World’s End Girlfriend: Seven Idiots (Erased Tapes)

World's End Girlfriend: "Teenage Ziggy"

World’s End Girlfriend is the wild, hyper-melodic project of Japanese composer Katsuhiko Maeda, whose vivid arrangements have created a following in his homeland and been used in critically acclaimed films. Originally released last year in Japan, Seven Idiots is his tenth studio album.

The music is a dense, larger-than-life blend of post-rock, classical music, and electronica, and within just the first minute of Seven Idiots, the listener is hit with a beautiful union of Battles-esque guitar lines, funky bass slaps, classical melodies, glitch beats, and squiggly synth lines. As the album progresses, it delves into polyrhythms, improvisation, and other complexities — particularly during the “Bohemian Purgatory” triptych — but a robust sense of melody and an opportunity for head-nodding are almost always at its core.

Helms Alee: Weatherhead (Hydra Head)

Helms Alee: "8/16"

With its 2008 debut album, Seattle trio Helms Alee forged a sound all its own — part metal, part post-punk, part melody-driven rock, and all abandon.

If it was Isis joining up with The Breeders for a quick outing into the wilderness, then the band's sophomore effort, Weatherhead, returns to the woods to find our friends older, craftier, and better bonded.

As a trio, the band's personal contributions are easier to discern: the driving, effected guitar and guttural screams of Ben Verellen, the distorted low end and breathy, light-weight vocals of bassist Dana James, and the steady, pounding aggression of Hozoji Matheson-Margullis.

On top of alternately punishing and pulchritudinous riffage, Verellen and James again are paired for vocal harmonies.  But this time around, they're joined by the assertive vocals of Matheson-Margullis, who leads a call-and-response exchange with the two in the standout single "8/16" and who adds screams to the title track.  James, however, takes the lead at other points, and she frequently harmonizes with Verellen's clean vocals to produce some of the album's most hypnotic tracks.

The egalitarianism of the vocals is nearly matched by the diversity of the music — albeit music that nearly always rocks.  But the soft moments are pronounced, and the acoustic interlude of "Anemone of the Wound" is a welcome change of pace.  This contrast and disparity makes Weatherhead just as compelling as its predecessor, while featuring additional growth as a trio.

3:33: The First Thousand Days (Parallel Thought Ltd.)

Stream the entire album here.

Just two months ago, the mysterious, experimental electronic group 3:33 released its debut album, 333LP1. Its follow-up has an uncharacteristically communicative title — The First Thousand Days (Bandcamp) — but the group's mechanical, idiosyncratic number/letter combinations are still present in the track list.

If it weren't so amorphous and downright sinister, The First Thousand Days would fall somewhere in the experimental electro-hop territory typified by musicians like Prefuse 73. It is set apart by a rawness of texture that recalls Amon Tobin's field-recording-style compositions, where the line between digital and analog is scuffed beyond recognition.

The mystery of the music, and of the artists themselves, is compounded by spare, muffled vocals and crunchy, textured instrumentation. The group's ability to simultaneously plod and pulsate, to move swiftly from tribal percussion to glacial ambience, is unmatched — and unsettling.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson.

Seun Anikulapo Kuti: From Africa With Fury: Rise (Knitting Factory)

Seun Anikulapo Kuti: "Rise"

The youngest son of Afrobeat legend and political dissident Fela Kuti, saxophonist and singer Seun Anikulapo Kuti is the latest to continue the cherished legacy of his last name.  Similarly to Femi Kuti, Fela's eldest son, Seun maintains his family's tradition of activism and rump-shaking funk, both of which are prevalent on his sophomore album, Rise.

For the second time, Seun is joined by his famous father's Egypt 80 ensemble, a group that played with Fela 30 years ago.  The music, though not treading new ground, is chock full of tightly wound horn harmonies and dance-inducing rhythms, as filtered through the one-of-a-kind sounding board that is co-producer Brian Eno.

