Aural Fixations

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Gearhead Records Smash-Up Derby
(Gearhead)
Guerrilla Jukebox Volume 1
(Tee Pee)
A Mess of Our Favorites Vol. 1
(Paisley Pop)
Once upon a time, in a land far removed from the one in which we currently reside, labels used to specialize. Rather than take the throw-it-up-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach favored by the corporate-bound majors, independent labels used to focus on music that meant something to them personally, whether it was bands formed by the owners' friends or a style of music they felt wasn't being sufficiently documented elsewhere. The advantage was brand identification; if a fan saw the familiar logo (SST, say, or K or Rough Trade) on a record, he or she knew pretty much what he was getting and of what quality. Whether that approach is the best one or not is irrelevant, but it's a tactic not used as much for rock labels as it once was. Specialty labels such as Arhoolie, Putumayo or Rounder may focuse on blues, world music or roots music, respectively, but outside of some diehard punk and metal imprints (BYO, Relapse, Century Media), few rock-oriented labels take aim at one style or genre and fire accurately.

Which makes that staple of musical introductions, the label sampler, a bit problematic. How many albums populated by various artists, usually whatever is most current on a label's rosters, have we all procured, only to discover one or two good songs and a whole bunch of innocous filler? (Or, worse, annoying offal?) One suspects this has to do with assembling a record by committee, with every department wanting its project represented, regardless of flow or compatibility. This can result in a label sampler CD that's choppy at best, horribly inconsistent at worst. After all, would you want all of your friends and family, with all their various tastes, to help you make a mix tape for a long car trip? You'd go insane listening to it, let alone recording it.

Fortunately, the tide in the indie rock world is turning back toward specialization; niche marketing, once a sure path to obscurity, has in this overloaded pop culture become an economic necessity. That isn't to say labels don't have some variance in their signings, but nowadays they often focus on a general style or mood, if not exactly genre, and once again fans know what to expect if they get a record with a certain logo on it. The devotion to contemporary psychedelia (in all its various forms) from London's Woronzow or Australia's Camera Obscura, the emphasis on traditional punk rock with BYO, the pre-ponderance of twee, lo-fi pop on Kindercore—these auras can be comforting guidelines when seeking out new music. This means that indie label samplers tend toward a certain consistency of vision, making them much more listenable than the usual major label grab-bag. They might even stand as—gasp—strong albums in their own right. (more)

Album reviews of new music by:

Ephel Duath

On The Painter's Palette, Tiso and his crew weave skeins of black metal, jazz fusion, progressive rock and Goth into a surprisingly melodic melange of sounds and styles. (more)

Ghost Town Drive

Ghost Town Drive has a sound that's immediately sensually gratifying to any fan of good guitar rock, plus the songs to support it, making Rock 'N Roll For Sale a classic rock album. (more)

Judith

The band's new EP Pills finds the group moving ever closer to an original sound, anthemic and melodic. (more)

Man

Man is Matt McGuire, a Detroiter armed on Machine with a bass drum, a fuzzed-out bass guitar and a chip on his shoulder the size of a whale. (more)

The Riverboat Gamblers

The quintet is a sloppy, turbocharged, gimme-a-beer-and-get-outta-my-way punk rock band, high on adrenaline, caffeine, speed and its own testosterone. (more)

David Sylvian

Rather than do his usual delicate eclecticism performed with world-class musicians, Sylvian strips everything down to guitar, some electronic accents and his supple voice for a set of mostly improvisational sound poems. (more)

The Tyde

The band plays it clean, sweet and simple, with the occasional distortion to liven things up, but mostly just chiming and jangling away. (more)

And enjoy the refreshed sounds of Godflesh, Mountain and Rainbow.