CD Review: "Redeeming Metal/Union"

CD: Redeeming Metal/Union
Artist: The Scrap Iron Pickers

By the time we catch onto anything cool here it's been out for a while, and such is the case for Charleston's own Scrap Iron Pickers.

Comprised of a veritable star-studded lineup of John Sizemore, Roadblock and Matt Wolfe, these guys are joined on this genre skipping debut split effort by a half dozen or so notable guest musicians (the band's "Union" members) and from our perspective, having had the CD drop into our figurative lap all of a sudden, it's better late than never hearing it, becuase it's got to be one of the coolest CDs we've heard all year, period.

It shouldn't surprise anyone who's already heard this relatively recently formed trio, though.

First off, there's no vocals or singing on the 13-song release, so there's no lyrical or narrative structure to tyrannize the Pickers version of "angry Jazz." Sure, there's the (by this point fair use?) old Camel cigarette and DuPont commercials sampled in with William S. Burroughs among others, but really, not having vocals seems to make the stretched-out jams cooler.

Opening with "Coal Bucket" and "Too Pissed Off To Sleep," by the time you get a feel of what's going on with what they're going for, the Pickers have already begun their impressive journey on whatever musical direction they're wanting to go on, and that's the cool thing with their music: it's seemingly ambitious without being contrived or forced -- they're just jamming and it seems to come natural to them. The journey is the destination.

Most of the music -- a directionless hard-prog rock/punk/dub-reggae hybrid -- on Redeeming Metal seems to remind us of music we've always seemed to like, which makes us even lamer for not "getting" what the Pickers are going for sooner. Possibly the coolest track on the CD is the acoustic-based, harmonica soaked "Swamp Thing," which before you know it has evolved into explosive hard rock, and features "Union" members Jeff Ellis and Bud Carroll, who engineered and co-produced the CD along with the Pickers.

"Kids Raising Kids/Kids Killing Kids" evokes Hum for us, they're that band from that Cadillac commercial. "The Stench of Poverty" is a pretty cool prog rock-sounding jam. "Spy Vs. Spy" is the dub reggae-meets hard rock flavor of the Pickers. The garage techno of "Strange Bytes" on the Union EP only cements the idea that the Pickers aren't leery of embracing a wide spectrum of genres and styles, and just excites us all the more.

But two of the coolest tracks are saved for last -- "Junkyard Jesus" and "The Mourning After" -- and taking up approximately 40 minutes worth of time, you'll have to check out the CD, which is shaping up to be the surprise hit of the year here at the site.

Like it says on their MySpace profile, if you come expecting nothing out of the Scrap Iron Pickers, you'll not only be surprised, but duly impressed. We look forward to hearing more from these dudes.

-- The Scrap Iron Pickers release Redeeming Metal at The Sound Factory in Charleston Friday night with Bud Carroll and fellow "Union" member Michael Lipton's Barkoloungers

CD Review: "Junkbone"

CD: Junkbone
Artist: '85 Flood

On their sophomore release Junkbone Morgantown's hi-octane lo-fi four-piece '85 Flood strings together 10 bluesy, danceable bar ballads on a more than solid follow-up to last year's Toolshed Shangri-La.

Where Toolshed had a few great songs, Junkbone highlights the progress the Flood has made in the songwriting and arranging department.

Opening with "Florentine Memory" and frontman Aaron Hawley's gravelly, raspy vocals and following with the uptempo rock standard "Sex Drugs and Rock & Roll" (written and sung by bassist Dusty Hays), then throwing down the slower, somber "Living With Your Ghost," (with cool slide guitar & lead parts) '85 Flood, over the first three tracks, sets the stage for the entire CD.

"Slow Night In Stripperville" is simultaneously a hilarious booty-shaking good time anthem, and a warning to any females who fear they may end up dancing for pervs dressed up as Santa, making it rain with dirty dollar bills. Seriously, it's one of the cooler songs on Junkbone.

"Coal Whistle Yell" seems like a theme song not just for the Flood, but the state as a whole; at least anybody who's ever known anyone who has worked in the mines. The song is at once uptempo and depressing, written from the perspective of the cradle-to-grave coal mining family life.

