>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Yet another rad US band ploughing a furrow of ambient, emotive music, Everyone Everywhere stand apart from the crowd thanks to a real knack for dynamic songwriting and an evocative warmth that emerges from their musical compositions and lyrical subject matter. Leisurely is another term that applies well to this LP; whilst hardly sedate the listener has the sensation that Everyone Everywhere are proceeding at exactly the pace they wish to. And they would say to hell with everyone else, but really they’re too mellow that, so why not just hang and jam instead?

Sonically they have a buzzy, fuzzy guitar sound with a lot of resonance; there’s minimal gain and distortion here but simultaneously it’s a full sound and far from sparse. Melodic, soothing vocals and some great double-time chord progressions underpinned by a warm, vibrant bass sound and rounded percussion complete the effect. There are quite a few instrumental parts which work really nicely, emphasising when the vocals kick in. Lyrically their singer focuses on personal stories and anecdotes, using them to paint a broader, more universal picture.

A definitely highlight is ‘Raw Bar’, which exhibits some of the aforementioned killer chords, and opener ‘Tiny Planet’ with its extended instrumental intro before cutting right back for the lazily drawled vocal refrain “Oh, I’ve got bigger fish to fry”. There’s a subtle and gentle wit at work throughout as evidenced by the catchy and sly final vocals of closing number ‘Obama House, Fukui Prefecture’: “Warm and comfortable / Purely functional”.

Everyone Everywhere are well worth your time and I heartily recommend you check them out. I’m writing this review at about 11pm after spending 12 hours at work, coming home and working on some freelance copywriting for another few hours, and I’ve found this record’s faintly nostalgic tone, varied songwriting, highly competent yet suitably understated musicianship and easygoing, accessible yet far from banal subject matter to be a great comfort. That’s not to pin the band as a one-trick or one-mood outfit; more that this melodic emo/indie-rock derived music is comfortable and pleasant and will probably resonate with a lot of people, wherever they find themselves whilst listening.

Myspace | Facebook | Tumblr | Tiny Engines Records

Junior Battles are another recent discovery and another I’m really pleased to have been introduced to. Hailing from Toronto – home of Cancer Bats, Broken Social Scene, Holy Fuck and the unstoppable Fucked Up among others – Junior Battles play irrepressible and infectious pop-punk that’s kinda 90s throwback in sound but doesn’t simply mimic what’s come before.

Apparently they’ve toured the US with O Pioneers!!! and there are some similarities there, especially in the tongue-in-cheek song titles (‘Major Label Bidding War’ and the Back to the Future hat-tipping ’Roads? Where We’re Going, We Definitely Need Roads’) although Junior Battles are less with the gruff ‘n roll and considerably cleaner… plus they have some amazing melodies. Like all the best pop-punk that’s what they really nail; catchy guitars and vocal lines backed up by a fat bass sound and restrained, precise drums. In the lead guitar work I’m also picking up elements of The Menzingers and once or twice (chiefly in the intro and verse of ‘Update Your Resume’) there are even traces of Leatherface and Jawbreaker.

For my money ‘Roads’ is the standout track and it’s an awesome closer; yet another punk rock paean to the shitty van and being on the road it successfully brings together everything most awesome about the other three tracks and distils it down to pop-punk brilliance: ”We’ve had a real good time, we’ve got a few good friends and gasoline. We’re got a five hour drive, we’ve got to make it home and go to sleep.”

I fucking love pop-punk, so trust me when I say that this is pop-punk done right. Check it out! Free download from IYMI at the link below, or buy a copy from Square Up if you’re a ‘weenil nerd’.

Myspace | If You Make It | Square Up Records

I first heard Michigan three-piece Victor! Fix the Sun just a few weeks ago by way of 2007’s Retractable Claws, and this album actually came out late last year, but the two records have impressed me enough that I wanted to write a little about the newest one.

If Retractable Claws was reminiscent of Fugazi’s stop-start, experimental post-hardcore noodling, Person, Place or Thing extends its influences to the likes of ex-labelmates La Dispute (were they less histrionic) and Minus the Bear (were they more into screamo and shoegaze). The six songs on this latest release cherry-pick the best elements of post-hardcore to produce something uniquely V!FTS’s own. Taut drums, guitars and bass shift comfortably between carefully structured math-rock rhythms and frenetic screamo thrashing with an occasional foray into the minimalist ambience of the This Will Destroy You / Explosions in the Sky schools of post-rock. In places they even remind me of Brighton’s own Projections – a short-lived indie/post-rock project from Blood Red Shoes’s Steve Ansell – with lengthy, looping, ‘gazey riffs married to yelping vocals.

