Post-Independence Marathon – New Music from Delaware

We’re continuing our virtual travels across the US in search of new and exciting sounds and this time our eyes and ears are on Delaware! Jump into PIM archives in order to hear more music from across the USA.
 
Chuck N Lock
More recently we heard the reports surfacing of Kurt Cobain claiming that white people shouldn’t rap. The claim is not completely meritless (especially considering that it was made during the early 90s – here’s looking at you, Vanilla Ice/Marky Mark), but thankfully there are examples of white people not sounding lame while on the mic. Case in point – Chuck n Lock and their obsession with farming / fresh food / GMO / Monsanto in full display on their latest EP “Farm to Table”.

Grace Vonderkuhn
Midway through “Livin in a Dream Part. 1”, first song off of Grace Vonderkuhn’s latest LP Reveries, there comes a jaw-dropping moment as the song turns from a regular rocker to a gigantic wall of fuzz/sludge. Grace has been active as a musician for quite some time, but Reveries is her first since signing to Egghunt Records and should be an obligatory listening for anyone into garage/psych.

The Psychedelic Puppets
Sometimes its perfectly fine to judge a book by the cover, or in this case – album by its cover art. One look at the artwork suggests that we’re in for a long trance-like trip and that’s exactly what TPP off on their debut EP “A Pull of the Strings”. Think acid-soaked sound reminiscent of space rock stalwarts Hawkwind / assorted krautrockers.

Purpan
There’s not much out there written or said about this beatsmith, which is a shame, really, as he produced some very well-crafted instrumentals in the vein of J Dilla. What is known is that he’s been at it for a long time (some of the material on his Bandcamp page goes back to the late 90s) and more recently he put out a tape on a Greek label Autumn Theory. The rest is mystery.

The Sky Drops 
While they haven’t released anything in a long time, this duo is still worthy of being mentioned in the roundup due to their apocalyptic/eerie vibe similar to bands like Loop. They’re still very much active with much of the new material appearing in the form of new videos being uploaded to Youtube.

Wojtek
Not to be confused with other Wojteks out there, this Wojtek plays utterly barbaric form of metal. Scratch that – at times it feels like this is closer to noise/improv and it tries to be as ugly and repellent as the band can be, yet there’s something deeply charming about the racket they’re making.

Mean Lady
Its entirely possible that there’s not a mean bone in this band’s body – in fact the music they create is anything but mean. With a name like that you’d expect some tough guy hardcore or metal, but what they create is cute electronic pop music (think less melancholic version of the Bird and the Bee). There’s also something inexplicably strange about ML’s songs – take “Darling”, for instance, a seemingly straight love song that features lines like “I can mend the holes in your favorite shirt” and production that makes it sound as if the band is having a fun night at the karaoke bar. To borrow a quote from OMC – how bizarre, how bizarre.

Less Than Five 
Closing out our roundup is another band that is not particularly noisy or experimental, but nonetheless got a knack for writing memorable songs. It certainly helps that the lead singer of LTF got a great set of pipes (at times sounding like Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano) and there’s a great deal of atmosphere radiating from their debut EP – the opener “Tick Tock” feels like a relic from 80s post-punk era while its follow-up (“Never Learn”) got a bit of surf rock vibe to it. Hardly any song on the said EP sounds the same and it certainly feels like the band put a lot of thought into their work.

Parson Hex
If there’s one phrase that describes the output of Parson Hex (aka Cameron), its “playful” (“quirky” could work as well). What it is is bedroom pop/rock whose playfulness almost threatens to push the whole thing into kitsch territory, but the thoughtfulness behind the arrangements/melodies never allows for that to happen. If you ever wanted to hear cheerier version of Ben Gibbard’s solo work, this comes close.

96 Sitars
True to their name, 96 Sitars play what could be described as blissful psychedelia, not much more, not much less. Heady jams that 96S produces remind me of now defunct Boston unit Concord Ballet Orchestra Players – they seem to go on forever, yet its perfectly fine when you’re in the mood for some of that cosmic exploration (with or without the help of substances).