Categories
Music Education

International Music: Icelandic Punk

When was the last time you listened to a song from a non-American/British artist? What about the last time you listened to a song in a different language? Ever wanted to expand your music taste to include songs from all around the world? 

Well that’s the goal of this article series. I hope to help you expand your song taste to include songs from other countries, in other languages and from different cultures.

Icelandic Punk Museum
Photo of Iceland’s punk museum from Flickr. License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In Reykjavík, Iceland, there is a small museum hidden(ish) underground in what used to be a restroom. This museum is a unique punk museum filled with graffiti, newspaper clippings of the history of punk in Iceland, punk jackets you can try on and even headphones hanging from the ceiling playing punk Icelandic songs. 

If you go just make sure to not start taking pictures until you have paid the local punk (Svarti Álfur) who runs the museum.

Like most punk history, Icelandic punk came to be as a way to protest societal norms and became more than just a musical revolution. So today we will be shining light on different Icelandic punk bands.

A little annoying disclaimer first: For all of these I could only find them on Spotify and not YouTube.

Fræbblnarn

One of the most popular and first Icelandic punk bands is Fræbblnarn. Some songs from them are “No Friends” and “Bjór”. Both of these songs are from their album before they broke up in 1983. They did get back together and are currently making more music. Their most recent album as of now is “Dót,” released in 2018.

Their songs are known for their fast lyrics with upbeat instrumentals which contrast the words/meaning of the song, similar to Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.”

Tuð

Another Icelandic punk band is Tuð. They claim themselves to rant about problems of middle age “loudly and abundantly.” Their songs are pretty short, ranging from one song being 3 seconds to the longest being 2 minutes.  They are fast paced, and even without knowing the language, seem anger-filled as claimed.

A personal favorite is “Vorlag” in the “Þegiðu!” album, which has a caricature of a punk old man with pins and a spiky mohawk. “Vorlag” translates to “Spring Song” in Icelandic. It is about a guy who gets locked out of his home in the cold and freezes to death. When looking up the lyrics, they remind me of something out of an Edger Allan Poe book.

In comparison, there is a song “Tilfinningamaðurinn” (The emotional man) which is about different good things happening only for something to go wrong. The good moments, however, are humorously contrasted by the screaming voice.

Nöp

The last Icelandic punk band that is newest with only five singles coming out during 2023-now is Nöp. Nöp have two songs in English (“My friends are dead” and “Shoot you in the face”) and three that aren’t (“Rifast,” “Eurobabble” and “Drullusama”). The songs are pretty similar instrumentally, with strong bass transitioning into heavy drums. Their songs, however, have different topics. “Eurobabble,” “Drullusama,” and “Shoot you in the face” have themes of social commentary and war/death, while “My friends are dead” is more about the meaning of life being nothing and becoming older and friends passing away.

I hope you enjoyed the first installation to the International Music series.

— Vesper

Categories
Classic Album Review

Deodorant Gets All-Organic with Aluminum-Free EP

In an effort to become more of a musical elitist, I’ve started collecting cassettes.

Not just any cassettes, but obscure punk cassettes.

The most recent tape I got my hands on, “Aluminum-Free” by a band aptly named Deodorant, was release #4 of a collective known as Open Palm Tapes, a Chicago-based punk label and distro dedicated to “the sh–t that slaps.”

Open Palm Tapes has a cultivated image, with a strong DIY ethos evidenced by zine-style graphics and eggy illustrations. Deodorant — debuting with their 2018 LP “Smells Good” — is but one of many bands affiliated with the Open Palm.

Poster included with “Aluminum Free” EP cassette

Part of what attracted me to Deodorant — aside from the $3 price tag — was the eclectic artwork on the tape sleeve, which featured a collage of photographic images, illustrations and the beloved male leads from the 2019 film “The Lighthouse.”

A write-up by Ralph Rivera Jr. characterizes Deodorant thusly:

“…Deodorant: organic, time-tested, mother approved, Aluminum Free. Guaranteed to upwrench and unclench the stench of monotony from yer fetid pits, leaving only the Phunkiest of Pheromones behind.”

