Music: Leslie Keffer & Valerie Martino "Prissywillow" single

Pretty killer 2008 release from Nashville's two ex-leading ladies of out-music. Unfortunately Keffer's fallen into unprecedented obscurity after the release of her sex-pop crossover 12" from late Spring, (play a show!) And Martino's left Music City for Rhode Island, like as in Nashville ain't sophisticated enough.

Anyways, A-side, "Letch Luff", bares LK's bruised and battered visage on the label and begins with a-rhythmic drum machine battery as creepy-but-consonant Industrial-style synths enter. There's a brief pause for electric bongos and gym coach whistle, then a harsher low-note pattern re-introduces the scattered tripping-over-yourself vibe with some unadjusted accoutrements, and repeat.

B-side shows an equally beat-up VM on the label and this one's all stuttering drum-pattern while horn-like drones and crystal-synth lead evaporate over top. You get some random-LFO action and other analog-style noodling whilst the drum machine fills out, all distorted like.

Pretty stoned-jammy vibe on both sides, but the sounds are killer.

Pick it up at Fusetron. Cool silk screen and spray paint art by Gina Denton. Collab-release by Tusco Embassy, I Just Live Here, Tangled Hares and Action Claw.

Music: Square People "I'm Not Lazy" single [Guest Review]

The more a band intently focuses on being interesting, or "something else," the more they lose the plot and sound boring. Square People don't have this problem. Their approach comes off as calculated, but it doesn't belie the basics: good songs.

Standing tall as the town's only sax-clad house-rockers, they deliver the goods for their first two wax tracks. There have been a few tapes before this 45, that consecutively build up to the feat accomplished here with these two songs: "I'm Not Lazy" and "I'm Not Nervous." Honest statements on their ethics, SP are certainly not lazy, they're one of the most productive bands in town.

"I'm Not Lazy," is their most fully realized composition yet. If all of their previously recorded output were a tough nut, this song cracks it. Encapsulating everything about this band, it strikes the delicate, oh-so-satisfying balance between laid back certainty and haywire anxiety, a la XTC's "Drums and Wires."

There are fascinating dynamics, syncopations, and neatly interactive sax and flute passages, and absolutely NO showboating. There is not one superfluous note played here. There are hooks, however dressed up the arrangements are, and if you strip away the execution you have honest-to-goodness pop songs

Music: Big Nurse "Who Wants to Kill the President?" single

"Who Wants to Kill the President?" is pretty cool. Whippet-fueled falsetto multi-voice, fingers on the time cotrol. Definitely has a "schizophrenic" feel, subdued disorientation. Also very "psychedelic" with out bothering to use any "psychedelic" tropes, although a little wah-wah really wouldn't have hurt.

B-side is a cover of VOM's quasi-classic "Electrocute Your Cock" and sounds like it was played by 14 year-olds who figured out how to amplify the sound of fingernails scratching a chalkboard.

It's meant to be played at 33 RPM, but give the A-side a spin on 45 too. Recomended!

Music: Leslie Keffer "Finally, Caves" 12" single

So this is very much a dance single meant for deejays, more than for your average basement-dwelling, holyier-than-thou, cassette-fetishist noise-head, but ironically, it's probably the noise-heads that funded this record.

I, like hopefully most of you, feel extremely ambivalently toward Kickstarter. For every Leslie Keffer, there's a whole bunch of Natalie Prasses begging you to hire a studio, hire musicians, pay for the bullshit that doesn't matter when fact is, high-quality recordings can be made for nothing, plus the cost of a laptop, audio-interface and a couple microphones... all items your average Natalie Prass probably already owns.

So why did MTVE-Nashville support Leslie's campaign? (Aside from the fact that we think her music is not bullshit...)

Simply, this music was made for wax, a tangible, spinnable disc that deejays use. It makes, breaks, mends and bends the party. This is social music. Sure, both sides have been floating around Soundcloud for a while, but the internet-music experience is far different from its physical counterpart. This music is for sweating to, dancing and making out and fucking, and it goes without saying that fucking in 192 kbps is just not as good. We need the needle raw in the groove.

Furthermore, this Kickstarter campaign pretty purely embodies the D.I.Y. spirit of Noise music, (which this very much is not, but in a past life would have been.) "Donations" paid for the pressing and materials. Once those things were secured it was LK, herself recording at home (with Hobbledeions' Scott Martin,) pasting on art-work and addressing packages. This is not only a limited-quantity object, but an object that has real human hands all over it.

But nevermind the logistics... how is the music?

Relatively simple and very pretty. A secure synth chord, overwhich the low radio-strains bend consonatly a la "Loveless" guitars. Then the beat drops, a simple boom-chick elecro that nestles against the high synth in a very natural-sounding ecstasy. Pieces drop out to make way for a little modem-bleep-hook, come back in, repeat, etc. All very tantalizing, like neck-hairs pricking up tantalizing. Supple and basically very sexy.

Side 2, "Luna Loblolly" opens with monk-chant vocal samples that quickly fall in line behind a "Liquid Sky" drum machine. From there it's pure minimal bliss as the samples repeat and new textures emerge. Drop all for a whirling synth drone, modulating and recombining until a new beat enters and the party pulses on. Flinging sweat and fingers unto dawn.

