Feature - Culture of the Copy

Bit late with this (and I know talking about your own band is a bit dull) but Tye Die Tapes have very kindly put out Feature's new EP, 'Culture of the Copy' so I thought I'd give it a quick, totally shameless plug.

Because of Bandcamp's new rule change, you can now hear ALL of the songs from the four-track EP, right here, or just stream 'Psalms' to see what it's like:



We were really lucky to record this in January up in Sheffield with Michael and Adam at Tye Die Tapes. It was bloody freezing but they've done a great job at hiding the noise of the wind coming through the windows on the guitar parts. The EP was based on (one of) Jen's favourite books, Culture of the Copy by Hillel Schwartz, which is a cultural history of twins, doubles, copies, imposters and Doppelgangers. I've only dipped in and out of it on a train journey, but if you can get your hands on a copy you should - I found vanishing twin syndrome particularly fascinating, and this is what the lyrics of 'Twins' looks into.

It has also been amusing/frustrating how many 'girl band' references we're now getting, especially the old favourite of 'riot grrrl', even though as far as I know I'm the only member that has a teen love of the 'genre' (though describing it as a genre still doesn't do justice to such a hugely diverse selection of musicians that are associated with the movement). Jen never went through a riot grrrl phase and I don't think I've ever really chatted about it with Heather, so it's strange that we're still being referred to as a riot grrrl band. We wrote this piece a few years ago for our friend Sarah's art submission, which hopefully to some length explains why gender really shouldn't still be a big deal. I feel as though even responding to it draws unnecessary attention, or makes us sound moany or whatever, but there's still definitely need for discussion when it continues to still be the focus for some people.

ANYWAY. Should you like what you hear, you can get the EP on cassette or download directly from TDT: http://tyedietapes.bandcamp.com/album/culture-of-the-copy

Playlist - Into Spring

In two weeks I'm going to be heading to New York for the very first time, and so in preparation I'm trying to put together playlists for the long flights there and back. If anyone passes by here and has any tips, recommendations are welcome! It's boring to always moan about lacking the hours to sit and write and consume new music, I know, but I am enjoying setting time aside to research recent albums and catch up on tracks and bands that I've seen flash by my screen, unexplored until now.

So here I am at the beginning: some music that's caught my ear recently, that will hopefully lead to further new discoveries...

January 2014 Mixtape

As someone with a memory full of blackholes and a waning attention span, Songdrop has been my saviour this month, neatly adding a virtual post-it note to all those tracks that pass by during report-writing, emailing and glancing longingly through the window...

Although it's not the end of the month quite yet, my next update could be some time so here's a rundown of songs that have caught my ear so far in 2014. Special mentions go to Seeds of Doubt, Primitive Parts, As Ondas, Ravioli Me Away, Lady Neptune and Blueprint Blue, simply for reminding me that despite mice, damp, horrible train journeys and extortionate rent prices, living in London can be worth it when bands like this are locals too.

Here goes...

My Secret World: The Story of Sarah Records

After ceasing existence in 1995 following an eight-year run of many beloved releases (including The Field Mice, Another Sunny Day, The Orchids and Heavenly), I'm very excited to hear that one of indie-pop's greatest DIY labels, Sarah Records, is soon to be getting a long overdue documentary!

Founded in Bristol in 1987 by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes, Sarah Records released an impressive 623 7" singles, fanzines, albums and compilations in total, and filmmaker Lucy Dawkins has spoken to many of the label's bands, diehard fans and amassed footage from the era, "[proving] you can run a successful business without surrendering personal ethics". The film is currently looking for distribution and will have a premiere in Bristol sometime this year. Here's the first trailer:

Find out more: http://storyofsarahrecords.com/

2013: Personal Best

Photo by PZS

Noteworthy Albums:

* click album names for tracks *

Vision Fortune - Mas Fiestas con el Grupo Vision Fortune (Faux Discx/Gringo)

Pissed Jeans - Honeys (Sub Pop)
Mazes - Ores and Minerals (Fat Cat)

Hookworms - Pearl Mystic (Gringo)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (Castle Face)

Fists - Phantasm (Gringo/Hello Thor)
Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (What's Yr Rupture)

Shopping - Consumer Complaints (Milk Records)
Just Handshakes - Say It (Bleeding Gold)

White Denim - Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown)
Bill Callahan - Dream River (Drag City)

Factory Floor - Factory Floor (DFA Records)