Opener ‘My Friend the Guru’ ably demonstrates the band’s strong grasp of dynamics as elements of the song shift into the fore and back again, with enough diversity enclosed within to feel like this is actually several distinct pieces seamlessly fused together. But it’s second track ‘We Come From the Northwoods’ that’s my favourite track here, a small epic at over seven minutes in length – half the tunes here are over six minutes long – with some precise guitar lead and tight as fuck drumming in its latter half that has me particularly captivated. Despite the clichéd nature of the repeated line “we’re never going home” the song has an intensity that resonates.

Despite a somewhat daft and, dare I use the hated term, pretentious moniker, Victor! Fix the Sun are an impressive band that seem to be particularly driven to experiment and innovate. Person, Place or Thing is an excellent record, even for those tired of the dozens of mediocre or merely competent post-hardcore bands out there, and I eagerly await whatever the band do next. I just hope they retain the raw passion exhibited here alongside their obvious musical and songwriting chops.

Myspace | Facebook | Friction Records

Time Fcuk, aka Time Cufk, aka Time Kucf, aka etcetera, is a Flash game that originally came out last September on Newgrounds. It’s creators are Edmund McMillen (author – also behind indie titles like Super Meat Boy, Gish and many more), William Good (programmer – has worked on a number of other games I’m not familiar with) and Justin Karpal (behind the game’s excellent music, which is cyclic and triumphal and claustrophobic all at once) so it’s something that the indie gaming scene probably picked up on really quickly. My loss circa 2009, I guess!

It’s free to play and is well worth half an hour or more of your time. The basic gist in terms of mechanics are that it’s a dimension-switching platformer – levels have between two and four planes that you can flick between – where the user must puzzle their way out of each room. The controls are limited to left, right, jump, pick up (blocks) and switch dimension. The game starts out simple and gets fiendish quickly with gravity alteration, objects that can be moved between dimensions if in contact with the player avatar, traps and the inevitability of death if the player switches into a dimension where an object shares the same area as they do. The mechanics are dead simple and it’s easy to pick the game up but beating some of the puzzles are challenging – though rarely frustrating, except where stupid player mistakes are concerned.

I’ve already mentioned the music and the same positive things can be said of the game’s limited sound effects. It’s the visual style that’s really eye-catching though. The player’s avatar is a simple silhouette, albeit one which gradually alters as they progress through the storyline (more on that in a minute), and each dimensional plane uses a unique colour to differentiate it from the last. Most objects appear as simple, easily recognisable silhouettes – and objects about to appear in the next plane switch appear fainter so you know what’s coming. The right hand side of the screen, though, is taken up by two things. Firstly there’s a small map of the network of rooms – it’s a rectangle. The route is, essentially, cyclic. Below that there’s a screen with a sinister talking head which shares text messages with you, purporting to be you from a few rooms ahead, or sometimes a few rooms behind.

This is where the game excels. The writing is genuinely funny and faintly paranoid; there’s a palpable sense of mystery as you progress further and… something starts growing on your head. Is it talking to you? What is it? And why the hell did you climb into this box in the firest place? The story, such as it is, never intrudes into the core gameplay except in benign ways, and players can ignore it if they wish, though it’d be their loss as it’s half the demented charm of the game.

Play Time Fcuk yourself to experience it firsthand; suffice to say that it’s delightful.

In a post-Hot Water Music world it’s good to know there are bands keeping the dream of blood, sweat and beer alive. Hailing from Atlanta, Campaign play punchy, gruff melodic post-hardcore ala. “the Gainesville sound” that descended from, er, Sunderland’s Leatherface.

The Hot Water Music comparison is probably one that’s been made in almost every review of this band but it’s perfectly apt. Gunmoll, Small Brown Bike, Billy Reese Peters and other vintage No Idea Records outfits are also good reference points. With It Likes to Party Campaign aren’t pushing this established sub-genre in any new directions but they’ve got their own identity and the EP’s title is spot-on. What you have here are five fast-paced, explosively dynamic punk rock anthems played with passion and panache.