The “Phunk”

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I fed the tape into my cassette player, but the garage rock-infused freestyle rap of “Bunta Groovin’ / Boast Mk. II” certainly was not it.

It’s not uncommon for punk tracks to feature spoken word — Uranium Club, for instance, makes ample use of it — but Deodorant’s intentional rhyme scheme and old school flow was an unequivocal punk take on rap.

Laden with references to punk rock ethos (“smash the fash and them blue lives bastards now”) and subversions of opulence (“I’m slamming in some Gucci hand-me-downs”)

Cover for “Smells Good” by Deodorant

Conversely, track three (“Top”) followed the prototype of punk spoken word — rhyme and flow coming secondary to lyrical content, with instrumental backing serving as the figurative “spinal cord” — before devolving into genre-characteristic chaos.

The prior track, a viciously garagey guitar slant titled “King Samo,” kept up the EP’s frenetic energy.

Other tracks, like “Deodorant vs. Son of Baconator” and “Guitar Hero World Tour” smack of classic garage punk, ridden with distortion and maddening guitar riffs.

Categories
Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 9/10/24

Afterhours Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1OHRAfterglowHeadstate
2DIVINE FORAYOde To TempestSelf-Released
3CARLILEHuman HumanSooper
4VITESSE X“In The Balance” [Single]Self-Released
5DUSQKGaia/RAESelf-Released
6ROSWELLAlbedo [EP]Self-Released
7SEKT-87Underground [EP]SWB
8OPTOMETRY“Wrong Thing” (Baths Remix) [Single]Palette
9YAEJI“Booboo” [Single]XL
10GYROFIELD“Lagrange” [Single]XL

Afterhours Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1CARLILEHuman HumanSooper
2VITESSE X“In The Balance” [Single]Self-Released
3DUSQKGaia/RAESelf-Released
Categories
Weekly Charts

Jazz Charts 9/10/24

Jazz Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1NATALIE CRESSMAN AND IAN FAQUINIGuingaGroundUP
2WILLY RODRIGUEZSeeing SoundsOutside in
3CHRIS ROTTMAYERBeingShifting Paradigm
4CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE AND EDGAR MEYERBut Who’s Gonna Play The Melody?Mack Avenue
5NUBYA GARCIAOdysseyConcord
6BK TRIOGroovin OnFlat7Always
7GHOST-NOTEMustard n’ OnionsArtistry/Mack Avenue
8TROY ROBERTSGreen LightsToy Robot
9KELLY GREENSeemsGreen Soul
10ACCORDING TO THE SOUNDPitchLosen

Jazz Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1MILTON NASCIMENTO AND ESPERANZA SPALDINGMilton + EsperanzaConcord
Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Charts 9/10/24

Top Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1MJ LENDERMANManning FireworksAnti-
2ERICK THE ARCHITECTI’ve Never Been Here BeforeIDOL
3FEEBLE LITTLE HORSEHaydaySaddle Creek
4FLY ANAKINSkinemaxxxLex
5SPRINTSLetter To SelfCity Slang
6AESOP ROCKIntegrated Tech SolutionsRhymesayers
7BLONDSHELL“Docket” feat. Bully [Single]Partisan
8GLASS BEACHPlastic DeathRun For Cover
9GLITTERERRationaleAnti-
10HORSE JUMPER OF LOVEDisaster TrickRun For Cover
11MEI SEMONESKabutomushi [EP]Bayonet
12OMNISouvenirSub Pop
13PSYMON SPINEHead Body ConnectorNorthern Spy
14SEAFOOD SAMStanding On Giant Shouldersdrink sum wtr
15SWEET PILLStarchild [EP]Hopeless
16ADRIANNE LENKERBright Future4AD
17AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS“Chewing Gum” [Single]Self-Released
18BABEBEEWater’s Here In YouEpitaph
19BLACKWINTERWELLSmortalAmuseio
20BRISTLERCascades At Play [EP]Mint 400
21CHANEL BEADSYour Day Will ComeJagjaguwar/Secretly Group
22DANNY BROWNQuarantaWarp
23DARKSOFTRealtivismSpirit Goth
24GABRIEL TEODROSFrom The Ashes Of Our HomesSelf-Released
25GROUPTHERAPY.i was mature for my age, but i was still a childSelf-Released
26H31RHeadSpaceBig Dada
27MANNEQUIN PUSSYI Got HeavenEpitaph
28MYRA KEYESFlower In The BrickSelf-Released
29NARSICKNarsickSelf-Released
30PANCHIKOFailed at Math(s)Ditto

