Replicants

Two main guys from Failure? CHECK. Two dudes who used to be in Tool? CHECK. A bunch of awesome cover tracks? CHECK. Me using the check thing again to describe this album? CHECK. Take all of that and you've got the Replicants!

For all the Failure and Autolux love I spread around here, I thought it was time I shared this slept-on gem with you. After Failure recorded their swan song, Fantastic Planet (which is really great and you should not hesitate to purchase immediately, especially the vinyl reissue if you can find it), some tapes of Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards jamming on classic rock staples with buddies Paul D'Amour and Chris Pitman ended up in the hands of a Zoo Records A&R. It led to the offer to record an album's worth of these sludgy, slowed-down covers and put them out on Zoo. The label probably figured the synergy of having two guys who used to be in Tool doing a kind-of prog cover band with the guys from Failure was brilliant since Tool was on Zoo at the time as well. The album didn't sell well though, probably in part to Zoo sucking at promoting anyone other than Tool which was mostly left to BMG, despite featuring a cameo from Tool's Maynard James Keenan on a progged-to-death cover of Paul McCartney's Silly Love Songs. Then, in a WTF twist of fate, the album, recorded after Fantastic Planet, came out before Fantastic Planet, by which time Failure toured but had otherwise fallen apart. DAMNIT!

A lot of people I've made listen to this record hate it, which makes sense because they grew up hearing the original versions of these tracks. I grew up listening to the originals too, but I love to hear interesting reinterpretations of songs I love. For the most part, Replicants adds a layer of sludge to these songs, tuning them down a step or two and rocking harder. Cinnamon Girl is about the same tempo but it's beat sounds like a group of soldiers marching in lockstep. Silly Love Songs is slowed to a crawl with Maynard's vocals distorting just about anything left of the original. Competing for my favorite track on the album is their version of Dirty Work, which turns it into a grunge thrasher complete with the band breaking down at the end. Dead awesome, but the rest of the album is just as good, seriously!

The aftermath of Failure and the Replicants has lead to all kinds of interesting events. Ken Andrews started recording as ON and is now an in demand producer and studio guy, still performing The Nurse Who Loved Me live from time to time. Greg Edwards joined Lusk and is now a member of Autolux. Paul D'Amour and Chris Pitman formed Lusk and recorded their sole album, Free Mars, which saw release in 1997 via Zoo and it's new sister label, Volcano. Since then, Paul and Chris have worked on a number of other projects seperately, most notably Paul's solo release as Feersum Ennjin and Chris being a long-time member of the revised Guns N' Roses, which it's worth noting also featured Tool alumni Billy Howerdel and Josh Freese for a time.

Below you'll find the link for the Replicants album with the original performers listed beneath each track, just in case you didn't listen to 100.7 WMMS growing up. Enjoy!


Replicants - Replicants

01 Just What I Needed
The Cars

02 Silly Love Songs
Wings

03 Life's A Gas
T.Rex

04 Cinnamon Girl
Neil Young

05 How Do You Sleep?
John Lennon

06 Destination Unknown
Missing Persons

07 No Good Trying
Syd Barrett

08 Are 'Friends' Electric?
Tubeway Army

09 Dirty Work
Steely Dan

10 The Bewlay Brothers
David Bowie

11 Ibiza Bar
Pink Floyd


PS - The image I've used for this post in from the inner sleeve of the CD. The album's actual cover is the box the guys are in sealed up with only the word REPLICANTS appearing on it. I thought this image was better. Also, enjoy the video for Destination Unknown.

Autolux

I have been waiting years for Autolux to release the follow-up to their debut album, Future Perfect, and that follow-up is almost upon us. The new album is named Transit Transit and will be released in the US on August 3rd.

If you're not familiar with Autolux, they're a three-piece from California that makes music which could be categorized as shoegazer, krautrock or simply experimental, though I hear shoegazer mentioned the most in regards to their style. There is definitely a bit of Kevin Shields in their sound, but there is a lot of Sonic Youth and Led Zeppelin too. Their drummer, Carla Azar, formerly of Ednaswap, is simply a monster behind the kit. Greg Edwards, their guitarist, formerly of Failure, is wonderfully noisy and chaotic. Eugene Goreshter is the bassist and lead vocalist, although all three members share vocals from time to time, but his breathy and haunting voice is impossible to forget once you've heard it.

