“What’s that moving in the basement? What’s that moving in the attic?” My intro column as music editor (“Dancing About Pueblo Revival Style Architecture,” v. 21 no. 40) name-checked my DIY cassette copy of Christian Death’s Only Theatre of Pain as “an aural shield [protecting me] from rednecks’ drive-by critiques of my gothic fashion sense.” Now, Burger Records and Frontier Records collaborate to release a color-coded cassette reissue of the classic deathrock album. There are many terrific tracks here, but whet your appetite for Rozz Williams’ luminescent ferality with “Cavity – First Communion,” “Spiritual Cramp,” “Deathwish” and “Romeo’s Distress.” (Samantha Anne Carrillo)
SQ†RL EP 2 (ATP Recordings)
Unsatisfied being merely an iconic auteur, Jim Jarmusch frolicks with sound. His latest partnership with Carter Logan and Shane Stoneback, SQÜRL, a self-described “enthusiastically marginal rock band from New York City,” exists in a realm of “… sad country songs, molten stoner core, chopped & screwed hip-hop and imaginary movie scores.” Swoon. Their second EP in an ATP trilogy handily delivers the ethereal vibe I needed after Lou Reed’s death: a suitable soundtrack for simultaneously mourning and celebrating. Amidst jangly, crumbling guitar work and expansive percussion, psych-rock with pop and experimental sensibility emerges on four mojo-laden tracks. The release—a 12-inch, 160-gram picture disc featuring moss-laden bark, an olive-colored sleeve emblazoned with the group’s fangy mascot and a collectible postcard—drops on Nov. 5. (Samantha Anne Carrillo)
Whores. Clean (Brutal Panda Records)
I describe any freethinking, not-one-fuck-giving souls as "honey badger." And the boys of Atlanta Southern sludge trio Whores.? Straight-up honey badger, y’all. Less boys and more old farts, singer/guitarist Christian Lembach, drummer Travis Owen, and bassist Jake Shultz shruggingly declare in their press bio that, “We were in other bands. Now we’re in this band. Soon we will all be deaf.” Every track on this six-song EP, recorded with engineer Ryan Boesch (Melvins, Tomahawk), is soaked in that FTW attitude; see “Baby Bird” and “I Am Not a Goal Oriented Person.” They’re also snarktastically funny. “Cougars, Not Kittens” pounds and screams out to all the MILFs listening. Miss Kyuss? Then give your warmest welcome to Whores. (M. Brianna Stallings)
