idiot control

couple of reviews of CDs i wrote for PRB. they've been modified as necessary, as they're essentially written to con college students into playing the dubious crap i like instead of conrad oberst or xiu xuxa or cat on farm or what the fuck ever.

joshua jugband five - damascus doldrum (ramadan)
modern psychedelia from sweden. god knows, i’ve heard enough bar band psych/’space rock’/terrastock excreta in my day, so it’s always exciting when something as plausibly zonked as this comes my way. caveman-psych instrumentals and a track of mushroom-cult mumbled chanting shamble, the kind of thing that could be from 1972 or 53 BC. take a hit and stare into the BLACK MIRROR until your dead relatives contact you with further instruction. everyone should be listening to this, but they're all buying every 20 minute CDR sunburned hand of the man crank out instead ("variation on a theme by carlos santana").

air conditioning - i’m in the mountains, i’ll call you next year (peel back the sky/white denim)
goddamn vicious, ugly noise mashed into vaguely ‘rock’ shapes by this POWER trio. kind of reminds me of the new world of sound/blackjack bands (liquor ball/sternklang/plague lounge) but with the psychedelic elements replaced by nihilistic, thugged-out heaviness and distortion so noxious it's like deadly orgone radiation. most of the songs plod away at exactly the wrong tempo, a weird plodding march beat, guitar and bass clawing at each other while the vocals variously forcefully whine and harangue. so excellent it makes me cry, like living in a world where people in rock bands listen to burzum and the gerogerigegege instead of modest mouse. these guys played live on my show; dust fell from the ceiling. the universal dream!