Side Ponytail

SP has moved!

2011-02-14T11:25:00.002-05:00

Side Ponytail has moved to a new home! You can now find SP on wordpress at sideponytail.wordpress.com. All of the old content has been imported to the new site and all future posts will appear on wordpress!

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at heysideponytail@gmail.com

Thanks,

K

The Weezer Time Machine

2011-02-07T20:56:00.001-05:00

As a woman, hearing the word "you" repeated so many times over the course of an album primarily about how terrible and hurtful and disastrous it is to interact with any woman, anywhere, ever, induces a deep and primal irritation.

But maybe you have to be a girl to notice it. -- Sady Doyle on Weezer's Pinkerton in her essay Rivers Cuomo Messes You Up Forever

"I didn't think girls liked Weezer." -- Some Dude, standing next to me at a Weezer show

"I love you so much, I love you sooooo much. Ooh ooh, ooh ooh." -- Weezer, "Jamie"

EDIT: Drew tweeted some important corrections to me re: this blog entry. It has been updated as per his specifications. (I would have updated it sooner, except I didn't know about them until I went home to eat lunch and was greeted by him saying, "Didn't you see my tweet?! Your piece is full of factual errors!!!" (this is mostly a paraphrase, by the way.)) Drew was also disappointed that this blog entry didn't encourage people to listen to Maladroit.

On Friday January 7th, Drew and I drove to Chicago for the Weezer Memories Tour Driven By State Farm, a two night event (I reiterate: driven by State Farm!) that involved the band playing both the eponymous "Blue Album" and Pinkerton in their entirety over the course of two performances. Each album was accompanied by a "Greatest Hits" set and a brief presentation on the History of Weezer, Driven By Karl Koch. And I am going to try to figure out how to talk about it.

So, I'm a casual Weezer fan. I had the Blue Album growing up and I had Pinkerton, too. When the Green Album came out, I had a mad crush on Brian Bell as seen in the "Hash Pipe" video and dreamed of him endlessly during my drafting classes. Unfortunately, beyond Bell's eternal dreamboat status, it turned out that the Green Album didn't have much to offer me and I haven't bought a Weezer album since (though my mom did buy Make Believe when that came out, if that counts for anything.)

Drew on the other hand? Drew is a rabid Weezer fan. Awhile back when I wrote that piece for Tiger Beatdown on Rivers Cuomo and Liz Phair and how we have gendered expectations for song writers, especially when they are writing about sex, I made a joke about Drew being a source because he has an honorary PhD in Weezology. Except if that was a degree you could get? Drew would have it. He would graduate Magna cum Laude from Weezer U with a PhD in Weezology and graduate certificates in Karlification and Matt Sharp Studies. He knows so much about Weezer that it gives me a headache and makes me bored. And me? I'm like, "I just want to see Rivers Cuomo jump on a trampoline and hear them play 'Surf Wax America*'"

Totally Unrelated: I know I won't be able to work this in anywhere else, so I just want to say this: guitarist Brian Bell is truly an impeccable dresser. I can see why hardcore Weezer fans call him "the sass master**."

It's probably already obvious that I'm not really interested in talking about the technical proficiency of the band (surprise! they are professional musicians and are good at playing their instruments!) What I do want to talk about? The weirdness of being a girl, particularly a girl with progressive feminist politics, in a space built around worship of cultural products that are hostile towards women. (I also want to talk about the weirdness of Weezer in general.)

On the first night of the Memories tour, Drew and I were standing near the stage by a group of guys. One of these guys took a look around the audience and said, "I didn't think girls liked Weezer." Now, I don't know if I'm just being conservative in my estimates of how many women were in attendance that night, but let's just say this: from where I was standing, there weren't a whole lot of girls. And the next night? When the band played Pinkerton? There were even fewer. On Pinkerton night, Drew estimated that he saw four guys for each girl that he saw (this was after I prompted him by asking, "How many girls do you think are here?") In the space where I was standing, I could see a handful of women (maybe 5-7) and a veritable sea of dudes, so it's not even like there was an unusual number of ladies to set off this guy's Lady Alarm. (Which begs the questions: Who do we expect to see at concerts and why? What preconceived notions do we have about who constitutes an audience for a band and where do those preconceived notions come from? Consider: Would this guy stand amidst a sea of ladies at a Tegan and Sara show and say, "Huh, I didn't even think girls listened to Tegan and Sara"?)

Now, in all fairness, as a girl, I can think of a lot of reasons why girls might not like Weezer. The most important of which is the tendency of their songs to include narratives about not liking women because they are selfish lying heartbreakers. Plus there are the songs about wanting to control women, wanting women to be subservient sexual objects, etc. Don't get me wrong -- "Surf Wax America" is all well and good, but "Getchoo"? "Butterfly"? "No One Else"? These are, for me, as a woman, deeply creepy and uncomfortable songs. And yet I was one of 5,000 people singing along with my fist in the air. Of course, there are a handful of reasons why girls might enjoy listening to Weezer, starting with the fact that their output consists almost entirely of incredibly catchy pop songs.

