Watery Love, “Decorative Feeding” LP

Watery Love‘s new album on In the Red, Decorative Feeding is blown the fuck out. It appropriately pegs the VU meters in the red for pretty much the entire duration of the LP.

Waterylove_jacketDecorative Feeding isn’t a subtle album. Vocals are hoarsely shouted, and declamed more than sang. The band rocks the same drum beat for most of the album, with Watery Love seeming like it’s about to fall apart at any given moment.

It’s a tenuous connection holding everything together — you wonder if the first few times this happened live, everyone in Watery Love just ended up sitting on the stage as feedback rolled out of amplifiers and somebody screamed into a microphone. It’s a little better on the second side, when the drone gives up to some thrashed-out riffs, but this is an intensely anxious album.
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Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds, “Conjure Man”

cover - kid congo conjure manThe latest single from psychedelic rockers Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds won’t be released until January 22 via In the Red, but you can listen to to the a-side, “Conjure Man,” right now via Soundcloud.

The b-side has “a deranged cover of an old Seeds tune,” “Lose Your Mind,” according to the press release. Both tracks are exclusive to this 7-inch, and won’t appear on Haunted Head, the next long-player from the former member of the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and the Gun Club, due out later next year. If you don’t trust your local record shop to get in this spooky slab o’ wax, you can pre-order it from Midheaven Mailorder
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Preview the new Mouthbreathers single

mouthbreathersOh, fuck. Seriously, you have to stick with the a-side to the new Mouthbreathers single, but it’s totally worth it. It seemed like the Lawrence garage foursome had chilled way the hell out, but man … nope. They can still tear into a track and shake it from side to side.

I want to describe it as “more mature” than their earlier stuff, but not in the “boring” version of mature that most bands seem to achieve. It’s mature in the a way like, “they’re listening to bands that have been around for a while and proven the test of time and require a little perspective to appreciate.” This usually means a band sounds like the Wipers, but in Mouthbreathers’ case, it’s more like they’ve figured out how to rock out without going full-tilt the entire time. You can actually use some songwriting to put something before the two minutes of freaking out.

The 7-inch is due out the end of July from In the Red, but you can listen to both tracks, “Die Alone” and “Validation,” via their Bandcamp right now.

Where am I?

My editor’s been really busy lately, so I’ve been knocking out a lot of stuff for Wayward Blog this week. You should go read it. Surprisingly, there’s vinyl-related news in there.

I did an interview with Lawrence garage rockers Mouthbreathers for last week’s print edition. They’re on tour right fucking now, and you should go so see them. They’ll hopefully have their new single In the Red’s releasing in the near future. I’ll try and get back on the ball here with something new and special once I get done with the money gigs.

Kid Congo Powers, “Five Greasy Pieces” single series

kid-congo-five-greasyKid Congo Powers
& the Pink Monkey Birds
Five Greasy Pieces
(In the Red)

The Five Greasy Pieces single series from Kid Congo Powers serves a dual purpose: you get five fantastic pieces of psychedelic garage from his forthcoming album with the Pink Monkey Birds, Gorilla Rose, as well as five stellar b-sides. The whole thing, when completed, is housed in a custom box, adorned with an image of a dead chicken. Considering the singles themselves come in sleeves that look like checkered tablecloths, a la something you might have out for a picnic, it’s fairly appropo.

But, imagery aside, what of the songs? Well, I’ve been listening to the album tracks (“Hills of Pills,” “Goldin Browne,” “Our Other World,” Catsuit Fruit,” and “Bobo Boogaloo,” for thems that care) since I interviewed Kid Congo back in February. Hell, “Goldin Browne” has been a set staple since early last year. These tracks are almost familiar friends by this point, so it’s probably new to 99% of the folks who’ve gotten the series, considering the album doesn’t come out until next Tuesday. It’s a looser, freakier version of what the band did on Dracula Boots, and the b-sides only further that aesthetic.

“Jump Into the Fire” is a hallucinatory trip, looping back around on itself, while the Haunted George and Illuminoids remix of the Boots cut “LSDC” streamlines it into a something simultaneously more rocking and a little more freaky. They cover Bowie’s glam rocker “Cracked Actor” admirably, leaving it recognizable, yet still dirtying it up and rendering it a little sleazier in the process. The real gem of the set, however, is the way Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds perform a Mexicali work-up on the Troggs’ “Wild Thing.” Leaving the song a stomper, they kick up the organ and give you a borracho singalong.

If you can track down a copy of the set, grab it. It sold out, and is limited to 250 copies, so you might have to pay more than the $30 I lucked into my copy for. Still, given the killer songs, the solid production, and the b-sides (which I am told will never be available anywhere else), to say nothing of the fact that these are on some thick-ass vinyl (not as thick as the new Off! single, but close), you’d do well to grab it up if you see it.

The Parting Gifts debut “Keep Walkin'”

cover-parting-giftsAs I am a fan of both the Ettes and the Reigning Sound (and the Oblivians and Greg Cartwright in general), I wholeheartedly support the formation of the Parting Gifts.

What began as a one-off split-45 by songwriters Greg Cartwright (The Oblivians, Compulsive Gamblers, Reigning Sound) and Coco Hames (The Ettes, Coco Motion) quickly evolved into The Parting Gifts, who will release their debut full-length album this fall on In The Red Records.

“I thought, I’d write a song, Greg would write a song, we’d record them together, and that would be that,” says Hames. “Luckily Greg’s prolific awesome switch was on, and we got this whole record instead.”

Offers Cartwright, “I was just so impressed with how easily things went that I was inspired to write more material for the project.”

And as if the talents of Cartwright and Hames weren’t enough, the album features intense performances from Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys, BlacRok), Patrick Keeler (The Greenhornes, The Raconteurs), Jem Cohen and Poni Silver (The Ettes) and Dave Amels (Reigning Sound, Daptone). The result is an impressive 14 original songs penned by Cartwright and Hames, as well as a haunting cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Walkin’ Through the Sleepy City”.

The duo plays tonight at the Hi-Tone in Memphis as part of Gonerfest 7. Their debut, Strychnine Dandelion, is out November 9 on In the Red Records. Listen to a track from it below.

MP3: the Parting Gifts, “Keep Walkin'”