Post-Christmas Void

tic toc tokyo
The time following Christmas can be a lot of things.
Blatantly fun is not one of them ... too much dead time only makes one tired or irritated. Even though I try my hardest to kill the dead time (hah -- funny joke?), through music searching, graphic design stuff, reading, etc. ... it doesn't always work.

But I will now proceed to bare the fruits of my labor: here are a few cool bands. Have fun.

I've little idea as to how I stumbled across this oddity, Thomas Tantrum, but they came across my radar somehow, and now I'm hooked. The band's a four-piece girl group, and their specialty is making "wiry guitar patterns with little red riding hood vocals." They do it well, almost channeling some of the older post-punk girl groups and experimental bands like the Raincoats, Delta 5 ...
Very strange. Head over to the MySpace page.

There seems to be quite a split over whether or not the Rotters suck. Sloppy, [predictable], garage-punk with a cruddy female singer. I say you listen and decide for yourself.
My opinion? They suck.

If you want garage-punk that's quite a bit more refined, then the Oxfam Glamour Models is for you. Crazy distortion and impudent vocals, these guys are brash and edging on annoying, but man do I want to dance to it all ...
Check out their MySpace page, too!

And since I'm clearly favoring the U.K. here, I'll throw Tic Toc Tokyo into the mix. They're from Melbourne, and they appear to be attempting to channel the Cure in their music. That poppy, sharp, yet dark voice totally sounds like Robert Smith (er, you get my point), and the high bass combined with loads of negative space on the guitar's side of things ...
Regardless, it's sort of cool. Maybe a little too emo, a little too gothy for me at time, but certainly worth a listen or two.
Thomas Tantrum - Certainly Dumber (demo)
Thomas Tantrum - Staring At You (demo)
the Rotters - Japanese Punk
the Oxfam Glamour Models - Postmodern Star
Tic Toc Tokyo - Everything I Told You Was A Lie
Tic Toc Tokyo - Points of Correspondence
Tic Toc Tokyo - This Is A Love Song
Tic Toc Tokyo - Action Time