An Electrying Edifice of Ebullient EP's - Featuring Frost Hammer, Aaron Zimmer, Prevenge/Dig It Up, and Bacchus Baracus

Frost Hammer - Live at Reeds

Sometimes you just get lucky.  There I was, minding my own business, sharing a club sandwich with my father-in-law, when an email pops across my iPhone.  Nothing too unusual.  At the Ripple we get over 400 band submissions a month.  But something about this email caught my eye.  First, they were local boys, coming from San Jose, and I always want to support local music.  Second, this wasn't a demo or a first ep, or some fine studio recording.  What came across were 3 tracks, all recorded live at Reeds Studios, the first of many to come from these guys.  Now, that takes balls. To introduce yourself to the world through three songs cut live.  No overdubs.  No glossy production.  Just guitars, bass, drum, and occasional vocal.  Yes, we have balls.  Welcome to our world.  We are Frost Hammer.

And fuck if they aren't!  Forget the overdubs.  What we got here are three searing tracks of guitar fury, detuned and bottom end heavy.  We're mixing the root of Sabbath with some retro-70's Nugent guitar histrionics and groove and tossing in a hint of NWOBHM riffing.  "Master of Weapon" is my off the cuff favorite.  But that's not to say the others aren't killer.  "Void" and "Wizard Tooth" both decimate with earthquake inducing doom riffing and guitar work that comes across like a cross between Iommi and Satriani.  In other words, the cat can shread when he wants to but knows the value of keeping it simple and clean.  "Wizard Tooth," is just a monster of post-Sabbath riffery that tosses in some furious NWOBHM finese, and stop-start time changes.  "Void" is an instrumental that never loses focus and simply terrorizes.

This isn't really an EP. More songs from these sessions are coming and a full length is due soon.  So keep your eyes open.  But I just couldn't wait til then to give these guys some press.  Retro-riff rockers, seek them out!

Hear them at the Frost Hammer Band Page.

Aaron Zimmer - This Time Next Year

It was last year sometime that we at the Ripple fell under the spell of earnest singer/songwriter Aaron Zimmer, and his full throttle pop.  Now after spending a year playing in the NY area, Aaron comes back with his first new EP, This Time Next Year, and the maturation in song-writing is like a new day dawning.  Playing it a bit looser and rootsier than most of the debut album, This Time Next Year is a knock out of a follow up.  Aaron seems to be a bit more relaxed, some loose strumming of his acoustic guiding most songs like the erstwhile "Broken Records."  The single "Honey, Give Me a Hand," we'd already reviewed in these pages after we got wrapped up in its giddy with spontaneity, and it's still my favorite song here.  "Cab Fare," a languid ballad, brings out some of Aaron's more country roots while "Conspiracy Theorist" surprises with its horn-section accompaniment. 

Just as he did with Live Wires, Aaron has crafted an EP of indy rock perfection.  As with all Aaron’s songs, the melody is right in the forefront, bringing me in, letting me know I’m in good hands.  The casual rush of the song sweeps over me in a moment of shear pop delight.

Aaron Zimmer band page

Prevenge/Dig It Up - Split

Hyper-adrenalinized punk from Montreal.  We got us two bands fresh from the recording studio after pounding six cases of Red Bull and tossing in a Rockstar chaser.  Jittery hands and flailing hearts avoid the Emergency Room by burning off that chemical concoction pounding away on buzzsaw guitars and pulverized drum skins.

It just doesn't get much better than this.  Prevenge's two tracks, "Berry'd Alive" and " Wicked Mess," combine old-school punk chops with modern pop-punk melodic chops and enough blister-riddled fingers and knuckles to make it all work.  Guitars chug and spit and slobber and it's all f'ing perfect.  Vocals that dig into the punk larynx without ever becoming annoying or whiny are a major plus.  I just may have found my new favorite true punk band. 

