Pretending It's Not Defeat

Sonorous Gale are one of those bands where people say "I can't believe how loud they are for just two people", but actually, two-piece punk rock bands almost always tend to be loud... maybe it's to make up for there being no 3rd or 4th guy around, I don't know. I mean, Bloarzeyd are a two-piece band, and they're practically the loudest band I've ever seen. Sonorous Gale are so loud their sound could pound nails into the floor, but they're not just loud; their stuff moves, too. If you're at all into bands like Shellac, Big Business, Big Black, Bastro, Bedroom Rehab, Bloarzeyd, and so forth (lotta 'B' bands there, too bad I didn't mention Book Slave), then you oughta check these guys out. They've got a cool white-vinyl LP out, plus I guess they've recorded some new songs that are going to come out on tape (because cassettes are so much more convenient than LPs, especially if this is the '80s). Plus the drummer cracked another cymbal when they played on Saturday, which is now 2-for-2 for shows in Connecticut this year.




Escalator is two dudes from Ripshit playing pissed-happy hardcore with some heavy Blast/Black Flag parts thrown in (yeah, another two-piece, as of a few days before the Whitney House show from what I understand). The snare kept falling over at one point and there were some other technical issues during their set, which only lended to the overall feel of disgust and disintegration, rather than taking away from anything. Escalator is some deadly stuff, but not in any "we're gonna thrash because we haven't found anything else to do" sort of way, but in a "we've got this heavy rock in our hands and we mean to hurt you with it" sort of way. (You can click on the cover art at the bottom of this post to download the entire Escalator demo, for now.)

Sonorous Gale -

"Shattered Fingers"

Escalator -

"Entitled Track/Compulsory Castration"

(these files are now listen-only)

Watch My Bones Bake In The Sun

My previous knowledge of Sonorous Gale goes like this: I bought the Crappy Dracula/Sonorous Gale split 7" a few months ago, but haven't listened to it. Sonorous Gale have also played around here a couple of times over the past year or so-- I mean, they're only from friggin' Buffalo-- but somehow I never went. So, when I trudged on down to the Fucking Discovery Zone in New Haven to see Sonorous Gale last Saturday, it was mostly because the folks who run FDZ are generally way more on top of things than I am (meaning which bands are really good and so forth), and because the songs I had listened to on the Sonorous Gale MySpace only a couple of hours earlier sounded pretty friggin' diesel.

Here's what I found out: Sonorous Gale are like a massive fucking beast, as if they're three times their size when they're playing right in front of you plus when they play it's like grenades are going off under the floor. The drummer slams his kit so hard that two of his cymbals were already cracked when he started, and he blew a fist-sized chunk out of a third cymbal halfway through the set. The bass player, besides being loud as hell, also brought some brilliant anti-patter ("Please, could everybody just move back?", "You'd think we could make one song that doesn't have ten drum solos in it", and "Hi, we're Teeth Mountain" were some of my favorites).

Sonorous Gale have a great-looking new white vinyl LP out on Wrong Foot Recordings (myspace.com/wrongfootrecordings), with maybe only 500 pressed, so I'd recommend that you start hunting down a copy now.




Fellow Project and atrilliongallonsofgas were also on the bill; I can usually be found standing off to the side with my arms folded whenever a twangy folk-punk type band is playing, and since Fellow Project sorta veer into that territory they didn't really sink in with me on the first listen, but later over the weekend I gave their latest CD on Dead Broke Rekerds (a fine label) a shot and it's actually got some fine stuff on it... almost Uncle Tupelo-ish in some parts. I missed out on getting to stand up front for when atrilliongallonsofgas played because I wandered off to get something to eat at Pizza Haven (fairly unspectacular) right before their set-- thus I wasn't at an angle to take better photos-- but their new line-up changes seem to be working out well and they sounded really awesome. Hardly anyone gave a listen to the song I posted from their demo the last time, so I'm posting it again, and maybe some of you will give them another shot. I've seen atrilliongallonsofgas twice now, and both times they were devestating, so if you're into sludgy/grime/doom/thrash stuff at all, now's the time to check them out.


Sonorous Gale -

"To Completion"

"Maytham Manor"

Fellow Project -

"Blow The Fucking Roof Off"

"Hernia Hang On"

atrilliongallonsofgas -

"White Backgrounds"

(these files are now listen-only)