Genius #8 - Aug '24

This is a fun month, lots of indie rock & lots of Krallice. I’ve offered some thoughts on choosing a distortion pedal, since this is the kind of question I get asked all the time & I never know what to say. I’ve also got a deep dive on Oval’s 94diskont, an achievement in ambient music. Weird and wacky August, this issue came together very quickly at my deadline. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents:

• Capitalism
• Album recommendations
• Replay
• Garbage Corner
• Scene Report (Upcoming Baltimore & selected I-95 Corridor shows)

Capitalism:

I fucked up. I bought Balatro and I’ve put in like 40 hours so far. Woof!! I have been accused of “online gambling” by my wife. Yikes!! It’s not online and it’s only sort of gambling — it’s a deckbuilding rogue-like game where you start with a deck of playing cards and use multipliers (joker cards) and card-enhancers (ie Tarot cards) to add more cards to your deck, increase your poker hands score, etc. I can’t tell if it’s fun, or if it’s just buzzing the part of my brain that I know I’m not supposed to buzz. I’m having a blast, all the same.

I also drove down to Atomic Music in Beltsville and bought a drum head for the floor tom on my brother’s drumkit so that I can learn to play the drums. Atomic is a special spot — I got my first amp there, I bought my first bass guitar there. I sold a bunch of stuff to them and got my SVT there. They have a mountain of amplifiers that you have to climb to reach the other amplifiers. There are guitars hanging from every surface. I forgot to measure the floor tom before I left, so when I went to the store they had to unearth a 14” and a 16” floor tom to show me so that I could try to remember what size mine is. Amazing experience.

Album Recommendations:

Spirit Of The Beehive - You’ll Have To Lose Something (Saddle Creek, Aug ‘24)

The outer limits of indie rock

I didn’t think Spirit Of The Beehive would be an enduring project — I saw them live at The Crown (RIP) in like.. 2014? 2015? At the time, they were a really good shoegaze band with some glitchy elements. Now the band has boiled down to the 2 principal songwriters and have pushed their boundaries on every album. On this newest, they have found some compelling ways to merge indie rock with hyperpop, with all the string samples, autotuned vocals, sudden rapping, filter sweeps you could ask for. Shared lead vocal duties harmonize, cut between yelps and whispers. Every album of theirs is on the bleeding edge of what all of your local bands wish they could figure out, this one is no different.

ØKSE - ØKSE (Backwoodz, Aug ‘24)

Skronky free jazz and high-impact hip-hop

I’ve got a big soft spot for Eurojazz — I just think they’ve got something figured out over there, I’m not sure how to categorize that feeling. Norwegian quartet Okse (nwgn for “axe”) is made up of a drummer, upright bassist, sax, and “sound chemist.” Let’s go. The sound chemistry is largely scratching, resampling, & extra atmosphere — the mix of the whole record is very much drums-and-sax forward with bass and extras for some additional stank. To add some muscle, Backwoodz brought in a slew of labelmate guest rappers (including woods, E L U C I D, and Cavalier — all of whom have previously been featured in various scrap heaps). Overall, a good mix of instrumental skronky jazz and tracks where the band sits back and lets their guest rappers shine.

Fake Fruit - Mucho Mistrust (Carpark, Aug ‘24)

Skittering punk with big chunky guitars

You ever listen to a band that just sounds like they’re having fun in the studio? These songs are a blast! Big tempo swings, skronky saxophone lines, and huge guitar sounds. Vocal delivery is droll, but blissfully not simply spoken (sorry UK singy-speaky bands! you’re fine!). The songs sound like they were written to be played live, with overdubs included to just make the record pop a little more. Absolutely worth a listen if you’re into groups like Ought or other Carpark bands like Palm, Foyer Red, or @.

Jon Rose - Aeolian Tendency (Room 40, Jul ‘24)

Handmade droning instruments want to sing you a song

Some really exceptional analog drones from the extended technique Australian violinist. Talk about structural! You could build a bridge out of these tracks, or at least hammer in a nail and hang a picture on one of them. All of these drones come from homemade string instrument installations and wind patterns. Not even really sure what else there is to say about the drone tracks — eerie harmonies, a borderline Havana Syndrome kind of experience listening. Three of these were recorded using his Monolith system, with one using the Tube. It’s worth it to look at the pictures and videos of what these look like: See more on Rose’s website.

