As most Permanent regulars already know, Negative Guest List was THE underground rock authority in print form for 32 issues. NGL also released some great records. Tragically, it's young proprietor left this plane preemptively, but Negative Guest List lives on.
NGL is a fitting prefix for this LP's catalog number as Degreaser's vibe is intensely negative, filled with reverberating-distorto-wah six-string skree, buried nasally vocals, and caveman rhythms, but this music ain't simple. Bass is the driving force here, throbbing and heavy; making some unpredictable changes that'd make David Wm. Sims proud. Sims is Bootsy Collins compared to Degreaser's bassist, but (probably not-so) coincidentally, track one is titled "Lizard". Jesus, "Sweaty Hands" is a repetitive, but varied, record and it's riffs never wear out their welcome. Pop fans need not apply. Not even pop fans that venture into "Sex Bomb" territory. Although, they'd make a great opener for Lose and the boys circa '82, dirge doesn't even begin to describe the devastation contained within Degreaser's cacophony.
But unfortunately, this is the kind of outstanding record that will go underrated / unnoticed by most everyone, including the underground rock cognoscenti because it doesn't fall neatly into any particular category. It'll undoubtedly be too noisy / difficult for punks and too structured for noiseniks.
That's not to say "Sweaty Hands" is a noise record, it's not by a long shot, but it's the kind of noise ROCK that makes (here comes the obligatory Aussie reference) The Birthday Party sound like the Bad Seeds. We reference the Oz not because Degreaser sounds strikingly similar either of those bands (well, maybe a bit like The Birthday Party), but mostly because the band contains alum of the Australian bands Sea Scouts and Bird Blobs. Degreaser are an American band, supposedly based in the Big Apple. Ugly surroundings make for ugly soundings.
Let us raise up off of Degreaser's nuts for a minute. We're not saying these guys are reinventing the wheel here. Shit, this record barely sounds different from their debut "Bottom Feeder". But fuck Attention Deficit Disorder. There's too much quick change in the world today. More bands should write a few records that sound similar before trying to expand their horizons. Build a foundation, then add the attic. "Bottom Feeder" and "Sweaty Hands" are two heavily reinforced monopiles. Both are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Unfortunately, "Bottom Feeder" may be hard to find at this point, so just get "Sweaty Hands" and say you lost your copy of "Bottom Feeder" in a freak gasoline fight accident.
LIMITED TO 750 COPIES!
Our old pal GR, guitar-strangler for French psych rockers Gunslingers sends an 8-track shot across our bow with his newest solo release, "A Reverse Age" - this time for indie powerhaüs Mexican Summer!
Total acid-folk-punk gob-nobbin' going on here - GR's pulling from shit like Hawkwind, Deviants, Chrome and the like, with an everything plus the kitchen sink attitude. We dig that there are no strict ties to any one certain sound - GR is a true explorer, his spirit and fearless attitude towards recording reminds us of the din currently being created by Cleveland mastermind Bim Thomas a.k.a. OBNOX - blown-out skull-fuckery mixed with a healthy dose of arty, urban aggression a'la the aforementioned Armand Schaubroeck. WE LIKE. Limited to 750 copies worldwide, so grab this while the grabbin's good! RECOMMENDED!
The Twin Cities duo Gay Witch Abortion have been peeling back skull caps for few years now. Their debut album "Maverick" was a terrifying testament of ill intent and their inclusion on the 4-way split "A Butchers Waltz" was further proof of the uncompromising sonic skree these dudes were bringing. Now returning with follow up "Opporntunistic Smokescreen Behaviour" on Learning Curve Records GWA up the intensity of their particular possessed jackhammer drumming and crack-high guitar lunacy. Taking all the deranged greatness of the Load Records catalog and forcefully shoving it into the Skin Graft canon, Gay Witch Abortion are supplying the curdled milk noise rock we can't wait puke through our noses. Super Recommended.
Edition of 250
We got another heaving helping of Midwestern heavy punk from Iowa City's Big Box.
FUCK YES !!!!!!
