Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (2011) [Sub Pop] // Grade: D

On their new album, Fleet Foxes make pretty music, partially based upon Appalachian folk music. It sounds good and would be nice to throw on at a casual gathering. It is pleasant and it’s pretty, and therein lies the problem.  Never has the indigenous music of those Virginia hills sounded so safe than in the Sufjan-ed strains of Helplessness Blues. Even the casual listener can hear the raucous and unpolished bliss in June Carter’s cackle.  Fleet Foxes newest effort maintains none of that essence, and therefore completely dilutes what might be the original music of the United States of America into safe indie hipster playlist.

So what does this mean? This means that Helplessness Blues has Grammy written all over it. It means that the “cool” English professor at your community college will be expounding upon the brilliance of this album, and its import as a statement of Americana. Hell!, I believe Rolling Stone already has. It means Kanye might just sample this, and even if he doesn’t, countless mash-ups will appear on bootleg sites. This album has smash success written all over it. And why? Because Fleet Foxes does for the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack what Merriweather Post Pavillion did for Pet Sounds. There is true devotion to original Appalachian music in this album, so much so that it almost seems wrong to criticize it so harshly. The only thing is it is completely unecessary. As much as I like Pet Sounds, I don’t think I’d want to live without Animal Collective’s updated take on Brian Wilson’s psychedelia.  As a fan of Country Blues and American folk traditions, I found this Fleet Foxes album to be a pleasant listen, but afterwards I didn’t feel the need to listen again.

Surely this album will be well received and praised by many reviewers, but the fact remains that by taking the safe route, Helplessness Blues finds iteslef being an album that is easily forgotten by these ears.

Such a sweet, sad little tune. Honeydrum’s “She’s Gone For the Summer” is off their latest EP called Vacation. Over the past 6 months, this fuzzy lil pop group has released 5 3-song EP! I gotta admit I love the short yet sweet spurts of output from the group… much like this song.

Download their latest Vacation below for free or pre-order it on cassette over at AMDISCS. Be sure to hit up their bandcamp for their 4 other releases.

This past month was festival time for the USA, between Ultra Fest weekend and Coachella we all got our fix of BASS for next few months. Not much of a fan of multi-venue fests like Ultra, it just takes to much energy to plan and travel around, especially in Miami.

Luckily we we’re part of the best party down there thrown by our hometown heavy bass champions, Trouble & Bass! For a full photo and video recap of the gang’s weekend check out the T&B blog. Unfortunately, our brother 12th Planet could not attend because he was too busy demolishing heads at the 3 day Ultra Fest!

If you were lucky enough to be at Coachella and witnessed the destruction, then you probably were given the Camp magazine featuring all the buzz worth artists of the fest. Of course 12th Planet was front and center sporting a fresh spring look: Cyrillic Snapback and Raining In Blood Poplin Shirt. Be like John!

Belzebong - Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves (2011) [Self-released] // Grade: A

Want some Weedeater-level heaviness to go with your bong ripping, spring time daze-fests? Crank up the new Belzebong! These Polish connoisseurs of the heavy beats and constant reverb will supply the jams. All you gotta do is bring the green man! Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves is a wicked trip down the hazy and introspective fuzziness associated with a massive blast to the lungs.

Ever smoke some bad buds only to get pissed off and throw your bong? That’s what “Bong Thrower” is about! The opening track leaves no surprises here. It’s chug, chug, waaaaahhhhhhhn sound is right up there with Bongripper and Weedeater. You can’t turn this shit off because you’d have to leave your beanbag chair! For more satanic instrumental jams, crank it up for “Names Of The Devil”. 666 kvlt man! There’s nothing more satanic than instrumental, bowel-movement inducing bass lines and riffage! All hail Belzebong!

Why ride a bike when you can ride a witch? “Witch Rider” is all about hopping onto that broomstick and pressing the throttle. As the guys pull apart the buds and pack a fresh bowl, you wait in anticipation, mouth all stale, for the cloud of fuzzy riffs and distortion that’s coming in “Acid Funeral”. Alice Trenton’s been on a trip to acid-land and her story leads into the darkness that is the ender to this EP. It’s far out man. So far, far out. Like that walk to the bodega for more plantain chips and peanut butter.

Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves isn’t anything new or revolutionary but as your opium den fills with smoke, you can appreciate the stellar and somber tunes that will reverberate from your speaker cabinets. Turn on the black lights and sleep the day away to BELZEBONG BRAHHHHH! The best part about Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves is that it’s only $5 via Bandcamp! Use the player down below to purchase a download.

