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By Rudy Klapper, January 24, 2012 10:00 am

Along with the new (incredibly weird) of Montreal record, Cloud Nothings‘ surprising sophomore effort Attack on Memory has racked up the most listens in my iTunes in 2012. It’s an eight-song burst of noise rock, healthy layers of fuzz and Dylan Baldi’s ragged yelp masking some seriously strong pop hooks. Their debut, which dropped at the beginning of last year, didn’t really make an impression on me, but the band’s growth to songwriting of a substantial, lasting quality is quite noticeable here. Given Pitchfork’s recent Best-New-Music-ing of them and the goodwill buzz they’ve been building up since last year, it’s quite obvious this is the best thing Cleveland’s had to offer in years…

Cloud Nothings – “Fall In”

Bonus MP3: Nifty little garage-rock instrumental: Cloud Nothings – “Separation”

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By Rudy Klapper, October 13, 2011 12:00 pm

Wild Flag are that rarest of breeds – a supergroup that doesn’t suck. A supergroup composed entirely of female rockers is even more extraordinary, but when two of your members hail from now-defunct punk legends Sleater-Kinney, maybe Wild Flag’s surprising excellence isn’t all that surprising. Along with members from Helium and the Minders, Wild Flag play a brand of cheery power-pop with a snotty edge heavy in propulsive, punk influenced guitar lines. It’s more generally more accessible than any of the aforementioned projects, but the songwriting is just as strong as anything Sleater-Kinney put down. RIYL girl-group harmonies, power chords, anthems.

Wild Flag – “Romance”

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By Rudy Klapper, July 14, 2011 10:00 am

Coolest mashup idea I’ve heard in a while coming from two Midwestern producers, mixing choice songs from punk/hardcore legends Fugazi with classic Wu-Tang Clan tracks, similar to wait what’s Biggie vs. the xx project from last year. “Sleep Rules Everything Around Me” takes Fugazi’s acoustic “I’m So Tired” from the Instrument soundtrack and throws it under “C.R.E.A.M.” It’s a great take on two huge groups and the way the tracks meld together is fairly astonishing. Download the whole album for free at the band’s website or just click the link below.

Wugazi – “Sleep Rules Everything Around Me”

http://bit.ly/olPPtZ

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By Robin Smith, April 12, 2011 8:00 am

Vivian Girls – Share the Joy

Polyvinyl 2011

Rating: 8/10

With the rest of Share the Joy still to come, “The Other Girls” raises some serious questions about Vivian Girls. Or maybe it just makes us smirk- a line as forward as “I don’t wanna be like the other girls” spouted first-thing on the newest record from one of many fuzz-pop, all-female bands is gonna do just that, isn’t it? It feels sort of like a direct nod to all the stuff that went down last year in this genre, whether it was Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast or the ever-boyish Wavves, like an adamant refusal to be tagged in a genre where it’s becoming all too easy to be one or another.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who asked me, “why Vivian Girls? They’re women!” and, well, you can imagine how I rose my all too indie eyebrow and responded no, Women released Public Strain. Not that I lent that record to explain, but this outburst of geekery is the sad truth; all this fuzzy stuff got more and more diluted to the point where we forgot where Vivian Girls stood. Their last studio album surfaced just as the fuzz-revival craze well and truly hit off, and with that little teasing line kick-starting their time in 2011, it feels foolish to forget how Vivian Girls are kind of seniors in this genre. As much as one can be a senior after three years of records, right?

Even if, in all honesty, they don’t act like seniors. Nor do they seem to dislike any of the bands around them the way “The Other Girls” might imply on paper. The song is nothing but pleasant, and more so because it doesn’t have any of the biting noise we’d get with Vivian Girls or Everything Goes Wrong. It sounds as it should: a nice way of the trio announcing that there can be a song like “Where Do You Run To” without the stigma that surrounds it. “The Other Girls” is a relief to anyone who couldn’t quite get to grips with Vivian Girls in 2008/9 respectively, because it takes what we always knew about them- that they love girl group pop and punk, and know how to play both- but doesn’t force us to extract from the fuzz.

Share the Joy is all about taking those albums and fleshing them out into a classic one- they can jam for three minutes in the middle of this song and keep us happily engaged in the record because it’s giving us breathing space. It’s still carried by its insistence, something the Vivian Girls have always had in their music on their first two records- that belief that they’re making whatever noisy songs they want and you can decipher the pop hooks if you must- but this time it comes from melody rather than disguise. It may have taken us our sweet time to hear how well the voices of Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman complemented each other on “Such a Joke,” but here their interplay is instantly brilliant and something to keep. On “The Other Girls” they work together perfectly, and they always have, but now we have their voices upfront. And that’s to say nothing of that opening line in “I Heard You Say.”