JRCG - Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) (Sub Pop, Aug ‘24)

Noisy indie rock with big vocal melodies

This was a pleasant surprise for me! Solo project from Justin R. Cruz Gallego and he demonstrates a full vision here. Muscular vocal melodies form the basis for these songs, but the instrumentation is full of fizzy noise, fuzzy guitars, buzzing synths, timbales, screeching feedback, and repetitive basslines. Cruz’s vocals are vocoded, moaned, shouted, and raved and his voice cuts through the sound to provide a ground for the songs to flow from. Kinda kraut rock, kinda noise rock, kinda punk — just a really good release.

Upcoming August albums to look forward to:

• Stereolab worshippers Peel Dream Magazine are releasing their next, Rose Main Reading Room on 9/4 for Topshelf.
• Pakistani geniuses Jaubi mix classical tabla rhythms with jazz and hip hop and are one of my favorite groups out there today. Their next, A Sound Heart comes out on 9/6.
• Wednesday’s guitarist MJ Lenderman is releasing another solo effort of alt-country indie rock songs that kind of sit between Pavement and Magnolia Electric Co. Manning Fireworks is out via Anti on 9/6.
• Jesus Lizard are back!! Noise rock legends from the 90s return with Rack out on 9/13 on Mike Patton’s Ipecac label.

Replay:

Oval - 94diskont (Thrill Jockey, 1995)

This is one of those records you either know and love, or you’ve never heard of it. If you’re at a point in your life where you’re unearthing ambient electronic experiments from the mid-90s, you’ve already done the pre-calculus work to enjoy Oval’s brand of 90s Musique concrète.

Oval was founded in Berlin in the early 90s by Markus Popp (the only remaining member) and 3 other members. Their vision for 94diskont was for the user to listen to a compact disc — not the music ON the CD, but the sound of the CD spinning itself — similar to musique concrete experiments where the artifacts of the tape and the vinyl record were the basis of the sound. The problem? The CD has crystal clear audio. By defacing the CD, they could find the errors & capture them.

The story is that these compositions are made up of sounds from defaced CDs: rented by the bucket-load from a budget shop, the CDs were covered in tape, painted on with dry-erase markers — then imported into the computer to a floppy disk for sampling. What you are listening to, then, is the CD player’s laser misreading the original recordings. If your heartbeat isn’t elevated thinking about this stuff, then just move on to the Garbage Corner. I live for this shit.

The album is about 50min long, but the majority of it is made up of “Do While,” a 24min sprawling ambient opus that creates an alluring hypnotic effect — a vibraphone shuffles in and out, there’s some pulsing and some whirring. Listening to it is like driving through a tunnel — it looks the same the whole time you are inside, but you are still moving and you know that you are in a different place, even if everything appears to be identical.

The remaining tracks are a little bit more lively, with more movement — but none ever approach abrasion, they are meant to be small sounds that require attention to detail. This is a special little record and I always love recommending it to folks who are looking for ambient music without all the moisture content, something dry and savory. Perfect for sending email, perfect for an office job, perfect if your brain is a cube spinning inside of your skull and it needs to hear whirring sounds.

Garbage Corner:

Choosing a Distortion Pedal

Let’s get one thing off the bat: distortion occurs when you take a signal and increase its harmonic content. There are a lot of ways to achieve this effect, but the barest and simplest way is to increase the signal and chop off the top and bottom of the signal. Guitar distortion pedals pretty much all do this, with some differences in the methods by which this is achieved. A guitar amp also does this, tubes are notoriously cool for doing this in a specific way that imparts a little extra juice to the sound. At the end of the day when you are distorting a signal you are taking a smooth sound and making it jagged, which increases higher-order harmonics as you increase the gain.

When you’re choosing a guitar pedal, I strongly recommend playing it before buying if possible — go to the shop & see if you can find a similar amp & guitar to what you have at home and see what it actually sounds like. If you’re gonna do a shopping spree on YouTube, listen on real speakers and not headphones/your phone.