As per the album's title, there's plenty of political fury: "African Soldiers" addresses the cyclical nature of military governments throughout modern African history, and "You Can Run" dissects the cowardice of brutal dictators who flee when the prospect of justice is threatened.  "Rise," meanwhile, emphasizes tribal heritage, rejecting the imposed demarcations placed upon Africa by the Western world.

The fact that the music doesn't delineate from the Afrobeat legacy is irrelevant.  Africa, perhaps as much as ever, needs a messenger like Seun Kuti.

Honorable Mentions

Bon Iver: s/t (Jagjaguwar)

Cassettes Won’t Listen: Evinspacey (Daylight Curfew)

The Devin Townsend Project: Ghost (Century Media / Inside Out)

Elitist: Fear in a Handful of Dust (Season of Mist)

Father’s Children: s/t (Numero Group)

Grieves: Together/Apart (Rhymesayers)

Laurel Halo: Hour Logic (Hippos in Tanks)

Mark Wingfield & Kevin Kastning: I Walked into the Silver Darkness (Greydisc)

Painted Palms: Canopy EP (Secretly Canadian)

Ty Segall: Goodbye Bread (Drag City)

So Hideous, My Love…: To Clasp A Fallen Wish With Broken Fingers (Play The Assassin)

Viva Voce: The Future Will Destroy You (Vanguard)

White Hills: H-p1 (Thrill Jockey)

Ty Segall: "It #1"

Ty Segall is too cool for school.

At 17 years old, while still in high school, he and his band, Epsilons, recorded two frenzied electro-garage free-for-alls for Los Angeles’ Retard Disco Records. With their frantic live shows, they made an impact on LA’s all-ages live-music scene.

“With the Epsilons, we really had no idea what we were doing,” Segall says. “We couldn’t tour for over a year because we were all underage. It was kind of an experiment of a band. We all learned together as we went, but had lots of happy accidents.”

But soon, nationwide touring followed (over spring and summer break, of course), including shows alongside garage-punk stalwarts like Jay Reatard.

“My mom is a bit of a worry worm,” Segall says. “But she’s the most wonderful and caring person I know. It’s a parent’s place to worry when their kid’s out on the road playing shows, but they trust me, and they got used to it eventually. Now it’s no big deal.”

But like high school, that’s in the past. Epsilons called it quits, and Segall went solo to college in San Francisco. He hasn’t kept quiet; in 2009, he released his first solo self-titled nugget for Castle Face Records, the label operated by John Dwyer, formerly of nouveau garage-noise innovators Coachwhips. Now 22, Segall recently graduated from college with a degree in communications, just in time to get going with serious touring for his new solo record, Lemons, recorded for Eric “Oblivian” Friedl’s Goner Records in Memphis.

“I can’t believe Goner is releasing Lemons — the same label that put out Guitar Wolf and the Reatards,” Segall says. “I was shocked to get the phone call. John [Dwyer] passed some stuff I was working on to Eric at Goner; I E-mailed them, and that was it. That’s insane. That kind of thing doesn’t just happen, but here we are.”

Two solo records recorded for two of modern garage rock’s crowned heads before the age of 25 is no small feat. But Ty Segall is the real deal, playing every note with the kind of passionate, sweaty, hormonal swagger brandished by the best of the black- leather rockabilly cats of yore.

"John [Dwyer] passed some stuff I was working on to Eric at Goner; I E-mailed them, and that was it. That’s insane. That kind of thing doesn’t just happen, but here we are.”

Like his first solo foray, Segall plays nearly every note on Lemons. But whereas his self-titled release was truly played as a one-man band (i.e. recorded with guitar in hand at a drum kit) — resulting in the kind of spastic, sleazy madness that can only come from the peaked crash-and-burn pace of a fevered mind set in full motion — Lemons favors cleaner production, more cohesive songwriting, and more varied song styles. However, at the core of everything here is the cranked Hasil Adkins bender-bash Ty Segall has come to call his own.

“I like to think this record is a little more serious,” he says. “I really tried to work on writing what I think are better songs and to get a wider range of sounds. The production is a lot less ‘garbage-can rocky.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I just wanted something new and more dynamic.”