Not that ditching this side of themselves does any disrespect to fellow lo-fi-beach-pop-what-have-you-punk bands, and in a way Vivian Girls do a bit of catching up on Share the Joy. It’s great to see the trio open and bookend this record with the two longest tracks ever to grace a Vivian Girls studio album, “The Other Girls” loose and with none of the claustrophobia the trio’s lightning pace brings, and “The Light in Your Eyes” which propels the record outward in grand fashion. But through it all Vivian Girls retain what is raw in their music and reinforce that their signature sound is recognisable for more than just bedroom fidelity. These tracks are inherently Vivian Girls even within the record’s newfound structure; “Dance (If You Wanna),” so light-hearted it may well be the indie Safety Dance cover, and “Lake House,” an old live number, so brilliantly pushy with its punchy verses and Campbell’s forward-motion drumming. Vivian Girls have lost nothing of what made them pop stars of static two years ago- they haven’t lost the grunge in their guitar, they can still hand out sweet dating advice- they’ve just lost the static.

I can see a whole lot of dejected indie fans turning off “The Other Girls” before its first sixteen seconds fade away. With six minutes of this song still to come, the pocket of useless noise feels taunting- like a tongue-in-cheek response to the less tongue-in-cheek cry of “not this again!” when someone hears a band recommended in lieu of Crazy For You or Rip It Off. Or worse yet, it might feel like Vivian Girls are just picking up straight where they left off the rumbling ending of Everything Goes Wrong two years ago- they sound ready to go full circle with another round of noisy pop shorts. But if you get past this wall of noise, only bothering to burden Share the Joy for a freaky sixteen seconds, you’ll find a record contained within its little motto, the noise dropped, the joy shared tenfold, the delightful “Dance (If You Wanna)” circling our heads, encouraging us with a smile. “The Other Girls,” no, Share the Joy is about remembering all things Vivian Girls, passionate as ever, more themselves than they’ve ever been.

Vivian Girls – “Dance (If You Wanna)”

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By Rudy Klapper, December 20, 2010 8:00 am

Only five more days til Christmas and the Klap is starting to get into the holiday spirit. This is my friend’s cousin’s seasonal punk band Dirty Santas based in L.A., with a rather punk (read: hilarious) twist on what you might typically expect from your average Christmas song. So good I might post another one from their EP Died For Your Sins later in the week. Check out the Facebook by clicking on the photo.

Dirty Santas – “When Santa Goes To Bangkok”

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By Robin Smith, September 24, 2010 8:00 am

No Age – Everything In Between

Sub Pop 2010

Rating: 8/10

No Age described Everything in Between as maturation; “not getting boring, just richer.” This is either a lie or a bad grasp on economics, because nobody is going to reach for their wallet the first time they listen to “Glitter.” They did for “Eraser” of Nouns in which the band ripped apart the song’s build up and let loose, but their latest single is content to glide in noise rather than blow up in it. In 2008 I was frightened of these rebels, so I thank Everything in Between for letting me be me, the guy too scared to sing along. It’s a rebel, but a crumpled one.

Everything in Between might just be my favourite No Age record for all the wrong reasons, then. It beggars belief that an album so underwhelming can be so satisfying, and moreso when it comes from two dudes with passion as high as the volume can go. Of course, it’s only underwhelming to start with, and it’s still that loud, but easier and more digestible. They were right, this isn’t boring, it just goes down better. “Fever Dreaming” is still raucous and pissed off, a dream for demented distortion freaks. “Skinned” is a huge punk song that grows chorus to chorus, and knows it- it’s possibly their most structured song. And of course, there’s “Glitter,” the album’s first single: at first it sounds dull (duller in the context of the band who made it), but for all its swishing and swirling it eventually reveals itself a winner, so long as you stop waiting for big finishes. After all, it’s as huge as No Age have ever been- a guitar is, as always, being scraped to pieces behind the scenes. And really, I could rave on about the first six songs on this album all day. At first they won’t quench the thirst of any die-hard because they aren’t as pulsating as “Miner” or “Sleeper Hold.” They’re as good, though, if only because No Age is okay waiting for us to appreciate them. For No Age, patience is a first. And you will get there with “Life Prowler” even if it isn’t dropping hammers, because it’s as catchy and weirdly transcendent as the next man’s fuzz.

I don’t want to be the one to pigeon-hole Everything in Between by calling it ‘maturation’ because I don’t think that would do this record half the justice it deserves: No Age are still writing songs with goalless grins on their faces, and like the best pop, they don’t go for sections or arrangements. The duo attest to that by creating an album with six singles and seven arguably useless tracks, and to fire that fact home they lead Everything In The Between with the six singles. As a result, some among us won’t bother with the bookends, but they’ll be missing this band at their niftiest; the fun of finishing off rocking out with fuzzy instrumentals like “Katerpillar,” “Dusted” and “Positive Amputation.” And the moments slotted sneakily in between, such as the understated (and slower) “Valley Hump Crash” and, of course, the album’s loudest and proudest, “Shed and Transcend.”

