When I posted about the blown-out gospel-noise of U.S. Girls a couple Septembers ago, I referred to it as the "Chicago/Portland project of Megan Remy." Now it's the Philadelphia project of Megan Remy. And it's even better. Her excellent second Siltbreeze full-length Go Grey, which yokes hiss and dark pop hooks into a claustrophobically expansive 28-minute blast, is out today. The first bit of feedback to emerge from is the sing-song "Red For Radio." It's actually not my favorite song on the collection (see, instead "I Don't Have a Mind of My Own," "The Mountain's High," "Summer Of The Yellow Dress"), but it's a good one and the appropriate entryway, for sure. It arrives with this impressive video co-directed by Jacqueline Castel and the animator Preston Spurlock. Castel told us the clip was "created on the flatbed of a b + w photocopier," i.e. "none of it was digitally created/manipulated. Every frame was hand collaged, photocopied, scanned, and then edited together." Totally in the spirit of Remy's hand-manipulated universe.Continue reading New U.S. Girls Video - "Red Ford Radio"...
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Not all of Stereogum's favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment's virtual milk crate contains Caïna, Mamiffer, and U.S. Girls. UK's Caïna, aka 22-year-old Andrew Curtis Bignell, is one of the more uncompromising (and surprising) artists to emerge from the "extreme underground." He started out as a fairly straight-up one-man black metal act in 2004, but by 2007's Mourner (his "first 'real' album," in his own words) found a singular melding of one-man black metal, pretty shoegazing, indie/post-rock, Current 93-esque spoken excursions, and mournful balladry. Since then he's put out a notable split 7" with American black metal legend Krieg (on Grief Foundation) and his second proper (and brilliant) album Temporary Antennae, where he connects the crisscrosses of his eclectic musicality more seamlessly than on the at times slapdash Mourner, creating a satisfying, mesmerizing whole. He still has the fuzzy black metallic darkness, in fact it's even heavier and more clattering this time (note the Von shirt), but then take a listen to something like the title track, which might remind folks of Xiu Xiu going shoegaze. Or, if you're more into the metal thing, Xiu Xiu going Alcest (or Jesu).
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