Top Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1MOON BRIDEInsomnieSelf-Released
2VITESSE X“In The Balance” [Single]Self-Released
3OCEANATOREverything Is Love And DeathPolyvinyl
4WAYNE GRAHAMBastionHickman Holler/Thirty Tigers
5CLOSEBYEHammer Of My Own
Categories
Concert Review Festival Coverage

Warming up for Hopscotch with The dB’s and Kate Rhudy

Hopscotch started early at the Rialto with a little help from power-pop darlings The dB’s and singer-songwriter, Kate Rhudy on Wednesday Sept. 4, 2024

What’s a better way to kick off our beloved festival days than with a meeting of old and new NC music at a tried-and-true old venue turned new?

For the uninitiated, The dB’s are an NYC power-pop quartet by way of Winston-Salem.

Guitarist and vocalist Chris Stamey was the first member to fly the Southern coop to NYU, making a name for himself as a member of Alex Chilton’s backing band “The Kossacks,” later persuading bassist Gene Holder and drummer Will Rigby to join him.

It wasn’t until Chapel Hill based band H-Bomb fizzled out in 1978 that the soon-to-be dB’s lineup would be complete with the addition of guitarist and vocalist Peter Holsapple.

A prime example of “your favorite band’s favorite band,” The dB’s saw rave critical reviews but never quite broke the mainstream in the same way their Southern college rock pioneering contemporaries did.

They easily could have and should have been apart of that massive boom, marching across college campuses arm in arm with R.E.M.

With the imminent reissue of their 1981 debut album “Stands for Decibels” on the horizon, their warm-up set was a celebration of the band’s multifaceted sound an more importantly their

Encompassing both Stamey’s nebulous and amorphous Beach-Boys-by-way-of-Big-Star baroque style pop and Holsapple’s straightforward, youthfully sneering guitar rock, their set was an effective love letter to not only their beginning but to the fans who have stuck with them through the years, and those who have joined along the way.

Kate Rhudy at The Rialto, September 4th 2024 – Photo by Emma Bookhardt

Supported by Kate Rhudy, the Raleigh-based singer-songwriter warmed the theater with an intimate and tender 45-or so minute set.

Tried and true coffeeshop acoustic, Rhudy cut an incredibly charming if not a little green figure on stage in her rhinestone go-go boots.

Standing alone with her guitar, she carried an air of vulnerability as she crooned and flipped her way through breakup songs and love letters to missing cats.

With each quasi-yodel and delicate vocal flips, she garnered easy comparisons to 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant and Taylor Swift.

Perhaps a more direct line of comparison would be if a young Merchant managed Swift’s songbook.

Melding with what seems to be the over all ethos of the festival, Rhudy felt comfortably familiar to old favorites we know and love, while still keeping a unique image all her own.

Alternatively, The dB’s felt as fresh as they day they emerged from NYC’s basement clubs, now serving as a musical “Guess Who?” between their influences and the later influenced.

In contemporary terms, you wouldn’t have groups like The Lemon Twigs without The dB’s, nor would I hazard to guess one of Jack White’s many projects, The Raconteurs.

But that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Remembering why we love our favorite bands and finding something new to fawn over at the same time; a celebration of music’s circularity.

Together, The dB’s and Rhudy brought a show together for a an intimate welcome to the festival weekend and it certainly left me wanting more of the Hopscotch soup du jour.

