A-Frames

all those OOP/RIP vinyls on the dragnet site are gonna make cry.

i think i'll order up the new lp, though. thanks for reminding me.

B-b-but you were jumping up and down about the Ex-Models record just last week! Can't fault your enthusiasm, will check this out...

...

Yancey, I forgot A-Frames were touring the northern edge of the states.. cool!

(Now if only they would make money off the vinyl "2" soon enough to do a CD pressing of it... heh heh)

(psst, i will d*g*t*ze "2" for my own purposes soon enough, so Yanc3y keep in touch)

off topic, but you hear about the new swami comp?

Yeah, I was talking about the Swami record, db. I should be getting a copy from them this week. I'm excited.

Okay he just came home and yelled downstairs. I hate that. I'm going to go take a walk.

On a worthy side note, the opening band The Intelligence opened and were also amazing in their new lineup. (Backing up a bit, The Intelligence is fronted by Lars Finberg, the drummer of the A-Frames, except he sings/nasally drones and plays guitar). They started off as a three piece (guitar-guitar-drums) a couple of years ago but now have recruited a couple of members of another great local rock band The Popular Shapes, and are now more of a force live (two guitars, more effects, bass, and drums). Their album Boredom and Terror sounds more like a 4-track bedroom excursion, which isn't to say it's not good, but makes for a POOR indicator of their live sound. They certainly have nailed down the loose Fall/Wire sound, or more that of a dancey slightly out-of-tune garage shuffle band whose songs always seem on the verge of falling apart but never do. They took a while to warm up, but a quarter way through, they were doing a great job of making the audience happy. Lars is the only guy I've seen live who can get away with vocalizing approximately close to Mark E. Smith without sounding or acting like a Mark E. wanna-be. (maybe because Lars doesn't add the "-uh" suffixes after every word). The darker garage overtones are the only thing this band has in common with the more goth/post-punk tighter sounding A-Frames, but A-Frames fans would certainly have an easy time getting into The Intelligence.

Anyway, The Intelligence are flying to NYC to play four shows in the area this weekend...(and also are playing a few other east coast dates, and Chicago as well, I can post the dates when I get em). Unfortunately, they are not playing with Metal Urbain for either of their two shows in NYC (who you should DEFINITELY see), but since you guys there have a chance to see both bands this weekend, I obviously recommend Metal Urbain, but also want to extend a plea for you guys to see the Intelligence if they're playing near your neighborhood too. You'll likely have fun seeing them as well.

Will (hopefully) post definitive The Intelligence tour dates as I get em.

did you get that vinyl dragnet sampler with new a frames, intelligence, and country teasers tracks? tres good.

also, i might have some a frames goodies to send yr way. if i get them i'll drop you an email.

"hello friends!
here's the dates for our little tour that we're doing with our
friends the intelligence (from seattle). please come out! as you
might know, these will be our first shows in quite a long time. we'll
have some new t-shirts and a 5 song tour only EP with us (limited to
60 copies!)... all hand silkscreened at the unovis workshop.

4/3, sat.- brooklyn, ny @ narnack loft- 210 cook st., #301 **
4/4, sun.- new haven, ct @ BAR
4/5, mon.- nyc @ sin-e (intelligence only!)
4/6, tues.- detroit, mi @ the lager house
4/7, wed.- chicago, il @ subterranean
4/8, thurs.- baltimore, md @ the talking head
4/9, fri.- allentown, pa @ jeff the pigeon w/ bastard noise, dark
inside the sun (ex-deerhoof)
4/10, sat.- nyc, ny @ piano's

brasilia will also be playing the rock-n-rollerskate at office ops in
bushwick, brooklyn on april 24th with breaker!breaker! and one
other...

** directions to the narnack loft- 210 cook st. #301, brooklyn- take
L to morgan stop. make a left on bogart and right on cook st...

so- please come out and say hi. help us get a little gas money by
buying a shirt or cd. or both.
thanks. enjoy the spring!
- roy"

I do HIGHLY recommend the Intelligence/Popular Shapes split 7" if you don't already have it. The Intelligence's songs on that outdo anything on the album (again imho). They sound slightly closer to their current live sound, minus all the vocal reverb and distortion.

Popular Shapes are also quite mention worthy. Best way I can describe their debut "Bikini Style" album is like if a current Dischord band went in an quirky proto early-XTC/Stranglers stylee.

All of this aside, things have been mysteriously quiet on the A-Frames side of things. (maybe the singer is just really busy at work or something..)

erin's job = photo archivist.

