Pond
Hobo Rocket
(Modular)
Pond share two members with Australian psych-masters Tame Impala but don’t for a second think this is some throw-away side-project there to keep the band amused in downtime. Far from it, Hobo Rocket is Pond’s fifth album and it’s a glorious rush of pop, noise psychedelia that out freaks anything Tame Impala have come up with. Opening song ‘Whatever Happened To The Million Head Collide’ sets the stall out for the album very quickly, no easing the listener in gently, it slides out of the starting block shimmering with a squelchy Flaming Lips psych-pop vibe, with a pure shot of Butthole Surfers noise running through its veins. This is modern psychedelic music at its best, breathing in fifty years of experimental sounds into their collective lungs and exhaling them all over 2013.
Pond, however, ignore the mistakes of the past and resist the temptation to become self-indulgent and drab, keeping their brand of psychedelia focused and direct. ‘Xanman’, for example, hits the freak out button hard but remains upbeat and melodic, despite the swirling cacophony of noise the envelopes the song. Next up, ‘O Dharma’ is a floating Spiritualized type ballad that twinkles like the Lips own ‘Waiting For Superman’ had it been penned in 1974 by Roger Waters. Then Pond lurch back into the evil lysergic doom of ‘Aloneaflameaflower’ that crackles with such a mischievous ‘I’m gonna fuck up your trip and freak you out’ grin, you can’t help but love it, before running away feeling a bit paranoid and scared.
This is a good time for psychedelic music. It’s good to see the freak flag still waving high.
James Sherry
The details of 
For a band to successfully ‘re-invent’ themselves is a tricky feat to pull off, but in the case of sharply-dressed Exeter quintet The Computers, ‘Love Triangles Hate Squares’ is less reinvention than evolution – and an impressive evolution at that. 
When casting their critical eyes back on the roots of American Hardcore, revisionists more often than not overlook Suicidal Tendencies. Fair enough, a fast track musical evolution and a jump to bigger record labels diluted their early sound, but you’d be a fool to deny the influence domestically and, as word got out, internationally, of the early Eighties ST incarnation. 
When you consider that the four Ds (drugs, drinking, depression and death) have been Alkaline Trio’s lyrical stock-in-trade for most of their seventeen (!) year existence, it’s amazing that ‘My Shame Is True’ (their ninth album) sees the Chicago crew sounding so vital.
If you have been waiting for fresh material from Staten Island’s most notorious rap crew then maybe this year we will see a brand new full length from the Wu Tang Clan after all. This Friday at a show in the US, Method Man leaked news that a new record was in the pipeline leaving fans wondering what is coming. 
There’s a reason why Black Flag are so heralded and respected so long after they existed by younger generations. It’s not just the fact that they had a cool logo, it was also their inspiring drive and energy that, against all odds, saw them power their utterly uncompromising and original noise at a time when long hair, tattoos and punk rock was not a career option. They sounded the way they did because that’s how they felt and how they wanted to express their feelings. Pissed Jeans are no Black Flag tribute band, but there’s something about their ridiculously heavy punk rock noise and venomous approach that makes you feel if Black Flag had existed in this frustrating, jittering modern world, this is what they’d sound like.
It has taken over 20 years to release it, but My Bloody Valentine have finally delivered the album fans have been waiting for. They released ‘mbv‘ over the weekend on their