Here we are again at the end of the month rushing to share what has been on repeat here at Strange Mono HQ! This time we have something a little different! Jess went ahead and created a spring themed spotify playlist for your aural pleasures! You can thank us later.
JESS
ABEL
The Killjoys – Johnny Won’t Get To Heaven Raw Records Flower – Hardly A Dream Profane Existence Suppression With Bastard Noise – Infernal Legions Anthems Of The Undesirable Vermin Womb – Retaliation Closed Casket Activities Bomb Threat – Live Demo Filler PGH Ixian / Pyxis – XX Self Release / Not On Label Captain Three Leg / Holy Boner – Split Mortville Noise FNU Ronnies – Golem Smoke Night People
Webb Chapel’s second outing with Strange Mono delivers another hefty dose of psychedelic pop songs. Primary songwriter Zack Claxton took a new approach to creating SPEEDING adding new layers of emotional urgency to Zack’s music. Comprised of new originals and original new takes on classic songs from post punk band Mary Goes Round and contemporaries Acid Freek.
Zack had this to say about the recording process “SPEEDING was made in a little studio space on germantown ave. It felt like there was a Tom Parker/Kathy Bates character who wouldn’t let me stop or leave unless another band was in there practicing. I didn’t see sunlight for what seemed like quite a while. I remember watching ‘all the king’s men’ about the Memphis mafia on YouTube and deep diving into Elvis as an entity or spirit. It seemed like he was commiserating or communicating with me on some level. Also Patti Duke interviews. By the time I was making Rosaline I was having trouble hearing notes or music, it all sounded like street noises. SPEEDING is an ode to 50’s/60’s workhorse bands with shitty contracts.”
Music Video for “Speeding”
This album features the titular cover from fellow Philly band Acid Freek. “I met Ben (drummer in Tagabow) when we were playing some shows together on a mini tour in the hudson valley. He told me about his other band Acid Freek and explained that he thought the recordings were basically unlistenable. I remember staying in a motel that night and everybody was watching Tombstone on TV and I listened to their record just by holding my phone up against my ear. I knew that it was something special pretty immediately and speeding stuck out as the flagship track as it were. For whatever reason I became kind of obsessed with it and my initial concept was to cover it 9 or 10 times in different variations but I bottomed out after 2.“
SPEEDING also features covers of three songs (Useless Day, Mary Sleeps Alone, Mary’s Garden) by the french post-punk band Mary Goes Round. “When I gave up on the idea of a full release of speeding covers, I decided to try my hand at covering other songs that I love. I was initially going to try to cover the whole album Sunset by Mary Goes Round but I gave up on that as well. I eventually decided to make the release a combination of both attempts with my own songs wedged in as some kind of fried smorgasbord.” After recording the songs Zack reached out to Jerome Avril (Mary Goes Round) to ask for permission to use the songs. “It felt like getting a blessing from the pope. They were both like ‘yeah, Awesome!’ I’m also thrilled I even got to communicate with Jerome Avril.”
PAWS is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving Philadelphia’s homeless and at-risk pets. Each year, PAWS finds loving homes for thousands of animals in need, and enables thousands of families to keep their cherished pets. PAWS is working to make Philadelphia a no-kill city where every savable pet is guaranteed a home.
Everyone’s Favourite Mistake was recorded October 2022 by Sunday Rathskeller and Dominic James. It deals with borderline personality disorder, isolation, self hatred, and perseverance. I was born a mistake and am considered to be a mistake by many, hence the title. Shout outs to Patrick, Trinity, Mark, and Claire, all of whom indirectly contributed. And Dan for giving me the excuse to be loud again.
Proceeds from this album are being donated to Landback to help with their mission to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands. landback.org
Strange Mono is announcing the release of Jonathan Patrick’s “Open Heart”. Playing with various punk and garage rock bands over the years, this EP is Jon’s first outing with his solo guitar work. “Open Heart” showcases a genuine, natural, melodic intuition that is rare in today’s musical landscape.
Jonathan, an experimental guitarist from Eugene, Oregon, describes his style as “founded in the navigation of impermanence”. Comparisons can be made to the 60’s and 70’s American Primitive movement out of California, yet Jon’s work is a singular and unique take on the genre. Embracing the freedom of play pioneered by American roots music, Jon embraces life’s transitional nature in his compositions, displaying an emotional urgency that adds something fresh to a genre primarily dominated by technicality.