– Bodhi

Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 9/2/24

Chainsaw Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1COFFIN CURSEThe Continuous NothingMemento Mori
2SCALDAncient Doom MetalHigh Roller
3ONEWAYMIRROREverything wants me to write in cursive [EP]Zegema Beach
4PREHISTORIC WAR CULTBarbaric MetalSelf-Released
5INCONCESSUS LUX LUCISTemples Colliding in FireVoidhanger
6VENDELOut In The FieldsDying Victims
7HEMOTOXINWhen Time Becomes LossPulverised
8KRIEGSHOGLove & RevengeLa Vida Es Un Mus
9SHUMPulzáló dobok tisztítják meg az egetSelf-Released
10KRALLICEInorganic RitesP2

Chainsaw Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1DIMplanted in the soilNo Funeral
2NILEThe Underworld Awaits Us AllNapalm
3SPECTRAL WOUNDSongs Of Blood And MireProfound Lore
4MAYHEMICTobaSepulcharal Voice
Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 9/2/24

Underground Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1ROOTSTIME“They Don’t Care” [Single]Self-Released
2BROOKLISHLOLA.FMBT Worldwide
3BEATOXBeen A Long TimeMoonlite
4OMNI!OMNI! (The Rap Group)Backseat
5KEL-PBully Season Vol.2: pretty girls love afrobeatJones Worldwide/Universal France
6JAE SKEESEGround LevelDrumwork/Equity
7JESHI“DISCONNECT!” feat. Fredwave, Louis Culture, & J.Caesar [Single]Because
8NOTIZ YONGLast Refill [EP]ASEND
9MICKEY O’BRIEN“Ikigai” [Single]Hand’Solo
10DETROIT RED“Bounce, Rock, Scrape” [Single]Self-Released
Categories
Weekly Charts

Jazz Charts 9/2/24

Jazz Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1MILTON NASCIMENTO AND ESPERANZA SPALDINGMilton + EsperanzaConcord
2TRACY YANG JAZZ ORCHESTRAORBJU
3BK TRIOGroovin OnFlat7Always
4BOBBY SELVAGGIO 11Stories, Dreams, Inspirations: For My BoyHidden Cinema
5LOUIS COLE WITH METROPOLE ORKEST AND JULES BUCKLEYnothingBrainfeeder
6BADBADNOTGOODMid SpiralXL
7NATALIE CRESSMAN AND IAN FAQUINIGuingaGroundUP
8JOHNATHAN BLAKETears I Cannot HideBlue Note
9NUBYA GARCIA“Clarity” [Single]Concord Jazz
10FIEVEL IS GLAUQUE“As Above So Below” [Single]Fat Possum

Jazz Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1BUFFALO MONROEMeets Willie WaldmanMetacognitive
2JUAN MEGNA GROUPMariwoSelf-Released
Categories
Concert Review

Kick Tomorrow: Jane’s Addiction at Red Hat Amphitheatre

Jane says the unthinkable has happened, and by some 90s-alt-rock-infused miracle – Jane Addiction has reunited and taken their madcap rock to Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheatre.

Formed in 1985 by Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Eric Avery, Jane’s Addiction quickly rode the wave of L.A. rock with a mélange of punk ideologies, arthouse theatrics and the mad dog rabid funk-fusion of bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers—though I would attest that Farrell and his motley crew did it bigger, better and meaner than RHCP ever could dream of.

However, from an outsider looking in, it is nigh short of a miracle that all four original members made it through the 90s and into a space that would welcome a reunion.

Not to say they were a flash in the pan, but they certainly weren’t a band that foretold longevity; they were hard-living men, and hard-living men seldom long for this world.

Yet, here we are in 2024, and by some strange turn of events, the original lineup has taken to the stage once more.

In a co-headlined tour of North America, Jane’s Addiction and Love and Rockets launched a dual-ended attack on our alt-rock sensibilities.

And what a night of dualities it was.

Starting strong, Love and Rockets were everything you want to see out of a New Wave act: sparkly suits, thinned hair teased to high heavens, droning guitars, heavy synths and a voice that inexplicably has not aged.

Following a lackluster opening act, Daniel Ash and co. came out swinging with “The Light,” cranking up the synth lines in something more reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails rather than the radio-friendly Bauhaus off-shoot.

