Shove it in Your Earhole

Shuffle Magazine, issue #2
http://www.morisen.com/ShuffleVol2.pdf

AHLEUCHATISAS
The Same and the Other (re-issue)
tzadik.com
The musicianship on this 2004 LP from Asheville’s Ahleuchatistas is like sharpshooting with a shotgun – somehow, despite logic, each note in the barrage hits its mark. The album delivers a full portion of frantic tempos, and dynamic and uncompromising rhythmic shifts over the course of 12 tracks that might as well be one epic jam. It’s quite astounding, really, the number of notes and the speed at which they’re being played, all without ever sounding out of place in time or timbre. It’s so consistently mindboggling that it renders picking standout tracks an arbitrary gesture, though it’s now reissued on John Zorn’s Tzadik label with five new songs that trade the confrontational catchiness of the original 12 with less-approachable but still interesting meanderings. But since the original is out of print, the re-issue would be worth it, even if the bonus tracks totally sucked.
Bryan Reed

ASG
Win Us Over
volcoment.com
The problem with ASG’s Win Us Over, to put it simply, is that when hard rock ceases to be exciting, surprising and confrontational, it ceases to be worth listening to. For all its brazen cover art and galloping guitars, the record isn’t likely to win anyone over who likes exciting, surprising
or confrontational music. The band is epitomized by the aptly titled “The Dull Blade,” which abandons a promising intro for monotonous Hetfieldian grumbles, metal-by-numbers guitars and what might be the most stupefying and repetitive guitar solo ever put to tape. Then there’s the obligatory acoustic track (for “depth”) that really just exposes the band’s frailty when the veil of distortion is lifted. Really, it’s kind of sad when an album’s standout track (“Right Before
Death”) is only the best track because it’s the least slack-jawed. But as ready-made for Clear Channel radio as ASG might be, it’s not Nickelback, so there’s always that.
Bryan Reed

AUTOPASSION
Sit Back and Make a Difference
myspace.com/autopassion
Autopassion’s Sit Back and Make a Difference isn’t nearly as didactic as its title might suggest. There’s nary a political whim to be found; no difference to be made. Just 11 examples of how influential The Strokes actually are. It’s got that faded T-shirt garage rock feel with enough
slick swagger to provide a party pulse. And with songs like “Youths,” a tangle of familiar, but nonetheless inviting bass guitar slither, palm-muted anxiety and Casablancas cool oozing from the vocals, it’s easy to fall for Autopassion’s come-ons. Head-bobbin’ grooves are in no short supply and coolly dispassionate choruses beg to be sung along to. It’s fun times. But at the end of the day, there’s a whole lot more sitting back than making a difference.
Bryan Reed

BEACH HOUSE
Devotion
carparkrecords.com
Hearing the sophomore album from Baltimore’s Beach House isn’t far removed from listening to a high school prom from behind closed doors – a distant sound you can’t help but associate with love and happiness that will never quite be yours. No wonder, then, that it’s given the name Devotion, a level of loving attention teetering between sentimental and creepy. When Victoria Legrand croons, “Oh, but your wish is my command” before guitars begin dueling for attention –
the first a crisp Les Paul tone, the second steeped in burly fuzz – on “Wedding Bell,” it’s clear that there will be no easy way to part from this. Sentimentality drips from Legrand’s warm coos, and it’s augmented by the trebly, spectral arrangements swooning behind her. The songs mesh
together in the dreamy mire, but it gives the album a consistent feeling of distant warmth – like a pined-after someone’s last dance with someone else.
Bryan Reed

THE EXPLORERS CLUB
Freedom Wind
deadoceans.com
The temptation to toss Freedom Wind out the proverbial car window as yet another Beach Boys rip-off is initially pretty strong. It kicks off with a song that boldly proclaims, “We could last forever.” Pretty infuriating. But then, there’s the fact that Charleston’s Explorers Club is
really gosh-darn good at sounding like The Beach Boys – and just enough like themselves to make it endearing instead of annoying. The multi-part harmonies are pristine, the songs are snow-cone-syrup sweet. And in spite of itself, it’s totally, rapturously charming. It’s every
bit as crush-inducing as it aims to be, pumping out note after swooning note of boardwalk courtship anthems. On the one hand, this is an entirely disposable pop album, the likes of which has certainly been seen before, plenty of times. But it’s just so freakin’ happy. Besides, does
candy ever stop tasting good?
Bryan Reed

