Twin Stumps – Seedbed (Fan Death) There’s no doubt that Brooklyn-based TS bring the noise – plenty of it in fact. “Seedbed” is their debut album and it sounds like what could have happened had Unsane, Swans and Skullflower decided to jam together. “Seedbed” is a sludgy monster of a record, full of vocals/screaming drenched in feedback. In short, its a sort of record that almost guarantees a visit from the cops if played at 2AM. Admittedly, they might not be as inventive as three aforementioned bands and at times some of the songs simply turn into a blur/mess (with instrumental “Lungs” being the worst offender here).It is indeed, one record that is best taken in small doses, even if you happen to be a noise aficionado. Still, if melody and long guitar solos are not your thing, there’s some fun to be had with “Seedbed” – its just that few songs on the CD are memorable in any way. Further Reading: Pitchfork Scarpbooker – Lying For The Sake Of Lying Considering the amount of noise/noise-rock submissions that IHRTN receives and how many of them turn out to be by-the-numbers/standard/average fare, its nice to know that there’s always something that would prove to be an exception to the rule. Scrapbooker are hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, don decidedly non rock-n-roll outfits (think Birthday Party and their suits) and, in addition to that, they also also rock hard. At the very least, those guys understand that noise rock is not just about beating the listener on the head. Every good noise/noise-rock record should have at least some amount of groove along with all the screaming and feedback and infernal drumming and “Lying For The Sake Of Lying” is definitely groovy as hell. “Lying” starts out with “Budd”, dedicated (presumably) to Dwyer Budd – a fairly popular subject of discussion among rock’n’rollers. This “Budd” is more of a Rapeman thing rather than Filter thing – with its subtle change from relatively calm beginning to screaming/ranting and the explosive middle part/ending. The rest of tracks are exploring a similar territory – they’re all dripping with fury, and include further discussions/ranting/screaming about a host of different subjects ranging from Vietnam to serial killers and…gay penguins? Alright, nevermind. In all seriousness, though, this is a solid record with good production values. They’re no Jesus Lizard or Melvins (yet), but for now it sounds like Scrapbooker have all the chances in the world to compete with the best of them. Further Reading: Blog / MySpace / Last.Fm Note – Download the album here
[gallery link="file"] Here's a list of all articles that appeared on IHRTN during the month of May: 31: Download Vault – Aeon, PBK, Beequeen (0) 29: Events – Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 (0) 27: Melvins – The Water Glass (mp3 / streaming audio) (0) 27: Review Vault – Terraform, Female…