Midwest Round Up!

• Many regional CD release reviews out the past couple of days:
Check out a review of Columbus band Psychedelic Horsehit courtesy of I Rock Cleveland:
Psychedelic Horseshit
Magic Flowers Droned
Siltbreeze
2007
I want to work on a marketing campaign for the Columbus lo-fi band Psychedelic Horseshit. I've got all these great slogans we could use: "With a name like Psychedelic Horseshit, it's got to be good." "A day without Psycedelic Horseshit is like a day without sunshine." "Psychedelic Horseshit. It melts in your mouth, not in your hands." Ok, maybe that last one doesn't work quite so well as the others, but I think you see my point. Besides it being loads of fun to put the words Psychedelic Horseshit in the middle of famous slogans, it can be hard to tell if Psychedelic Horseshit should be taken seriously.
Is Psychedelic Horseshit's strict adherence to the lo-fi aesthetic done for art's sake? Is it from a f*ck all attitude? Or, is it some of both? When they bury the melody of a great pop song like "Portals" or "Can't Get Enough" in a harsh mix with guitars and organs pushing red, it's obviously done for aesthetic reasons. When they do something like run two songs in two channels simultaneously, like they do on "Mash Up: Psychedelic Horseshit vs Space Age Lucifer," you become convinced that they're more interested in messing with your head than they are in making music. The best moments of Magic Flowers Droned come when art meets confrontation and the two find common ground, as is the case with "New Wave Hippies." The mix is rough, Matt Whitehurst's guitar solos are ragged, the jabs at freak folk are pointed ("New Wave Hippies do song and dance/but they don't say anything/An entire generation with no one to believe"), and the song constantly threatens to deconstruct itself into a formless mass of noise. Magic Flowers Droned can be a frustrating listen in parts, "Mash Up: Psychedelic Horseshit vs Space Age Lucifer," in particular, is a prime candidate for permanent skip, but every time you're ready to write them off as making noise for the sake of noise, they give you a song, and a damn good one, too.
• Check out this review of Cincinnati band Catapillar Tracks courtesy of Spill It!: HERE
• Check out the review of Cincinnati band Pomegranates - Two Eyes EP - Courtesy of Each Note Secure: HERE
• I found a few more Indiana-based music sites lately. I've included them in my links to the right.