It’s not too often we get an indie pop rock record with this much organic swagger. But record label Trash Casual has a reputation for strictly releasing records that scream authenticity and Wabi-Sabi is no exception.
According to their Spotify bio, the band is described as “Employing lush, hypnotizing guitars, reverb-drenched melodies, and an arsenal of diverse, heady instrumentation, the NYC-based dream-pop singer/producer spins a web of 60’s inspired dreamscapes that bring the tensions down and the tranquility up.”
The LP exists less as a mere collection of songs and more as a carefully constructed universe of the artist’s imagination. Over the years Shiitake has become extremely skilled at surrounding himself with talented collaborators and possesses quite a knack for setting up the the proper environment for a killer song to present itself. That’s the world of Papi Shiitake, and that’s the space we are invited to occupy on Wabi-Sabi.
From the very opening track, “Punch Buggy,” you can feel a summery sadness like sinking your toes into the sandy shores of something that’s just slipped away. The vocal delivery throughout the album has a relaxed vibe to it that feels both extremely welcoming and painfully real. Mellotron-drenched “Mountains Red” and groove-driven “Mexican Moonlight” wash over us like a dark soulful wave, leaving us exposed to feel Papi in those specific moments. It’s beautifully rare that an artist can so honestly take us back to such a particular emotional instance, to capture a fleeting moment and build a space around it to exist and breathe.
Wabi Sabi is full of these complex truthful moments. Sometimes it veers a bit from the somber towards introspective acceptance as we see on the sleepy melancholy-adjacent highlight track, “Hideaway.” Other times it doubles down on the tragic beauty like on the powerful closer “Do What You Say.” Shiitake told Buzz Music, “Before every relationship ends there’s this moment when something turns inside of you. You realize that it’s over, but you’re still in it. There’s such power and sadness at that moment. What once was so bright has dimmed and the cold night is fast approaching.”
Papi Shiitake has spent years in and out of musical projects, traveling both geographically and artistically to find his own voice. I’m probably best acquainted with his previous garage/pop/surf band, Best Behavior. But in 2020, he turned a corner with Quarantine Dream, an EP that allowed Shiitake to break out and approach things with a whole new foundation of freedom. The result was Wabi-Sabi, a bigger and more confident record that serves to take even further down the rabbit hole of Shiitake’s swagger and maybe catch a little sunshine along the way.
Wabi-Sabi is out now via Trash Casual and available on all major streaming services.
If you’ve had the opportunity to see the Daniels’ film Everything Everywhere All At Once, you understand the lack of inherent meaning is the very thing that makes all things equally meaningful. The Brooklyn noise-punk trio that FTA’s very own EIC describes as a “frantic noise punk band that sounds like Brainiac and Hella had a baby that was raised by no wave wolves on acid,” is the musical equivalent of that very same ethos.
As the band tells us via a press release, they: “Meld the angular dissonance of 1970’s post-punk and no wave with the brash presentation and theatricality of glam rock, unpredictable math rock grooves, and tribal group percussion, Pons is a band that embodies deconstruction and refuses to compartmentalize its influences; A sonic deluge that is rivaled by few in its throttling intensity and leaves only the luckiest of eardrums unscathed.”
Welcome to The Pons Estate; a six-track barrage of harsh melodies and percussive abrasion that unfolds more like a journey through the imagination of 3D space than it does your standard EP.
“While the group’s confrontational and unhinged modus operandi often leads to comparisons to artists such as Death Grips, Swans, and The Stooges, Pons is a band that consistently defies comparison and creates music that truly resists.” And indeed, their sound can’t be nailed down to just one thing, a no wave fury that sees elements of noise, grunge, post-punk, surf, metal, glam and more weaving throughout their sonic tapestry.
The trio functions well without bass by employing two drummers—Jack Parker sitting at a traditional kit and Sebastian Carnot with a standing kit sans bass drum— who together provide a bedrock of percussion allowing the barrage of guitar and vocals from Sam Cameron to spill over the hefty wall of noise. It’s an all out non-stop bombardment of start-stop blast beat chaos that’s just mathy enough to cause confusion, loud enough to keep your ears ringing the next day, and so intense, just watching them is exhausting.
There is a very conscious and deliberate effort to take “the ethos of classic glam rock and rock n’ roll [and filter it] through Pons’ angular and alien lens to create and vibrant and sprawling six track EP the leads the listener on a journey through the various rooms of band’s frightening and alluring estate.”
Highlights include polyrhythmic freakout “SEVEN ATE NINE,” which is the perfect exposition of their many layers, striking all your nerves at once as your synaptic pathways form new connections and your brain finds sonic equilibrium. Whereas “HUNGAHUNGA” relentlessly jerks you back and forth—the whiplash-inducing track rides like an old wooden roller coaster click clacking through the drops and held together by nothing but a series of rusty pins.
