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Witch House is the younger, uglier brother of Chillwave; forever donning the hand-me-down Fubu and Lugz that the older child has shed in favor of truck stop tees and SBs. Chillwave knows how to please his parents, whilst Witch House is busy starting fires and stealing mommy’s jewelry.  Those razors in his dresser aren’t for shaving, he isn’t even old enough to do that yet.

Forever awkward, little brother sleeps in the attic, whilst the favorite son gets a room of his own. Michigan artist Kohwi is more the middle stepchild. Happy to please his siblings, he manages to somehow ride the fence with perfection.  It is obvious, however, where his black heart lies. Whenever Witch House is sent to bed without supper, Kohwi hides half of his and scurries up the stairs, eager to feed his outcast ally. Fate alone has cast him in this vicious drama, and his new album Hidden Trees is his diary.

There is something unique about this mixed up kid though. Despite the  fear of forever being cast in the shadow of his notorious kin, he has forged a voice of his own. Far from your usual bedroom Folktronica, his music spirals the listener into a bonafide metaverse, and it is a frightening, yet thoroughly enjoyable voyage. Despite arrangements and vocals that could easily leave him mistaken for his moppy haired older bro, Kohwi’s music hides a darkness that paints his music with Black Ark dread. From the gawky and geeky “Tides” to the Esquivelian witch glitch of “Play With Me,” Kohwi’s music is collectively animal and arcane.

Like all middle children, I know deep down Kohwi desires to forge his own identity, and he has. Despite fitting perfectly into the puzzle that is today’s underground, Hidden Trees is nearly impossible to categorize, and it is just this difficulty that makes it irresistible.

Head over to Wonder Beard Tapes to pre-order Hidden Trees on cassette or download it digitally for free.

Doom, doom, doom. Metalheads everywhere have been embracing snail paced devastation, with a new wave of Sabbath worshippers popping up everywhere over the past few years. Just like anything else, there are some real outstanding bands and a ton of way shittier ones, in this case hardcore kids pretending or boring traditionalists choking the fun out of everything.

A nice break from bullshit and/or boredom is Brooklyn’s Batillus. Setting Batillus’ brand of heaviness apart are their smart use of textural electronic soundscapes that give their huge doom attack a bleak vibe that seems like the perfect post apocalyptic soundtrack.

If some Walking Dead shit happens, this is the first record I am listening too. Basically, Batillus is doing for doom what their black metal contemporaries (Nachtmystium, Nagaroth) have done, which is creating fertile ground between metal and electronic music that isn’t complete shit and adds another level of epicness to their craft.

In this case, it’s the band’s use of noise and industrial sounds that push them into fuck yeah! fist pumping in the air territory. On April 5th of next year the band is dropping its debut full length Furnace on Seventh Rule/Vendetta and it fucking destroys. Check out the live vid above to hear the new track “Uncreator” live at the Cake Shop. Chills.

I got an interesting email from one of our main-man commenters—The Illustrious Gnou—the other day. And it went a little something like this (hit it!):

RE: Collecting
I want to read this guy’s book. Therefore, I think you will want to read this guy’s book.

The book, as it turns out, is The Museum of Innocence, and—needless to say—it’s been added to my running Amazon tab. They don’t even call me ‘valued customer’ anymore. Emails from the AMZ come addressed to Norm. That’s how we rolls.

But! Also! Now, of course—ever since watching the above video a couple times—I can’t get my mind off what tragic event in my life has led to my passion for collecting. I can’t think of anything, but maybe that means the prognosis is even worse…Gasp!

Note: These are not mine. I just think they’re totally boss. Mine aren’t as cool as these.

I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately, and this video (and Orhan Pamuk’s message in general) just sort of brought it to the surface. Basically, I’ve been developing a theory that I don’t collect more than anybody else, rather, it just SEEMS like I do because I’m constantly looking for patterns in all my shit. So I can talk about it.

That of course could or could not be true, but it’s what I’m telling myself lately. Sure, there are certain things that I go to great lengths to amass (Kaiju, HST First Editions, etc.) but there’s other shit that I ‘collect’ which is totally effortless and laid back. Coffee mugs. Bottle caps. Buttons.

I dabble in so much of this ‘little’ stuff, that I start to tell myself that ‘real’ collectors would dismiss shit like my Hot Wheels and my M.U.S.C.L.E.S. and my marbles because I didn’t really have to sacrifice much to get them. Do you think that’s true?

In order for your collection of something to be cool, do you need to have bent over backwards in order to build it? To that end, is my ‘collection’ of 60s-70s paperback gay/lesbian/smut cover jpegs real? Is a collection really a collection if it’s infinitely copy-able; infinitely replaceable?

I had this conversation with someone else last week about my coffee mugs. She had been following me on Twitter and made mention of my Mug Shots, specifically wondering at the vastness of my collection.

