Woven Bones, the Tunnels, Sour Notes, Open Casket, Scrabble Robot, Deadly Companions, the Extravaganza, and the No No No Hopes
7 & 7 Is
Reviewed by Raoul Hernandez, Fri., Oct. 23, 2009
No. 313 stamps my 13th Floor Elevators Sign of the 3 Eyed Men mondo box set, while 177 imprints my new Sundazed Records Alexander "Skip" Spence 10-inch, two previously unreleased demo transmissions from the ghostly heart of a psychedelic son. Closer to home as well as the here and now, Woven Bones' 12-inch The Minus Touch EP on Zoo Music drops a ripping, four-song fuzz bomb of Crampsian radioactivity at a headless horseman gallop, the Austin trio all garage sonics and pummel. Local petroleum product booster Super Secret Records pressed 300 of the Tunnels' droning debut, a third in white vinyl, while 26/200 numbers the green marble vinyl of my Sour Notes' 45 "Never Mix Never Worry" b/w "Rose Puzzles," a forcefully winsome gnaw of Tooth & Nail pop whose "Instrumental" MP3 bonus wavers radiant. Suck on the Sour's January full-length, Received in Bitterness. Tart up with a pair of lime-green singles, the first a four-song split by Red River tag teamers the Open Casket and Scrabble Robot. The former spills hardcore-era Dee Dee Ramone with wrought iron disposition ("Where the Action Is"), but the latter's denim-heavy power pop lacks luster. A Bill Jeffery comic with every disc! Deadly Companions' emerald 7-inch pools inky black veins in its translucent three-tune treble burst on Post Party Depression. Sandra Jake's harpy vocal jab serrates the punk quartet's raw ATX bash. Five rabid bar chord muffles fit on the pretty-in-pink Too Dumb to Die single from the Extravaganza on local crypt kicker Mortville Records. Again, the girls rule the roost: Jillian Jerk's "For Me" spits in the face of the trio's flip-side torch-off, "Just Another Fag." Layout/design via Manikin's Alfie Rabago kills. Finally, on flat black vinyl from Twistworthy Records spews a six-pack by the No No No Hopes, a thick, leather-voiced punk fourpiece. "Rolling Up My Sleeves" reveals a beefy bicep, roots feral, while the rolling thunder of closing Action Swingers cover "Kicked in the Head" blacks out all comers.