Music

Scott Lucas & The Married Men

Review: Scott Lucas & The Married Men’s Blood Half Moon

Scott Lucas & The Married Men: Blood Half MoonScott Lucas & The Married Men: Blood Half Moon (The End, 6/5/12)

“Blood Half Moons”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Scott_Lucas__The_Married_Men_Blood_Half_Moons.mp3|titles=Scott Lucas & The Married Men: “Blood Half Moons”]

In 2009, Local H front-man Scott Lucas found himself with a batch of songs — intended to win back an ex — that didn’t seem to fit within the Chicago two-piece’s hard-rock repertoire. So, rather than let the material go unreleased, he did what many musicians with a secret soft side are wont to do: he went solo.

Liars

Review: Liars’ WIXIW

Liars: WIXIW (Mute, 6/5/12)

“No. 1 Against the Rush”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Liars_No_1_Against_the_Rush.mp3|titles=Liars: “No. 1 Against the Rush”]

Once you pair an image to a sound, it’s difficult to scrub away. Like having an actor’s face thrust onto a character from a beloved book, a music video can forever alter a song, and so anyone who saw the Todd Cole-directed video for Liars’ “No. 1 Against the Rush” will always associate its sparse beats and drugged-up synths with the midnight vistas of a derelict city, sprawlscapes illuminated only by the headlights of an unmarked van.

Fear Factory

Review: Fear Factory’s The Industrialist

Fear Factory: The Industrialist (Candlelight, 6/5/12)

“Recharger”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Fear_Factory_Recharger.mp3|titles=Fear Factory: “Recharger”]

Fear Factory’s eighth full-length studio album, The Industrialist, is the next chapter in the band’s sci-fi narrative that has spanned the past two decades. The futuristic storyline, however, is a mere backdrop for the blistering noise of its soundtrack.

Melvins

Review: (The) Melvins’ Freak Puke

Melvins: Freak Puke

Melvins: Freak Puke (Ipecac, 6/5/12)

“Leon vs. The Revolution”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Melvins_Leon_vs_The_Revolution.mp3|titles=Melvins: “Leon vs. The Revolution”]

It’s another year, another set of releases from the incomparable Melvins, whose five-song EP The Bulls & The Bees (with its Big Business lineup) preceded Freak Puke, a new full-length album as Melvins Lite with Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn.

OFF!

Video: Off!’s “Cracked”

OFF!: s/tOff!: s/t (Vice, 5/8/12)

Fresh on the heels of its self-titled, full-length debut, Off! has just released a video for “Cracked,” the first part of a trilogy to be completed in the coming weeks.

Directed by Whitey McConnaughy (Superchunk, Red Fang, The Thermals) and featuring comedians Randy Babcock and Andre Hyland, the video highlights the competitive world of sign-spinning gone awry.