Pink Wine / Outtacontroller - Split 7" - Clear Vinyl

Young Modern (2015)

When Young Modern sent this record to me, I was actually kind of surprised I didn't already have it.  I'm not sure if I just didn't know it was released or if I knew about it at some point and never got around to ordering a copy.  Regardless, I'm very excited to add it to the collection.

We'll start up with Pink Wine.  The first song on their side is "Wasted Breath."  It's catchy in the right places with tinny, distorted guitar riffs and vocals that straddle the divide between snotty and melodic.  It actually seems like the sort of band that would be pretty comfortable on Hozac.  Their second song is a cover of Outtacontroller's "Put It On High."  That is my favorite Outtacontroller song, so I am predisposed to already love that song.  Pink Wine does a completely fine version.  It's not too dissimilar from the original, but since I love the original, that's ok by me.

Outtacontroller is the band I'm most excited about on the spit.  I'm already a huge fan and I really feel like this is a band that doesn't get the attention they rightly deserve.  They are just as amazing as any band playing catchy punk rock with big hooks and fuzzed out vocals.  Their first song is "I Gave Up On Weezer" and it's as excellent as that song title would have you believe.  It's certainly a topic I can relate to, but it's not just a gimmick song.  It is as much of a toe tapper as anything else in the band's catalog.  

The second song is "Cold Sweats."  It's a Pink Wine cover, though I wasn't familiar with original prior to hunting around for it on the Pink Wine Bandcamp page.  It's a pretty faithful interpretation and a solid song.  Compared side by side, I actually prefer the original by Pink Wine, but I dig the Outtacontroller version as well.  I've always liked the idea of bands covering each other on split 7"s and this record is another example of why I tend to think it's a fun thing to do.

Pink Wine / Outtacontroller - Split 7"

https://ilikepinkwine.bandcamp.com/album/outtawine-7-split-tape

Outtacontroller - Television Zombie LP - Test Pressing w/ Alternate Cover

P Trash / Young Modern / Southpaw (2015)

I've been doing this silly website for a long time now.  It has always been a way for me to catalog all of the records I buy and also stay in the habit of writing about music.  Not that I consider myself especially gifted when it comes to writing.  My vocabulary may not be the biggest, but I try my best to get the point across.  

Anything else that's come as a result of this site has been a bonus.  The occasion thank you from someone who bought a record because I said I liked it, the dude who sent me a Rocket From The Crypt slipmat for my record player and of course the smattering of free records I'm sent so that I will review them on this site.  Sure, some of them have been awful, but quite a few have been pretty darn good and I'm appreciative of them all.  

Then you have someone like Dan from Young Modern records.  He sends me a pretty big pack of some killer records from his label (reviews of those coming over the next few weeks) and on top of that, just to be a swell guy, he sends this Outtacontroller record to me to add to my collection.  I'm not sure he even expected me to write about it, but the jokes on you Dan!

This is a test pressing of last year's phenomenal Television Zombie LP.  You can go here to read my full review from last December.  In a nutshell, it's a beast of a record full of hooky, fuzzed out pop songs that should appeal to anyone that is into bands like The Marked Men, Steve Adamyk Band, Sonic Avenues or early Something Fierce.  Just a great, great album.  This version has the alternate P Trash screened artwork.  I used to buy a lot of P Trash exclusives, but them being in Germany and the crazy postage increases over the last few years kind of made that a much more limited occurrence.  Getting this version is a real treat.  

On top of that the actual piece of vinyl that is in here is one of the test pressings of the record.  I will admit that I'm not really a super big test pressing collector.  I mostly just have all of the PopKid ones and a few other random ones here and there, but it was really cool for Dan to send it over as I can't imagine there are more than ten or so of them on the planet.

So, this isn't really much of a review, it's mostly just telling you all about a new record I got to add to my collection and the story behind it.  Ultimately, that's what I always want this website to be about.  The day it turns into a straight ahead review factory is the day I'll lose interest in doing it.  Anyway, thanks to Dan for sending this record along.  It's a keeper!

Outtacontroller - Television Zombie LP:

https://outtacontroller.bandcamp.com/album/television-zombie

The Absolute Best Records Of 2015

 

Many times throughout the year I had commented on how 2015 seemed like a year that had a lot of really good records, but seemed to be lacking in drop dead great ones.  I'll admit that when I sat down to work on this list, I ended up being presented with a lot more records that I loved this year than I was expecting.  The top 20 in particular is damn strong.  Aside from Clearance, I didn't have those records that I just played non stop over and over again this year, but looking back at it, 2015 was nothing to sneeze at.  Some pretty good records came out this year.  I don't have time to discuss them all, but I do have some extra thoughts on a few.