Hawley sings, his voice perfectly fitting the hardscrabble subject of the song:

"Don't you see this ain't the life I chose?
You can say it's just me, I suppose
If you stay here and toe that line
Send me right back down into that mine
Every day -- of my whole life"

The beautiful memorial "Some Things" helps close out Junkbone before finishing with the anthemic sing-along "Be Here Now," each examples of how the Flood has progressed in the year and a half since Toolshed; increased sharing of songwriting (and performing) duties, with killer guitar parts and touching lyrics about the sublime parts of life, Junkbone -- recorded at Mark Poole's Zone 8 Studios in Grantsville -- all-around is a good window into where this Morgantown staple is now.

Related: Our chats with Hawley here and here

Over the line to cover the Huntington scene

It recently came to our attention that Taylor Kuykendall and his friend Cory Jackson had combined to put together a book on the Huntington scene with their photos and words. The book, Sometimes You Find Yourself Over the Line, features photos of rockin’ Huntington acts that Kuykendall got while blogging about local bands for the Huntington Herald-Dispatch, and brief bios on the acts provided by Jackson.

We caught up with Kuykendall to learn more about the book and what’s up with him these days.

WVRS: What are you doing in Mississippi, when did you get there and how do you like it?
TK: I came to Mississippi looking for a job following some big layoffs at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington. I felt that with only two months left to finish school and no job, it was time to finish up at Marshall and start exploring. My passion is to learn and tell stories, musical and otherwise. So, I applied for jobs across the nation. I got a call back at a few places and came down here for a visit. I fell in love with the blues culture here in the Delta and saw this as a wonderful opportunity to explore a culture and place I really knew nothing about.

I came to the Delta for the same reason I came to Huntington from Moorefield, W.Va.; I wanted to experience more that what I had. I work at the Greenwood Commonwealth as a reporter and photographer now, and getting to know a whole new group of people and music scene has been incredibly exciting. How could I ever aspire to be a writer if I have no experiences? That’s exactly where I am in life now. I am soaking in every new thing I can find and right now I’m just in the Mississippi phase of that exploration.

WVRS: What gave you the idea to compile your photos into a scene book?
TK: Sitting in Mississippi, I began to miss the music and friends from Huntington. At the same time, I constantly ran over these reminders of what I was doing there. Some people flip through their high school yearbook to try to relive some sort of abstract sense of nostalgia, but honestly, my high school yearbook doesn’t do that for me. I guess what I wanted was something more tangible to remember what I -- what everyone I associated with in Huntington -- was experiencing during a few random months. It may not mean much to the world, it may not mean much to Huntington, but it means a lot to me and hopefully my friends.

WVRS: What was it like working with Cory Jackson of The Good Fight on the book?
TK: Cory was a huge inspiration through his music, writing, friendship, and general debauchery. If I hadn’t met and become friends with this guy I may not have switched to journalism, wouldn’t have become as involved in the music scene and could have been homeless for the last two weeks I spent in Huntington.

WVRS: You covered Huntington through the H-D TSMS blog, what was the experience like doing that? Pros/cons?
TK: Though I garnered a few compliments for that blog, I felt that I never really gave it the justice it deserved. I wish I would’ve written more. I wish I promoted it more. It was just so hard to write for something when it felt like no one was reading it. It came to the point where I was trying to structure a story that would get attention and I found it hard to write smaller, probably more useful updates, just to get the word out that the blog existed.

I really hope that one day Huntington can appreciate the glut of musicians that are so dense in that city. It’s a wonderful scene with a terribly fickle audience. I had fun at the blog in its high points, but there were spots where it felt like I was pouring a lot of energy into something that only a handful of people would end up reading. Now, I know those few people that were reading it were the ones that mattered anyway.

WVRS: You’ve got a ton of bands in the book, any particular favorites? You’ve got Jeff Ellis first, it looked like.
TK: It would be hard to pick a favorite. All of the featured bands -- Jeff Ellis, Bud Carroll, Attack Flamingo, Jordan Andrew Jefferson, Browning Automatics, The Good Fight, Whirling Dervish, 40 lb Snapper, Mark Smith, Benji Taylor, Vance Lintlock, Sarasota, Qiet, Luke Jivetalker, Good Ol’ Boys and a Girl and Bad Employees were favorites of mine that I know needed to be highlighted. Believe it or not A LOT of guys were left out. These were the ones I feel like are making the heaviest impact.

I can’t really name a favorite of those, but I will say that the first couple selections have a lot more to do with the way the rest of the scene interacted with those artists. They made a big impact, especially Ellis, Carroll and Sean Knisely from Attack Flamingo. It was hard to pick the order because they were all people I would call friends and great musicians. The order, after the first few, is completely random though.

