Posts Tagged ‘Salad Boys’

SALAD BOYS – ” Psych Slasher “

Posted: July 9, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

Christchurch, New Zealand’s Salad Boys are back with “This Is Glue”, the follow up to their critically acclaimed 2015 debut album “Metalmania”. Recorded once again by bandleader/guitarist Joe Sampson at his home studio, “This Is Glue”s twelve songs dig deeper, with sharper hooks embedded deep within a more mature musicality.

This Is Glue” hones Sampson’s songwriting chops to a razor edge, with many of the album’s songs sounding utterly timeless. The riffs and melodies seem all too familiar, perhaps recalling greats that came before them this entire scene owes a heavy debt to New Zealand’s Flying Nun Records and the various bands that recorded for it in the 1980s. On songs like “Psych Slasher” and “Blown Up” the Salad Boys share the propulsive drive and rich guitars of Rolling Blackouts, charging ever forward into deeply satisfying pop territory, but with an almost metallic heaviness rarely found in bands like the Clean or the Chills. That edge might make them the best bet on this list to break out in America like Rolling Blackouts have.

From the album “This Is Glue”, out January 19th, 2018 on Trouble In Mind Records,

SALAD BOYS – ” This Is Glue “

Posted: February 22, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

No automatic alt text available.

On their first LP, 2015’s brilliant Metalmania, New Zealand’s Salad Boys built hooky, radiant songs from silvery strands of guitar, recalling the same effortless gift for melody as fellow countrymen The Bats as well as Reckoning-era R.E.M. Every song on the album felt wide-eyed and optimistic, frontman Joe Sampson’s voice front and center in the mix, the guitars ringing brightly behind him. The mood is decidedly grimmer on “This is Glue” which, like its predecessor, was recorded and mixed in Sampson’s home studio. Those claustrophobic environs suit Glue’s paranoid mood. Opener “Blown Up” rides a tense, krautrock rhythm, and Sampson’s voice is hushed and distant. When the guitars finally enter, one minute into the song, they arrive in great, furious slashes, a far cry from Metalmania’s church-bell pealing.

The result is a record that is marvelously tense and coiled; “Psych Slasher” is aptly named, a big, roaring garage rock song that wouldn’t be out of place in the Goner catalogue. “Choking Sick” heaves and stutters, Sampson repeating the same two-note vocal melody over and over as the drums kick and clatter behind him. “Under the Bed” is draped in funereal synths; “Scenic Route to Nowhere” is a three-minute festival of scuzz and rattle. “Hatred,” with its open arpeggios, is the closest in tone to Metalmania, but Sampson sighs out his vocals, undercutting the spiraling guitars with a twinge of melancholy. The album’s title is appropriate—every song feels caked in gluey layers of distortion, but instead of capsizing the record, the bleariness instead makes the record feel drifting and dreamlike. If Metalmania was a crisp, hi-res photo of a mountain range on a sunny day, Glue is that same photo during a rainstorm, with the focus off.

http://

SALAD BOYS – ” No Taste Bomber “

Posted: January 31, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

No automatic alt text available.

Summing up a two-song barrage in the KEXP studio by New Zealand’s Salad Boys, DJ Kevin Cole remarked that the band sounds like “the best of The Feelies, The Velvet Underground and Yo La Tengo in one song.” While it makes a lovable racket — channeling those and other legendary bands from its hometown Flying Nun label — the Christchurch trio dreams bigger and woozier, infusing all kinds of influences (classic indie rock, fuzzy dream-pop) into its energized psychedelic sound.

Singer-guitarist Joe Sampson took the band’s name from misheard lyrics of The Feelies’ “Fa Cé-La,” thinking he’d heard, “You said it was the salad boys / Everything is all right.” But those last words couldn’t be more true when you listen to Salad Boys‘ exhilarating session in the KEXP live room.

http://

Salad Boys came together at the end of 2012 with members from other illustrious Christchurch groups T54, Bang! Bang! Eche! and the Dance Asthmatics. Recorded, the Salad Boys are deceivingly charming, presenting a careful but curious balance of well-informed pop melodies, hypnotizing rhythms and heady instrumentation.