The results on Lemons cut a wide swath, pulling equal doses of tumbledown, back-porch rockabilly, swampy country blues, and rocket-fueled basement-punk-show frenzy. The rhythms are simple and familiar: he is, after all, playing all this himself, and should you venture out to see him live, you’ll see one man, one guitar, and one altered drum kit playing everything you hear here (though he has been known to play with friends backing him up).

But there’s a primal, heady momentum injected into these songs that’s a rare find in today’s slick, Pro Tools world. From the first bucket-beat fuzz-tone crackle and ghastly wail of the opening track, “It #1,” Segall’s genuinely unique voice, which is a rare and important aspect for any rock band, shines through.

The sheer variety of rock styles covered in less than 30 minutes is staggering, but it flows brilliantly, with each diversion bearing Segall’s trademark sonic stamp.

“Lovely One,” with its heart-beat drumming and keening backwoods Everly Brothers refrain, begs for some action on the dance (or basement) floor, while “Can’t Talk” is a spastic-lamentation, Mod-style rave-up. “Rusted Dust,” with its eerie falsetto vocals, calls to mind a lonely escaped convict, pining out of a boxcar somewhere on the prairie. Some of his greatest moments are without Segall’s otherworldly croon, such as instrumental “Untitled #2,” with its jungle drums, acoustic acrobatics, and creeping bass riffs slipping past at breakneck speed.

Though the record isn’t without its missteps (the unnecessary Captain Beefheart cover, “Dropout Boogie” comes to mind), Lemons is a glimpse at what one can only hope turns out to be a lengthy and fruitful career, and at 22, Segall ought to have plenty left in him.

Landlocked Music in Bloomington, Indiana has been around since 2006 and has since proved to be a staple in the small college town. The store has hosted a number of notable in-store performances and curates a collection of music to satisfy almost any taste. With its fifth anniversary coming up in March of 2011, we spoke with Landlocked c0-owner Jason Nickey and got the inside scoop on one of the Midwest's top record stores. A message to any straightforward rock-'n'-roll bands from Bloomington: get in touch with Nickey; he doesn't believe that you exist.

What was your motivation for starting a music store? / What is your background in music?

I had no choice, really. It’s the only thing I’m fully qualified to do; I’m otherwise unemployable. All I ever did at any other job I ever had was talk to people about music and records and try to discover new stuff I hadn’t heard yet. So it was probably inevitable. Also, at a certain point, when you’ve acquired a certain quantity of recorded music, it’s the next logical move.

I worked in record stores all through college, and I’ve worked a bit on the distribution side of things, as well as some writing for magazines, websites, etc., and deejaying at college and then community radio. All of those experiences have come into play to some degree. Also, finding a partner was key. It would be near impossible to do this alone. I’m sort of the behind-the-counter guy; my partner is the marketing/social-networking guy, broadly speaking.
 

Jason Nickey holds the Flamin' Groovies' Shake Some Action

What is the musical community like in Bloomington?

I’m feeling a little negative about it at the moment to be honest, although I’m quite thankful that we have a music community at all given that Bloomington is a small Midwestern town.

There are tons of bands here. But generally speaking, it’s all very arty. Even our punk bands have some sort of conceptual angle. Either that or it’s some horrible crust-folk hobo-bike-pirate friendly punk BS, which won’t ever seem to die here. Not my bag at all.

Showing people a good time seems not to be taken into consideration much. The concept of fun takes a backseat to making some sort of “art statement” or something. I’ve been waiting for years to stumble upon some straight-ahead rock-and-roll band that just plays Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly-type songs non-ironically but with passion and soul.

There are larger musical institutions here like Secretly Canadian and her related labels, and the annual Lotus World Music Festival — both of which have an overall positive effect on the Bloomington music scene. And lest this all sound like a rant, there are a handful of good bands here. Among my favorites are Apache Dropout, who has an LP coming out on Family Vineyard early next year. They’re sort of a ragged caveman-bubblegum band, if that makes any sense.

