Just Gimmie Indie Rock

I'll admit that I shouldn't have avoided Ovlov for as long as I did. They were always being touted by people who go to shows at The Space and like all the shitty bands on Topshelf, so I figured staying away was pretty safe. Plus their name kinda sucks. Well, I was way off, because Ovlov are nowhere near crappy, they're actually pretty good. I'm sure this isn't the kind of review they'd want ("hey, this guy said our name sucks"), but they'll probably never read this anyway, so who cares. I finally broke down and listened to some of the songs on their Bandcamp page about a month ago -- "What's So Great About The City?" or whatever it is -- and the songs totally reminded me of Superdrag and Monsterland. Whaddya know, shit's good. I'd missed the Dead Wives/Speedy Ortiz connection, too. Then I went to see them last night, just a little ways up the road in Hartford so it was no big inconvenience, and not only do they properly rock out in a live setting, but they've got the type of sense of humor that I like. ("These first two songs are new." (pause, surveys the audience) "Although to you guys, all of them are new.") So, yeah, big official thumbs up for Ovlov, who're starting a tour tonight in Brooklyn, and they should have a tape with them of all of their songs, and you should buy it.

The Suicide Dolls got stuck with going on last, don't ask me how, plus they had some equipment problems which kept them from getting out of the starting gate for a while, but once they began playing they blew the doors off. Just 7 or 8 songs in a row without stopping, sometimes with some little noise jams in between, but mostly just a solid brick wall of rock. As a side note, I get annoyed when lazy local writers tag this kind stuff as "grunge", unless it refers to the '80s when grunge meant that you listened to Sonic's Rendezvous Band and Homestead Records had a whole pile of Green River albums that they couldn't sell. Anyway, it's been three years since the last time I saw Suicide Dolls, and even then I said that Brian was my favorite guitar player in CT, although the competition still isn't exactly fierce. They've gotten even tighter since then, plus now they have their first CD ("Prayers in Parking Lots"), which was just released about 5 months ago. I don't know if bands are able to get rid of CDs much these days, but I've posted a couple of songs down below so that you can think about it, anyway.

Last night was practically an '80s/'90s-styled indie rock night (hence the name), as Farewood also played, with their moody sorta-shoegazer rock. I remember -- this was a full-on decade and a half ago -- when Farewood used to be a mostly-acoustic duo, but since then they've fleshed-out to a full band and their sound has become much more guitar-heavy, although they're still quiet enough where I didn't feel like being a pain in the ass by moving forward and taking photos. I haven't checked out their new album yet, but I really like their "Figures in Shadows" CD that came out 5 or 6 years ago or whenever it was (I've listened to it a bunch since then, I just can't find it right now). And so, for the sake of all CT bands who sound like the '80s and '90s, I'll tack on a song from them, too.


Ovlov, "I Got Well"



Ovlov, "Strand of Steve-O"



Suicide Dolls, "Deep Red"



Suicide Dolls, "Drive"



Farewood, "King John"

One Of These Days I'll Find The Edge Of Town

Dunno if anyone remembers me talking about the playing card-like set of CosmoSingles that I bought at the Hygienic Arts festival in New London last year-- 16 bands, 16 two-song CDs-- but anyway, Cosmodemonic Telegraph is releasing another set again this year, to coincide with another Hygienic Arts festival at the end of this month. Like with the previous two sets, you'll also be able to buy the set as a single CD, except that this year it's a double CD, called "Powers", featuring 28 tracks in all. That's twenty-eight bands, nearly all of them from New London, with all of them almost completely different from each other. Really, there hasn't been a town with the ability to throw that kind of hand on the table since the heyday of the '90s Danbury scene, but that's what New London has been doing for a while now.

My favorite track on the compilation is definitely the one from Rich Martin's band, Brazen Hussy, whom I saw about 4 years ago (at the Manchester VFW with The Chuck Hestons, who were awesome that night) but haven't really stayed on top of since. "Broke Into Your Facebook" has a really cool Bratmobile/Slant 6 thing going on, so I guess that means there's some catching up I need to do.

I've picked out a few of my favorite tracks from the compilation to post here, although they'll be listen-only files; some of the other bands on the compilation include Brava Spectre, The Can Kickers, Low-Beam, Bedroom Rehab Corporation, and The Weird Beards, and you can stream all of the tracks individually at the "Powers" Bandcamp site, powers.bandcamp.com (where you can also buy the whole thing as a download now), or just buy the set when it comes out on Jan. 30th.


Get Haunted -

"Cedar Grove"

Brazen Hussy -

"Broke Into Your Facebook"

Fatal Film -

"Remember When You Were Fun"

The Suicide Dolls -

"Senses"

Total Phone -

"Alone"

(these files are all listen-only)