REVIEW: BY THE END OF TONIGHT / O PIONEERS!!! – SWEET JUNK

(OH SNAP TWO FER TUESDAY!)
Gotta love Team Science Records. I mean, if you wanna talk about a seriously below the radar local label that is putting out a slew of seven inch gold, this is the one. It’s the record-releasing arm of i heart you productions, and they already have one of our current favorites, the Papermoons debut, in their catalog, along with releases by The Jonbenet and bands from other zip codes. Oh, and on their forthcoming list? A little something from Golden Axe. YUSS.

This split's title, Sweet Junk, implies a pair of throw away b-sides; THINK AGAIN. We’ll start with O Pioneers!!! “I-10”, in which Eric I Heart You sounds, well, about as thrilled as someone stuck in Katy Freeway traffic. With their trademark disdain for the low end, OP pulls to the side of road, shouting and throwing gravel at passers by, who no doubt do more freaking out than loosing cool at the sight of it. Bluetooth headsets are falling all over the place as frantic hands wind up open windows as the guitar weaves in an out of the same part of the spectrum as the cymbals, its cold jangle taking a back-seat to the fury of the vocals. The result is the impact of the song as a whole, rather than any hook or riff – a giant orange plastic barrel full of salt and water and likely to pummel you only less slightly than concrete.

On the flip, By The End of Tonight’s "I Love Technology, I Love You To” finds you in a place of slightly less fury, but the flurry is there like a tour van in a blizzard. Foreshadowing the breakthrough in both sound and composition that will follow later in the year (and later this week) on their split with Tera Malos, this song shows why BTEOT are the peerless masters of instrumental dynamicism in this town. It’s not that they stop and turn on a dime or the ability build up the tension/volume/bigness of it all that gives them this crown, but how they are able to combine the two and string together an avalanche of totally whips (and often thrown away!) parts in such a short space of time. It’s like a movie then – you couldn’t quote the whole thing, but you know all the good lines; and this narrative has tons of em.

REVIEW: O PIONEERS!!! / THE MEASURE [SA] SPLIT

The laundromat can not be overstated in terms of its importance to enjoying music. It’s not just a place where the detergenty task unfolds (before the folding), it’s a place of focus. Of stasis, as the chore at hand really is that – a chore – and it's nearly always a place where one goes prepared for the time to be spent. It’s also one of the few remaining chambers of cyclic white noise in this, the age after the factory. Spins. Rinses. Washes. Soaks. Drys. Washers stammering forward with hectic shifts as the final moments of their task centrifuges wet drum innards. Competing cycles and sounds as rivets protest how their denim drags them around and small flotillas of change try endlessly to ride the conveyor humps into loop-de-loop.

In this environment there is a palette of patterns to sample and tune in and out – nearly enough to find a new rhythm section for any recording. So too, does the shortness of the loops encourage the dedication to a single track to see how it will react with each additional washer and dryer you let into the metal mix. Now empty. Now switch loads. Now suddenly folding, and everything is tuned out. Nothing but you and O Pioneers!!! as socks are matched, undershirts lamented for their ever enlarging pit stains, treasured tees folded and jeans given a second run for added fiber tightness.

Now out of the noise entirely, where not even tuning out is necessary. Spare change in your pocket and Pepsi on the mind, it can’t help but be noticed how much sugar there really is in the guitars, nearly as much as hoarse rallying in the throat. Outside. Soda Jerks visible in the window. Someone else’s afternoon mix leaking out the weather stripping into your repeat-one. Maybe another walk around the block, one more cycle, before you head in. Ride that sad pony one more time. Recommended.

(note: the other side isn't a local jammah, but we're pretty sure it's still good).

Stream: O Pioneers!!! - Various Tracks

OH SNAP! FREE O PIONEERS!!!/BTEOT SPLIT

HEY KIDS WHAT DO WE LIKE? QUALITY! AND HOW DO WE LIKE IT? FREE! Usually, when we think about quality and free, it’s more along the lines of the packets of Fancy Heinz Ketchup that the folks at Wendy’s throw in the bag along with your burger and fries. And while these packets of the olde king of condiments may last forever in your kitchen drawer, there is something equally (or perhaps more) delectable with a similarly enduring olde king status – the split seven inch. Let’s face it – it isn’t every day that one comes across one anymore, especially not by a pair of local bands.. and especially not for free.

Well, aren’t you going to have a good day.

If you’re one of the first fifty folks through the door at Notsuoh tonight, you’ll be the sudden and cash-free owner of a new split record by locals O Pioneers!!! and By The End of Tonight. Ecstatic. And it’s a good bill to boot, with (in classic Notsuoh style) approximately 80 bands on the bill. Ok, actually, there are just seven, but as a general rule we always round up to 80. The cover is a measly $8 for this all ages show, with doors at seven. WHAT ARE THY LINE UP, OH SHOW OF SHOWS: Daniel Striped Tiger, By The End of Tonight, B., Mammoth Grinder, Dick Chesney, O Pioneers!!! and Fire Team Charlie. SQUEEZE THAT OUT ON YOUR BURGER!