News :: We Can See the Future :: The Peelies

Oh, shit, it's an all-girl band. What are they doing here?  Well, I was walking out the door, and my head felt bare, so I headed back in and went for my top hat. I'll be damned, the Peelies popped out like a quintet of magic mutherfucking rabbits.

That's not a true story. I don't wear rabbits. Just when I could imagine folks approaching me at the totally rad parties I go to, saying things to me like:

"You seem like someone who's really plugged in." To which my best answer would have to be: "It's cause I'm the plug, man." A short cry from saying "I hate myself. Now that you're here, help me justify my boredom-induced solipsism, you bottom feeder." Not to hit too close to talking about the 2007 Tom Sizemore movie, a damn good year for the S'more Man.

Back to the tunes: These ladies have got the dry, surf garage down. How dry? So dry I feel like putting their tape on and taking a vermouth bath. Or maybe I'll bathe in tape and pour vermouth on my record player. Jesus Christ, I guess this is the day I sit around dealing with what can never be. Suppose you stop standing around with an empty cup, staring at me: would you be able to refill and make another round, try to find someone who didn't sound like they despise you as much as they despise themselves?

And just when you think the Quebecoiselles got the garage rock vibe on lock, they hit the francophone button and go full speed. Don't stop me: I'm making magic here. My words are goddamn original scripture.

If you like music, and you like it when music comes to your hometown, drop five bucks on the band's album from--wait, what?--one fucking year ago. Guess I'll trade in those psychic pasties for a big ass bottle of Jay Dub. Thought I hadda talent for this type uh thing. Guess my parents were high when they told me I'd be a suck-sess. Guess I'll just kick back and say fuuuck iiiiiiiiitt.

By the way: don't click on the top hat link unless you deal well with sensory overload. Also, it's not a bad idea to kill an hour on a Sunday google-mathing the phrase "psychic pasties." Boy or girl--just sayin...

News :: We Can See the Future :: John Maus

We expect this guy to come out smelling like a winner from this year's SXSW. Or at least he'll go from nobody having heard of him, to releasing a couple tracks that remind people of the 80s, and then back to releasing rarely reviewed albums for Upset the Rhythm. So, yeah, by seeing the future, we mean to say that we have watched this guy coming up for a while, and it's not so hard to guess that people will go for nostalgia with a twist anytime it's offered. But, you know what? We're suckers of the worst kind, too. Not like gotta-pay-rent-street-corner suckers, more like some happy medium between that and actual leeches.

John Maus, not to be mistaken for Maus of the Walker Brothers, lives in Hawaii where he probably sleeps with the newly wed wives on their honeymoons while the husbands are out hitting the links and hiking volcanoes. He's also spent some time with Ariel Pink and Gary War on the Haunted Graffiti project, which should all have worked to lift him over the shoulders of his peers. He travels around with a Roland sampler, groans into his microphone, and gesticulates like he's leading tent revivalists in prayer.  Oh, and his third album came out this past June. Heard of him yet?

John Maus :: Do Your Best

News :: We Can See the Future :: UV Race

This one barely qualifies as forecasting the future since these guys have been on the radar for a couple of years now. The UV Race hail from the land of road warriors and hobbits, bringing the Buzzcocks-era British punk hard out of the Melbourne garage scene. How thick is the Melbourne garage scene these days? Mikey Young, the guitarist from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, produced the album, and it promises to be young, bloody, and snotty.

I hope they walk into my office tomorrow and beat the shit out of me behind my giant, lameass desk.

Their sophomore release, Homo, comes out later this year from In the Red, and you can pre-order it now from Insound.
 

UV Race :: Low
UV Race :: Inner North

News :: We Can See The Future :: Melted Toys

Ever since I stumbled into the band Felt a couple years ago, my mere tolerance for songs guided by clean-tone guitar work has become more of an obsession. I've become that guy who goes to Sears just to ride the elevator from Men's up to Home Decor and back again to get my fix. You know that guy, right? Or maybe I'll dial up Public Works just to sit on hold for a few minutes each day. Is there a way to plug your mobile into a tape deck?

