Video Vacuum - Liars, Mind Spiders, Birthdays, Charbonneau

It's been some time since I got it on with the visuals, and I've had a few up my sleeve without acting on them. Well, this post is nothing if not to show off the new video for Liars' single 'No. 1 Against The Rush', a incredibly filmed, dark as fuck mood piece that starts solemn, gets fucking twisted, and ends in territory that will haunt my dreams. The Human Centipede 2 should have been this. Angus Andrew's facial expression says it all really. If the track is already whipping you into a frenzy for the upcoming LP WIXIW (it is for me), then this video will seal the deal.



Raging Texans Mind Spiders have just released Meltdown on Dirtnap Records, and 'Wait For Us' is off it. It portrays a guy apparently abandoned on a desolate planet, who calls out for help. Yet when it comes, the "rescuer" gets more than he bargains for... This is a slick video, much like the Liars video, and perfectly complements this killer tune.



Portland synthers Charbonneau have an 80stastic flick to correspond with their 'American Is My Favourite Language' track. Focusing on US billboards and signs, interspersed with some slow-mo spazz dancing, we have something affecting, amusing and addictive. I don't know who this band is, but this video is amazing.



Finally we have Boston act Birthdays, who threw me their 'Howolding Girls' video the other day (via Mike from Sippy Cup Everything). It has Birthdays (AKA Sam Yager) standing with a black background and various colours and images projected onto his face, the overall effect coming across as B-grade horror, glow-in-the-dark tribalism and Animal Collective eclecticism with the right amount of unease and fascination. The track itself emulates AC in its swathes of synth, yet with slightly more immediately accessible vocals... Good stuff. Birthdays is rocking with Gauntlet Hair in his hometown before winging his way to Japan for a two week jaunt - good luck dude, let us know how it goes!



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Liars Get WIXIW WIXIW Wak

I love Liars. Really, truly love them. Sisterworld, their last album from 2010, killed, and took out our inaugural best of 2010 albums. So when the trio decide to get their freak on and pump out another record, you bet I'm rabid crazy about it. The single has just released the first taste off it, 'No. 1 Against The Rush', and goddamn if it isn't an addictive slice of pie! Slinky, ethereal, seductive, and oh so Liars. Who'da thunk it from when they first came to us that Angus Andrew could woo us with his dulcet tones... you can listen to it if you go to their Facebook page here.

More info on the record then. Titled WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”), the album is set for release on Mute on June 5th 2012. The title is explained by Angus Andrew,

“’wish you’ is a familiar and universal sentiment of longing and hope, but when misspelled becomes uniquely shrouded and difficult to interpret, which in many ways is representative of our music and the songs we wrote for this album”.

Watch what happens when human beings are confronted with WIXIW and see it manifest in unlikely places.

He continues, “The word being a palindrome offered us some comfort, and came from superstitious behavior that was the result of extreme uncertainty and doubt. The word and spelling struck us because it seemed to exude a special quality or power.”

“If we aren’t confusing people, it’s not us,” Andrew laughs. “If we aren’t confusing ourselves with what we do, then we’ve failed.”

WIXIW TRACKLISTING
The Exact Colour Of Doubt
Octagon
No.1 Against The Rush
A Ring On Every Finger
Ill Valley Prodigies
WIXIW
His And Mine Sensations
Flood To Flood
Who Is The Hunter
Brats
Annual Moon Words

SO FUCKING EXCITED! I have listened to this song forever today. Get it.

Posting Rank/Xerox's Punk

San Francisco has to be one of the best places in the world music-wise right now, especially if you love your guitar rock dirty, dingy and fun. But not all is fine and dandy. One of the best albums of 2011 came not from a garage group but some disgruntled guys that, alongside The Men, Iceage and Total Control, proved that some of the best music comes from the darkest spaces - and that post-punk is far from dead, despite many fuckwits' attempts to make it so. Rank/Xerox's self-titled debut is acid-tinged angularity, acid saliva and discord. What's not to love? Nothing, for this album, just like those mentioned above, have distilled what the genre's progenitors (read: Wire, Gang Of Four, Mission Of Burma) gave birth to, and adding so much verve and venom that it refuses to be ignored. I'm a douche for not putting this out there sooner. Rank/Xerox is vital. (Plus the lead dude is an Aussie, and what with Liars still pushing hard and Total Control killing, says something, dontcha think?)

Rank/Xerox is out now through Ros Records.

Rank/Xerox - Cave Dweller
Rank/Xerox - Nausea