Earlier this year, Kurt Gottschalk described seeing 4 young people -- who looked like they were born in 1990 -- playing music in the vein of No New York 1978. Could these teenagers even know about Teenage Jesus & The Jerks? he might have wondered. The group was opening for Brown Wing Overdrive at Cake Shop, and they called themselves The Sediment Club.
Oh! I realized that was WFMU / Free Music Archive volunteer Austin's band, and -- to answer Kurt's question (which I get the sense had already been answered by the end of the Sediment Club's Cake Shop set) -- Yes, they know their shit from James Chance to James Brown, everything under the Sun Ra. I found this out first-hand because Austin spent much of last summer digitizing WFMU live sessions for the FMA by the likes of The Magic Carpathians, Hat City Intuitive, and Alan Vega. On top of that, his parents played in groups like the Bush Tetras and the Voidoids, so they probably have some of the coolest record collections around. And the entire Sediment Club was excited to perform in the same WFMU live room that had recently played host to The Damned and Chrome Cranks (who Sediment Club member Amina cited as one of her favorite bands of all time!).
The Sediment Club meld their wide-raning influences into something original and great in its own right. The group features Austin on guitar and vocals, Lazar on bass and accompanying vox, Jack on drums, and Amina on synth. They played ten originals plus covers of Pere Ubu/Rocket From The Tombs (Life Stinks mp3) and The Residents (Hello Skinny mp3). Download 'em here or listen in-context from the WFMU streaming archive.
All 10 Sediment Club originals are here on the FMA, and I decided to post this after hearing Panic Fun Berlin (mp3) on Brian Turner's show yesterday. Some of the songs had already been recorded, and will hopefully see an official release in the near future. Others were brand new, including and Derail Clean Slate God (mp3), on which Austin trades his skronk guitar for a contact-mic'ed hand saw run through a delay pedal.
Sediment Club is playing August 29th at Brooklyn's Market Hotel. Details here on their myspace, along with streaming audio from their forthcoming studio recording...
I actually had just downloaded a bunch of these tracks last week. This has been one of my favorite random finds on the FMA.
Posted by: Woody | July 24, 2009 at 03:37 PM
There's something ironic about recycling a "kill your idols" sound.
Posted by: Dave | July 25, 2009 at 01:53 PM
great .
well, I love it all, ubt the first two trks are really cool.
reminds me of...?
not MARS, NOt D.N.A., maybe Sonic Youth at some point or..? actually this is kinda like
the Raincoats.
you guys are always right on the money,
thanks again.
Posted by: mark c. | July 25, 2009 at 06:27 PM
The Sediment Club 7" is available @ www.myspace.com/softspotrecs
Posted by: Nancy | March 01, 2010 at 09:22 PM