May 19, 2008

The Outsiders: Vol. 12

Not all of Stereogum's favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment's virtual milk crate contains Shit And Shine, Grails, and Humanfly.

Shit And Shine's new one Kuss Mich, Meine Liebe is my favorite British-born record in recent memory: It's a distorted, distended, brown-tinted mass of fuzz and muck sectioned via titles like "Biggest Cock In Christendom," "The Germans Call It A Swimming Head," "Toilet Door Tits," and "Mr. And Mrs. Gingerbread Hawaii." It's all great, but we might as well get started where the record begins.

Shit And Shine - "Biggest Cock In Christendom" (MP3)

S&S's MySpace has "Taking Robe Off" (which follows "Biggest Cock") and "Swimming Head" (which doesn't), both from the new album, along with older material. Kuss Mich, Meine Liebe is out 6/10 on Load. It's the best "noise" album I've heard in a long while. You can download some more S&S, as well as tracks by Aluk Todolo, the Skull Defekts, and Acid Mothers Temple, at Riot Season's MySpace. Here they are live at Corsica Studios in London earlier this month:

In this video (with drum army) and on Kuss Mich, Meine Liebe, S&S can make like a noise jam band (bear with me), so I figured I'd flesh out this installment with a couple less abrasive bands who aren't afraid to drift on awhile. The first track, "Stoned At The Taj Again," comes from Grails' Take Refuge In Clean Living (out on Important). The second is "An Intimate Battering," the last of six heavy psychedelia exhalations from Humanfly's II (out on 20 Buck Spin).

Grails - "Stoned At The Taj Again" (MP3)
Humanfly - "An Intimate Battering" (MP3)

Hear more Grails at their MySpace. There's extra Humanfly, too (pay attention to "Marakech," also from II). Note: Grails are from Portland; Humanfly from the UK. This doesn't change my earlier statement about UK-born records.

For various reasons, I completely whiffed on No Fun this year. If anyone went, raise your hands and let me know what I missed. Finally, consider this mighty S&S photo, via their MySpace, this week's overall theme:

The Outsiders - Shit And Shine