A lot of people saw Autolux on tour with Nine Inch Nails a few years ago, and it's become a running joke that Transit Transit was a contender for the title of the new Chinese Democracy as it had been in gestation for so long. In the band's defense, they were on a Sony subsidiary when they released Future Perfect, but due to poor sales they were dropped and spent their time since working on new music, looking for a label and touring. Much of Transit Transit had been written and performed live for several years, and the album has been completed for about a year and a half at the very least, but the band knew they needed some kind of support for sales and distribution, so they continued looking for that one elusive label they would sign with. That label ended up being TBD Records, a subsidiary of Dave Matthews' ATO Records that handled the US physical release of Radiohead's In Rainbows, and ATP Records for the album's European release.

With the new album's release being just over a month away, the band has made the first single from the album available for free download via their official site. It's called Supertoys and it's great! They also released the song Audience No. 2 for free download with the option to make a donation via their site, and it will be on the album as well.

If you like these tracks, please support the band. Going to their shows or purchasing their merchandise is great if you're not going to buy the music, but that doesn't mean people should simply be downloading the album when it comes out. Despite being on a label with good distribution, these guys are truly indie, so if you like the songs please download the album when it's released on August 3rd. The band will really appreciate it. Until then, I'm providing links for their website, the front page of which has a link for the download of Supertoys, and a separate link for the Audience No. 2 page as I don't believe it's directly accessible via their site any longer. And if you like what you hear and don't want to wait till August 3rd, their first album, Future Perfect, is still available for purchase digitally via iTunes or Amazon, and it really is incredible. Hope you dig Autolux like I do!


Autolux's Official Website with link to download Supertoys

Autolux - Audience No. 2

Autolux's Wikipedia Reference

September 2009 Mixtape: Summer Ending Sucks

The title of this months tape sums things up pretty well if I do say so myself. Summer this year felt like a blur and it wasn't ever really warm in Ohio, at least not for too long. It's depressing, and it's gonna get cold, and that just sucks. Last year around this time I made a really upbeat mix for myself that kept me entertained for a while, but I feel a little grumpier this year, so this month you get a grimy, dark and funky mix. That said, it might not be the most uplifting thing, but it's certainly entertaining, especially if you like noisy moments! Enjoy!


The Unheard Music - September 2009 Mixtape: Summer Ending Sucks

01 Boards Of Canada - Powerline Misfortune
This is an unreleased track from BOC's Old Tunes, Vol. 2 cassette. It wasn't supposed to see the light of day but someone leaked this tape and two others putting around four hours of early BOC stuff out on the internet. It's not all prime stuff, but it's all interesting. This track, in particular, is rather dark and eerie.

02 Dan The Automator - Bear Witness III (Once Again) (MVO Re-Edit By Starchild Excalibur)
I was asked about Dan's unreleased album Omakase recently and was sad to report there isn't much to report. Bear Witness III was scheduled for the album and was released in advance, but it's not that great a track. This Re-Edit by Starchild Excalibur is kinda rare though as it appeared on a promo-only 12" issued by MCA. I'm guessing that MVO stands for My Very Own. This version doesn't save the original by any stretch, but it's a fun mix to listen to. Play this in your car with the windows down if it's still warm and sunny!

03 The Bird and The Bee - Birds and The Bees
You've probably heard this band on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice or similar programs. Don't let that sway you, they're still very good. Greg Kurstin, a member of Geggy Tah, does most of the music and production while Inara George, daughter of Lowell George of Little Feet fame, writes lyrics, plays various instruments and uses that hypnotic voice of hers to charm down the heavens. This isn't a happy song, but it is beautiful. Perfect fall music.

04 Black Dice - Smiling Off (DFA Remix)
Black Dice are typically classified as a noise group. That's probably fair and they don't seem bothered by it. For reasons unclear to me, they were on the DFA Records roster, home to LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean, Delia & Gavin and other non-noise inspired artists. Even more interesting, apparently EMI, after signing a distribution deal with DFA, decided that Black Dice should be promoted like they were the next big thing! Now, signing Black Dice to a unique indie that doesn't necessarily share their musical stylings, that's one thing, but expecting a noise group to blow up in the mainstream is simply crazy! That said, EMI pushed and some incredible remixes for their single, Smiling Off, were produced by Luomo, ZZ Pot and the DFA themselves. Luomo and ZZ Pot's mixes take the track further out into the weirdness, but the DFA make it kinda danceable! Prepare to have your mind blown at the prospect of a disco noise record!

