Axis: Sova

Damaged guitars riding atop motorik, vintage drum machine beats… Bothered and brooding harmonized vocals… these are the ingredients that make up the particular punk of Axis: Sova. The natural truth is that Axis: Sova has always been a rock band, even when the “band” was just Brett Sova and his Roland TR66 drum machine creating a surging maelstrom of reverberant fuzz, guitars foregrounded and wailing at length, while beats distended the depths. Through the years, though, this amorphous thing has grown into a group. Evolution is unavoidable, man—eventually, you just have three heads and that’s all there is to it! Shampoo You, the latest LP (out on God? Records, Ty Segall’s imprint for Drag City) sounds the arrival of the trio version in trademark Axis style: relentless tempo with distorted, interlocking guitar concussions, and vocals that howl of otherworldly mutations. This time, however, they’ve honed in on a sleek transport for their new sounds, with tightly conceived power-punk and classic pop touches creating memorably melodic contours. This is the group-mind in action—the trio of Tim Kaiser, Jeremy Freeze and head Axisman Brett Sova, whose new tunes demanded a radical clarity and got it, too. Head down to the scar wash and slip into neutral — let Axis: Sova Shampoo You.

PRESS QUOTES:

“Violent Yellow” packs an album’s worth of guitar moves into a hot little mess of teenage paranoia and lust. And “(Like an) Intruder” is the record’s most giddily propulsive moment: the Stooges riding shotgun on a Suicide track." - Pitchfork

Stompy glam, shades-on power-pop and Acid Archives-friendly grooves…These songs remind me of Wooden Shjips (if they were remotely sexy), Purling Hiss (if they traded in their Dinosaur Jr. records for Kiss and T. Rex), Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets (if it was released on Richie Records in 2014) and Lou Reed (if he was a more likeable person and substantially less famous). - Yellow Green Red (Matt Korvette of Pissed Jeans) 

Those used to the wah-wah excess of the one-man psych rock juggernaut helmed by Chicagoan Brett Sova might be taken aback by his fourth full-length. Morphing Axis: Sova into a real deal trio of a group, he shockingly reveals himself to be a hook happy songsmith on the seven punchy and succinct tunes presented here, which reference less the usual suspects of Chrome or Wayne Rogers's Crystalized Movements and more the raw power pop of the 1970s and 80s from Canadians like The Diodes or Modernettes. Shed the kaftan you usually reserve for your Axis: Sova listening parties and throw on a skinny tie so's to experience Shampoo You at its fullest potential. - Wire Magazine (Tony Rettman)

"Imagine Raw Power by way of Neu!" - Paste

"Bestowing nods to both early '80s ZZ Top and British sci-fi overlords Hawkwind, "Violent Yellow" (from Motor Earth) positions Axis: Sova as the prime movers of robo-boogie for the central United States" - NPR Songs We Love

The AV antics of New Wave’s tin hat art freaks share a lot in common with the psych burnouts carving pot leaves into the back row of the class and Shampoo You might just be the definitive dissertation on the hypothesis. The fuzzbomb jitters of Shampoo You ferret out a meet-cute of ostracized longhairs from all sides of the spectrum… - Raven Sings The Blues

I described 2016’s Motor Earth as “post-Stooges, post-Hawkwind, post-Cheater Slicks rock ‘n’ roll, raw and elemental in execution but smarter than your average blare.” Shampoo You embraces a cleaner sound seemingly inspired by new wave. It’s still noisy and guitar-driven, but those ingredients are reined in just enough to create the illusion of pop music. - Stereogum