MORE KIND COVERAGE FROM THE GUMSHOE GROVE. This time regarding TROPICAL TRASH…
Sophomore Lounge were responsible for that inspiring Fat History Month LP, and now they come forth with the “Fear of Suffering” 7-inch, by Tropical Trash.
Does it stack up? Surprisingly, yes, though TT reside in a different neck of the deep-country indie woods. Cuts like “Pentagram Ring Finger” cling to my ear like K.K. Rampage — by dint of the disturbing multi-tracked vocals and clean-but-dirty guitar biff-riffs — and more garage-rock-influenced fare, submarine-ing into Modey Lemon/Whirlwind Heat/Popular Shapes territory (I know at least a few Seattle readers will smile and nod appreciatively at the PS mention) with a low-end CRUNCH-’n’-MUNCH and aggressive drums, the weight of which bears down HELLA-HARD (though hardly Hella) on a frenzied math-punk template you’d expect from that last Refused album, or maybe Ambitious Career Woman. ARRRRGH! WHHOOOOSH! PFFFFFFFFLEKJFHS: Yep, it gets the job done, friends.
The four-songs-deep face-indenting on Side B flips my lid every time, the hard-charging instrumentals scampering through the door, one after another, like four rambunctious kids, faces covered in PBJ and vague smiles. Thank christ I won’t ever have to deal with that much insanity (we’ve decided to stop at two, if not one); in the meantime, these noisy mongrels are keeping me busy with their constant snare slaps and mutated slam riffs.
And yet there’s a titter of restraint keeping things classy; The WPP this ain’t, and it could be said that a lot of bands try their damndest to be much more extreme than this and wind up with that trying-too-hard sound (not that they’re related to this review but Poison The Well had that trying-too-hard thing going) that ensures no one, anywhere, will remember them. I envy the ability to carry a gun without brandishing it at all times; Tropical Trash are packing, and they’ve got their collective finger on the trigger at all times, but they rarely act out or flail for the sake of flailing. Most of the time they deliver a smoky shard of rippin’ rawk, undergo a transition or two, then drop out. Their instinct to keep things brief is almost always a good one, and when each track yields a totally different variation, all the better.
“Baltimore” is the exception to that rule, but it’s mapped out like the sketches of a city planner, with one main street forging ahead no matter how many sideroads branch out from it. Then the entire population drops out of site and their pets are left to whimper and whine like six-string tears cried by Battles and Spencer Seim.
Upstart bands like Tropical Trash and FHM should go even further with their post-what-do-you-got(?) brand of intricate rock, sort of where Shearing Pinx ended up (and that’s exactly where “False Crypt” is headed; it shreds) — though that is an ongoing story — or perhaps picking up where Ed Hall or Die Kreuzen left off (or not …) or some shit, or venturing to god-knows-where with a couple of pedals and a buddha box. It could happen … but if it doesn’t I won’t hold a grudge, as the art-punk is pure and truthful and brave and sincere as it is.
I also offer this thought: As good as 45 RPM can sound, I love it when bands cram everything they can onto a 7-inch at 33. These pressings ain’t cheap; when a band wastes 2/3 of its allotted time on a 7-inch I know it must be comprised of rich kids to whom money is no object (though I’m not a class warrior; I like The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, etc. despite their silver-spoon shine). Tropical Trash smash-cram four or five fuck-takes onto a single side, letting the listener in on more than the quick bathroom-bang many 7-inches turn out to be. (Not that those aren’t pleasurable in their own, brief way.)
Read the original review HERE at The Gumshoe Grove.
FIELDED INTERVIEW ON NON-REALITY BLOG. Sander van D. catches up with our soul sister Linzy P.
