Boy oh boy, Morgantown, West Virginia, must really have something against vocalists. First Karma to Burn has to basically be ordered to get one for their first record, only to swear them off forever afterwards (only to eventually merge with Year Long Disaster and employ one more regularly), then Treasure Cat comes along wanting no part of any singer’s ego, and now the bruising trio Hovel likewise can’t be bothered. Don’t get me wrong, I know first-hand what a pain in the ass singers can be, but there’s got to be at least one in West Virginia that the rest of a band would be willing to put up with. West by God has one. Maybe they’ll share.

It’s easy to get into the grooves Hovel proffers, what with the familiarly American doom riffs and quality bass fills of a song like “Taking off the Guv’nor,” or the decidedly Iommi-esque bent of “26 Inch Sonic Witch” — both audible at the band’s MySpace. The second of those tracks comes off Hovel‘s Fuzzbuster/26 Inch Sonic Witch 7″ (you can also hear the first on there), released by Seattle‘s Flotation Records in a limited edition of 500. Hovel also has a six-song self-titled EP they’re selling on the MySpace that one presumes the cuts “GammaMinusMachineMinder” and “Taking off the Guv’nor” come from.

For being from an area rich in this kind of rock — could Morgantown be the official home of instrumental stoner riffing? — Hovel fit right in with a second generation of quality guitar-led jammers like Admiral Browning and Nitroseed in losing nothing of the doomed experience for lacking in throat. Ah hell. Whoever was singing would probably just blather on about cars and chicks anyway. Might as well let the crowd enjoy the riffs unencumbered. Take a listen to “Taking off the Guv’nor” and see if you don’t agree:

Taking off the Guv’nor

Though it follows an intro with the closest thing to the guitar sound on Clutch’s now-classic Elephant Riders I’ve ever heard without actually listening to that album, that turns out to be just one of the many sonic avenues explored on the Spanish trio Cuzo’s second album for Alone Records, Otros Mundos. Taking ‘70s prog jam excursions and roughing them up tonally to achieve a kind of garage jazz, the three-piece has undergone several changes in the time since their debut, Amor y Muerte en la Tercera Fase, most notably exchanging bassist Iván Román for Alvaro Gallego, bringing the number of shared members between Cuzo and doomers Warchetype down a third to just drummer Pep Cervantes. Cervantes and guitarist Jaume Pantaleon explored a variety of instrumental personalities on the first album, and joined here by Gallego, is as though they’re even freer to pursue whatever the moment offers.

On the already-alluded “Astroratas,” that means Clutch groove. On every other track, it means something completely different. “Coche Imaginario” has a strict jam build, but even that’s offset by synth quirk so that in listening you never quite know which way the song will turn. “Del Más Allá” is driven more laterally by Pantaleon’s guitar, but as Cuzo begins to develop an underlying persona beneath these explorations, it’s by no means just about one player. Gallego and Cervantes both play an essential role in making Otros Mundos sound as vitalized and fresh as it does. “Ni Vivos Ni Muertos” feels like a companion piece for “Del Más Allá” because of their relative closeness time-wise, but the two actually don’t share any more in common than either track does with the rest of Otros Mundos.

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The PR wire has it that West Virginian instrumental assassins Karma to Burn are in the studio prepping their comeback album for Napalm Records, and that they’ll also have a DVD out this December, and that they’ll be touring Europe for a month in 10 days’ time. Busy busy busy. Check it out:

Karma to Burn are currently recording their new album w/ Mathias Schneeberger (Gutter Twins) in Pasadena, California and features special guest Matt Maiellaro of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (director, writer, creator, bus driver, also producing the band’s new video for “43”). KTB has also re-recorded their hit songs “Twenty” and “Thirty” to appear on their upcoming DVD out December 15th courtesy of Napalm. The re-recorded track “Twenty” will also appear on a split 7-inch w/ ASG to be released on Volcom.

Karma to Burn Live!

USA
Nov 6 2009 Spaceland Los Angeles, California w/ 16 and Totimoshi

Europe
Nov 12 2009 MUZ Club N?rnberg
Nov 13 2009 HDO Brandenburg Brandenburg
Nov 14 2009 Titty Twister Dresden
Nov 15 2009 Modra Vopice Prague
Nov 16 2009 Arena Vienna
Nov 17 2009 KSET Zagreb
Nov 18 2009 Channel Zero Ljubljana
Nov 19 2009 Circolo A.R.C.I Fidenza
Nov 20 2009 Bloom Mezzago
Nov 21 2009 United Club Torino
Nov 22 2009 Bronson Ravenna
Nov 23 2009 Sinister Noise Roma
Nov 24 2009 Sabotage Bar Vicenza
Nov 25 2009 Le Romandie Lausanne
Nov 26 2009 Sonnenkeller Balingen
Nov 27 2009 Musiktheater Piano Dortmund
Nov 28 2009 SPEEDFEST Eindhoven w/ Peter Pan Speedrock, GBH, Death Angel, US Bombs
Nov 29 2009 Le Grillen Colmar
Nov 30 2009 GRRRNDZERO Lyon
Dec 1 2009 Le Mojomatic Montpellier
Dec 2 2009 La MDE Poitiers
Dec 3 2009 Hotel de la musique Roubaix

UK w/ Monster Magnet
Dec 5 2009 Rock City Nottingham
Dec 6 2009 KOKO London
Dec 7 2009 Garage Glasgow
Dec 8 2009 Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh, Scotland * no Monster Magnet
Dec 9 2009 Academy 2 Manchester
Dec 10 2009 Assembly Leamington Spa
Dec 11 2009 Wulfrun Wolverhampton
Dec 12 2009 Met University Leeds

Caught in just the right sunlight, the musical sprawl of influential Chicago instrumentalists Pelican is downright beautiful. Fortunately, it seems to be the exact appropriate time of day on their fourth full-length (first for Southern Lord), What We all Come to Need.

