Crow’s Nest 41: 102322
This Publication Also Did Not Mark The 10th Anniversary of No Love Deep Web (But We’re Also Not Completely Ignoring It Either)
Hey there and welcome to issue #41 of Crow’s Nest. If you, like me, are currently experiencing unseasonably fantastic weather in your area, I hope you’re enjoying it. I’m planning to get a long walk in after hitting send, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, I had some bigger points I was going to make in an essay about my past week-ish involving a time management training I attended for work, cleaning out stuff from my childhood home in the suburbs, and (once again) losing the majority of my browser tabs … then I lost my wallet while running errands yesterday. I’ll be fine, I’m out $100 and inconvenienced in different ways from that, but as potentially the worst thing that’s happened to me this calendar year outside of things going on in my head, I’m doing pretty fucking good at the moment, I have to say. You can’t have it all but you should have a reasonable plan for getting a B in making the best use of your day, time is democratic, try to purge that which is holding you back or can be gotten rid of … I think that covers most of it for now.
If you’re in Chicago and missed seeing Tropical Fuck Storm live last night, you missed out. Can’t say I was expecting or joined the pit going for most everything they played, though getting high as hell for them (and CB Radio Gorgeous, who also killed it) wasn’t a bad choice. As a consolation, a few weeks ago they released the OST (minus Aspirin) from their livestream film/concert Goody Goody Gumdrops for the latest Bandcamp Friday. If my incessant banging on about them hasn’t convinced you, and the Braindrops/Greatest Story/Tyres/Bumma Sanger/Paradise run here doesn’t either, your loss, man.
The story of this album feels braided tighter than a DNA strand’s double helix. In 1995 mastering engineer Chris Colbert wrote 2 albums of material with 2 separate bands for his studio project Fluffy—one more lo-fi post-punk in Huntington Beach, the other a studio hi-fi shoegaze product in Nashville—threading them together but pulling the release before wide circulation began after a British band of the same name (that I’ve never heard of) paid him to do so. That’s a shame, as it’s now seeing a wider distribution, and blew me away enough to play 3 times in a day. Imagine the discographies of My Bloody Valentine and Th’ Faith Healers squaring off with one another, coated in an additional layer of fuzz, making frequent unexpected left turns like Deeper or Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, and you’re most of the way there. There’s a mid-album peak of what sounds like playing the Hotel California solo through the pedalboard setup for Soon, an extended kazoo solo to remind you what it’s all about (noise), and multiple other insane moments I’m not going to describe here. I will only accept that you’ve not yet pressed play on this if you’re still listening to Tropical Fuck Storm above.
While I doubt rock music while ever reclaim its 20th century cultural dominance from newer styles, the urge to gather a few friends in a basement or garage, make some noise and otherwise rock out is unlikely to go extinct. But even for the off-the-path inclined, Mason City, Iowa is surely out there. I had to zoom out quite a bit in Google Maps to locate the town between Minneapolis and Des Moines. The pseudonymous Terry, Speck, Pamela and Paul of Why Bother? have no desire to tour or perform live, they just crank out new wave-inflected punk as fast as they can write it, content to have Feel It Records run distro for them. Considering they put out another full-length record in the month it took me to get this into Crow’s Nest, the quality is high, and I expect no complaints for them not heading out for endless underappreciated gigs.
Italian producer Stenny’s prolificness keeps him on my radar, but it wasn’t until this single on Ilian Tape that he’s stuck with me. We’ve got a pair of high-energy garage-styled tunes with heavyweight industrial low-end, particularly in the pummeling kick drum, perfect for menacing a bunker party, clanging weights at the gym or otherwise exercising some muscle.
Abstraction without dissolving into a muddle, 4th world with a foot in the real world, off-the-grid beat-driven moments, this album made some waves earlier this year but I only got around to it recently through my ‘listen through’ playlist backlog. Pleasant stuff with enough body to slot perfectly into my ‘ambient music I actually like’ niche.
Similar but not the same as ashbalkum above, Japanese ‘environmental music’ had a bit of a moment a few years ago—even The Economist wrote about Kankyō Ongaku—and here WRWTFWW Records puts out a contemporary release in the genre from Taro Nohara. Nohara doesn’t just make ambient-leaning stuff—there’s a moment within that comes close to blissed-out experimental footwork, from what I recall—and consequently you can’t just consider this a revival. This may soundtrack my post-issue walk through Lincoln Park in a moment.
Definitely bright, out-there club music on Wisdom Teeth from Welsh producer Jorg Kuning. Lots of bounce, Call Super-esque squiggly moments and just straight-up fun on the dancefloor here.
Barring the current, above average temperature wave?, here in Chicago right now, the 2 dance tracks here from Berlin’s G.E.O. Corp feel a bit out of season. Or perhaps their sunny disposition is exactly what you need right now, to get your day started on the right foot, or lift your mood when you realize how early the sun is starting to set. I’ll only judge if you’re intentionally trying to have a bad time with this on.