HAMMER NO MORE THE FINGERS
Hammer No More The Fingers
powerteamrecords.com
Over the course of the seven tracks on its self-titled debut, Hammer No More The Fingers creates a sense of sprawling uncertainty with an irreverent tone and the sheepish sort of confidence that made indie rock important in the first place. Joe Hall’s spindly guitar ducks and weaves around the lurching rhythms provided by bassist Duncan Webster and drummer
Jeff Stickley. The songs wind up turning into gradually escalating bursts of frustrated energy. Take, for example, “Fall Down, Play Dead,” a tortured exploration of alienation that culminates in the album’s most dynamic, audience-inclusive finale. Webster’s vocals carry the weight
of the songs, which suits his ability to transition easily from wavering resignation (“Concrete”) to bold-faced bitterness (“Black Harmony”) while keeping in lock-step with the band’s energetic, even carefree swagger. It says “Life sucks, but we’re all friends here, so whatever,” with a hesitant but earnest grin. And it feels great.
Bryan Reed

LEMURIA
Get Better
asianmanrecords.com
This debut LP from Buffalo’s DIY darlings Lemuria is filled with empty spaces and a profound feeling of loss, but also enough hints of hopefulness to be ultimately cathartic. Snappy drumming, easygoing power chords and squirmy melodic lines provide a backbone for evocative lyrics
focused on small, significant images: lipstick, “the pack of cigarettes that you were always quitting,” a Hawaiian shirt. The emotional power is only multiplied by the conflicted duality in the pairing of Sheena Ozzella’s sweet, almost naïve vocals with Alexander Kerns’ resigned delivery. The 12 songs join forces for 28 and-a-half wonderful minutes to create a world where simple sentiments like “I miss you,” delivered in earnest, carry enormous gravity. Get Better careens through places we’ve been, and places we hope we never go again. But in the end, everything turns out okay for Lemuria. Maybe it will for us, too.
Bryan Reed

MEGAFAUN
Bury The Square
tableoftheelements.com
Megafaun’s Bury The Square is so overwhelmingly great it renders elaboration irrelevant. I’m tempted to write, “It’s great. Go buy it now,” and leave it at that. But this record deserves reams of praise for its ability to effortlessly contradict everything we thought folk music could or should be prior to hearing these six otherworldly songs. The epic “Where We Belong” best characterizes the album, beginning with the sublime melancholy of its foundational lament that slowly builds into a full-bodied wail of noise – feedback gnashing into harshly bowed strings and the insistent plodding of that first banjo. The 11-minute journey climaxes with abrasive and chaotic sound but returns again to serene beauty as hope emerges from turbulence. It moves physically, emotionally, and above all else, spiritually, as if existing outside of time. It’s great. Go buy it now.
Bryan Reed

THE STRUGGLERS
The Latest Rights
thestrugglers.org
Brice Randall Bickford II, the mind behind The Strugglers, takes on heady themes with his fourth LP. Characters feel fear, heartbreak, anger, loss, confusion. The world shakes its gnarled fist at its inhabitants, and in spite of it all Bickford’s slouching melancholy lifts off with his aching moans and his band’s gang’s-all-here backing. There’s the time-and-again comfort of knowing
that the songs are going to end up in the same place, soaring as soon as the cavalry arrives. And so The Strugglers are gonna keep on struggling, and we’re gonna let it play out because it feels like the right thing to do. Ultimately, The Latest Rights is a collection of knick-knacks on the
mantle: it’s pretty – colorful even – and it’s nice to have. But it’s also easy to pass right by.
Bryan Reed

VIOLET VECTOR AND THE LOVELY LOVELIES
EP I
www.holidaysforquince.com
Blake Schwartzenbach once posed the question: “What’s so wrong with a stupid, happy song?” Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies would most certainly reply with an immediate “Nothing!” because, you see, VVLL brand themselves as “the sunbeam sugarplum sound” and clearly would be nothing without “stupid, happy songs” (even if calling them stupid isn’t exactly accurate). This five-song sampler of giddy pop is meant to be played either on a hand-made cassette, or at 45 rpm. But this K Records/Brill Building concoction sounds just dandy on CD, as well. It’s as if by summoning images of Scooby and the gang groovin’ in some saccharine, idealized psychedelic past, VVLL has flipped the bird to indie pretentiousness with all the grinning fervor of any happening that’s ever been hip to the beat. Try to stop smiling when you listen — we dare you.
Bryan Reed