(Courtesy of NON-REALITY.com)
You might know Lindsay Powell as the singer and keyboard player of Chicago’s progressive rock outfit Ga’an, or maybe even from her contributing vocal parts on White Car’s ‘Everyday Grace’ LP. But the minimalist project Fielded that she indulges in truly shows her voice to be the pillar of her unsettling solo compositions. Having released a cassette and a vinyl record on Catholic Tapes, Lindsay has recently finished an album that is unlike any of her previous works. The strong vocal pieces that once were the main substance to a lo-fi method of work have now made room for deep sounding jams with a wide variety of instruments – synths, guitars, saxophones, and a whole lot more. We talked to Lindsay about this transition…
What has changed for Fielded over the last couple of months?
I recently moved to Los Angeles. I had been living in New Jersey just before that, saving money and working on the new record. I really like getting started on projects in sort of isolated place so as to avoid a lot of distractions. I was touring nearly non-stop between March and mid-August and then sleeping on some couches in Chicago after that so coming back to my Parents’ home and sleeping in the same bed night after night was a little bit jarring, to be honest. I still wanted to be living out my car and still have moments where I find myself wishing that were the case. But it worked out, you know; I saved enough money to buy some new gear and got a real nice little studio going. Besides that it was a lot of hanging out with my Mom and Dad and waitressing. Moving definitely interrupted the recording process but it was well needed. L.A. is a trip. It’s only been a month so I really haven’t seen much yet. It beats living in NJ, that’s for sure. Mostly I’ve been mixing, looking for a job, basking in the sunlight and driving around at night. Oh, and working on my shoe collection.
Tell me about the rise of your new LP…
The new Fielded record was engineered by my own hand with help from Evan Sobel (La Otracina, Wizardy, Atlantean Runes) at his home in Brooklyn, NY and at my floating home studio which made it’s way across the country with me to L.A. In addition to his engineering contributions, Sobel also plays bass and guitar. Other musicians involved are Sam Davis playing guitar and bass, David Lackner (Galtta Tapes; Phantom Family Halo) playing saxophone, flute and EWI. My Dad, Don Powell, also plays a few sweet guitar licks. I’m producing it myself but when it comes to what these musicians play I go on long-winded rants of what, where and how; the result is a delivery of performances on their part all exceeding my hopes and expectations. Needless to say, the process has been working out swimmingly.
I like for the people involved in the execution of this record to “go there” and do what feels right for them as the master of their craft. I know that in trusting and believing in their abilities they are far more inclined to kick ass, you know?
The record is being mixed at the moment. It’s hard to let it go but man, it sure is time. I’m still looking for a label to release – I’m sure it will find it’s way to a good home !
What artists or situations have inspired you to make this album?
I was antsy to make a new full-length immediately after Terrageist but had so much stuff recorded already that it would have been silly to leave it behind. I’m glad I waited a while. I feel I had time to let the first record settle in and, you know, I started entertaining all kinds of experiences I had sort of drifted from during the recording process. I moved back to Chicago and started writing again. I was going to a lot of shows and letting it all sink in. The bands I am surrounded by are always inspiring to me and Chicago is full of such a diverse plethora of musicians. I carry the enthusiasm of the community that I was a part of there and hope that it shines through in my own work. I was still playing in Ga’an around this time last year as well as finishing the second Festival record with my sister (who is forever an inspiration to me). Ga’an and Festival have both had such a huge influence on my work as a solo musician and both projects have inspired me in different ways – in Ga’an I would think so much about composition, space and timing. In Festival we just let our voices decide and everything else follows the sound of our words. I guess I am trying to merge the two. Like I mentioned earlier, I spent a lot of time on the road last year and having that time to write and meet new people and visit new places really moved me in ways I’d never been moved before.
Dreams are forever haunting me. My family, my friends. My Van. Divas. So many records and people and experiences have inspired me to keep moving forward — it’s hard to keep track. There’s always so much bubbling under the surface, you never know what it’s going to force you to create. I am thankful for that.
You new album has a much cleaner sound compared to your previous work – was this something that came along on the road or was this something you planned?
I knew I wanted this record to sound cleaner, so to speak, but I didn’t really think I could do it on my own. I just think that the more you do something the better you get at it. Working with Evan gave the record a really good push, he helped me track a lot of stuff that I really wouldn’t have known how to capture — guitar and bass especially. The one thing I try to really focus on are the vocals. If I get a nice vocal sound then I work with that, tweak it here and there and make sure it’s sitting nicely in the mix. I honestly think that if things sound clean than it’s mostly luck and some obsessive mixing!
