Arcsin(100) – Fine Gutters 8.5

                Arcsin(100) have heart. I’m reminded of the best of early grunge and indie pop while I get this through my head. My closest comparison would be early Sebadoh. However, perhaps everyone might not be familiar with Sebadoh or other forms of the stripped-down, emotional sound Arcsin(100) employs. Think of this album as “Shaggy Dog” rock.  

                 This is a sprawling album. An album with 24 tracks can be daunting. Don’t let it be. Really there is every reason to enjoy it. Each song is well-done and themes pop in and out of the album. Having themes means you can grab a couple songs and realize how well they fit together. 

                “Newton” starts things off. In the beginning, it sounds reminiscent of a band off the Siltbreeze label, with the loudness and distortion. Remember the short-lived genre “Shitgaze”? Well, Arcsin(100) remembered it well with this song and a few others on here, specifically this one and the fuzzy “Realize Nothing”. 

                Most of these songs are more acoustic-based. All are lo-fi. I don’t think Arcsin(100) could keep the same level of intimacy if they choose a higher-fidelity format. With their approach, they manage to remain a bit closer to the listener. Having silly lyrics certainly helps as well.

                Due to the many songs, I have a few sections which I particularly enjoy; specifically “She got hit by a Car” to “NASA”. “NASA” has some silly-sweet lyrics. My favorite line from NASA has to be the smile inducing “It’s the future/and everyone hates Earth”. As I was called a ‘spacey kid’ for more times than I can possibly count I enjoyed the day-dreaming hopes of the singer. 

                “The Light Lines” to “00110” would be my other favorite section of songs. “Diesel Engine” is the best song on the album for me. While I listened to this I lay down on my bed, sweating doing nothing. Arcsin(100) wrote the song specifically for that purpose. I’m certain of it. 

                I’m always excited when I stumble upon something this instantly enjoyable. You don’t have to do any elbow work. Jeff Lownsbury has already done it for you. This is fantastic.

St Ranger

              Hm, a lot of things seem to be going on in Arizona, musically-speaking. Or maybe being such a fan of warm weather has me constantly looking towards there especially after such a cold winter. Whatever the reason, I’ve been kind of interested in what’s been going on there.

                St Ranger comes from Tempe, Arizona with a nice penchant for wordplay (their webpage shows themselves as strangerarizona, an appropriate and fitting description of what they do). Going over their tiny internet presence they are five guys who appeared in a series of fairly unsuccessful bands. You know the usual young guy thing (and these guys are extremely young). It is nothing that can be helped, similar to how Australians tour around the world for a couple years for little to no reason. After getting little to no coverage, they came together and busted out a bandcamp page. Then they toured around the Southwest for a while and had some positive feedback. 

                Now they’ve stated they sound similar to Grizzly Bear. That seems a bit right, perhaps Grizzly Bear mixed in with a bit of Surfer Blood. Looking over the bands they’ve toured with, I see a perennial favorite and the tragically on-definite hiatus Women. Women might be the closest comparison I can come up with, think of a clean shaven Women and you’re halfway there.

                “Ohnowoe” is their first polished offering to the world. Listening to it, I’m reminded the 80s mining has shifted to the late 80s. The build on the song is quite nice; it reminds me of some kind of fantastic, sun-bleached summer day. You know the kind where you do absolutely nothing productive but swim and drink beer. A great day is contained within the five minutes or so in this song. Despite their recent origin, they have a knack for hitting all the right points, the tone, vocals, etc. If this is the opener, I’m keen to see what follows. Since it is free and pretty excellent, I'd suggest checking it out.

                They’ve announced an album is expected sometime in the summer. For a band that seems to be summer’s child, that makes complete sense.

Vladee Divacc – Technical Foul EP 7.4

Maybe the kids in Tempe, Arizona need something to do. Leave it to the blandest suburbs imaginable that would make people create “Dunkwave”. Apparently Dunkwave is a mixture of noise, drone, and random basketball samples. Before you groan and say “Geez, that sounds like literally the most awful thing ever” give it a listen. I decided to pretend I hadn’t just read what it actually was and put it on.

Vladee Divacc (a reference to the Serbian basketball player Vlade Divac) consists of Edouard Urcadez and Christian Filardo, two young artists from Arizona State University. Together they’ve made an oddly compelling noise/drone act. Plus, they get rid of the usual boring acts by playing in actual basketball courts (though they get kicked out, which is unfortunate).

Right from the get go, you feel the bouncing ball, though it is disguised through various levels of distortion. “Ostertag” has this is in full as you hear the healthy levels of distortion. The word “Ostertag” swims through the delightful muck. 

The vocals grab you though. Sounding like early Pocahaunted vocals, they are sustained for unreasonable periods of time. Mixed with the lower registers, it occasionally transforms into some beautiful moments, like dead in the center of “Drazen Petrovic (Hero)” where they seem to reach a gentle, fleeting moment. “Technical” is just basically vocals for the majority of the song and is shockingly well-done. 

Despite what many might see as a pointless gimmick, it does succeed in what it sets up to do. Basketball suddenly becomes a part of this hyper-weird environment. The gimmick actually helps give it a personality, avoiding the fate of being faceless artists making noise drone music. And at only 12 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. 

Below is a link to the album, which you can download for free off of bandcamp:

Vladee Divacc