Skip to main contentEternal Tapestry The Invisible Landscape
(Not Not Fun)
[SOUR KRAUT] Eternal Tapestry is not a band that does anything in modesty. On its new vinyl-only LP, The Invisible Landscape, the trio—Nick Bindeman on guitar and vocals, Dewey Mahood on guitar, and Jed Bindeman on drums—rips, shreds, stomps, kicks and pummels its way past all the old psych-rock tropes. You know the stereotypes—aimless music; tunes with nowhere to go; noise for the sake of being weird and indulgent. On Landscape, none of this holds true, even after repeated listens.
The record opens with Eternal Tapestry's mission statement, a long, lengthy, mostly wordless jam called "Cathedral of Radiance." It's a formless piece of flowing magma, like Tangerine Dream on an especially epic drug trip. "Brain Drain" is all distorted drum fills and ripping solos, the speakers bursting with two dueling guitar leads. Side B is a little bit more accessible, with the krautrock pulse of "Temporal Starshine Voyage" anchoring a funky stoner jam.
The Invisible Landscape is so masterfully created it makes what's normally considered "difficult" music really fun to rock out to. This thing breathes replay value, continuous spins and late nights on which you get out of bed just to flip over the vinyl. Just be careful not to blow your speakers out.
Bodhi Secondhand Runner
(Self-Released)
[SURF ROCK] It's always hard to take a garage band out of the garage. But on its debut record, Secondhand Runner, local rock quartet Bodhi grapples—and often succeeds—with the higher fidelity and more polished sheen that comes from working in a professional recording space.
Six of the album's 11 tracks were recorded at Revolver Studios in Portland by Collin Hegna, bass player for the Brian Jonestown Massacre and frontman for Federale. You can hear it: Secondhand Runner doesn't pop and fizzle as much as it strides, all clean tones and confident vocals. The increased production suits much of the work here, from the jangly, back-country strut of "Bystander" to the ringing guitars and ominous organ that drive "Naughty Boy." Singer Brian Carr is the biggest benefactor, as his voice is pushed to the front of the mix, giving the songs a newfound clarity and drive lacking in the band's early demos.
Secondhand Runner's major fault, then, is that it's almost entirely front-loaded: Three of the band's best songs—"Bystander," the assured White Stripes minimalism of "Sonny Lenchant" and the organ-driven pop of "Nadine"—come in the first 12 minutes. "So the Long" and "Naughty Boy" both drop the album title in the lyrics, and the repetition is indicative of a larger problem—between the thick pulse of the organ, steady drumming and ripping lead guitars, many stretches of the record are indistinguishable from each other.
Secondhand Runner may be clean, but there's one thing we're glad you can't hear: The constraints of the garage.
Eternal Tapestry plays Friday, Sept. 25, at Slabtown, with Wooden Shjips, Meercaz, and Here Comes a Big Black Cloud. 9 pm. $7. 21+. Bodhi plays Friday, Sept. 25, at East End, with Wampire, the Erns, and Green Lady Killers. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
WWeek 2015