7even Inches

Acrid/Bombs of Death Split (No Idea) Three songs of fast, heavy, metally stuff from Acrid with dual grunt vocals. On the flip side the Bombs of Death stuff is amazing, as well it should be with Spazz and Assück members. More fast, heavy, metally stuff, but less doomy, more grindy, with higher range vocals. Kill for this, pay in blood! (AC) • Braid First Day Back (Polyvinyl) One of the most amazing bands to ever pour their collective heart into the emo-rock scene keeps getting better and better. This is Braid’s first release with their new drummer Damon and the added power can really be heard. Add that to the trademark graceful, diverse structures and outstanding melodies and you have the roots of their new song “First Day Back” and the re-recording of “Hugs From Boys,” originally found on their first album. Superb. (AC) • Carmine Conversation (Collective Fruit) Cool matchbook style packaging and bad apple brown vinyl. The music? Well, sounds like teen spirit. Carmine slams out some sort of post-grunge (sorry about the grunge word, but you can feel it… really… ) powerful acid pop rock. Raw layers of voice and guitar filled the room in a way that would make Doug Martsch grin with glee. Melodics careened around my head with glee. If anyone ever says that there is no Seattle sound anymore, they should probably try to see Carmine play this music live. Maybe that sound is dead or dying, but these boys hold it tight between their teeth, shaking it around just for the hell of it, with the drummer throwing out some breakneck beats in the process. (MF) • Cletus New Reasons (OffTime) Pop-punk with lots of melody and hooks. Quite good. And a Gimcrack cover! (RE) • Donovan’s Brain Hit me in the face (Get Hip) “Hit Me In The Face” is a sort of a sad, garage, beer drinking love song. Sort of. Throw the 6 pack in the back, and turn the stereo on… Blurry eyes and a thick tongue, and remembering slow dancing to the Ramones. Get a haircut, my dad yelled at me. I went to my room, slammed the door, and if I had this record then, I would’ve played it real loud. The other side? The other side I would have not played that night… I would have waited till my parents were gone, and my friends were over. The alcohol cabinet has been raided, maybe some strange kid on acid would be cleaning the kitchen, and Donovan’s Brain would be playing this song… “Fifty Million Years”… It’s the same garage as the A side, but here there’s that multi-colored psychedelic 60’s sound flowing in. Groove on it… Yeah. (MF) • The Epileptix EP (GMM) Oldschool punk rock. Horrible recording and worse music. On white vinyl. (RE) • Faster Tiger Unrequited (Faster Tiger) “Unrequited” is slow and heavy and sparse and touched with regret. Male/Female harmonizing along the lines of early X… there’s quite a long way to travel before they reach that, but they are on that road. There’s definite touches of some Fetchin’ Bones feel, California desert drive, and brilliant bluesy tribal heartbeat drums. The other side, “Lifeline,” gets the same heartbeat moving faster. This is the same desert drive, but here we’re heading through sunshine and highway heat, where the other side was star-touched and caught in the cool night. (MF) • Get Hustle I’ve got a gun (GSL) Psychotic fuzzed out guitar with dark lounge drums hiding behind everything else. Fast and devilish. Drugged out and speedy. Whiny desperation vocals bringing the song together like some updated version of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. The B Side is more down and deep. Slowed down Mazzy Star moves with some fragmented carnival keyboard floating in the murky background. Worth sticking around for. (MF) • Micro Mini Overseas (Sonic Boom) Really nice painted vinyl… for you collectors out there, this one has a limited run of 400, but I hear the rest of you yelling at me, “the music, you moron, what about the music!” Fine. Micro Mini are pop. You can lump them in with the new wave of pop stars that are invading the Seattle airwaves as a sort of bouncy, guitar driven response to the proliferation of electronic music. It’s subtle subversion. There’s strong harmonics, and a slight Britpop taint to the chord progressions, and it’s not as upbeat and bouncy as other popsters doing their thing… it’s more moody. You can still clap your hands, shake your butt, bounce up and down, but there’s more depth between the notes. A more intelligent folk acoustic sensibility underlying the happy happy joy. (MF) • Modest Mouse Birds Vs. Worms (Hit or Miss) These kids are making big waves in the indie pop world these days it seems, and as much as I try to not let myself be swayed by public opinion, I can’t help but let myself go and just enjoy this music. Sure, you can throw all the damn Built to Spill comparisons you want at them, and the Pixies too… though I’ll never understand why people continue to compare Modest Mouse to the Pixies. Anyhows, yeah, you can do that if you want to, but if you just listen to the music, on this single, on their new CD… on whatever… you should be able to hear some sparsely chaotic strung out and twisted indie rock pop that is definitely their own. Most bands start out these days with some inspiration or influence to help them, to hold them up. Modest Mouse have been inspired, and now they are striking out on their own. Rock on! (MF) • The Moons Stolen Days (Broken Rekids/Honey Bear) This has a ’60s Brit-pop feel to it, and is actually really good. Lighter music with good songwriting, rad melodies and great vocals. Catchy, and very pop. Oh yeah, and Adam Pfahler of ex-Jawbreaker cred plays on this. $3 postpaid. (AC) • The Multiple Cat Welcome to the multiple cat (AmPop) Sweet, happy pop. Maybe a bit melancholy, but the kind of melancholy that you can walk down the street, whistling and snapping your fingers to. A sort of Fred Astaire melancholy. It sings, it swings… and damn, the A Side is just way too short. the B side is a bit longer, and rages a bit harder, but my fingers are still snapping. The vocals and maybe some of the structure remind me of XTC, but not too much. It’s full of life, and alive. -Marcel Feldmar (MF) • Peterbuilt Regulation (Hazel) Two songs of powerful, intense emo-rock filled with melodic catchiness from one of Florida’s finest, the kind of driving stuff that plows through you as it’s pulling your heartstrings. Live they are all about energy, tightness and rock. The seven inch captures some of that, but I think their best stuff is yet to come. Still, a nice first step from an amazing band. Recommended. (AC) • Splendor Bin We’re Now in the Lightning Round (Interplanetary Trucker’s Union) Kinda quirky emo-rock stuff with an A-side that comes across as a little whiney to me. The B-side is a repetitive, hypnotic instrumental that’s more along my lines. (AC) • Swell / Osmo split single (Noisetank) I’ll start with Osmo. Other than being insanely jealous because they get to share this slab of vinyl with Swell, I was impressed by Osmo, and their contribution. They share with Swell an appreciation of creating a structure within their song that is almost solid. Smooth vocals over shifting guitar, and wise use of space, filling the song with the parts between the beats as well as keeping the beat steady and moving. Surreal Pop? Indie moody? Either way, I like it! Then there’s Swell, who just make me smile. So swirlingly straightforward. So sure in style. Flowingly familiar. Swell seem to have created their own sound, and I’m not sure if it is unclassifiable, but I’m not going to attempt to do that. It’s heart-touched melodic music that can make you dance or think or think about dancing. It moves. It moves me… (MF) • Twin Princess Althea (Hidden Agenda) Nice clear red vinyl that starts off with the first song, “Althea,” bleeding with a My Bloody Valentine drone and a Medicine signature etched between the grooves. It’s wall of sound, guitar fuzz, shoe gazing pop with sweet vocals. It’s good, but that’s all there is. No climax, no movement, but that isn’t meant in a bad way at all. The flip side, “Sorry,” seems to move a little differently. The vocals are more up front and the melody is more evident. Don’t get me wrong, I think It’s amazing, I just think that these songs would be better suited on something longer, because by the time you get into the mood, the song’s finished, and you either have to go and find something else to play, or play it again… which is what I ended up doing. -Marcel Feldmar (MF) • Varistor Curbside (Interplanetary Trucker’s Union) Emo/indie rock, with one side quiet with surges, the other rocking from the outset. Really great, both sides. (AC) • Keith Welsh 9:35 a.m. (Think Tank) Four well-written acoustic songs with heartwrenching, personal lyrics and great vocals from this Gainesville balladeer. Keith plays mostly hardcore and emo shows and holds the crowds’ fickle attention quite well, so yeah, he’s good. If you’re open to folksy stuff with hearts on sleeves then check this out. $3 postpaid. (AC) • Wooden Igloo Hemorrhoid City (Bushwick) A charming EP of a 7,” this solipsist pop effort works well, despite or perhaps because of the man and guitar approach that worked so well for James Taylor way back when. Side A’s “Transvestite Newscaster” is fun, but Side B wins, with the ironic “Lottery” and a heartfelt rendition of Robyn Hitchock’s “Flesh Number One,” reworked and retitled “Only Thing I Know.” Solid minimalist pop. (IK)

Who Wrote Them:

Andrew Chadwick • Ian Koss • Marcel Feldmar • Ryan Eckhart

Where To Get Them:

AmPop, PO Box 2271, San Rafael, CA, 94912 • Broken Rekids, P.O. Box 460402, San Francisco, CA 94146-0402 • Bushwick Productions, 425 W. Jefferson St., Arcola, IL 61910 • Collective Fruit, PO Box 4415, Seattle, WA, 98104 • Get Hip, PO Box 66, Canonsburg, PA, 15317 • GMM Records, P.O. Box 15234, Atlanta, GA 30333 • GSL, PO Box 11794, Berkeley, CA, 94712 • Hazel Records, P.O. Box 195460, Winter Springs, FL 32719 • Hidden Agenda Records, 905 South Lyon St., Urbana, IL, 61601 • Hit or Miss, PO Box 2355, Pullman, WA, 99165 • Interplanetary Trucker’s Union, P.O. Box 648, New York, NY 10011 • No Idea, P.O. Box 14636, Gainesville, FL 32604-4636 • Noisetank; http://www.noisetank.com • OffTime Records, P.O. Box 220763, El Paso, TX 79913 • Polyvinyl Record Co., P.O. Box 1885, Danville, IL 61834-1885 • Sonic Boom Recordings, PO Box 4882, Seattle, WA, 98104 • Think Tank Records, 155571 71st Place N., West Palm Beach, FL 33470