Slovenly Records Turns 10 In Slovenly Style

Nevada label Slovenly Records run a pretty tight ship, and the four releases they launched upon the unsuspecting masses in lieu of their tenth birthday recently are killer, somehting like the Wicked Witch of the West's winged monkeys, except these fuckers bite hard and have ebola.


Let's kick off with Hated By The Sun, the debut record from Canadian bumpkin punks Hellshovel (unsurprisingly featuring members of King Khan & the Shrines. I love this warped Down Home style of rockabilly garage - it reminds me of Meth Teeth, except more awake and adept at their instruments. Don't get me wrong, these hillbilly hoedowns are medicated, but with more uppers than you can shake a rock bag at, plus the occasional lacings of LSD psych melts to ensure that there is no solid footing here. Impressive.



This next record is the first one of the batch I heard, and sucked me in entirely. The band: Sultan Bathery, an Italian trio addicted to Indian idolatry and backwoods fetishes marketed for the upper classes. The release: Fireworx, a 7" masterclass on gentrified swamp box swagger and sleaze. This Europhiliacs want to have their way with you, and they'll be damned if you won't enjoy yourself.




Next flavoursome international band to the plate is Gay Anniversary, a Greek outfit whose 10" New In Class record is a short bulb blast to the face. Consisting of screams, chants, rants, guitar squalls and one strapped out drum machine, this is visceral punk that annoys as much as it invigorates, which is precisely the point. The speed and violence on display will eviscerate. I expected to enjoy some of this - not thrashing the shit out of it. Nihilist sex on a sonic stick, yum yum.




Rounding out these heavy hitters is The Psyched and their eponymous debut. This is 9 slabs of seriously dirty psych rock n roll - like resin-caked dirty. This is hair-flicking, lip-licking, disease-riddled rock, and you know it, but you can't resist because you know you'll have the best night of your life. A slow death is worth that, right? This Brooklyn duo don't care either way - just another chiselled notch on their bedpost of rock.



Get these four stellar releases here. If you don't have a great balltearer of a weekend after listening to these, you are dead to me.

Video Vacuum - Future Of The Left, King Khan & The Shrines, Regents, Fear Of Men

It's been a shitty week to be on holidays. But all I've been up to is writing, editing, watching movies (Win Win and The Revenant were two pretty ace films) and TV shows (The Walking Dead, Being Human - the UK one, Boardwalk Empire), interviewing and (surprisingly) exercising, so it hasn't been too bad. But Im heading out into the last semblance of sunshine we may have for a while, and I want to give you drones at work something to hold onto. So here are four great vids for four great tracks. Enjoy!

It's sad to say that I'm not yet sold on the new Future Of The Left album The Plot Against Common Sense, although I have only heard it once so need to give it more time. Nevertheless, I always enjoy some Falco nonsense, and it goes without saying that his explanation of the video for single 'I Am The Least Of Your Problems' is full of it:

"[The video] is about a dual or split personality. We wanted something claustrophobic and full of movement, but most specifically, something that would weed out the epileptics in the audience. In all seriousness, I have an undue fascination with strobe lighting, much to my bandmates' extreme displeasure. When I was in college I bought a small one for 'personal use' and used to sit in my room writing songs to its largely similar patterns. They were great, if slightly disorientating, days."



Another dude up for a laugh is King Khan, here backed by the Shrines for 'Bite My Tongue', and this film clip is one of the funniest I've seen in ages. A bizarre homage to the 60s Batman television show and wholly religiously irreverent, it's worth watching just for the jogger in the park.



Now to get gritty. Washington's Regents have finally got a video for their great track 'Cinder Machine' (which you can still buy via Lovitt Records here), directed by the band’s singer/guitarist Drew Ringo, showcasing photographs that he had taken of 350 boarded up residences in Baltimore. The concept speaks to the housing crisis in the US.



Finally we have this ultra low budget offering for Brighton band Fear Of Men's 'Green Sea', the 7" of which came out on Sexbeat Records last week. It was made for 15 quid in one of the band members' flat. It's a woozy VHS effort, and I love it.



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!