WVRS: Taking the Huntington scene and MU as a whole, what do you think about "the scene" and the people you met or knew covering the bands?
TK: The Marshall/Huntington scene is a young one. They’re still trying to figure out their collective style. Most notably is a lack of music business in the area. The musicians are there and I think a record executive or label could potentially make a lot of money if they spend a few weeks in Huntington.

WVRS: What were your experiences putting it together, and plans or goals for getting the book out?
TK: Putting it together was fairly easy. It was like a pictorial walkthrough of some great moments in my life. As far as getting the book out, I’m going to try to sell a few copies online and then hopefully get enough capital to put the book in local stores in Huntington. Of course, if WVRockscene knows any interested investors, my ears are wide open.


Sometimes You Find Yourself Over the Line can be previewed here. Taylor can be reached at taylor.kuykendall@gmail.com.

Friday @ the V Club

Tomorrow night Karma To Burn returns to Huntington with Shepherdstown's Demon Beat, and The Scrap Iron Pickers will release their new CD at The V Club.

You can clearly see all this in the above placed flyer, which looks like it was designed by Jimbo at Amalgam Unlimited (he does good work).

Awesome show.

CD REVIEW: "Matador"

CD: "Matador"
ARTIST: Arms and Sleepers

On their new 10-song CD Matador, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ambient duo Arms and Sleepers (Max Lewis & Mirza Ramic) return with more of their trippy, sleepy, piano-based atmospheric airport lobby music, this time bringing more friends on as guest musicians, with way more vocals than we've heard on three of their previous seven releases, each of which we've loved and treasured.

After opening with "Orly" and then hearing the title track and "The Architekt" that's the first thing that will jump out at longtime listeners of A&S: the increased vocals. At first we were cautious of more singing on the A&S tunes; sometimes -- and especially in the case of A&S' cinematic, mainly instrumental output -- words can get in the way, maybe getting in the way of the trip these guys want to take you on.

But no, Lewis and Ramic bring in the guest vocals smoothly, and with rich results, on the aformentioned tracks and "Twentynine Palms," "Helvetica" and "Simone," which is why we'd have to say this is the duo's best work to date: moving their music forward, not afraid to share the creative process with others and not sticking with any particular formula.

Compared favorably to a few acts we've dug in the past, Portishead, Air and Radiohead, we'd have to say A&S comes down closer to an Air-Radiohead type hybrid on Matador, but spitting it out in their own unique fashion.

"Kino," "Words are for Sleeping," and "The Paramour" round out Matador, and like all of our favorite releases (theirs especially) we're always asking ourselves "Is that all?" when the 41 minutes worth of Matador is done; left wanting to hear more.

What does Arms and Sleepers have to do with WVRockscene? We got to see 'em at the Glass a few years back, chatted up Lewis and Ramic, affable chaps each, and have been in love with their music ever since.

Maybe they'll come back through someday, maybe not, but you should definitely click on the link and check these guys out.

-- thanks to: Emile @ nice promo

related: Our feature on Arms and Sleepers

The Demon Beat @ the Glass Thursday

Our friends Adam, Tucker and Jordan in Shepherdstown's Demon Beat are slated to return to the Empty Glass in Charleston Thursday night, with Universes and local punks The Concept.

The Demon Beat have just uploaded a few new songs off their soon-to-be released new CD Shit We're 23 on their MySpace page. That's a CD we're looking forward to rocking out (on or around Nov. 12), so check them out and check the show out if you're out.

photo: Rachel Molenda

'85 Flood releases Junkbone tonight

‘85 Flood releases Junkbone Friday night at 123 Pleasant St.

The Renfields play Zombie Walk Friday nite!

Friday night in Morgantown, fans of horror films in general and zombies in particular converge for the third annual zombie walk. Dressed as any and all assortment of zombie themed characters, starting on North High Street and ending at the Warner Theatre with a showing of Dawn of the Dead, the undead participants will first be treated to the undead punk rock stylings of Transylvania (via Fairmont) band The Renfields.

The band, kept together through various incarnations by singer-guitarist Vincent Renfield, has been working overtime to release “Stalk and Slash Splatterama Pt. 2: Exploitation Extravaganza” in time for the zombie walk, which Vincent said means a lot to the band.

