Baptists - Self-Titled 7" Review (Southern Lord)

STREAM: Baptists - "Good Parenting"
(RIAA Weenies - Link is posted on the band's Facebook page - Buzz off!!)

Vancouver four-piece hardcore band Baptists just released their self-titled debut 7” for Southern Lord. Baptists is a fairly new band, having formed in 2010, but is comprised of long-time veterans of the Vancouver hardcore scene. Members have had stints in bands that include Ladyhawk, Sports and A Textbook Tragedy. This new four-track (12 min.) single is raw, aggressive hardcore played in the style of bands like Converge and the Cro-Mags.

In a recent interview with Discorder Magazine, the band talked about putting out this record on Southern Lord:

Discorder: How did Baptists come to put out a record on Southern Lord?

Danny: We got a MySpace message from Southern Lord. We never used our MySpace.

John: I thought it was a hoax.

Danny: We kind of did until it [the record] was in our hands. Greg [Anderson] from Southern Lord messaged us and told us to email him and [said] they’d be into doing something. We had these four songs recorded that we just basically recorded before Nick went on tour for two months so we didn’t forget them. Ya, I don’t know, we sent him those songs and he said he’d put them on a record.

After dropping the needle onto the 7”, the first track, “Good Parenting”, sets the tone and kicks off with a wave of grinding distortion prior to vocalist Andrew Drury unleashing his shrieking bark. Across this single, the guitars grind and chug but keep things off-balance by sneaking in some winding, melodic leads. Nick aggressively pummels the drums and John locks onto the beat with his bass.

This is no-frills hardcore that will strike a familiar and positive chord with fans of the bands that came out of the 80’s/90’s East Coast hardcore scene. There is enough anger in these tracks to be a flashpoint for the mosh pit but there is enough substance in the band’s music to keep the tracks memorable.

Baptists' debut single is available on limited-edition splattered grey wax (ltd. to 300) for $5 through Southern Lord's webstore.

Links:
Baptists

Black Breath Announce US Tour in May with Converge (Southern Lord)

Seattle hardcore punk band Black Breath is releasing their first full length, Heavy Breathing, March 30th on Southern Lord and the band is heading off on a full US tour with Converge & Lewd Acts. The tour kicks off in NYC on May 6th at Santos Party House. Tickets are $16 and go on sale on Feb. 17th.

Heavy Breathing was recorded last year at Kurt Ballou's God City Studios (Converge, Trap Them, Disfear) and this new 10-track disc picks up where Razor to Oblivion left off. This disc is more brutal though than Razor to Oblivion and is described as a "a fired-up blend of Poison Idea on a whiskey-soaked Dismember bender".



Here are the upcoming tour dates:

5/06/2010 -- Santos Party House - NYC w/ Touche Amore, Lewd Acts
5/07/2010 -- Grog Shop - Cleveland, OH w/ Lewd Acts
5/08/2010 -- Magic Stick - Detroit, MI w/ Lewd Acts
5/09/2010 -- Bottom Lounge - Chicago, IL w/ Lewd Acts
5/10/2010 -- Bottleneck - Lawrence, KS w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts
5/11/2010 -- Marquis Theatre - Denver, CO w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts
5/13/2010 -- Neumo's - Seattle, WA w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts
5/14/2010 -- Satyricon - Portland, OR w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/15/2010 -- Slim's - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts
5/16/2010 -- Downtown Brew - San Luis Obispo, CA w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/17/2010 -- Chain Reaction - Anaheim, CA w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/18/2010 -- El Rey Theatre - Los Angeles, CA w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/19/2010 -- The Clubhouse - Tempe, AZ w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/21/2010 -- Emo's - Austin, TX w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/22/2010 -- Trees, Dallas, TX w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/23/2010 -- The Marquee - Tulsa, OK w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/25/2010 -- The Hi Tone - Memphis, TN w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/26/2010 -- Headliners - Louisville, KY w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/27/2010 -- Rockettown - Nashville, TN w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/28/2010 -- The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts
5/29/2010 *TBA - North Carolina w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts

Links:
Black Breath

Black Breath - Razor to Oblivion CD EP Review (Southern Lord)

Black Breath has played some well received shows here in NYC over the past few years with the last being a show at The Charleston last June. The band released their debut 12" EP, Razor to Oblivion, in 2008 (on their own Hot Mass Records label) and have recently signed to Southern Lord who has reissued the band's debut EP on CD.

This 4-track EP clocks in around the 15 minute mark and it is a solid slab of hardcore punk. There are immediate comparisons to 80's punk bands like Discharge, Minor Threat and early Poison Idea but Black Breath blends this all together with a solid metal overlay which brings in elements of Motorhead, Venom and Entombed. The disc hits with an immediate angry intensity as guitarists Zach "F. Funds" Muljat and Eric Wallace kick off the disc ("Razor to Oblivion") with some shredding riffs which is followed by N. MacAdams' raw, hardcore bark and some d-beat pounding drums. There are all the elements of classic hardcore on this EP which range from breakdowns ("Fatal Error") to violence inciting thrash ("Beneath the Crust") to chugging groove metal ("Murder"). Aside for the brevity of the disc, there is not a thing to complain about.