Distortion comes in 3 basic flavors which are basically each more harmonically-rich than the last: overdrive, distortion, fuzz. Your need will depend on the type of band you are in, the sound of the other players, and what you are trying achieve

Overdrive

A good way to add “sweetness” the sound. It won’t make your guitar “chunky” but it will add some sustain and some power to a clean guitar and can bring extra power INTO the next stage of your chain. I keep one of these at the end of my chain (since I play a clean amp) and another near the front, which drives the rest of my pedals. Overall, I prefer overdrive to pure distortion — OD has a chiming character that I prefer in a guitar sound and doesn’t push the sound to the point where the guitars overpower the bass and cymbals. Often, OD can be responsive to pick attack, so you can quieten your playing and reduce the distortion effect.

I like it when an OD has basic volume options (pre and post gain is helpful), tone control (can be useful but often gets kind of weird when you’ve got too many tone knobs on the pedalboard), and I’m a huuuge sucker for bias options which can limit the electricity to the pedal causing it to malfunction on purpose.

When I’m testing OD pedals, I’m listening for specific envelope characteristics: what does my pick attack sound like? Does the bass of my signal sound like it is being cut? How do my dynamics effect the sound? If I sustain a held chord, how quickly do the bass frequencies and treble frequencies decay? If I strum quickly, do I notice any pulsing compression artifacts?

My preferred overdrive pedals are smallsound/bigsound Fuck (and Mini) and EAE Halberd — and the dead simple MXR Micro Amp and EHX LPB-1. Mini and Fuck are both transparent and lightly compress my sound + they have good bias/starve options, while the Halberd is a little more pointed in its tone (better for pick attack & rock sound). I’ve had good experience borrowing my bandmate’s Fairfield Barbershop. The Boss Blues Driver is a good budget option here.

Distortion

Distortion is effectively just OD that’s been pushed even farther. Typically gives you that big chunky guitar sound that I associate with modern rock — this is the land of Ibanez Tube Screamers, ProCo Rats, MXR Distortion+, Fulltone OCD (only used or clones, don’t support Fulltone), etc. These pedals bring a lot of full-frequency energy to your sound and often are balanced with a little compression to keep a consistent tone. To me, distortion is kind of a bland flavor for guitar — which can be good when playing in 2-guitar bands or loud bands where the guitar tone isn’t supposed to jump out.

For distortion, I’m listening for the frequency spectrum (sweeping the tone knob, since I will likely be adjusting the tone knob to match the room), what the min and max distortion sounds are (is the minimum still too distorted? Is the maximum even usable?), are there any bonus boost options, etc.

My preferred distortion pedals are EAE Longsword (kinda Tube Screamer, kinda Rat with a ton of tone options including passive low/high and an active mid + 2 clipping options) and an OCD clone. I think this is one of those things that you just will have to play a million of them to figure out what you like & don’t like.

Fuzz

Fuzz is a really interesting effect since there are a million ways to get here & they are all different and sound vastly different. Fuzz is a harsh-clipping effect, but it is often less aggressive than distortion — almost like you’ve overloaded the harmonic content to a point where you lose the pick attack and the sound is more padded and so full that it’s no longer pointed. Fuzz can be creamy, synthy, glitchy, gnarly — the circuit topography will determine how close it its to a distortion vs how close it is to a pure square wave.

Classic fuzz pedals were the first distortion pedals — Jimi Hendrix used a Dunlop Fuzz-Face and the EHX Big Muff was widely used in the 70s. Typically, I prefer fuzz to distortion because it has a lot of character — but that said it can be too in-your-face for full band situations since it has SO much harmonic content that it can eat every other sound around it. Often, fuzz is more of an effect you’ll turn on for part of a song, then turn off when you want to fall back.

When I’m auditioning fuzzes, I’m starting with listening to how bright the sound is — in a standard rock band, you don’t always want super fizzy & wild fuzz, but in a psych rock band or noise rock, you don’t want your fuzz to fall into the background. Overall, dialing the sound of these can be a huge process and will depend on your band’s context. I prefer fuzzes that have a lot of artifacts and feedback loops and gates on them, they tend to respond strongly to pick dynamics and just be more fun to play. I tend to put my fuzz early in the chain, right after delay (which is first in the chain). I like OD to come afterward, since it can help shape a more wide fuzzy tone into something sort of guitar-shaped.

