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FINE WINE • LIQUOR • DOMESTICS & CRAFT BEER
threats & promises
Bienvenidos, Los Gantares
PLUS, MORE MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
By Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@flagpole.com
FOUR ON THE FLOOR: Jim Wilson (The TaxiCab Verses) has a
new project underway named Los Cantares (translation:
“the songs”). The group just released an EP of four songs
it recorded in Joshua Tree, CA called Hecho en Joshua Tree.
Although the band cites both Lou Reed and The Modern
Lovers as influences, there’s basically none of the jittery
claustrophobia of the former, nor the phony naivete of the
latter. There is a propulsive groove and rhythm throughout
that nods to the Velvet Undergound but could just as easily
nod to, say, The Doors. And, yeah, the vocals have a definite
Jonathan Richman-style inflection about them. But that’s
where it ends. The guitar work walks a fine line between
spindly and fat-bottomed, which most players can’t really
pull off. Mostly, this music sounds free and airy, much like
the climate in which it was recorded. Check it out at loscan-
tares.bandcamp.com and
follow along at facebook.
com/LosCantares.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES:
Muuy Biien has been quiet
on the local scene for a
while but will release its
third LP, Age of Uncertainty,
Oct. 28. It’ll come cour
tesy of Los Angeles label
Autumn Tone, which was
co-founded by Justin Gage,
who created the influen
tial music blog Aquarium
Drunkard, and distrib
uted by punk powerhouse
Epitaph Records. Other Athenians associated with the
label include Bloodkin’s Daniel Hutchens and Futurebirds.
Muuy Biien’s previous two full-lengths came out on Athens’
HHBTM Records, and you can dig through both of those
and a couple of EPs over at muuybiien.bandcamp.com.
BARELY THERE: Although he' s been across the globe this year
with Athens band Mothers, musician Matthew Anderegg
managed to squeeze out a new EP of songs under his
Group Stretching moniker earlier this month. The four-
song release is titled Wave Goodbye to Your Visitors. We
previously heard from Group Stretching back in January
via the single-song release “Rant Brittle.” Where that song
made serious inroads into both earthy and atmospheric
melodicism, including a patently 1960s-era swell just before
the one-minute mark, this new EP barely makes such
concessions. It’s not atonal, but it is asymmetrical, and
the only track coming close to easy listening is the opener
“Fork.” That immediately transitions into the Jandek-ian
sparseness of “Broken Measures,” which segues into the
signal-bent mash of “Base Solo” before winding up with
an Ameri-indie take on Kraftwerk, “Our Dated Reference.”
Wave Goodbye functions less as a standard record and more
like an aural flipbook; it takes a few listens to grasp a dis
cernible image, but it’s there, and you can see it for yourself
at groupstretching.bandcamp.com.
HOT DAMN: OK, feel free to lock me away in a sacred haunted
tower with the sword of Damocles over my head after I
admit this, but I had no idea that a cool heavy metal label,
Unspeakable Axe Records, existed here in Athens. With
a staggering 31 releases in its quiver, Unspeakable Axe
started as an underlying label of Colorado’s Dark Descent
Records in 2013 and is
run by Eric Musall. The
label’s most recent release
is Immortalized in Suffering
by Sewercide, and there’s
two released planned for
September (Pyrrhic by
Voidspawn and a four-way
split from Gatecreeper,
Homewrecker, Outer
Heaven and Scorched).
Most everything falls
within the parameters
of death, thrash, crust
and black metal, so if this
sounds like anything you’re
even remotely interested
in, I can almost guarantee that once you visit unspeak-
ableaxerecords.bandcamp.com you’ll get totally sucked
in. See facebook.com/UnspeakableAxeRecords for more
information.
SOUND AND VISION: Production company Dominar Films
never takes a break. This year alone, the firm has shot
videos for the UK’s Don Broco (the clip of whom feature
Monsoon’s Sienna Chandler), Starbenders, Wanderwild,
T.S. Woodward, the Dexateens and more—and that’s not
even including Dominar’s work in advertising and other
areas. I know for a fact the head production team of pro
ducer Katie Gregg and director Benjamin Roberds cap
tured a ton of footage during the Athens Popfest, but I have
no idea what will happen with it. For now, interested folks
can head to dominarfilms.com and catch some stuff they
may have missed. There’s a lot of work available at vimeo.
com/dominarfilms, too, if you’d rather head there. ©
Los Cantares
nsamUnsstew
of Montreal: Innocence Reaches (Polyvinyl) “Am I on the verge of a really
big breakthrough/ Or just another meltdown?” muses Kevin Barnes on
“Gratuitous Abysses,” the third track on of Montreal’s latest offering. It’s a
good question for the band, which has released 14 LPs in 20 years, to ask
itself. Here, Barnes takes his cues from revamped rave culture, as opposed
to artistic indie rock. Keen listeners won’t be surprised to learn that Davey
Pierce and Nicolas Dobbratz, who comprise two-thirds of local electro group
Yip Deceiver, rejoined of Montreal’s touring unit prior to making the record;
traces of their skittering dance-pop are palpable throughout.
On “It’s Different for Girls,” Barnes blends indie and EDM while waxing
theoretical about gender over funk guitars and drum machines. Barnes is
at his best when he harnesses those basic electronica tactics, as on opener
“Let’s Relate”—another gender-centric electropop treatise—or “Trashed Exes,” both of which channel the mid
career freak-pop of Beck while making statements that are wholly nouveau.
This is undoubtedly new territory for a band that has made a career of never lingering in the same sonic space
for too long. So, is Innocence Reaches a big breakthrough or another meltdown? Most certainly. [Dan Mistich]
of Montreal plays the 40 Watt Club on Friday, Sept. 2.
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AUGUST 31, 2016 • FLAGPOLE.COM 15