STARING PROBLEM - "Eclipse" Video

 “Blending elements of early goth and shoegaze with a raw production style, the album thematically explores a multitude of subjects – love and loss, science fiction, and even flora and fauna, resulting in a varied but cohesive collection that draws on the influence of New Order, Talk Talk, Parlor, and of course The Cure.”
- ReGen Magazine

Watch the video for the title track of Staring Problem's upcoming release, "Eclipse", via ReGen Magazine, here:

https://regenmag.com/news/staring-problem-celebrates-tenth-anniversary-with-first-full-length-album-and-vinyl-release/

Staring Problem is a post punk, darkwave trio based in Chicago, IL, comprised of drummer Alix Carl, bassist Milo Mendoza, and guitarist/keys/vocalist Lauren Owen. These three collectively draw influence from the likes of New Order, The Cure, Mark Hollis/Talk Talk, and Parlor. The band’s debut tape in 2010 marked the first release on Modern Tapes, and both the band and the label couldn’t be happier to release this upcoming LP as the two simultaneously celebrate ten years of existence, percolating underground at their own pace outside of the expectations of the more traditional side of the music industry. Since their inception, they’ve released their tape and three EPs, with the upcoming Eclipse marking their first full-length effort.

 

This release by Modern Tapes will be available digitally, as well as on vinyl with silkscreened jackets and silkscreened insert, September 23rd. Preorder, here.

STARING PROBLEM

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Out today: REPTOID - Worship False Gods

Reptoid's new album Worship False Gods is out today on Learning Curve Records.

Stream the album and buy it, here:
https://learningcurverecords.bandcamp.com/album/worship-false-gods

From Oakland, CA, Reptoid is a one-man, industrial-influenced noise-rock band whose sole member, Jordan Sobolew, pounds out his solo compositions live, without computers or backing tracks – just a mountain of drums, homemade devices, pedals, and a vocal mic strapped to his face!

Spastic rhythms congeal into hypnotizing songs, delivered from the perspective of an alien analyzing the human race... Highly recommended for fans of Daughters, The Locust, and Lightning Bolt!

More info:
http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/07/reptoid-worship-false-gods.html

"Loud, noisy, intrusive, and groovy... This is music that’s meant to challenge and soothe at the same time; listening to it, I feel like my mind is melting but I also want to dance."
–CVLT Nation

"Reptoid’s sound is futuristic and menacing. It’s as if you crossed modern-day Daughters with Lightning Bolt. It’s music for people who like their heavy with a heaping dose of weird and experimental."

–New Noise

"Oakland’s Reptoid is a rare breed to say the least. The mutant manifestations of Jordan Sobolew are all played live, contorting sounds into triggered noise and mangled industrial fury since 2014. The drums skitter across your ears (we recommend listening on headphones) and synths warp into a tangled mess of chip-tune like sound... It’s big, weird, and menacing, a bleak look into the void."
–Post-Trash

"A one-man, noise/industrial project by Jordan Sobolew of Oakland, CA. Made with drums, homemade fuzz pedals, noise devices and a sampler, it's spastic and pounding."
–Scene Point Blank

"Oakland, CA’s Reptoid is almost assuredly unlike any band you have ever seen, even as far as noise bands go... Yes, it’s loud. Yes, it’s out there. There is, however, a subtlety to the songs that makes them memorable for more than just the aesthetics... It’s noisy and chaotic at times, but there’s a sense of fine craftsmanship displayed here that really makes 'False Gods' a memorable listen."
–Nine Circles

"One-man industrial/noise-rock phenom who unleashes alien sermons and maniacal sounds via homemade gear..."
–V13

"Reptoid is a one-man noiserock deity... Pure, raw, industrial tinged heaviness."

–Fuzzy Sun

DEAD QUIET - "Atoned Deaf"

DEAD QUIET: Vancouver heavy metallers release "Atoned Deaf" single from new Artoffact Records album "Truth and Ruin"

Dead Quiet's new single "Atoned Deaf" is now streaming on all platforms. The song is the opening track on the Vancouver band's upcoming new album Truth and Ruin, available September 11th on Artoffact Records.

Stream the single, here:
https://deadquiet.bandcamp.com/track/atoned-deaf

Pre-order the album, here:
https://deadquiet.bandcamp.com/album/truth-and-ruin

With burbling organ, dual guitars, and the soaring vocals of frontman Kevin Keegan (whom Metal Hammer declared in 2018 to be "the next great stoner rock visionary"), "Atoned Deaf" worships at the altar of late '70s Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Deep Purple, and rejuvenates the genre with modern-day power.