05 Mira Calix - Humba
This track, off of Mira's Ilanga 10", came up in conversation when I was talking to Rom from Schematic. Both sides of this record are polar opposites, this being the noisy one, and the B-Side being the peaceful, eerie, ambient one. Beautiful record that is kinda slept on. Rom said that Mira cited a strong Ken Nordine influence in these tracks, with the rhythmic, chant-like vocals being a strong sign. She's got a cover of Boards Of Canada's In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country on the forthcoming Warp20 box that I can't wait to hear, but if you like this you should go to Bleep NOW and purchase a download of Ilanga!

06 Boards Of Canada - 24
24 really isn't the name of this track, although no one knows what it's real name is. This appeared on another leaked cassette of early and unreleased BOC recordings. In this case, the tape is often referred to as Old Tunes, Vol. 1, but that is incorrect as the tape doesn't even have a name. It's now being referred to as the Random 35 Track Tape by fans. Recently, I saw someone had made a video for this using footage from an old film named King Of Jazz. The idea of white men dancing goofy and calling themselves "kings" of jazz is ridiculous, but it's a fun video nonetheless and the track is excellent! You can check it here.

07 Dynamix II - Feel The Bass
Old school classic jam! I hope to be talking to David Noller in the near future about what he's up to and there will be a post about it when that happens. Props to Rom for the connect!

08 Ice-T - The Girl Tried To Kill Me
More poetic subtlety from Ice-T. I had a girlfriend who thought this was the funniest shit she'd ever heard. Great track, all the way from the insane rap to the ridiculous eighties hair-metal guitars!

09 Takeshi Muto - Fuqpulga
This track has been an easy favorite for years. More props to Rom and Schematic. If you enjoy this, you have to get Expect More From A Past Life, a compilation of tracks Rom released as Takeshi and Metic. Very cerebral stuff.

10 Prince - Irresistible Bitch
I shouldn't have to say anything about Prince, but for the uninitiated, this is primal, primitive, electro-funk from the early eighties. This originally appeared as the B-Side on the 12" for Let's Pretend We're Married. Perfect match. Put this on and try not to dance. Now if only he had stayed this funky and energetic.

11 John Wesley Harding - When The Beatles Hit America (Original Version)
This originally appeared on the fourth entry into Sire Records' Just Say Yes sampler series, Just Say Da. Kinda prophetic, seriously funny and, despite the jokes having aged, still insanely entertaining. John tells us, talking blues style, the story of a then yet-to-happen Beatles reunion and the ensuing chaos, all circa 1991. This was actually re-recorded for the reissue of John's New Deal album, but this is the superior version.

12 Steely Dan - Green Earrings
I've run into a lot of people who don't like Steely Dan. That's fine, as I've always felt you either got them or you didn't. This track, though, should be considered a genuine work of genius. The Dan, despite primarily being a studio based group of constantly changing session musicians, always sounded relaxed, funky and in the zone. This track is no exception, and may be the pinnacle of their abilities. I always think of this as money making music. They just sound like they're having the time of their lives and raking it in too. There will be a small post about this track in the near future, but it's contents will remain a secret for the time being.

13 Nazz - Open My Eyes
Proto-pop-punk-rock stuff from Todd Rundgren and crew. Not too much to say about this, just a really great song.

14 Sheila E. - La Vida Glamarosa (The Glamorous Life)
This is a Latin percussion-fueled take on The Glamorous Life from Sheila's unreleased album, Fe. I'm not going to say too much about this here because I will be featuring that album in a post in the near future. For now, enjoy!

15 Failure - Small Crimes
Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards are geniuses. I love all their stuff, but their 1994 album, Magnified, is my favorite. Ridiculously heavy and gloomy, it sounds like the soundtrack to clinical depression. It all culminates with Small Crimes, the darkest and heaviest track on the album, with it's chunky guitars and slower-than-death crawl. Oh, how I LOVE this track and this album! I'd post it here but you can still get it digitally. I don't want to misrepresent the album because it isn't this heavy throughout, but that's not saying it doesn't rock, so go to Amazon or iTunes, listen to some samples and decide if this darkness is strong enough for you!

16 Autechre - Zurich 2001
This was a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Autechre's Untilted album. I'm assuming this is a live excerpt from Zurich in 2001. Who woulda guessed? This sounds like an old Chevy Nova and a Pac-Man machine got together, had violent, painful sex and rode each other raw until they fell apart. Brilliant!