The Stolen Moans – TREES
Playing rock n’ roll should give artists a free-pass towards saying the kinds of things that other art forms might consider vulgar or exaggerated. Yet, for the most part, rock has been pretty willing to please, serving up the latest trends in a fashion meant to give casual listeners something to dance to.
Now, writing a revenge fantasy sounds like something rock musicians might be interested in concerning themselves with. Having said that, though, I suppose given what we now know about certain of the more famous shock-rockers, males especially, releasing a track like TREES might be considered in poor taste.
Coming from a clever, feisty all-girl group, this doesn’t come off as entirely sinister. It is a fantasy after all, even if it is loaded with plenty of vitriol. Musically, the roots of The Stolen Moans lie in the efficient garage-rock revivalism of bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Kills, but also the sonic quirkiness of the B-52s.
For our part, we support the movement to keep rock n’ roll evil, and we think that The Stolen Moans are doing their best to achieve this.
https://soundcloud.com/thestolenmoans/trees-v2-lizzipix-remix
Sand Reckoner – Gunsmoke
The hippie nightmare never really went away. The swirling distress that covered a movement designed to look at life at its most idyllic certainly brought out the worst in some people. Some, like Frank Zappa, chose to ridicule it, while others, like the Velvet Underground, fed on the confusion that dominated those times.
Those sort of classic psychedelia sounds, of trembling notes and trance-like vocals have found followers. These adherents’ sonic expression, as well as their aesthetic draws from the slow, mysterious, dark sounds of the post-hippie dream.
Sand Reckoner’ Gunsmoke floats in similar murky waters as the Black Angels or BRMC. The group shows a fascination for many of the finest elements of old rock music, such as fuzzed-out guitars, moody sound design, and violent imagery. They sure sound like the kind of folks who wear their leather jackets all year round and have their shades firmly placed on their noses even at night.