On your former albums, your voice was the key element on most of the songs. Why did you choose to put more layers in the music?
I think it was just a natural progression. All of the songs on the upcoming record were written vocally. When I sat down to work on new material I was going through hours of little lines I had sung into a recorder and at certain points I was like, “what the heck am I even singing?” There were a handful of choruses that had stuck with me and they all ended up on this new record. I wanted to push myself, I guess. I want to try everything before I decide it’s not relevant to the project. I was sitting down with some songs and painfully figuring out the chords on the piano but in the end it was so worth it. I was excited to bring other musicians in because the sound I was hearing in my head was so much bigger than the last record. I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I am always writing songs with vocals in mind and I think this is just a new way of experimenting. I was just asking myself new questions and coming to different conclusions. It’s always exciting to go somewhere new. I felt a little more brave on this record, too, which always gives you the strength to reach out and bounce your ideas off of others and see what you can create within a concept. It’s an ongoing process. I hope it’s always this fun.
Lindsay’s new album will arrive sooner or later — get familiar with her new sound by listening to ‘Doctor’, and get to know her older work if you haven’t yet.
GIVING UP/LIFE PARTNER “BIG GULP” SUMMER TOUR 2012:
FRIDAY JUNE 8 // CHICAGO // PLAINES PROJECT (1822 S Desplaines) 9:00 pm sharp
with LIL’ TITS, T’BONE, + FAT HISTORY MONTH
SATURDAY JUNE 9 // NORMAL, IL // FIREHOUSE PUB (107 E Beaufort St)
SUNDAY JUNE 10 // LOUISVILLE, KY // CHESTNUT HOUSE (710 E Chestnut St)
with GANGLY YOUTH
MONDAY JUNE 11 // NASHVILLE, TN // HELP!
TUESDAY JUNE 12 // ATLANTA, GA // 529 CLUB (529 Flat Shoals Ave)
WEDNESDAY JUNE 13 // JACKSONVILLE, FL // BURRO BAR (100 E. Adams St.)
THURSDAY JUNE 14 // ST. AUGUSTINE, FL // NOBBY’S (10 Anastasia Blvd) (Man Man after-party 12pm)
FRIDAY JUNE 15 // SAVANNAH, GA // HELP!
SATURDAY JUNE 16 // CHAPEL HILL, NC // THE CAVE (452 1/2 W Franklin St)
with MARK EDWARDS (MY DAD IS DEAD)
SUNDAY JUNE 17 // RICHMOND, VA // TBD CONFIRMED
with HEAVY MIDGETS
MONDAY JUNE 18 // BALTIMORE, MA //P.P. (110 W 27th St)
TUESDAY JUNE 19 // PHILADELPHIA, PA // TERI”S (1126 S 9th St)
with FAT HISTORY MONTH
WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 // NEW YORK, NY //TBD
THURSDAY JUNE 21 // BOSTON, MA // GG ALLIN’S BROKEN HOME (*%$@#)
with SARALEE + KAL MARKS
FRIDAY JUNE 22 // EAST HAMPTON, NH // LUTHIER’S CO-OP (108 Cottage St)
with BUNNY’S A SWINE
SATURDAY JUNE 23 // ROCHESTER, NY // THE BRONZE (*%$@#)
SUNDAY JUNE 24 // CLEVELAND, OH // HAPPY DOG (5801 Detroit Ave)
MONDAY JUNE 25 // DETROIT, MI // HELP!
TUESDAY JUNE 26 // CHICAGO, IL // THE BURLINGTON (3425 W Fullerton Ave)
with ANIMAL CITY
*More dates and details to be updated as they are confirmed…
RECENT SOPHOMORE 7”S NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH GONER RECORDS. Scoop some…
http://www.goner-records.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=9246
GIVING UP “GLUE, GREEN GLITTER” off their upcoming full-length (PEACE SIGN/FROWN FACE)
12” LP coming July 2012 on Sophomore Lounge.
