A split 7 inch between Hey Lover and Cafeteria Dance Fever came out a couple months ago on Hovercraft. It’s called “On Safari With…” and it’s a six-song, 33 rpm 7 inch. Each band gets two songs a side, then teams up for a third tune at the close of each side. It’s pressed (as you can see) on clear green vinyl—and it’s a gleeful, thrashing stinkload of fun.

Hey Lover’s side is the poppier of the two, with “Full Costume Bible Dance” starting with a back-and-forth two note riff. The White Stripey drum ‘n’ guitar combo is plenty thick, then the song stops for a slow arpeggio, with a forlorn vocal from Justin Varga. “Take the stage and shine like a star,” he sings with drummer and wife Terah Beth. “She’s the Girl for Me” continues with the guitar scratching out sixteenth notes, then a prime pop melody and thumping backbeat kick in. The side closes with the duo teaming up with Cafeteria Dance Fever for “Itchy Scratch,” which dumps a bunch of noise on top of a descending four-note riff that sounds kind of like “Sense of Doubt” from Bowie’s “Heroes” album. It’s a squealy feedback punch out.

Cafeteria Dance Fever continues on side B with “Cancer Ward,” a punk bass ‘n’ drum backbeat over a scraping distorted guitar backdrop. The band drops out for a brief, bizarre breakdown, with xylophone, acoustic guitar, and childlike vocals. “Color Coded” is perhaps the best song on the side. It opens with cartoon sci-fi sounds then continues with creaking strings, groaning amplifiers, and a muttered vocal that evolves into a bratty whine for the chorus. An instrumental break features swirls of stretched-taffy feedback, then the beat comes back, with the hi hat chipping away like an icepick. The side concludes with another team-up between the two bands for a song that’s listed on the artwork as “Dead in the Ball Pit,” but I think it’s actually supposed to be called “Snake in the Ball Pit.” The vocal and guitar duplicate a weird, tightrope melody, then the chorus is a singsongy chant at a different tempo. The final verse is shouted as a steroid raging scream for a strange, disorienting end. The two bands obviously have fun playing together and they’ve got a tour of Europe planned later this year.

Hey Lover play Holocene Friday, May 9. Go to Hey Lover’s MySpace to hear all their songs, and you can hear 2 out 3 songs from the Cafeteria Dance Fever side at their website; the third is at their MySpace.

Continuing our new column, wherein we review every last bit of new vinyl that gets sent to us. Vinyl is cool! We play it, listen to it, write about it, love it.

Sleepwalkers R.I.P. have a new 7-inch single out now on Hovercraft Records. It’s handsomely packaged, with collage art by Chris Gunn and an insert that includes pictures of the band and lyrics for both songs. I believe this is the band’s second 7-inch, and it even comes with a little plastic adapter thingy so you can play it on a normal record player spindle.

The A-side, “Young and Old,” is amphetamine punk, with the bass hammering out rapid eighth-notes and lead singer Candy yelling atonally: “If you look too long, your sight will turn to stone… you’ll see gray matter for a second or so, and realize what you saw was gold.” Drums slam and thump, and the guitar thrusts and stabs; it feels like the song is attempting to shake off the drowsy acceptance of aging, refusing to become complacent, never overlooking the wonders and possibilities of life. Basically, not growing “old,” even as one gets older—a hopeful, humane spin on a familiar punk outlook. “It’s a world of ambition for the young and old,” Candy sings.

The B-side opens with an arpeggiated guitar riff before launching into a full-throttle whiplash beat. Justyn sings the melody while Candy simultaneously screams above. “I know that you saw pain,” they holler. “I heard it on your sleeping breath. When I asked what it was, all you said was ‘life or death.’” The ominousness of the lyric is paired with a punky beat, which stares the theme of desperation straight in the face, without flinching.

In many ways, this is another example of the classic DIY punk 7-inch. It feels kind of timeless; this record could have come out in 1988 instead of 2008. There will probably be records just like it in 2028—there will still be vinyl then, I’m certain. In the band’s own words:

So far we’ve got nothing out on cd and hopefully it will stay that way. If you don’t got a record player, your gonna have to get one, go on a journey or something, cd players are just to easy and life and music isn’t so go figure.

Listen to “Young and Old” and other songs at Sleepwalkers R.I.P.’s MySpace page. You can buy the single here.

Sleepwalkers R.I.P. play tonight with Sacred Shock, NIX, and Silent Majority at Exit Only, 1121 N Loring, 8 pm, ALL AGES!

Remember, End Hits loves vinyl! If you’re a label or a band, send us your new vinyl for review. We’ll listen to it and put our thoughts up on the blog. Send it to:
Portland Mercury
Attn: End Hits
605 NE 21st Ave., Suite 200
Portland, OR 97232

Continuing our new column, wherein we review every last bit of new vinyl that gets sent to us. Vinyl is cool! We play it, listen to it, write about it, love it.