Big Box WILL kick your fucking ass! Big Box is here and they are taking no prisoners, "Die Now" is a brutal onslaught of meaty hardcore that traverses some AmReppy noise rawk, some Angry Samoans up-tempo energy and has some burly Black Flag-isms throughout. The a side label finds the band aping the Bathory logo and the B side replaces the Wipers logo with their own name; a combo that more than sufficiently signifies the influences at play on this menacing platter. Big Box have taken the classic hardcore punk sound of the early 80s and created an album of blistering punishment that is altogether modern sounding and unique. Big Recommended.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES WITH PRO SCREENPRINTED COVERS
The Monofonus Press label lands a doozy of a release in the form of UK's House Reverends debut, and it's one awesome trip you need to take right NOW......
We've heard tell that these gents cut their teeth in an earlier incarnation of Shit and Shine when the $&$'ers were stationed in England. All that aside the House Reverends are venturing into a similar path that more recent Shit and Shine records have been displaying further proving the influence the UK had on them. The House Reverends are bringing more syrup-y down tempo dubbed out deconstructed drum and bass electronic weirdness. Kinda Hype Williams-y at times, with blurred autotuned mutterings buried beneath wonked out keyboards and demented drum machines.
We think this is meant to played properly at 33 1/3 RPMs but with music this bugged out it could easily be spun at any speed. "House Revs" is providing chilled out weedhead late night grooves that are more than a little unsettling.
How'd they know our soft spot? It's like they made this record just for us! Super Recommended.
The Ajna Offensive label has released a monster of a double album from France's Aluk Todolo. "Occult Rock" is probably the most apt title for this record. Eschewing song titles all together and captured live in the studio, Aluk Todolo's "Occult Rock" finds this power trio taking its black metal background and wildly expanding it into the furthest reaches of trance inducing instrumental heavy psychedelia we've heard in some time. The lead off track is the most metal sounding track with breakneck tempos and an ever evolving guitar riff. From there on out things get less metal and more tension inducing long form instrumental improvisations from three ultra talented musicians who have the kind of psychic mind melding abilities that comes from LOTS of practice and determination. This is a massive piece of work that is a sort of ritual that hints at post-rock but coupled with a definite Krautrock influence but approached from a viewpoint of metal. "Occult Rock" is a studied journey of dark sonics, ritualistic atmospheres and hard hitting bass, drums and guitar thrillers. Stretched across 4 sides, this is nearly 80 minutes of haunting heaviness that has been steadily blowing our minds. Mega Recommended.
Light it up, clear the tube and hold on for dear life, "Great Barrier Reefer" has FINALLY been cut to wax! One 80 minute track across 4 sides originally released as a mega limited CDR, Bongripper spew out heavy sloth paced pun-fueled funeral doom sludge like monoliths of death ever looming and repeatedly crashing ungodly volume into your ears. "Great Barrier Reefer" is droning instrumental heaviness of the "highest" order.
We recommend using your dank nugs for ear plugs. Super Recommended.
Chicago's own Mazes are back with a brand spankin' new album called "Mazes Blazes" - the latest since their 2009 s/t debut. Co-released on their own Sanzimat International label and Parasol Records, this is a slab of local rock n roll you don't wanna miss out on.
There's definitely a more 'off-the-cuff' feel to these recordings vs. Anderson and Donovan's work in their former outfit The 1900's. The pastoral pop of their former band is replaced with an infectious sense of sugar-rushed urgency - Anderson and Donovan trade verses like Eugene Kelley and Frances McKee of famed Scottish indie popsters, The Vaselines (or a lo-fi Buckingham/Nicks, perhaps?). Donovan's got the pipes to pull off the melodic moves the albums numerous tracks unload, navigating thru twee pop, to danceable indie, mod-rockers, to just good 'ol lo-fi orchestral-pop with the greatest of ease. Despite the varying degrees of stylistic shifting, the album flows seamlessly and feels fully formed, like a lost Nineties treasure from the Merge or Matador vaults - this could rest amicably alongside your Magnetic Fields, Yo La Tengo, and GBV records. The production's pretty sweet too - it has that unnameable, home-recorded, mid-fidelity preciousness that the first Shoes record has, compressed and recorded on not-too-great microphones. Nice. We're diggin' it more and more with every rotation - RECOMMENDED.
