Review: Ringo Deathstarr | Pure Mood

Is it still too early in dream-pop's current swell in popularity to proclaim a band the "Wilco of shoegaze?" Such a mantle might not yet fit Austin, TX noise-pop goliaths Ringo Deathstarr, but it nevertheless illustrates the liminal point the act occupies as it issues its tremendous new album Pure Mood. Across its four-album run (including 2011's Sparkler singles collection), the trio has established itself as reliable producers of potent, thoughtful rockers that faithfully honor established shoegaze conventions with artfulness and a bit of humor. Pure Mood is a perfect summation of Ringo Deathstarr's strengths, but it also raises the question: where does the band go from here?

And perhaps this is where Wilco could point the way. Obviously recruiting guitar virtuoso Nels Cline can only be done by so many bands... But by albums four and five, Jeff Tweedy and company famously transformed with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born by not only revealing more of themselves, but also by mixing up their influences to concoct an avant and abstract challenge to its prior oeuvre. Is it time for the Texas titans to inject more vulnerability or experimentation into its work? The latter is already happening in certain corners of Pure Mood. Indeed, its most thrilling moments are when Ringo Deathstarr defies expectation, as in "Dream Again," one of the few songs on the new collection where the band allows the piece to unwind in its own fashion, rather than choosing the easier exit via dramatic buildup or ignition of a holocaust of distortion and other effects. Album highlight "Stare At The Sun" slinks by on a delicate guitar bridge-plucked groove that not only sounds unlike anything that has been played by a shoegaze band before, but also manages to be both emotionally stimulating and entirely impossible to predict as the piece shifts to a shrill and danceable anthem of a chorus. It's a highly imaginative moment for the band, but also a glimpse of one possible future for an act that may be approaching an inflection point.

Pure Mood embraces influences both unexpected and logical. The grungy chords and steady, pounding drums of the Elliot Frazer-led "Never" and "Heavy Metal Suicide" echo Alice In Chains and relatively recent tourmates Smashing Pumpkins, specifically those bands' presentation of punk-derived energy in the context of big, polished productions. Even so, The Deathstarr knows better than to let go of its own strengths. For example, the relatively more aggressive and bass-forward sound introduced with its 2012 long-player Mauve [review] persists on the new collection. Bassist Alex Gehring, Mr. Frazer's longstanding musical foil, handles vocals on many of Pure Mood's softer songs, where her clear, euphonious tones shine brightest. There she is right at the outset of the record on the aforementioned stunner "Dream Again," gracefully harmonizing and doubling her vocals. And "Boys In Heat" and "Acid Tongue" underscore just how adept Ringo Deathstarr is at crafting the sorts of woozy, mid-tempo whammy-bar workouts characteristic of much of the Texans' 2011 debut, Colour Trip. Beyond these songs' inherent beauty and majesty, it is impressive just how fertile this territory is for the band: while in a sense the sound is Ringo Deathstarr's bread and butter, the threesome never feels like it is repeating itself because of the bracing, brisk and pop-leaning aspects of its songwriting. Pure Mood was released Friday by London-based Club AC30 in two separate colors of vinyl, on compact disc, and as a digital download. Unfortunately, it appears that the vinyl is already sold out, but the CD can be snatched up right here. -- Edward Charlton

Ringo Deathstarr: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud





Prior Ringo Deathstarr Coverage:
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Today's Hotness: Ringo Deathstarr
Review: Ringo Deathstarr | God's Dream
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Review: Ringo Deathstarr | Mauve + Live In Portland, Sept. 20
YouTube Rodeo: Ringo Deathstarr's "Kaleidoscope"
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Today's Hotness: Age Rings, Manorlady, Tungs/Heavy Midgets