Julia Holter - Loud City Song (Domino)
Pond - Hobo Rocket (Modular)

Quasi - Mole City (Domino)

The Space Lady - Greatest Hits (Night School Records)

The Julie Ruin - Run Fast (Dischord / TJR)

Mariam The Believer - Blood Donation (Moshi Moshi Records)
Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)

Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe (Dead Oceans)
The Mantles - Long Enough To Leave (Slumberland)

Larry Gus - Years Not Living (DFA Records)

Au Revoir Simone - Move In Spectrums (Moshi Moshi Records)

Deptford Goth - Life After Defo (Merok)
No Bra - Candy (LP on Address)

A Grave With No Name - Whirlpool (Lefse Records)

Gun Outfit - Hard Coming Down (PPM)

The Haxan Cloak - Excavation (Tri Angle)
The Growlers - Hung At Heart (Fat Cat)

.. There is so much more that's interested me, but I'd feel weird including an album I haven't listened to more than twice - I need to do some serious catching up.

Noteworthy Songs:

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Pt II
Primitive Parts - Another Night / Dust

Elenor Friedberger - Stare At The Sun

Upset - Oxfords and Wingtips

The Pastels - Check My Heart

Withered Hand - Black Tambourine
Virginia Wing - Donna's Gift
Teardrop Factory - Vanity Unfair
Witching Waves - Barber
Slowcoaches - Total Block
Tense Men - RNRFON

Girl Called Johnny - Heaven Knows

New Finds:

Ed Schrader's Music Beat

Claw Marks

Occult Hand
Warmhammer

Men Oh Pause
Androgynous Mind

The Wharves

Good Throb

Zombie Crash

PKN
Joey Fourr

Nu Sensae

The Best of 2013:

Supernormal Festival (all of it)

Tramlines (aka Sweatfest '13) at Tye Die Tapes HQ w. Slowcoaches, Omi Palone, Collider, Fawn Spots, Feature & Pjaro

Ed Schrader's Music Beat at TDT HQ (especially the Bowie ad-lib)

Seeing The Breeders for the first time (twice!)
Daniel Johnston at Protein Gallery

Lydia Lunch terrifying & charming everyone at the 100 Club
The London screening of Kathleen Hanna doc 'The Punk Singer'
Primavera (but not the cold weather)
White Denim at Village Underground
First and second visits to Amsterdam
Cribsmas

Looking forward to in 2014:

An album from Omi Palone!
New Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks record

New York trip
The Space Lady World Tour (!)
Portugal & Barcelona
Potential UK tour w. Feature

x

One Beat - Best of 2013 Playlist

I now spend so much time speaking to other (much more capable) writers about new music, that I'm left with pretty much no time to actually keep up with my own writing. It's a small price to pay though, as this little playlist will show.

So here is a selection of a few of my favourite tracks that I've worked on from the past year. (Note: I've picked solely from my freelance roster rather than including the [PIAS] Cooperative stuff too, simply because otherwise it would go on for HOURS and HOURS. Expect that little round-up to appear online soon.) It was also strange to realise that I'd already written about so many of the bands long before I got the chance to work with them. Seems being a massive fangirl does pay off sometimes, who'd have thought?!

Follow at: https://www.facebook.com/OneBeatDigital

The Mantles - Hello

The Mantles' new album is all kinds of great. And this is just one reason why... (directed by Grass Widow's Hannah Lew)...



Slumberland Records are releasing Long Enough To Leave in the UK on 15th July. Visit them at: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/

Playing Catch Up - New Sounds

Oh time, where the heck do you go these days? One day we're still deep in winter, shivering in rented flats and buying plane tickets for far off excursions, and suddenly you wake up in the morning and it's almost May and you're in a new room, commuting to a new office and everything is odd and new, though it only feels like an eyelid has flickered shut for a brief moment.

One thing that might have aided this sudden rush through to the future (besides big location changes in life, settling in and all the rest of it), is the sheer amount of music coming through at such a high standard, which takes a while to fully digest. In the past few months I've done a fair bit of time travelling - I've relived what it feels like to go to a gig when everyone feels young and un-ironically sings their hearts out to every lyric and it all ends in a sweaty pile of slippery floorboards and soaked-through t-shirts (The Cribs at 100 Club). There have been the Next Big Thing shows - packed into Dalston buzz bars, crammed between video cameras and photographers lining the front row as they crane their cameras to get just one. more. defining shot, when all you want to do is get a decent view and have some fun watching a band who might not return to such a small capacity again (Parquet Courts at the Shacklewell Arms). And then there is the future: down at the bottom of a small tucked-away alley, TV screens flickering in time to music, dancers you can only just catch the tips of over a crowd of tall men, lights flashing like urgent sirens, half the audience forced to listen from the street as you get the sense you're missing something spectacular as the music bends through the window outside (Vision Fortune at Protein Gallery).