(And in case you’re wondering, yes, John Mellencamp lives here, but he’s a total nonentity on the music scene. I’ve never seen him at a show or even sold him a record in 15 or so years here, which is a shame.)
 

Tyler Damon holds The Dead C's Eusa Kills

What can someone expect when visiting Landlocked for the first time?

I’d like to think that we have a good balance of the esoteric and the basic catalog that any decent record shop should have. You can find Les Rallizes Denudes next to Led Zeppelin here. We do our best to be helpful guides, so you’ll be asked if you have any questions and then left alone to dig and be surprised. More and more people seem to come in knowing exactly what they’re looking for, or they want to be told what they should buy. Both attitudes I try to redirect.

Sure, I want people to find what they’re looking for, but I’ve tried to create an environment where people find what they didn’t even know they were looking for. That’s what I like personally when I go to a record store, that feeling of serendipitous discovery.
 

Mikey Kapinus (keyboardist from Magnolia Electric Co.) holds a Drakkar Sauna 7"

Give me three great albums that you've enjoyed lately.

Not incredibly new, but the latest Ty Segall LP on Goner, Melted, is probably going to be my favorite of 2010.  The Liminanas LP on Chicago-based label Trouble in Mind is probably the best new release I’ve heard in the past month or so. Sort of reminds me of Shocking Blue, which is a good thing in my book. Also, I revisited The Silos' Cuba LP the other day for the first time in years. So good. Excellent songs.

Which albums has your store sold the most over the past month?

The double-disc version of The National’s High Violet has sold the most, largely due to the label doing a big promotional push on it, offering it to stores at a super-cheap price, and even directing people online to indie shops. Matador/4AD/Beggars Group are true friends of indie record stores.
 

James Paasche holds Reverend Charlie Jackson's God's Got It

What is the strangest request you’ve ever received?

Sometimes friends prank call us and I always fall for it because their questions and requests are always far less strange than the real questions we’re asked. We’ve been asked everything from “Do you carry trombones?” to “Can I get a quote for some work?” thinking we’re the tattoo place around the corner (mind you that this is someone INSIDE the store asking this, surrounded by LPs and CDs).

In terms of the strangest music request we’ve had: since we sort of specialize in strange stuff, strange for us is like Barbara Streisand or something — stuff so common I wouldn’t even waste space on it. The most frustrating questions are less strange than just unreasonable. Like some dude from Denmark or wherever on some cross-country record dig drops in and before even looking at anything says something like, “Where are all your regional private-press funk 45s?” Oh yeah, sure, let me go get them, there’s a whole box back by the toilet.
 

Heath Byers holds most of the Spacemen 3 catalog

Have you had any in-store performances that really stand out?

We’ve had a lot of good ones over the past five years: Besnard Lakes, Indian Jewelry, Daniel Higgs. Our "Breakfast with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy" (Will Oldham) and Lou Barlow in-stores were particularly meaningful to me. More recently, Bare Wires totally killed it to a small but enthusiastic audience.

Any big future plans for Landlocked?

Our five-year anniversary is coming up in March. We’re working on having some sort of show/celebration and customer-appreciation-type shindig. Still in the works. Any good bands want to play? Get in touch. We’re also going to be putting out at least a couple records ourselves in the coming year. Stay tuned.

Memphis, Tennessee's Goner Records specializes in punk, soul, blues, funk, and heavy-metal LPs and 45s, with a label that is home to some ALARM favorites. What other record store can boast its own annual rock-'n'-roll festival exhibiting bands from all across the globe?  Shop owner Eric Friedl (of The Oblivians) spoke with ALARM and shared the story behind Goner.

Goner Records co-owner Eric Friedl holds Junkpile Jimmy: Alberhill (self-released)

Store manager John Hoppe holds James Arthur: Manhunt (Aarght Records)

Zac Ives holds NoBunny: Love Visions (Goner Records)

Give me three great albums that you've enjoyed lately.