Until then, San Francisco's Melted Toys brings that hypnotic chiming straight to the front of this cut, the lead-off track from their debut EP, Washed and Dried, due out Feb. 22 on Underwater Peoples. It's the perfect last-weeks-of-winter-when-the-fuck-will-it-end-I've-been-staring-at-this-black-pile-of-slush-for-hours sound. Not entirely sure how a Bay Area band managed that, but the guitars don't lie. I'd like to do my own remix of this track, with quick audio ducking to overdub an announcement to listen carefully as the options have changed.


Melted Toys :: Come On

News :: We Can See the Future :: Bass Drum of Death

I'm pretty sure this is what it sounds like if you decide to take a bath with your hairdryer: a lot of wailing and amplified guitar hiss so that if someone were to hear you from the other room, they'd think you were having one badass scrub.

Bass Drum of Death just finished off a couple of successful shows up in NYC this past week, and their debut album is slated for release on Inflated Records next month.  Sonically, they've got a lot in common with another of my favorite bands, Purling Hiss. But these guys put a lot more emphasis on the rock, sweating and shouting like Iggy Pop before Nico gave him the VD. Oxford, MS (and more specifically Cats Purring) is giving other music scenes in the country a run for their money these days, and I'm predicting a brilliant 2011 for those deep fried southerners. And if BDoD don't drop through the District on their spring tour, well, let's just say we'll be the waving to you from the grassy knoll. We're talking to you John Barrett. Ah shit, who am I kidding? Cut a couple solid records first, then we'll make you famous.

Here's a couple of tracks off of GB City:

Bass Drum of Death :: Heart Attack Kid
Bass Drum of Death :: Get Found

Welcome to your Monday morning. Try not to be a douche. 

News :: We Can See The Future :: Dirty Beaches

The internet is packed away in some box underneath sanity and sobriety, and we're in no rush to dig those out, so bear with us while we work out our inner-demons for one goddamn minute. Here's an offering to quell the deafening cacophony of our single follower.

Beaming in from deep space like some lost Lee Hazlewood bootleg karaoke session, this cut comes from Dirty Beaches' upcoming full-length, Badlands, on Zoo Music March 29th. It'll be interesting to see how this stumbling lament will hold up during the upcoming tour with Dum Dum Girls and Minks (March 6 at Black Cat). While it's easy to imagine Dum Dum Girls' psych-harem jangle, I kind of picture Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai as the opening eunuch, passed out drunk mumbling that he doesn't give a damn about anything. And that's totally and completely cool, since I'll be doing the same exact thing.

Dirty Beaches :: Lord Knows Best

News :: We Can See the Future :: Secret Mountains

A new cassette release is out from Baltimore's Secret Mountains with an LP to follow sometime in 2011. These guys specialize in drawn out jams. This track kicks off with a little space rock noise that finally comes down to earth with Kelly Laughlin's bleached out vocals. There are also a couple graceful transitions here where the band gears up or grinds down, giving the song the feel of a miniature mixtape.

Pick up the cassette from Friends Records. And if you have no idea what do with a tape anymore, you sweet, darling idiot, consider asking for one of these machines from one of your Black Friday-loving family members.

Secret Mountains :: Rejoice

News :: We Can See the Future :: Minks

Here's some music for a cold, winter weekend. Caveat: I have no idea if it's cold since I haven't been out. Winter can suck it. This song's from the forthcoming Captured Tracks release, By the Hedge (Jan 12), thanks to the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boston, strum-happy beams of light, MINKS. These guys eschew naiveté and infantilism in favor of straight-ahead gloom with a twist of Johnny Marr. Sway your hips to this shit. Twirl you mic cord like it's your flaccid penis...sweet Jesus, I should never be left home alone for this long of a stretch.

Post-script: judging from this band's Myspace url, these guys are practicing witches and should not be fucked with. Spells could be cast. Glyphs and smothered campfires could be found in the woods near your hometown. I have no idea what witches really do.

Minks :: Cemetery Rain