There were years when it felt like there was a lot of space to fill, sounds yet to discover and audible yawns in record shops. Now, it's coming back, streaming around the globe, ideas being shared and live bands that stop you in your tracks. Patti Smith recently said, "I'm sure that each generation could say that their time was the best and the worst of times, but I think that right now we are at something different... It's a pioneering time because there's no other time in history like right now... it is a time of the people, because technology has really democratised self-expression. Instead of a handful of people making their own records or writing their own songs, everybody can write them... everyone has access". It does feel as though there is a lot to write about, to write for, to put a little part of yourself out there, no matter how scary. In the past year or so games have been upped, and it's not just about drinking beers, uploading photos and hoping for the best anymore.

To summarise this somewhat uncalled for, introspective ramble that verges on a tiring diary update, here are some recent songs that I have been enjoying, and that serve to show that there is a new wave of gripping music that seems to be unfolding constantly... (and hell, it makes the Tube commute a little brighter every morning).

Terror Bird - The Wrong Way



Vision Fortune - XIV



Hookworms - In Our Time



Theo Verney - Moving Forever
 

Parquet Courts - Stoned and Starving


More to follow soon.

Weird Menace - Beyond Belief

I wrote about Weird Menace some time ago, when they first outed the stark, subconscious roaming of the self-explanatory song, 'Demo'. It was all hazy vocals against a firm repetition, with occasional streaks of chorus lines, that wasn't yet fully formed, but hinted at what could be.

In the past year or so, the trio became a duo and then a trio once again, and their faces were shown on this virtual domain; a single press shot showed them to be Emma Wigham, Katy Cotterell and Bob D'Mello (Merida from La La Vasquez was their original drummer). Their new song, 'Beyond Belief' is a striking and tense offering, and can be downloaded for free below.



Suplex Cassettes will release Weird Menace's debut EP on the 18th March. The 'Weird Menace EP' features 5 songs on white cassette, available with two alternate covers, and limited to 100 copies (+ each comes with an instant download code). Available at http://suplexcassettes.bigcartel.com/

There will also be a tape release party at Power Lunches on 14th March.

Edible Arrangements - Edible Arrangements Tape

Though I still haven't caught Edible Arrangements in the flesh, their organ-doomed pop has been slowly creeping up on live bills in London, Brighton and around the UK. They have now put their unnerving songs to tape, so that winter hermits like myself can finally get a taste.

Their spidery compositions come fixed with an eerie tension, and despite excellent titles like 'Catholic Quilt', 'Second Hand Shit That You Live In' and 'Witch Fingers' and their self-coined naming of 'Broom and Gloom', there isn't a trace of kitsch or twee at play here, but merely a sense of building unease. Certain moments remind me of The Shaggs, as though Dot, Helen and Betty had mastered their instruments, broken free of their father and all shared an unhealthy fascination with b-movies. If you're in Brighton on 15th March, be sure to head to the Molly Nilsson gig early to catch their set.

Stream the 'Edible Arrangements Tape' in full...

Order the cassette at Comfortable on a Tightrope.

Facebook link.

Primitive Parts - Another Day

Last week, Primitive Parts performed at Upset The Rhythm's Raymond Pettibon film screening night at SPACE gallery, and the setting couldn't have been better - with no stage, the trio took over a corner of the room, backed by a large stack of TV's looping the bright frames of an undisclosed movie, guitars held high, soft-shoe shuffling their way through a set of unperturbed brilliance.

With Kev and Robin also 2/3rds of Male Bonding and Lindsay splitting time with Sauna Youth, this new venture leaves behind their renowned pulse-racing immediacy and wanders a more languid and considered path. Listen to 'Another Night' here...

They play the Victoria in Dalston on 8th March with The Homosexuals.
There are no other links, yet.

