Bandcamp Blitz - November 17th, 2018

It's been a huge year for music, and I keep finding new things to check out. Bands send me their links, mp3s, stuff, etc. Things have been busy at Nerve Salad Central. There is talk within the camp of possibly releasing an album. Nerve Salad began in the late '90s as a record label (under another name), and there was always intentions of continuing. We'll see. There are a few ideas floating around... you heard it here first...
 Meanwhile the music keeps coming in, and the awesomeness keeps happening. 


Today's List:

Headland - True Flowers From This Painted World
https://fortemusicdistribution.bandcamp.com/…/true-flowers-…
(Gave me a Karate Kid-style sweep-the-leg... sat me right down. Beautiful, almost completely instrumental, immersive songs made for everybody, even people that just "kinda like music". Really fantastic.)

Manchino - Artificial Love EP
https://manchino.bandcamp.com/album/artificial-love-ep
(This'll kick ya in the feels. You'll be blindsided by the groove. Doobie Bros. + Allman Bros make a blood pact and the brotherhood grows... I would NOT be surprised in the slightest if these guys become huge within a year.)

Facing New York - Dogtown
https://facingnewyork.bandcamp.com/album/dogtown
(Fuck yes! New Facing New York! There will be a release party at my house whether the band shows up or not.)

Straightshooter - Keep The Faith
https://straightshooter44.bandcamp.com/album/keep-the-faith
(Strong hard rock with a Southern lather. A really striking effort from Harrogate, UK... a few surprises lurk within a four-song span)

LáGoon - L’affaire des Poisons EP
https://lagoonpdx.bandcamp.com/alb…/l-affaire-des-poisons-ep
(Somebody handed instruments to a couple of skaters and said: "Make heavy music." And that's what they did.)

Frozen Planet....1969 - The Heavy Medicinal Grand Exposition
https://peppershakerrecords.bandcamp.com/…/the-heavy-medici…
(Wild psych improv. A trip. Expanding and improving from previous releases. Pretty far out.)

Bandcamp Blitz - November 2nd, 2018

Today's List:

The Soul Jacket - Plastic Jail
https://thesouljacket.bandcamp.com/album/plastic-jail
(Some fine, fine groove and roll from Spain. Bluesy, jammy, good-times rock.)

Bitter Roots - JiLO
https://bitterroots.bandcamp.com/album/jilo
(Allman Bros. bleeding all over Skynyrd's beer with a chaser of '70s psych)

Under - Stop Being Naive
https://understockport.bandcamp.com/album/stop-being-naive
(Ka-BAM! This is true growth for the band, and an absolutely KILLER album all the way through. Noisy, mean scoundrels making noisy, mean music... a real gem)

The Tunnel - Apparition Overdrive
https://thetunnelsf.com/album/apparition-overdrive
(Truly classy deathrock with a nice grimy sheen of XXXL psych and '90s noise. Music for sneaking around. Music for cleaning gravestones. Music for glowering faces, scowls, and scaring those wannabe "goth" kids.)

Magpie Toes - Nest
https://magpietoes.bandcamp.com/album/nest
(Finnish Hard Rock with attitude.. maybe a little Långfinger mixed in with your Gin Lady? Pretty badass)

Summer Salt - Happy Camper
https://summersaltband.bandcamp.com/album/happy-camper-3
(Sipping the sweat of Beach Boys from a cup made from a melted surfboard, while doing jumping jacks and having a good time in ways you're not used to.)

Bandcamp Blitz - Monday October 29th, 2018

Today's Bandcamp Blitz:

Sullest - Fashionable Male
https://torjohnsonrecords.bandcamp.com/alb…/fashionable-male
(Gut-punching hardcore with a crusty dollop of noise rock caked on. W/mems of Bloodpheasant, which is to my liking)

Empty Palace - The Serpent Between The Stars
https://emptypalace.bandcamp.com/…/the-serpent-between-the-…
(Blistering prog rock! If saying they are almost better than Uriah Heep is blasphemy, then I'm a filthy heathen)

Wet Cactus - Dust, Hunger, & Gloom
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/album/dust-hunger-gloom
(Traditional Stoner Rock with a little Desert Rock vibe mixed in with the jams... good for casual listening.)

Chesty Vulva - Subjects
https://chestyvulva.bandcamp.com/album/subjects
(Here's a big one. This might be in my favorite albums of the year. I've listened to this more times this week alone than any of these albums in a month. Fantastic, manic electro-pop, grappling onto some fuzzy psych, Residents-esque peculiarities, genre-hopping '80s pop, whacked-out balderdash. It's absurd and brilliant all at once.)

Chesty Vulva - Subjects

Oooooh! Something brilliant this way comes. Chesty Vulva come flying out of Grand Junction, CO, throwing Fuzzy Pop glitter everywhere. Something likes this only comes around every so often, a special jewel, glistening with gilded ectoplasm.

This is a Pop band, but nobody's getting Bieber-ized here. We're looking at the halcyon days of Sub Pop... we're getting a slice o' the oft-times messed up world of  musical Jekylls and Hydes.

