CAGES

Nothing sounds like CAGES.  This two person project manages to capture frustration and reproduce that emotion in the form of sounds that are unique and mesmerizing.  From the opening of "Approaching White Light" that sounds like a child's toy drenched in pain and sorrow, Nola's vocals launch into beautiful distorted torment, and minutes later the track descends into live drones that carry on for the next seven minutes, lulling you into a complacency that is shattered by the banshee shrieks that close the song.  "Dying" starts more traditionally, and while perhaps unpopular, brief comparisons to Icelanders BJORK and SIGUR ROS are both relatively on target, though CAGES treat their sounds with such  obvious and careful aggression that these comparisons are quickly lost in the swells. Almost painfully minimal, the music that serves as the vehicle for these affected vocals quickly becomes the focus, and the result makes the vocals even more jarring when they do rear their head.  The 12 minute "On Dawn's Side" builds slowly to the most cacophonous moment of the tape, a stream of white noise interrupted only by occasional howls that descends into excruciatingly absent, almost nonexistent sounds that melt into the comparatively normal sounding "Dirty Lungs." Another version of "Dying" closes out the tape, this one longer than the first by 60 seconds that are made up primarily of ear piercing noise and walls of distortion delivered by the band's lone instrumentalist.

There can truly be no way to describe CAGES other than "experimental." No one sounds like them, and this band appears to be so deeply personal that I cannot imagine that anyone ever will.  CAGES have an extensive body of work, including several other live recordings (the tracks from Immovable Object are all live recordings from Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois).  This is not "on the bus headed to work" music, nor is it the kind of thing that might get you fired up for a body sculpting workout session, but if you've ever felt alone the way that most of us have, then these sounds on a dark night will drive home the understanding that we will always be alone.  This is beautifully haunting music.

IMMOVABLE OBJECT

CAGES

Buffalo duo CAGES have been wowing and confusing me for a decade. Dark and mesmerizing sounds that move from hypnotic electronics to avant-folk and then they travel to other places with a confidence that is terrifying. Describing CAGES would be nearly impossible, even for someone who talks as much as I do...but this collection of recordings is a pure motherfukkr. Listen to "If It Flies, It Dies" at maximum volume and you will never be the same. The minutes will take years off of your life, and still feed you.

COMPLAINT AND RIOTS WE SHOULD LEAVE TO CATS

Find CAGES here....their entire recorded output is celebrated at TEHQ (though, admittedly, the celebrations are mostly on special occasions....occasions that demand introspection and emotion) and the live experience is not of this world.

CAGES

I am going to Milwaukee today for my annual exercise in consumption and self abuse under the guise of volunteering at a bicycle race, and I hope to spend some time with some of the people involved in this project while I am there. CAGES combine transfixing noise/soundscapes with haunting female vocals that urge comparisons to an older, more resigned and sadder DIAMANDA GALAS. The music on this tape is garnered from various live performances in Buffalo, New York during 2006-08, and they often take on an ambient quality - while "Psalm To Mother" is an inwardly violent and cacophonous piece, the tracks that follow spend more time in the background than they do in your conscious aural field. "Burial" can sometimes slip completely by me when I listen to Anti-Realist (I think this is my favorite song on the tape, it just requires...demands...undivided and intense attention), and I'm jarred back to a harsh reality by "Cavern" to close the release. The harshness of CAGES is shrouded by their calm but erratic exterior - far from a crew of artsy noisemakers, emotion and turmoil permeate these songs. To listen to CAGES and not feel something is to simply not feel, and if that is the case then I feel for you...or maybe you just need to listen harder. And louder, these songs are better at maximum volume.

ANTI REALIST

Released in early 2011 by Död Universe, purveyor of many fine slabs of thought provoking noise.

BLOBS

 

There's something about Buffalo. Upstate New York in general of course, but specifically Buffalo. I've always liked the town, I'm drawn to it in much the same way I'm drawn to much of the Rust Belt - just feels like a place where the people are real because...well, why bother being anything else, you know? It's not perfect, it's kinda busted here and there, but it's also not a place trying to be anything it's not. And the bands.....seriously. Quality and quantity, and a town responsible for CAGES and GAS CHAMBER and SKATE KORPSE is a town you're going to want to pay attention to, you know? So anyway, here's the BLOBS tape that came out in 2015. Hot swinging high energy punk with a relentlessly walking fuzz bass and sonically advanced clean guitars that make you wonder if someone from BLOC PARTY is moonlighting in a basement in upstate New York schooling some grimey punk kids. There are horns and synths too, but you might not notice them because they sound like they just...belong. You're going to want to dance and you're going to smile, but you'll also never forget that you're listening to a no bullshit punk band. Because in Buffalo...you get all of it. Because it's all real. 

SHAME

UNCONSCIOUSNESS

For about a year, John and I hosted a Mix Tape Exchange in Milwaukee. Interest began to wane after a few months, but on those first couple of exchanges people really pulled out some big guns and spent some serious time putting the tapes together. This is how mix tapes are supposed to be made. Dave was a transplant from Buffalo (he has since returned) and is one of the most seriously critical music listeners I have ever known, so it came as no surprise that his submissions were consistently excellent, but Unconsciousness might be his finest work. There are bursts of hardcore that break up the 90 minute journey (LORDS OF LIGHT, G.I.S.M., KRIGSHOT), but this tape is essentially a tortured evening in a dimly lit room full of confused inward stares and sweltering doubt. From beautifully innocent female songwriters to grizzled gravel voiced songwriters, from MAN IS THE BASTARD to THIS HEAT, from the only KISS song I ever really liked (but performed by MELVINS, so it's even better) to the equally crushing and far more musically intriguing TOADLIQUOR. Unconsciousness is bookended with two tracks acid drenched distorted psych jams with soaring (and endlessly soloing) guitars from PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT, a band that I first heard through Dave. He also introduced me to PHARAOH OVERLORD who have provided the soundtrack for countless late night drives since they came into my life, and THE GIGOLOS "This Generation," which has since become one of my choicest jams - an infectious KBD tune with an undeniable mod/powerpop energy. Fortunately for you, PHARAOH OVERLORD's "Test Flight/Blackout" from III closes the first side of this tape in brilliant fashion, and "This Generation" makes an appearance as well...so you win. There is an art to making a great mix tape....and Dave is an artist.

HOW DO YOU THINK MY FATHER FELT...RESORTING FINALLY TO THE BELT

In addition to making mix tapes, Dave does time in excellent bands. Seriously. They are all good, and if you have seen them then you know I am telling the truth. CAGES. RUNNING FOR COVER. GAS CHAMBER. DEAD LANGUAGE. THEY LIVE. There are more, but that should get you started. I guess today is Dave Day.