Black Cactus

There's a new label in town....!

Black Cactus is a record label started by Stacey MacLeod and Samantha Linn of Dear Darkness. Their latest release features the sweetly snarly surf fuzz tumblers of indie rock wunderkinds Blood Stone! 









I love the way this band casts a sheen of eerie or precarious lyrics and gnarly guitars over melodies that evoke an innocent bubblegum pop shimmy. ("I want your heart..." ...but literally). Black Cactus premiered with a split single between Dear Darkness' gutsy glam-rock fervor and Sros Lords' surrealist raw-punk provocations.

And because this new venture is facilitated by Dear Darkness, I can already be assured that the artists they'll proceed to promote will be those of a similar vein, in that they blend a brave, experimental, even bellicose punk defiance onto familiar tropes or genres. Blood Stone bring some gothic haunts to happy pop vibes, while a Morgan Blank of Sros Lords is going to be featured on next week's release with a very percussive, trippy, sample-spooked ambient electronica. And then there's Jimmy Ohio's "Home," a brilliant 6-minute spoken word odyssey of satirical, subversive articulations over trippy guitars and oozing bass.

So check out Black Cactus this week. Follow on Facebook for updates about this Friday release, and future releases. Dig out the boomboxes; or just find yourself a perfect, and often eccentric 10 minute soundtrack for your car's stereo as you bop from one venue to the next on a weekend full o' shows.