Posts tagged rock

No Ripcord!

I’m writing for a new music blog, No Ripcord. Check out my lastest review on the Soft Pack’s Strapped. 

What can be said about the Walkmen that has not already been said, other than amazing and Peter Bauer can shimmy with the best of them. I’ve like this band since I was 19, enough said.

C.Aarmé - “Bodybuilding” from World Music

A few years ago, I was bored one night and decided to do some online shopping. I ended up on Amazon looking at random useless junk when I came across a user review of C.Aarmé’s debut Self-Titled from a Nicholas Pyle “Widowmaker Noiseannois”. It read, “this record is tougher than nails. the rhythm section makes me want to kick my way through a brick wall and choke people on the street. they favor single notes over chords (awesome), and the singer is really really pissed about hippies. Sweden rules.” I took the bait and found a appreciation for Sweden’s answer to Black Flag.

After the release of their second album,Vita. I was having trouble finding here in the states and ended up ordering it from their European label. Once it arrived, I found to my surprise a hand written note from the band’s manager, thanking me for buying the recording and informing me that that the band was breaking up, Vita would be their last record. All good things must come to end I thought.

Three years laters, just as randomly had I come across the punk quartet, the band would resurface from their hiatus to release 2009’s World Music. The third installment of what Mr. “Widowmaker Noiseannois” so eloquently described. 

Weekend - Sport

Weekend - Sports

So for starters Weekend sounds like a mashing of My Blood Valentine’s drone and gloom meet the driving bass lines of Cut City. It’s a classic combination for any shoe-gaze band, but then again why mess with a good thing. The San Francisco band is starting to make a name for themselves with 2010’s Sports, an album of fuzz-laiden riffs back by catchy vocals. “End Time” is a good sampling of what these three gents are bringing to the table.

Photo set from The Soft Pack performing at The Hammer Museum at UCLA. Enjoy!