Then comes Dig It Up, spitting and shouting, generally causing a ruckus and setting a bad example for youth everywhere.  Slightly choppier, definitely dirtier.  Dropping the melody for an extra dose of spleen venting, Dig It Up are the perfect foil for the slightly more polished Prevenge.  "Move My Way," is a chaotic blast of poor impulse control in all the best ways.  Drums are attacked with no signs of mercy.  Guitars leap and jump seemingly at random but altogether forming a cohesive whole.  Less pop.  More punk.  Bring on that big bass line 3/4 in and I'm in heaven.  "Cops on Horses," adds even more hardcore intensity with some seriously surprising musical chops.  What the hell are they doing when the crunching chords drop out?    Punk with a touch of crust?  Don't know what to call it.   I just want to hear it.  Again and again.

Punk rockers look out.  This split is for real.

Get it here for free (but please donate)  Juicebox Recording Co.

Bacchus Baracus - Growler

Another find from the brilliant musical minds of the Soda Shop.  Here comes a four-song, double whiskey shot of blurred, alcohol dazed retro-stoner power.  Massively heavy.  Detuned to the point of rattling spleens out of their audience's bodies.  Bacchus Baracus bring a lacerated larynx to the tobacco and weed stained proceedings.  Going way beyond any Sabbath influence, these cats jump deep into the puddle of Nazareth, spit out the fluid of a sweaty Nugent, and ride the riff waves of Mountain.  Thick, ropy chords propel this smoke-fest ever onward through the fuzzy haze.  Named after the God of wine, Bacchus and whatever the hell Baracus means, these cats are not content to wallow in the doom misery of much fuzzed-riff rock. They want a party and damn it, if there ain't one, they're gonna get it started.

"The Longest Day," simply terrorizes, ripping through it's riffs with an orgy-feeding frenzy.   "Dr Chu" marries a post-Fu Manchu fuzzmania to a serious beat.  Damn, this song cooks.  The pummeling, dirty, and bottom-heavy blues riffs of "Rock and Roll Man," probably serves as the band's morning mantra.  And by morning, of course I mean three in the afternoon when they finally get their asses out of bed to deal with the hangover from the night before.  This song even sounds like a Roman chant to me, getting the testosterone burning as the gladiators are paraded out for a night of pagan delights with the wives of all the old and frigid senators. 

Seriously cool stuff.

Listen and get it here:  Bacchus Baracus

The Single Life - 7" of Fun featuring, The Banquets, Montagna and the Mouth to Mouth, Aaron Zimmer and Starfucker

The Banquets – This is Our Concern, Dude

What started out as a lark, a fun project by a group of friends with a “The Big Lebowsky” fetish, took roots, sprouted wings, and emerged from it’s “joke” beginnings into one helluva full on melodic punk band.  And I mean, one HELLUVA band.  Just listen to the chiming guitars, that thick and steady bass line, the confident smash of snare, tom and cymbal, and you’ll find nothing amateurish about their playing.  More impressive, dig the confidence in their song writing.  Guitars sneak in and exit just as quickly. Songs build to tension with a genuine feeling.  There’s nothing contrived here.  Just heart-felt passion and some damn fine songs.

And what songs would those be?  How about the beautiful jangly guitar intro leading into the stampeding melodic punk that is “Lyndon B. Magic Johnson.”   Then there’s the anthemic call and response chorus of “Eleanor I Need a Garden.”  Both songs chock-full of singable choruses, captivating hooks, and impassioned singing.  “Eleanor,” even hints at a touch of Oi Punk with its “Ooooh ooooh” vocal hook.   Great stuff.

But things don’t end there.  To give you even more bang for your money, this slice of midnight blue vinyl adds two more tuneful rockers on side B.  “What a Bunch of Aaron Burrs,” up the dissonant punk attitude, dropping in some serious guitar chops amongst it’s ringing guitars and crashing cymbals.  “I Wish I was a little More Lou Diamond,” bursts out on a wail of choppy guitar chords, building in some steamroller bass, and all of it leading into a workout of energy and melody.  

