I love a band with intensity and ‘balls’. The latter is not a well-defined term, and can no doubt be argued to mean many a thing; ‘balls’ here means courageous. I don’t wish to get into the etymological origins of the term, I’ll leave that to the academics, but I heard the New York based band Le Rug described as having ‘balls’ and thought it was apt.
Le Rug appears on Ball of Wax 10 with the shambolic-ly melodic Lions, taken from the album C.R.E.E.P., released for free in 2007. Leader Ray Weiss has been busy over the past 5 years, releasing 4 albums, 3 EPs, a live album and a greatest hits mix with Le Rug (with a final record reported to be in the pipeline), perpetrating as Space Jam for a tune or two, knocking out an album under the name Tonsils, recording and touring with his latest band Sweet Bulbs, as well as finding time to be part of music collective Tamur Records (out of NY and NJ) for a few years, whilst finally setting up his own ‘label’ Beast Reality in 2009.
Beast Reality has gone quiet of late, but roared onto the New York DIY scene promoting shows and releases from its collective. www.beastreality.org houses twenty-one artists with albums, EPs, live tracks and singles all available for free download. I’m not sure how long this site will continue to be up and running for, but I urge you to head over for a listen. It is worth it for the availability of the entire Le Rug back catalogue, for free, which includes one of the best debut albums you will ever hear (Bleenex) and a 30-minute album comprised of 44 songs, one for each American president. They are fast, energetic and have balls. I recently went through all their recordings in chronological order whilst at work and it was brilliant. I had a wee bit of a dance at times, but mainly I got stuff done, ticking off the do-to list in earnest. One of my favourite songs of the past few years is this little gem, taken from Le Rug’s America EP:
Ball of Wax-er Ollie Byrd (heard on Volume 3) also has his album Barrel O’ Fun (which was voted in the top 50 albums of the 2000s by some clued-in critics) up for free download at Beast Reality. His aching guitar licks and graveled voice are in full force to produce a perfect, compact record. Below is ‘Couple Skate,’ a heart-felt tale of loneliness:
I can’t stress the joy of the Le Rug back catalogue, but there are many more delights on Beast Reality that deserve a listen and a download. Like my old friend Morgan Freeman would say, you should get busy downloading, or get busy dying.
Beast Reality is a music collective from New York. For more information on the DIY NY scenes, check out what Todd P has on offer. Check out the Glocal Scene documentary and website for scenes a little further a field!