Just Handshakes - London Bound

I spent my University years in Cornwall, studying next to the beach, going for long walks on the cliffs, avoiding reggae (where possible), being awoken by seagulls every day and going to the kinds of house parties that would require clearing three whole days beforehand just to work on the fancy dress costume. I loved it, felt closed in by it, had some wonderful and some terrible times there, and never regretted the three years that saw me living in multicoloured houses and eat more beach bbq's than other forms of hot meals. But being so far away from everything and everyone certainly had it's downfalls, and I'd long for the rare weekends when I could jump on a train back to civilisation.

In my final year, thanks to some MySpace browsing I can across Twee As Fuck, a club night in London that opened my eyes to indie pop. Bands like The Pastels, Comet Gain, Shop Assistants, The Field Mice, Talulah Gosh and Dolly Mixture filled my record collection, all whispered vocals, tatty pop melodies and a fey sweetness that grunge, punk and other teenage favourites hadn't quite delivered. It's funny to think about it now, but those visits to London to Twee As Fuck gigs were like pilgrimages; I'd drag along a friend, and we'd sit quietly at the back in a room full of then strangers, sipping beers and soaking it all in, feeling as though we'd stumbled on something very special.

After moving to Brighton a year or so later, I realised that this wasn't the niche scene I'd presumed; it was everywhere, and I wasn't alone in my starry-eyed fangirl appreciation. There were Indie Pop Sundays, dance nights and zine fairs that all catered to this certain kind of music geek, and I continued to delve into the Peel sessions and 7 inches of the glory days.

Although there is by no means any kind of indie pop drought, it's been a while since I found a new band to fall for (not since Veronica Falls' first shared 'Beachy Head', anyway) but Just Handshakes stirred up those old memories of time spent on trains journeying to the big city. With the very apt title of 'London Bound', the Leeds' band's new single is a four and a half minute pop gem, with racing drums and intertwining guitar melodies that you can almost picture as being delivered by a cardigan-wearing Johnny Marr convert, echoing out under building synths and high reaching vocals, that pay tribute to bands past whilst keeping eyes fixed squarely on the here and now.

Having penned a deal with Bleeding Gold Records, Just Handshakes are giving away their new single for free, and I highly recommend you snap it up before the downloads reach their limit! A new album is also set to follow later in the year, so stay in touch...

https://www.facebook.com/justhandshakes

Mazes - Skulking

With frames that chop with acute precision, the new Mazes' visuals for 'Skulking' bring an even more hypnotic quality to the song's already tightly wound structure. Their new album, Ores and Minerals is out in a few weeks' on FatCat Records, and is already gunning for the top spot as my Album of the Year (yes, really). Go get lost --

MAZES- SKULKING from Conan Roberts on Vimeo.

http://mazesmazesmazes.tumblr.com/

The Growlers - One Million Lovers

Though their name has popped up on a few feeds recently, my knowledge of The Growlers' has been pretty limited - but all that is about to change. They've won me over with their far-out
slacker psych sounds, and are the much-needed winter warmer to what's been a pretty grim British January. Formed in Long Beach, California, way back in 2006, The Growlers blend surfing and experimentation, both in music and lifestyle. Now, with several moon cycles and a couple of hundred tunes behind them, Hung At Heart marks their latest release.

Having only occasionally tripped it across the ocean, it might come as a surprise to find out that this is The Growlers' third full record, and despite initial dabblings with high-profile producers it's as homegrown as they come, recorded by the band with no outsider input, in Costa Mesa.

After all sharing a warehouse right by Newport Beach, surfing, putting on bands and throwing parties, their shambolic sound and extravagant showmanship naturally took shape. These are warped pop songs; an occasionally unsettling circus of psychedelia, surf-rock and hints of country, fed with cryptic lyrics.

Check out 'One Million Lovers', taken from Hung At Heart --
 

Hung At Heart is released on 25th March via FatCat Records & the band are coming to the UK in April! By all accounts, things are gonna get freaky...

24th April - Shacklewell Arms, London, UK *just added*
25th April - Shacklewell Arms, London, UK
26th April - Green Door Store, Brighton, UK

http://www.thegrowlers.com/

Verity Susman - To Make You Afraid

I can never quite put my finger on why, but Verity Susman's voice always makes me well up a bit. In a similar way to Trish Keenan's delicate delivery, there's something in the tone that feels as though her voice is plugged directly into the inner self, with nothing constructed or manipulated; open to all of the elements.

