ASSHOLES/OPINIONS

here's a compendium of reviews of various and various related releases. if you have a fanzine and want trade some printed matter for review copies, ask and you shall receive. 

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Grump – North End Generic 7” EP (Various)

RECOMMENDED

Strange but rewarding five-song punk EP from Halifax, Nova Scotia, interesting largely for what the band doesn’t do, which is stick to genre or convention. Songs speed up and slow down, wild out and get spooky (particularly “Antagonist”), only sticking to the windswept, treated, hoarse through-the-nose yelling of their vocalist. As this thing winds to an end, it comes off a bit like Die Kreuzen “All White” inside a circus tent, for all we know the product of four people who have listened to a bit of punk/HC and either didn’t care enough to emulate what they’d heard, or simply didn’t know how, and just did their own thing instead. Reminiscent of the genre-busting random singles that popped up through the ‘90s, picking up influence like lint on chewed gum. Silkscreened chipboard pocket sleeve. Listen in at http://grump.bandcamp.com. 330 copies. (http://variousrecords.blogspot.ca)
(Doug Mosurock)

Surveillance – Man 7” EP (Various)

RECOMMENDED

Luck of the draw picks these two recent submissions from Halifax’s Various Records off the pile (this along with the Grump single seen above), and both are terrific. Surveillance is a product of three folks bent on subverting a noisy, punky pop presence with a brutalist charm offensive, whether they’re chasing Cub with pick slides (“Death”), doing away with the drums altogether and spacing out on the short, tuneful “Bud,” or riding huge waves of fuzz on their namesake B-side. Like Grump, I’m detecting serious gen-X/Y damage here, most evidently on “Surveillance,” channeling all the heavy roar of Sugar/Bailter Space/Party of Helicopters style guitars on a riff that drives itself diagonally into the dirt. Immense jammage, and over all too soon. Why can’t your band be more like this? 330 copies, check ‘em out at http://surveillance2015.bandcamp.com or just buy it here: (http://variousrecords.blogspot.ca)
(Doug Mosurock)

still-single.tumblr.com 

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[from the termbo DEMOS/TAPES FALL 2014 update]

Surveillance "Stressed and Depressed!!!" cassette

Surveillance have somehow created a working time machine and gone back and become one of the better Canadian bands of the boom of 1994 indie-rockers-signed-to-Sub-Pop but somehow forgot to make sure they got a song on the 'Nevermind the Molluscs' comp. These guys/gal are from Halifax, which is close enough to Moncton to sound like they recorded at Stereo Mountain. Super cool fuzzed out and desperately melancholic sounding rocking, with a guy and a gal taking turns on the mic. Not soft at all, and the tunes certainly have an agressive punk edge (much like the much beloved Eric's Trip/Elevator, who I just love comparing bands from NS to), there are some rich/lush sounding tunes offset by a couple raw 4 track-sounding rippers. They have a good thing going here, a real fuck off vibe ("Fucked Up and Naked", "Nazi Not Again", "Irrational Depression"), some sick guitar fuzz and solo squalls, both of them can sing, and the tunes have hooks of the non-saccharine variety. I've listened to this a bunch, how the hell do they not have a record out yet? (RK)

(self-released // surveillance2015.bandcamp.com)

[from the DEMOS/TAPES WINTER 2013-14 update]

Surveillance "Go Fuck Yourself" cassette
Halifax indie-rockers seven song demo cassette. With a title like "Go Fuck Yourself" you might be expecting some punk rockers, but this is trebly indie-rock certainly informed by Halifax's rich indie rock scene - Eric's Trip (and SY), Sloan, Jale and Velocity Girl by extension, a band that inspired at least one of those bands very much. Girl/boy vocal harmonizing, precious melodies with the rub being (and I guess this is the punk part) it's recorded very much in the lo-fi domain, obscuring the lilting hooks in a haze of static and hiss. Very tinny drum sound, plenty of feedbacking, a coupla sprintingly upbeat rockers and some solid songwriting. Not bad at all, woulda been a huge hit with the guy who did the indie rock show before we did the punk show on WBNY. Gold Soundz. I'd be interested to hear some more, but I'm also a sucker for Nova Scotian indie-rock. These guys practically challenged me to write a bad review, and that I couldn't do it says something...(RK)
(self-released // surveillance2015.bandcamp.com)

www.terminal-boredom.com

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[from Maximum Rock N Roll Nov. 2015 issue]