“We don’t feel like we’re part of any specific music scene,” Vincent said. “The Renfields are more concerned with promoting the horror scene, so an event like the zombie walk is a huge deal for us. Basically people will gather at the parking lot on North High Street next to the Chi Omega sorority house dressed in their best zombie formal wear. Once all the zombies are assembled they’ll start the long haul down High Street in all their shambling, leg dragging glory. The journey ends at the Warner Theatre where they’ll all gather for a showing of Dawn of the Dead.”

“There’s nothing like playing songs like “Night of the Living Dead” and “Zombie Wasteland” to a horde of 300 zombies; just like being back in Transylvania.”

Vincent said that he was excited about the latest incarnation of their bassist, The Fiend, and the band’s current lineup.

“Other than the Fiend, who just got his new body two months ago, we have had the same lineup for about a year now. We decided to take a break from shows and even looking at bass players for a while because I got so tired of teaching people those old songs. For about a month straight we just worked on new stuff. When we finally started looking at bass players the audition would consist of showing them a new song and letting them write their own part for it. It helped the rest of us avoid burnout.”

As always, for The Renfields, there is no burnout when it comes to motivation and influences for their songs: horror movies. Like all their releases and songs, “Stalk and Slash Pt. 2” is an homage to some of Team Transylvania’s favorite horror films.

“It’s our salute to the trashy drive-in films of the late 60’s-80’s. We tried to stay true to the spirit of those films: gory, smutty, gritty, and completely over the top. We really wanted to capture the tone of each film in the song as opposed to just having lyrics about the film set to three chord punk rock.”

“We did a bit of this on the first “Stalk and Slash” but this time it’s much more blatant. As of right now all of the tracks have been recorded, two are fully mastered but they all still need to have the movie samples inserted. Our goal is to have the EP available at zombie walk in a “double feature” with the first Stalk and Slash EP but we still have a lot of work to do mixing and recording some vocal stuff here and there. If not by zombie walk, it’ll be available at our next show on October 25th.”


The Renfields decided to do a one-day recording blitz DIY-style to best capture their “blood curdling” mono sound.

“We knew that if we were going to release the EP before Halloween we would have to get moving right away, so we ended up renting out a small venue/studio called Fairmont Music Theatre. We still used all of our own recording equipment but it offered lots of space and a productive environment.”

“Everything was done in true Renfields style: lots of writing and adjusting parts on the spot, lots of single takes. I wrote “Deadbeat at Dawn” literally two days before and then worked on it with Fiend and Jaymee Lee that next day. Everyone else had to learn it in the studio the day of the recording, it ended up being our favorite song on the EP. Whenever things would get stressful we would just say “Bastard sons of Ed Wood” and deal with it.”

It also helps to have a band member with recording experience, as is the case with their drummer.

“Dr. Herbert [Von Renfield IV] already had experience recording bands in the past and was confident that he could match the sound quality from the last EP. We went into a studio to record the first “Stalk and Slash” and it was a great experience but any time we have a chance maintain autonomy within the band we’re going to take it. Plus we’ve never been too concerned about having that “produced” sound. Especially not when we’re singing about ultra low budget horror films.”

In addtion to the new bassist, and new CD, The Renfields are looking forward to playing Rich’s Fright Farm in Smithfield, Pennsylvania Halloween night with one of their own favorite local punk bands, The Concept.

“Obviously we’re incredibly excited to get the Halloween slot. They gave us the option of bringing another band or playing it alone. We were tempted to be selfish and keep all the stage time to ourselves but the idea of hanging out with those guys won out. Plus we’re out of Concept stickers (Dave!) and we miss hearing “Guitar pick in my Kool-aid”!

For Vincent and the Renfields, through all the incarnations and bassists, it’s all about the horror films.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re Spinal Tap -- especially with bass players. The Fiend has had a total of seven bodies since his inclusion into the band. Ultimately what ends up happening is that someone will join up, learn all of the songs, start practicing and everything is fine. It’s when they finally play their first show the grim reality hits; playing in a burlap sack with one eye hole, no ventilation, covered in blood and grease paint, wearing a ratty suit jacket that hasn’t been washed in five years worth of shows.”

“After the show most other bands hang out, flirt with girls, and have some drinks or whatever. The life of a Renfield is going home and spending an hour and a half in the shower trying to get all the crap off. For a lot of people it’s a big turn off, those of us who get it will continue to charge forward holding the blood stained banner.”

Related: DA article on the zombie walk

Vincent talks with us about the movies that motivated the songs on the new EP