Inheriting an Alvarez classical guitar at the age of 12 from his mom, Jon always sought to convey the same feeling with one guitar that one gets from listening to early Sonic Youth. In 2005 living in San Francisco, Jon saw the original Akron/Family lineup perform their own material as well as back up Michael Gira as Angels of Light. “It was the first time I saw anyone convey the same power and freedom as Sonic Youth with acoustic and hollow body guitars”, Jon recalls. That performance set the course for Jon to spend years woodshedding behind the scenes while playing in numerous bands eventually culminating in the ultra jammy United Waves. After a couple of limited releases on acetate, everyone moved on and Jon became obsessed with minimalist art and solo guitar music.
“Open Heart”, made up of two tracks, is a direct and bittersweet pastiche of the Pacific Northwest, channeling visions of fog drenched mountain ranges and waves dashing against rocky outcrops on the shoreline. The opening track “Found Work Blues” was written prior to the worldwide fallout of the pandemic and is a reconciliation with the compromise all of us make in order to get by…and is also meant to be a post-work drinking song. The closing track “Dirty Side Of The Storm” was recorded after the end of the US shutdowns and will resonate with those who grew up in hurricane country as well as anyone who has ever asked themselves, “When will this bullshit end?”. “Open Heart” serves as a documentation of a period that was incredibly hard on the entire world. As world events continue to be exploited and divisions sown by those who would benefit from it, we are all left with the choice to either numb ourselves out to accept the status quo or to do something. This is what Jon did and will be doing until the wheels fall off.
Proceeds from this release are being donated to the White Bird Clinic’s NEST program. NEST is designed to help adults experiencing homelessness navigate available resources and sign up to receive assistance.
Strange Mono is announcing the debut release from apocalyptic Death Metal band Thecla. My Sojourn Among The Torturers is a viscous aural tribute to author Gene Wolfe whose influential goth epic The Book Of The New Sun helped spawn the “Dying Earth” sub-genre of Science Fiction.
Drawing inspiration from Wolfe’s work, Thecla creates a viscous portrait of the hero’s journey through an earth in decay. Vocalist Ossipago’s bloodcurdling style is the perfect compliment to the down right nasty riff’s delivered by guitarist Famulimus. All tied together by Barbatus’ pounding drum performances. While the band boast a singular style comparison’s can be made to Bolt Thrower,Death, Celtic Frost, and Darkthrone.
Proceeds from this Release are being donated to Earth Justice to aid their mission of combating climate change
Across the Atlantic in Brighton, UK Grey Windowpane is forging something special. A stalwart contributor to the avant-garde Ma Turner (AKA Brown / Mazozma) has been delivering innovative compositional sound-work for over two decades. As the founding member of Kentucky’s noise rock terrorists Warmer Milks (whom he toured the United States and Europe extensively with throughout the early 2000’s) Ma went on to record and perform as a solo artist, releasing numerous full length LPs, cassettes, compact discs (and a twelve cassette box set) on labels such as Sophomore Lounge, Feeding Tube, Crash Symbols as well as on visual artist and musician Robert Beatty’s AHEM Editions label and numerous one-off private press labels of Turner’s own. (Currently coined) Brown is now further cultivating his reputation on the frontiers of fringe music with Grey Windowpane (under the umbrella of GWPEOPLESFRONT WORLDWIDE). After leaving his home of Western Massachusetts last year for the UK, Brown has been collaborating with an international cabal of outsider artists to produce Grey Windowpane’s newly anticipated full length album “Ice The World”. The songs were written, arranged, recorded and mixed over a span of months between studios in the UK, US, Singapore and Sweden.
Long running underground music rag Blastitude had this to say about Grey Windowpane’s first four EP’s (all digitally released in 2022 on the GWPEOPLESFRONT WORLDWIDE label):
“This is very consistently and completely zoned-out music. I’ve been listening to it all, all day long, and I still don’t know what to make of it. It’s like it wipes my brain blank as it plays. My daughter’s boyfriend (born circa 2005) walked by and said it sounded “industrial,” how about that? He’s 100% not wrong (and I often think about what post-industrial as a music means, how it means so much more than Neubauten and Skinny Puppy, how it means any post-punk experimental work of any kind, the entire 1980s cassette culture experimental music movement, the entire worldwide noise scene as we know it today)! He also compared it to house music, and yeah, Grey Windowpane does have some beats, here and there, but it’s just as much sound effects, and tape-loop experiments, and washes of noise, and who-knows-what else. And when I say “who-knows-what-else,” I mean “music from the Empty Quarter,” which Bruce Russell defined in his 1994 manifesto “What is Free?” as “an area between other forms of music where all of the ‘rules’ which hold them apart cease to apply.”