4/2 - New York NY @ Boogaloo
4/3 - Brooklyn NY @ loft show
4/4 - New Haven CT @ BAR
4/5 - New York NY @ Sin-E
4/6 - Detroit MI @ Lager House
4/7 - Chicago IL @ Subterranean
4/8 - Baltimore MD @ Talking Head
4/9 - Philadelphia PA @ Spaceboy Records (early instore)
4/9 - Allentown PA @ Jeff The Pigeon
4/10 - Jersety City NJ @ WFMU (live on the air)
4/10 - New York NY @ Piano's

there you have it. they rock for sure--go see them!

what's the teasers contribution like?

YANCEY ALL THE MORE REASON TO SHARE IT.

it's not as "RAWK" as 2 or even A-Frames. But man does Black Forest grow on me more and more every listen. Possibly sleeper best album of 2005.....?

("half-digested Pop Group"?)

Don't you GET IT, Jams??

I am not in love with the new a-frames, its a bit uneven...but I guess thats kinda their thing...I just hope they tour, they ARE SO RADICAL LIVE!!!

i think the lack of cohesiveness on the new one is good, actually! i'd rank the albums: a frames > black forest > 2

also:

im not sure i like the girl singing on some of the songs

I'm pretty sure there were some female backing vocals on the first (s/t) A Frames record, so it's not like it's out of character or anything.

Well, they might have tuned their guitars better (or had proper intonation jobs done on them) before recording the songs on that album, for one thing.

As far as the songs on it go, Computer Cougar did much the same thing musically and Satisfact did much the same thing lyrically/vocally years ago with at least a little more personality.

OK?THXBYE.

Matos, if you're going to be a homer, rep for Satisfact, dude! (First album, anyway.)

(AGAIN I'VE ONLY HEARD A FRAMES 2 AND THAT WAS ALL I WAS COMMENTING ON ABOVE! I WOULDN'T MIND HEARING THE NEW ALBUM AND WOULD HOPE THAT IT IS GOOD!)

That's like going back and asking Pussy Galore to not use all those bad words and not shout so much on their records. And oh yeah, use a REAL drum kit, Bob!

(Speaking of Pussy Galore, I think the A-Frames are a perfect example of my theory that the Galore were far greater influencers than they were a band themselves... i totally hear Bob Bert in Lars' drumming.. which is a good thing)

Matos, if you're going to be a homer, rep for Satisfact, dude! (First album, anyway.)

But they weren't even from Seattle.. they were, like, from BELLEVUE.. ROFFLE OMG!

Seriously though, Tim, aside from Matt Steinke's dark sounding vocals, there's nothing in common. Satisfact (at least on the self-titled bright orange sophomore album) were trying really hard to be Magazine, basically -- and they did a good enough job of it. There's none of that in the A-Frames at all.. not even in a subtle way. You'd have a MUCH better chance at your theory using Mocket's Fanfare as a comparison point.

OK, then let's say that A-Frames 2 is kind of sloppy, not all that great, Computer Cougar did it five years earlier, dude on vocals sounds like Matthew Steinke of Satisfact (who did it seven years earlier), etc.

-- Tim Ellison (timejeanne...), September 15th, 2004.

SATISFACT were awesome. I didnt care for COMPUTER COUGAR.

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

oh and A-Frames 2 is great...sloppy?

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

apart from the drumming...it sounds pretty precise.

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

Their articulations are spazzoid with little regard for the sound of the instruments. The slide playing is sloppy. Also, they're sometimes out of tune.

-- Tim Ellison (timejeanne...), September 15th, 2004.

tim i think you want music actually made by robots instead of music by people who just wanna fuck them.

-- Yanc3y (ystrickle...), September 15th, 2004.

dude, being out of tune is totally noize.

-- Ian c=====8 (johni72...), September 15th, 2004.

Tim. I think you're wrong. The BASS is BOSS. Really. I also think the guitar sound is pretty thought out and with regards to tuning, I don't hear it. Really they both compliment each other. As for slides, FEW ROCKERS can really do this. ESP. in teh indie/punk world.
PLZ LISTEN to COUNTER EVOLUTION. FUTUREWORLD IS REALLY THE ONLY SONG THAT I CAN SEE AS BEING CONSIDERED SLOPPY, IT STARTS KIND OF FUNNY.

I AM A MUSIC PROFESSIONAL. I HAVE A MANSON AND A YAUCH.

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

"being out of tune is totally noize"

Whether it's good or not, though, depends on how it's done. It doesn't add anything positive to the A-Frames' music.

ddb, just listening to the first few tracks here...The guitar on "Nuclear" is not out of tune??? "Counter Evolution" is pretty good, but I think the gtrist and bass playa overplay. The instruments sound crappy because they're spazzing out and hitting the strings too hard. You can get a big ballistic sound out of your amp and control your articulations more.

