Today's Hotness: Seb Roberts, Primitive Painters, War On Drugs

>> Welsh twee-core wunderkinds Los Campesinos! are not the only act to issue two records in 2008. The increasingly curious Seb Roberts has returned with a second release on SVC Records for the year, the EP Yeah, Well, Coué's Dead. Mr. Roberts, a Canadian-born and one-time Baltimore-based ex-pat who has spent many of his recent years in Germany and Japan, released his SVC debut Exit Strategy in March (he had previously previously issued another nine records elsewhere under various names). While the full-lengthed Exit Strategy seemed to draw from mid-period Ministry and Stewart Copeland's Klark Kent project, the new collection is a more composed amalgamation of hypnotic, Fripp-esque guitar textures and the bending chimpgaze swirl of the finer Swirlies recordings. Some of the mechanistic tone of Exit Strategy persists in the new collection (which features a remixed version of Exit Strategy's "US Out Of NY"), as the repeated guitar figure that draws "Roll Deep" to a close is somewhat robotic (in contrast to Robert Fripp's more flowing loops). "Roll Deep" is more intricately constructed than a first listen will reveal: lazery synths streak low in the mix, as do spectral vocal tracks. And where's the chorus? Roberts has cobbled together this fairly gripping video for the track that provocatively pairs footage of baggy scene legends, fireworks and riot police. More overt in its Fripp referencing is Roberts' gorgeous odd-metered instrumental "False Positive." Yeah, Well, Coué's Dead was issued digitally Dec. 2, and you can purchase it directly from SVC Records here. The EP will also be available through the usual digital storefronts imminently, if it is not already.

Seb Roberts -- "Roll Deep" -- Yeah, Well, Coué's Dead
[right click and save as]
[buy the EP from SVC Records right here]

>> Attentive readers will recall we noted last month the release of reconstituted California quintet Primitive Painters' new full-length Say It 'Til You Mean It. In doing so we reported that the album references the more guitar-centric work of alt. luminaries New Order. No song more pointedly refers to the legacy of the now apparently defunct-for-good Mancunians than Primitive Painters' album closer "Throw Your Heart To The Wind," which quotes the chorus of New Order's chillingly good "All The Way," the second track from the surprise 1989 triumph Technique (here's a live clip of New Order performing the track at Reading in '89). On the heels of the band's well-received record release show in California over the weekend the band has given us the OK to post "Throw Your Heart To The Wind" below. There's a lot to like: great drumming, crystalline layers of guitar and Dennis Crupi's lyrical exhortations to greater things.

Primitive Painters -- "Throw Your Heart To The Wind" -- Say It 'Til You Mean It
[right click and save as]
[buy the record from the band right here]

>> It is worth mentioning for the record that, although the septet will not be coming to New England, The War On Drugs neverthless launch a tour this evening in Pontiac, MI. Only yesterday we named the Philly-based act's gloriously droning "Show Me The Coast" one of the ten best songs of the year. We expect our bestowing such an honor will result in mob scenes at these upcoming dates, but even so you should brave the crowds to see The War On Drugs, whose Wagonwheel Blues is one of the more under-appreciated gems of 2008 (it will appear on our top albums list next week).

12/09 -- Pontiac, MI -- The Pike Room at The Crofoot
12/10 -- Rock Island, IL -- Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor
12/11 -- Chicago, IL -- Schuba's
12/12 -- Bloomington, IN -- Bear's Place
12/13 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Brillobox
12/14 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Union Hall
12/15 -- New York, NY -- Mercury Lounge
12/18 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Johnny Brenda's

Today's Hotness: Faunts, Primitive Painters, Adebisi Shank

>> Tomorrow Edmonton-based indie quintet Faunts issue a digital-only set of remixes, the more ethereal of which (Mark Templeton's gauzy remix of "Places I've Found" in particular) were the perfect soundtrack for Sunday morning coffee. The obviously titled Faunts Remixed contains 14 tracks pulled from the band's first two records, High Expectations/Low Results and the M4 EP. Remixers include Cadence Weapon, a fellow from the jarringly named Shout Out Out Out Out and Faunts themselves. Friendly Fire is offering two MP3s to tease the release, and we're posting them below. The act intends to issue a new full-length collection, Feel. Love. Thinking. Of., in February 2009. The original version of "Memories Of Places We've Never Been" was issued on the aforementioned High Expectations/Low Results, and also previously appeared on the Friendly Fire Recordings Sampler 2007.

Faunts -- "Memories Of Places We've Never Been (TH White Remix)" -- Faunts Remixed
Faunts -- "M4 (Part II) (The Paronomasaic Remix)" -- Faunts Remixed
[right click and save as]
[buy Faunts Remixed from Friendly Fire right here]

>> We previously discussed Orange County, Calif.-based indie rock sextet Primitive Painters here in early 2005 (we regret saying its music was "a bit wimpy" -- if we had a do-over we'd say something like "heart-on-sleeve"). Now that there is news of a new full-length from the act, let's review: Primitive Painters recorded a really great demo called Dirtclods in the early '90s that sounded like the atmospheric British guitar rock of the day injected with a bit of SoCal punk energy. The band caught the ear of UK label GT's, and rerecorded the stuff from the demo, added some more stuff, and released a debut that was also called Dirtclods. This led to some confusion for us when we upgraded from our cassette dub to CD a couple years ago. We were puzzled upon receiving the CD that the songs sounded different, and it turns out our cassette was the demo, which we learned a couple years back when we pinged singer Dennis Crupi. Primitive Painters broke up in 1997, but Mr. Crupi and founding bassist (and now guitarist) Patrick Homa reconstituted the act in 2002 with a clutch of new players. Around the same time the band was named one of the 129 greatest bands from Orange County and released the short set EP33. Its new collection, Say It 'Til You Mean It, was self-released earlier this month, and while we have only heard what's posted at Primitive Painters' MySpace hacienda, we feel pretty comfortable saying its best stuff is even better than the best old tunes. Where the Dirtclods demos were fairly spare, the production on Say It 'Til You Mean It is lush, in places particularly imaginative, and there are tons of big guitars and bigger melodies. The updated Primitive Painters sound is reminiscent of "Regret"-era New Order, although obviously without Peter Hook's trademark bass noodling. Anthems like "Harm" and the New Order-referencing "Throw Your Heart To The Wind" establish a new beachhead for Primitive Painters. The sextet celebrate the release of Say It 'Til You Mean It with a show Dec. 6 in Fullerton, Calif.

>> You owe it to yourself to click this link and witness the COMPLETE. ROCK. MAYEM. perpretrated by Irish spazz-core trio Adebisi Shank in glorious full-screen video. How much speed are these guys on? How does guitarist Lar get those crazy sounds out of his arsenal of pedals? Why didn't several of the audience members' heads just explode like so many M80'd melons? We simply can't process this. This 16-minute set captured Oct. 17 at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston, England is the most bonkers thing we've seen in we don't know how long. So many questions. Why is the bass player Vinny wearing a full head veil? Did the BeatCastTV editors add some sort of strobe effect to the footage and speed it up, or is this band just going off like crazy? Spectacular, and a little more ear-friendly than fellow English grind merchants Rolo Tomassi, whom we've been meaning to mention in these electronic pages lately.

>> Notable ghost logos: Ghostly International. Johnny Foreigner. Larytta.