Anyway, although I might be troubled by the lyrical content of some of Weezer's best known jams, I'm (almost equally) troubled by the audience member's assertion that girls can't, shouldn't, or don't consume cultural products made by men that speak to the "male experience." I mean, if there's one thing that women have gotten really good at, for better or for worse, it's living in a culture that more often than not erases the female experience in favor of endless reruns of Masterpiece Dude Theater. To suggest that women can't/don't consume cultural products produced by men is absurd***. It's not like, "I didn't think girls liked Weezer," is nuanced critique or anything. It was just some dude's off the cuff honest observation. And it's one that got to me, because as soon as I heard him saying that, I couldn't stop thinking about how I reconcile my personal politics with the act of listening to Weezer (and liking it!)

Kate recently had an entry on her blog, Her Five Dollar Radio, called "Listening While Feminist", where she addresses the challenges of looking critically at one's own music consumption. Every now and then, Drew calls me out on the ways in which some of the music I consume (particularly hardcore punk and rap) rubs up against my feminist politics. Like Kate, I'm in a place where I'm struggling to reconcile my political beliefs with the cultural products I consume (and enjoy.)

Sometimes art tells ugly stories about who we are as a culture and I think that Weezer songs tell some pretty sad, ugly stories that have the potential to tell us a lot about one type of (adolescent) male experience. While a lot of people look at the Blue Album as a collection of 10 heartfelt geeky pop songs, it's just as easy to see at as a 41 minutes and 17 seconds of an emotionally stunted yearning for love and acceptance. The "ugliness" of Pinkerton, often described as an emotionally "raw" album, is a little more apparent (why hello there, reprehensible racial and sexual politics, full-on Orientalism, etc.!) What's so interesting to me, though, is the fact that although I'm aware that the personal politics outlined in these songs are often diametrically opposed to my own, at my core, I still like them. I want to hear them. I want to sing along to them. It's not because I like the messages encoded within the songs, but because I like the songs themselves, the way they sound, the way it feels to sing them (which begs the questions: Is the whole of a song (music/lyrics/production) a text of its own that can be read differently from "just" the lyrics, "just" the music, etc.? What do we erase from a song when we remove its politics from our analysis of it? Are all songs inherently political or are some songs just songs?)

Aside from the juggling of personal politics and pop/rock politics, the Memories Tour was straight up one of the most surreal concert going experiences I've ever had. I know that there's an element of performance/constructed identities and experiences to every live show, but this was the first time I had been to a show so consciously constructed and performed. Before the shows even began, you had to walk through a lobby where State Farm reps were handing out fake Rivers Cuomo glasses and offering to take pictures of concertgoers with big backdrops of the covers of the Blue and Green albums (former members Matt Sharp and Mikey Welsh were cut out of the covers so that you could place your face where their faces had been.) You were clearly being set up for an Experience from the outset.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, the first half of each night was a ten song "greatest hits" set -- the greatest hits set started with the most current hits and moved backwards in time (sitting cross-legged on the floor of Lora's apartment at craft night the other week, I explained the experience of the greatest hits sets by furiously waving my arms in the air and saying things like, "And then Rivers was like, EVERYONE CLIMB ABOARD THE WEEZER TIME MACHINE! WE'RE TAKING YOU BAAAACK!") This was the part of the night that involved Rivers Cuomo jumping on a trampoline.

In between the Greatest Hits and the Main Event, Karl Koch came out and gave a brief presentation. For those of you who aren't Junior Weezologists, Karl is a longtime friend of the band & has been involved with them for over 15 years now. Karl's role with the band is such that he even has his own WikiPedia page, describing him as "U.S. Rock Band Weezer's webmaster, friend and historian." Karl's presentation consisted of a slide show of rare Weezer photos and fliers particular to the Blue and Pinkerton eras. Having an archival component to the show was really, really interesting in terms of identity construction -- over the past few albums, this "new" Weezer vs. "old" Weezer narrative has really taken hold, so it was interesting to see the band kind of harness that narrative, effectively dividing their show into "new" Weezer and "old" Weezer sets, separated by a stage-setting presentation of "old" Weezer artifacts.

I'm still processing the tension between Weezer and my personal politics (and may never be done doing so), but I feel like a month later, I finally got the Memories tour. The other day, I was sitting at my desk at work, listening to the Blue album, and something in my brain just clicked as I realized, "Shit, I saw this performed." & honestly? I'm not really sure what else I can say about it beyond that.

* Even right now, writing this, I am like "Wait, is 'surf wax' one word or two?" These are the kinds of Weezer questions that Drew never has to ask himself.

** Much like "surf wax" I am unsure as to whether "sass master" is one word or two.

*** This is not to suggest that these cultural products can't be hostile, alienating, or both, just that they are real and omnipresent and many women can and do consume and/or identify with them.

To accompany this totally TL;DR mess, I have ten of my favorite "rare" Weezer songs offered with minimal commentary (rare is in scare quotes only because with the advent of the internet, pretty much nothing is rare anymore.)