[from MRR Aug. 2014]

maximumrocknroll.com

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[And here's some more MRR reviews of the recent 7"s]

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[aaand from the good people at Sorry State, writeup for their newsletter/distro]

Surveillance: Man 7"

Debut vinyl from this Canadian band with a couple of cassette releases under their belt. The sound here is thick, raw, but song-oriented fuzz pop in the Dinosaur Jr mold. It seems like every scene has a band or two like this and some are better than others... Surveillance are one of the really, really good ones, their sound bolstered by strong pop songwriting, two extremely capable lead vocalists, and a sound that is dense yet raw. Imitation shoegaze is a genre that pretty much makes me want to wretch, but this ain't it... it's punk with a fuzz pedal on 10 and a pocket full of hooks. Get into it.

SURVEILLANCE "AREA C-51"

another surveillance tape. although it was recorded back in june, this one was thrown together before our short excretion to ontario and back just a couple of weeks ago. it was so last minute, in fact, that I forgot to put the catalogue number on it. so I guess you can call this VAR10 if you want, unless that ends up on something else. thanks to whoever bought this while we were on the road, and anyone who came out to the shows (and an extra big thanks to Chris Scott for helping us book the shows). check it out here: surveillance2015.bandcamp.com, e-mail zosimosss at gmail dot com if you want a copy, $5 plus shipping. additional thanks to jeremy "special" costello for twiddling knobs while we blasted these out and for lookin cool. cover art by rabies herself.

TOUR OF DUTY

surveillance hits the road next week, first shows not in halifax or st. john's. we will have new t-shirts for sale I will post an image of them when they are done.

also I'd like to make a special announcement that we had the wrong e-mail address listed on our bandcamp page for the past 5 weeks, so if you e-mailed "surveillance at gmail.com" you probably didn't get a reply. the real address is surveillance2015 at gmail.com. sad I know.

HIGH FLYIN'

DIE-O-RAMA

now for sale: grump "north end generic" and surveillance "man" seven inches. both five bucks each. thanks to everyone who was involved in making them, which between answering my endless amount of questions and actual hands on work and is quite a number of people. grump records are packaged in silkscreened chipboard sleeves, which come in a wide range of print quality. 330 of each.

hear the grump record here: grump.bandcamp.com

hear the surveillance record here: surveillance2015.bandcamp.com

e-mail zosimosss at gmail dot com if you want a copy, wanna distro it, have any burning questions, answers, scathing remarks, etc.

PISS YOUR PANTS

been a long time coming, but the Grump and Surveillance records are finally going to be available for public consumption this saturday. come check out the bands, pick up a rec or 2, soak yourself in the atmosphere of the tiny room that is Lost and Found. will likely post more info on the records themselves later on today. 

FLYIN' HIGH

UNREAL THOUGHT "AMATEUR COMFORT"

now available from Various: Unreal Thought's "Amateur Comfort" cassette. Unreal Thought are a punk band who play in Halifax, Nova Scotia. grab a copy by e-mailing zosimosss AT gmail dot com or stopping by Lost and Found on Agricola (2383 Agricola) if yr in the city. $5 ppd.

or TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.

SOME MORE SHIT

here's another mixtape I made for a friend in exchange for his gorden solies motherfuckers record. we haven't actually exchanged these items yet. not the best mix when it comes to playback and I did a pretty crummy job at engineering it but it's got some of my favourite stuff ever on it as well as some new crud I've been digging/questioning. I'll spare you the commentary.

GSM for RANDOM

-A-

Rocket from the Tombs "Raw Power"

Obnox "Grease"

Cheater Slicks "You Don't Satisfy"

Remo Voor "Frogrammer"

Divine Horsemen "Lily White Hands"

The Rats "Teenagers"

Simon Finn "Jerusalem"

Saccharine Trust "We Don't Need Freedom"

Kremlin "Steel Case"

B-52's "Ain't It a Shame"

Peter Jefferies "On an Unknown Beach"

Sun City Girls "The Shining Path"

h100s "Panic Attack"

Two Gospel Keys "I Don't Feel at Home In this World Anymore"

-B-

The Stooges "Raw Power (Live)" (40 second excerpt)

The Dead C "Sky"

The Shadow Ring "Put the Music in its COFFIN"

Guided By Voices "Key Losers"

The Fugs "I Want to Know"

Perrey and Kingsly "Visa to the Stars"

The Hunches "Carnival Debris"

Greg Sage "Sacrifice for Love"

Roky Erickson "Right Track Now"

The Flesh Eaters "The Rosy Hours"

Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments "Rump Government"

The Go-Betweens "Streets of Your Town"

Tall Dwarves "High Rise"

Plagal Grind "Blackout"

don't hold your breath on those grump/surveillance records, they just went to press and probably won't be out until the fall. will give a full update of future releases soon. some quality cassettes on the horizon. 

