***"Why do people start bands anymore? To get rich and famous? Compliment re-tweeting? To gain the respect of their peers in the RIAA? I don’t know, and I don’t have a computer so I can’t look it up. But I bet sometimes bands get started with no goal at all, beyond basics like don’t lose the keys to the practice space, and to share the excitement of making music together. From there, the goals become things like, get better at it, and do it more. But, again, no computer here, so, don’t know 100%. XETAS have been doing exactly that, making wired, joyfully intense music ever since their first 7” in 2014. Their first two albums, The Redeemer and The Tower, are compact, high-voltage, furniture-throwing gems. With The Cypher, they emerge after a year of work as a one-minded beast. The songs blast off and burn, but carry a new depth and weight. Inside gusts of ferocious noise there are subtly sweet melodies that stick in your head; volume gets quiet, tempos charge, slow down, stutter, and implode. The sounds are of a deeper dimension, surprising glimpses of (what’s that?) and (huh wow!). It all creates a rich emotional dimension, which you feel even while the band is thrashing you around in its jaws like an alligator. Instantly you notice the vocal arrangements. Everybody sings every song, whether dividing verses or in unison, in true crew fashion. It’s a moving statement of intent. Punk rock? To be sure, but punk...
LP $17.75
01/24/2020
***"The most dangerous letter in the DIY Greek alphabet, XETAS are greeting 2017 with their sophomore album and spring tour, serious as a heart attack and more fun than the drugs they give you in the hospital after the medics bring you back to life. Pumping through Austin's clogged Red River arteries since 2014, the Austin firebrands have temporarily broken their vows of Shaolin silence with ten tracks of unadulterated defibrillation—an electrifying monument to distorted melody and verbal hooks brought to a full boil. This, after spending most of 2016 dedicating their lives to anonymity and heated discussions as to whether the city's most indispensable soundperson sleeps in his jacket. Propelled by a new drummer—O.D.J.—who will one day drum a hole to China solely using jazz brushes, Xetas seemingly are on a collision course with the halls of power, despite the absence of any campaign coordination with the Russian ambassador. Add in the blitzkrieg guitars, bass and vocals of D and K respectively and you've arrived at a collection of tools of the trade turned weaponized instruments the likes of which are sure to provoke many a sleepless night at NATO Headquarters. Recorded over a 24-hour period in the fall of 2016 with engineer Ian Rundell (Carl Sagan's Skate Shoes, Spray Paint, Empty Markets), the 37-minute, 10-track album was recorded in less than than 7 minutes --a testimony to the band's energy and capacity for bending time and space after years of monastic devotion. The melodies are dirty,...
LP $15.50
04/14/2017
***With a working tenure just shy of a calendar year, XETAS have made a leap from knockout threat to knockout certainty in record time. When we released last summer’s debut 7”, “The Knife” b/w “The Silence,” the band was cited for “walking the tightrope between heavy-and-catchy”, and while that was true enough at the time, their resulting full-length, The Redeemer has both attributes in staggering abundance. Still refusing to reveal their full names (Google it if you’re bothered), the trio of D (vocals, guitar), K (bass, vocals) and M (drums) are hardly the first US underground gang to combine the anthemic with the jagged, but there’s only a handful who’ve fired a broadside with nearly this much confidence. Expertly recorded by IAN RUNDELL (Spray Paint, The Dead Space, Ghetto Ghouls), The Redeemer hits stores at the end of the month, followed by March and April U.S. dates. “The Austin trio lead off with a track built around a guitar riff big enough to put a smile on Greg Sage’s pallid mug. The flip channels both Deniz Tek and Kenny Chambers. LP due soon, it’ll be interesting to see which direction it heads—Byron Coley (The Wire)
LP $15.50
03/03/2015