To fully experience Pons though, it’s imperative you catch their live show. Not only is it in my opinion the only true setting that can capture the crucial visceral component of their sound (the studio can only do so much to contain the frenetic energy of a band like this after all), but their live show also employs swords, snakes and other theatrics that feel like a twisted adventure of Zelda; I’m plugged in and ready for the ride!
The Pons Estate was self-released and is available on all major streaming platforms, cassettes are available for pre-order via Insecurity Hits. The band will play a release show on Sunday 12/18 at The Sultan Room with Venus Twins, Lip Critic and ID Sus.
As a musician, subtlety is not one of my strong-suits. But for Taylor Marie, aka sock jock, there’s power in the quiet places. anothernovember is a one-woman EP (Totally Real Records) that “tells the story of sock jock’s love and loss in the last year,” and commands delicacy in its construction; its heart-strings are fully dipped into the vast chasm of emotion. Aptly titled, this record is your morning coffee on a cold November.
Occasionally almost Jenny Lewis in feel, tracks like “haunting” and “saint” transport me back to many bundled up lonely walks along the frozen edges of Lake Michigan during my youth in Chicago, to the point where I can almost see my breath between my tears. And in the places where it nudges intensity a bit on “sober” (and my favorite) “rejectmebaby,” there’s something about how the vocal melody lays into the guitar lines that make me feel like I’m standing in the back of The Fireside Bowl in 1997 dreaming of The Lonesome Crowded West.
anothernovember is out now via Totally Real Records and available on all major streaming platforms.
The latest self-titled release from the Brooklyn band is chock full of grindy-windy guitar licks, soaring party choruses and rock n’roll screams. At its core it’s a solid mid-tempo attack with a Tom Petty groove.
Opening track “Shadow and Shade” quickly drives and sets the pace from jump. But it’s in the slower jams like “Heave Ho” and “My Regeneration” where you catch hints of later-day Buckcherry, Stone Temple Pilots, and Louis XIV. Just a touch of hard rock guitar sleaze and scratchy glam howl to double down the anthemic hooks that sound like they belong on the big stage and out on the road with bands like Chicago’s North by North.
Snoopy and The Who?! is available now via Bandcamp and all major streamers.
The Brooklyn noise-punk outfit, who self describe as “sarcasm dopegaze,” are back with a succinct and powerful new release on Fire Talk Records. The band is well known for not holding back musically or lyrically, and in that regard, this EP is no different. Our earlier coverage included a spotlight on their rapid fire noisy political ripper, “Pigs, Shit & Trash,” the first single from the EP. Lani Combier-Kapel (drums, vocals) explains that it came from the struggle to make sense of the disconnect between the government heads and the people struggling at the intersection of social justice and a global pandemic:
“I was in NYC, where I was born and raised, and where my family still lives. As I watched transplants sneak away to their isolated farms or country houses, I was trapped in a crowded 4 bedroom apartment. Surrounded by death, I was confused, terrified for my aging parents’ health, and looking for any semblance of hope that things could turn around. Around that same time, uprisings and protests for Black Lives Matter were happening every day in NYC – I had good friends who were beaten by police officers and jailed for standing up for what was right. It became blatantly obvious that the government simply wasn’t working for the people and had no clue how to help. These government officials just feel so untouchable – like we can meme them and make jokes about them but at the end of the day, they get to go home to their wives and million dollar mansions and live in their own bubble, not be bothered by the troubles of the world that they created.
When the electoral debates came around, I thought it was very fitting that a fly landed on top of Mike Pence’s head, right when he was talking some bullshit about race in America. I loved that moment, that this fly just randomly shat and vomited on this guy’s head (as flies are known to do to everything they land on). I started imagining this fly as some kind of antihero, claiming one tiny bit of revenge on national TV – a heroic villain attracted to pigs, shit, and trash.”
The second single, “Two Ways,” is a smoldering tune that burns and bubbles, driving just below the surface until the bottom completely drops out at the end. Sarah Fantry (guitar, vocals) explains the song is “about people who want to appear virtuous in their public facing personality, but live a contradictory shadow life in which they do whatever they please, no matter how harmful their actions are to others.” Lyrically and sonically, it almost feels disjointed in its split-personality. Fantry explains, the song’s voice is “stratified into two layers—the outward-facing kind, modern man, looking to learn from the necessarily rapid changes in society—and the sinister, selfish sadist beneath who believes in his own entitlement to act with impunity.”
Ocelli’s two main tracks are tied together by the ambient drone link track of “(everything has eyes)” reminding us that all our actions make an impact and have consequences. Weeping Icon is a band that pays attention to the world in which they exist, and they aren’t the only ones watching.