Proceeds from the double cassette release of “Ice The World” benefit GREAT FALLS BOOKS THROUGH BARS a volunteer group in Franklin County MA that sends free books, resources, and reading materials to incarcerated people.
Strange Mono is announcing the reissue of Sandcastle’s 2013 freak folk master work Kisses For Witches. Sandcastle has been a staple in the underground circle for over a decade. Defined by his clever lyricism, distinct vocal style, and relentlessly catchy melodies. Sandcastle is the moniker for songwriter Sam Kassel, who records the majority of Sandcastle’s output on his own.
Recorded following Sandcastle’s debut tour of the southern U.S in 2012. Sam was in a place of growth and introspection expanding on his lo-fi folk roots and creating a new sound entirely its own. The far out country tinged Deena and the driving Dream Catcher, perfectly illustrate the happy mania of a hopeless romantic. While Tracks like Antonia and Diamond Heart tap into more bittersweet feelings. The album as a whole reinforces classic Sandcastle theme’s like desire, adventure, mysticism, and spirituality with an undercurrent of anxiety and vulnerability. Throughout Kisses for Witches Sam demonstrates a command over language and melody, and an emotional intelligence rarely heard in this kind of music.
Matt Lee of the Big Takeover had this to say about the opening track Deena. “I defy you to get the opener “Deena” from this astoundingly good album by Philly’s Sandcastle out of your head.” and “I know everyone who counts Tyrannosaurus Rex and Ween in their collection will be hooked for life.” and “There’s a magical newness of Sandcastle’s oeuvre, that feeling of discovery lurking in every song, they really bring you places in a gentle but forceful way. That’s the trick of genius songwriting is that confidence, the ability to say ‘Hey let’s go here… trust me!’.. and you do, and it turns out great.”
“Warping vocals encircle in a heady simplicity. A timeless minstrel tone meshes with modern twists and turns, creating an imaginative hybrid. Bending genres (even mid-song), the band creates a sound that continuously shifts and resonates.” – The Deli Magazine
This Cassette features original artwork designed by Philadelphia cartoonist Rebecca Kirby. Rebecca has an unmistakable style and boasts clients like: Cartoon Network, Boom! Studios, Vice, Grid, and The Los Angeles Times.
Proceeds from the Limited Edition cassette release of this album are being donated to the Homies Helping Homies to aid their mission to provide grocery tables to the people of Point Breeze Philadelphia. “We hope to encourage and support safety for folks who are underserved and overlooked by government aid and capitalist structures that seek to devalue them.“
From the icy depths of West Philadelphia comes the chaotic punk of Beer Breakfast Dungeness Crab. Strange Mono is announcing the release of the band’s second album and first physical release. Taking their name from the famous West Philly bodega that served as their sole source of beer due to its close proximity to their underground parking garage practice space. Maybe it’s all the fumes, or the lack of oxygen but something miraculous happened in those dark corners to produce such an original and inspired band.
Frontman Brian Nothing (Spazm 151, Total Fucking Destruction, Syzlak) has a strident vocal style that carves through the unshakeable rhythm section on tracks like “Your Gonna Die” and “Eye of Nothing”. Bassist Ross Pritchett (The Company Corvette, Big Burly) takes vocal duty on “I’m Out” and “Whip it’s, Good” unleashing a voice both fully deranged, and engrossing. Drummer Skip never misses a beat, with his style sitting between Sabbath’s Bill Ward and Butthole surfers’ King Coffey. Ripping leads, non-stop riff’s, fuzzed out tube amps, and irreverent lyrics make BBDC a truly one of a kind band.
An accomplished painter, this album features original artwork by Brian Nothing.
Recorded and mixed by Alexei Popadopulis of Philly’s Stinking Lizaveta, this album is a perfect showcase of the band’s unhinged vibrations.
