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Before all the styrofoam got smashed, lost treasures were found, and various fatalities occurred, I saw my friend, former Rouper Brian DiSanto, at the New Year's Eve punk show at the Shop. Brian told me that he had worked on a new tape on which he did the vocals for Skeletonized, a former solo project of Triangle & Rhino's Matt Rappa that now included others on various instruments beyond drums and synths. That sounded pretty cool! I always enjoy Brian's weird lyrics and psychedelic subjects and Skeletonized's rhymic krautrock electro-rhythms. And so here is the review of The Lost Cosmonauts Were Just Wearing Camouflage.


The cover art features one of Brian's collages. Even with the big shapes, there's always more to see. Stealth fighters and strange glowing humanoids interact with eldritch beings amidst a myriad of lights and video noise. My only real issue is that the text should have a small border of some kind to make it pop or perhaps be a little larger. The wild designs make this a messy cover, and it does a good job of showing what is inside.


The first track on the first side of The Lost Cosmonauts Were Just Wearing Camouflage is a funky little jam called "Treasuring Electrocab". Brian's vocals remind me of stuff from one of my favorite Sonic Youth albums - NYC Ghosts and Flowers. It's a beat vocal trance to a fusion sound. "Quill, of Brilliant Hemisphere" has a big launch into pseudo-raga rock, a slow sway of heroic epic. I really like the little horns. It's a sunny dance track. The last track on side one goes back to the dark sounds with "Beaver Co. Static". This one has been fried by a TNT area under pine trees. The song slowly eases into UFO sonics with the vocals kind of drifting along like David Thomas' "man muttering in a crowd", as described by Greil Marcus. "We're stoned at the top of the road. Yeah, we're counting on". The end goes into a totally different groove, bass and static vox from a radio that is tuned to something else entirely but receiving this.

Side two starts with the faster, post-punk "Herb & Opal". The vocals are mixed a little low on this one. The musick sounds really good; I really like the bell sounds that run concurrent to the bassline. The drums are kind of thin. "Scorched Pog Fiduciary" is a really cool name for a song. I first encountered the word "fiduciary" in a spam email and thought it was not a real word. It is. I like the contrast between the vocals and the rest of the track on this song. The drums play fast and light with various fills. Everything builds in intensity as the song moves along until the first big cymbal hit does it. "Calico Elevator" goes back to that UFO trip down the dark country road with more beat vox to go with that trip. This is the creepiest I have ever heard Brian DiSanto's usually cheery voice. The deflated horns and cavernous humming make this a very texturally unpleasant experience (in a good way). The last track, "Translucent Pygmies", jumps up after the downbeat darkness of the "Calico Elevator". It's quite a weird one. The song gets repetitious before everything breaks down in a Jonathan Richman way. That's the way to end it.

I really enjoyed The Lost Cosmonauts Were Just Wearing Camouflage. It's quite the trip into other places, meeting other beings, and traveling by various vehicles, some of which may be venomous or inflatable. The only thing that was a little off for me was that the vocals sound a little different than the instruments in certain tracks. It works well when they are slower, beat lyrics but not so well on a more rockin' tune. It's nothing major though by any means. At the perfect length of time to travel the sonic waves, if you like sort of lo-fi, "outsider art", Brian DiSanto and Skeletonized have made an album worthy of checking out for sure. The Lost Cosmonauts Were Just Wearing Camouflage receives a Good.
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The Royal They are a Brooklyn-based fusion of sludge and pop with an R&B tinge to their shifting songs. On January 13th, they released Foreign Being on King Pizza Records. I decided to take a listen to it.


The album cover of Foreign Being is just okay. I sort of like the amateurish art style, but it's just an image of a horned helmet. The linework is too scraggly too. I like the font used, though I wish the "O" in the band's name was the same "O" as in the title of the album.



Foreign Being starts with the creepy "C.N.T.", the description of some gross masculine entity amid screechy guitars through heavy bass. At first I felt like the lyrics were too obvious, but in the end they are very powerful. I like the song. "Sludgefucker" is full of more furious guitars, almost dancey noise-rock riffage. The vocals are pretty awesome and remind me a little of Jello Biafra. "Flying Naked" is much slower and bare, as the title suggests. It sounds like it's about Hellraiser, though, if anything, that's just a starting point. The many shifts in this song keep it going when it almost gets stale. The next song, "Pandemic", took me a few tries to sonically understand. The vocals kept me coming back, a call from a faerie wood under the woodwork of heavy guitar riffage that sounded cheesy at first. "Veritas" is a pop song that sounds like one Iggy Pop might have done in the early 90s. It's very catchy.