I straight got CEREBRAL on that shit, and started talking about how cool it is when one can convince oneself to think that a 5 dollar mug or a 75 cent matchbox car is just as cool and worthy of collecting as a 150 dollar Dokugan.

And that’s really where I was slapped in the face with my own sickness. Most people don’t give a shit about any of that shit. So, to come full circle: what is it about me that makes me want to collect this stuff? And further, what is it about me that makes me want to tell you about it?

Hmm. (Chill baby baby chill baby baby wait.)

I loved Big Boi’s solo “debut” from this past year, but I could really take or leave The Black Keys’ Brothers…or really any of their albums but I know a lot of you genuinely like them. But despite my feelings on The Black Key’s, this mash-up mix courtesy of Nashville’s DJ Wick-It was a pleasant surprise.

Download it if you’re a fan of either album, you’re not going to be disappointed.

The Brothers of Chico Dusty (Big Boi vs. The Black Keys) by Wick-It

Yesterday we dropped our honors for best labels of 2010…And while they were just on the outside looking in, we’d be remiss if we didn’t knowledge all the work and incredible music AMDISCS have brought us in 2010. This small Czech based label was the subject of an earlier profile here on the Bloglin and if you still aren’t up on their fanatstic work you should be ashamed of yourselves!

AMDISCS started with free download releases but in the past few months has moved on to creating full on vinyl releases with the bands they work with. We applaud their steady growth and expect that 2011 will be a very huge year for the label as they are slowly, but surely making a name for themselves amongst music fans who are constantly on the hunt for things that are way left of center.

A few days ago, another fantastic label, Beko, who specialize in digital singles gave music fans worldwide one incredible Christmas gift… a free two volume, 49 song compilation from AMDISCS featuring loads and loads of incredible bands and exclusive music. Give it a few years but you watch, the roster (most of whom in their band in fancies) that appears across this compilation will be the stuff of indie legends.

The Compilation Is For Free & Beyond Any Calculable Value.
All Of The Artists Featured, Conjure Up The Pale Light From The Deep Within Our Souls.
Occult Related Sounds Call Down The Spirits Of Future Tense Vernacular.
Enjoy The Curved Moon’s Waning Rays,
And Marry XMAS To All Of You

AMDISCS said it best… really, you should download this and keep your eyes and ears open for every band on here. Full track list after the jump, merry Christmas and enjoy!

Beko Presents The AMDISCS Compilation Vol. I (Click Here)

Beko Presents The AMDISCS Compilation Vol. II (Click Here)

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The Мишка Grab Bag Sale Returns!

Merry Christmas everyone and here’s your gift… we’re bringing back the Grab Bag Sale, the O.G. Streetwear Grab Bag sale dawg! So take that everyone else. But here’s the condition (and please keep the whining to a minimum) we’re only doing $200 Grab Bags this time around. Sorry to anyone let down by this but these sales are actually a pain in the ass to organize and limiting to just one $200 option was the only way we could bring it back.

That said, for $200 buck you’re going to laced up with at least $550 worth of shit! so can we get an “Oh yeah!” over that? As always it’ll be an assortment from across our collection and across multiple seasons (including future ones) that could include any combination of tees, caps, jackets, pants or who the hell knows! It’s a grab bag sale, it’s  surprise! And as always, No returns, no complaints and no requests!

If $200 is too rich for your blood to take a gamble on, we invite you to shop online or in-store and enjoy 15% to 30% off through January 1st.

Please note: Include you New Era hat and waist size in the comments section of your order.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
—
Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

As if releasing one of 2010 best albums wasn’t already enough, Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and co. are giving away another album for Christmas…well they’re giving it away to Sub-Division members (read: Gorillaz fanclub subscribers). But you guys are all pretty tech savvy and maybe you’re a Sub-Division member, or maybe you’re not? Either way I’m sure you’ll be able to get your hands on Gorillaz’ The Fall.

And if you’re totally inept in the wayz of the interwebz, well The Fall is streaming free on the Gorillaz website when yous ign up to their mailing list, so you can at least listen to it. Be warned though, I don’t think their site is Mozilla/Firefox friendly.

Does it’s influence know no limits? Last week’s Sound From the Other Side illustrated that our favorite new musical steez had found some footing in Mother Russia… But I think those Russians are getting very heady over Witch House as evidenced by this article on Slavic flavored culture blog Far From Moscow who have certainly done their fair share of research on the topic. The first part of the article gets all Dostoevsky on you, breaking down what Witch House means to Russian culture, both in mood and it’s status as a western import. Heady stuff.

They then go on to talk about how the scene is burgeoning over there, specifically about Ukrainian outifit Bitch House. Apparently the name stems from some sort of strange translation error, but I just like to assume these dudes like to have a laugh or two in between sacrificing virgins and building sigils and whatnot. Though they also draw on the pop sounds of the 80s and 90s, their reference pool is, well, Ukrainian pop. It’s pretty interesting stuff. Witch House: taking over the world, one nation at a time.