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It’s not a fair comparison nor even a particularly accurate one, but the first artist that popped into my head when I first listened to i/o, the new EP from Vermont’s The Static Age, is Chris Rea. Yes, him of ‘The Road to Hell’ fame, the Middlesborough singer-songwriter who’s been churning out banal pop tunes for over three decades. I can’t think why I’m reminded of Chris Rea – I think perhaps the opening track ‘Damages’ has some of its trademarks in its crooned line “they won’t keep you safe” and synth/keys – and it faintly disturbs me that I am. Based solely on the band’s name I’d been half-expecting something Misfits-flavoured.

Well, fortunately i/o isn’t derivative old horror-punk and nor is it much like, hrrrgh, ‘Fool (If You Think It All Over)’ or ‘On The Beach’ or other tunes your dad may have listened to. Unless your dad is younger than mine and kinda hip: The Static Age play poppy, faintly dreamy post-punk that’s got a sort of proto-goth feel too it. It’s not the itchy and experimental post-punk of Wire or the progressive funk-punk of Gang of Four, but more akin to the artists branded as dream-pop – Siouxsie & the Banshees, maybe, or Cocteau Twins.

So, we have slightly gloomy synths, twinkling keys, heavily repeated vocal lines and guitar riffs with lots of chorus and delay effects. The songs are well-written and structured with a good flow to them and some pleasant melodies and hooks – particularly ‘These Days’, my favourite song on the EP, or closing track ‘Rorschach’, an understated and softly atmospheric tune – but I have to admit that overall it’s too 80s and earnest for my tastes. Still, they’ve toured or played with bands as diverse as A Place To Bury Strangers, AFI, Tiger Army and Cave In so they’ve obviously got something.

Official Site | MySpace | Flix Records

This will be a short review because I don’t listen to very much blues or old-school rock & roll, and that is how the Black Keys kick it. That said I still think this is a damn fine album and it has me listening to a genre that I don’t dislike but which I don’t generally find interesting enough to draw me away from other stuff. That sounds a bit like damning with faint praise but it’s the opposite… this is a cool record with broad appeal.

It’s the duo’s highest-charting album; in its first week of release in mid-May it sold about 73,000 copies. They’re evidently not a band who need smalltime bloggers reviewing them, but fuck it – I reviewed Deftones the other day, didn’t I? And, obviously, I’m reviewing music out of a desire to share cool stuff that I like. Get on it!

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Gama Bomb + Mutant + Crypsis + Driveby Shark @ Engine Room Brighton, 7th May 2010

I’m not much of a thrash metal fan but my friend Tommy, bless his beard and genial metalhead nature, has been making some effort to convert me. This included getting me to join him for a show headlined by Irish thrash metal legends Gama Bomb. It’s all thrash, all night… and all I’ve heard of any of the bands is Gama Bomb’s album Citizen Brain.

First up is Driveby Shark, who are fronted by a ridiculously tall screaming bloke with ginger hair… or a dark blond, I guess, maybe it’s just the light. Whatever – he reminds me of my friend Ric from black metallers Iceni, who is also a ridiculously tall screaming frontman with ginger hair. It must be a metal thing, right?

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Although it was originally released in 2004, and I bought it in 2005, it was only this year that I finally read this book – which courted some controversy when it originally shot up the bestseller lists. The short summary is that this purports to be an autobiography which focuses on some of the most significant events of the author’s life in relation to US foreign and economic policy. In Perkins’ college years he was put under observation by the NSA, who felt that he fit the psychological profile of an economic hitman, EHM for short; a combination of intelligence, patriotism and manipulable weakness. He joined the peace corps for a spell in South America after which he was recruited by an organisation known as MAIN, a US engineering and consultancy firm which specialised in overseas contracts for states the NSA wanted to bind together with the USA in a mutually beneficial economic arrangement. This meant that these nations would either accept development loans from the IMF and World Bank or utilise their own wealth, which funds would then be funnelled into US corporations who would modernise private and public infrastructure in the client states.

The general facts of these relationships are not particularly controversial these days; it’s common knowledge that the IMF and the World Bank are institutions in which the USA has a lot of power, and that states which accept development funds are obliged to adopt certain neoliberal doctrines (primarily privatising state assets and infrastructure and opening them up to bids from international, often US, corporations). It’s also common knowledge that this process of ‘modernisation’ often does as much bad as it does good. Where natural resources are opened up to exploitation indigenous peoples see their lifestyles destroyed; where hydroelectric dams are constructed tens or even hundreds of thousands of people find themselves forcibly relocated. Serious health risks can arise as a result of pollutants or disease; funds often find themselves funnelled into the pockets or pet projects of elites in client states at the expense of those who are worst off.

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