Taking cues from their earlier days with Australasia, much of urbane crunch that seemed to typify 2007?s City of Echoes is replaced here by open soundscaping and lush dynamics. That?s not to say Pelican are repeating themselves by any stretch. The growth of the band is evident in the careful structuring of opener ?Glimmer,? and What We all Come to Need only gets more complex from there. But to do a time comparison, both albums have eight tracks, City of Echoes was 42 minutes, What We all Come to Need is 51. There?s clearly been a shift in focus.

A Greg Anderson guitar contribution to second track ?The Creeper? is immediately identifiable, and Anderson is but one of several guests throughout the LP. Isis? Aaron Turner shows up in a similar capacity on the title track, Harkonen?s Ben Verellen donated bass to the opener, and The Life and Times? Allen Epley contributes vocals (!) to closer ?Final Breath.?

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They’ve got one. It’s up on their MySpace, and it comes off their new record and Southern Lord debut, What We all Come to Need, due out Oct. 27. Song is called “Strung up from the Sky.” Go forth and dig it. When you’re done with that, you might want to check their merch page and grab a copy of the limited edition Ephemera CD. Just putting it out there.

Though anytime I’m standing on the island of Manhattan, my mind automatically maps out the best possible route to Generation Records, the conditions that had me there yesterday — those being a day in the city with The Patient Mrs., as though an afternoon with my grumpy, lumbering ass is some kind of reward or break for her — prohibited it. A compromise in my head was a quick stop at Academy on 18th St., which I have it on good (and confidential) authority is where Spin sells their unwanted promos. I was hoping to catch an advance copy of that Six Organs of Admittance record I found out about the other night, and thankfully, she acquiesced.

No such luck on the Six Organs, but the thing about Academy is there’s always something in there, and apart from rarities, it’s all priced used. They’ve reorganized somewhat, splitting their CDs by genre in addition to alphabet, which is probably a good move in the long run if more of a pain in the ass to maintain. Flipping through the wares, I picked up the Neurot reissue of Tribes of Neurot‘s Adaptation and Survival insect experiment, the fancypants edition of the last Opeth record, which, boring though it was once past its novelty, is still Opeth, Prometheus by Emperor, and an accidental second copy of Dopesmoker. It’s the Music Cartel issue of Jerusalem I wanted. This was the Tee Pee digipak, which I already own. Easy mistake. Honestly I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before and wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again. Damn Sleep for being so desirable.

More of a surprise, however, was a brand new, still wrapped copy of Shaving the Angel by Midnite Snake on Birdman Records, which I’ve been eying over that the All That is Heavy webstore for some time now — and not just for the mammary-inclusive cover art, provocative though it is. The Pittsburgh instrumental trio play a San Franciscan freak rock that’s downright abrasive at times and alternates between tripping balls psychedelia and speed-fueled riffing. Oh yeah, then they have “Supermodifed,” which is a 25-minute cycle through what I can only assume is an avant stoner interpretation of how Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory might have turned out had Charlie gone to Slugworth‘s instead. Whether you’re putting a “d” or a “v” in between your “hea” and your “y,” you’re right.

I probably wouldn’t have bought it had I not encountered it in person, or at least not until I purchased every other wish list entry and impulse buy (which might as well be never at this rate), so for me, Midnite Snake was the find of the day. I’m pretty sure I won’t listen to it on repeat for the rest of my life, but when they finally show up to film that? remake of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls in my living room, I’ve got the soundtrack cued up and ready to go, and finding it only caused the slightest blemish on the whole “time together” thing. Everyone wins.

If we happened to live in a dimension in which there was one phrase to cover the entirety of what Barcelona instrumentalists Cuzo are doing on their Alone Records debut, Amor y Muerte en la Tercera Fase, that phrase might be something like “vague rock.” The experimental trio comprised of bassist Iv?n Rom?n, drummer Pep Cervante (both of doomers Warchetype) and guitarist/noisemaker Jaime L. Pantale?n run through seven mostly-interconnected tracks of instru-prog, like what Stinking Lizaveta might try if they decided they weren’t a jazz band or a more organic, less keyboard-driven Zombi.

The personality of the album varies almost entirely on each song, with opener “Medium” being mostly an ambient/noisy intro with a high-pitched frequency throughout most of it that cuts into the eardrum in a way that makes you think you’re in for something way less pleasant from Amor y Muerte en la Tercera Fase than you actually are. Almost immediately, “Escalera Roja” establishes Cuzo as a semi-technical band capable of switching and bending moods to their will, but still focused more on expression than structure. Riffs repeat and come and go but Cuzo don’t sound rigid in their execution at all, which is a big part of why the album has such a consistent flow despite the array of approaches within.

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They might look like they could use a sandwich or two, but Brooklyn trio Stats (formerly known as Stay Fucked) specialize in a dense, sludgy brand of technical instrumetal, like a less outwardly intense early Dillinger Escape Plan or what forgotten Minnesota tribe Figure of Merit pulled off so capably on their equally forgotten Vatic record, and so their indie garb is a kind of disguise from which the sonic nastiness emerges. Very sneaky, you thick-framed strategists.

Be that as it may or may not — and even if it isn’t, I like the narrative so I’m keeping it — the three-song CD the band sent in for review came with little fanfare, no art, no track listing and no real explanation; just a black CDR, a short bio and an email address. Under normal circumstances (i.e., if they sucked), I probably would have put it in the pile to be eventually filed away, never to be heard again, but my curiosity was roused by the crashing noisy rhythms of the first track and I’ve gone back for multiple repeat listens since, each time hearing something new from Stats that I’d missed previously.

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