The band shot from one song to the next with little intermission or crowd-friendly banter in a blistering fuzzy wave of guitar-driven rock that spanned their discography.

They were good, but dare I say they were almost too good; by the time they closed out their set with a rollicking, raucous rendition of “Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man),” I didn’t just want more, I was hungry for more – but you can have too much of a good thing.

Now, I respect their art and I commend their work to stay fit for the stage. However, I can’t help but miss the grit and mess that rock used to come with.

And then Perry Farrell bounded onto the stage…

In Defense of the Rock Star

Before I even bought my tickets for the tour, I had heard mixed reviews about how the reunited band performed together on stage, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Rumors and shaky cellphone footage of slurred words and drunken ramblings filled my feed whenever I looked for anything about the show, and that’s not something I can pass up in good conscience.

Let me tell you, that good conscience paid off in spades.

At a minimum, the setlist was everything you need to hear from a Jane’s Addiction show: a nearly even split between tracks off of “Nothing’s Shocking,” “Ritual de lo Habitual,” and a stray few across their relatively small discography.

Navarro, Avery and Perkins were unrelenting in their sonic assault, driving the set forward so powerfully your seat would vibrate beneath you. There were moments in the set when I felt it so strongly that I had to sit back to get my bearings.

When I say it was heavy, it was heavy.

But it was also so incredibly, wonderfully, beautifully messy in the same breath.

Above, I wrote “Perry Farrell bounded onto the stage…” when in reality, it was somewhere between a stagger and a slink as he whined his way through the opening lines of “Kettle Whistle.”

To be fair, Farrell is a lot like Rod Stewart in a way because we all know that it’s not technically a “good” voice, but an interesting one, and interesting ones hardly stand the test of time.

He’s not a man who knows how to sing; he’s a guy who figured out he sounded halfway cool screeching into a mic, and it worked.

Long story short, the voice didn’t quite hold up over the years, but it was never going to – the writing was on the wall all along.

Speaking of “writing on the wall,” addiction haunted the band since its 1985 inception, far beyond name-only

Anyone who cut their teeth on the Sunset Strip is more often than not inclined to taste the hard stuff – Farrell’s poison of choice were speedballs: go big or go home.

All that is to say, anyone who bought tickets expecting a nice, clean, presentable act came to the wrong show.

As the night wore on, it was plain to see that something on stage was wrong; something or rather someone, wasn’t on the same page as the rest of the band.

While the instrumentally inclined members of the band laid down what I can only describe as sonic bedrock comparable to Led Zeppelin, their charismatic frontman slurred his way through song after song, somehow managing to stay just a hare off beat every single time.

And I loved every single minute of it.

Culturally, we’ve come to a point where rock isn’t big and bad any more.

There’s nothing to warn your children about or straighten your mother’s curls…guys in polos are going to gigs.

At what point did we defang rock’n’roll?

Was it when the Eagles crooned their country-fied California easy listening over the air waves?

Or maybe when your favorite band became a “sellout?”

Either way you want to spin it, we all have our own “whys” as to the mass acceptance of rock as a genre.

But sometimes, you need a reminder that a lion in the winter is still a lion; an aging rockstar is still a goddamn rockstar.

From often incoherent stories sandwiched between fumbled and unintelligible lyrics to joining the pit for a smoke (true story), Jane’s Addiction, but more specifically, Perry Farrell revived the long extinct archetype.

Despite being under the influence, he owned that stage and that crowd; I’ve hardly ever heard more voices in unison than when the band broke into a tenderhearted, surprisingly gentle acoustic rendition of “Jane Says” in the middle of the debauched and flamboyant set.

So yes, to the man in Brooks Brothers beside me – I’m sorry it didn’t quite live up to your thirty-something-year-old memories (though I would argue: If you saw Jane’s Addiction in their heyday, you might not have been so lucid yourself).

But, sometimes, the old gods need to step down off their mountain and remind us of how things used to be; sobriety be damned.

Alcohol is your yoga, baby – Bodhi