Various - 'New York Rules'

With vinyl sales on the rise, it looks like cassettes are the new “difficult/retro/obscure format” of choice for music. Cassettes have a much short lifespan (10-30 years, compared to compact discs which are estimated to last up to 200 years. Vinyl can last for decades if you clean it properly). In the case of Burn Books’ New York Rules mix tape, audio degradation might be a strength, as the compilation showcases eight skuzzy, fuzzy, proto-punk acts. More tape hiss means more noise to dive in.

Pregnant opens the comp with “Tootache” and “Help!”, two cuts from their mighty fine self-titled full-length debut from last year. Both songs are in the Stooges vein – loud, brief and fun. Aside from Night Birds, Pregnant is arguably the poppiest act on the tape, relatively speaking, Nomos and Hank Wood & the Hammerheads take things in a much more brutal, lo-fi hardcore direction. Night Birds inject a little bit of Fat Wreck-style pop-punk with their tunes, and they even bump up the production a couple of notches. Nude Beach closes out side A with a nifty, quasi-psychedelic cover of Alex Chilton’s “Hey Little Child.”

The B side’s winner is clearly the Men, who do an amazing cover of Devo’s “Gates of Steel.” That’s one of the best Devo tunes and they rock it out nicely. Byrds of Paradise makes a good showing with garage rock numbers “Members” and “Home and Garden,” though. Dawn of Humans closes out the tape. Taken as a whole, New York Rules is a solid introduction to a lot of up-and-coming bands, and even throws in some nice rarities. Now get to work on an eight-track.

Vinyl Vednesday 3/9/2011

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Castevet’s The Echo & The Light (2010) test pressing on black, Pregnant’s Pregnant (2010) on black, and a whole heap of reggae artists on The Harder They Come (1972) on, that’s right, black.

Place of Purchase: I scored the Castevet and Pregnant LPs as a favor for reviewing the albums. WHAT UP. I bought The Harder They Come from Disc World in Conshohocken (R.I.P.) for like $2.

Thoughts: If you’re just joining us, I really, really like Castevet. Their publicist knows this too, so much so that when I helped him do some work for Ghost Robot Ninja Bear, he paid me back by sending me a test pressing of The Echo & The Light. Even better, it plays flawlessly next to my “real” copy of Echo. The record is chock full of ambient, crunching post-hardcore that pulls in a ton of different sounds I love. The short description I give people is “Mogwai vs. Hot Water Music,” and that seems to have worked out well so far. Man, I need to see these guys live some time.

Outside of the themed installments, I don’t plan what records I pick for Vinyl Vednesday. I just grab stuff at random. Clearly, my taste is impeccable and I can talk forever. I was surprised to grab another strong record from 2010 off the shelf, Pregnant’s self-titled full-length debut. Hailing from Brooklyn, this three-piece dishes out frills free garage rock in the Cloak/Dagger vein (So really, I mean The Stooges ‘n’ Black Flag). The full-length is a little bit cleaner than their debut seven-inch, but no matter; Pregnant rips. Their label just sent me a cassette compilation they’re on; I need to get around to reviewing that jimmy-john.

Let’s be honest. The Harder They Come is a Jimmy Cliff record; the rest of the artists just show up to give him a break. The two biggest highlights from Harder are Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross,” which builds and builds from ballad to force of nature, and “The Harder They Come,” which is just a really catchy reggae tune. Both are powered by Cliff’s big, clean voice. While drug problems cobbled him creatively later on, here Cliff is king. The Slickers, Desmond Dekker, and a couple other acts get in on the fun, but c’mon. “The Harder They Come” is so good they put it on the album twice.

Pregnant - 'Pregnant'

Last year, Brooklyn garage rockers Pregnant dropped a promising seven-inch stuffed with proto-punk fury a la Stooges or Cloak/Dagger. This year they released their full-length debut, a self-titled, 10 track affair that delivers… more of the same, just with less of a debt to grunge. While marginally cleaner, Pregnant is basically an extended version of Wanna See My Gun?, even going so far as to tack on two tracks from that release on at the end.

Not that I’m complaining. I gave props to Gun, and I give props to Pregnant as well, though with slightly diminished enthusiasm. Nothing here tops “God is Nein,” an insanely catchy number from last year. Given extra space, Pregnant slips in the occasional midtempo track, like when they sandwich the spacier “Skin Display” in between “Real Talk” and “Wormie.” They even reveal a knack for ’60s style garage rock, throwing in some guitar work worthy of early Kinks and the Who.

The A side is preferable by default; it boasts all new material while the B side winds down with “Wanna See My Gun?” and “You Give It to Me.” The A side also features “Help,” and that song is just a winner through and through. It rocks, it’s catchy, it’s better than every rock song that actually made it on to the radio this year. The B side repeats five more garage-y hits. The re-recorded versions of the old songs are a little distracting, especially during the few handclaps on “You Give It to Me,” but that’s probably just in my head.

Pregnant is a back-to-basics rock record, an album that’s refreshing for its energetic playing and understated pretensions. The guitars churn out dirges. The drums throw four on the floor. The bass is heavy and the vocals are snotty. It’s uncomplicated and awesome and the album cover features a spaceship exploding. Hell. Yes.

Pregnant - 'Wanna See My Gun?'

If you name your band Pregnant, you’d better be good. Luckily, this dirge-spewing Brooklyn trio shows a ton of promise on Wanna See My Gun?, their debut seven-inch for Don Giovanni Records (The Measure [SA], The Ergs!). Over the course of four songs/11 minutes, Pregnant more than compensate for their dubious name.

The record’s cover features a photo of the band sitting in front of a New York Dolls poster, which might be a hint of the thrashing threesome’s proto-punk to come. Other reference points worth tossing in are The Stooges, Seattle grunge, Cloak/Dagger, and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Point is, these tunes are alive and/or kicking.

“Falling Over,” “You Give It To Me,” and “God is Nein” make up for the first side of this clear-colored beauty. “Falling Over” slinks compared to the other tracks, which are infectious, furious, and fast. “God is Nein” might be the catchiest of the bunch, with all sorts of “ba ba dadada”s crammed in over a rapid fire beat.

“Wanna See My Gun?”, at four-and-a-half minutes long, takes up the entire B side. It feels like two tracks jammed together, with the first portion going back to the more midtempo grunge feel of “Falling Over,” but a guitar interlude 90 seconds in transitions it into the fiercest rocker of the bunch. Frontman Kevin Manion howls his way through the finale, recalling the passion and power of Nation of Ulysses’ Ian Svenonius along the way.

Wanna See My Gun? was recorded back in May 2008, but it wasn’t released until February 2009. This makes the seven-inch that much more promising; as is, it’s a great record. Throw in the possibility of a year of artistic growth, and Pregnant’s 2009 full-length debut might just be one of the best records of the year. But what will the community think when its children start running around in Pregnant tees?