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ANNUALS
Download "Hardwood Floor"
(from Such Fun; Canvasback/ Ace Fu/ Terpikshore)
"Hardwood Floors" opens more sparsely than any Annuals track. Its threadbare lament comes wrapped into a metaphor of a leaky roof and a floor that, as Adam Baker moans, "swells and moans like it hurts." Likewise, the song soon swells into a swooning, aching mélange of ethereal harmonies and understated guitars that weave into the song's texture. One of the band's most down-to-earth moments, "Hardwood Floors" serves as a departure from the cosmically minded eccentricities that made Annuals into blogger favorites. This is a level of nuance and maturity that promises the band's best work might still be ahead of it. —Bryan Reed
 Photo by Michael Triplett |
THE CURTAINS OF NIGHT
Download "Total Domination"
(from Lost Houses; Holidays for Quince Records)
In the addictive Internet game Dino-Run, a player adopts the character of a raptor-like dinosaur fleeing imminent extinction by roiling currents of flaming asteroid debris and suffocating smoke. Try playing Dino-Run with "Total Domination" by The Curtains of Night, the titanic Carrboro duo, on repeat at full volume. With its martial percussion and chugging, tar-thick riff, the beast tumbles onward. Its steady, unilateral movement stalls at 2:20, as singer/ guitarist Nora Rogers howls and the amplifier suspends in a blitz of buzz. It's the sort of thing that makes one fear for the end of days, and the duo does little to assuage said fears, rolling into a slow—even glacial—second movement and leaving us, the listeners, feeling a little like Dino-Run's ultimately hopeless protagonist. That is, totally overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the surroundings. —Bryan Reed
 Photos by D.L. Anderson |
THE DIRTY LITTLE HEATERS
Download "Untitled"
(from Fatty Don't Feel Good 7"; Churchkey Records)
Behold the might of The Dirty Little Heaters, a powerful trio whose diminutive name does anything but justice to the heft of its sound. That sound is something like the greasiest, ballsiest garage-punk band in the darkest, smokiest dive bar you've ever encountered, fronted by Grace Slick. Indeed Heaters' frontwoman Reese McHenry carries that same depth and richness in her howls and croons, making her voice the band's centerpiece. This shouldn't discount the band's buzzing groove-punk, which on this B-side rides a spring-loaded bassline through sheets of amp-fuzz and a battery of drums. Just know that it's all therw clearing the way for McHenry's soul-inflected wonder. —Bryan Reed
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DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Download "Raw Energy EP"
(from Raw Energy EP; Sorry State Records)
Double Negative is easily one of America's greatest current punk bands. This, the titular A-side to the band's clear-vinyl 7-inch record, should be all the proof one needs: It's a snarling explosion of scorched larynx howls and rocket-fuel riffs introduced by a series of cascading feedback flares and interrupted only two brief guitar divebombs. True purists recognize the template being stretched in new, exciting directions, while those only able to handle limp replications of Black Flag songs are left to cower in fear. Indeed, "Raw Energy EP" (and the remainder of the Raw Energy EP) hits these ears sounding as vital and dangerous as virgin spins of Damaged. —Bryan Reed
KOOLEY HIGH
Download "Kool With It"
(from Summer Sessions EP; self-released)
A fitting introduction to Kooley High, "Kool With It" rides a hydraulic beat, bass bouncing across bold horn samples, hot and thick as summer air. MCs Rapsody, Charlie Smarts and Tab-One trade lines, referencing Family Guy in their lyrics and Digable Planets in their easy chemistry. Certainly, this is as clear a mission statement as any the group could've offered—to be, as Rapsody boats in the hook, "so K-O-O-L/ Y'all better ask 'cuz y'all can't tell." Simple, direct and effective credo established? Check. —Bryan Reed
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VALIENT THORR
Download "I Hope the Ghosts of the Dead Haunt Yr Soul Forever"
(from Immortalizer; Volcom Entertainment)
Metallica released an album this year, and people said it was a return to form. I don't buy that because Valient Thorr also released an album, Immortalizer, this year: It's not that Valient Thorr sounds like Metallica used to, but the Venusian heshers are so saturated with that boozy righteousness of golden-age thrash that it doesn't feel unreasonable to at least put them in league with the old guys. Valient Thorr's sinuous dual lead guitar's slice razor sharp, harmonious lines through low-end rumbles and the vaguely melodic growls of gruff frontman Valient Himself. This punk-metal anthem, as with its predecessors, is a call to action: to mosh, to skate, to chug a beer, to fold the freakin' laundry. What you do doesn't matter as much as the idea that you're doing something. —Bryan Reed
*note: the Indy site offers a .zip download of all 40 songs featured in the newspaper's year-end round-up of local songs. I highly recommend checking it out.
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