TERMINAL BOREDOM

Grave Blankets "Your Injured Ways" 7"
Debut three-song 7" from this Columbus three-piece who play swampwater laden blues-inflected rock and actually do it really well. The title cut rolls out of the speakers like a fog, thick yet ghostly, with echoed backing vox chasing the strong lead vocals through the night. Surprisingly rich sounding for what you would think would be a lo-fi trio, aided by some sneakily adept drum work. Gun Club-esque in the best possible way. The B-side keeps the quality up, with one strong rocker that brings to mind fellow Columbusites Cheater Slicks, and one musky and mean soggy swamp rocker in Blood Red River-era Scientists vein. I was not expecting this record to be this good, but the Grave Blankets have avoided overt genre cliches and released some evocative vinyl here. Highly recommended. Scum stats: self-released 100 on beautiful dark blue marbled vinyl and 400 on black. (RK)

Grave Blankets/Touch-Me-Nots 7"
One tune apiece from two bands that I have enjoyed quite a bit on their lonesome. GB's do "Foreward", a slower tempo hack at the trashy swamp-blues they proved they can do quite well on their debut 7". Not quite as enthralling as anything off that record, but still not a bad showing. Touch-Me-Nots would win this mini-battle of the bands with "Cool Enough For California", a quite upbeat, dare I say happy-go-lucky number complete with some finger-lickin' hot guitar lixx. A great "Summer jam", as the kids would say. Again, not enough of either band on this. I could've gone for two from each. But I'm not gonna blame these bands for the shortcomings of the format. I hate splits.(RK)

SMASHIN' TRANSISTORS 

Grave Blankets "Your Injured Ways" 7" EP and
Grave Blankets/Touch-Me-Nots Split 7"

Though the Grave Blankets have an Ohio address I'd like to believe that are from some universe where Lux & Poison are the president and the first lady and since they are loved by their citizens and are immortal no one has ever cried for term limits. Also, since Mr. Interior and Ms. Rorschach once spent many a year having whatever it is about Ohio that debases minds they're giving back to the people by placing fellow Buckeyes in high powered appointed til death (cuz, afterall, ONLY Lux & Poison are immortal) cabinet seats. First they put calls out to Akron and Cleveland but learned that the people they had in mind were either dead or would have to consult with Jesus or their lawyer (or in some cases both) before they could say yay or ney. Just when they were ready to cut-n-run and look to other parts of the universe they called home at a time or again someone (I'm guessing a really devilish imp) whispered in their ear "What about Columbus?" The next thing you know the Cheater Slicks are in charge of the school lunch program and the stuff their serving the kids is causing all kinds of damage.
Post-everything noise-blues trashers is what the diet made the Grave Blankets grow into. "Your Injured Ways" is a like a blood stained oil can. All slippery & sick making you wonder "What the hell happened here". Like watching a head on crash in slow motion while a grunt-n-blare coming from inside of dumpster that 1000's of wasps are using as it's nest out in the middle of a swamp provides the audio details. "You'll Never Everything" borrows a hook from 60's garage punk handbook but it get's all pigstabbed to the point of almost beyond recognition while "Something You Say" gives off bog blast that the Lamps and the Hunches in a bloody duel over who can pummel the "driving fast down the highway" riff the hardest might come up with.
On "Foreward", their offering on the split single, the Grave Blankets play it a bit more straight but I'm using the word on a really wide curve here cuz it's still a fest of dirtball fuzz and echo. Something like a bastard child of Mudhoney and the Jesus and Mary Chain perhaps? The Touch Me Nots offer up a little social commentary on their side of the record. No, they aren't going into a Janis Ian phase or anything like that. "Cool Enough For California" is a tale of a midwest boy venturing off to make his fortune in the Golden state. As usual, Andrew and Kelly put it off in that kinda coy and somewhat reckless pure rock-n-roll charm they are becoming duly noted for. - Dale