"If I lie like this, I can live like this forever / But I’ve got this demon to contend with / If I’m high like this, I’ll die like this / I don’t think I can live forever," Keegan sings on the song, inspired in part by things witnessed at his day job as a frontline worker dealing with the fentanyl epidemic in Vancouver.

On new album Truth and Ruin, Dead Quiet respects its elders while fully owning its own craft. It is a fine balance, which brings to mind Ghost, among others. Keegan is flanked by guitarist Brock MacInnes (of Juno Award winners Anciients), newest member Mike Rosen on keyboards, and the rhythm section of bassist Mike Grossnickle and drummer Jason Dana.

Truth and Ruin was engineered and mixed by Jesse Gander (Japandroids, White Lung) at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver. It was mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Chelsea Wolfe) at West West Side Music in Hudson Valley, NY.

More info and images: 
http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/07/dead-quiet-truth-and-ruin.html

"One of the most imaginative but reassuringly bludgeoning examples of post-millennial Iommi-worship currently available to human ears... Veering from full-throttle metal riffing to swirling, woozy psychedelic squalls with the ease of intuitive masters."
–Metal Hammer

"Organ-laced heavy blues met with post-hardcore crush..."
–The Obelisk

"A stoner rock powerhouse."
–Invisible Oranges

REPTOID + CVLT Nation

REPTOID: CVLT Nation premieres industrial/noise-rock alien's new album "Worship False Gods"

With Reptoid's new album, Worship False Gods, out tomorrow, August 28th, on Learning Curve Records, the full album is now streaming via CVLT Nation.

Stream the album, here:
https://cvltnation.com/reptoid-worship-false-gods/

Buy the album, here:
https://learningcurverecords.bandcamp.com/album/worship-false-gods

For fans of Daughters, The Locust, Lightning Bolt, and Author & Punisher, Reptoid is a one-man, industrial-influenced noise-rock band from Oakland, California. The sole member, Jordan Sobolew surrounds himself with an army of drums, homemade fuzz pedals, noise devices and a sampler, to produce spastic, hypnotizing rhythms, and painfully amplified sounds drenched in effects through an oversized pedal-board full of odd implements. Vocals are delivered through a mic strapped directly to the face by a modified respirator mask. Everything is performed live and without the aid of a computer or backing tracks.

Amidst the din, Sobolew sermonizes like an alien preacher diagnosing the human condition, via lyrics such as: "This human machine is obsolete"; "The abyss is waiting, it’s where we’ve always belonged"; "You’ve already been compromised, you’ve already been digitized."

He explains: "I have a somewhat misanthropic view of humanity and I enjoy looking at it from the outside perspective of an alien."

Worship False Gods was recorded at Santo Recording Studio in Oakland by Jordan Sobolew with assistance from Joe Finocchio. It was mixed by Jordan Sobolew at his home studio, The Mothership, in Oakland. It was mastered by Carl Saff (Bambara, Big Business, Moor Mother).

More info:
http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/07/reptoid-worship-false-gods.html

Photos by Christopher Sturm

TEDDY PANOPOULOS - Lost in Love

TEDDY PANOPOULOS: Dead Waves frontman to release first solo EP, "Lost in Love"

Teddy Panopoulos, one-half of acclaimed New York City band Dead Waves, announces the September 25th release of his first solo effort, the Lost in Love EP.

Stream the title track from Lost in Love, here:

https://cvltnation.com/teddy-panopoulos-lost-in-love/

Pre-order the EP, here:

https://teddypanopoulos.com/releases

Under the Dead Waves banner, Panopoulos and his brother Nick have released three full-lengths and three EPs, all within half a decade. Over the course of those recordings, in that short span of time, a glorious progression has been documented. The duo began with a heavy garage rock sound and graduated to ghostly, bare-bones, psych-folk, brimming with anguish and wonder. Dead Waves' transformation was expressed in full on its latest work, 2018's God of the Wild, which incorporated traditional Greek instruments (a nod to the brothers' heritage) into the mix of voice, guitars, and analog synths.

Burning Ambulance described that most recent album as "bridging the gap between experimental rock and some sort of unknown, barbarous folk music," likening it to Sonic Youth, Neil Young, and Wolves in the Throne Room, while CVLT Nation called it "fragile, and full of cosmic pain." Noisey proclaimed: “Dead Waves will make you stare at the sun and see the end of existence.”

