Hotline TNT – Nineteen in Love (Smoking Room)

This came out last year, but the vinyl only just now appeared, no doubt caught up in the great production SNAFU that by now everyone has heard about. I wrote about them back in Failure of All Pop #14. Failure of All Alt, let’s say. Like many great musics of the 20th and 21st, it all starts with Husker Du, flows into Dinosaur Jr, and explodes in glassy shards with MBV. We must attach Hotline TNT to this timeline. It’s Alt rock filtered through a 2020s DIY noise-punk sensibility, taking the archaic “no sell-out” Gen X mentality to heart. HTNT is not streaming on Spotify; they are more likely to be selling you a cassette after playing in an abandoned parking lot behind a cyclone fence. After several killer EP’s (especially “Cool if I Crash”), this debut LP is an accomplished work, bringing big saturated guitars, touches of synth and warbled vocals, but always pop-minded, HUM riffs, Sebadoh melodies, and a touch of Chrome’s Alien Soundtracks in the druggy sci-fi, lo-fi production. Btw Smoking Room records is one of the best labels going, top-notch packaging on this one.

Hakobune – Above the Northern Skies Shown (Constellation Tatsu)

Who is Hakobune? Answer: A wonderful drone guitarist from Japan. At some point in the 00s, I never wanted to hear another drone piece, except maybe by Andrew Chalk, the undisputed master. Well, here’s Hakobune turning my head around like that tired “Jealous Girlfriend Meme”. This meticulous knob-turner makes consistently great mood pieces, and there are a ton of them (it’s drone after all! Fire-up the guitar pedals and go). I love to nap to this stuff, but it’s also beautiful for awake time. He also runs a small record store in Hyogo that looks like it’s full of yet more obscure experimental stuff. Would love to visit! Maybe have tea and talk pedals and drone CD-Rs from decades past. I linked to the latest release but dive in anywhere.

Sad-Eyed Beatniks – Claudia’s Ethereal Weaver (Meritorio)

Kevin, SF’s Paisley Shirt Records mogul, has made another Sad-Eyed Beatniks album, this time for Spanish label Meritorio. Maybe I mentioned this before, but the Spanish micro-label scene is a treasure trove of indie gems not yet canonized elsewhere. Case-in-point this solo project/band that sounds like Half Japanese recording for Woodsist circa 2010. Psychedelic folk, shambling indie, and post-punk collide in a delightful collage of greens, blues & yellows. Kevin has been at it for a while, filling up 4-track tapes with endless falling down jams, but now the unglued components are turning into compelling outsider pop.