The group’s self-titled mini-album released in 2013 caused something of a mini-sensation, receiving praise from the likes of Stolen Girlfriends Club, Mess and Noise, hhhhappy.com and many more. In real life, the Salad Boys perform a wondrous assault: a charged up blitz of clanging guitars, intoxicating drones, head-down acid repetition and an abundance of dazzling pop hooks. This notoriety has scored the group a wealth of engagements up and down New Zealand including slots at the Camp a Low Hum and Chronophonium festivals, gigs with Sebadoh, The Bats, & Parquet Courts as well as a highly honorable spot performing as backing band for David Kilgour of legendary NZ group The Clean.

http://

2015 finds the band prepping their proper full-length debut “Metalmania” out in September on Chicago label, Trouble In Mind Records & routing a full coast-to-coast US-tour in Sept/Oct including a stop at Gonerfest in Memphis, TN.

SALAD BOYS – ” This Is Glue “

Posted: January 23, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Life has ways of letting you temporarily forget that it’s one big shit show, ultimately balancing things out to a bearable normality. The sophomore album from New Zealand outfit Salad Boys cushions the blow of front man Joe Sampson’s less-than-cheery observations within fuzzed-out, lo-fi garage guitars, the sounds of jangling indie-pop circa 1987 and Sampson’s own calm-cool-collected vocals. The lo-fi production suits the mood, recalling the melancholy charm of indie acts like The Chills and The Bats.

http://

“Blown Up” kicks things off with Krautrock rhythm and an aggressive flurry of guitars, as Sampson laments the pressure to constantly “concentrate and utilize our time.” “I’m useless to to myself and doomed to follow/Someone else,” he sings on “Psych Slasher,” the punk energy and triumphant vocals turning all that angst into a good time. “Scenic Route To Nowhere” takes things in a Parquet Courts direction, the angular guitar lines emphasizing Sampson’s mention of “anxiety,” “choking” and “stumbling.”

http://

SALAD BOYS – ” No Taste Bomber “

Posted: December 13, 2015 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

http://

The Salad Boys are a splendiferous discovery from down under,second generation players of Kiwi pop, who have obviously learned much at the feet of the masters, what a blessing and a luxury to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, remote, beautiful and wild New Zealand, (Christchurch and Dunedin in particular) plus, having a wealth of so much super-fine music buzzing around your head with a historic label like a Flying Nun.

The trio Joe Sampson, Ben Odering and James Sullivan  have been playing for a few years under this name, a mondegreen of a misheard lyric in the Feelies song, “Fa Cé La,” ‘silent void.’ It was supposed to be temporary, but they never got around to changing it. But, rightfully enough, their music on this debut album, shares many qualities with The Feelies, as well as classic Kiwi bands The Bats and The Clean/David Kilgour and the Heavy 8’s, bands that they’ve played with, along with Parquet Courts and Sebadoh.

“No Taste Bomber,” is another contender for my Best Song of the Year designation.

SALAD BOYS – ” Dream Date “

Posted: October 10, 2015 in MUSIC
Tags: , ,
0

http://

A note to potential listeners please don’t be put off by the name of Metalmania,the debut LP from New Zealand three-piece Salad Boys: the titular affliction is nowhere to be found. Album opener “Here’s No Use” is a quiet, rocking beauty. From there, Salad Boys usher in crashing cymbals and playful guitar solos with the up-tempo lead single (and pop-rock gem) “Dream Date.” The album goes from lovely to raucous and back again with each track. In terms of presentation, everything about Metalmania is veiled in irony: the band name is an inside joke between its members, the title has nothing to do with the contents, and the album cover is a pastel throwback. Once you get past all that—and it’s worth your while to do so—Salad Boys’ garage-rock roots and myriad pop hooks can be enjoyed in earnest. By the time closing song “First Eight” rolls around, “metal” starts to sound a lot like “mellow.”