Taco Leg Live at Tanya's
BB009 | Released 02/11/10 | CD-Rx150 | $5 from the store
On the 16th of August 2009 there were two notable parties going on in Perth. One was birthday party inside a suburban back shed and one was a warehouse dance party. Throughout the recording of Taco Leg's set at the birthday party, amid calls of "Jon Grader" and "play Slayer" is a conversation between two drunk kids about the two parties. Around the time that Taco Leg cover Tame Impala's Half Full Glass of Wine the pair concludes that "this is probably better than the warehouse party".Despite their apparent haphazardness and lack of rehearsal, Taco Leg are a focused and dedicated band. They lay down catchy one-finger punk guitar riffs, smash out enthusiastic blast-beats and yelp dead-pan musings about architecture, Gossip Girl and elvish waybread. Live at Tanya's is a tribute to Taco Leg's dork-come-superhero knack for putting on a great show. www.myspace.com/tacoleg
Mental Powers Stuffed Alive
BB008 | Released 22/09/10 | CDx500 | $5 from the store
Stuffed Alive is a collection of live tracks, compiled from old recordings and home takes and produced by the band. One of the strengths of Mental Powers is their live performances - it's an entirely different experience to a studio album, and shows the density and dynamism of their incredibly complex music.
Stuffed Alive is a substantial introduction to Mental Powers live and a prelude to a forthcoming 12". The screenprinted disc and foil sticker are illustrated and designed by the band and come packaged in a clam shell.
Mental Powers Jhek
Whalehammer Dream Tape
BB007 | Released 28/03/10 | CD-Rx40 | Sold out |
After playing a show with Whalehammer at the Hydey (RIP) back in 2007 I asked guitarist/vocalist Dave West if they had any releases. I was presented with 4 or 5 free hand made CD-rs, probably only a portion of their back catalogue at that time. In October 2008 they released their album Subterranean with Farmer Frontier which apparently "kind of tells a story of a subhuman underground mutant who lives in total darkness, infects the over-ground populace with poisonous sex spores, and grows desperate for union with another, only to be enveloped and destroyed by a female of the species when this union finally occurs. It may or may not be a dream, narrated by a human ripped to the gills on opium tea."
Whalehammer have been on hiatus for the past year or so because of West's relocation to San Francisco. Dream Tape, a collection of improvised recordings from rehearsals has been dug up and remixed by the band. We launched the limited CD-r at a house party where Whalehammer reunited to play for one show only.
Dream Tape drifts freely through dark territories of heavy feedback which are broken by building drum beats and sudden catchy punk riffs. For Perth, who sorely misses the regularity and volume of Whalehammer shows, Dream Tape acts as a reminder, a lesson and a kick in the pants.
Whalehammer XX. Pastel Nosebleed
Helta Skelta Parasite
BB006 | Released 23/05/10 | C-10x50 / DLx50 | Sold out
www.myspace.com/skeltahelta
Wigwam Sweat Lodge
BB005 | Released 28/03/10 | CD-Rx40 | Sold out | Download free here
In a remote village in the Himalayas a small Indian child tries on my sunglasses and looks into the future. He sees a washy blur of trees, snow capped mountains and winding rivers. Bumble bees are softly buzzing and in the distance the black puma which has been stalking the village howls. In a calm sweaty haze, the small boy contemplates the universe.
Craig McElhinney had a busy 2009 releasing two killer albums, You and Me are Young and Brutal and Loser Orientation on Meupe. Both ample examples of McElhinney's strange, droning guitar loop excursions.
Wigwam is a collaborative project between Craig and myself and is a chance for us both to delve into stranger and deeper regions of sound. Beats aren't always in time, notes often out of key. But holding together all of the scattered drums, whirling guitars, phased out vocals and unidentifiable samples is a united understanding of something much more cosmic.
Wigwam is an excursion through unexplored, extra-terrestrial worlds. Sweat Lodge is a good place to stop and enjoy your packed lunch.
Wigwam Smokey Tent Gradient
Mental Powers Untitled
BB004 | Released 20/03/10 | CDx500 | $10 from the store
What a pleasure to be able to share the music of the most interesting band in Perth. Continuing on from the Fifth Column 7", which was a real highlight of last year, the boys have recorded another intriguing, dynamic, fluid, and effecting composition which has translated their precise, passionate and eerily strange live sound accurately into a 25 minute piece made up of 3 tracks.
Dark, haunting bass tones, intricate, jazz influenced rhythms, turbo-blasted guitar, saxophone freak outs and mysterious, commanding vocals compete for space until falling naturally into a harmonious, unstoppable groove which organically ebbs and flows throughout the recording.
Packaged beautifully and carefully in sturdy kraft cardboard mailers with appropriately odd and intricate images featuring metallic screen print and individually designed and hand painted detail. Each CD has been individually painted, packaged, stamped and numbered by the artists.
www.myspace.com/mentalpowers
Cease Cicada
BB003 | Released 20/10/09 | CDx500 | $10 from the store
A 40 minute composition of 4 hauntingly dark, intense stoner-metal jams, with a calculated sound most Cease fans will be unfamiliar with from the more commonly free and improvised live Cease performances. Packaged in a beautiful matte black cardboard wallet featuring a terrifying wrap around illustration of a cicada devouring a rodent, with soft black felt around the disc featuring drawings by guitarist Andrew Britton and bandit David Egan.
Cease three
www.myspace.com/ceaseband
Pond Corridors of Blissterday
BB002 | Released 04/06/09 | CD-Rx200 | Sold out | Available on iTunes
Recorded in four sweaty, love-filled and smoke-fueled days, Corridors of Blissterday documents Pond's aptitude for improvisation and groove riding. From the apocalyptically epic title track opener, the sludgy riffing of Caterpillar Mansion, the tropical pop tones of Sweet Lorreta (a song about falling in love with an alien babe and being stoned on an island in the sun) right the way to the aptly titled Ascending, Corridors of Blissterday is a journey. It's hard to say where it is you end up, or even where you've been, but shit, what a trip!
Pond Corridors of blissterday (live at Psychedelic Mango Launch Party, Norfolk Basement, 2009)
www.myspace.com/mickmanmoose
Pond Psychedelic Mango
BB001 | Released 09/01/09 | CDx500 | Sold out | Available on iTunes
An immaculately divided mango is carefully laid in the green, summery garden behind a cottage in the middle of Fremantle. In the granny flat of his parent's house Nick, Joe and Jay record the first Pond album on their 8-track. One of the many amalgamations from the Mink Mussel Creek split, Pond formed the day of their first show at Cair Paravel (a series of BB house parties in North Perth, 2008). Oozeing with catchy, feel-good, summer-jams, Mango takes you back to that sunny-day when you just knew that everything was going to be OK.
Pond Don't look at the sun or you'll go blind (live at John Curtin Band Room, Melbourne, 2010)
www.myspace.com/mickmanmoose