My preferred fuzzes these days are my Adventure Audio Dream Reaper (kinda superfuzz, kinda fuzz-face with 2 starve options and feedback) and my fuzzes that come with blend knobs: Team Awesome Fuzz Machine from ss/bs (kinda Muff, kinda superfuzz?) and a Pigpile (Harmonic Percolator clone) from Electrofoods. I’ve also used my Meris Ottobit Jr’s bit crushing as fuzz. The newish Fairfield Roger That looks like an amazing new entry in this zone — it uses similar technology to an FM radio tuner to send your signal to hell and then back again.

Overall: guitar signal chain and your playing is what will determine the sound, but using the right tool for specific genres will help your audience hear the sound that you’re hearing in your head. The best thing to do is to just play with what you’ve got and only reach for a new tool if you’re not able to achieve something specific that you are trying to achieve.

Scene Report:

Krallice @ Metro Baltimore (8/14)

I almost skipped this show! I was sick all week, I went to the gym and then I was dead and the show was starting. I felt horrible. I was laying down. And then I was driving and then I was at the gig: I was watching Mick Barr play improbable bass chords. Colin Marston played 6 synthesizers at the same time. Just looking at Nick McMaster’s hands gave me carpal tunnel syndrome.

Dizzying compositions with start-and-stop-on-a-dime moments, contrapuntal harmonies, seemingly random notes & random rhythms — but everyone is locked in. I gotta believe that the only thing harder than listening to this stuff is playing it — and these guys stood up on that stage and played for nearly 2 straight hours (there was a 12 minute ambient synth solo).

Krallice’s set pulled mostly from their new album and later, more experimental material — which makes sense, given the synth setup. I’m not sure the last time Colin Marston played a guitar in this band — since 2017ish, the band has eschewed the American black metal sound they were known for, in favor of proggy, skronky, and downright bizarre heavy compositions. Their latest album is one of my favorites they’ve made and one of the best of the year — and the fact that they can stand up there and play 2 straight hours of complex compositions without looking at a piece of sheet music is insane.

There was a notable shift in the crowd when the band played a piece from their first album — a straight-forward black metal song. Devil horns abound. Whatever, man — the old stuff is cool, but I’m here to listen to knotted up music that makes me sick to my stomach.

I’ve always been a fan, but seeing them do their thing has renewed that interest and I’ve been on a huge Krallice kick ever since, I spared you guys but I have literally listened to their entire discography in August. I have a lot of envy for folks who could walk over to Trans-Pecos or Shea Stadium or whatever every other week in 2010 and see this shit live any given weekday.

September upcoming shows

Baltimore:

• 9/1 (Sun) Mitski @ Merriweather Post Pavillion
• 9/5 (Thu) Chiffon, Ami Dang, Tomato Flower @ Current Space
• 9/5 (Thu) Knoll @ Metro
• 9/11 (Wed) Bikini Kill & Sweeping Promises @ Baltimore Soundstage
• 9/13 (Fri) Russian Circles @ Union Brewing
• 9/19 (Thu) Nails, Mamoth Grinder @ Baltimore Soundstage
• 9/22 (Sun) Yo La Tengo @ Rams Head Live
• 9/22 (Sun) Pianos Become The Teeth, Frail Body @ Baltimore Soundstage
• 9/30 (Mon) Duster @ Ottobar

DC:

• 9/2 (Mon) Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilson-Love duo @ Rhizome
• 9/5 (Thu) Austin Loman Group @ Pie Shop
• 9/6 (Fri) Dismemberment Plan @ 9:30 Club
• 9/6 (Fri) Waxahatchee, Snail Mail, Tim Heidecker @ Wolf Trap
• 9/9 (Mon) Bullt To Spill @ 9:30 Club
• 9/10 (Tue) Gel, MSPaint, Destiny Bond @ The Atlantis
• 9/11 (Wed) JPEGMAFIA & Jane Remover @ Fillmore
• 9/12 (Thu) Sour Widows @ Comet Ping Pong
• 9/12 (Thu) Marika Hackman @ The Atlantis
• 9/14 (Sat) & 9/15 (Sun) Joyce Moreno @ Blues Alley
• 9/16 (Mon) Perfume Genius @ The Atlantis
• 9/20 (Fri) Chanel Beads @ Songbyrd
• 9/28 (Sat) Cuni, XK Scenario, Dorinda @ Comet Ping Pong
• 9/29 (Sun) Duster @ 9:30 Club
• 9/29 (Sun) Tropical Fuck Storm @ Black Cat

