An album both despairing and lovely, I’ve been listening to Saltland ’s second LP, A Common Truth , over the last week or so. The solo moniker of Rebecca Foon , co-founder of Esmerine and member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra , Saltland’s latest LP is a composed reflection on climate change and its environmental and social impact. With a fascinating marriage of electronic/ambient elements and rich, textural string arrangements, plus instrumental assistance from Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds , Foon’s commanding presence, both instrumentally and vocally, moves through this piece with a captivating blend of emotion and warmth. I find her vocal in “I Only Wish This For You,” particularly haunting, her inflection breathy and kind of devastating. On the instrumental track “Forward Eyes I,” it’s as if you can hear the promise of a new day being slowly eradicated as time elapses, opportunity fading into the ether as daylight fades. A C...

Big Walnuts Yonder : "Sponge Bath" (via Us-Them Group/Sargent House/ Sterogum /Soundcloud) Chuck Berry : "Big Boys" (via Big Mouth Publicity/YouTube) HOTT MT : "At Night in China Town" (via Tell All Your Friends PR/YouTube) Jaimie Branch : "Theme 002" (via Clandestine Media/ International Anthem Recording Co. /YouTube) Kikagaku Moyo : "In A Coil" (via Tell All Your Friends PR/ Wonderland. /Soundcloud) Ghost Bath : "Ambrosial" (via Earsplit PR/ Nuclear Blast /YouTube) Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble : "Galactic Emergence" (via mutante/Drag City/YouTube) Obituary : "Ten Thousand Ways to Die" (via Relapse Records /YouTube) Benjamin Muñoz : "Melle" (via XLR8R / Push & Run /Soundcloud) Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

OOZEPUS Your Limit EP Malignant Records Released: 2.24.17 Indecipherable words are gargled over chugging bottom end bass riffs and ten-ton drums and I'm taken back to the days when Godflesh , Swans and The Jesus Lizard were crafting loud and abrasive anthems for malcontents designed to strike fear into the hearts of Babyboomer parents, a generation in love with its own tired, pop-laden runoff and convinced of its progeny's inferiority.  OOZEPUS , a supergroup of sorts comprised of members from Coffins and Linekraft , provide the type of aural pummeling you yearn for if you grew up hearing sounds both muddy and grinding, their new EP, Your Limit , a four-song ode to the mechanics behind grotesque, huge and heavy music. As rattling as an intro as you could hope to hear from a band like this, the title track plays like some fucked up march that leads into a slow skip.  OOZEPUS maintain a necessary trudge and assembly line repetition throughout most of Your Limi...

Image from ChuckBerry.com Chuck Berry , rock pioneer and American icon, passed away on March 18th.  He was 90 years old. Being a key factor in the creation and development of what's come to be known as rock and roll, not to mention a source of inspiration and material for many of rock's most significant and subsequent acts like The Beatles , The Rolling Stones , Jimi Hendrix , The Yardbirds , and Motörhead , Berry's multiple contributions to what is rock's celebrated musical dialect and cherished songbook cannot be overstated.  He gave us "Johnny B. Goode," "Roll Over Beethoven," " No Particular Place to Go," "You Never Can Tell," and, (almost quite literally), "Rock and Roll Music."  His legacy as an artist is forever preserved in America's cultural conversation as is his influence on how that conversation sounds.  It was announced late last year that Berry was working on a new album called, CHUCK .  As a r...

Damaged Bug Bunker Funk Castle Face Released: 3.10.17 No Ripcord review Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Body Spray M Ax Noi Mach Pissed Jeans Boot & Saddle Philadelphia, PA 3.10.17 Photo by Josh Pelta-Heller Phawker live show coverage Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

A subtly dialed up metronome set to an expansive and hypnotic red-eyed blues, “Tomorrow is Forgetting” is the first single from Virginia’s own Pontiak , their new album, Dialectic of Ignorance , releasing March 24th via Thrill Jockey Records. An altered gaze set to the horizon as its minutes glide by, “Tomorrow is Forgetting” stays with you long after the track is finished, Pontiak’s fluid riff and thick low end a veritable slow ride through some ever-long sonic flatland. You can listen to the track below: All information on Pontiak and Dialectic of Ignorance was provided by Thrill Jockey Records. Virginia brothers Pontiak fuse hard riffs with blistering harmonies on new single Album Dialectic of Ignorance out March 24th Pontiak have announced dates in UK, Austria, Germany, Belgium, The Czech Republic and Luxembourg, with more coming soon With their new album Dialectic of Ignorance out later this month, Pontiak have unleashed the merciless first single "Tomorrow is F...

