Diario

garage/post-punk/psych-pop pranksters The Prefab Messiahs have a new 12" out on Fixed Identity called Peace Love & Alienation. Excavated 1982-83 tapes with fab remastered-for-vinyl sound! 2 songs produced by Bobb Trimble!

grab some free tracks here at their Last.fm page
stream the tunes at Bandcamp
buy the 12" on Fixed Identity
read the cool GET BENT! review
check the posts at Altered Zones
see some other press
like up The Prefabs on facebook

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recommended for fans of:
Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Television Personalities, Swell Maps, The Clean, The Monochrome Set, 100 Flowers, The Beets, Big Troubles, The Bitters, Bizarros, The Bizarros, Black Lips, Blank Dogs, Acid Baby Jesus, Christmas Island, Cloud Nothings, The Creation, Creaturos, Crystal Stilts, Dead Moon, doomstar!, Dum Dum Dum, Eat Skull, The Electric Bunnies, The Fall, fedavees, The Fedavees, Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fresh and Onlys, Fungi Girls…

Hey folks!

It felt good to be back on the radio after my Thanksgiving-related absence. I was in Vegas, doing the things one does in Vegas. I'm legally not allowed to tell you about it, though. That "what happens in Vegas" thing isn't just a clever marketing slogan. It's a law. Who knew?

Things that Are Square 12-1-11

(*) = New release

Swans - I Am the Sun - The Great Annihilator

Altar of Plagues - When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean - Mammal
Liars - We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own - They Were Wrong So We Drowned
The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2 - The Glow, Pt. 2

(*) Tom Waits - Chicago - Bad As Me
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Deanna - Tender Prey
Françoise Hardy - Suzanne - Comment te Dire Adieu (For Scarlett in Torrance, CA)
Fugazi - Suggestion - 13 Songs

Treepeople - Big Mouth Strikes Again - Something Vicious for Tomorrow
Smith Westerns - Weekend - Dye It Blonde (For Leonard in Irvine, CA)
…

Punk generally doesn’t occupy a space in my heart. Whenever I listen to it, I think of un-challenging music played for people who politely subvert the system. My idea is that an anti-capitalist band plays its music for other anti-capitalists and in the process not offending anyone but playing so much to its base that it is silly. This gives me the impression that a lot more punk has this smug, distant attitude, though occasionally some bands rise above this problem.


Some punk manages to be weird enough to attract my attention. Swell Maps is one of those rare bands. Blending together a blatant disregard for coherence matched with drunken, shouted vocals and stumbling more often than not on genius, it is a great thrill to behold. I’m aware that the classification for these guys always veers between punk and post-punk, but what do those “posts” even mean?


They begin the record off in weird fashion, with a sustained organ sound. Random noises pop in, like they are fixing a bike. …

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# -> Australian artist or release
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Scattered Order - Personal Safety
(“Terrace Industry: M Squared Box 1980-1983” Box Set - 2010, Ascension) (original 1983) #

Wire - Feed Me
(“The Ideal Copy” - 1986, Mute)

Faust Vs Dälek - Remnants
(“Derbe Respect, Alder” - 2004, Staubgold)

Test Dept. - Glasfedd Eu Hancwyn
(“Gododdin” - 1989, Ministry of Power)

Cabaret Voltaire - Soul Vine (70 Billion People)
(“Plasticity” - 1992, Plastex)

Solvent - Built-In Microphone
(“Solvent City” - 2001, Morr Music)

Telex - Rendez-vous dans l'espace
(“Looney Tunes” - 1988, Magnetic Dance)

The Emergency - The Night (Ronzel Remix)
(“Remixes” promo - 2009, Metal Postcard/Exo) #

Wall of Voodoo - Lost Weekend
(“Call Of The West” - 1982, Illegal)

Rita Mitsouko - Oum Khalsoum
(“Rita Mitsouko” - 1984, Virgin)

Der Plan - Wir werden immer mehr
(“Fix Planet!” compilation - 1980, Ata Tak)

Soft Cell - A Cut Above The Rest
…

Best live show of 2010: tie between Thee Oh Sees at The Bug Jar in Rochester, NY (so sweaty), and William Basinski at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY (so gorgeous).

Best band I discovered in 2010: Zelienople, hands down.

Best albums not from 2010 that I discovered/came around to in 2010:
DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
Loscil - Submers
Sam Amidon - All Is Well - the sound of working long hours in a cagey stock room, avoiding mice and moving boxes of cereal.
burger/ink - Las Vegas - the sound of sitting on my bed drinking hot chocolate and watching the huge Rochester snowflakes fly around.
Zelienople - His/Hers
Gastr Del Sol - Upgrade & Afterlife
Lambchop - OH (Ohio)
The For Carnation - The For Carnation - the sound of me trying to keep myself awake late at night while I sat watch over a small wooden cabin full of pre-adolescents
The Gray Field Recordings - Hypnagogia - the sound of evenings walking around the woods by myself when…

11. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Curmudgeonly magic realists' finest album-ah!

"This Nation's Saving Grace marks a true high point for the band, mixing confident and strong musicianship with knockout songwriting. While the band had previously mastered the fine art of messy and dissonant post-punk chaos, this line-up had taken it to a more accessible realm, albeit one still arty and strongly independent.... With 25 studio albums, there are several that achieve a greatness similar to that of This Nation's Saving Grace, but it's still at the top of the pyramid, displaying the best that the post-punk legends had to offer." - treblezine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0EoTHI7rM8

12. The Flying Lizards - Fourth Wall

Experimental one-hit wonders? Experimental geniuses, more like!

"totally hat-stand and beyond analysis yet still essential" - allgigs
"a brilliant mix of the avant-garde meeting the pop world" - jbhifionline
…