Holy shit! We got a surprise visit from Мишка’s extended family Actual Pain. TJ & Emily came to LA to record some music, get away from Seattle for a bit and enjoy the beautiful weather that is Los Angeles. Thankfully in between all that, they stopped on by our Echo Park store. And dually as thankfully, we had the Spring 11 Actual Pain gear at the very front of our cut & sew rack which is the first thing you see when you walk in the door. Needless to say, I think they were pretty stoked we were reppin’ them like that.

Anyway, this was my first time meeting TJ which was quite an honor. Not only are TJ and his wife two extremely nice people, their company Actual Pain kicks major a$$. We congratulate all of their success & look forward to being part of the future success that awaits them. Be sure to check their Spring 11 line which is available at our flagship locations as well as our online store.

Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles CA 90026
213-536-4234

Brewed to Destroy New Era ($45.00)

We at Mishka are happy to serve you but we’re also happy to destroy you, and hey, that’s what we’re engineered to do. With this hat Мишка takes a classic symbol of New York and makes it all Мишка-y. The original cup, called the Anthora cup, was designed for the Sherrri Cup company in 1963. The designer, Leslie Buck was a Czechoslovakian holocaust survivor who managed to design a cup that was part of New York’s identity.

I don’t know how a disposable cup could be so important to people but I acknowledge that we’re past the age where most consumer products mean anything. Instead of seeing the Anthora cup you see Starbucks which is fine, but you see it everywhere and anywhere and it’s an intentionally impersonal design.

Brewed to Destroy T-Shirt ($32.00)

There’s something warm and friendly about “We are happy to serve you” with that brown and blue mock-Greek design. This cup came along around the same time as Milton Glaser’s “I heart NY” graphic and while both became some of the best loved graphic design ever made, only one of them was exploited and ripped off to the point of losing all meaning. We figured it was time for someone to rip off the coffee cup again and it might as well be us.

Brewed to Destroy is available as a New Era fitted and a T-shirt in either White, Black or Royal Blue.

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

If it ain’t Wednesday, I ain’t happy. This is Near Mint Condition, the weekly comic books column where I unfurl my pull-list and let you see what I’m eager to check out. I can’t snag every comic book worthy of purchase, being a poor bastard with little time. So with that in mind, hit the comments section with your own favorites for the given week.

Today is seeing the accumulation of posthuman nano-madness, incensed heralds of the apocalypse, horny murdering school kids and more. I’m ready to fucking rock.

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Bulletproof Coffin TP.
David Hine and Shaky Kane came together last year to put out my favorite comic book series that I couldn’t fucking find anywhere. So I gave up. I know man, burying the comic book industry with my apathy. The series is a golden-hued metafictional gaze back at the good ole day of comic books and middling existence. Equal parts oddity and meditation, and the first issue that was issued for free online rocked my socks. And my jock.

Now that the son of a bitch is going to be snaggable via a simple Amazon point and click, I’m looking forward to picking up the collection.

Also From Image:
Yeah I know I’m the only asshole around here reading it, but Morning Glories #9 drops this week and I’m excited. This shit is pure creampuff mind-filler, but what the fuck, why not? The guy smashing his keyboards with some scintillating Freudian reading of the title to prove that it has some depth? Spare me. I read it, it entertains me, it’s like the LOST of my pull-pile.

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Xombi #2.
I didn’t get to read the original run of Xombi back in the mid-90′s. That was back in the days when I was barely pubescent, and I didn’t yet covet bizarreness with the same fervor that I did a pair of ludicrously rendered tits. These days the two warring factions are best handled together in my eyes, and I really dug the first issue by John Rozum and Frazier Irving.

Let me just say, Frazier Irving’s artwork is fucking gorgeous. Jesus Christ. I fell for the dude (belatedly, I know. Shut the fuck up.) during his stint on Batman and Robin, and the boner jam is rolling right over into this title.

Xombi’s a dope examination of a world gone askew, where the posthuman isn’t hypothetical, but achieved. I love the idea of the posthuman as not something to be looked after, but instead as the protagonist of the narrative. What sort of other formerly impossible nature lurks at the rim of our imagination, when we conjure up the self-sustaining human?

All this shit sounds way more sensible in my brain. I promise.

Also From DC:
The fifth issue of Batman Incorporated is dropping, and goodness me, is Morrison’s currently storyline dense as fuck. I know he refuses to rock it any other way, to the detriment of the narrative in the eyes of some, but B&R #4 left me in the fucking dust. Even David Uzumeri’s annotations couldn’t take me to referential Valhalla. Also, Superman returns in Action Comics #900, which is a bit sad. The supersized comic is suffuse with story, but I was happy with Paul Cornell rocking the Lex Luthor tip on the title.