Where God of the Wild left off, Teddy Panopoulos now carries on. Panopoulos' first solo work, Lost in Love, was produced by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, P.J. Harvey) and mastered by Kim Rosen (Bonnie Raitt, Billy Bragg). Even more minimal, even more raw than what came before, Lost in Love removes layers and exposes this tortured soul that much more clearly.

Over skeletal synth parts, Panopoulos' voice is as real as it gets – from intimate mumblings to primal screams, he is stripped naked. Truly haunting, truly unsettling, truly beautiful, Lost in Love might be the purest account of the human condition we will hear this year.

A list of Panopoulos' favorite artists reveals an array of outsiders and true originals, across genres – Roy Orbison, Julee Cruise, Prince, Abner Jay, and Arthur Russell, to name a few – but Lost in Love was inspired by experience, not by other people's music. Panopoulos describes the genesis: "I was going through a really sad time with personal heartbreaks and life changes, and needed something to channel these feelings. And from all the downtime of being inside from the pandemic I finally got to bring this project to fruition. When there was no one or nothing else to blame, I had to finally question myself. So basically it’s a mission to really look at myself and heal from the pain and try to forgive myself and embrace love."

Lost in Love will be released on Entheon Records, the label founded in 2018 by the Panopoulos brothers.

Tracklist:
1) If You Ever Come Down
2) Lost in Love
3) What Happens When There’s No One Left to Blame
4) At Least My Ghosts Don’t Leave

Photo by Jeremy Balderson
Cover art by Ana Belen Ruiz

THE TUNNEL - "Collapse" Video

 

'“Collapse” was recorded in February 2020, right before the lockdown started. We banged it out in one day with Jordan Sobolew (Reptoid) in Santo Studio in Oakland, and Jordan captured that urgency. Musically, Collapse is a mixture of physical release and out-of-body elevation, with a dose of Unsane/Jesus Lizard feral sleaze. Lyrically, Collapse’s protagonist is a romantic against a brutal world, lapsing into iconic self-parody as they loathe and love and fall apart. The video collage for Collapse was created along with a companion video “Condemned”, both influenced by the aesthetics of 80s-90s industrial/sci-fi films like Decoder and Tetsuo:Iron Man."

- Jeff Wagner, The Tunnel

Stream and watch the video for track "Collapse", off of The Tunnel's upcoming EP, via Northern Transmissions, here:

https://northerntransmissions.com/the-tunnel-stream-condemned-collapse-ep/

San Francisco noise rock scoundrels The Tunnel have been perfecting their unique blend of haunted post-punk and swampy atmospherics since 2008. Crooked and restless, The Tunnel's discography draws apt comparisons to The Jesus Lizard, 16 Horsepower, Killing Joke, and The Birthday Party - an intoxicating mixture of outlaw ballads, cranky drum machines, sprawling sci-fi blues, and pummeling, angular deathrock. Sam Black and Jeff Wagner have served as the black heart of the band since 2010, with Black handling bass/electronics and Wagner howling haunted prose and heaving guitar tones.  Drummer Michael Jacobs (ex-pOrch) has transformed the rhythm section with his brawny dynamics since joining in 2018.

Condemned/Collapse Recorded and mixed by Jordan Sobolew (Reptoid) February 2020 at Santo in Oakland, CA. Mastered by Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk, J Mascis, Kurt Vile). This EP will be available digitally September 25th.

Music video by Jeff Wagner.

THE TUNNEL website

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IG: @thetunnelsf

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Out today: GULL - Relative Stranger

 

"With hints of the cure, industrial, Patti Smith, and even Godflesh, Gull makes the kind of music that is as atmospheric as it is threatening. The new song, 'The Time We Have,' could have fit right on The Head on the Door is Robert Smith was a little less lovey-dovey and a lot more Cenobite."
— Punknews.org

“If you close your eyes you will hear the sounds of a three piece band complete with rhythmic guitar picking, a steady drum beat and the manic vocals of a passionate man. However, this ominous harmony is conjured by a lone musician, coordinating two instruments simultaneously, while modulating his own voice… I’d like to introduce you to Gull, a street musician who has sharpened his craft by busking all over the world, from his hometown in Virginia to small villages in Africa.
— Huffington Post

“I consider this to be fucking great. And he’s only got half as many members as Lightning Bolt or Death From Above 1979.”
— Dangerous Minds

“He performs in a mask with a guitar, a drum set, and effects pedals, so he might remind you of Lightning Bolt/Black Pus on the surface, but musically he sounds more like the mathy art pop of Battles.”
— BrooklynVegan

Stream the album Relative Stranger in its entirety, as well as watch a "making of" video, via Northern Transmissions, here.

