Summer Fun For All The Family

What kind of music are you into when the Summer hits? Do you prefer to listen to Peter Tosh and Lee “Scratch” Perry on the beach? Dancing to Diplo and M.I.A. in a club? Having a BBQ, while smoking a bowl and blasting Aerosmith and Sabbath?

Or perhaps, your tastes are a bit more adventurous than that. Perhaps you enjoy sipping a margarita while freaking out the neighbors with weird time signatures, screeching vocals and preverse humour? If so, then Hydra Head Record’s new releases are for you. Hydra Head is one of the most interesting independent labels around. They specialize in metal, but their bands are so weird they make everyone else sound like Status Quo in comparison. They have just released split 10”s by Melvins / Isis and Torche / Boris. That is awesome in itself, but you can also download for free a sampler of their stuff from their website. Phoning It In: A Hydra Head Digital Sampler includes music by Xastur, Keelhaul, Knut, Torche, Clouds, Harvey Milk, Cave In, Daughters, Oxbow and other mentalists. It’s true that, these days, independent music has been co- opted by insufferable idiots who cannot actually enjoy their rock without a large dose of irony. Nonetheless, there is enough weirdness in here to scare away most hipsters. Oxbow sound fucking intimidating, Torche are cool as always, Harvey Milk are probably the most demented band in the Western Hemisphere, while Xastur sounds like a crazy witch, on fire, in your cellar. It’s all good fun.

Especially if you have it on shuffle in your iPod and- right after Al Green or Dennis Wilson- some crazed bastard stars screaming “DEMONSSSSSS!!!” at you. Ah,… Summertime…