When first diving in, this appears to be an indie rock adventure, but there's an uncomfortable sensation looming just underneath the skin. It itches like chiggers...
Stoner rock fuzz brazenly cuts in line. A thick layer of "The Smiths attempt black metal"... A chunk of noise rock emits an inescapable, yet pleasing odor of skinny puppies.. Talking Heads meets Ministry in a back alley and play a game of Uno with cards made out of The Residents' sunburn-y skin peels...
The cloying aromas of dark '80s electro-pop waft over the entirety like a blanket. It's warm and fuzzy, and will keep you from getting up from the couch.

"What's the harm in any of this?", you wonder. Well, 5 listens in, and I've begun to realize that this album might have screwed my world up a little bit.
This music is fresh and clean. And it's on fleek. There is much value in being THIS on fleek.
In the grand scheme of things, Chesty Vulva appear to be truly breaking ground with bananas, and it's slowly creeping into my brain like prions.

Agreed?

Get You Some

Face The Faces

WE Are The Asteroid

WE Are The Asteroid, the latest LP release from Forbidden Place Records, comes in with a buncha noisy spastic rock. It's one of those heavy Psych Rock albums that was obviously made under the influence, whether it's drugs or music. At least judging by the manic approach these guys take, and song titles, I would say drugs had something to do with it.

When I first listened to this album, I could pick out things from it that were probably not intended to be there: I almost feel like these guys might be hiding some kind of fandom they've yet to disclose. There's a touch of goth rock in there (I even feel a touch of My Dying Bride-ish doom coming through). It all blends together into a spacey, spicy, pustulent wound waiting to be opened. In the end, I imagine they just play and see what happens. Meanwhile, you should pick it apart and see what oozes out.

WE Are The Asteroid play psych-y freaky noise rock made for psychotropics. From Austin, TX, they're obviously indoctrinated into the noise rock fold with their Texan brethren of the past.

As kids, they must have listened to enough Scratch Acid at their house while their siblings played Fields Of The Nephilim in the other room... trying to drown out the Butthole Surfers playing down the street.

Another one of those bands that play with so much variation, I go on a little adventure for the duration. In any case, the death rock/psych-y noise rock makes for an interesting listen. And a Nerve Salad recommendation if you like things shaken AND stirred.

Bandcamp Blitz - September 8th, 2018

Today's Bandcamp Blitz:

The Mommyheads - Soundtrack To The World's End
https://mommyheads.bandcamp.com/…/soundtrack-to-the-worlds-…
(Indie, power pop masters coming in strong with a new album, strong on the power, heavy on the pop, steadfast on the proggy alt-rock)

The Pollies - Not Here
https://thepollies.bandcamp.com/album/not-here
(I've mentioned these guys before. Their previous album was a pleasant surprise for me This new album is a stellar piece of lush pop Americana and fine songwriting)

The Lees Of Memory - The Blinding White Of Nothing At All
https://theleesofmemory.bandcamp.com/…/the-blinding-white-o…
(Likely one of the best albums I've heard in a long time.Total brilliance, and firmly in amongst my favorite albums ever. Not a single dull moment anywhere.)

High Fidelity - S/T EP
https://highfidelitysongs.bandcamp.com/alb…/high-fidelity-ep
(Awesome rootsy classic rock with a great convincing vocal delivery)

Reefer Masters - White Dogs
https://reefermasters.bandcamp.com/album/white-dogs
(Alt-Psych with a sheen of stonery, head-nodding riffs.)

White Swan - Touch Taste Destroy
https://thewhiteswan.bandcamp.com/album/touch-taste-destroy
(White Swan have established themselves as peddlers of heavy, down-trodden, plodding, lurching doom. Fantastic weighty tunes, with hefty strata of shoegazey melodies, and a '90s alt-rock veneer. I shall call this Dream Doom. )

Bandcamp Blitz - August 31st, 2018

Today's Bandcamp Blitz:

Magnolia Red - Magnolia Red
https://magnoliared.bandcamp.com/album/magnolia-red
(When it comes to Americana/indie rock, Norway doesn't mess around. Here's some Norwegians doing typical Norwegian things: Being awesome.)

Breanna Barbara - Mirage Dreams
https://breannabarbara.bandcamp.com/album/mirage-dreams-2
(Self-described Occult Blues. I would tend to agree. It's super)

Glenn Jones - The Giant Who Ate Himself and Other New Works For 6 & 12 String Guitar
https://glennjones.bandcamp.com/…/the-giant-who-ate-himself…
(Guitar Master Glenn Jones taking his guitars to the casbah and making such beautiful music together)

The Pollies - Transmissions
https://thepollies.bandcamp.com/album/transmissions
(Fine fine fine Americana with REALLY catchy tunes)

Black Prism - Black Prism
https://blackprism.bandcamp.com/album/black-prism
(KILLER stoner rock with massive face-melting riffs. Just signed with CTR, and that's a good thing)