Brain Tumors - Tape

There. Check out that image. If I'm reading it correctly, it's telling you that pouring beer on a brain tumor fixes it. How can you not want to take that logic home and snuggle it till you jizz in your pajama pants.

Idunno. Good punk hardcore stuff from Minnesoda. Guitars are crunchy and gnarly. Sort of reminds me of The Dicks, a band you are sort of obligated to like even if you don't care for the tunes.

Anyway, it's a fast listen. Give it a whirl.

DL

The Bright Lights - Bright Lights

The Bright Lights are friends with punk lo fi noise indie pop brats Boyracer, and you can sort of tell it immediately. Fast catchy guitars, off-putting morose lyrics (the first song's refrain is If it wasn't for you/I probably would've killed myself), and lotsa feedback. I can't find a photo of the record online so instead that's a fucked up illustration by Alain Le Saux (courtesy of drtenge.com).

DL

Double Dagger - Masks EP

I really like this band. They do the same stuff as bands like Coachwhips, Lightning Bolt, Le Shok, Wives, except without all the obnoxiousness. With Double Dagger, there isn't that extraneous effort, their music isn't clamoring for the spotlight. They keep it cool, daddy-o. Nice rock songs about boring people and wanting to fuck your best friend without wearing fucking jock straps on their heads and saying ridiculous things just to "blow people's minds." That being said, you might prefer the other four bands if you're still in college and think superfluous use of ethnic slurs is the most insane shit in the world. It's a coming of age thing.

DL

Ballboy - A Guide for the Daylight Hours

Why are Scottish bands so good at humor? This record keeps you on your toes, you're never entirely sure whether you're in on the joke or you're laughing at a man's heartfelt musings, though song titles like "I Wonder if You're Drunk Enough to Sleep with Me Tonight" can help give some direction.

This is a weird one to talk about. "Europewide Search for Love" might be the only completely heartfelt song on here, and it's a really really pretty listen, "Sex Is Boring" and "Avant Garde Music" are about making fun of people who think knowing a lot about useless shit carries any clout in the real world (You've read more books than I could ever read/and you've seen more films than I could ever see/so why is it that you don't know any more than me?), "Meet Me at the Shooting Range" sounds like the guy's making fun of the acoustic ballad he's performing.

Yeah. Do yourself a favor and download this and listen to it a few times. It's a good conversation starter, like how to spell Mohmar Gadhafi's name, or a coffee table book about dongs.

DL

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded

Don't let the lame album cover fool you. Australian punk rock band. Includes a song about kissin' cousins. Aussie Aussie Aussie.

DL

Le Mans - Saudade

Pretty music by a Spanish band. What else do you want me to say? Get off my back.

Great listening while in bed falling asleep next to a sex partner, and when I say sex partner, I don't mean the one you pay money for, I mean the one you see in all those rom-coms, like Garden State, or Juno.

Seriously though.

DL

Let Me Crazy - Contraflow

Huntington, New York (thanks, Chris!) rock and roll band writes an incredible record about time spent in New Orleans and how it sucks to live in a hurricane. Has that blue-collar punk rock vibe. Good God/Bad God transitioning into the next track, Birdbath, is the way all midpoints of records should sound. Like, if this was on vinyl, it'd be like Birdbath ends, Side A ends, you go, "Fuck," and the silent period where you flip the record over is your own little intermission, let's you get excited about what's going to happen next.

DL

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

I am having a difficult time trying to describe this album without sounding cheesy, but I can't. This shit is fucking beautiful. Johnny Hartman has a smooth and strong bass voice that keeps the normally I'm-on-fucking-heroin-I-just-played-thirty-different-notes-in-a-millisecond John Coltrane a lot mellower, more appreciative of the standards he's sharing with such a good conventional voice.

All the songs are jazz ballads in the sense that they capture a mood that not many other music genres can. And if you don't want to try the whole record, at least listen to Lush Life, and introduce yourself to the song you should listen to after a long night of drinking and you're feeling sad in a good way.

By the way, if anyone out there plays jazz and is reading this, I am willing to concede that I have no idea what the fuck I am talking about so long as it helps you keep your cool.

DL

ampersand.

Great 22-minute record of, yeah, this I'd call indie pop. Guitars are nice and jangly, songs sound a lot like a sad dude in flannel with a sweatshirt tied around his torso. Spent a good couple of months listening to "Picture Perfect" over and over. Sorry for keeping this under wraps for such a long time.

DL

The Dentists - Dressed

One more before I go hit on lesbians.

Big collection of music by early 90s British band. Indie pop? I hear it and I think of Polaris, the Pete and Pete band, but with a little more of a 60s edge, a little more stuck in the past.

Funny story, looked them up on Wikipedia to find this disclaimer:

This band is unrelated to the short-lived Nazi punk band of the same name.

So if you're gonna reference The Dentists in casual conversation, might be safe to add "You know, the ones that weren't Nazis."

DL

Teengenerate - Get Action!

Or maybe you prefer your Reservoir Dog punk a little more pimply and Japanese. Features a Queers cover and other shit. Apparently this is big on the blogosphere, but fuck it, I found this guy on Soulseek years ago, so technically I was first.

Also did not know they were Japanese until right now.

DL

Marked Men - S/T

Hey, I hear you like playing air guitar in a standing/crouching position with one leg bent up into your belly like you were deflecting blows and the other leg on the ground but the knee bent in a hoppy jaunty manner. Also you like having your mouth open while you play so you sort of look like Mick Jagger. Classic Chuck Berry pose.

You know who I think you'd like? The Marked Men. You know, they got the punk sensibilities but there's a little chic behind that. I mean, you see that album cover, right? Reservoir Dog punk. After the show we'll hang out with the Make-Up or something.

DL

Bomb the Music Industry! - To Leave or Die on Long Island

Few years ago (more like one decade, fuck) dude freaked about music and started writing full rock albums backed only by Garage Band. Since then dude put together a real band, tours extensively, invites fans to bring their own instruments and play onstage, bring their own tee shirts and get a free band logo stenciled on them.

Get ready for crazy tempos, crazy instrumentation (video game synths? glockenspiels? drum machines?), lyrics about drinking being poor and depressed, and soundbites from Spongebob Squarepants. To quote dude in question, "I do it 'cause I like it and I like it because you don't."

DL

Go to donation-based label www.quoteunquoterecords.com for more of this.

Ava Luna - Services EP

Ava Luna is this Brooklyn band who does the Jamie Lidell thing except with a full band and the lead singer has a Germs tattoo. The Jamie Lidell thing is funky and soulful with a little bit of an electronic tint to it. Trust me, I have seen both of them, and I mean this all in the best way possible.

By the way I'm new here.

DL

Kleenex Girl Wonder - Ponyoak

Kleenex Girl Wonder is this guy named Graham Smith. In the late nineties he put out a lo-fi pop record of home recordings called "Ponyoak." The album is 25 songs with 5 extra bonus tracks. It has that early Guided by Voices short song brilliance, and Smith has a solid ear for melodic hooks. And sure, with 30 songs there are bound to be some stinkers ("Anne Marie" is wretched) but the amount of good to great songs is almost astounding.

I'd recommend listening a few times to let the weird ones sink in, and if you're on the fence at all listen to "Now I Got A Feeling" to jump right in. That song has numerous bridges, a late-song key change, and little to no repetition at all in the verses and choruses. Basically, a really catchy song that takes an absurd amount of listens to get tiresome. The songwriting reminds me of Capstan Shafts, and Pollard, and if you like either I'd suggest giving "Ponyoak" a listen.

DL