Watch the video for “Mouth to  Match”, via BrooklynVegan, here.

Check out the video for “The Time We Have”, via Punknews.org, here.

See the video for “Find Out”, premiered via New Noise, here.

See a recent live performance of “Burning Shoals”, here.

Nathaniel Rappole’s solo project, Gull, was conceived on an endangered wildlife preserve in Front Royal, VA in 1999, and has been publicly active since 2007. Gull has recorded a 7", 6 EPs, 3 full lengths, and has traveled vigorously—playing venues, on the streets, and in the wilds of Canada, United States, Mexico, Europe, Kenya, and SE Asia. Gull has toured in support of White Rabbits, Tres Mts, and RNDM, and has shared the bar arena with the likes of Silver Apples, Girl Talk, Deerhoof, Adrian Belew, Sleaford Mods, Ruby The Hatchet, Panda Bear, Mdou Moctar, Dan Deacon, and Melt Banana. In 2012, Gull was featured in a movie about music in Mexico called Hecho en Mexico, and in 2014 he produced and performed in a documentary on street/public music in Kenya (Street Muse: Kenya), which premiered at The Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA. In April of 2016, Gull performed and answered questions pertaining to his travels at TedX in Richmond, VA. In December, 2019, Gull went to Thailand and Laos to film a new doc in an ongoing series about musical ecology and culture around the world.

Relative Stranger was recorded, mixed, produced, and mastered by Cyrus Fisher (CyFi in Charlottesville, VA, and Brooklyn, NY. Guest appearances by Tristan Brennis on sax/Amanda Wilson on backing vocals. It is being released August 21st through Lagom Audio/Visual. Order, here.

Relative Stranger LP:

1. Lifted by Dance

2. Find Out

3. Mouth to Match

4. Burning Shoals

5. Harangue Gang

6. Camry

7. Losing Light

8. Priest

9. The Time We Have

10. Relative Stranger

 

GULL Website

Bandcamp

IG: @gull_face

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Out today: SEEMING - The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity

Seeming's new album, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity, is out today on Artoffact Records.

Stream the album, here:
https://northerntransmissions.com/seeming-streams-the-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity/

Buy the album, here:
https://seeming.bandcamp.com/album/the-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity

More info:
http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/06/seeming-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity.html

"Seeming’s new album, The Birdwatcher’s Guide to Atrocity, is a hymnal of hope and despair... Reed hones in on that delicate balance between pop and goth music throughout the album, akin to artists such as Trent Reznor, Diamanda Galás, Blanck Mass, or The Knife who can easily swing from intensity to vulnerability within the span of a song."
–Post-Punk

"Influenced by an array of musical visionaries, including Peter Gabriel and Roger Waters."
–Northern Transmissions

"Passionate vocals, pressing synths, and pounding drums... Reed sings with a heartfelt directness."
–The Big Takeover

"Vulnerable and intimate with flashes of fury."
–Scene Point Blank

"Like a dance remix of The Mountain Goats."
–Burning Ambulance

"Post-industrial visionary."
–V13

BOOTBLACKS - "Nostalgia Void"

BOOTBLACKS: NYC post-punks release "Nostalgia Void" single from upcoming new album on Artoffact Records

NYC post-punk band Bootblacks have released new single "Nostalgia Void."

The song appears on the upcoming Artoffact Records album Thin Skies, to be released October 9th.

Stream "Nostalgia Void," here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uK1zWZWWaw

Pre-order Thin Skies, here:
https://bootblacks.bandcamp.com/album/thin-skies

About the new single, Bootblacks vocalist Panther Almqvist states: “The person we were in the past often seems unrecognizable. Memories can often seem like scenes from another person's life. There are moments however when we see ourselves in the present and that we realize that we are summation of the experiences of the past and maybe we haven't changed as much as we think we have.”

Thin Skies, Bootblacks' first album for Artoffact Records, zooms forward where its predecessor, Fragments, left off. Produced by Jason Corbett of Artoffact labelmates ACTORS, Thin Skies is a marriage of post-punk emotion and clubland sweat. The nine songs combine a driving, dancefloor pulse with soulful, melodic post-punk, yielding results that are positively anthemic.

