that promised much but folded in a squalid syringed end of a decade of could ofs and should of Beens. This is how it must have been like to be in The Velvet Underground selling little but influencing a future generation of youngsters with art in their eyes. This is how it must have felt to be A.R. Kane.

Present Electric ‘S-T’
(Paisley Shirt Records)

Now as the “king of No-fi” (as anointed by Goldmine Magazine) I can fully appreciate the beauty of this album; all lo-fi and scratchy with primitive drum machines and beautifully played guitars that are plucked and strummed with a gentle abandon. That are swirled and mixed with melodica, handheld percussion and keyboards that add to the beauty of this lo-fi gem. The beauty of lo-fi is the adventures you can take the music only using ltd resources and your own skill and talent and madness. And I’m happy to report that Present Electric has all three with abundance. A really enjoyable listen.  

It’s Karma It’s Cool ‘Thrift Store Troubadours’

If you are looking for Throbbing Gristle noise experimentation this may not be the album for you, but if you are looking for an album filled with mid to late 60’s Hollies like pop with a touch of the Smithereens and stand era R.E.M. then Thrift Store Troubadours could be your thing.

Songs where the guitars chime and rock without entering into Slash perm lotion territory; songs that gently erupt in a wash of tight and tuneful harmonies that may entertain Graham Nash enough in the shower to put down his bar of soap and add a fifth high harmony, and him fondly reminisce about the time he lived with Joni Mitchell, and Charles Manson was his next door neighbour. Or the kind of album that will have Chris Pender scratching his head and wondering why the two Searchers Sire albums did not sell in greater quantities. So if you are indeed a fan of any of the bands mentioned or just someone who has a penchant for well-written 60s/70s tinged power pop ditties, give it a listen.

Oopsie Daisies ‘S-T EP’
(Metal Postcard Records)

If Bob Dylan had grown up in the C86 generation, taking in the jangle and indie pop like magic, he may have sounded like the Oopsie Daisies; an EP that is covered in layers of jangly guitars and Field Mice and the Wake like keyboards, and the clipity-clop drum machine that so enamoured me to the whole sound and feel of the DIY bedroom music culture.

This 4-track little beauty is full of charm, lo-fi elegance and a little teetering on the edge magic: especially the last track, the wonderful ‘Illusioned Broken Toys’; a song that captures the melancholy feel of the late 80’s early 90’s Beloved and one of my fave tracks this year.

Flashcubes ‘Pop Masters’
(Big Stir Records)

The pre ghost of Pete Best haunts his old haunts, taking in the memories when he was the backbeat to what would be the greatest and most influential band to ever strum a guitar on the planet; the band that would influence everything from how pop music was not just a thing that teenagers spent their money on and soundtracked their sexual adventures and nights on the town, but to being considered an art form to be studied and dissected by forward thinkers and beard strokers.

Pete shifts through where The Cavern used to stand and moves onto the tourist trap that is the facsimile that stands today. He stops to look at the statues and has a slight tear in his eye when he sees the four lads that shook the world knowing that he was the fifth, the silent partner, and the cast off Beatle. He stops off and smiles when he sees the Cilla statue and remembers the nights when she used to sing with the fabs before they were the fabs: when they were the pre-fabs. But he is not bitter. He has made his million from all the reissues of the handful of recordings he made with the pre-fabs, and he has all those memories knowing they may never have made it to Hamburg without him, where they learned their art and became the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band ever. He stops thinking and remembering and pops a cd into the player… ah good time rock ‘n’ roll pure power pop for everyday people. Pop master‘s by the Flashcubes plays as Pete lights another cig spins his drumstick and smiles.

Life Strike ‘Peak Dystopia’
(Stable Label on Tape/ Bobo Integral on Digital Formats)

What do we have here, I hear no one ask. Well my disappointed little life smugglers, this is an album of pure jingle jangle from the deepest and sunshine filled explosion of finery that is Australia. Yes, Life Strike capture the magic of early Go Betweens with all stuttering post-punk guitar riffs and Primitive melodies, or indeed Primitives melodies as the pop fun track that is ‘Tears On Tuesday’ had myself and my lady wife humming ‘Through The Flowers’ by the end. Peak Dystopia is an album that will appeal to all those indie pop lovers from yesteryear when the June Brides were second in the hearts to the Smiths, or preferred Primal Scream before they discovered the Rolling Stones and showed themselves to be heartless money grabbing bastards.