NYC:

• 9/3 (Tue) Tim Berne, Belisle-Chi, Rainey trio @ Lowlands
• 9/4 (Wed) Zorn Bday week (Julian Lage quartet) @ The Stone
• 9/5 (Thu) Zorn Bday week (Julian Lage quartet) @ The Stone
• 9/5 (Thu) Esreac, Dumb Waiter, Chaser @ The Broadway
• 9/6 (Fri) cool looking free jazz show @ Prospect Series Apt in South Slope
• 9/8 (Sun) Synth church synth swap(??) @ Transmitter Brewing
• 9/8 (Sun) Gaza fundraiser show @ Starr Bar
• 9/9 (Mon) Marika Hackman @ Elsewhere
• 9/9 (Mon) Thumbscrew (Halvorson, Fujiwara, Formanket) @ Jazz Gallery
• 9/11 (Wed) Ingrid Laubrock quartet (Brandon Seabrook, Tom Rainey, Shawn Lovato) @ Bar Bayeux
• 9/13 (Fri) Tashi Wada @ Roulette
• 9/19 (Thu) Pianos Become The Teeth @ TV Eye
• 9/20 (Fri) Sarah Davachi @ LPR
• 9/21 (Sat) Yaeji, Nourished By Time @ Knockdown Center
• 9/26 (Thu) Deerhoof, Eko Astral, model home @ Knockdown Center
• 9/28 (Sat) Julie Byrne @ Pioneer Works
• 9/30 (Mon) Beverly Glenn-Copeland & Friends @ Pioneer Works

Philly:

• 9/13 (Fri) Sour Widows @ Johnny Brendas
• 9/22 (Sun) Sarah Davachi @ Solar Myth
• 9/25 (Wed) Marnie Stern @ Johnny Brendas

Further Ahead:

• 10/1 (Tue) Deerhoof @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
• 10/4 (Fri) Alessandro Cortini & Rachika Nayar @ Knockdown Center (NYC)
• 10/9 (Wed) Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs @ Howard Theatre (DC)
• 10/9 (Wed) Neko Case @ Strathmore Hall (DC)
• 10/10 (Thu) Fake Fruit @ Comet Ping Pong (DC)
• 10/11 (Fri) Xiu Xiu @ Black Cat (DC)
• 10/11 (Fri) John Zorn (Cobra 40th anniversary) @ Roulette (NYC)
• 10/12 (Sat) Max Roach Cenennial @ Kennedy Center (DC)
• 10/13 (Sun) Xiu Xiu @ Metro (Baltimore)
• 10/15 (Tue) Xiu Xiu @ LPR (NYC)
• 10/19 (Sat) Illuminati Hotties @ Black Cat (DC)
• 10/20 (Sun) Ginger Root @ Black Cat (DC)
• 10/24 (Thu) Boris @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
• 10/24 (Thu) Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori @ Roulette (NYC)
• 10/29 (Tue) Drinking Boys & Girls Choir @ Songbyrd (DC)
• 10/29 (Tue) Cursive @ Union Stage (DC)
• 10/31 (Thu) Show Me The Body, High Vis, Bib @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
• 11/8 (Fri) Spirit Of The Beehive, Kassie Krut (ex-Palm) @ Black Cat (DC)
• 11/9 (Sat) Spirit Of The Beehive, Kassie Krut (ex-Palm) @ Union Transfer (Philly)
• 11/19 (Tue) Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Alan Sparhawk (of Low) @ 9:30 Club (DC)
• 11/23 (Sat) Blood Incantation @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
• 11/25 (Mon) Adrianne Lenker @ Union Transfer (Philly)
• 11/26 (Tue) Adrianne Lenker @ Union Transfer (Philly)
• 12/8 (Sun) billy woods & Kenny Segal @ Union Stage (DC)
• 12/10 (Tue) The Blood Brothers @ Union Transfer (Philly)
• 12/13 (Fri) The Blood Brothers @ Irving Plaza (NYC)
• 12/13 (Fri) The Jesus Lizard @ Union Transfer (Philly)
• 12/14 (Sat) The Jesus Lizard @ Black Cat (DC)
• 12/15 (Sun) The Jesus Lizard @ Black Cat (DC)

Cheers,
LM