- Bill Orcutt: Way Down South (Palilalia, 2010)
- Travis Wammack: Scr-Scr-Scratchy! (Zu Zazz, 2000)
- Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight (Armageddon, 1980)

Which albums has your store sold the most over the past month?

The new NoBunny LP on Goner, the Cheap Time live LP, and the Personal & The Pizzas' Raw Romance LP have been the best-selling over the last month.

What's the worst album that you've had to special order?

Hmmmm…the only bad records are the ones you don't want to order and then never sell.  We ordered a KC & The Sunshine Band greatest-hits CD for the owner of our favorite fried-chicken place in Memphis (Uncle Lou's) and then never got it to him…but that's not that bad. Maybe a Tool LP? We ordered a Tool LP for a tool and he never bought it. That's pretty bad.

Why do people choose your store over major or Internet retailers?

Prompt service, strange stock, individual taste in what we have in the store, good prices — I think a little bit of all of these.

Ty Segall is one of our favorites. Who are some of the newest people you’ve released on your label?

Ty is great! [He's] hard-working, and he recently seemed to get to a whole new level of intensity live! His band killed it at our last Gonerfest.

The latest Goner releases have been Limes (Memphis oddball, strange-country-ish rock), King Lee with Quintron (tire-shop salesman talking about his coworkers over a synth jam created by Mr. Quintron in New Orleans), and NoBunny (bunny-masked, sugary-pop, garage-rock genius).  Next up is John Wesley Coleman, an eccentric guitarist/songwriter from Austin, TX. He's also in the Golden Boys. He is great. He has a song about basketball called "Oooh Basketball." You'll love it.

What’s Gonerfest?

Gonerfest is our annual festival in Memphis, TN where we invite a bunch of bands from all over the world to come and play and eat over an extended weekend.  This past year we had bands from Ireland, Japan, and England, three bands from Australia, and 36 other bands from all over the United States. It's small, it's sweaty, and it's fun. Plus Memphis has fantastic food and the best barbecue in the world.

Our first festival had Black Lips and King Khan & BBQ Show and progressed from there. Bands who have played over the years include Jay Reatard, Oblivians, Guitar Wolf, Ty Segall, Oh Sees, Pierced Arrows, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, NoBunny, New Bomb Turks, and hundreds more.

We just held Gonerfest 7 at the end of September. After a complete recovery, we'll start planning our next one, which will be held September 22-25, 2011.  Hope you can make it out to Memphis!

Moss

The album title says it all; if one were to awaken, alive but barely breathing, and imprisoned in a cold underground lair, Tombs of the Blind Drugged, the third and latest album by Southhampton, UK’s Moss, would be the most appropriate soundtrack.

Recorded at Wales’ Foel Studios (Blue Cheer, Electric Wizard), the songs on Tombs are sparse, crushingly heavy, and as anxiety provoking as a waterboarding.

Ty Segall: Lemons (Goner)

On his latest album, Ty Segall (former Epsilons) presents infectious, boogie-your-ass-off garage rock. Although Lemons’ lo-fi production may obscure Segall’s sweet croons (or wails, depending on what the song demands), the pop sensibility of this former one man band shines through the fuzz, and illustrates a unique sound in an often carbon-copy saturated genre.

Tribecastan: Strange Cousin (Evergreene Music)

The brainchild of accomplished New York based musicians John Kruth and Jeff Greene, Tribecastan synthesizes urban folk sounds from all over the world into a playful, eclectic mix. On Strange Cousin, the group is as likely to employ instrumentation and melodies from Scandinavia, as they are from Central Asia, or The Balkans.

Yob: The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)

Eugene, Oregon’s Yob has reunited after a brief hiatus, and from the sounds of their latest offering, The Great Cessation, the psychedelic doom trio is better than ever. We recommend rolling, epic second track,  "The Lie That Is Sin."

Can we call a whirlwind elephantine? No? Well, SXSW was huge, it was bewildering, and it went by fast, and I'm not absolutely sure here, but I think it liked peanuts.