All good things, I suppose.

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FF #2.
Oh fuck yeah! Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting continue to ponder what fucking tomorrow brings in the second issue of FF.  The first issue had us morning the loss of Johnny, snacking on dinner with a sleazy pony-tailed Poppa Richards, and a pretty humorous jab at the various deities of this lovely Universe.

It’s odd for FF to be numbered so low, because everything that is coalescing in its pages has been ruthlessly plotted for the past year or so through Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D. So yeah, it’s issue #2, but fuck I’m ready to see the culmination of a variety of evens.

Still though, Hickman is my boy. The only one who can combine Galactus, Marxist dialectics, and ethical debates and not have me snoozin’ my way out of the pages.

Must get.

Also From Marvel:
Fraction and Coipel are teaming up to bring us Mighty Thor #1. For those at home with an abacus, you can confirm that this brings the number of Thor titles up to something like 33. Thereabouts. Well fuck, the movie is coming out! So we have to dilute the stock, so when the people don’t go from the theaters to the comic book stores, they’ll have a shitload of easily accessible titles to not choose from.

Snarkiness aside, it’s fucking Fraction and Coipel. I’m there. Also this week we finally fucking get Venom #2. Watch in amazement as Rick Remender and Tony Moore rehabilitate one of the most abused icons of the 1990′s. Abused in the same sense as porn actress’ crotch. Blow apart, worn out. Remender and Moore have breathed life into the concept, tightened up the thematic labia. Our own Whole Milk did a great write-up of the title, capturing why you should read it in far better detail than myself.

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For more dork bullshit, hit up Omega Level.

Prefuse 73 - The Only She Chapters (2011) [Warp] // Grade: B

If there is any one thread that connects producer Scott Herren’s vast and diverse Prefuse 73 catalog, it’s the feeling of a restless spirit, forever searching for self through sound. His seventh LP, The Only She Chapters, is a grand emotional purge. Tightly wound glitch is traded in for experimental orchestral wanderings. An all female cast of guest vocalists help carry a narrative of love lost.

The track titles read like the 18 stages of grief and loneliness. “The Only Hand To Hold” is a quiet walk away, your back to the life you once called home. Ambling clicks are answered by gentle string plucks. Shara Worden’s ethereal voice sweeps overhead, wise and angelic. “The Only Trial Of 9000 Suns” is the closest Herren gets to hip-hop on this release. Acidic beats are spun into a tight mass, punctuated by sharp, uncomfortable key tones. Trish Keenan’s warped vocals disappear into the denseness. Zola Jesus guests on “The Only Direction In Concrete”, contributing a hollow operatic howl to a composition of uncomfortable noise.

The Only She Chapters is rarely melodic but strangely beautiful. The women featured across the album take on eerie personas. Together, they are the angel, the demon, the ghost of a former love. It’s the most challenging listen of the Prefuse 73 catalog, a release sure to leave some longtime fans scratching their heads.  Deliberately difficult, but so inventive and intimate that you can’t deny its curiosity.

Surprised it’s taken this long to make a second video for anything off of King Night. Regardless, I’m glad Salem ended up making one for “Sick.” Great song.

Can you believe it’s been an entire year since the first Trouble & Bass residency party in DC? Neither can we! Of course there’s only one way to celebrate: bring that mothership melting bass back to the capital for Trouble & Bass’ One Year Anniversary party! With T&B’s The Captain as host, expect to hear some of the filthiest, nastiest low end you’ve ever heard with special guest MRK1 (Manchester, UK). If you had your ears to the underground and tuned into London pirate radio over the last few years, you’ve heard MRK1′s work with the notorious grime unit Virus Syndicate. After crossing over into the dubstep realm and releasing international bangers on some of the finest labels out there (Planet Mu, Play Me, Hench), MRK1 is armed to the teeth and ready to set off U Street Music Hall. Check out his latest April mix to see for yourself.

MRK1 APRIL 2011 MIX by MRK1

If that wasn’t enough, he’ll be joined by the Steel City’s heavy bass weight champion B. Rich (Party Like Us), who will be dropping the finest heavy bass house and assorted this side of the Eastern seaboard!

DC, do I need to spell it out for you? Get your ass over to U Street Music Hall this Thursday for all the punishing bass you deserve.

Thursday April 28th, 10PM – 3AM
U Street Music Hall
Trouble & Bass
11115 U St NW
Washington D.C.
18+ | $10 All Night
FREE if you buy a T&B Shirt at the door