Dog Shredder
Brass Tactics
Good To Die Records

You know, Brass Tactics, the new three-song 12″ from the Bellingham, Washington trio Dog Shredder, has really gorgeous cover art (courtesy of John J. Overly). Sure, there’s a skull, but it’s delicately done and hardly diminishes the heart-swell of delights evoked by the flowers, faery, and fair-haired maiden. The pastoral scene is certainly in direct contrast to the band name, but it’s not so jarring as to turn you away; it’s only when confronted with the noise contained within that you feel like a victim. A dope. A rube whose good taste and judgement has just been taken advantage of, whose sweet, golden spirit has been tragically wiped out by an uncontrollable force of guerrilla filth. The frenetic outpouring of crack-jaw metal found on Brass Tactics is barely half the running time of Dog Shredder’s 2010 two-song Boss Rhino EP, so the neuro-fuck of battle cubed (that’s “Battle Toad,” “Battle Snake,” and “Battle 07″) presents itself as a more focused kind of deconstruction. Focused or not, though, it’s still high voltage trash compactor rock, its blows so quick and wicked that not even the demented lounge-psych of “Battle 07″ or the beautiful cover can soften ‘em up.

Listen to Brass Tactics by Dog Shredder!

Yama
Seaquake
Mind Flare Media

Oh, goodness. Delta doom with 70s proto-metal production from a band from the Netherlands? Sure, a stoner/psych band from the cannabis capital of the world ain’t much of a stretch (hell, they even come from Tilburg, the city that hosts Roadburn every year), but Yama are so much more than that. I mean, never in one million years could you invent this kind of band in your smoke-addled mind, and yet here they are, the demonstrative figureheads of your living fuzz fantasy. Originally released as a 2011 demo (now out of print), the three songs “Hollow,” “Seaquake,” and “Synergy” have been reissued as the Seaquake EP so those of us who missed out the first time time can now revel in Yama’s throaty, acid-fried downer rock with its swampy Sabbath groove and ghostly, Zep-wrecking effects. I suppose it seems obvious to scream and curse for a full-length, but I’m gonna go ahead an do it anyway at anyone within earshot until it happens because I need to hear more. I hope it happens soon, but if not, I’ll gladly go hoarse for Yama.

Listen to the Seaquake EP by Yama!

Nate Hall
A Great River
Neurot Recordings

Nate Hall’s solo debut, A Great River, finds the U.S. Christmas singer/guitarist channeling his inner Appalachian Bob Dylan, and the result is a solitary stroll through backwoods trails under a starry, windless sky. Recorded in a single, inspirational night, A Great River exudes an honest and emotional tenor, the faint electrification and subtle country charms giving Hall’s melancholic psych-folk a compelling familiarity. While stand-outs include the Townes Van Zandt cover “Kathleen” and the steady warmth of the title track, I was particularly — and pleasantly — surprised by the brave beauty of the a cappella gospel of “When the Stars Begin to Fall” and how the entirety of A Great River shimmers with the velvet showmanship of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth, a kind of indelible longing painted with desperate brush strokes.

Listen to “Kathleen” from A Great River!