Last year fellow Culture Clash staffer Jerry and myself ventured down to Louisville, Kentucky to see Terrastock 7, a huge psychedelic / kraut / experimental festival that had an enormous amount of bands that we were both excited to see. Grails, Bardo Pond, Hush Arbors, Wooden Shjips, MV + EE with the Golden Road, and well you get the point. One band that was absent from my list of bands I absolutely have to see was Oneida. For some reason they just never did a single thing for me. They were scheduled to play first during the second day of the festival and I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to leave the nice Louisville breakfast we were having to go see them. So as I am standing there in the inside venue waiting for them to set up and yawning and stretching it was both a reaction of me being tired and what I was expecting to play in front of me.

What I didn’t expect was for them to be the highlight of the festival for me after playing a 30 minute set that consisted of their upcoming(at the time) album Preteen Weaponry front to back and having my jaw hit the ground from the first 2 minutes and not be picked back up before I realized I had to get outside to see Wooden Shjips.

The band had finally caught my ear with Preteen Weaponry and in a way that I couldn’t wait for the new album. The three songs on Preteen could only hold me over for so long. So when I heard that the second part of their Thanks Your Parents trilogy of albums, Rated O, was finally coming out I couldn’t curb my excitement. Then when I realized it was a freaking massive TRIPLE CD I basically lost it.

Oneida has gone above and beyond what made me love them with Rated O. Back are the looping kraut-rock jams found on Preteen Weaponry but they have introduced several entirely new elements to their sound that leave you dumbfounded and wondering if you are listening to Oneida.

The beginning of the album was a total headscratcher for the first 15 seconds before I realized how much I loved it. “Brownout In Lagos” is one of the grimiest dubstep songs you are bound to hear this year with Dad-Ali Ziai throwing these shouting vocals over that just fit perfectly. It isn’t until the end of the first CD that you hear a more Oneida type sound in the track “Story of O.” “I Will Haunt You” on the second track even sounds a bit like Terrastock brethren Wooden Shjips.

This album is seriously hours and hours worth of high energy psychedelic rock that will make you feel like you just ran a marathon if you listen to all three discs straight. Let me tell you though, you’ll get much more satisfaction listening to this than you would being worn out after running one of those.

Some MP3s below but three songs of an album that touches on a bit of everything is just a tease really.

"I Will Haunt You" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O "Saturday" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O "What's Up Jackal?" from Oneida's 2009 album Rated O

Honorable mentions for June 23rd Record of the Week:

• Bowerbirds – Upper Air (Dead Oceans)
• Tiny Vipers – Life on Earth (Sub Pop)
• My Bloody Valentine – Before Loveless (Lazy)

First up is the new Wooden Shjips 12″ titled Contact. Wooden Shjips have been cranking out 5+ minute neo-psychelic tunes since 2006 spread over various 7″, 10″, and 12″ and they haven’t decided to stray from the path on the two tracks featured here.

The title track “Contact” is actually a Serge Gainsbourg cover that was performed by Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot initially. You wouldn’t know it to hear Wooden Shjips take on it though as it turns into a bass-driven psych jam that goes the distance at over 8 minutes long. The b-side is a second version of their song “I Hear the Vibrations” that originally appeared as the b-side to their Vampire Blues 7″ released in 2008.

This 12″ is hand numbered and limited to 550 copies and then they are gone. They also come in different colored DJ sleeves and are quite the attractive package.

Secondly is the debut 12″ from Little Girls. Hailing from Canada, Little Girls blast out short and distorted lo-fi post-punk / new wave tunes not unlike Blank Dogs, Waavves, or Psychedelic Horseshit. This 12″ is 5 tracks that both tease and please as after it’s done you’ll just want a whole lot more. Fortunately for us it looks as though they have a 2nd 12″ coming out soon along with a 7″ single.

These 12″s are only available here right now as they have sold out everywhere else. If you are looking for any of Mexican Summer’s back catalog, we do have a very small amount of some of their releases still left in the store. We have incredibly limited amounts on the titles that follow:

• Dungen – Sätt Att Se (Limited to 1,000, includes 5 different versions of the track “Sätt Att Se” from their latest album 4)
• Nachtmystium – Worldfall (Limited to 500, includes 5 tracks two of which are covers of Death in June and Goatsnake!!!)
• Tallest Man on Earth – Shallow Grave (Limited to 1,000 copies, this full length album is possibly the store favorite(but Kurt Vile runs a cloooooose second) on Mexican Summer. 10 tracks of what it would sound like if Bob Dylan grew up in Leksand, Sweden as opposed to Hibbing, Minnesota. Great genuine folk. Also includes an extra 4 tracks on a 7″ included with the LP for 14 tracks total!)
• Black Moth Super Rainbow – Don’t You Want To Be In a Cult (Limited to 500 copies this picture disc 12″ features two songs you are not going to find anywhere else. For fans of Cluster doing pop songs!)
• Golden Triangle – Golden Triangle (Limited to 500 copies, this garagey post-punk band will get you off your seat and shaking your ass with tunes unlike the Cramps jamming with Birthday Party)
• Valet – False Face Society (Limited to 500 copies, Valet contributes three songs not found elsewhere to this 12″ that is a a mind melter for sure. Layers of droning guitar and vocals that defy all preconceptions on what this music is supposed to sound like is topped of with a cover of Boris w/ Michio Kurihara from their album Rainbow)