The record that really did it for me this year was Clearance.  I am a sucker for Pavement, so when Clearance decided to pop by and pick up that torch, I was all too pleased to follow along.  It's such a perfect record from top to bottom.  I can't think of a record that I went back to over and over again as much as Clearance.  These guys are on the right track and I really hope they keep pumping out new tunes.

The Mountain Goats and Royal Headache also both received a ton of play out of me this year.  Even though the record was about pro wrestling and I figured that would be fun for a listen or two, I was shocked at how much I genuinely enjoyed the Mountain Goats, especially as I had never been that much of a fan previously.  Royal Headache was top notch, but there were a couple of songs in the middle of the record that slowed things down a bit and may have kept it from the top spot. Third of the year is still pretty great.  Good Shade technically was released digitally in 2014, but the LP came out this year, so it's going on my list.  Wonk Unit may not totally deserve to be on the list on a technicality as it's a compilation of previously released songs, but it was their first time on vinyl, and I hadn't heard them previously, so on it goes.

Lastly at number fourteen is Unlikely Friends.  I didn't review that record this year.  It didn't come out on vinyl, so I kept putting off buying it hoping it would eventually be released.  It didn't happen so I finally ordered the CD but I waited too long.  I'll get a review of that up first thing in the new year, but it's really worth a listen.

01 - Clearance - Rapid Rewards - Tall Pat (Listen)
02 - The Mountain Goats - Beat The Champ - Merge (Listen)
03 - Royal Headache - High - What's Your Rupture (Listen)
04 - Good Shade - Good Shade - Gut Genug (Listen)
05 - Wonk Unit - Feel The Wonkness - Drunken Sailor (Listen)
06 - Swami John Reis & The Blind Shake - Modern Surf Classics - Swami (Listen)
07 - Warm Soda - Symbolic Dream - Castleface (Listen)
08 - Red Dons - The Dead Hand Of Tradition - Taken By Surprise (Listen)
09 - Outtacontroller - Television Zombie LP - Southpaw (Listen)
10 - Lost Balloons - Lost Balloons - Alien Snatch (Listen)

11 - Widows Watch - This Message Repeats - Toxic Pop
12 - Radioactivity - Silent Kill - Dirtnap
13 - Hungry Tiger - Hungry Tiger - Sex Sheet
14 - Unlikely Friends - Solid Gold Cowboys - Jigsaw
15 - Sweet John Bloom - Weird Prayer - Tiny Engines
16 - Ash - Kablammo - E.A.R.
17 - Tenement - Predatory Headlights - Don Giovanni
18 - Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us - Polyvinyl
19 - The Barreracudas - Can Do Easy - Oops Baby
20 - Beach Party - Broken Machine - Sex Sheet

21 - The Ballantynes - Dark Drives, Life Signs - La-Ti-Da
22 - ИO​​/​​​/​​​/​​sé - Lower Berth - 1859/Man In Decline
23 - The Blind Shake - Fly Right - Slovenly
24 - Nervous Talk - Nervous Talk - Hosehead
25 - King Khan and BBQ Show - Bad News Boys - In The Red
26 - The Sonics - This Is The Sonics - ReVox
27 - Built To Spill - Untethered Moon
28 - Mikal Cronin - MCIII - Merge
29 - Legendary Wings - Do You See? - Dirtnap
30 - Apocalypse Meow - The End Is Nigh - Sex Sheet/Rad Girlfriend

Other Records I Picked Up This Year:
Archers Of Loaf - Curse Of The Loaf - ARRA Music
Baby Shakes - Starry Eyes - Lil Chewy
Built In Sun - Built In Sun - PIAPTK
The Butterscotch Cathedral - The Butterscotch Cathedral - Trouble In Mind
Casual - Casual - Dead Broke / Square of Opposition
Hex Dispensers - III - Alien Snatch
Hysterese - Hysterese - Dirt Cult
Hospital Job - Never Get Cold - Rad Girlfriend / It's Alive
Jaill - Brain Cream - Burger
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Freedom Tower - Mom + Pop
The Knew - Schmew - Greater Than
Mandates - In The Back Of Your Heart - Hosehead/Taken By Surprise
Maniac - Demimonde - La-Ti-Da
Mac McCaughan - Non Believers - Merge
Nervosas - Nervosas - Dirtnap
Pale Angels - Imaginary People - Recess
Phylums - Phylum Phyloid - Dirtnap
The Rubs - The Rubs Are Trash - Tall Pat
Sanhose - Pi - Snuffy Smiles
Shadow In the Cracks - Shadow In The Cracks - Goner
The Soaks - The Soaks - Riot House
Spraynard - Mable - Jade Tree
Wavves - V - Mom + Pop
World's Fair - Leisurely - Rok Lok

