Gay Beast - Gay Beast [Gilgongo]/Pigeon Religion - Dead Boss [Gilgongo]/Sissy Spacek - Fortune [Gilgongo]

Gilgongo records down in Tempe, AZ has been doing some good work this year including this trio of 7inches and a James Fella/Timeload Fowl LP I'll get to at another time.
I pull out Gay Beast's LP Disrobics on a regular basis and now hearing this 7inch as well, I'm convinced they are one of the best fucking rock bands on the planet right now. The king of the show is the first side "Multi-Purpose Anti-Form" which I played probably a good 30 times in the first two days I got it. GB start out with a rather mellow intro before jumping into the verse. The song is actually a bit slower than Gay Beast usually moves but it's certainly not devoid of energy. "Multi-Purpose Anti-Form," however, is also Gay Beast's most melodically rich work to date. An endlessly spinnable jam where each element feels so fucking right. Each instrument, the fuzzed out vocals, everything is dynamic and perfectly placed. And goddamn, this song is so well crafted. It moves in stages with each moving seamlessly into the next, and what is most effective is that each successive stage outdoes the previous one. There's this tremendous tension that builds as the song just keeps getting better. Seriously invigorating, one of the best songs I've heard this year. When are these guys gonna get another LP out already? I'm dyin' here!
The B-side features two tracks the first of which is a short instrumental titled "Pressing Hard." It's got all their signature, off-kilter rhythmic prowess but it feels a bit underdeveloped like it's a warm up rather than a full-fledged song. The last track is an expanded, re-recorded mash-up of Dymaxion/The Need covers, "SM Head, LG Torso, Crushing Grip/Whitewash" which was also on their Navy Quilted Pier 3". The first half is angular and scrappy which sets up the second half perfectly. When they hit the "Whitewash" bit the track gets real great real quick, rolling along on a fantastic walking guitar line and ending on a strangely contorted bridge. A cool jam sure to make its songwriters proud.
My band was actually asked to play show with Pigeon Religion when they hit Seattle last summer but I was out of town which was a bummer. Anyhow, that's a long winded way of saying I've been looking forward to hearing them. "Dead Boss" begins like a soccer hooligan chant. The chorus of voices is joined pretty quickly by guitar and drums turning the pseudo-soccer anthem into a punk anthem. The actual singer is shouting his lungs out but can't make himself heard over the flurry of voices. It's an admirable effort though. "Henderson" is even better. There's an accompanying text insert about being a bum in Henderson, Nevada but I can't quite tell if it's actually the lyrics being sung. The song is only a couple minutes but it's a got great strung out, post-Jesus Lizard vibe. No wonder they got a record on Parts Unknown as well. Side B's sole track "Huge Bummer" is probably my favorite of the bunch. It reminds me of some of Pixies' (my fav band FYI) rawer, more seething selections. It's a pretty simple arrangement, a catchy bass line and dual guitars feeding back rather than just mirroring the bass line while the singer dude is agitated about "relying on someone else" or something until the piece splinters to a shambling close.
I reviewed Snow storm's debut full-length a while back, 12 songs crammed onto a 45rpm 7inch and I thought I'd seen it all. That is until Sissy Spacek put out this 7inch which ups the ante to 26 songs at 45rpm. Though calling each a track a "song" is a questionable proposition, the band seems to even think so too as they give each side it's own umbrella name. In their defense they do name every single track as well and when I saw them play a year or two ago Pete Swanson assured me each blast of noise I heard was a different song. But that's enough of my meaningless ruminations, I'll try to get one or two meaningful ones in here instead. This Spacek line up finds John Wiese joining up with Corydon Ronnau on vocals and Charlie Mumma on drums. The first side, "Fortune" sets the tone of the record. Breakneck, machine gun drumming, and a blur of processed guitar(?) noise and wild-eyed vocals. It brings me back to those early Black Dice records which I dig a lot, occupying the exact midpoint between hardcore and free noise. The songs are maybe 9 seconds long and I do find myself wishing they were a bit longer. But the sensation of accelerating and stopping, accelerating and stopping each time a song finishes and a new one begins is intentional I'm assuming. Sissy Spacek is trying to give me whiplash just by listening to their record! Spacek's frenzied sound isn't just the product of speed either; I accidentally played it the first time at 33rpm and it's just as savage and violent slowed down 12rpms. The second side "The Eyes of Men" is pretty similar to the first. It is interesting how all the songs fit into the larger dynamic framework of a side. The songs are often arranged in a way that creates what seems like a natural pause in the overall "song." Definitely a strange record and definitely a Sissy Spacek record. They do their thing like no one else I know of.
All records are still in print and each has it's own aesthetically pleasing packaging. I especially like the 4 color screen printed sleeve of the Gay Beast single.

