Flesh Wounds
In the Mouth EP
Snot
2015
Rating: 8 political journals out of 10
Running through six songs in about thirteen minutes, Flesh Wounds like to get right to the point. This is aggro old school-style punk that almost borders on hardcore at times. On the opener "Attack," it feels like you're being attacked for the entire 78 seconds of the song. This is a lot closer to early Black Flag or Negative Approach or the punk coming out of DC than it is the modern happy-go-lucky garage punk that the kids love so much. Most of the songs sound like singer Montgomery Morris is eating the microphone while he sings...I can attest after seeing them live a number of times that this is actually the case. As a side note, they have a song called "Joy Division Killed My Boner."
Caspian
Dust and Disquiet
Triple Crown
2015
Rating: 7.5 headphone planets out of 10
I honest to god couldn't tell you much of anything that sets Caspian apart from Explosions in the Sky or Mono or This Will Destroy You or <insert the name of other post-rock band here>, but I can tell you it sounds totally fuckin' great. They do occasionally sing, and I mean very occasionally, so that's one small difference. Maybe a little more piano in their music? that's total speculation. They do the whole quiet-loud-quiet thing as well as anyone. I recently saw them perform live on the tour for this record, and it was outstanding. As with all of these bands, this is much better when listened to through headphones...jamming it through your car radio while cruising down the freeway, you're going to lose a lot of the nuance. This is definitely worth a listen though, regardless of format.
Pavement
The Secret History, Vol. 1
Matador
2015
Rating: 9 distant voices out of 10
A compilation of B-sides, Peel sessions, live records, and miscellaneous other tracks from one of my favorite bands of all time, Pavement. If you're already a fan like myself, you'll recognize the B-sides from some of their seven inches, but it's nice to have them all in one spot. The recordings on the Peel sessions are obviously excellent as is usually the case with Peel sessions. The live recordings are all from a 1992 concert in Brixton, and these are A+ as well - and as someone who's seen a couple of "phoned in" Pavement gigs, it sounds like the band is on their game here. Owning this is a no-brainer for fans like myself; anyone new to Pavement would probably still enjoy this, but I'd suggest grabbing a copy of "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" and/or "Slanted and Enchanted" first.
