Wax Idols

"The San Francisco Bay area’s most promising breakout, and formidable female-fronted pop wonders are not who you may already believe or expect. Lead by the enigmatically agitated Heather Fedewa (aka Hether Fortune, ex-Hunx & His Punx, Bare Wires, and also currently a member of CastleFace Records’ Blasted Canyons), Wax Idols straddle the line between ripping tough/tender post-punk/goth-pop, and irr esistibly anthemic indie rock hooks, somewhat like Joan Jett would sound like tearing through Best Coast… Show more with a chainsaw or if Mary Monday had been a member of Wire. Your curiosity may have already been piqued from their unabashed debut 7″ “All Too Human,” released on Hozac earlier this year, but it’s hard to imagine anyone being ready for an LP of this caliber, bursting at the seams with hits for all seasons, and effortlessly blurring the lines between viciously beautiful temperance and an unwavering, attitude-soaked attack on your comfort zone. With an arsenal of songs that range from chest-pounding melodic punk screamers, to tense-yet-tumultuous tracks of sadness overcome with bombastic pop precision, ‘No Future’ is one of the most impressive LPs we’ve had the pleasure of releasing, and one we’re sure will go far. Fedewa’s uniquely surly-yet-sultry voice has such an lasting impact, it seamlessly traces the gamut of human emotions back & forth from the unhinged heights to the inescapable doldrums, all tied up in perfect blasts of modern pop/post-punk subdued simplicity that are as upfront and immediate as any of of their legendary influences." - Todd Novak/Victim Of Time

"..a breathy and polite garage punk/noise pop hybrid...WAX IDOLS dish out infectious and introspective songs effortlessly, and reel you back before you even know what hit you." - MAXIMUM ROCK&ROLL

"...puts on a badass punk front, but those shiny hooks expose just enough emotion to keep things from scabbing. Wax Idols are super-gritty and always promise to play their noisy garage punk loud and hard. The band is fronted by Hether Fortune who's got a firecracker reputation and a long list of local music projects, including Blasted Canyons and previously, Hunx and his Punx. She's joined by Keven Tecon on the drums, Jennifer Mundy on the guitar and vox, and Amy Rosenoff on bass, and although the band is dominated by ladies, it keeps an angsty, andro-sound." - SFBG

The Mallard
The Mallard are a garage psych-rock duo from San Francisco. Their songs harness the naked abandon of 60's punk, but inject the form with a deranged spirit all their own. The overall feeling is of a reckless ascent (or of a delirious plummet). Close attention to tone and dynamics allow the band to explore unusual terrain – to grant access into unexpected realms of beauty, fear, and humor. . .

Greer McGettrick (guitar/vocals) and Dylan Tidyman-Jones (drums/vocals) met playing music in Fresno, California, and later moved independently to San Francisco. McGettrick helmed the Mallard through several incarnations (including stints as a quartet and a solo act) – and self-recorded an initial eight-song cassette tape – before inviting Tidyman-Jones to play drums with her in early 2011. Late summer of '11 will see The Mallard embark on their first major west coast tour, with a full-length album to be released in the fall.

"The Mallard wows me with the ability to mix a sort of top-down beach attitude with the gravel-and-glass of a good garage act. " --Sound on the Sound

"[E]very bit as gritty as the four-track cassette tapes she records her music on." --DLM

Chasms
Culling influences from the avant underbelly of decades past, {When It Comes} is the debut EP from the dark San Francisco duo appropriately dubbed: Chasms. Drenched in the dreaminess of early 4AD, Chasms takes familiar shoegaze affectations to biting temperatures, arriving intently at dysphoric soundscapes and swollen compositions. From whispered vocals to droning bass, and guitar that’s as blistering as it is lush – all elements are commanded by a blown-out drum machine that throbs with industrial authority. Wading through a heavy haze of melancholy, the damaged ten-plus-minute-long epic ‘Headwound / What’s Real’ drifts from brutal to blissful at once. Though not all is so bleak; radiating moments like ‘Darker Outside’ remind us that a cold light still shines.

DJ Nako (Shutter/Popscene)

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