the obvious and the obscure pt. 1

the obvious and the obscure pt. 1

zola jesus - sink the dynasty

there have been a few releases lately that i find more than just entertaining. nika roza danilova alter ego zola jesus created one of them. nika started singing at a pretty young age and decided to get classical opera training for her voice. when she took a break from that she started experimenting with lo-fi noise pop. being able to perfectly control her voice is one of the pluses of zola jesus’ music but it is the combination of great pop tunes played in a lo-fi way based on or highlighted by a few industrial like sounds and her distanced vocals that create this beautifully cold and eerie atmosphere. there’s nothing of opera in here. it’s more a modern version of early post punk wave bands like siouxsie and the banshees, malaria or x-mal deutschland. but still it is far from being retro.


zola jesus myspace


vv brown – crying blood

vv brown took me a while to get into. even though it is far easier accessible than the zola jesus stuff. but crying blood was an instant hit. it is the prelude to her debut album “travelling like light”. vanessa brown is a multi-instrumentalist and wrote the majority of the songs herself what seems to be rare for an island recording artist first signed by puff daddy. but maybe i’m just pre-occupied here.
nevertheless her music seems to be the antithesis of zola jesus’ work. it it passionate and cheerful. id i had to describe it i’d say: what the pipettes tried to do minus the white mediocrity of the brighton band. vv brown is the 50s girl group revival in a single person. her music commutes between her soul influences and her post punk attitude. but all without the remi nicole “i am black but i like rock music” crap that is an insult to chuck berry and all the pre-elvis rock’n’roll artists.

vv brown myspace


ps.: i tried to include vv browns video (go to youtube instead) but blogspot had another technical difficulty. it’s been quite often lately and it makes me question the software in use. maybe they should open the option of imbedding videos from youtube and the likes.

The Hex Dispensers – Doomsday Romantic

some weeks ago a friend of mine stuffed my ears with the new hex dispensers songs. not quite without selfish motifs since he works for the record company releasing the new album in europe and he running a little record business out of his living room.
but this made getting the record just harder because of course i don’t want the european license thing. the american version is on douchemaster records. a label that released so many good garage punk records lately. i got quite a collection of their stuff now and therefore won’t fall for less than the genuine thing. and to not having to compete with each other the releases will not leave their places of origin. that means all the american versions my favourite record store tried to get got cancelled from shipping to europe. so i’ll try to order the record from douchemaster directly. that will allow me to order some of their other records i don’t have yet.
but it is funny how companies don’t realize that there are people out there who actually care about the little difference of an original and a licence pressing. and unfortunately for those companies some of these people care in the special way of having to buy both versions. i’m like this with some bands. or some labels. there are quite a few records i have more than one copy of because they are different pressings. mostly also accompanied by different covers and mixes. at least different covers.

one might wonder what’s so special about the hex dispensers for all the effort. nothing. yes, they write great, catchy punk tunes. sometimes a little ramones, sometimes more misfits. both not the worst choice. but a lot of other bands did the same. it is just that they ARE catchy. really catchy. and fun. and everything you need. and like i said, it is not so much about the band but more about the label. check out the stolen hearts, wax museum, baby shakes, barreracudas, gg king and so on.

and while you’re at it: the vivian girls have a new record ready. great powerpop with a little garage edge. perfect summer album. so is the summer cats album “songs for tuesdays”. don’t get fooled by the title, those songs are good every day.



the hex dispensers on myspace