It's finally happening. This year's closest Monday to Halloween is... Halloween.
As is always the case, we've got the SPOOKLINE open. Leave terrifying message for the Halloween show and you can be a part of the horror! Your disturbing groans and howls will be spliced in-between the music. Because together we're scarier.
I do need to get this already on All Hallows Eve Eve, so make sure to leave your message ON THE 30th OR EARLIER
The first LP from Operation: Diamond Bikini follows the example laid forth by their first EP: generally fast and forceful surf with dash of quirky sense of humor thrown in. That humor usually takes the form of sound clips, which compliment the music well and don't go overboard. Guitar tone is generally pretty clear and staccato and have the same frantic stumbling feel as their countrymen The Messer Chups.
This is the second LP from Winnipeg's The Catamounts. Though there's plenty here for the guitar nuts among us, there's an equal helping of organ - not the fun, mod go-go kind, but more of a crazed, mysterious, atmospheric kind. So now it's sounding like a horror surf record, and yeah it could probably sit well on your halloween playlist, but they're more about intrigue and mystery - hence covers of The Sicilian Clan and You Only Live Twice. It's not too deep in the fog -- there's a cover of The Wedge that isn't too far off the map.
The Insanitizers were nice enough to send me Guitar Fun well in advance of its release date and said something about having time to take it all in. They weren't kidding. There's 23 tracks here with musical styling spanning straight ahead surf, Joe Meekish instrumentals, rautalanka, a harpsichord tune (I realize it's probably not actually a harpsichord), and... man, I don't know what. True to their name, it does sometimes feel like you're going slightly insane.
Team Void ain't as mean as they look. Sure, their guitars often have that deep horror tone to them, but packaged along with that Lucha mask is a set of vibrant mariachi horns. I mean, give the opener "I Am Six" a listen and all you'll hear is "Party!". It's got a lot going on, and kinda reminds me of Los Plantronics. Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of horror surf stuff in here, like on the title track "Robot Killer", but I think secretly monsters like to have a good time same as everybody else.
As far as I can tell, this is a digital-only one. Give it a listen!
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