Black Breath have a full-length coming up early next year (also on Southern Lord) that was recorded in June 2009 with Kurt Ballou (of Converge) at GodCity studios. "A much darker beast than previous efforts, the record features equal regiments of Swedish death metal, American heavy metal and sheer blasphemy. Their roadshow will hit the pavement in 2010."

Links:
Black Breath's MySpace Profile

Eagle Twin - "The Unkindness of Crows" CD Review (Southern Lord)

DOWNLOAD: Eagle Twin - "Murder Of..." (MP3)

Eagle Twin, who is a fairly new band based out of Salt Lake City, have their debut CD out on Southern Lord and it epitomizes the word HEAVY. The band is a two-piece composed of Gentry Densley (Ascend, Iceburn) on vocals/baritone guitar and and Tyler Smith on drums. While Iceburm evolved into an avant-jazz band, there is none of Iceburn's jazz/classical music influences here as The Unkindness of Crows is a 60+ minute slab of slow, monolithic stoner doom.

A good point of comparison for Eagle Twin's debut disc is The Melvins' Lysol. There is something of a pagan/tribal feel to the music as Tyler Smith beats out a hypnotic mantra while Gentry Densley layers in his dissonant guitar work, which ranges from sustained and twisted down-tuned notes (that can rise and fall like a roller coaster) and crashing tidal-wave sized riffs. Densley's vocals are crystal clear, almost spoken word, and there is no mistaking the menance in some of the stories he tells. Similar to the latest efforts from Sunn O))) and Earth, producer Randall Dunn captures the band's sound cleanly and lets the listener feel each crashing guitar riff. With the open and atmopheric production, The Unkindness of Crows comes across like the dark twin of Earth.

Lyrically, Eagle Twin focuses on animal mysticism with their primary attention being on crows. In a recent interview with The Aquarian, Gentry Densley said: "Well, I work in a jail library. I work in the jail giving people books, I’m the librarian. We used to have a copy of Ted Hughes’ The Crow. It’s a book of poems. He was poet laureate in Britain before he died, married to Sylvia Plath who wrote some awesome poems as well and The Bell Jar. I picked that up and the language of the poems would always suggest the music to me, the rhythm would give me riff ideas, and it came from that as well, but the lyrical ideas started meaning more to me and it seems like he takes all sorts of world myths and biblical things and imposes onto his crow character. I thought that was really interesting that you could take these universal myths and embody them into one character, just show how it all connects. So that started to interest me a lot more and so I started using the crow as my own variation on that character. Making up my own stories about him and stuff."

Eagle Twin was invited to open for all of Sunn O)))'s shows this year and the current tour finished up at the end of September. Here are some videos from the band's in-store performance at Vintage Vinyl and their show at Brooklyn Masonic.





Links:
Eagle Twin's MySpace Profile

Sunn O))) Announce West Coast Tour Dates With The Accused and Eagle Twin

DOWNLOAD: Eagle Twin - Live on KRCL, Salt Lake City 2/27/09 (MP3)

Sunn O))) are back out on the road in support of their new disc Monoliths & Dimensions. The band has announced an August West Coast tour with with new Southern Lord signees The Accüsed and Eagle Twin. The tour kicks off in Seattle on August 5th with a record release party for The Accüsed's new disc The Curse of Martha Splatterhead.

Here are the current tour dates:
8/05/2009 Neumo’s - Seattle, WA w/ The Accüsed, Trap Them, Black Breath
8/06/2009 Neumo's - Seattle, WA w/ Earth, Pelican, Eagle Twin
8/08/2009 Independent - San Francisco, CA w/ the Accüsed, Eagle Twin
8/09/2009 Historic Brookdale Lodge - Brookdale, CA w/ the Accüsed, Eagle Twin
8/11/2009 Center for Arts, Eagle Rock - Los Angeles, CA w/ the Accüsed, Eagle Twin
8/13/2009 Bluebird Theatre - Denver, CO w/ the Accüsed, Eagle Twin
8/14/2009 Avalon Theatre - Salt Lake City, UT w/ the Accüsed, Eagle Twin

East Village Radio Music Festival Moved to Sunday

Due to tropical storm Hanna, the East Village Radio Music Festival has been moved to Sunday. The festival will run 1PM - 9PM at the South Street Seaport.

I'm looking forward to seeing Boris (for free) but I also want to check out Olof Arnalds, who is a new artist out of Iceland. Here is a video of Olof performing her song "Klara" for Iceland Airways podcast.



Here are the set times for both of the festival stages:

BANDS SCHEDULED FOR @ SEAPORT LOCATION
Lil' Dusty 1:30
Bunnybrains 2:30
Hex Message 3:30
Crystal Stilts 5:30
Woods 6:15
BIG A little a 7:00

BAND SCHEDULE FOR SOUTH STREET SEAPORT STAGE
4-ize 12:45
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 1:15
Dr. Lonnie Smith 1:45
Olof Arnalds 2:30
Vivian Girls 3:00
High Places 3:45
Awesome Color 4:30
John Oliver 5:00
Devin the Dude 5:30
Flying Lotus 6:15
Mark Ronson 7:00
BORIS 7:45

Links:
Olof Arnalds' MySpace page