After Electrelane's many reunion shows eventually petered out, her work as a solo artist has meant that their presence is still very much felt. Now fully exploring the importance of the visual as well as sound in her live performance, Verity credits Laurie Andserson and Meredith Monk as the main influences that have shaped her transition into an audio-visual artist. In a recent interview, she described her new venture:

"I’m using quite a lot of spoken word... and I wanted the visuals to enhance and sometimes also distort or contradict the things that are being spoken about. Film is also a way to illustrate some of the things I’ve been thinking about recently, like how it would be if your instrument was a part of your body, which is quite a visceral thought for a wind instrument player because you are breathing in and out of something in a way that can really feel like it’s a part of you."

Having supported Atlas Sound last year and played shows in Berlin and Paris, 'To Make You Afraid' marks her first official release of new material. While on the first few listens I felt it recalled Molly Nilsson, having listened further, the depth of sound continues to spread, with bursts of shining synths and wails that transcend the dark, glittering interior.




Verity will be playing two shows this month - one in London on the 24th January, and THIS one in Brighton on 25th, at the Green Door Store. It's free, and a Friday night, so no excuses.

https://www.facebook.com/veritysusman

Dark Times - Girl Hate EP

One band that I totally forgot to include on the 2012 list is Dark Times, from Norway. They were introduced to me on a final night in Berlin by my friend Maren, who gave me their Dark Times Tape recordings to accompany my flight back to the UK, and it's continued to follow me on travels ever since.

It's the kind of music that is either still being largely overlooked, or has slowly diminished since the late 80's/early 90's heyday, I'm not sure which I'd plump for. But it's certainly been missed in every sense. Forceful, heavy, raw and loud, and with a frontwoman who you wouldn't wanna mess with, Dark Times aren't concerned with any kind of vacuous postering or blind messages of blurred ideals. The lyrical content drives forward alongside the chugging bass and guitars; titles like 'He's A Slut', 'Dead Meat', 'Worlds Away' and 'Talk Too Much' give hints at the unease and anger that focusses the music. Like Sauna Youth's Dreamlands, Dark Times see the world for what it is, rather than conjuring up nostalgic or fanciful imagery ("Every conversation turns out the same/Waste of breath and time, slowly driving me insane").

Their new EP, Girl Hate, sees their sound and structure sharpened, the tempo upped and the fury heightened (and Maren did the artwork!). There's something about the delivery and the sound that makes me feel like a wide-eyed, pissed off teen again, and not in any kind of patronising sense; it's stirring and fearless, and after being swamped with the mainstream stylised or clichéd 'punx', hearing something a little bit more genuine (and from a woman's POV) is welcomed.

The tape is available for FREE here and you can buy the 'Girl Hate' EP here.

http://darktimes.bandcamp.com/

2012 : Personal Best

Cutting the past 365 days of music down into the highlights has been a tough one, not only because there has been a wealth to pick from, but because despite hearing hundreds upon hundreds of new releases, I've tried to cut it down to a small amount of records that kept me coming back again and again. Some I was lucky enough to work on and so got fully immersed in, and others just found their way onto my record player month after month and will always hold memories of special times.

Usually I have trouble picking a number one, but this year it's been easy. I kind of glossed over them back at the beginning of the summer as I couldn't spare the time to give them the write-up they deserve, but Pond win it fair and square. The Great Escape was a feast of new music (as usual), but catching them by chance for a spectacularly warm midday set in the Republic Of Music courtyard was the luckiest find. I hadn't gotten around to checking the record out, but as soon as they launched into their opening song, it was like seeing a favourite band for the first time; totally uninhibited, loose and loud, blasting away the hangovers of the bleary onlookers as though it was a headline set, rather than a matinee performance to a crowd of twenty. We all caught them again in the evening, and ended up catching them in London the week after, too, and Beard, Wives, Denim and their earlier record Frond were my go-to records for the rest of the year. 

As always, this list will be a bit patchy as memories fade in and out of view, but here's a quick rundown...