Beginning with "Give it Up", the 12" single format is a really good look on LK. This one's definitely worthy of repeated spins from any deejay not puking out endless Garage Rock around Nashville, (though we suspect a lot of Europeans might catch on more quickly.) Recomended!

Music: Trophy Wife "Stella My Star" single

"Stella, My Star" features such a dead-on Kim Gordon impersonation from lead singer/arguable TW-mastermind, Sarah Cozort that I find it hard to take seriously. Kind of boring, dissonant guitar/bass/drums, yadayada...

The B side, "Frankie's Song" fairs much better. It feels rushed, unnatural, especially given the synth tone which sounds destined for sequencer-automation a la Human League, but instead is played with classic TW earnest-sloppiness. Meanwhile SC delivers the stuff of adolescent wet-nightmares. Melodically charged faux-naivety; she plays the victim, but her sexually-predatory nature shines over churning bass and tom-toms. It's all "Virgin Suicides" and that's pretty affecting, though the end break-down loses momentum and sounds slightly forced.

Another worthy and weird single from an already broken-up band, (see also: Buffalo Bangers,) on Private Leisure.

Prediction for the label: 2-3 more releases of increasing commercial appeal (rather than that fucking Taiwan Deth LP they've been sitting on,) then caput.

Prove me wrong, Private Leisure.

Music: Taiwan Deth / Unicorn Hard-On split single

33 RPM group-grope from a couple of Nashville's more productive, and yes, important anti-scenesters.

Taiwan Deth's side (and fuck, we need more sides from Taiwan Deth; this is their only vinyl object!) is face-to-the-sky Eastern-worship. Bells turn into cymbal, then tom-rolls while single-string free-guitars, sometimes with slide or wah-wah lurch and celebrate the master-nothingness.

It's a little bit European free-jazz, a little bit Boredoms and a lot of blazed meaning. It grinds, even as it fades out. A real lost Nugget from before Nashville dropped its last leg back into the Country-grave (I mean Garage Rock.)

Unicorn Hard-On's side opens with some bit-toy action before introducing a nasty clipped drum sound that fuels the rest of the side. The toy slides and squirms in free-harmonic joy, slips itself, and then we get that nasty Electribe-electro we know and love from UHO. All while the main synth becomes a bunch of different unsettling sounds, flips on itself and all around like a big mess.

The track feels improvised: sometimes a sound we like should stick around a little longer, but the constant movement is also enjoyable, plus respectable. It's not the fully-bloomed UHO we've lately been more-or-less obsessed with at MTVE-headquarters, but it's an interesting article in the wardrobe of an artist whose wardrobe is a little bigger than the average music-fan can probably carry.

I Just Live Here / Black Lakes split release.

Music: Uncle Skunkle and the Scarecrow Family Band "Happily Ever After" single

Another throw-back punk record, but the band's based in Paducah, KY, so they're "marginalized" by default. Plus this record is pretty alright.

The recording is clean with minimal compression, so it relies on the natural distortion of the instruments and amplifiers to give it a lot of punch. High marks for that, since we mostly don't hear a lot of that in our Big Muff-addicted, Master Limiter-reliant punk mileau.

Side-A (45 RPM) contains one, very "pop-punk" a-la-Exploding Hearts track. The female vocals on alternating verses subtract a bit, due to the fragility of her (no idea who any of these people are,) voice, but it's a nice "sweetheart mixtape" type of thing in general.

Things start to cookin' on the B-side (33 RPM) though. "Machete" is pretty Psychotic blues-punk. Nothing new but convincingly performed. Would have liked to see these guys at Betty's. And "Dead in the Pipeline" is really sick. Hard Core Surf riffs, very raw sand-in-your-trunks/cat-scratch music. Real bouncing minor bass lines. Screamed vocals.

Pretty cool disc I got for cheap. Pug Face Records

Music: Leslie Keffer "Give it Up" / "Dormant Torment" 12" single

First, I like side 2 better. Better beat I think, but I don't know if I lean more hip-hop than house?

Second this thing is like pretty expensive. It's on Ecstatic Peace.

I think the live rock-drums on side 1 don't sound that good. Would rather hear LK's cheap drum machines or a taped beat-loop. But the vocal loop is pretty immediately-fetching. Distorted bass synth pierces ocassionally. Add ping ponging samples, etc.

Side 2 is just fucking wonderful. Teched-out stomp. Digital drones over post-tribal synchopation on the drum machine. Unicorn Hard-on provides some addition "squelching". Synths like whales chirping. It's a really great record, and I dig the 12" single format.

Front cover features cool abstract-style acrylic painting of like LK's name and the title getting turned into bones? All other art is cats and LK sex-eyeing the cellphone cam.

Recomended!

Music: Malkauns "Electric / Sunshine" single

Really vintage kind of "heart on sleeve, but my heart is an expensive piece of analog gear."

I've given this record quite a few spins and mostly dig it. Some killer bass lines and psyched-out zone-in's feel good outside of their precedents. Precedents tend to be the key feature here though. For me, groovy psyched out vintage acoustics sound cool, but let's face it, are vintage. I don't blame anyone for sounding like something, but you got to then acknowledge the lineage. Skipping several generations breeds pastiche. More pastiche.

As Nashville music goes though, first-rate. Bought this at Grimey's for 5.99. Screenprinted cardboard sleeve. Recomended!