Gay Beast – Disrobics [DNT]/Talibam! – The Excusable Earthling [Pendu Sound]

I’ve been floating on a cloud of great LPs and here’s a couple more to add to the cloud. Disrobics is DNT’s first foray into LPdom, while The Excusable Earthling is the second LP the Pendu organization has put out following the rad NY-based comp long player Getting Rid of the Glue.
Gay Beast hails from Minnesota and is a trio of drums, keyboard and guitar I believe. “What You Want” sets the tone for the rest of the record. Gay Beast play very angularly, almost mathy. Though the mathiness doesn’t sound “prog” at all, it’s more akin to a band like Ex Models where songs are complex rhythmically but come off as seeming tightly crafted rather than showy. “What You Want” is one of the better tracks on the album and is a great example of what I like about Gay Beast, that is they know how to hit the sweet spot. After a frenetic flailabout they lock in and play a really fantastically melodic chorus. One of the things I like is when they hit their choruses it doesn’t feel like a different song. Instead of something like “let’s play a jerky verse and then play a pop song chorus” where the result seems awkwardly mismatched, Gay Beast’s tracks always remain consistent and authentic no matter what sorts of musical tricks they pull. Anyway, sorry for the digression. “Cock” has been in a head to head battle with “Good Government” (which I’ll get to in a minute) for favorite track on the album, and it probably has the edge. “Cock” has a stronger bass presence than the other tracks which really works, the pairing of the guitar’s and keyboard’s lead lines is perfect and there’s a rad chorus that’s catchy as hell. It’s a fantastic song, and at under two minutes it never ceases to leave me wanting more. “Mama, Wrap My Coffin in the A.I.D.S. Quilt Cuz It’s Cold in Hell” is another standout but in a much different way than “Cock”. It’s probably the weirdest track on the album to me because the arrangement and rhythms are quite off-kilter and all the directions the track goes in are hard to follow but, inexplicably, Gay Beast pulls you along making the lack of hooks totally catchy. “Good Government” closes out the A side and is, for sure, one of the best tracks on the record. It takes about 20 seconds or so to cast its spell but after that, man, am I hooked. Keyboard and guitar play unison lines to great effect before an absolutely beautiful keyboard lead jumps out and grabs you by the head. They then proceed to deconstruct their track, before giving the fans what they want and sneaking in a quick chorus before the groove runs its course.
“Cyclops” opens the second side and it’s a jittery affair anchored by a guitar arpeggio in the track’s second half. “3 Pairs of Eyes: Brown, Brown, Blue” would almost seem bouncy if it didn’t obliterate my brain. There’s great guitar parts in here but none of them seem to last for more than a few seconds. “I.D. Politic” is a relatively straightforward track and Gay Beast sound awesome playing the role of the straight man (no pun intended). Regardless of all the changes the track moves through, it’s just a strong, well composed rock song at heart. The same could be said for the next song “Cry” though it barely lasts long enough to write something down about it. The title-track closes the record in frantic fashion. That reminds me, “Disrobics” is the perfect title for this record because it’s relentlessly on the move but only in a way adverbs starting with “dis…” can describe i.e. “disjointedly”, “discombobulated-ly” etc. It’s a cool record, and definitely one that sinks its claws in you a little deeper each listen.
Talibam! hails from New York and is also a trio; drums, synth and sax & electronics (see these reviews are vaguely themed) though they since have downsized to drums and synth. “Explosive Soul” takes the length of the first side. These guys appear to do everything improv-style so you really get to witness something birthed from nothing. There’s weird squelches, loose drum rolls and whathaveyou before things begin slowly to take shape. There’s a lot of convergence and divergence where the group still start down one path only to abandon it for another. There’s this one part that’s so rad where everyone starts groovin’ to this chunky organ line. Props to the organ dude because he’s full these great out of this world, vaguely b-movie inspired keyboard parts. The drummer finds a nice balance between following “the beat” (if it can be called that) and telling the beat to fuck off. I’m not really hearing any sax on this track so I think that guy is pretty heavily involved in his electronics, which cast a smoggy, noisy cloud over the proceedings.
The flipside is also 17 and a half minutes and features “One Way Foot”. It begins the same way “Explosive Soul” did, but from ragged beginnings a flowering of great material shall bloom. The sax seems to make more of an appearance here which, being an appreciator of saxophone, I like very much. The keyboard interjects this really bizarre riff which sounds a little like something you’d here coming from an ice cream truck but sped up a bit. This proves to be a catalyst as the other guys get in on the action. My favorite bit of drumming comes here because, while refraining to bust out a full free form solo, the drummer drives the track without really repeating anything. This jauntiness fades and gives way to a smokier, lo-key passage which is a style that really works for these guys.
A lot of this “total psych freedom” stuff can be in danger being kinda boring and not that great, and though they can move somewhat slowly Talibam! is never boring and they dig up a bunch of neat little nuggets of sound along the way.
The Gay Beast record has fantastic artwork/screenprintwork (I dig the sparkling gold) and comes with an insert and LP labels, Tynan did an excellent job with his first LP. Pendu put together this Talibam! record with the utmost professionalism, with pro-printed sleeves and so forth and it even comes wrapped in plastic. Disrobics is limited to 500 and I’m guessing The Inexcusable Earthling is limited as well, though I can’t locate an exact number anywhere. Both are still available for cheap from their respective labels. Check ‘em out.