HEAT’S MINI REVIEWS: Purling Hiss, Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin, Chelsea Light Moving, Bleached

Purling Hiss – Water on Mars 4/2013
ATTN: Dinosaur Jr. Fans, Malkmus, Anybody that loves great dirty delicious guitar tones, solos and flourishes.
I pretty much headbanged, danced, and/or swayed through this whole album. I plan on blasting this in my car with the windows down this summer. Guitar driven album, riffage galore, love all the note bends!!!
Song Picks: “The Harrowing Wind”, “Mercury Retrograde”, “She Calms Me Down”, “Lolita”

Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin – Reverse Shark Attack
And HE’S BACK!!! Ty Segall is churning out albums like crazy the past few years. This album is a collaboration with Mikal Cronin, who is in his current band. THIS IS DIRTY GARAGE ROCK, high throttle, blow your speakers out loud. They literally sound like they recorded this in their garage surrounded by Jay Reatard posters. I like how it sometimes sounds like they are running their instruments through a chainsaw. Tracks 1-6 are fun, loud, and 2 minutes or less while the last track is a 10 minute soundscape and definitely my favorite song on the album. If you like Ty Segall’s music, you will like this. Reverb, distortion, vibrations, underwater kingdom, wild!!

Song Picks: “Reverse Shark Attack”, “Ramona”, “High School”, “Drop Dead Baby”

Chelsea Light Moving – s/t  4/2013
If you are a Sonic Youth fan, don’t worry, you can feel Thurston Moore’s influence on these songs. Sometimes the guitars are creepy sounding, vocals are awkward like they should be from Moore, and these songs are sometimes darker/heavier than Sonic Youth. If you don’t know Sonic Youth, it sounds like weird rock: guitars tuned strange, rambling songs, being on a strange journey that you’re not sure if you should be on. I say that with love!

Song Picks: “Empires of Time”, “Heavenmetal”, “Sleeping Where I Fall”

Bleached – Ride Your Heart

Two sisters bringing you a concoction of reverb guitars and vocals, California, simple and straightforward song structure, titles and lyrical content, catchy and feeling good. I bet they are fun live. It sounds like they had a good time making this album. NO STRESS HERE, they take it easy.

Song Picks: “Looking for a Fight”, “Next Stop”

Q1 of 2013 report – Nicole’s fav albums so far + most anticipated Q2

a list of some albums I liked in the first quarter of 2013 and some upcoming releases that I’m looking forward to listening to

Motion Sickness of Time Travel & Imperial Topaz Split
Tranquility Tapes, released January 12

Indians - Somewhere Else
4AD, released January 28

Beach Fossils – Clash The Truth
Captured Tracks, released February 19

Nicole’s 10 Albums You Missed Out On This Year

Since I’ve already posted my ‘Best Albums of 2012′ list on my own website, here’s something different; a list of albums from my ‘best of 2012′ list that no one else has played on WCDB (albums that one or two other people have played are denoted with a *). These are albums I thought were really great, but never saw any airplay at WCDB because we never got the physical CDs into the station. Maybe some of these albums you haven’t yet heard either? Listen below..

Tame Impala

Band: Tame Impala

Album: Lonerism

Label: Modular Recordings

The Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala is back with their second album, two years after their previous release of Innerspeaker.  Their unique sound of psych guitar riffs and echoing vocals brings a style of old school  meets new.  A modern album that would appeal to fans of the Pink Floyd and late 60′s early 70′s rock era, but with a fresh dreamy take.  Singer and songwriter, Kevin Parker, brings a haunting voice similar to John Lennon–and when I say similar I mean a straight reincarnation.  Tracks such as “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and “Be Above It” give off Beatles inspired vibes, while “Elephant” and “Mind Mischief” delivers a heavier “stoner rock” feel.  The 57 second track “She Just Won’t Believe Me” even reminds me of a lighter version to Ozzy Osbournes’s intro in “Mr. Crowley.”

 

What Artist(s) Inspired Your Current Taste In Music? Cont.

So I saw the original blog post, and despite not being a DJ anymore, wanted to get in on the fun! I sent my thing to Melissa, and she told me to make it its own post. Without further adieu, here is the band and the explanation of how they inspired my current taste in music.

Thursday

 

A Night Out With Dispatch

“Best night of my life.” A phrase that I will undoubtedly use again to describe something of monumental meaning to me in the near or distant future. But for this moment the title goes to Dispatch and their sold out performance at Radio City Music Hall. It was their first outing at the world famous hall, and mine as well. In fact, if I were to compare myself to many of the younger crowd, I’d say I wasn’t alone. From the time those golden curtains ascended, we all began the night on the same level: old friends, newcomers, on untouched land that we were about to stake as our own.

BRAINSTORM

BAND: BRAINSTORM

ALBUM: Heat Waves

LABEL: Tender Loving Empire Records

RELEASE DATE: October 2, 2012

This experimental pop trio reigns from good ole Portland, OR and are here to make you feel good. These songs were created to make you move. The guitar riffs and intricate, driving percussion make this band interesting and fun to listen to. I seriously cannot get enough of the drumming on this album! Listen closely; Drummer and Vocalist Adam Baz is working hard behind the set. I describe his drumming as “intricate” because he keeps it varied and spontaneously controlled.

Some songs use unusual time signatures for this kind of music (7/8) specifically Tracks 6 & 7, “Word Up” & “Upward”. “Upward” is a rambunctious instrumental for you to shake it. My personal favorites are Track 8, “The Crown Caves In” and Track 2, “Beast in the Sky” for the way they make me dance in my seat.

They have a new music video out (REMEMBER THOSE?!) on IFC: CLICK HERE FOR THAT

Show Review & Interview: See You Next Year

See You Next Year:

Sue Diaz- Lead Vocals/ Guitar

Brian Supple- Bass

Chris Jones- Vocals

Jose Nunez- Guitar

Caiti Dole- Drums

See You Next Year is a local Albany band, and a long time favorite of mine.  They were the headliner at a show this past weekend at a local venue. I’m going to cut to the chase; See You Next Year no longer has their lead singer, Ben. When I heard this I didn’t know what to expect from the band. I was told that they replaced him with two people; a singer and a guitarist.  And if that wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, they also replaced the drummer.
As a huge fan of the original four part set up, I was speechless. SYNY is now a five piece with two of the three new members never having been in a band before. As if that wasn’t enough to cause a fan to stop at the door, they had only been practicing together for 3 weeks. A little piece of me died inside when I heard this, but my sheer curiosity got me through the door and kept me around to hear the new SYNY. At this point I figured I would be writing a piece where I was overcome with nostalgia, wishing the original band had never separated and debating if I would still play their music on my show.

Album of the Month, May: Beach House- Bloom

I enjoyed a few releases in May before bolting out of CDB, among them being Reptar – Body Faucet and Best Coast- The Only Place, but as all the summer albums arrived one of them stood out as an album that could succeed in any season.

Album of the Month, April: Alabama Shakes- Boys and GIrls

Toughest month to pick so far, and that’s why an album I haven’t even played on cdb yet is the pick(though that’s mainly blamed on me not having a show for the past few weeks). The band has made it’s name based on it’s live performances, and their debut album has captured a lot of their energy and displayed it well. Strong southern roots in the music and the singer’s wonderfully powerful voice makes this album flow well from start to finish, and that’s enough to make it the best new album I heard in April

Track Suggestions:

Be Mine

I Ain’t the Same

I Found You