Noteworthy Albums:

Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim

Grass Widow - Internal Logic 

Sauna Youth - Dreamlands 

Cold Pumas - Persistent Malaise

Talk Normal - Sunshine

Disappears - Pre Language

The Soft Pack - Strapped

Chain And The Gang - In Cool Blood

Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class
Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance

Martha Wainwright - Come Home To Mama

Bos Angeles - Taking Out The Trash

Grimes - Visions

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber

The Men - Open Your Heart

Dinosaur Jr - I Bet On Sky

John Talabot - fIN

Tamaryn - Tender New Signs

Moon Duo - Circles

Slowcoaches - We're So Heavy EP

Stealing Sheep - Into The Diamond Sun

Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

Noteworthy Songs:

Corin Tucker - Groundhog Day

Novella - Mary's Gun

Mazes - Bodies

Tamaryn - I'm Gone

Deptford Goth - Life After Defo

Areca Grove - Colour Test

MYSTYRYS - Sea-Ice

Keel Her - Riot Grrrl

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

TOY - Left Myself Behind

New Finds:

Pond

Keel Her

Vision Fortune

Throne
Dark Times

Sealings
Milk Music

Parlour

The Soft Walls

Ceremony

Edible Arrangements

Royal Limp

The Best of 2012:

Setting up One Beat Digital PR

The (kind of) return of Bikini Kill, with Bikini Kill Records

John Talabot, The Men, Mudhoney, Bleached, Wild Beasts & more at Primavera Sound

Wanda Jackson at Latitude

Chain And The Gang at the Blind Tiger, Brighton in November

Trip to Berlin to see Maren

Getting FEATURE off the ground

The Sauna Youth & Cold Pumas' tour

Mission of Burma at Birthdays

Psychedelic Psyblings' blog

Patti Schemel at the ICA

Day out in Whitby

Visits to the Daytrotter studio

FINALLY finding Live Through This on vinyl for cheap!

Looking forward to in 2013:

Playing a show with Verity Susman

Mazes' album

The Julie Ruin

Dinosaur Jr live in London

Deerhunter ATP (and seeing The Breeders for the first time!)

More travelling

x

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Pt II / Oh Joel

Way back in the early months of 2011, a single Soundcloud link was mysteriously shared by a band calling themselves 'Distractions'. The track was a cover of Pissed Jeans' 'False Jesii Pt II'; a totally sweetened version with the shouts swapped for harmonies, bathed in the soft distortion of C86 and lightened melodies. I listened to it so often than I almost ended up forgetting it was a cover, as it grew to be a brilliant pop song in its own right.

And now, the mystery is no more - Distractions was a side project of two Sauna Youths, and now the band are releasing it as their very own via Static Shock Records on Jan 21st. The 7" will be backed with 'Oh Joel', an entirely new song that continues to delve into the Slumberland sound.

Stream 'em both here...
 

And come to the Garage in Islington on Wednesday 19th December for the record release show! Human Hair, Vision Fortune and Edible Arrangements support.

http://lostinidea.blogspot.co.uk/

Deptford Goth - Union

Though little is still known about the mysterious figure that manifests as Deptford Goth, Daniel Woodhouse certainly has the uncanny ability to of writing music that is at once emotionally tugging and gloriously uplifting. With his pure voice and use of space in sound, he forms music that is a whole world of its own; intimate, involving and able to light up even the darkest December day.

Though recent song 'Life After Defo' was regarded as the peak of his output so far, the new video for 'Union' shows that there is plenty more to be heard, with a delicate delivery and softly building hooks.

His debut full-length is due for release by Merok Records in early 2013.

https://www.facebook.com/deptfordgoth

Unwound - Live Leaves

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and set the speakers to the limit - Unwound's live set is now ready to be fed into your ears. Recordings from the band's 2001 tour of the US are soon to be released to the public for the first time as 'Live Leaves'; a last document from a band that imploded during their live run in 2001.

Though always brittle and menacing in sound, these recordings capture a darker feeling - the tour ended up being wrapped around 9/11, and the world's paranoia and fear is deep seated in the tense and relentless delivery of each song.

Justin Trosper has said, "Prior to [9/11], we had good energy, but we were still working out how to play the songs as a five-piece. Then, for whatever reason, we rocked hard for like a week in the south. Survival instincts kept us alive for a bit afterward, but during the California leg of the tour we self-destructed, and eventually we decided to cancel our European and Japanese tours."

And as well as holding a tension, the recordings also act as a sonic time machine - you can hear the clinking of beer glasses being thrown away behind the bar, the applause and whistles from the crowd and the introductions from the stage. All that's missing is the sticky floor.

Unwound have always been one of the greats of the 90's post-hardcore scene, and though they may sometimes be overlooked, they are one of the most essential bands on the Kill Rock Stars roster. In the words of Trosper, "if you're an old friend, welcome back. If you're new -- here's to you. Thanks for finding us." May their legacy continue to inspire and to reign.

Stream 'Live Leaves' over at Pitchfork.