>> Boston institution Midriff Records will release next week Age Rings' AM/PM EP, a companion piece to last year's best-of-2011 long-player Black Honey. The EP is comprised of songs resected from the Boston-based indie rockers' original, two-disc version of the acclaimed long-player it issued to Kickstarter backers a year ago. Midriff's release of AM/PM is no surprise, as it had been the label's plan since releasing its one-disc iteration of Black Honey last November [review] to release the songs it had excised at a later date. And that later date is May 25, when Age Rings plays a release show for the EP on the occasion of this month's installment of the very successful Midriff Records residency at Radio in Somerville, MA -- but more about that early next week. In a sense, AM/PM is a bin of spare arms and legs. But while the EP doesn't explicitly illuminate any heretofore unrevealed aspect of Black Honey (or vice versa), that perhaps speaks to the deftness of Midriff's curation of the portfolio of songs comprising the original, double-disc Black Honey such that the releases are self-contained collections complete in and of themselves. Indeed, the EP is populated with understated but brilliant rock songs showcasing Age Rings fronter Ted Billings' reedy tenor and wry outlook. Standout cuts include the noisier, heavier fist-pumper "Dreaming Forever" and the characteristically uptempo-but-down-in-the-mouth shuffler "Think Myself Sick." It's hard to know what to make of last week's news that Mr. Billings has converted the ongoing sessions for Age Rings' follow-up to Black Honey into sessions for a solo record Billings characterizes as "a bit of a departure from AR." After all, we like Age Rings a lot. But time will tell. In the mean time, rest assured in the knowledge that AM/PM is a known quantity, six tracks of lean, rootsy indie rock.

>> We were feeling a bit of a darkwave trend coming on when we last heard from Charlottesville, VA's Manorlady. We're not sure that has been borne out, particularly due to the apparent dissolution of the Lehigh Valley's best calling card in years, Soars, whose wonderful self-titled set seemed like another important focal point for the misperceived trendlet. But Manorlady soldiers on, thrives even, and the trio's latest collection Ego Oppressor will be self-released by the band June 18. Ego Oppressor will be issued as a CD/DVD combination; the DVD features an album-length, beat-synched video track to accompany the music on the CD. We don't think this will surprise anyone, but according to Manorlady fronter Aaron Baily, "[i]t's really, really, really trippy." The album remains true to the mid-fi and dark recordings from the band's last record, but the intensity level has increased. More aggressive tunes like the first preview track "Lines In The Corner Of Your Face" rock a little harder, while the dreamier, more subdued songs such as the pensive and nearly still "Sea Beast" -- check the Soundcloud embed below -- are more tightly focused. "Sea Beast," in particular, is exceptionally well-composed and the trio's skillful layering of guitar and synth (and even vocal parts) here hints at wide-open songwriting territory the band will find very fertile. Ego Oppressor will eventually be for sale right here, so keep checking back. We reviewed the trio's prior full-length Home a year ago here.



>> We think it is interesting that the term lo-fi has its heaviest associations bound to Guided By Voices' and Sebadoh's respective brands, while things like early Black Flag and Bad Brains recordings don't get discussed the same way (or at least not anymore). From a production standpoint, Richmond-based quartet Tungs has more in common with the Spot school of audio fidelity, at least based on the band's cracking new split release with scenemates Heavy Midgets, Sisters. There is something like a perfect balance to the overdriven productions contained therein; the split was released on vinyl and cassette by Bad Grrrl Records May 13. The music is boxy-sounding, post-punk that bleeds sizzling cymbals, high-hat and red-lined bass fuzz. The recordings practically throw off sparks due to the barely contained energy of the performances, and the rough edges don't detract from the experience; indeed the gritty power of the music on Sisters is the perfect antidote to the hyperclean, antiseptic recordings from the current crop of popular, smooth-pop guitar bands gracing the pages of a lot of music rags these days. But it's not just the everyman production values that make Tungs and Heavy Midgets stand apart: it's that the bands propound songs with character and imagination. Tungs' "Yossarian's Blues" warrants kudos for its vibrant, bristling take on Joy Division-derived punk. But that song seems almost conventional in comparison to "NewDiety," which touts ghostly, under-fi horns and Alice In Chains-indebted vocal yowling, or the pleasantly dubby wandering of "Bad Information." For its part, Heavy Midgets strike gold with its yearning ballad "Oh Susanna," which ends strong with a vast, feedback-flaring guitar lead, and the stuttering pop of anti-anthem "Come Get Me High," each strong enough to anchor a single in their own rights. Buy Sisters from Bad Grrrl right here or buy the digital version right here. Try before you buy via the Bandcamp embeds below.