SOME SHIT

in an effort to increase transparency here at various I'm posting a mixtape I made back in november while I was putting together the various fanzine. it's called "dave surf's the net, nov 5th 2014". nothing too out of the ordinary here, but I like it cause you can tell I was hanging out at the superior viaduct website, thinkin about all the cool shit I could buy if I had any money; then I whipped over to the negative guest list website to survey its static landscape due to the death of it's prime director brenden annesly a few years back - a truly inspirational figure for dirtbags from all walks of life (if anyone has any copies of the NGL fanzine they'd be willing to loan/sell me get in touch!!!); then I got stuck on youtube, listening to full sun ra albums of which there are MANY. could be more if he wasn't so dead.

b side's a bit more straight ahead and gets a little into the "gender debate" if yr dumb enough to call it that. hear girlschool talk about all the dopes who don't take them seriously because they're not hairy enough followed shortly after by uk sub's "all I wanna know", a true misogynistic anthem of which there are MANY. other themes explored on this side: love, loss, rejection, psychic space exploration, teenage perversions, isolation, and the spiritual advantages of being WRONGHEADED. overall, apart from the brigitte fontaine, dos, and undertones tracks (great on their own, but seem to slow things down a bit) I'd say this is without a doubt one of the greatest mixtapes of semi-popular music ever made in the terrible history of the human race, at least by me.

gonna leave it in the SAD RAD RECORDING CLUB tape exchange library box at RADSTORM so feel free to borrow it, listen to it, steal and never give it back, take it and destroy it, whatever you want why should I care? 

DAVE SURF'S THE NET, NOV 5th 2014

-A-

Tuxedomoon "No Tears"

Noh Mercy "No Caucasian Guilt"

Peter Jefferies "Electricity"

the UV Race "Speed Freak"

Devo "Jocko Homo (Hardcore Devo version)"

Crazy Spirit "Burning Churches"

Bruce Haack "War"

Low Life "Atomised"

Obnox "Only Black Man in South Dakoda"

Meath Thump "Feel Good"

A Handful of Dust "The First Dance"

Sun Ra "Sun Song"

Sun Ra "When There Is No Sun"

Brigitte Fontaine "Brigitte"

-B-

Burzum "My Journey to the Stars"

Testors "MK Ultra"

Rocket from the Tombs "Ain't It Fun (Rocket Redux version)"

Girlschool "Demolition Boys (Live Rehearsal)"

Systematic Death "Switch"

U.K. Subs "All I Wanna Know"

Christmas "Big Plans"

Necros "Reject"

The Undertones "Teenage Kicks"

The Revillos "Man Attack"

Gary Numan "M.E."

Dos "Take Away the Fire"

Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments "Wrongheaded"

REAPING TIME HAS COME

PIG reunites for one night. 

poster by aught/void.

will have some new surveillance t-shirts for this show. 

LEAVE NO CROSS UNTURNED

surprise fuckers I had this post all ready to go when I wrote that last one!!!

grump's got a sample of their 7" up on their bandcamp. not gonna embed it for you so CHECK IT HERE.

KIM FOWLEY IS DEAD

good time to update you as to what's around the corner for various. I'm very happy to say that the surveillance and grump 7"s are ALMOST DONE and will be heading off to be mastered n pressed in the next week or so... so I'm thinking like 3 months and they'll be out, give or take any number of days/weeks/months.

in the mean time we're having a show on the 21st of feb at lost and found to promote the releases (and also ourselves). a poster will be posted soon, maybe even in the next few hours!!!

in the noise department we've got a new cassette from the very skilled and reputable Beck Gilmer-Osborne. this is their second cassette release, though I'm pretty sure there's only something like five copies of the first one...anyways I feel lucky to have one. this tape is essentially COMPLETE and only needs dubbing and cutting so it will most definitely be available at the feb 21st show. a sound sample has been provided for your listening pleasure. as far as I know all sounds were created with a saxophone and a bunch of wires. I'll try and provide more information on that when the tape's done.

thanks for living,
dave