Panther Almqvist's brooding voice captivates as it veers from detached cool to deep vulnerability. Guitarist Alli Gorman's hard jangle "channels the trademark delay techniques of [U2's] The Edge," in the words of Post-Punk.com. Keyboardist Barrett Hiatt's arpeggiated synths are the life force pushing the songs relentlessly forward, as Larry Gorman bashes a mix of acoustic and electronic drums with power and perfection. Backing vocals come courtesy of Shannon Hemmett (ACTORS) and Kennedy Ashlyn (SRSQ, Them Are Us Too).

As well as playing shows at every significant venue in its hometown of NYC, Bootblacks has toured North America and Europe, most recently being handpicked by Modern English as direct support for a 2020 North American tour (currently postponed).

More info:
http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/07/bootblacks-thin-skies.html

Photo by Drew Reynolds

Gull + Northern Transmissions

 

Stream the album Relative Stranger in its entirety, as well as watch an exclusive “making of” video via Northern Transmissions, here.

Relative Stranger was recorded, mixed, produced, and mastered by Cyrus Fisher (CyFi in Charlottesville, VA, and Brooklyn, NY. Guest appearances by Tristan Brennis on sax/Amanda Wilson on backing vocals. It is being released August 21st through Lagom Audio/Visual. Order, here.

Gull is “best described as a drum; a living, breathing drum of flesh on fire that cries out assorted tongues of creatures past and delivers it from a single unique perspective; a communal music broadcast of blood and bile left as an offering on the altar of sound.” With the release of Relative Stranger, there are odes to dreams, to Patti Smith, to a well-traveled car, to a friend and bandmate lost. Surely, Nathaniel Rappole’s wildly interesting life experiences have also influenced the “assorted tongues” represented in the album; among them: living at a facility for endangered animals for ten years, being hired as a traveling puppeteer and technical director, as well as a mask maker for a business specializing in Furry attire, spending 2 months on a Nile houseboat in Cairo with a British woman and her Bedouin lover, working various non-profits, and performing and connecting with strangers on the streets of Mexico. With all of this under one’s belt and more, it is no surprise that this multi-instrumentalist’s solo musical project is as fascinating and multifaceted as his life.

Relative Stranger LP:

1. Lifted by Dance

2. Find Out

3. Mouth to Match

4. Burning Shoals

5. Harangue Gang

6. Camry

7. Losing Light

8. Priest

9. The Time We Have

10. Relative Stranger

SEEMING + Northern Transmissions

SEEMING: new album "The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity" now streaming in its entirety

With Seeming's new full-length, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity, officially out tomorrow via Artoffact Records, the entire album is now streaming via Northern Transmissions.

Stream the album, here:
https://northerntransmissions.com/seeming-streams-the-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity/

Buy the album, here:
https://seeming.bandcamp.com/album/the-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity

Seeming's Alex Reed states: "'The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity' is about the struggle to remain alive and sane while coping with Earth's insanity and cruelty. But it also brims with reminders of how to survive another day."

Menacing but vulnerable, furious but intimate, Seeming's post-industrial music is on the fringe of a new generation of heavy, dark, cerebral pop. The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity bears traces of elder visionaries, from Peter Gabriel and Roger Waters, to Diamanda Galás and Trent Reznor, and places Seeming in the company of modern-day darlings like Drab Majesty, Blanck Mass, and The Knife.

With pounding drums, a dazzling palette of synth sounds, and Reed's voice exuding both confidence and humility, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity is another staunchly unique masterpiece – a breathtaking work from an artist who reinvents himself with every song.

The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity was co-produced with renowned avant-garde percussionist Sarah Hennies and features a guest vocal by Bill Drummond of legendary, inscrutable, UK duo The KLF – Drummond's first recorded vocal appearance in two decades.

"Seeming’s new album, The Birdwatcher’s Guide to Atrocity, is a hymnal of hope and despair... Reed hones in on that delicate balance between pop and goth music throughout the album, akin to artists such as Trent Reznor, Diamanda Galás, Blanck Mass, or The Knife who can easily swing from intensity to vulnerability within the span of a song."
–Post-Punk

"Passionate vocals, pressing synths, and pounding drums... Reed sings with a heartfelt directness."
–The Big Takeover

"Like a dance remix of The Mountain Goats."
–Burning Ambulance

"Post-industrial visionary."
–V13

More info:
https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2020/06/seeming-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity.html