-- Tim Ellison (timejeanne...), September 15th, 2004.

listening to Nuclear now.

hmmmmm, i dunno...are you talking about the bass and guitar being out of tune with each other. or the actual instruments being out of tune.

the chords (guitar) he is playing are weird...that lead thing sounds a bit wierd too. but it never struck me as "being out of tune"

Tim, have you seen them live...way more aggro than the albums.

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

OK TIM...Search and Rescue sounds out of tune.

OK NOW IM GONNA GO NUTS WITH THIS. THX DOOD!

-- ddb (stupidpum...), September 15th, 2004.

There, elegant simplicity.

Hey now
Hey now now
Sing Capitol Hill to me

I never heard Mocket (always wanted to, actually).

And yeah, of course, I can enjoy things that are sloppy. But Pussy Galore and Lake of Dracula, I think, had a little more personality than what I heard on A Frames 2.

Tim, you can hate on 2 if you want. I think we're just arguing semantics at this point.

I think A Frames, 2, and Black Forest follow into one of the two following analogies of bands' first three albums:

a) Wire's Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154
b) Godz's Contact High With The Godz, 2, and The Third Testament

I'm inclined to go with A here.

A Frames took a somewhat established sub genre of rock -- in this case, shifty garage rock, and put their own twisted spin on it. However, those into shake-your-ass garage rock could easily hop on and play along. Sort of the same thing with Wire's Pink Flag... No punkers can forget "12XU" and some other classics on the album, but most of them drop off after this record, because what followed just didn't suit "that sound".

2 comes in, refines, and darkens what they were paving with A-Frames. Erin sings in a much lower tone.. fare more eerie and goth, but there's still a lot of momentum and shaking going on. Same could be said about Chairs Missing with respect to Wire. Definitely punkish songs on it, but there's also some experimentation happening too.

Black Forest just dives into the black bog... there are some catchy tunes, but it's really overall about the moodiness and inherit nihilism here. Very moody, very strange album compared to the previous two, but certainly their most unique album to date.. There's nothing quite like it. It's also a grower. Hence, the A-Frame's 154...

(As for B.. I think I just used that because both A-Frames and Godz named their second album 2, haha)

I've definitely grown on Black Forest since the initial listenings. I think all three albums are excellent, but each for different reasons. Consistency in quality and diversity on an album-by-album basis.

I really hope this doesn't mean the band will release a shoddy uber difficult double live album next, then break up into accessible-to-REALLY-difficult solo/collaborative projects for seven years, and then reform again.

Black Forest was initially my least favorite, now I'm thinking it's my favorite.

It's hardly a perfectly analogy, even within just the three records. I'm not even going to attempt to extend the analogy outside that.. haha.

I do look forward to the next Intelligence release. I hope it's a band effort, and not a solo 4-track Lars thing again. The live renditions are so much more momentous. (though I did pick up the vinyl issue of Boredom And Terror with the bonus 11 track CD of outtakes, most of which are eh, but are nice to have.)

"Body: Here we go....A-frames record "Black Forest" release on Sub Pop.

A-Frames
The Pyramids
Phantom Lights
9:30 pm $6 bucks
21+ ID required

This show will be busy so get here early."

It's a great complementary piece to Yanc3y's piece in the SW, I think... as far as one's analysis of band's music / one's interview with the band itself, respectively.

Uh, this is ambiguous. When they played last time, did they play a set that was just half the songs from Black Forest? Or are you wishing that in their upcoming show, they will play a whole buncha Black Forest?

(Anyway, I just bought the new split Omnibus 7" by The Coachwhips/The Intelligence that weighs as much as a quadruple album. Are they making 7"'s out of osmium now?... anyway, BEST Intelligence yet! Fully fleshed out rock songs, as opposed to 4-track Lars. I'm really excited about future Intelligence stuff now.

The track listing...
A: The Coachwhips "Ringing The Cowbell", "Brains Out"
B: The Intelligence "Dating Cops", "I Have These Piles But After A While They Stop Working", "My State's Better")

with the Spits (on the Ex. Heart's label Dirtnap who apparently sound a bit like Exploding Hearts) and Riverboat Gamblers (who share members I guess??? with Marked Men who I've heard a few songs of and really dig)

PEACe!

sweet, now I'm excited for the Spits....

Mpls crowds don't do "violent"....rarely even "excited"...except maybe some crust or skin shows but that's not a scene i delve into.

It's comforting to look at this thread and know that I'm not alone in loving Black Forest. I can't understand why so few people are interested in it...

Jack Cole totally mis-read me!

BTW, where is Falcon Crest playing later on?

it's at the Hexagon with Off With Their Heads and one other band....the Hex=never a cover charge, so I might stop down if the Riverboats are doing it for me....