Previously:
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

Outtacontroller - Television Zombie LP

Southpaw (2015)

Sorry for the unannounced break at the end of last week.  Real life occupied my mornings for a bit, but things are getting back on track.  I can't think of a better return than being able to write about this Outtacontroller LP.  I really dug their last album and couldn't wait to get my hands on this new one.  It was definitely worth the wait and is every bit as good as their debut.

For some reason I think Outtacontroller tends to get left out of the conversation when people talk about all of the great Canadian bands that are floating around right now.  They very much fit in with the heavy hitters of that scene like Sonic Avenues and Steve Adamyk Band.  This album, in particular, also reminds me a lot of the second Something Fierce album There Are No Answers (also known as the really, really good Something Fierce album).

Outtacontroller are masters of stitching together downstoke heavy chord progressions, vocal harmonies and ultra catchy choruses.  The hooks on this album are, pardon the really, really bad pun, out of control and I've been playing this album pretty much nonstop since getting it in the mail the other week.

2015 is wrapping up and I'm getting my best of the year list in order.  Television Zombie is so good that it's really shaking up my list.  Don't be surprised to see them quite high on my list when it is eventually posted.  This is a hell of a way to close out the year.

Outtacontroller - Television Zombie:

https://outtacontroller.bandcamp.com/album/television-zombie

Outtacontroller - Remote Control Cassette

Sorry about the sporadic updates lately.  Last week I took a few days off work as I was going to a bunch of Rocket From The Crypt shows. Then I ended up getting sick for a few days this week and when I'm sick, trying to write coherently is even harder for me than it typically is, so that's why this site has languished a bit.  Don't worry, I haven't given up on it yet.  I'm still not feeling completely better, but I am feeling well enough to write a few words about this excellent Outtacontroller cassette.

I'm even going to skip my usual cassette complaint as this was specifically made for a tour the band was doing and for some reason bands making cassettes so they have something to sell on tour doesn't bug me at all.  I sure hope these songs end up on vinyl at some point, but for now the tape will do.

On this cassette are 4 new songs, 2 cover songs (1 of a Ladytron song and the 2nd of a "When You Found Out" by The Nerves) and 2 songs recorded live on the radio at CKDU.  Musically I've always felt that Outtacontroller straddles the line in between Hex Dispensers and Steve Adamyk Band, and if there are 2 bands to be compared to, those 2 aren't too shabby.  We've got loud fast guitar, with catchy vocals & choruses.  Though they've never ventured to my neck of the woods, I get the impression from their songs that Outtacontroller is likely a hell of a live band.

I've read that Outtacontroller will have a new 7" coming out soon on Ptrash records and I believe they are also at work on their 2nd LP.  Rest assured, I will be buying both of those records the moment they are available.

Outtacontroller - Remote Control:

http://outtacontroller.bandcamp.com/album/remote-control

Outtacontroller - Don't Play Dumb LP - Red Vinyl /100

Outtacontroller - Don't Play Dumb LP - Red Vinyl /100, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Ptrash (2012)

Outtacontroller is another band that calls Canada home. There must be something in the water up there because that country has been churning out more amazing pop bands than just about any place else that I can think of. Outtacontroller is no exception to this as, much like kindred spirits, The Steve Adamyk Band, they have cranked out an album of fast, tight & catchy punked up pop songs.

There are way too many highlights to list them all, but I feel it bears mentioning that I think this record starts out OK, but after the 3rd song or so, it really comes into its own and becomes great. The absolute peak of this album for me is "Put It On High" where the band builds an entire song around the singer who want's to sleep with the fan on even though it's December. Fantastic.

This is definitely among the best albums I've picked up so far this year and another reason why I love being in the Ptrash club as it's the only way that I could have gotten the limited red vinyl version.

Outtacontroller - Don't Play Dumb:
outtacontroller.bandcamp.com/album/dont-play-dumb