The best tracks may be the most unexpected. “Common Heat” is stripped bare, and not just musically. This anthem of desperation is as naked as No Age have ever been, and the fact that we’ve never seen this side of them will stop you twice before you write off Everything in Between as “boring.” At the end of the day, first impressions aren’t ever as deceiving as this. The songs on Everything in Between may consult the rule book from time to time, but the album sure as hell doesn’t.

No Age – “Shred and Transcend”

See larger image Everything in Between (Audio CD) List Price: $13.98 USD New From: $5.00 In Stock Used from: $2.30 In Stock Release date September 28, 2010.

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By Rudy Klapper, September 23, 2010 8:00 am

“Is there a human alive ain’t looked themselves in the face without winking or saying what they mean without drinking, who will believe in something without thinking what if somebody doesn’t approve? Is there a soul on this earth that isn’t too frightened to prove?” One of the best songs of the year.

Titus Andronicus – “The Battle of Hampton Roads”

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By Robin Smith, August 11, 2010 8:00 am

Feeder – Renegades

101 Distribution 2010

Rating: 4/10

I’m certain Renegades is supposed to appeal to someone but I can’t think who. I think it’s supposed to be me; I was one of those fussy diehards just longing for Feeder to roll back the years and create another Polythene or Echo Park, records that plugged in and rocked out but didn’t forget their pop priorities.

The real problem is that those punk-y diehards, yours truly included, have been saying this since Comfort In Sound and their reward has come three records down the line. Now it’s hard for them to know if they want that group of kids in their life because seeing them grow up has been half the fun of being their fan. For all the complaining, records from Comfort In Sound onwards were the band’s truest accomplishments because they showed a maturing band, a group responding to tragedy and producing songs that weren’t just about getting laid or installing cup-holders into the glove department of their car. The sentimentality of each record was startling and the balladry that accompanied it proved that the band needed their emotion on the surface of things. And tracks such as “Miss You” and “Just The Way I’m Feeling” were the result.

On Renegades the band hold true to their word and create that record of high-voltage, no-frills punk rock, whatever you want to call it; it just isn’t sappy and sad, and that’s by their design. But fans will rue the day they made that pledge, because this isn’t Feeder anymore. It was Feeder nine years ago, granted, but now each track sounds like a shell of what it should be. By definition, Renegades is supposed to be a raw interpretation of Grant Nicholas’ and co, with each song left in its skin and dressed up none. But raw musicianship isn’t raw Feeder, and less certainly isn’t more: tracks such as “This Town” and “Barking Dogs” fall flat on their face because they emulate the glory days more than they speak for themselves, and a lot has happened since the glory days. With one member now missing from the original line-up, the grungy fuzz and the attitude that goes with it is simply unbearable when it comes from the band we’ve had develop feeling and understanding, and the fact that they can’t channel these things into their old sound is probably the most devastating conclusion to make from Renegades. It acts simply to show us what cannot be done.

Even with its eleven tracks, only one needs to be looked at to draw the line in Feeder’s career at 2010. “Call Out” takes the crown on Renegades at least statistically (it’s the best-bet single, you could say) but it sounds like a crushed version of “Miss You,” the same for its musical structure but having the feeling made naked. Now thought and feeling isn’t important to Feeder, which is what every fan wanted; another rendition of “Buck Rodgers” to pump up and down to. But we could still do this with “Miss You,” and if we hadn’t been bitching and moaning we sure would’ve. On “Call Out,” Nicholas describes the very song he is singing as invincible: “You can’t take that away.” So much for the song – give me the words any day.

Feeder – “Call Out”

See larger image Renegades (Audio CD) List Price: $31.98 USD New From: $9.29 In Stock Used from: $9.28 In Stock Release date July 27, 2010.

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By Rudy Klapper, July 12, 2010 8:00 am

Vancouver punk duo Japandroids have been working on a project that sees them releasing a series of 7-inch singles over the course of the year – “Younger Us” (along with a cover of X’s “Sex and Dying in High Society”) being the second. If you want a copy, you better hurry, as there’s only 2500 clear vinyl copies available (buy here). As for the song, it’s sort of a bizarro version of “Young Hearts Spark Fire,” with a similar guitar part and surging drums, all wrapped loosely around Brian King’s lusty, nostalgic lyrics. In other words, it’s Japandroids, and it rocks.

Japandroids – “Younger Us”