From Taiwan Housing Project's debut album, 'Veblen Death Mask,' available on LP, CS, and digital May 5th, 2017 from Kill Rock Stars.

Pre-order at http://bit.ly/veblendeathmask

For buildings, there are zoning laws. For automobiles, traffic ordinance enforced by police officers.

For aircraft, there’s air traffic control and for industry, patent laws, labor laws, etc.


Despite all the regulations, scofflaws are common and people “break the law” constantly.

The world of rock ’n’ roll bands is different. Though it prides itself as a libertine anarchy where all is permitted, unspoken rules are in place which nearly none dare transgress. In the modern era, these regulations are as strictly enforced as in any gulag.

Political statements must consist of kitsch platitudes, the music a rote recitation from the nostalgia file. Appearance must be mundane and performance a tame approximation of a half remembered snore-fest from the golden age of “mTV unplugged.”

Any deviation will be punished —monetarily and critically— and rebels are banished to the kingdom of no-one-cares.

Faced with such prospects, conformity in “indie rock” is ABSOLUTE.

On the outskirts of this work camp though, is one notable rule breaker … a group of delinquents with outlaw values: style, ideas, physicality, vivacity … when turned to the “on” position, they resemble a terrifying power tool or downed “live wire.”

Who is this group that never got the memo to manifest mediocrity? TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT: A band powerful enough to exorcise its audience of the degenerate culture which is poisoning them: Popular radio, mini series, political idiocy, toxic architecture, Hollywood film, and graphic design… stimuli created explicitly to numb and retard its victims, and to tame any deviant impulse.

Who are the members? TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT was formed by KILYNN LUNSFORD (Ex-LITTLE CLAW) who, onstage, performs like a reborn Little Richard. Fur clad, ax wielding, slashing, tearing, “flame on.” MARK FEEHAN (ex-HARRY PUSSY) flanks the stage, picking and grinning like a loosed convict with a taste for vengeance. These two began the band as a experiment in perversity but it quickly transformed into a way of life, a hope bringer, a font of joy for them and their devotees. More members were added (Pat Ganley, Adam Cooper, Kevin Nickles, and Kevin Boyer of groups such as TYVEK, DAN MELCHOIR, WRITHING SQUARES, TICKLEY FEATHER, et al), shows were played, a 45 was released (on the excellent M’Lady’s imprint) and now ….. a debut ALBUM on KILL ROCK STARS RECORDS, called “Veblen Death Mask.”

“Sometimes you gotta burn the village to save it” is THP’s philosophy, and in keeping with that, their live style is a take no prisoners, destroy the stage, ecstatic orgy of sound.

BUT — cleverly concealed under the noise and abandon, TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT play bewitching pop songs which could bubble up comfortably in a reform school disco or European youth hall.

“Multidimensional Spectrum”, and “Authentic Alien Perfume” are hit parade material. If the hit parade took a detour through a Hieronymous Bosch painting.

Spin this record — the “VEBLEN DEATH MASK” LP — and join TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT in resisting the rules of the gulag.

- Ian Svenonius

Taiwan Housing Project - Authentic Alien Perfume

From the Kill Rock Stars album 'Mating Surfaces,' available at http://lithics.bandcamp.com

Mating Surfaces is the second full length from Portland, Oregon's Lithics. Twelve tightly wound fragments of brittle abstract twin guitar, impellent rhythm, and absurd, imagistic lyricism. 

"A stern danceable sound that summons cut up snapshots of Su Tissue and Mark E Smith, an imagined landscape where Captain Beefheart hits that 99 Records “Too Many Creeps” beat."
-Layla Gibbon (Maximum Rocknroll, Skinned Teen).

PRESS/LABEL: ben@killrocksatrs.com
US BOOKING: joe@groundcontroltouring.com
UK/EURO BOOKING: peter@puschen.net

Mating Surfaces

Excuse Generator

Lithics - Excuse Generator

Control Top on Audiotree Live

Covert Contracts (Audiotree Live Version)

Covert contracts rule our world: manipulative relationships, encoded social norms, opaque technologies. “With a covert contract, the trick is that the agreement is only known by the person who makes it,” says Ali Carter, singer and bassist of Philly post-punk trio Control Top. “The other person is oblivious. Consent is impossible. A void of communication opens up a world of misunderstanding.”

In an era of such impossibilities, Control Top—Carter with guitarist Al Creedon and drummer Alex Lichtenauer—rip open space for catharsis. Their explosive songs are a synthesis of varied interests and backgrounds: Carter’s innate sense of new wave melodies, Creedon’s sirening noise guitars, Lichtenauer’s feverish hardcore drumming.

On their debut full-length, Covert Contracts (out April 5th on Get Better Records, an independent label co-run by Lichtenauer), the songwriting is fully a collaboration of Carter and Creedon. Carter’s voice thumps and screams and deadpans while her driving, hooky basslines play out like guitar leads. Creedon, also the band’s engineer and producer, balances composition and chaos, equally inspired by pop and no-wave. With her lyrics, Carter responds to feeling trapped and overwhelmed in a capitalist patriarchy, offering indictments of wrongdoing and abuse of power, odes to empathy and ego death, as well as declarations of self-determination.

These songs hit even harder when you consider how close this band came to not existing at all. Despite being involved in underground music communities for years, Carter didn’t start Control Top (her first band) until age 25: “It took me that long to believe in myself enough to take the plunge.” Disillusioned by punk, Creedon had all but abandoned guitar: “Playing guitar in a rock band felt like writing poetry in Latin in 2019, using a dead language to convey ideas.” But Control Top felt exciting, a chance to experiment: to rethink the relationship between guitar and bass and use samplers to add new dimensions. Meanwhile, Lichtenauer had quit playing drums after an abusive situation in a previous band that had ruined playing music for them: “I thought I was done playing live music forever, but joining Control Top was sort of a rebirth for me.”

“Chain Reaction” is one of the record’s most urgent moments, exploring the degradation of communication at the whim of contemporary platforms. The follow-up to “Type A” originated as an instrumental demo by Creedon and highlights the destructive types of interactions that prevail today, where a desire to elevate oneself comes at the expense of others. “Light the wick, pull the trigger / What started small is getting bigger,” Carter sings on “Chain Reaction”, over a propulsive upbeat, infectious bassline and dissonant, fragmented guitar.

“The song takes place in the middle of an argument,” Carter explains. “Vitriol is flying and emotions are running high. With our culture’s growing appetite for anger and conflict, a petty disagreement can easily escalate into a full-out shouting match.” When Carter sings “I can't take it anymore / I wish I could disappear,” it’s at once anthemic and chilling, putting words to today’s unspoken anxieties. Brimming with post-punk poetry for 2019, Covert Contracts is the sound of agency being reclaimed.

Covert Contracts was recorded and mixed in Philadelphia by Creedon (Priests, Pouty, Taiwan Housing Project) and Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Allison Crutchfield). The album was mastered by Emily Lazar. Covert Contracts will be for sale via the Deathwish webstore (US/UK/EU).

Covert Contracts (Audiotree Live Version)

Control Top

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