LIFE PARTNER “DOGS” CASSETTE Now for sale at Permanent Records (Chicago)…
http://shop.permanentrecordschicago.com/index.php?product=N-Tapes+-+Life+Partner+-+Dogs
FAT HISTORY MONTH AT DEATH BY AUDIO (Brooklyn) on 4/16/12. Show review by QRO Magazine…
For all of the delicate intricacies and complex instrumentation of Fat History Month’s Fucking Despair on Sophomore Lounge Records you’d be surprised to catch the Boston duo live with nothing more than a stripped down drum kit without a loop or delay pedal anywhere in sight.
This is due to Sean History Month’s ability to put his guitar through it’s paces nightly, able to step out of the van, load in a couple essential pieces of a drum kit and turn on a single battered amp, Fat History Month thrives on their bare bones setup. Their ability to recreate the ebbs and flows of their math-punk comes from the telepathic mind-meld of a duo, those imperceptible nods or long stares to signal the next big change or abrupt silence. On stage, it’s an extension of the closeness that comes from miles of travel, a unique kind of codependence to know when that wall of chaos is about to start.
As usual, that’s how they found themselves in the middle of another heavy equation Monday night, April 16th, on the checkered linoleum floor of Brooklyn’s Death by Audio (QRO venue review). Sean played in a loose fingerpicking style or palmed strumming bursts, emphasizing particular timing shifts, jerking backwards into another band’s gear on the side of the stage. Leaning into the mic, his vocals shifted as dynamically loud and quiet as the instrumentation. Mark on drums was bashing on a spiral cut crash cymbal or tapping out subdued jazz timings on a high hat missing chunks off the edges. Lyrically, Fat History Month explores mundane or downright silly semi-narratives with titles like “Old Lady Smokers” or a new unnamed track about the night roaming of a house cat who ends up under a car tire, and weaves them into abstract epic roller-coasters bursting with the punk energy of Slint or the quiet spaces between notes of Jim O’Rourke.
The real trick is how they make these constantly changing melodies feel loose and improvised. As much as this math rock genre strives for the perfect stop or impossible time signature combinations, the way they keep the spontaneity live without sounding like they’ve ever lost direction is a delicate balance. They focus on the central melody and out of control hardcore energy instead of obsessing on the minutiae. The bigger picture then becomes a mix of soaring bizarre chords and Sean’s vocal coming across with the same reckless abandon as the best parts of Lonesome Crowded West, but any indie ‘90s reference seems to do them a disservice. There’s such a punk feel to the performance going all the way back to the Cap’n Jazz’s Tim Kinsella’s hoarse vocal with a similar abstract angst aesthetic. Live, it becomes the contradiction of a single-minded vision from the duo… going way down their own idiosyncratic road.
The perfection and heavy silence captured on Fucking Despair is traded for a more violent free-form rock, and it’s in this translation live that makes them a truly great band. Completely different than their obsessive recordings, the rolling loops and fret gymnastics are faithfully duplicated but the overwhelming volume and energy they bring to an audience can’t be captured in the studio either.
That’s the kind of hybrid they’ve created, from swaying head banging riffs to simple, three note bottom string melodies… in completely arrhythmic timing. Their nervous fits and starts can only be appreciated if you don’t have any idea where they’re trying to go.
-Jason Dean, QRO Magazine
TROPICAL TRASH “MANIFOLD RAG” at Mediumship in Indianapolis, IN
(Live audio from 4/13/12 with State Champion/Bad Magick/Psychic Feel)
Happy Derby, everyone. Be safe. Be nice. Fuck shit up. Love, – Sophomore Lounge
*Animal City circa “The Centennial” May 2008
SKIMASK “GET U BACK” from Geffika/Skimask split 12” (Sophomore Lounge, 2011)
Video directed and edited by Adric Giles/PENCAPCHEW.org
