4 Tracks…Spotlight On Goner Records

We LOVE Goner Records…. Last summer the good folks at Goner helped us run a series of “Meet The Bands” to highlight those performing at Gonerfest Eleven. Hopefully we will be able to repeat that again in a few months. For now, this will be a 4 track sample of some new releases from Goner Records, 1st up is Sick Thoughts. info is from Goner..

One of the most prolific recording outfits of the past few years, teenaged Drew Owen aka SICK THOUGHTS makes his Goner Records debut with a nasty, grinding slab of punk rock that’s extremely true to the music’s original spirit of repugnant pride. Viva Darby Crash, viva Tapeworm, viva the Reatards. It’s a great ride!

The Bands Of Gonerfest Eleven. Meet, Sick Thoughts

Over the past three years, Nots has been writing, recording and playing in Memphis, Tennessee. A longtime collaboration between Natalie Hoffmann (guitar) and Charlotte Watson (drums), Nots has evolved into it’s wildest incarnation yet. Featuring Madison Farmer on bass and Alexandra Eastburn on synthesizer, Nots follow up their first two singles on Goner Records with their guitar-driven, synth-laden debut LP “We are Nots.” Recorded in the summer of 2014 in Memphis by Doug Easley, “We Are Nots” is OUT 11/11/14 on Goner Records.

“There’s a constant post mortem + excavation of the Memphis music underground by vultures of both the Euro and American varieties. Bands form, toil and scheme, mutate, play and record only to wither away in the seemingly unrelenting wall of indifference. Plod ahead a few years, label x or label z discovers + excavates the musical rubble as much for autocratic as historic purposes. A gold star and a box of records to the winner.

Nix the assertion Nots are a side project, a spin off, a revival of some fashionable subset of your record collection. Evolving headstrong their white noise is without compromise or concession. Brass venom yelled atop a torrent of twisted guitar shards, so human, barbed and unruly. Obliterate the retroactive retreat NOTS are NOW.” — John Hoppe

The Bands Of Gonerfest Eleven. Meet, NOTS

AUSMUTEANTS started life in late 2011 in Geelong by Jake Robertson and Billy Gardner. Both had been playing since teenagers in trad garage bands The Frowning Clouds (Jake) and The Living Eyes (Billy). Being good looking rebels who play by their own rules, they cracked the shits, broke loose with just a synth and drums and in early 2012, knocked out the ‘Split Personalities’ tape. By the time that was out they’d added Melbourne loose-unit Marc Dean on bass, and soon after, ex-Canberran hardcore non-guitarist Shaun Connor on guitar.

Their second album c’ (note: not self-titled) came from this fledgling time as a full band, with a heavy dose of the duo’s songs. Since the runaway international success of that record and playing every second weekend in Melbourne, they’re rocked-out full-tilt with all four members writing and singing new songs. 23 of these were recorded live with vocal overdubs in the basement of an old Geelong ice cream factory by Mikey Young, then mixed and mastered in his idyllic coastal abode. Again the band and their Australian label Aarght Records strained the friendship with song picks, agreeing on 13 to make up ‘Order of Operation’.

This record is better than Amusements any way you cut it: songs, lyrics, delivery and sound. The album opens up with Shaun’s forehead- and thigh-slapping musical and lyrical debut, “Freedom of Information”. His girlfriend is suffering the indignity with panache. From there, songs range from balls-to-the-wall punkers (“Felix Tried to Kill Himself”; “Boiling Point”), well-considered workouts (“Family Time”; “Tunnel Vision”) and unguarded tenderness (“Wrong”; “Looney Bin”).

It’s not just the band and label singing the album’s praises; it’s the people who couldn’t stand their juvenile bullshit before. They’ve ditched the toilet humour, got nasty and written songs about other people’s problems, terrible bands, fighting crime and trading sex for porn. Mikey after a vocal take: “You deserve to be bashed for that” (the song’s on the record; you guess which one).

The Bands Of Gonerfest Eleven. Meet, Ausmuteants

Dense, massive locomotive music from this Minneapolis three-piece. Powerful sounds with the ability to careen through one cinematic, post-apocalyptic chase scene after another. Breakfast Of Failures comes clanging and crashing through these confused times.

“The Blind Shake is at once spacey, primitive futuristic, and brutal: a kind of backyard extraterrestrial minimal surf-punk party. One guitar, one baritone guitar, a fuckload of reverb, and a drummer who deserves an Olympic medal.” –SF Weekly

Fronted by brothers Jim and Mike Blaha, with friend Dave Roper on drums, the trio have been tunneling through the underground since before telephones could talk. Having six full length albums to their credit, several singles, three collaborations with psych legend Michael Yonkers and another with downstroke warrior John Reis, the band continues to push the sliding scale between catchy punk songs and pitch red noise.

‘Breakfast Of Failures’ was recorded by Chris Woodhouse at The Dock in Sacramento, CA.

and you can read and listen to more Bands from Goner Records by searching Bands Of Gonerfest Eleven….

and don’t forget any start of a new year means you need to pick up some Vinyl from…

Goner records.com