Terrific mellow countrified folk/psych from former Pharoah (as in Sam The Sham and The...) guitarist Ray Stinnett - his lone solo album "A Fire Somewhere", recorded in 1971 but unreleased until 2012 when the fine folks at Light In The Attic saw fit to (justly) give the album it's deserved launch!
This is some of the best HIPPIE FRIED, SOUL BENT FOLK ROCK PSYCH GOODNESS YOU'LL LAY YOUR EARS ON THIS YEAR.
It's a real shame that the alleged "professional record executives" at A&M couldn't figure out how to market the album, 'cuz it's a REAL stunner to our ears! Stinnett's time in the Haight-Ashbury scene of the late Sixties is apparent, and his fusing of laid-back and down-home Memphis R&B with soulful rock and country hints at the concurrent work by former Byrd, Gene Clark's solo output (also criminally ignored and mishandled in it's day - go figure). Stinnett and Producer Booker T. Jones recorded much of the record at famed Ardent Studios in Stinnett's hometown of Memphis, TN. The legendary studio is where Box Top, and future Big Star Alex Chilton recorded his celebrated works that same year and for those paying attention, there's a discernible whiff of Big Star's soulful, yearning rock moves bubbling underneath Stinnett's tunes. They must've been pumping soulful inspiration thru the Memphis water pipes or something! A real lost treasure here, folks - an album that definitely reveals more with repeated listens... grab us a match, 'cuz we're gonna start 'A Fire Somewhere'!!!
Top-notch reissue from the folks at LiTA too; gatefold, tip-on jacket reproducing the OG intended artwork for the original release, extensive liners with a new interview with ray Stinnett, 180gm vinyl and remastered audio - Totally RECOMMENDED!
EDITION OF 300
Limited reissue of this collection by one of the (if not THE) first electronic group from Germany called Supersempfft on the band's own, revitalized Wunderwerke Label.
Attention all you Krautrock and Electronic Crate Diggers, This Record Is Right Up YOUR ALLEY !!!
These guys were innovators in the field of electronic music in the late-Sixties, whose mechanized musicality were apparently a big influence on future Über-stars like Neu!, Can, Amon Duul II and (more directly) Kraftwerk. In fact, one could draw a direct line to the cold synth pulse of 'Electric Cafe' or 'Tour de France' without blowing a single microchip. The music isn't dark by any means, in fact a good portion of it is upbeat and danceable like the soundtrack to a long-lost Eighties movie-montage (and we mean that in a good way!). We'd be surprised if this stuff wasn't in the record collection of one Richard D. James, or Autechre's Sean Booth and Rob Brown - The rhythms are fluid and forward-moving, with a heavy emphasis on the beats and synth squiggles and pulses. Killer stuff - Super-limited too, so get it before you regret it. Or we reset it. Or... you get the idea. RECOMMENDED.
Original sealed copies of this 1985 release.
HOLY TIME MACHINE!!! The time-traveling archivists here at Permanent have gripped a few OG copies of this overlooked Goth-punk record from '85 by San Francisco group Glorious Din!
A True Lost Gem of the West Coast Goth Post Punk Scene!
A killer record and one that goes right for our pleasure centers, hitting that sweet spot of mid-Eighties primitive, post-punk inspired rockers combined with dark, brooding atmosphere a'la Warsaw, Crisis, and Christian Death. The Joy Division comparisons are unavoidable, as singer Eric Cope sounds a heck of a lot like Ian Curtis, but why avoid them? The band herks and jerks underneath his cacophonous monotone, with a warbly chorused bass that pulses not unlike the rock-ier moments of early Siouxsie and The Cure, but more accurately like U.K. DIY'ers like Scrotum Poles or Swell Maps. We're totally reveling in the glorious din of the Glorious Din! ONCE AGAIN - these are O.G. copies we were able to score, but we're not sure if we'll be able to get more, so ACT FAST if you're so inclined! RECOMMENDED!
