7" Singles Reviewed [Super Secret Edition]

Image from Coyote Slingshot

Music today is all about having your cake and listening to it, too, in at least a couple of formats. Artists have found that putting their music up online can be enough, but it also frees them up to play with more dormant, personal artifacts to house their music. Take the new release from Lew (formerly lead singer of Wild America) under the name breatherholes, entitled give it to u. You can download the new album, or you can pick it up on tape at Trailer Space Records. Futuristic and antiquated both, see?

Another old hand at bridging the ephemeral and concrete are Super Secret Records, a local imprint who have lately had a flurry of 45 releases. The label's acts are both blissfully comfortable in rock's sight line while tearing at its edges, and today we'll look at a few of their more recent singles, which you can find at your local sweaty Beerland show or in the cool of your home environs.

Coyote Slingshot - Oblivion Fever Forever

Most of Super Secret's roster is handpicked from Austin, with a few exceptions. One of those is Coyote Slingshot, a guy/band that the label has worked with previously. On this new single, their sound - cheekily influenced from Neutral Milk Black Flag Hotel, according to their Facebook page - is stretched 'till it nearly rips. A-side "Sleeptight Ya Morons" starts slow with just guitar and a turn of off-key vocals, but the tide turns when keys and trumpet turn a self-flagellation blues into a sprinting funeral procession. The flip side is another run at lo-fi folk, but "Jump Rope" is a bit more fun and altogether fleshed out. The vocals are delivered with almost the gutted urgency of a grunge track, and the drums (apparently recorded separately) dominate the mix. The single is a little undercooked, but the principal behind Coyote Slingshot is a young guy, and he should be afforded some time to study and emulate his elders before we can expect a fully-formed release.

Simple Circuit - "Boarded Up Houses / Moon Druggies"

Less cacophonous than some of their label brethren, Simple Circuit are a forthright quartet that bristle with promise. Their single beings with the guitar blast of "Boarded Up Houses," a post-punk exercise featuring a terribly catchy lead riff and direct, pointed vocals. B-side "Moon Druggies" is less insistent and almost jangly, with the vocals again pushed to the front. Neat stuff.

The OBN IIIs - "No Way to Rock and Roll / Got More Love"

The promotional merchandise imagines The OBN IIIs as children of The Stooges, but I'm also hearing big pieces of Patti Smith's influence in there - the crescendos, the smart restraint. It's less obvious on "No Way to Rock and Roll," pretty clearly the band's anthem and a glammy, distorted jam that claims Beerland in the name of CBGB's ghost. However, the single's strongest statement is actually on the flip - "Got More Love" announces itself with a stormy swagger, but then switches into an enthralling and frenzied double time before bringing it all back down again.