Crayon at Clicky Clicky Music Blog

A dusty blue, early ’90s Toyota Corolla: we can picture it in our head, we can smell it, we can see the cassette tapes it contained. And when we think of riding in the great Pete Torgo’s car during our later college years, we think of Crayon‘s “The Snap-Tight Wars,” a tremendous, hook-laden indie-pop classic we… Continue reading Crayon at Clicky Clicky Music Blog

Crayon at Dagger Zine

Wow, this was certainly a blast from the past that I had nearly forgotten about. This record by this Bellingham, WA band was originally released on Tim Alborn’s Harriet Records label (Tim also published the half-size zine Incite!). This band included Sean Tollefson (bass vocals), Brad Robert (guitar/ vocals) and Jeff Fell (drums). Both Sean… Continue reading Crayon at Dagger Zine

Crayon at Dublab

Sometime around 1992/93, after the rise of alternative rock and before the death of Kurt Cobain, there was a sweet spot in the pop-culture landscape for DIY punk, noise rock and the many permutations of lo-fi pop. There was Shimmy Disc, the documentary “The Year Punk Broke”, and the movie slackers. Zines and indie labels celebrated… Continue reading Crayon at Dublab

Throwing Muses at Big Takeover

A whole year after its initial release as book and CD, Throwing Muses’ epic ninth studio album finally sees a proper vinyl release. While not as extensively packaged as the CD, this LP version of Purgatory/Paradiseserves as an exquisite companion to it for those who prefer their music on 12” plastic rather than compact discs. Musically,… Continue reading Throwing Muses at Big Takeover

Joanna Gruesome at Big Takeover (print)

JG are a bunch of hardcore kids who grew up and decided to play indie pop. That might be an overly simplistic description, but sonically its pretty accurate. Their tracks on this split, the Gruesomes’ first post-Werid Sister release, finds them toning down their aggressive side and focusing more on the sugarysweetness with bubbly, hook-laden… Continue reading Joanna Gruesome at Big Takeover (print)

Tunabunny at Dynamite Hemorrhage

Previous Tunabunny albums have always been marked by the occasional detours away from their Pylon-accented noise-pop blueprint & into more experimental sound collage territory, but on Kingdom Technology, they’ve fully given themselves over to those once-brief shortcuts toward non-linearity & the off-kilter sound glitches resulting from their choice to record this latest LP on an… Continue reading Tunabunny at Dynamite Hemorrhage

Joanna Gruesome at Dynamite Hemorrhage

UK noise-pop battle royale of sorts with three songs each from Joanna Gruesome (Cardiff) & Trust Fund (Bristol). Joanna Gruesome continue to display more than a passing familiarity with the early 90s Slumberland Records catalog, mixing syrupy sweet female vocals with blasts of mega-fuzzed guitar much like Velocity Girl or Black Tambourine before them on “Coffee… Continue reading Joanna Gruesome at Dynamite Hemorrhage