Hey gang, listen up! Cave recently returned from a 2012 European tour and they brought back a single, released on Spanish label Giradiscos Records, that was only available on the tour. And get this, this here tour single is only available from yours truly! Well you can get them from the band directly but Permanent Records will be the only place to score this here in the US of A! You know we love us some Cave and we're pretty sure by this point you all love them too, so cop this single stat! It'sa certified ripper with 2 exclusive and unreleased tracks! "Party Legs" is a fluid kraut groover with an almost Afro-Funk bounce to it; absolutely mind blowing staccato key melodies that snake into alternating patterns that burst into kaleidoscopic surges of joy atop the always on-the-job tight as fuck rhythm section providing the punch. A definite toe-tapper. On the flip we get "Thai I Am", which is totally reworked version of "High I Am" from 2009's amazing Psychic Psummer" LP and it is another ear pleaser fer sure. It's like frickin' CCR doing krautrock, seriously it's like knockworst wrapped in flannel bouncing around a pinball machine at warp speed. Both cuts just keep demanding to be replayed again and again and again. This is easily one of the best singles we've heard this year and this is only place to score it so grab yer pocket books and proceed to check out! Gooberishly Recommended.
7in - Iggy Pop and the Zig Zags / Betty Davis - If I'm Lucky I Might Get Picked Up - $6.99 - BUY
- LISTEN 
- LISTEN The Zig Zags seem to be on a roll these days, 2 fine singles so far this year and now they get to team up with none other than IGGY friggin' POP! Iggy and the Zigs take Betty Davis' classic swaggering funk heavier hitter "If I'm Lucky I Might Get Picked Up" and carve out a Sabbath-ian sleaze rock rendition adding some white boy lust to the alluring and empowering anthem of female sexuality. Its a complete recontextualisation of the song, but let's not over think it. This is simply a celebration of a great track being paid tribute from across the tracks. It is also highly Recommended.
Reissue of this ramshacklin' EP from early Eighties UK band Repulse, originally issued on the Kiospque d'Orphée Label in 1981 and thankfully repressed here by Cameleon Records.
Definitely takes VU or Modern Lovers as a jumping off point, but it sounds more to us like late-Seventies Bloomington, IN - TOTAL Gizmos/Afrika Korps or even Screamin' Mee Mees vibes abound on this platter. The A-Side opener "Sweeties" is the cut here, folks; a real fuzz-faced blaster that mopes along lecherously, spritzing itself with a mist of it's own stink. Whether by accident or totally on purpose, the boys in Repulse play keep pseudo-inept and loosey-goosey here, with the songs jerkin' in and out of time and competence - they could fall apart at any moment... but don't. Totally great! Definitely a limited reissue (although we're not sure how many 300-500 most likely) so DO NOT sleep on this one - AMAZING and RECOMMENDED are two words we'd use to describe this one. Yep.
Milwaukee's favorite sons return to the fold with Mother Tongue 2. Catacombz are upping their game these days with cyberdelic space kraut pulsers. Undulating synthesizers, motorik drum precision and rhythmic melodies combine to form tension building spaceage head nodders. They've got the repetitive groove rider down-pat but they can turn on a dime and know when to make it heavy then make you float and with some robotic vocals mixed into the circuitry Mother Tongue 2 has a futuristic feel. But what Catacombz really excel at is infusing their Oneida/Cave/Trans Am inspired jams with some serious energy; quick paced and well played sonic excursions with a hefty dose of dopamine dripping in their wake gives Catacombz music an uncanny happiness that can't be faked. You can tell these fellas truly enjoy each others company when it comes time to lift off into the cosmos. Here's hoping this cassette gets the vinyl treatment in the near future. Comes with download of entire album. Recommended.
Limited cassette version of the mighty Destruction Unit's upcoming album "Void" - soon to be released on vinyl from Jolly Dream Records! Destruction Unit is Arizona legend (& former Reatard, Wong and Tokyo Electron) Ryan Rousseau's latest full-time band, fusing psychedelic rock, noise rock and krautrock into a dusty, desert-baked audio voyage! The band's last full-length on Volar "Sonoran" was a real departure from their debut, and "Void" seems to be carrying on in that same direction - fuzz-drenched, dystopian rockers, mixed with dark, drone-ragas, punctuated by a peyote-fueled, sunglasses-wearing, desolate dead-cool. Great to hear a modern psychedelic record that isn't trying to sound like a "Psychedelic Record"... killer stuff - can't wait to hear it on wax! RECOMMENDED!
