Down Is Up discusses music that falls slightly under the radar of our usual coverage: demos and self-releases, as well as output from small or overlooked labels and communities. This week, Jenn Pelly highlights London bands Good Throb and Playlounge.
01 Good Throb - One of the best tracks from last year's Beyond Inversion compilation came from Good Throb, a manic London post-punk band that hinges between razorsharp cleverness and total disintegration. Following two excellent 7" singles—Good Throb and the fierce, snarling, Judith Butler-referencing Culture Vulture—they'll release an LP this spring with the wonderfully apt title Fuck Off. Stream a few tracks below. It's a joint release from three tiny labels, including White Denim, which is run by Pissed Jeans frontman Matt Korvette. Consider Korvette's description of Good Throb at his music website, Yellow Green Red: "Like if Beavis and Butt-head somehow went to grad school and started an angry, fumbling punk band along the way."
Good Throb's sound is raw, primal, ferocious, pissed, crude—like a compressed, anarcha-feminist reimagining of the Fall. They seem to aim for a space between the "stupid" aspects of punk and an anti-oppressive stance. Describing their debut 7"s track "Feminazi", the band's vocalist Ellie said, "The song's about standing on the periphery whilst blokes talk about who's fit and who's not, and being made to feel like a killjoy arsehole for raising objections to bullshit." It is hard to resist drawing a comparison to their stateside kindred spirits in Olympia's Hysterics.
In 2012, Good Throb appeared on a great cassette compilation called Modern Babylon, proceeds from which benefitted DIY Space for London, an initiative working towards establishing a sustainable, accessible show/community space there. (It was cool to read Joanna Gruesome's thoughts on DIY Space for London when they recently made a donation.) Good Throb is also touring the U.S. in April.
02 Playlounge - Recently I was listening to Grubs, a new British noise pop band featuring Owen from Joanna Gruesome, when I stumbled upon Playlounge, another band from London that I had never heard before. Fans of Gruesome's frenzied fuzz-pop throttle will find something to like in Playlounge's Thrash Magic 12" from 2012 (I am told the bands toured together around then, and all members now have a "super cute" tour tattoo). But as for their upcoming Pilot LP, there's also an obvious throughline between Playlounge and other scuzzy sky-bent power-duos like Japandroids and No Age (albeit on a more minor scale). Check out "Zero" below.
R.I.P. to Vivian Girls this week. NYC Taper has posted audio from their entire final performance on March 2 up for download here. Listen to their Wipers cover from that show: