Listening on:
An especially well loved Sanyo M 2820. This mono speaker beast is capable of blasting your favorite songs out loud, proud, and through exactly one channel. Seems like an ideal machine for recording straight from the radio and reminding yourself how much everyone takes stereo for granted.
The band:
Super Minotaur, not to be confused with lesser Minotaurs, is the South Bend, Inidana/Chicago, IL based trio of “Shane, Leni, and Adam.” They specialize in guitar hooks and good times. Back in January, Shane sent me this note:
Hi Luke,
Two of my best friends and I just recently started a band two weeks ago. We had some demos and sent them around. Things picked up quick and now we're putting out a full length with Cold Slice Cassettes out of Chicago… We have our first single recorded and we're currently working on recording the rest of the record…
Enjoy,
Shane
I replied:
Sweet! Thanks for sending. Just started a tape only review column for IMPOSE. Think it'd be a great fit for that. Shoot me a copy when you get stuff laid out. Stay in touch, dude. Think you guys have a good thing going.
Cheers,
Luke
And here we are now, almost exactly six months later. That tape ended up being a self-titled release of nine tracks, which has been trickling out to the genreal public since last March.
The music:
There’s an awesomely straightforward hardcore influence on this tape. While it’s the proven song structures and unbeatable riffs that are responsible for the entertainingly vicious bits that make you want to start a pit of one in your living room, there’s also an interesting power-pop-taken-back-into-the-garage dynamic here. Side A is all staccato bursts of drugs, escapism, and obtuse outbursts, while the B side has a more lof-fi pop feel and a special surprise at the end. All of that is nothing new, but the wry sensibility and shameless love of dissonance that make this stuff own its own atavism so hard. Well, that and the fact that this music is a lot of fun. If someone remade Repo Man or Return of the Living Dead tomorrow, Super Minotaur self-titled would have a track or two on the soundtrack. That said, please don’t remake those movies. We can’t ever be friends if you try to do that.
How it sounds:
On mono, this tape sounds so rough and tumble that I almost love it more, but a stereo experience is definitely recommended if you’re looking to catch the more interesting bits hiding behind the distortion. Could be good commuting music, if your commute involves shoving people.
The full package:
The tape has a lovely blue, green, and some color I don’t think has a name spackled finish. The packaging. There’s also a QR code on there. If you actually follow it and post it in the comments, you win a round of applause.
Listening/seeing:
Opening track “Locals Only” should make a lot of sense, if you actually read anything I’ve written above. Enjoy the video, which features plenty of strange things to do that you probably don’t want to emulate:
“Phantom Brat” is a quintessential fuck you anthem of 2012:
“Marz” is like your favorite lo-fi indie song, except that it is not retail store friendly:
Super Minotaur's self-titled tape is available from Cold Slice Cassettes and for streaming on Bandcamp.