The discrepancy between the title on the Bandcamp page and the doodle artwork for this release is taking up more of my mental energy than I’d like. As you might guess from the artwork, this is some smoky, ramshackle outsider rock with a compelling je ne sais quoi to it. (Admittedly, the latter point is also true of a lot of stuff I feature here and write about with my limited music vocabulary.) The title is, nevertheless, a good personal philosophy to put in practice, and this is a solid record worth putting on the speakers as well.
Post-punk from Minneapolis that isn’t Uranium Club, Green/Blue are a solid group but peripheral enough that I’ve never put them in Crow’s Nest before. Perhaps they need to come down for a show around here before they really click with me? 2 tracks in the same vein as their album from earlier this year. The blurb mentions Dead Moon—who I should actually probably listen to given I’ve enjoyed hearing them over venue PAs between sets while high twice now according to my Shazam history—as a stylistic antecedent; I hear some similarities to Dehd writing this up. In a world where people’s stated interest in rock music translated to comfortable tours in mid-size venues for the bands involved, we’re all shouting along to songs like these.
It’s not uncommon for me to forget where I first picked up on something from, but even so I have legitimately no idea where this one came from. Crack Magazine’s ⌘R playlist? Regardless, I’m grateful to past me for putting current me on to this one. It’s a step above and a step removed from my usual indie rock preferences. In terms of mood, the record shifts between open longing to bite to shoegazing the mix of the two, and that keeps things from getting stale. A good impression for Vancouver’s multiculturalism, having never visited there.
Argia, last featured earlier this year in Crow’s Nest on her Atomnation debut, returns with this pair of tracks also on that label. The vocal line on ‘Spirit Grammar’, honestly, works so well I’m surprised I’m not regularly hearing it elsewhere, and I imagine meatier remixes could make it a(n annoying) buildup to peak time staple. ‘Spirality’ doesn’t slack either.
If the Western dance music industry can feel stagnant and lacking innovation, to the point that some commentators feel it’s calcified into a new folk music, the cross-continental dance music underground is helping push the area forward without getting caught up in getting plaudits from the gatekeepers. Shanghai-based producer Swimful folds in influences including amapiano and gqom from South Africa, Middle Eastern sounding hand percussion/’hard drum’, and UK indebted trap/dubstep stylings into a compelling, unique mix of sounds that’ll keep you on your feet and wondering where things will turn next.
Tokyo-based composer Carl Stone spent several decades helping pioneer exchanges between academic experimental meanderings and sample-based electronic music. More recently he has thrown international pop into the sampling blender for a glitchy, often ecstatic result as enjoyable as it is easily recognizable. At the invitation of Finnish label WE Jazz Records, he assembled this release from 10 LPs in their catalog and subjected them to his treatment. Most of it comes across in a spiritual ambient mode, though ‘Omar’ could have slotted onto a different recent release of his. If I’ve felt conflicted about not mentioning his other 2022 releases here, waiting for this was worth that minor inner turmoil.
A couple more mainstream indie rock records I kinda like but don’t have too much to say about:
-As much as I like New Zealand I’ve never given The Beths a listen until this record. The press I’ve seen emphasizes they’re an indie band with no gimmick to them. Insofar as ‘really good’ can be said not to be a gimmick.
Alvvays haven’t really clicked with me previously though enough of my former roommates love them to know there’s something to them. My biggest impression during my first listen to Blue Rev is ‘Mitski wishes she still had what they have.’
Here’s a Brooklyn group doing instrumental blues rock with a touch of psychedelia or funk, depending on how you interpret those organ lines. Not sure I’d say they fully live up to the title, but this LP is a strong case for that.
In Björk’s Pitchfork cover story for her latest album fossora (listened once, hasn’t grabbed me yet), Icelandic production trio sideproject play a minor role as part of the current posse of people she’s hanging with, bouncing ideas off of, and contributing to her work. They’ve got an intriguing sound focusing on adventurous, longform workouts situated between contemporary off-kilter club (Loraine James, Slikback), experimental footwork (Jlin, the outlines label) and Warp’s 90s A-team (you know who). I suppose it’s only a matter of time before this becomes their mainproject.
And that’s issue 41 for you. As always, if you’ve reading these words now, thank you for doing so, I hope something within tickled your fancy. Take some deep breaths to appreciate your surroundings and enjoy them, if you’re able to. See you again in a couple weeks, if not sooner.
That Why Bother? record is killer. And yeah, there isn't shit to do in northern Iowa. No wonder they're churning out music! G.E.O. Corp is my kinda house music, and Green/blue is right up my alley as well! Thanks for turning me on to them! Anyone that gets compared to Dead Moon is alright in my book.