NAH : "hiver en neuf morceaux / IV" (via kinsman and meng pr /YouTube) Chastity Belt : "Different Now" (via Hardly Art /YouTube) Dinosaur Jr. : "Knocked Around" (via Jagjaguwar /YouTube) Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

If you're in the mood for bleak, you're welcome. Aseethe 's scorching track, "Sever the Head III," gets the visual accompaniment it deserves: a grim series of murders captured following the act(s), the violence inferred from their visualized aftermath(s).  The track was lifted from the band's very recent new release, Hopes of Failure , which was put out via Thrill Jockey Records .  You can check out the video below: All info, tour dates, and links were provided by Thrill Jockey Records. Aseethe's bleak vision embodied in the deadly, unforgiving video for "Sever the Head III" Monolithic masterpiece Hopes of Failure out now Aseethe touring throughout the U.S. this Spring & Summer Watch Aseethe's video for "Sever the Head III", directed by Joshua Ford After releasing their acclaimed Thrill Jockey debut Hopes of Failure last week, Aseethe have shared their bleakly unforgiving video for "Sever the Head III,...

Six Organs of Admittance , the work of one Ben Chasny , has released a new album called Burning the Threshold .  Following a psychedelic/post-rock/experimental phase with 2012's Ascent and his two Hexadic releases, Burning the Threshold marks a return to Chasny's acoustical, folk-based output and it's a worthwhile listen.  The first video from the album surfaced today for "Adoration Song."  You can watch the video below: All information on the release, tour dates, and links were provided by Rarely Unable PR.  Burning the Threshold was released on 2.24 via Drag City.  RISE UP NOW WITH SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, AS NEW VIDEO EMERGES; BURNING THE THRESHOLD OUT NOW On the cusp of two full decades of music-making, Six Organs of Admittance has ridden winds and waves spanning passion and logic and myth. The brand-new full length, Burning the Threshold , exudes a warmth not always found in Ben Chasny's music - but that's how life works, taking us up...

Earthen Sea An Act of Love kranky Released: 2.17.17 Earthen Sea ’s An Act of Love was conceived as a meditation on a quiet night in a city. The solo tag of Jacob Long , former bassist for the jarring D.C. band Black Eyes and the ritualistic dance punk band Mi Ami , Earthen Sea constructs atmospheric pulse-scapes which, at times, pose ethereally charged sounds and soft and distant textures against club beats. This is especially true of “About That Time,” its pensive disposition layered and slowly realized next to the beat that pushes everything forward. While contemplative in mood, there is a calm and a bliss to this work, its introductory track, “The Present Mist,” offering entry into Long’s perspective, which seems more concerned with the faraway gaze as opposed to the granular exploration. Romance is exchanged for grit and there’s so much air here despite sounding so full. Long’s attempts at conveying what he calls, “the concept and reality of being out in the city at ...

The Indie Rock: Then & Now of bands: Big Walnuts Yonder brings together Mike Watt ( Minutemen , fIREHOSE ), Nels Cline ( Wilco ), Greg Saunier ( Deerhoof ), and Nick Reinhart ( Tera Melos ), combining over thirty years of fringe-based rock n' roll lineage.  The group's first single, "Raise the Drawbridges?," captures well the distinct musical sensibility of each member, from Watt's unmistakable low-end harmonic to Saunier's thunderous snare, synthesizing their respective personalities into an energized and very fun two-minutes and twenty seconds.  The song premiered over at Consequence of Sound .  The cover illustration is from the able hand and characteristically dark mind of Raymond Pettibon .     Big Walnuts Yonder's self-titled debut is scheduled to release on May 5th via the reliably awesome Sargent House label.  You can listen to "Raise the Drawbridges?" with the Soundcloud link below.  All info and links were provided by U...