REVIEWS of SCRIBBLER: MY OLD LADY Sound and Fury Records: Screen-printed covers, hand-drawn labels, shockingly lo-fi production values... how could we not be drawn to this 7"? Scribbler were entirely unknown to us before this little gem arrived on our doorstep, but now it's hard to imagine life without this. With its lazy strumming, swirling noise, inimitable vocals, it's one of the most unexpectedly engaging collection of songs we've come across in a long time. Awesome stuff, and limited just 300 copies (all hand-numbered, of course). Ear-Conditioned Nightmare: The whimsically named Stumparumper Records sent me this 7" recently, and I've been trying to get around to it for a while but, of course, haven't had the time. Finally do though, so I'm gonna do it up. Not sure who Scribbler is but it seems like it's probably a duo with an inclination toward Neil Young style acoustic folk. The first track, "My Old Lady," is a mournful little number whose guitar moves evoke a back alley vibe before crescendoing into the ether with a nice vocal entrance that keeps it exciting. Second track, "A Girl Should," is even slower and more stark, with the vocalist wailing distantly to very spare acoustic picking. Sort of a less hallucinatory, drunker MV/EE vibe that soon brings in some electric clatter that stomps out a good country rocker with enough lo-fi crud to keep it sounding earthy. Would fit in nicely on Siltbreeze or something, especially when a yalp leads into an ascendant jam that rocks right home. The second side begins even grimier than the first, as the feedback laden band effort of "Ocean Floor" combines with a singer's stretched vocal capacities to move into some pretty harsh realms. Nice and chaotic, with everyone sounding like they're trying to play guitars about three times too big before they all come back in to ride the riff out. The next track, "A Few Days of Storm," is a brief acoustic jaunt that quickly slips into the truly warped mufflings and odd pipe lines of "Nothing but Pain," taking it all back to some unpleasant home, which is found and entered into on the final distopic moments of fried fuckery that are "Zzzzzz." A nice little 7", they manage to fit a lot in here without losing any sense of identity. Great grade school drawing on the front too. Limited to 300. 7inches.blogspot.com: Pat sent me the first couple of singles from his Stumparumper label and I'm going to be talking about them today and tomorrow. Starting off with this single from Scribbler which I loved and have been playing straight the past couple of days. Scribbler seems to be, according to youtube, a kind of collective of a few people, either that or their friends join them onstage regularly and in the van. I counted at least 6 members playing everything from whipping flexible plastic tubes around to samplers, electric and acoustic guitar. This lends to a multifaced recording where expectations keep getting tossed out. This single starts out with the perfect A-Side opener, 'My Old Lady' I love this hushed home recording feel.... quiet acoustic strumming, the soft hiss of cassette noise. I'm sure it's going to be compared to something Neil Young or Chad Vangaalen, but those aren't bad things to be compared to let's face it. Maybe it's because he's singing about his old lady, but it's even more to do with the vocals that have a huge far off echo combined with the tender falsetto. There's great little moments of synth and subtle touchs of xylophone, it's easily my favorite on the disc. It even sounds like the tracks ends with the slow disintegration warp of the stop button. The next track on the A-Side is a live song called 'A Girl Should'. Someone in the audience says 'Who?" after they say 'Hi, ...We're scribbler', nice touch. At first it sounds like we're hearing a live direction of the previous track. Real quiet electric guitar picking, soft vocals but then blows up with a full backing band country rock style. A burst of drum and distortion just before the verse comes in. But scribbler likes the noise, and not content to just alt-country Palace style rock it out, when the solo slams in it's full of effects waving around. All phaser and delay to take the whole sound in another direction entirely. The B-Side is where things really get interesting. Ocean Floor, another live track, gets rocking right away with plenty of low feedback for ambiance. The vocals aren't afraid to crack and scream, we are getting a view of the stark, lonely ocean floor after all. When they get to singing the line 'It was dark!' it's punctuated by feedback and cymbal crashes at a quarter time. There's a lot of references to nature with a capital N in these tracks, but it doesn't feel like they ever end up leaning to heavily on this country staple. 'A few days of storm' finds us back to the 4-track, quiet chord strumming and barely audible vocals. Just enough to hold out for another glimmer of brilliance. The mood is there, Scribbler can change direction at any time to lead you back into the woods. Nothing But Pain is pure Sebadoh inspired 4-track experiment. The close rumble of scraping mics, slide ukulele, fully blown out vocals, some kind of feedback melody from a tortured microphone. They want you to know they can deconstruct and push boundaries with the best of them. 'zzzzzz' is garage enough, pushing the low of the fi into Los Llamaradas territory.... total freeform garage meltdown. Complete screaming noise rock recorded on the worst device laying around. Take that listener. The Sleeve is ink so heavy it's raised silver silkscreen, hand numbered by Pat and a great design. I'd tell you what's scratched into the gutter, but you'll have to get one to find out. Direct from Stumparumper for $4.50...that has to be the most inexpensive single...Pat's keeping the prices down because this thing deserves to be heard. Weird Canada: Scribbler is, as far as I can tell, a strange group of pseudo-druid, feudal-revivalists operating in the Halifax region (where there are more bands than people). I got their 7″ in the mail and it’s a mixed brew of depressing one-mic-in-a-box loner folk, manic distorted folk-rock, and (my favorite) a thirty-second cosmic noise-hippie freak-out. Even stranger is their remix project featuring a variety of artists I had never heard about doing even-weirder interpretations of their songs (including one amazing electro-psych track that’s no longer on their **Space (but will hopefully be on the soon-to-be-released C-90 containing all the remixes)). You, the reader, are also welcome to participate in the remix project, so feel free to contact them. In the meantime, pick up the 7″ if you’re into echoey lonertude from the bowels of Canada’s most creative city. Norman Records: Super limited to 300 of which i'm reviewing number 288, 'My Old Lady' is release number two on the awesomely named Stumparumper records by Scribbler. This is a curious little release that is not easy to describe but it's most certainly a bedroom produced effort. Really minimal guitars with hints of reverb and a vocal is pretty much all you get. Sort of slow and country like Daniel Johnson singing a unfinished Neil Young song trying to doing his best impression of the Young falsetto. Sorta makes sense as scribbler are a canadian band. This 7" is so minimal i can barely even make it out. I'm gonna go turn up the stereo....that's better. OK, the second side is a bit more full on yet still sounds like a lo-fi indie rock Neil Young which in my opinion is no bad thing at all. A curious little release for the curious of mind.