Adam Coozer Archive
Fiction Reform – “Revelation In The Palms Of The Weak”
Record Label: Basement Records
Genre: Punk
Band Link: www.myspace.com/fictionreform
Buy on Amazon.com
Fiction Reform sounds exactly like a second-rate Distillers. I typically like female-fronted punk bands and can get behind gruff vocals, angry lyrics, and straight-up, brash, SoCal punk rock. The problem here is that the songs don’t stand out or try to grip you, making for a long 30-minute listen.
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Shaka Ponk – “Bad Porn Movie Trax”
Record Label: Guess What!
Genre: Alternative
Buy on Amazon.com
Shaka Ponk are a French band who reside in Berlin and sing in English and Spanish. I like them already.
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100 Monkeys – “Grape”
Record Label: S/R
Genre: Anti-Folk
Buy on Amazon.com
I’m blissfully unaware of anything Twilight, but apparently 100 Monkeys boasts one of the movie’s stars. I have to say, that’s quite surprising. 100 Monkeys not only have an awesome name, but their sound is as far from radio-friendly teenybopper as you can get.
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Manicorn – “S/T”
Record Label: S/R
Genre: Experimental
Band Link: www.myspace.com/manicornmusic
Buy on Amazon.com
Quirky, experimental nerd-rock that is shrill and irritating but not without its bizarre charm. It sounds like very early Atom & His Package screeching old Muppet Show ditties in the shower. Come to think of it, it’s quite awful.
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Thulium – “69″ EP
Record Label: AKA Music / Universal
Genre: Grunge
Band Link: www.myspace.com/thulium69
Buy on Amazon.com
Hideous grunge from the UK that channels the cheesiest aspects of Christian-style nu-metal, and that’s at their best. The riffs are corny and the rhythm section simplistic, but you will immediately recoil from the vocals: the singer does the over-sensitive, singing-in-a-hushed-voice thing, which I had hoped died out with the ‘00s.
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Panda Riot – “Far & Near” EP
Record Label: S/R
Genre: Shoegaze/Dream Pop
Band Link: www.myspace.com/pandariot
Buy on Amazon.com
*** COOZER PICK ***
Wonderful, unbearably sweet and perfectly constructed dream pop. All the pieces swirl together so nicely – angelic female lead and background vocals; hypnotic, electro-lite-like drumming; honeyed guitar jangle with spurts of well-placed distortion… this 6-track EP is a thing of ethereal beauty.
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Xerography Debt #26
Author: Davida Gypsy Breier (Ed.)
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: Review Zine
Pages: 52 pages
My feelings for perzine-reviewing XD haven’t changed from my rambling review of their last issue. Briefly: I get that heartwarming nostalgic feel towards review zines and I’m glad XD is back. On the other hand, their policy of printing only positive reviews weakens their authority and does a disservice to the reader – if everything is good, how do you know what’s REALLY worth your time and money? (Also, not alphabetizing or indexing the reviews remains an irritant.)
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Al Burian Goes to Hell
Author: Al Burian
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: Mini-Comic
Pages: 82 pages
This comic follows Al Burian as he complains about his life and wallows in existential emptiness. The illustrated vignettes of “my life sucks” is interspersed with passages from Dante’s Inferno, just in case the ridiculous amount of self-pitying was too subtle for you.
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How to Make Soap Without Burning Your Face Off
Author: Raleigh Briggs
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Genre: How-To
Pages: 10 pages
Raleigh Briggs is a cheerful and charming writer and I recommend picking up her heftier Make Your Place, which is a useful guide on crafting nontoxic variations of household cleaners and other ubiquitous dangers.
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The Darkness to the West
Author: Adam Gnade
Publisher: Punch Drunk Press
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 42 pages
Buy On Amazon.com
This short novella follows the unnamed protagonist – a Portland transplant and a stand-in for Gnade, I’m guessing – through a summer in Virginia, where he’s holed up to write a novel. Beyond that setup, there isn’t much of a story. Rather, the novella is comprised of bite-sized vignettes of dialog, anecdotes, and impressions of the people and places around him during his travels. Think Cometbus.
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