The second side of Foreign Being starts with "Needler", an R&B-influenced rocker. The guitar solo is sick. "Waiting Game" is a great, punky track about getting what you want from life and not giving up. "Say Less" is another poppy punky one, though I wouldn't exactly call it pop-punk with it's noisy solo and heavier parts. It could have been a Nirvana track. "Leech" speeds ahead, unlike the normal leech. The title relates to the lyrics though. I like the lyrics of "Gullethead" about how we all dream but don't always do what we want to. It's something that I have been deciding just recently, sort of a New Years resolution, to finish things instead of worrying about their completion. The song has a very 90s alt-rock sound. It's my favorite song on the album. The last track "Weekender" continues the poppy punk sound of the second-side. It's kind of cheesy. I like the guitar solos, though I don't like the quiet part that comes right after the first one. The rest is pretty good.

I have mixed thoughts on this album overrall. I really liked "Pandemic", "Waiting Game", and, particularly, "Gullethead". The rest were just okay, off by some small amount that was just enough to make it not right for me. The songs have a lot of loops and curves that don't always work, at least on the first listen. I listened to some of the tracks a few times and got a much better understanding of them after the first time. Unfortunately, the production on Foreign Being is not great. It's too clean and too loud; it does not have character. I'm not a fan of the drum sound in particular, and I feel like the guitars get way too loud at times. I get a headache from listening to it. I really want to give The Royal They something more for their efforts, but I don't think I can give Foreign Being any more than a Neutral. The production sets the whole thing into existence, so, along with the few other issues here, that's what does it.
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Welcome to the first Outside In(fluence). As mentioned in this week's news update, Outside In(fluence) is a series of international musick reviews published every other Saturday. The first album I'm covering is How'd I Turn So Bad? by Shanghai's Dirty Fingers. The album was released late last year, December 12th, on the label Maybe Mars, an indie label that started back in 2007 and releases exclusively Chinese alt-rock/punk/noise-rock/post-punk/garage stuff. I have been familiar with the label for a while thanks to the brilliant Carsick Cars, but I only recently rediscovered it. How'd I Turn So Bad? is a good way to come back.


The album cover for How'd I Turn So Bad? shows what looks like an astronaut navigating a crystalline landscape while a giant, pink chameleon stares on. I like the colors used, though I wish there was a slight border or something to keep the brightness contained a bit. I really like the blue of the sky, fading into grey as it does. It's a shocking cover, loud and weird, just like the musick therein.

Before I continue, I should mention that I can't seem to embed this album here. It won't show up when I place the code in the HTML unlike every other album. If you want to listen along, you can do so here.

How'd I Turn So Bad? starts with "School". It's a fast and angular guitar rocker with scratchy vocals. The breakdowns are cool, contrasting the extreme chaos of the rest of the track. "Trip to Cairo" comes in with a spec of ambient mysticism before flying downhill at extreme speed. There's a little reference to "Hotel California" with the line "cause I can check out, but I will never leave". "Thanks to me my mom, I'll always be selfish". That's also a great line. It's time to just go and do what we want. The third track, "Fake Rock Star", starts out with the ghost of Dave Alexander's throbbing bass and Funhouse-esque guitars. It quickly goes a little overboard and loses something, but the song catches back up with itself as it goes on. It's not a favorite of mine for sure. "Climb Another Mountain" is more melodic, as best as Dirty Fingers can be. I like the contrasting guitar parts and the weird wind sound. This is a track I really wish that I could understand the lyrics of. "It seems like so much fun, but I, I got scared," Guan Xiaotian announces on "Arkham Club". "Everybody’s having so much fun. I’m alone drinking beer," he continues. The Arkham Club is a real place in Shanghai, and social anxiety is a sure bummer for anyone going to out somewhere like that. The dark surf sounds and noir vocals make this a great one.

"I Like Your Girlfriend Too" starts the second half. It's the poppiest song on the album with slower tempos and cleaner lyrics (if you can understand Chinese unlike me). I really like the emotions in the vocals on this one and the guitar solo in the middle. The bass line and calmer vocals remind me of the Japanese band, the pillows. "Birthday Song" is a fast track that's over quickly. It does what you'd expect. I like the bass sound a lot. "Robot Song" starts with a blues-played-by-The Strokes riff. It changes gears during the chorus to the more usual Dirty Fingers speed. I enjoyed this one. "Wei Wan" is barely over 30 seconds. It's really fast with a small sample of dialogue at the beginning. "Dead Girl" has more Stooges riffs and lyrics about a nihilistic romance. "I like libertines too. Are we good?". "She's sick in the head. She's secondhand." The lyrics are cheesy but great. The penultimate track is "Undercover Cop", a grim, song under the brim of a rainy, grey fedora and a long coat, Bogart's cigarette lighting the way ahead. It reminds me of The Clash on Give 'em Enough Rope. "Pop" is the final track on the album. It starts with some studio banter before going into another dance-punk piece like a cleaner "Robot Song". I like the monologue in the middle accompanied by the enthusiastic backing vocals. I would guess this song comments on pop musick a bit, but I have no idea. It sounds good anyway.