MP3:
The Golden Bears – This Golden Afternoon

The Golden Bears are Julianna Bright and Seth Lorinczi, and Wall to Wall is their first full-length record. It’s out now on Amore!Phonics (Viva Voce’s label) and tonight is the album release show at the Doug Fir. Notice I said “album release,” and not “CD release.” Wall to Wall is currently only available on vinyl and as a download. (If you buy the vinyl, it comes with a coupon for the mp3 download version, or you can just buy the download on its own at iTunes.) And it’s a gorgeous record, perfectly suited to the vinyl format, with Bright’s absolutely charming cover art and twelve short songs that add up to something greater than the sum of their parts. Songs flow in and out of each other, motifs are introduced, indulged and expanded upon; the result is divided up amongst two sides that are, in some ways, mirror reflections of each other. Bright and Lorinczi recorded the album in their home last year while expecting their first child, but it’s scarcely the cuddly, pillow-talking bathwater you’d expect from such origins. No, at times it unabashedly rocks; metal riffs creep into folk songs, drum fills clatter and thrash, and the lyrics suggest loads of meaning while explicitly saying very little. The album embraces the strangeness of dreams, the comfort of domesticity, the reassurance of love, the fear of the unknown, and the wide-eyed wonder of childhood imagination. It’s breathtakingly good.

Continuing our new column here at End Hits, wherein we review every last bit of new vinyl that gets sent to us. You want your band’s new release to be covered here on the blog? If it’s on vinyl, send it in and we’ll review it.

Today we examine the new 12 inch from Olympia’s Nudity, out now on Portland-based Discourage Records. It’s a single, ostensibly, with one track per side. But both sides together run the length of an album—each track is 21 minutes long. The song is “Nightfeeders,” and it’s presented in two versions: the Nudity studio take on the a-side, and a remix by Concentrick on the b-side.

I think I first heard an excerpt of “Nightfeeders” about two years ago, on Nudity’s MySpace page. Even in abbreviated form, it was instantly memorable, with a polyrhythmic 3/4 guitar part looping around a 4/4 motorik pulse. Nudity sounded like the kind of band that doesn’t exist anymore, and maybe never did—jammers who knew how to rock, who didn’t get caught up in the technical end of things, who let their songs blow like grain over vast fields, to land, sprout, and grow wherever they would. Most importantly, they were fucking heavy—heavy enough to stop the brain-damaged hippie girl from her incessant twirling, enough to instill the fear in her. So yeah. If Nudity is a jam band, then they’ve rehabilitated the entire genre, which is no small feat. I don’t think they are a jam band, though. They are a hard rock band, with an epic song that’s different each time they play it.

Announcing a new column here at End Hits, wherein we review every last bit of new vinyl that gets sent to us. You want your band’s new release to be covered here on the blog? If it’s on vinyl, send it in and we’ll review it.
As if putting on great music and multimedia shows weren’t enough, Eastside venue Holocene started its own label, putting out records by the Shaky Hands and Alela Diane. Now Holocene Music has just put out a 7” single of cover songs performed by San Francisco band Sholi. The a-side is a song called “Hejrat” which was originally performed by Googoosh, an Iranian singer popular in the 1970s. I hadn’t heard the original, and I initially found Sholi’s take to have an almost Latin/surf vibe, until lead singer Payam Bavafa starts singing in Farsi. He doesn’t shy away from the Qawwali-influenced melisma that the song requires, and it’s damn impressive. Meanwhile, the rest of Sholi provide typical indie-rock backing, with guitar and bells; drummer Jonathon Bafus packs in as many drum fills as he can and consistently changes the beat, which creates excitement and progression throughout the track.

The b-side is Joanna Newsom’s “The Sprout and the Bean,” starting with her harp riff transposed to guitar. The song begins lazily, with Bavafa’s vocal a lot more palatable than Newsom’s childlike crow, and the band’s full band arrangement more satisfying than her solo harp. It progresses, gaining momentum and urgency as it goes along, before breaking down and fading into anonymous chatter.

Both tracks are expertly played, although the recording quality is nothing to write home about. The single is handsomely packaged with a cover image of a family presumably watching Googoosh on TV. It comes with a coupon to download digital versions of the tracks - a BIG, BIG plus, one that is becoming commonplace with vinyl releases.

Here’s a video of “Hejrat”, as originally performed by Googoosh.

The video gets a little wonky toward the end, with an abrupt ending, but it’s fascinating to see this artifact. Keep in mind that females were outlawed from singing in public in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution.

You can get the Sholi 7” here.

And you can listen to both songs at Sholi’s MySpace page.

We love vinyl, so if you’re a label or band, send us your new vinyl for review! We’ll listen to it and put our thoughts up on the blog. Send to:
Portland Mercury
Attn: End Hits
605 NE 21st Ave., Suite 200
Portland, OR 97232