Fake Best Of 2015

Flemmings -

"Get Away From Me Right Now"

TV Ugly -

"QC"

Surveillance -

"Horrible Morning"

Estrogen Highs -

"Lover Lover Lover"
(Leonard Cohen cover)

Disipline -

"Sanctuary of Pain"

I Might Not Have Any Pants But I Have A Few Other Things

A couple of Estrogen Highs tapes came out recently, "Unfortunate Chronology vols. 1 and 2", which include a bunch of live tracks, outtakes, demos, and assorted eroded matter from the last few years of the band's existence (Estrogen Highs is no more, apparently). I bought these along with Stefan's new solo tape, and while I've only had time to listen to "vol. 1" and the first side of the solo tape so far, I can say that everything I've heard so far is amazing and excellent... you can pretty much shelve the first two or three E.Highs LPs and listen to these tapes exclusively, and still be doing alright. (I won't, but you could.) Covers of Ego Summit and Marshall Tucker Band, too. I've posted a poor-quality tape rip of one of the Stefan tracks on my Tumblr, over here. Also, nobody really asked me for them, but here are scans of the ten-page Estrogen Highs interview from the first issue of Incremental Decrepitude, back in 2010. Clicking on them will help you read them, which isn't to say that's not a ridiculous idea.

I've Been Haunted By Humans

I don't think I've ever not had a blast at a New Haven house/DIY show, across dozens of shows and 7 or 8 different venues, so this one was no different... in fact, it was probably more fun than all of the others, since it was scrunched up next to the washer/dryer (see pics, they're around here somewhere) and there was a fire pit in the back yard (as most New Haven backyards seem to have) and the house itself was super-neat and had a bunch of cool flyers tacked up on the living room wall of shows I've actually been to, so it was like a memory flashback... anyway, Estrogen Highs played as a trio without Wes, who was off working or fucking around somewhere, so they decided to throw all of their songs down the toilet and play them with a bunch of feedback and extended improv parts and so forth, and it sounded GREAT. The songs played were "Supposing View", "Alley Man", "Weed Queen", "It Has To Rhyme", and a couple of new ones; I might have one of the songs wrong, but fuckit, two people are gonna read this, so I don't think it matters. I remember thinking to myself, "man, why haven't they been playing all of these songs like this in the first place?" It's kinda neat when a band is able to pull their own songs apart to see what other stuff is inside them -- I saw Estrogen Highs do the same thing at Discovery Zone with Chip once, and maybe Cafe Nine or one other time, though that might've been just because they were all plastered -- and still have it sound like a good time, instead of a mess. Blessed State's set was plagued by sound and mic problems and Andrew cut his hand open after the first couple of songs and started bleeding all over himself, but y'know, it still wasn't bad and Kiana's Negative Approach shirt ruled. I finally figured out that the new slower one isn't a long song at all (must've been putting two songs together in my head the last time), so now I'm thinking they should just put everything up on Bandcamp and start selling digital albums that way instead of waiting for them to be pressed up, because I'm dying to hear this stuff in a proper form -- unless the tracks still haven't been mastered yet, I mean, what the fuck do I know about these things. I can't even write a coherent paragraph, and that's supposedly my main hobby.

The Truth Will Set You Free But First It Will Piss You Off

This was the first time I'd ever been to O'Brien's, which, if you were knocked out cold and dumped on the floor there, as soon as you woke up you'd know right away that you were in Mass. because there's Keno on the walls. The rest of us would know because it cost $6.05 in tolls just to get there. I had no idea who Yi (pronouced yee) were when I first walked through the door, besides that they were from Oakland (pronounced True O. Finley), but I was paying attention once they started playing cuz they immediately blew my ears fucken open. This was PRF rock at its finest, sounding about half like Thee Hydrogen Terrors crossed with some Albini(-recorded) band. (As it was, O'Brien's played almost all of "1000 Hurts" over the PA after Blessed State's set: "this is a saaaad fucking song") Yi stormed thru maybe about 5 or 6 songs and then stopped, so they're no doubt gifted with great timing on that end, plus there's every reason to like a band that announces during their set, "We flew out all the way from Oakland just for the Vile Bodies reunion," and then has a song called "Total Shit System" that doesn't sound like Discharge.

As for Blessed State, their set was hampered by O'Brien's muddy sound-- I can already tell that their thick "In a Free Land"-era Hüsker Dü-type approach isn't ever gonna sound clean in that place, maybe there's too many windows or something-- but they're already writing songs that are better than just about anything on their demo, and after seeing them only about seven times now I'm starting to figure out that their drummer's pretty good. I think this was also the first time I noticed Kiana's Negative Approach back patch, which is a neat-o thing, hoss, just figured I'd mention it.

Estrogen Highs headlined, and with a week's worth of hindsight I can say that this definitely ranks among the top five sets that I've ever seen them play, even though they suffered from a funny mix to start out with-- both Mark and Wes were louder than Stefan, with Wes booming over everybody-- until the sound guy fixed it about a third of the way through. They brought out a bunch of new songs, with most of them coming across as being a lot harder than the last record, although there was one slower song that sorta chugged along like "Irresponsibility" a bit. The best new song was "This Harsh Country" (I didn't know that was the name of it at the time, I had to ask later), which is built around a knock-out speedy Wipers riff and could turn out to be their most ruthless stab at overt rockness since most of the tracks on the Telephone Explosion tape. Their set ended with a ferocious version of "This Mild Delusion" and then Stefan standing on top of his guitar, making huge feedback noises while all the hippy-dippy types in front were yelling at him to stop it.


Estrogen Highs -

"Grass of Leaves"

Yi -

"Brain Party"

Blessed State -

"Yr Language"

I'm So Bored That I Don't Think I Can Work

About a year ago, Estrogen Highs played a set at Cafe Nine that was recorded by a professional mobile recording unit, with fancy overhead mics and big cables running out the back door of the club and everything. Wes wore a Thin Lizzy shirt, and they played mostly songs from the forthcoming "Irrelevant Future" LP, which was only in its mastering stage at that point. Now Safety Meeting has released most of that set on a limited-run cassette (I seem to remember a Guided By Voices cover that was left out), and it's a corker -- only 100 made, on pro-dubbed cassettes, which you can snap up here. It's also available digitally on Bandcamp, which means you can check out some of the tracks first and see how slick this thing is.


Estrogen Highs, "The Seventh Sunday of The Ordinary Times"



Estrogen Highs, "Weed Queen"

I Don't Need Any Shit From You

Blessed State, "Ghost Front"



Solids, "Fog Friends"



Potty Mouth, "Shithead"



Slug Guts, "Howlin'"



Salvation -

"Intake"

California X -

"Pond Rot"

Lurve -

"Futures"