Trying to get a handle on the whole thing from one solitary sleep-deprived person's perspective brings up the proverbial blind men with the elephant. Alarm, of course, was holding an ear.

The weather gods, at least, seem to like the idea of SXSW; after a week of cold rain, the sun shone down on four days of festivities, sending the New Yorkers and Chicagoans home clutching real estate brochures in sunburnt hands. One local band wisely counseled the tourists to make a second recon in August before signing anything.

The most striking thing about SXSW this year was how much it seemed to be leaking: there are entire well-stocked auxiliary festivals happening out of bounds. Free day shows, unofficial showcases, renegade music in every little pocket of Austin.

Even a healthy number of the official happenings were wide open to the non-braceleted, un-badged masses. Without pay and with very little hassle, you could catch the Circle Jerks, M. Ward, Alejandro Escovedo, Explosions in the Sky, Cursive, Monotonix, Billy Joe Shaver, etc. etc.

Anyone with the entire festival thrown open to them was liable to end up a gibbering, indecisive wreck, wandering up and down 6^th street with a schedule the approximate size and weight of the NYC phone book. Without the use of powerful computers, it was impossible to consider all of your options at any given time.

Luckily, we have powerful computers: the geeked-up site Sched.org would help you filter through 2,742 offical Music Events, as well as 2,427 unofficial, 488 panels, and 200 parties, to make a personalized plan, one that you would scrap as soon as your evening began. (Still this didn't include events happening at SXSanJose, at the hipster hotel paradise in south Austin, where about forty acts played over the course of the festival.)

As usual, some big names showed up; PJ Harvey played Stubb's (as part of a awkward lineup: Harvey, then the Indigo Girls, then Third Eye Blind; a evening designed to appeal to the massive demographic of frat-boy punk hipster lesbians), the Decemberists enjoyed another press coronation, the New York Dolls were around, (though making a smaller splash than expected), Perry Farrell, Devo, Kanye West, etc., etc., etc., all distracting to various degrees from the stated purpose of SXSW, namely, to provide a platform for the up and comers.

And there were lines: one of my major tactical errors occurred on night one, when I waited in line with some astonishingly pretty people to see the Harlem Shakes; their buzz ensured that they could be named the Stark Naked Emperors and we'd all try to enjoy them anyway. I couldn't do it.

Phosphorescent's show at De Ville was another thing altogether: no line, but a deliriously happy crowd, loving the raucous, party-in-church treatment of Willie Nelson covers from their recent tribute To Willie. "Well, goddamn it, Austin,"

Phosphorescent/lead singer Matt Houck said, as close to beaming as the man can come, "they're cutting us off." It was true: he clearly would have stayed for hours, but he had to close right then, with a feverish version of "The Party's Over". "Turn out the lights/the party's over/and tomorrow we'll start the whole thing over again," he sang, calling to mind Kurt Cobain wailing through "In the Pines". It was too early to peak, but my SXSW didn't get any better than that.

Although: Danish band Efterklang proved that sometimes buzz is justified, Rafter proved that he has yet to translate that enormous live talent to record, Mojo Nixon still brings a white trash party, The Gourds continue to be Austin's best band who elsewhere hide beneath the shadow of their novelty cover ("Gin and Juice"), Ty Segall did something undefinable but wonderful to garage punk, Zoroaster's drummer is a god with a tattooed neck, M. Ward is still better than you think (even after you've heard eight million times how good he is), and Peelander-Z are as weird as they pretend to be.

And The Delta Spirit's song "People C'mon" will soon be as unavoidable as Snow Patrol's "Run", and Deer Tick may be thinking he is Paul Westerberg, but he'll find out those times are past.

Questions we're left with: do bands still get signed from this? Has SXSW become the music equivalent of Sundance, a basically false indie parade, with buzz predetermined by dollars and star power? (Well: no. But isn't it fun to ask?)

Why are bands slotted to play twelve times? How could Homeslice Pizza run out of pizza? Can we avoid saying "in this economy"? Apparently not.

Lesson for next year: make no attempt at understanding the elephant. Grip the ear and hang on.