Don’t know what the dudes’s obsession is with people’s names in their song titles, but I don’t really care.  Put out by Black Numbers, this is one of the best 7” debut’s I’ve heard all year.  The Dude abides.

www.banquetsamerica.com/

Montagna and the Mouth to Mouth - Ultrapolyamorous b/w At Full Speed

Here at the Ripple, we’re blessed to be contacted by some seriously cool record labels and PR firms, and one of two of my favorites are Chuck and Will over at Bear Trap PR.  Now, it’s true I don’t necessarily fall for every disc the guys send over, but when I do fall, I tend to fall hard.  I think over the years, the Bear Trap men have learned what sounds I tend to gravitate towards, which is usually more on the melodic or straight up punk end of the spectrum.  And over the years, they’ve sent us some great bands, like Balance and Composure and The Cold Beat.

Now here comes Montagna and the Mouth to Mouth.  The brainchild of singer/songwriter Jason Montagna, the Mouth to Mouth released their debut album “L’avenir” in 2009, and now come roaring back with a tasty 7” slice of licorice pizza, Ultrapolyamorous b/w At Full Speed.  And I do mean roaring.  A different sound from the majority of the emo-oriented punk I associate with Bear Trap, Montagna and the Mouth to Mouth fuse shoegazer beats, indie rock, and punk attitude to create a full on blast of noise pop unlike any I’ve ever heard before.  Guitars crash, sounds build, voice hail, bass thuds and the whole thing just keeps coming at me, wrapping me up in some heady vortex of sound as if I was caught in the middle of a punk tornado.  Of the two, I think I like “At Full Speed” better, there’s just something completely endearing about the garage rock three-chord intro and the baby doll female vocals.  But both songs are totally intoxicating in their psychedelic, dizzy haze.  Never before has noise sounded so sweet. 

 www.myspace.com/themouthtomouth

Aaron Zimmer – Honey, Give Me a Hand

It was last year sometime that we at the Ripple fell under the spell of earnest singer/songwriter Aaron Zimmer, and his full throttle pop.  Now after spending a year playing in the NY area, Aaron comes back with his first new song since his debut, Live Wires.  Playing it a bit looser and rootsier than most of the debut album, “Honey, Give Me a Hand,” is a knock out of a follow up.  Aaron seems to relax a bit on this song, aiming for a heart-felt song of love’s redemption, and loosens the reigns on the production.  The whole song feels giddy with spontaneity and the energy of a band banging this out in the living room of a good friend’s home.  That’s not to say it’s sloppy.  Heck no.  I don’t think Aaron could do anything sloppy, he’s too much of a perfectionist.  Let’s just call it easy.

Easy, and terrific.  Just as he did with Live Wires, Aaron has crafted a song of indy rock perfection.  As with all Aaron’s songs, the melody is right in the forefront, bringing me in, letting me know I’m in good hands.  The casual rush of the song sweeps over me in a moment of shear pop delight.

The song is available on iTunes and Amazon as a download, but really it’s a predecessor for the upcoming album.  I’m already standing in line.

www.aaronzimmer.com

Starfucker – Julius b/w Helium Muffin

Not at all what I was expecting from Polyvinyl Records, the home of such guitar-based indy bands as Joan of Arc and the M’s.  Starfucker are a bursting supernova of cosmic electronic techno indy pop that soars into the stratosphere like a tranced up rocketship of ecstasy disciples.   This is heady, trippy techno disco for the post-rave generation, and damn if it doesn’t do it well.  "Julius" is a bouncy, swirling quasi-shoegazing/ambient techno delight. Synths percolate like early am coffee while the vocals and textures swirl in a dizzying whirl like cosmic dust behind a comet.

"Helium Muffin" is about as ethereal as the name suggests.  A hypnotic blend of spacey synths and throbbing dance rhythms.  Sure to please fans of upbeat dance pop and still interesting enough for the rest of us.  Get the party started, keep it started.


www.myspace.com/strfkrmusic

--Racer