Bored Fort no. 3 is beamed down to us from planet Heavy Winged and the moon of Blues Control to make yr brain all orbit-y and it’s outfitted with some suitably bitchin’ artwork from Jeremy Earl of Fuck It Tapes. Um, awkward nonsensical astronomical references aside, I’d say this is the most evenly matched pair in the whole Bored Kingdom, save for the Yellow Swans/Goslings split (but to be fair they are in their own universes altogether). Both of these groups made their debuts last year (as far as I know) and now both have been making a big splash this year. HW with the heavy, spaced We Grow LP on none other than, Not Not Fun as well as CD-Rs on Cut Hands and Whistle Along and a 3 way splitter with Ashtray Navigations and Cold Solemn Rites of the Sun on the Ruralfaune label. They are also planning to continue their rampage with more releases on aRCHIVE, Three Lobed, and, once again, Not Not Fun. Anyhow they’re set to take over the galaxy, despite their drummer moving across the nation to live with me (not literally) here in Portland, which is quite impressive.
And hey! Whaddya know, their track here called “Dark Spring” is pretty impressive too. It is an early recording, I believe, and though it isn’t particularly heavy, I would venture to say it’s a banger. One of Heavy Winged’s catchier, more melodic outings, propulsive drumming+lotsa crash cymbals and some relentless riffing. It doesn’t have the sheer force of say, Hunting the Moon, but it’s real strong anyway. Originally, I wasn’t as keen on it as some other H-Wing stuff (wasn’t that a craft in Star Wars? Good god all these space references are out of control!), but now after listening to it tons of times (cause that’s the only way to listen something) that track has definitely grown on me quite a bit. Maybe that’s what that We Grow title was all about. Perhaps the best part is when the guys take a break from the riffing and the tinge of spaciness the track carries comes to fruition with an echoey, jammin’ outro. Which now that I think about it kinda sounds a bit their peers on the other side of the record, hmm…
So yeah, if you found yr way to this site (probably through the almighty Google or something like that) you’ve probably heard of Blues Control by now so I’ll keep it brief. They put out maybe the best cassette of ’06, the righteously groovy Riverboat Styx on Fuck It Tapes. Then 2007 came with Puff on Woodsist and a self-titled CD on Holy Mountain and all of a sudden their international supastars. “Mashpotato”, their track here, is FDIC insured to make yr mind float and yr skeleton into one big skeleton shaped jellybean. What does that mean? I have no idea, but I do have some idea to what extent this track rules. A lot. I’ll come clean and say that I’m still kind of disappointed with Puff (I really want to hear the album of the year that everyone else does but it’s just not happening L ) and anyhow “Mashpotato” reaffirmed my belief that the big bad Blues Control can still kick out the jams like they did on the aforementioned cassette. That Heavy Winged track was a tad bit spacey but this shit is positively lunar! I’ve been trying to decipher the Blues Control equation for sometime now and I’m pretty sure that it’s something like this: (traditional instruments + Michael Jordan) x reverb pedal = Space Jamz!! By that I mean that Russ and Lea are actually Michael Jordan communicating with loony space aliens who only respond to the most stoned stunners around, “Mashpotato” is an interstellar transmission and a slam dunk! Do you see the power of this jam? It has infected my mind with the crazies; I am utterly unable to form a coherent, sufficient description and can only make statements involving self-referential rhetorical questions. But I’ll give it a (brief) shot anyway, “Mashpotato” is anchored by some sweet keyboard grooves and a disco/march pattern dialed into a vintage drum machine and drizzled on top is a real nice slo-mo buzz saw guitar that kinda leads the mood of the track from jammin’ to JAMMIN’. There, I hope I satisfied everyone’s penchant for reading things that sorta make sense.
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