RELEASESHeatdeatH | Tirra Lirra | Locks | Weather | A Tundra | Archives ssr011- HeatdeatH, "II" LPHeatdeatH is the Minneapolis based duo of Andrew Broder (guitar, electronics) and Tim Glenn (drums, electronics). This entity is the outlet for the duo's long-standing dedication to drone, ambient noise, suicidal black metal, free jazz, four-track recording, modern composition, and pretty shit. Their sound constantly unfolds and overlaps, searching melodically with great sadness and beauty, while overwhelmingly abrasive and terrifying all at once. "II" is their second release and is available only as a limited edition vinyl 12" and download. The vinyl also includes a coupon for free high-quality (320kbps) mp3s of the record plus a download-able bonus track unavailable anywhere else. 
Back to Top  ssr010- A TUNDRA "Man or Woman,
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The musical climate we currently reside in is over saturated and stagnant. Bands are being started to adhere to the rules of a genre, not the creativity of it's makers. The city of Chicago has a notorious abundance of musicians not content to follow any preset paths, TIRRA LIRRA contains four of them. Molding traditional rock instruments like guitar and drums with experimenter's tools such as modular synthesizers and samplers, this quartet of noisemakers blend pounding rhythms, slurred, echoed vocals, electronic tone sculpting, and guitars like a fever dream with a sharp sense of melody to create a music that has a warm, organic nature with a cold, dark spine.
While forging new sounding music is ever necessary, TIRRA LIRRA also posses a strong understanding of the past and their roots. From psych-rock, to punk, and even flirtations with the darker side of post-punk and primitive industrial music, TIRRA LIRRA has crafted a sound that is challenging and innovative as well as satisfying and familiar.
"Breathe Bodies" is the debut recording of this young group, and is a high starting point for a band with an increasingly large following in Chicago and upon this recording's release and TIRRA LIRRA's subsequent tours, the world.
From www.screamingbloodymess.com:
"Droney, hypnotic rock that employs a lot echoed vocals and electronic noise sculpting But thankfully the songs don’t’ come across at too contrived or artsy although the 13 minute opener ‘Pale’ with it’s waves of reverb and tom beats may have some people thinking otherwise.
The highlight is the closing Alabaster, a propulsive song with the echoes on the looped vocals almost making them sound Middle Eastern at some stages. Not sure how they would hold up live, probably pretty good I imagine. On record at least they put in a good performance."
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D.I.Y. means a lot of things to a lot of different people. To some it means putting in a sink or toilet, to others it means a hobby, to the duo of Theo Katsaounis and Patrick Scott, collectively known as LOCKS, D.I.Y. means EVERYTHING! Both have their roots in the punk/harcore/indie scenes of Chicago's mid 90's heyday, and have managed to apply the independent ethics of their past with their penchant for experimentation and song-craft to create a music that can only be known as LOCKS.
Being a pair of music fans their whole lives, Theo and Patrick have influences in all directions. LOCKS reflects this. They will dwell on a rickety droning loop, interrupting it with a trotting post-modern pop song, only to follow that with abstracted lyrical introspection over an electronic pulse. As far reaching as their sounds and influences go, all their music simply put, just sounds like it's theirs.
"Bad Words" was created slowly and randomly over the course of a year being assembled and performed in Patrick's apartment and it's basement. Recorded by the band, with no budget meant "anything goes" and it did. Need a snare drum sound? Sample an oven door. A synth tone? how about wiring a mixer backwards so it feeds back on itself. Reverb? How about a mic in the ductwork of the apartment with someone singing in the other end? A beat? How about someone dropping a box and swearing? All these sounds are found on "Bad Words" and in no way are they arbitrary, everything seems like it was put there on purpose, even if it was just a "happy accident".
Recording trickery and song-craft aside, a band isn't a band if they can't pull it off live, and that's the department where LOCKS excels. Playing their first show on tour shortly after forming , Theo and Patrick have been touring consistantly and feverishly around the U.S. and Canada with more tours always being planned.
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Roby from Milemarker, and Patrick from Kill Sadie and My Lai, alongside Theo from Stillwell made an interesting blend of post-post hardcore, free improvisation, feedback, art-rock, and what have you. A fine document of a short lived band. Roby moved to Baltimore and is a part of Cex and Sand Cats, Patrick is in Locks and records solo as so/on, and Theo plays in Locks, A Tundra, and solo as Lark.
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(super limited edition, 3"CDr of manipulated sine and square waves as well as layers of minimal electronic feedback. An experiment in patience, endurance and noise floor.)
(after my lai, patrick dug deep into hours and hours of 4track and 8track experiments, with sound sources including faucets, plates, cheap drum-machines, guitars, the UNISYNTH, late night television, and rudimentary electronics. Disc 1 is a 45 minute tape piece used as an audio backdrop for the band Kill Sadie on their epic 2.5month summer 2000 U.S. tour. Disc 2 is a collection of works recorded in chicago, toronto, seattle, and austin from 1998-2003)
(a limited edition of these were pressed for My Lai's 1999 tour, an even more limited number of them were silkscreened on the blank side. Three songs of fast, noisy, yet somehow melodic, post-grind-art-core complete with brian playing piano, and even more "nonsense" lyrical Haiku.)
(caught smack dab in the middle of hardcore's late 90's "metal or haircut" schism these four chicagoans seemed to sound like an airplane landing in your living room...an actual quote from a show...yet stop on a dime and play 10 seconds of quiet pretty stuff, then comes the blast-beat and feedback, all with lyrics that some saw as poetic and insightful and maximum rock'n'roll just called "nonsense".)
(a great debut...i maintain it's their best work along with their demo...from a group of kids wise beyond their years. Late 90's indie rock was the template but elaine's voice cut through all the crap, she has strength, and presence, twee she is not, the music is a great mixture of "soft/loud" dynamics and the songs move like pretty dirges...except the last one, it's poppy...)
(yeah, yeah it's got tim from Rise Against and Neil from Lawerence Arms in the band. Mid-tempo fist pumping anthems for the pre-arena-emo generation. these guys had it.)
(4 bands, 3 of which all lived in my apartment at one time or another and the 4th of which was one of the great unsung bands of my days living in pennsylvania. My Lai, before i was in the band, V.Reverse, my pre-My Lai band with Doug from 8Bark and 4th Rotor; Milkwede, the best bunch of kids to play a million shows with while i was in high school, and Trepan Nation, straight edge pop punk without a hint of christianity, more like queer athiesm. This record took forever and cemented that i don't think i want to do a comp again.)
(the debut from this odd group of chicago misfits, they were straight edge, but weren't assholes, their music was influenced more by propagandhi than Judge, and their best song "Ok two penguins are sitting in a bathtub" is on this record. Covers were scammed at the UIC copy shop i think.)
