These Arms are Snakes

50 Unheralded Albums from 2011

50 Unheralded Albums from 2011

In just one more trip around the sun, another swarm of immensely talented but under-recognized musicians has harnessed its collective talents and discharged its creations into the void. This list is but one fraction of those dedicated individuals who caught our ears with some serious jams.

Helms Alee touring with Young Widows, to record with Matt Bayles

Ex-members of Harkonen and These Arms Are Snakes compose the rock trio Helms Alee. Since its 2008 Hydra Head album Night Terror, front man Ben Verellen has reunited Harkonen while launching his own Verellen Amplifiers.

Helms Alee will take its seamless male-female vocal blends and thrashing rock melodies to the stage with the impressive likes of Boris, Red Sparowes, and Young Widows for a fall tour.

The band will wrap up the tour with a live performance that it’s calling Verellen Amplifiers Night in its hometown of Seattle. Helms Alee will then be back in the studio preparing a currently untitled and new album for Hydra Head, expected in 2011 and produced by Matt Bayles.

What We’re Seeing This Weekend: Don Caballero, Yoome, These Arms are Snakes

As we hit town this weekend to catch a pair of hard-hitting rock bands (Don Caballero and These Arms are Snakes), we’ll also venture to see a left-field production of hip hop and synth-flavored post-rock (Yoome), boundless pseudo-soundtrack work (Andreas Kapsalis Trio), and a blend of dub, reggae, electronics, and rock (The Eternals).

Weekly Music News Roundup

Amon Tobin makes up half of a new project called Two Fingers; Witch goes on tour with Earthless; Dan Deacon posts a preview of his new album; Converge and Supermachiner each has a new album for ’09; Kronos Quartet is giving away 50 pairs of tickets for its performance in France this month.

Read about these and 11 more news bits in our weekly roundup.

Natural born musicians Jaguar Love

Former Blood Brothers guitarist Cody Votolato is patient when explaining what Kombucha is—he is even kind enough to spell it out. “It’s a fermented mushroom drink. We drink Kombucha and write songs.” “We” refers to Votolato and bandmate/singer/keyboardist Johnny Whitney, who, following The Blood Brothers’ breakup, have joined forces with guitarist/drummer Jay Clark of Pretty Girls Make Graves to form Jaguar Love.