Even without knowing Chinese, I really enjoyed How'd I Turn So Bad?. The breakneck speeds combined with a keen musical sensibility drive the sounds home. The few lyrics in English are especially well-written, concise and classic, that I really wish I could understand the rest. The bass is surprisingly strong when it gets the chance to peak through the slashing guitars. The production is good, though it is a bit loud and thin, the guitars and drums respectively. How'd I Turn So Bad? is a fine album regardless and it receives a Good.
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On New Year's Eve I went to a show at the (new) Shop. The original Shop was a place that I liked going to. The name and style, bare concrete and white walls, always made me think of places I had only read about like White Columns. I was excited to see the new version of the Shop and the punk show that was happening there. Mostly I just wanted to see friends though.

I got to the Shop before anything had started. The new location is very close to my house, even closer than the old one. It's located near me in Lawrenceville at a place I passed weeks before and thought, "wouldn't this be a cool, old-school punk venue?" And then it was.

I liked the gritty inside - it was dim and still industrial, a true Pittsburgh kind of place. There were a lot of people there already. I was still able to get to the front of the performance area before the first band, I think, started.


CHOIR is a band that a lot of people like here in Pittsburgh. Somehow, I had never seen them before. Similar to Silence, I routinely intend to attend events that they are playing but always miss out. CHOIR has a noise-rock/no-wave/punk sound like Flipper. The singer thrashed around with wild nihilism, but everything appeared well-rehearsed; they were not sloppy. It was an awesome noisy rock performance with a lot of energy and stage presence. I think we need more stuff like this.

For me, it all went downhill from here. I did say hello to some friends, but I really didn't enjoy the other bands. I saw Substance, who were from Texas and alright, and I think Concealed Blade. I don't really like hardcore, and I especially don't like people spitting, throwing beer cans or moshing and pits. I'm way too small and concerned with taking pictures to get anything out of that except pushed over and feeling gross. On the whole, I don't find the idea of slamming into people very interesting. I don't like it, even when I'm not carrying a camera, and I don't think it is necessarily "radical" like some people make it out to be. Essentially, it reinforces the status quo; large guys get to show their strength and be tough. There's definitely a lot more of a community thing to it than that, but it's really just not for me. I ended up leaving after some large pieces of styrofoam started getting tossed around. Everything was all covered in dirt and beer and whaever else. That was enough for me.

My friend Brian saw me on the way back, and I got a ride from him the few blocks I needed to go. It was pretty cold, so I appreciated it. We saw a really interesting fireball in the sky right above my block as we were turning the corner. We weren't sure what it was, but I think it might have just been a paper lantern. It was New Year's Eve after all. When I got home, I put my camera away and rested for a bit. I ate some food. Then I decided to go back to the Shop to catch the last band and hang out before midnight. Interestingly, the door was closed when I got there. It didn't seem like anybody was there, and I saw some posts online that made me think it really was over. I had to go back anyway to grab my bike, so it's all good. When it turned midnight, I was just riding around in the cold. I felt alright about that.


Welcome to the future of 2018! Well, yeah it's been almost two weeks in this future world, but I have some new stuff happening this year.

Now the most obvious change is the new site design. That's just gone up in the past few days. I'm pretty happy with the new template, though I will continue to update it as I see fit.

I've added a new anti-adblocker script. I know this isn't a thing people love, but it does cost money and time to keep the site up and every little bit of extra cash helps. The ad revenue is pretty small too, which is why I am also launching a new Patreon next week. Patreon is a monthly membership platform to provide creators with sustainable income. I hope that one day Skull Valley can be my full-time job, and this will be the way I can do that. When the Patreon launches, you can choose, if you so desire, to support the site with whatever you see fit each month. Certain amounts confer small rewards. Skull Valley isn't becoming a subscription-based site though, so it isn't a requirement.

Another new addition is also a new Submissions page. Last year, someone asked me where they should send something they wanted to see reviewed. I said that the email address was on here, but I think this is better. It's easy to find and insert all the necessary information. If you have any new musick that you want to see here, fill out that form, and I'll try to get a review up if I feel that I can do a fair review. Show yr friends who have bands too.

Alright, now the schedule for 2018 is to update Skull Valley on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I may publish additional posts, but these are the standard update days. Most posts should go up during the afternoon between 11am and 3pm, but some days may be delayed. Friday posts will tend towards concert reviews, while the other days will mostly be reviews of recorded musick and not always from Pittsburgh-based artists. This schedule will vary depending on the number of concerts/shows I attend. Additional special posts are detailed below.

