Shake Appeal is a column that highlights new garage and garage-adjacent releases. This week, Evan Minsker talks about new records from MUSK, Sick Thoughts, John Wesley Coleman III, Yes I'm Leaving, and the Frowning Clouds. He also shares the latest video from Wand.
MUSK: MUSK [Holy Mountain]
I've done a pretty terrible job this year of preparing for any kind of "Shake Appeal's Favorite Albums of 2014" list but I'll say without hesitation that MUSK's new one has a spot somewhere on that hypothetical list. The Oakland band's album is beefy, sludgy blues rock that's so vicious and heavy, it makes Lazaretto and Turn Blue seem outright feeble. Engineering master/Thee Oh Sees member Chris Woodhouse (credits include several Ty Segall, Oh Sees, and Fuzz records) was behind the boards to help wrangle this band's thick'n'scuzzy low end, and there are some fantastic hooks beneath that mass of fuzz, too. It's out September 30. Unfortunately, the limited edition latex cover—where the melted, fleshy contours jut out like an old classroom globe—is sold out.
Wand: "Flying Golem" [dir./anim. Meghan Tryon & Garrett M Davis]
A man on the verge of melting. A landscape invaded by giant twirling eyeballs. Crudely illustrated figures traveling in a world that keeps shifting. Yes, this is definitely the video for Wand's Ganglion Reef highlight "Flying Golem". It's ever-shifting and trippy, just like that band's very good debut album.
Sick Thoughts: "Human Garbage Disposal" (Gizmos Cover) [Goner]
Gonerfest 11 is coming up fast. (I'm very stoked to be going making the trek down to Memphis this year—check back for the report in next week's Shake Appeal.) They're putting out an awesome 7" in which one of the youngest acts on the lineup—Sick Thoughts, aka Baltimore's terminal teenager Drew Owen—covers one of the fest's reunited veteran acts. Here, he tackles the 1977 track "Human Garbage Disposal" by the Bloomington proto-punk greats the Gizmos. If you haven't heard the original, track it down. If you haven't listened to Sick Thoughts, there's plenty of that stuff to check out, too. And if you want to hear more bands from the Gonerfest lineup, there's a two-hour mixtape. And if you like crossword puzzles...you get it.
John Wesley Coleman III: The Love That You Own/"Chicken Woman" [Burger/Urinal Cake]
John Wesley Coleman is one of those guys who's made a ton of supremely catchy rock'n'roll records but never fully caught on outside of his immediate circle. It's a shame, because his new stuff definitely deserves an audience. Whether he's mournfully singing about playing video games in the basement ("Lizz Hitt Queen of the Midwestern Punk Rock World") or doing his best Springsteen alonside horns and a pedal steel ("The Love That You Own"), he's bringing his A-game on his new album for Burger. On his new Urinal Cake 7", his voice warbles in the distance like the ghost of Hasil Adkins.
Yes I'm Leaving: Slow Release/Mission Bulb [Homeless]
There's a healthy heap of noise coming from Homeless Records on September 29th—they're putting out two long-players by Yes I'm Leaving. There's Mission Bulb, a wide reissue of their ripping 2013 record. That record was recorded live in a rehearsal space over the course of six hours, and it's a really impressive showing from that band. Their new one, Slow Release, also sounds pretty impressive. On their single "One", the Sydney trio obliterate a slow-building simmer with a wall of noise; on "Fear", they hit hard. Both of these records are great and should be filed in your record collection next to your dollar bin copy of Fragile.
Also Worth Hearing: The Frowning Clouds' very good new album Legalize Everything (via Saturno/Rice Is Nice).