Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit are out on tour this month and are hitting the West Coast this weekend, making stops in San Francisco at the Bottom of the Hill on Friday and the Smell in Los Angels on Monday. Playing the sort of musical trampling both Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit are known for, the scene centered around the scuzz-loaded bands both headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, has recently evolved into a full-featured buzzword coined, "Shitgaze." As the fire has reached such an oxygen-sucking blaze that Spin magazine, a dead canary-signifier of reaching through to the mainstream, has featured both bands, along with Pink Reason, in their most recent issue. And as the mainstream collectively pulls "the next big thing" into the consciousness of the rest of the world, the inherently antipodal underground thugs back. The popular online magazine,Terminal Boredom implemented a script of code into their message board that automatically replaces "Shitgaze" with "CLOWNING ON BITCHES." As to whether such a move will serve to quell the all chatter, only time will tell, but seeing a section in the local Coconuts music outlet that reads either Shitgaze or Clowning on Bitches, might not be so bad.
The line up Friday night at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco seems to be some sort of unofficial Siltbreeze showcase. Opening the show are the local San Francisco act, Hank IV who play a throaty, rollicking version of rock'n'roll that cuts through the grease with the grimy edge of wry-hooked songs. Their sound hints at being a fun live band, and they play feverishly danceable tunes that will have the entire audience acting like idiots by mid-set. Their last album released on Hook or Crook Records, Third Person Shooter came with high acclaim, and they another on the way on Siltbreeze titled Refuge in Genre.
Next up is, Fabulous Diamonds from Melbourne, Australia, whose name might imply the luxurious grandstanding of hip-hop, but their sound couldn't be further from anything remotely "urban." Scraping up an eerie film from the dregs of the atmospheric corner of modern psychedelia, they inject odd instrumentation and vocals that almost seem as if they were chanted from the mouth of a happily cursed nun. Fabulous Diamonds' self-titled debut on Siltbreeze was just released this month, and picking it up now would make you feel better about all that back hair you have.