Every other Saturday is a new piece called Outside In(fluence). These are just album/EP/singles reviews, but they all come from artists located outside the US. I probably can't understand the lyrics, so these will primarily be based on the instrumentals and the vocal sounds. I'm sure this could be funny for people that do speak the languages used. The first Outside In(fluence) goes up this Saturday with Dirty Fingers' How'd I Turn So Bad?.

I also have a new monthly series planned that will look at artists who create musick in addition to other art. The Artist Special interview series will be published on the third Sunday of each month. The first one goes up on the 21st of January.

The goals for this year are to stay consistent, expand my focus beyond just Pittsburgh, increase the number of followers/Facebook likes/readers, and to improve the quality of the website. Remember that I can't do this without my readers. Thank you!

If you are reading this post right now, on the day it was published, January 10th, sorry for the mess. I've been working on the site design for Skull Valley all of yesterday. I'm still fixing some small problems today, so it doesn't look the best right now.

Anyway, I recently heard about a new compilation of outtakes put out by THOUSANDZZ OF BEEZ called my new wall. I have enjoyed Hunter's musick live, so I figured it might be cool to check out the album. I was not disappointed.



The cover art of my new wall shows a rough and ghostly face, duplicated vertically, noses into lips and morphing into nooks of eyes and cheeks. I like it, though I still wish there was something more to it. The dark purple form fits the sound of the album well, especially the intro track.



The first track on "my new wall" is the title track. I thought it was really annoying, sort of creepy with it's frog vox drone crackling, until the latter half of the song when it springs into a Bowie-esque sound akin to something from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). "blood is blue :: sky is bound" comes in right off the first one with a small big acoustic sound from a spider's dream.
The third track, "sunshine tomb", has vivid, cold imagery. It seems directed at somebody. I don't kneo who. The end gives me chills. "blocks" is fun, a song about childhood things that turns into an educational synth sound. "hole in a skirt" has more insect lyrics and a beautiful starshine sound of echo waves. The phantom of a radio appears at the end.

The next track, "steely feet", takes a very different turn. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's hypnotic and kind of scary, like a staircase rotating, folding into itself, a hall of mirrors of musicbox dancers in black stockings. "draft letter nightmare" reminds me again of David Bowie or Syd Barrett with more insect mysticism. At first, I thought it might be like a delta blues type of thing, but it wasn't. "((in throw))" has a Devendra Banhart sound with a warbly synth, strings, and drum machine. I like the loud sound at the end. "witch sides" goes back to acoustic dreamworlds with a small rattling bell and backing vocals. Again, it's a little overwhelming for me. "You side with the witch". ""look inside me plz"" is the last track and more conventional except for the quotes around the song title which creates this quotation nightmare I'm having. The actual musick is like an upbeat downer, Harry Belafonte and Robert Johnson.

my new wall gets a Good. It's hard for me to describe all of the feelings that I got from this album. It's a short glimpse into an otherworld, pale blue and dark green and gossamer wings.

Last year, I went to see a band called Fruit & Flowers and missed them. The rest of the show was fine. Luckily, I was able to secure a copy of the band's EP, Drug Tax, on CD before heading out into the chilly night.


The cover art for Drug Tax is a fiery swirl of a flower. It's basic with excellent composition, the petals drawing the viewer into the enclosed text. The trapping, enclosing nature of this vivid flora also beckons for a listen.



Drug Tax starts with the eerie "Out of Touch". Before the chorus, the song feels like the mysterious touch of fabric that you didn't know was there, something like sitting in front of a curtain that moves suddenly. The chorus builds the song up with a perilous gloom of lost love. All the instruments sound great, especially the fuzz bass. "Subway Surfer" is a faster song, a weird fantasy exposing the disconnect of city life. It could be a Godard movie. "Dark Surf" comes in very dark indeed, a spooky riff off the side of the night. Strangely, this song seems sort of positive lyrically, though I'm not really sure what it is about.

The second side of Drug Tax opens with the hard-rockin' "Down Down Down". I like the dramatic plunge at the end of each chorus, and the guitar solo at the end of the song is awesome! Also, check out the Stooges-esque bassline. "Pick Fairy" does another hard-rock thing. This is the weakest song, but it isn't bad. It retreads the last song a bit. The solo does sound really sick, though! The title track, "Drug Tax", is the last one here. The instrumentals sound so snotty and prickly. The backing vocals remind me a lot of Vivian Girls. I love the "hey!" and the stark chorus. There's a really amazing tiny guitar section, and the noisy solos are really cool.

Drug Tax does a good job of transporting the listener into a dark under-land for a short period of time. It's enough that I want to hear more; it doesn't go overboard with excess. The songs are short and punchy, the production top-notch (not pointlessly muddy fake lo-fi) with great sounds all around. Drug Tax receives a Good.
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