Anyway, it could have been read as positive or negative, was my point, in the context of Black Forest and/or A-Frames live show set length. So I assume "you mis-read me!" was really meant to be typed as "you misunderstood my admittedly ambiguous praise!"

You're right though - that was a really strange way for me to express that thought.

The versioning of "Black Forest" (the song) along the album is great.. not unlike the "Nobot" ---> "3333333" move on the first album, except it's a noisier direction in the former case, as opposed to being more spacey and sparse in the latter.

A-Frames have a new drummer now. I saw them live a few weeks ago, and they rocked it. They're writing new songs now, some of which are their most accessible, and some of which are their noisiest.

because singing about death trains and black forests and eva braun over PURE FUCKING ROCK is...monumental

In an interview I did with Erin, he said they record the basic instrumental tracks at their practice space, then do the vocals at his house with friends, who contribute and add stuff. Kinda like a party.

i am old.

anybody here hear that Dipers record "how to plan successful parties"? It's got erin and lars and dean whitmore from intelligence. a little noisier than aframes and just as rocking.

Black Forest grew on me, too. Thought it was too dirgey and cerebral at first, not as punitively physical as the best stuff off the first two, but it's grown on me. Galena, Experiment, Death Train, Black Forest II and Eva Braun are among their best songs. Side two does slack off a bit.

Is Pho Bang still a going concern?

anyone going to the sf show tonight?

I think that A FRAMES 2 is the strongest album, but A FRAMES has the best song, Electric Eye.

Also the production on 2 kicks ass on the other two records.

best band of the 00s. real talk.

Yeah, I was thinking exactly that. Best punk band, at least.

great band

all their songs kind of sound the same live, but it's a kickass song

okay this is the 3rdthread on which i've mentioned it, but for any/all interested, S-S recently released 333, a triple-LP collection* of A-FRAMES singles, demos and outtakes. listening for the 1st time, but i'd say that it easily holds up to their official LPs. various sounds and approaches applied to that one goddam kickass song, many of the most striking tracks recorded after their "final" LP, black forest. so spare, mechanical, catchy and cool. wire + feedtime + being an american with hands made of meat =

of unreleased stuff, S: kamelus, melt, dress in black (them cover!), over, visitor, shockwave, satellite, etc.

* and yeah, no CD yet, so far as i can tell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br33M49iNRg&feature=related

^ someone's "experiment" video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHhtR_TKZn8&feature=related

^ awesome live in france ("RICHARD!!!!")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7yCASHEWBw&feature=related

^ "memoranda" video by the lamps' monty buckles

333 doesn't exactly taper off in the 2nd half, but does start to lean more heavily on singles & album track demos for its highlights. i.e., starts off w the shock of the new and slowly segues into a greatest hits set. will probably make a reader's digest version for my own use, cuz nearly two hours' worth gets overwhelming. still, better an embarrassment of riches than no riches at all. probably my favorite punk record since funerot and audacity.

this band does for me what man or astro-man? used to do for me

which is a pretty good bit actually. so that's cool :) CHAD KROEGER

also, to me they are like six finger satellite, in that a proper best-of mix of theirs would burn neatly into the full capacity of a 'CD-R'

Yeah, they totally bring to mind Six Finger Satellite with Devo-meets-Black Flag sound. The bits of their recent triple LP odds and sods didn't do much for me, though.

on tour, i believe

This collection is kicking my ass.

this was a fucking good band tbh

I am the nobot

shaking, creaking
water leaking
lights are flashing
voices screaming

thinking, sinking
pressure building
lost propulsion
cabin's filling

one by one the
silence creeping
cold and darkness
endless sleeping

this is what I'm talking about

just an incredible band, one of the best of the century

Was just listening to them! Sadly I can no longer find the first two albums on Spotify or Bandcamp

over a decade not talking about this band on here? "Hostage Crisis" is one of those songs that instantly become all-time for me when it first came out of the speakers.

Great band. Can find these records around for reasonable prices, or at least I have seen them in multiple shops for decent prices, though of course that is a different prospect from streaming.

Also, looks like the S/T record is here: https://bornbadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Seems it was licensed by Born Bad Records and is still up on their BC page.

this never fails to blow me away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GJYM5hOjW0

Ah nice, had never heard this. Mostly familiar with the full lengths. Cool song! Obviously quite a bit different from where they ended up, but yeah that rips.

early on, Lars was writing the material like that, before he channeled it into the Intelligence as a side project.

Makes sense. The Intelligence is also cool, and yeah once the A-Frames sound firmed up could see that type of song needing another outlet.

happy 20th to black forest <3

noooooooo