Yep, barely a day after I mentioned the cool-ass Owen and TV On The Radio pieces in this here space, and I'm back again... This time it's to mention to pile of new reviews we've slapped up on the site, which'll hopefully be somewhat the tip of the iceberg for this month. Seeing as I'll be taking a bunch of vacation w/nowhere to go, my plan is to hunker down and chop down the gigantic tree of unreviewed discs currently growing out of my desk. Keep yr fingers crossed for me, eh?

Anyway, for right now, we've got some good stuff up, I think. In particular, I finally got a chance to listen to the new Born Liars 7", out a short while back on Houston's own Ditchwater Records boutique (run by none other than Scene Queen Rosa Medina, a spinoff of her awesome Ditch Water photozine). Two tracks ("Don't Tell Me, I Know" and a cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Don't Know Why"), all raw, falling-down-drunk (but still tight, mind you) garage-y punk, and it's pretty damn great. If these guys don't get noticed outside of this city sometime soon -- Little Stephen's Underground Garage, maybe? -- then a crime against humanity will truly have been committed.

I know, I know -- I've been slow to embrace the Liars myself. I still haven't been able to catch 'em live, unfortunately, and until recently I didn't have an easy way to check out either of the 7"s the band's put out this year (more on the "why?" of that one of these days...). I've had Exit Smiling sitting on my desk for way too long now, mostly based on one brief "eh" listen a year or so ago.

I'm convinced now, though. I finally cracked Exit Smiling back open the other day while cruising on down to the seedy wilds of Stafford, and y'know, it's pretty damn good. When I subsequently got to listen to the self-titled first 7" -- on local label Cutthroat Records, who're also releasing the band's highly-anticipated LP real damn soon -- and then this latest 7"...man, I'm sold. I'm enjoying the hell out of these latest two tracks, in particular; they're like the up/down of a nose-diving relationship, all on one small slice of vinyl. Check out the full review here.

If you, like me, haven't ever seen the band live and in the flesh, btw, you're not a total goner (although I am, dammit; I'll be hanging at the parental units' house in San Antonio). The Born Liars are playing December 27th at Rudyard's (where else?), alongside fellow raw-and-rough rockers No Talk and The Wrong Ones. Gonna be good, I swear...

Okay, so now that I've strayed a bit off the beaten path... There're a bunch of other cool, cool, cool new reviews up on the site, including the new Oxford Collapse, Fight Bite, & Second Day Red. And yes, some painful smackdowns, as well, for those who enjoy that sort of thing. Here's the full list of new stuff, features & all:

Interviews: Owen

Live Reviews: TV On The Radio/The Dirtbombs

Reviews: The Born Liars; Oxford Collapse; Fight Bite; Second Day Red; AIDS Wolf; Halcyon High; Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!; & Trapt.

Got lots more in the works, so keep checking back...gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments