Arcing - Doubt

I've tried never to be possessive of bands that I like, but back when Erin and I were only dating, I got Tiny Hawks' miniature masterpiece, Fingers Become Bridges, and, while listening to it for the first time in the car, driving between my house and hers, swore her to secrecy.  No one could know about this band besides us.  Oh, high school: the ridiculous things we think and say (though I'm pretty sure I was graduated by time this happened).  Anyways, after putting down the Tiny Hawks moniker, the duo is back, and with two additional members to boot, renamed Arcing.  And Doubt, they're debut 12" is out now on Corleone.  And it's for the everyone:

Black Pus - Pus Mortem

Even if my mind isn't playing tricks on me and the new Black Pus album is sparser and laxer than any I can remember, you can still only describe Chippendale's solo project as murky, wild, loud, pummeling, and fast.  Pus Mortem is a Black Pus album, after all.  Oh, and if you haven't hear already, Chippendale unearthed two twenty minute (or thereabouts) slabs of yesteryear Lightning Bolt, here and here.  For those looking to retire their ears earlier rather than later.

The Slaves - Spirits of the Sun

Forest Gospel would like to apologize to The Slaves, it being legally required that all reviewers mentioning their new album, Spirits of the Sun, mention the following: Grouper, My Bloody Valentine, Sunn 0))), etcetera.  Must be frustrating.
 

Car Seat Headrest - Monomania

As was with the first two Car Seat Headrest records, the more I listen to Monomania the more impressed I am with it.  On the face of it, Will Toledo's solo project is pretty standard, if roughly hewn, indie rock.  Which is as nondescript as I can be.  If I'm being unreliable, I'd compare it to, say, Sunset Rubdown, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  (You understand my laziness.) Bottom line is that Monomania rises above, is more than the status quo (much more), and is worth many repeated listens.  Year-ender, for sure.  So listen:
    

Alex Tedesco - Pretty Lies

(Self released, 2012)

This review has been a long time coming.  And it's significant, in that it marks a change for Forest Gospel.  I plan no longer to provide reviews (or what I have previously passed off as reviews) for the music I post here.  Otherwise, I think, I would just never get around to posting anything (case in point: the last three months).  Just the way it is these days.  And anyways, if I'm posting it, that means it's recommended.  Just like everything else on here--make sense?

This, however, this record by Alex Tedesco, has been like a sledge hammer to the head.  One of the most anticipated albums of the year for me, absolutely (proof).  And while it certainly delivers, it also certainly messed me up (which is synonymous with delivering, obviously).  Tedesco has evolved from his debut, Future Strains (skronky, wild-eyed noise pop), into something that is heavier, darker, prettier, and much more complex.  Like the middleground between David Thomas Broughton and late-era Scott Walker,  Pretty Lies is rough-edged, drugged, carnal, and looking for blood (+, +, +, +).  Its audacious, really.  And listening to it has turned me upside-down.  If the internet age is really something that you can say and have it mean anything at all, know that Pretty Lies is not an album meant for the internet age.  Pretty Lies is an album meant to be digested, meant to swim between the ears, meant to haunt and haunt and haunt, meant to confuse and torment, anger and then elate, and, in the end, unqualifiedly injure (it is only a record, after all).  In the simplest terms its just some outsider pop album with a dump truck's worth of ambition and a baritone croon.  Give it some time, change your life.