Various Artists - Deluxe Double Fold (Night-People Compilation)

A collection of artists associated with the Iowa City tape label. (Download)

Night-People is a small label out of Iowa City that has been one of the labels popularizing cassette tapes in recent years. Their tapes are often silk-screened, one-of-a-kind musical artifacts. This compilation pulls together 19 bands associated with the label, past/present/future. The music ranges from garage to shoegaze to minimal electronic to weirdo-experimental.

Of the bands on the comp., I've only heard of four of the artists previously: Dirty Beaches (recently hyped-up, but IMHO a bit overrated), Dan Melchoir und das Menace (quirky out-sider pop, this song "Pretty Torn Up" shows a real improvement to other stuff I've heard from him), Trailblazer ("Don't Need It Anyways" blissed-out/metorik beat, the more I hear from them, the more I like) and White Woods (f. Melbourne, AU. Velvet Underground/Galexie 500 homage. Last year's Bellplay cassette is the only release on this label that my poor ass actually purchased.* "Groundswell" is not only an excellent closing track on this comp. but is best song of the 19.)

Overall the compilation is very solid (the only song I didn't like was "Style Promotion" by Yves Son Ace). The artist that jumped out at me that I haven't heard before were: Crome Dome "CMA" (spooky, keyboard driven drone akin to Zola Jesus, also from Melbourne), Eklin "Polan" (f. The Netherlands. Spooky, vocal-heavy kraut-rock), and Lantern "Get Out Of My Mind" (f. Montreal**. This track kind of stood out. A super fun, upbeat proto-punk garage jam, reminded me of The Stooges/early-Germs).

Check out the compilation, there's a lot of great stuff here from a lot of relatively unknown artists that deserve a deeper following. Night-People Records is offering the comp. as a free download on their site. www.raccoo-oo-oon.org

*I picked this up at FEEDING TUBE RECORDS in Northapmton Massachusetts. They carry most of the Night-People releases, along with a tons of great records and tapes. If you're ever in the area, check it out. Plus you might be able to catch local resident Thurston Moore performing an impromptu solo show.

**What's up with Montreal? It seems like all the best punk that nobody seems to be doing is radiating out of the that cold city.

Similar: Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500, Animal Collective, The Stooges, Suicide, Zola Jesus

Rating: 8.0

Night-People Records

Released: Spring 2011

Bad Indians - Sounds from the Big Room

Lo-fi Psyche/Garage from Ann Arbor, MI.

This is a new cassette from Bad Indians a psyche-garage outfit from Michigan. They are offering the cassette via their Mediafire site so download it if you like psyche-rock or garage rock. Solid tunes here. The cassette is a bit all-over the place as an album. You can tell that the band is still honing their sound here.

In a way it's almost like there is two separate bands/influences going on. On one hand there's a hazy psyche-garage vibe which reminds me of very old Black Lips. The song "Where I'm Living" is the best one of these songs. The other style/sound that this band plays is a stripped down psychedelic style that reminds me a bit off Galaxie 500. I felt that this sound was a lot better. The songs "Baby Doll" and "I Can't" (which reminds me a lot "Walking With Jesus" by Spacemen 3) are great and are the best of this side of the band. They also have a spegetti-western-country vibe to some of the songs as well. Another distinctive feature is Bad Indians use of male/female vocals which I always think is a great idea for bands to incorporate (why is it that only crust-punk bands and Arcade Fire seem to get this?).

A solid release here. My complaint would be that the bands needs to tighten their sound up and figure out what they want to sound like. The psyche-garage thing seems like it's been done to death, but so has the Suicide worship recently (they do a great cover "Cheree", one of my favorite Suicide songs, btw.)

Similar: The Black Lips, Galaxie 500, Suicide, BJTM's Thank God For Mental Illness

Rating: 7.0

Self Released

February 19th, 2011