https://www.yellowgreenred.com

MARK SULTAN "Filthy Rat" EP by Mark Sultan

From http://www.yellowgreenred.com/

Mark Sultan I’m A Filthy Rat / Heart Attack 7″ (Slovenly)

Young Skulls review courtesy of Matt Korvette at yellowgreenred.com

"Young Skulls Bomb Train Blues 7″ (Slovenly) How about a new garage-punk band featuring an occasional associate of Trans Am to get your attention? It worked for me! Trans Am were a real eye-opener for me in the late ’90s, with albums that have (perhaps surprisingly) aged quite well, so if I find out that Chris Turco (also of Kukim and Pines Of Nowhere) is doing a new project with one of the guys from The Chrome Cranks, why wouldn’t I give it a listen? “Bomb Train Blues” is no-nonsense fun, stomping mud-holes with a routine three-note progression, spazzy vocals, budget-rock keyboards, and stop-starts that provide plenty of space for Turco’s meaty drum rolls. “We’re Gone” is more on the Y2K sass-rock end of things, like Le Shok at the end of a long night with a slobbering party-dude replacing Hot Rod Todd on the mic. Nothing life-changing happening here, just a stupid good time from some experienced underground rockers doing things they’ve more or less already been doing for years, which is perfectly fine by me."

Some sweet reviews from last month that we neglected to inform you about, kourtesy of Matt Korvette at www.yellowgreenred.com

Th' Losin Streaks This Band Will Self-Destruct In T-Minus LP (Slovenly)

Anyone else dream of being in a band with the band’s name or logo painted on their van when they were a kid? My desire probably dates back to first seeing Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine, and naturally increased when I encountered Flipper’s van, The Meatmen’s “Crime” van, and of course the Melvins’ old van that Kurt Cobain tagged up. It just seems like the pinnacle of band-hood, so Th’ Losin Streaks have every right to be proud of theirs, brandishing their band name on the side and prominent on this album’s cover. It’s a form of rock n’ roll fun that seems to be dying out, but Th’ Losin Streaks are keeping it alive in their music too, a raucous garage-rock record that actually seems to be having quite a bit of fun. I’m reminded of the earliest Black Lips records, The Rolling Stones (I guess that goes without saying, but I’m saying it), some Link Wray and The Monks too, and while these are all fairly common reference points, Th’ Losin Streaks sound like they’re living the dream, not imitating it. Even something as simple as the way the lead vocalist screams “yeah!” to kick in a song comes across as sincere and enjoyably unhinged, not as though they’re following confusing Ikea instructions to assemble Rocksöngingen or something. Rock music such as this is nearing extinction at this point, but just like Leslie Nielsen in his 1995 Dracula spoof, Th’ Losin Streaks are dead and loving it.

PRIORS New Pleasure LP (Slovenly)

YELLOWGREENRED Always a pleasure to obtain a new offering from the Bay Area’s CCR Headcleaner, a group of at least five people that seem to feed off each other’s sweaty energy in the creation of their unhinged, punk-adjacent stoner noise. Can’t go wrong with these four new home-recorded tunes, that’s for sure – opener “Mission Control” sounds like early ’80s GG Allin (musically, not vocally) until it’s caught up in a cloud of High Rise-style combustion. That’s my favorite tune here, but the rest are great too, like a slightly more focused Hospitals, Timmy’s Organism without any sense of kitsch, or perhaps if Keiji Haino was granted full conductorship of his favorite Chrome tunes. You can really sense the paranoia and frustration that comes with living in a once hippie-centric enclave that is increasingly eaten alive by Silicon Valley tech-bro gentrification (particularly in the tune “Ipso Facto Alcohol”), and I’m thankful that these folks react by channeling psych-rock with the same free-wheeling insanity of Royal Trux. I hope that CCR Headcleaner can continue to survive in this hostile environment, or at least take some pigs out with ’em when they go.

SMASHIN’ TRANSISTORS

CCR Headcleaner is BACK! Not that they may have gone away or anything but after digging what they dealt for a bit and then not feeling all too much of a buzz with that album they did for In The Red in 2016, I wasn't too sure whether I'd come back around again to check out their stash. Whatever caused that record to fizzle like a sparkler instead of exploding like a brick of M-80's has been fixed here. "Mission Control" blasts straight off the earth like a rocket built from a million Harley Panhead motors and straight to into a black smoked galaxy. It lands on a planet inhabited by psychomotor stimulanted space critters who are building a race of Black Sabbath/Helios Creed supermonsters. Upon meeting the crew though, the planet bows to their feet for already achieving the plan. Like Godzilla sleeping in a frozen underwater world who is then angrily awoken forced to come to the surface again, "Unified" starts like it is shaded with dark hues of blue and green before making a ruckus and turning the whole city a flaming red. It's a quiet, loud, quiet, loud thing but it doesn't sound like it was lifted from the Scorpions "No One Like You" or whatever Pixies song Nirvana got the idea from. It's more like they watched a chain of electrical grid burst a series of blinding light and took it from there. On the flipside, "Ipso Facto Alcohol" it's like they're trying to figure out jazz math but decide it's just too brain-wracking. The result of a stumbly creepy crawl through the land of the Magic Band where they meet a creature feature movie host with a deep penchant for quaaludes. By the time the record makes re-entry to this world with a sizzled sonic boom and the infinite echo of "Lobotomize The Cops" you brain and eardrums may have already been destroyed by an asteroid. When this record arrived in my mailbox, the envelope was shrinkwrapped in plastic. The mailer had a bunch of wet stains all over it. I'd like to think that the band soaked it in marijuana tincture and it was not just a foul up from the USPS.