Tyvek

Tyvek

Overground

Ginkgo

***Tyvek is an evolving meditation on the bizarre world we’ve created. While the format of a blistering punk group might not scream subtlety, the introspective lyrics and recurring themes of the group provide a far greater dividend than one might initially expect. Laying down the defensive wall of distorted guitars and building on a dream-like narrative with a request for human decency, Tyvek continues and puts down another album leaving much to think upon. Received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork.

Tyvek

Blunt Instrumentals LP

Ginkgo

***Like a twisted tree trunk seen from a distance, Tyvek’s new LP Blunt Instrumentals' form only reveals itself upon closer inspection. The title’s misnomer seems designed to trip up the casual observer as the tracks are neither instrumentals nor are the edges of these punks blunted by undue preparation and polish. These collected recordings were committed to cassette in January 2009 while the band regrouped as a three piece with Kevin Boyer on guitar and vocals, Shelley Salant on bass and Matt Ziolkowski on drums. The songs on the LP were originally released on two extremely limited cassette runs shortly after recording, with 5 tracks also included on the 12” Blunt Instrumental EP released on Night People records. This new LP, released on Ginkgo Records and Doubles Tapes, includes all tracks from the prior cassettes with two additional songs. During a long weekend holed up in Matt Z’s Aunt’s home on Clark Lake they worked on songs and jammed out into fresh territory. Fitting in well with the Tyvek ethos, the 12 tracks range from short and blistered punk blasts to the fully blasted 10-minute space rock of Cold Sun Blind My Eye. Spun together, the album is a great reminder of Tyvek’s stream-of-consciousness style and passion. Lyrically looser and occasionally off-the-cuff, it also hits with some great tunes. Somewhere in the freezing Michigan winter we find a window opened onto a view of Tyvek creating something memorable beneath the clouds.

Tyvek

Origin Of What

In The Red

Tyvek have long stood as one of the more steadfast and dependable punk institutions of the last decade. Each record has been great and has improved on the one before it without struggling to reinvent or overwrite their past. Line-ups and life events shift but the energy always comes through as new and raw as it did on the first single. Origin of What, their fourth album, is something of a departure, if a cryptic one—all the familiar elements are in place and yet a pervasive darkness that these strangely disjointed songs. Working again with Fred Thomas who recorded their most recent album, 2012 burner On Triple Beams, band members from the earliest incarnations to its most recent showed up for various recording sessions, with initial tracks captured quickly. Later, far more extensive editing, mixing and overdubbing ensued, resulting in a fragmented production style that slowly disintegrates the standard punk fare until it starts to resemble dub experimentation before decaying even further. Tyvek’s future, like its origin, is up for grabs.

Tyvek

On Triple Beams

In The Red

It’s morning in Detroit: Organic cafes are sprouting up where liquor stores once dominated the landscape, cycle lanes now line even the most impassable roadways, and an army of aimless (white) youth, the shock troops of gentrification, are living out their wild west fantasies in maximum comfort and self-satisfaction. The names of their wifi networks tell the story: “homesteader,” “eastside settler,” “landgrabba.” They come for a reason: a cheap practice space in other people’s misery.  True to their contrarian instincts, Tyvek won’t give any quarter to the well heeled (and no doubt well intentioned) drum circle that has invaded their hometown, but they also can’t help but feel a certain optimism. Their third album, On Triple Beams, picks up where the blistering proto-hardcore of the Nothing Fits record leaves off, but doesn’t tarry long in familiar zones. The melodies open up into a much more spacious musical headspace, channeling unexpected positivity on tracks like “Wayne County Roads,” “Say Yeah” and “Returns.” Produced by Fred Thomas, On Triple Beams is hard and direct but it doesn’t pummel. Likewise, the lyrics ain’t pedantic. Searing punk rock is still the order of the day, and the tunes are just bangin’. And in case there’s any doubt: these are tunes in a major way—the songwriting chops are on this album are completely out of place in the 2012 bumper crop of plastic platters. Welcome to the strange path that Tyvek has trod for the past eight years: for every step forward, they take two...

Tyvek

Euro Tour 2011

Les Disques Steak

***The pace increases, the vocals stay tinny and distorted, blowing out a mini-megaphone, getting ever more punk. Another solid step forward in TYVEK’s trash rock evolution. Very limited.

Tyvek

Nothing Fits

In The Red

LP VERSION INCLUDES FREE DOWNLOAD COUPON!!!   As Detroit continues its seemingly irreversible slide into the tar pits of economic despair, new traditionalists Tyvek unashamedly take the reins and harness the ambition to keep their slurred, manically refreshing noise pop bouncing around the skulls of everyone still breathing in the real, uncategorizable fumes of the original new wave. With an already impressive trail of essential releases behind them, including last year's debut album and an infinitesimal stream of "tour-only" CDRs, the band is always evolving, yet never strays too far from the original cacophony that earned them a spot in the hallowed halls of modern punk's elite erratics. As dynamically diverse as Tyvek's recordings are, their live set also shifts dramatically with each new appearance, ranging from a monstrous five-piece to the currently stripped-down trio that gets the job done without sacrificing intensity or brazen brevity. With relentless touring, razor-sharp songwriting and the ability to adapt to their surroundings without resistance, no wonder Tyvek captures the off-center sounds of bygone-era DIY scrapings and spins them into gold, all without showing any influence of the "Detroit sound" that's known the world over. Tyvek's In The Red debut, Nothing Fits, is a scalding collection of amped-up and thrust-out songs that cranks up the energy level far beyond their previous releases and decimates the detractors into the abyss. It's Tyvek at their fiery, screaming best, and if this doesn't curl your eyebrows and your toes simultaneously with excitement, then you might need to...

Tyvek

S/t

Siltbreeze

Following a gaggle of seven-inches for goose-y labels such as X!, What's Your Rupture?, S-S, and M'Lady's Records, Tyvek delivers a long-player that couldn't make Siltbreeze happier were the colonel slathered in foie gras and seared to a crisp.  A few tracks on this effort are familiar to any who saw the band live in 2008; the rest, well, it's as fresh as new fallen snow when you get right down to it. Combining an uncanny channeling of The Urinals and early Mekons, Tyvek drops jaws to floors with solid acorns of repetitive punk/pop numbers that became oaks almost instantaneously. The inclusion of Damon (a.k.a. Teets of Puffy Areolas) brings in another sonic dimension and suddenly the band's set veers into a Velvet Underground-by-way-of-The Feelies stratosphere. Here yuo'll find a mixture of both, the blend of two perfect worlds. Practically a year in the making, this baby is worth every second of the wait.   The band recently performed at the 2009 Siltbreeze SXSW Showcase (and elsewhere around Austin that weekend). A European tour with Cheveau is scheduled to follow.