10 =W= tracks, (DOWNLOAD)

01. Mrs. Young - recorded by Matt Sharp and Rivers Cuomo, later became "Please Let That Be You" by The Rentals (who in grand Matt Sharp tradition knocked the life out of a beautiful demo and turned it into a beige album track.)
02. Let's Sew Our Pants Together - from the Kitchen Tape Demo, the best part of Rivers wailing, "We made a [liar] of desiiiiiiire." (To me it sounds like they are saying "knot," not "liar," but I am going to trust Drew on this one.)
02. Autumn in Jayne - a live recording of the Rivers Cuomo Band, circa Cuomo in Harvard.
04. I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams - Features Rachel Haden (ex-that dog.)
05. Blast Off! - Opening track from Songs from the Black Hole, Weezer's scrapped space opera (post-Blue album, pre-Pinkerton.)
06. Thief You've Taken All That Was Me - Kitchen Tape demo
07. Jamie - Another sweet jam written about Weezer's lawyer, Jamie Young. "Jamie" is a pre-Brian Bell song & features Jason Cropper on the guitar. It was recorded by an LMU student as a project for a music recording & sound engineering class & was assigned a grade of B+.
08. Sheila Can Do It - Another Rivers Cuomo Band live track
09. Tired of Sex - Songs from the Blck Hole demo version, Tired of Sex was re-recorded as the first track on Pinkerton
10. Lullaby for Wayne - Appeared as a live recording on the Weezer DVD, Video Capture Device, as "Lullaby for Pat" (in reference to Patt Finn, not Weezer drummer Pat Wilson.)

10 =W= tracks, (DOWNLOAD)

SP on 8tracks

2011-02-07T11:06:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for an 8tracks account as a sort of experiment. I have a few friends who use 8tracks to listen to music at work because it's not blocked by their employer and allows them to stream music (eliminating the need for bringing an mp3 player to work or having to load music onto their work computer.)

I'm still not entirely sold on 8tracks, but as a sort of experiment I'm going to try making a mix for streaming every two weeks. 8tracks has a nice licensing agreement that makes sharing via their site free and legal (for now, at least), which is nice for me because it alleviates some of the worries that occasionally accompany uploading music (I haven't gotten any trouble, aside from one takedown notice from Mediafire... for a file that the artist requested I upload and share.)

Anyway, 8tracks' licensing agreement does prohibit you from providing a complete track list for your mixes & it also scrambles the track order upon repeat listening (two features I struggle with!), so I'll always be sure to post a complete track list here.

February's mix is available here and the track list is as follows:

Nur Ein Wort - Wir Sin Helden
Oh No! Another E-mail from You! - Allo Darlin'
Carrie's Song - Tiger Trap
My Favorite Town (Osaka) - Shonen Knife
Mouly - The Barbarians
Silver Lining - Beulah
Do I Sound Like My Self Now? - Witches
Labor Day - Snoozer
When You Were Mine - Prince
Kinda Sorta Maybe - The Strawberry Jams

Tonight in CLE

2011-01-25T11:30:00.004-05:00

Tonight in Cleveland, Cloud Nothings will be celebrating the release of their new album with an in-store performance at Music Saves at 8pm. The in-store will be followed by an album release show at the Beachland Tavern. Doors open at 9pm and tickets are $2. Total Babes and Library Time are also on the bill.

You can stream the entire Cloud Nothings album on the Fader (it's just under half an hour of lo-fi hooky pop bliss) and you can check on their new video for "Should Have" on Pitchfork. Pitchfork also has a nice review of the album up for your reading pleasure ("Cloud Nothings' pop has become deceptively dense-- there is literally (and paradoxically) so much hook to be found here from corner to corner that, unlike similarly, ostensibly simple records, multiple listens are required to appreciate the taste of all its herks and jerks.")

I'll definitely write more after the show tonight (I've been listening to the album non-stop lately), but just wanted to get this out there for now!

Summer Twins

2011-01-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon* (while hard at work at my day job), I was browsing the Burger Records website and I saw, at the very bottom of the page, a banner that said "COOL BAND!" with a little photo and text that said, "Summer Twins, cassette coming soon!" The photo used to promote Summer Twins on the Burger Records site struck me as so different from the imagery that I'm accustomed to seeing from them that I felt like I had to learn more!

Summer Twins is a four-piece pop rock outfit formed in Riverside, CA by sisters Chelsea and Justine. Their 6 song EP, The Good Things, is available for free download on their Bandcamp site (you can also send them $5 for a physical copy of the release on CD.) In a time when winter seems determined to cast the entire Cleveland landscape in an impenetrable shroud of gray slush, I'm struck by how fresh and clear the songs on The Good Things sound. It's cheesy as all get out, but this EP really is like a little ray of sunshine streaming out of my speakers.

Again, you can stream The Good Things (and if you like it, download it!) for free here. Physical copies of the EP are available for $5 (ordering instructions are on the Bandcamp.) If you like what you hear, keep your eye on the Burger site for info on their forthcoming release with Burger Records.

* I started drafting this over a week ago, so clearly things have picked up at the office.

Tiny Idols: Transmissions from the Indie Underground 1991-1995 vol. III

2011-01-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

Small Factory, "What to Want" (DOWNLOAD)
Radon, "Kibbles and Bits" (DOWNLOAD)
Kicking Giant, "Satellite" (DOWNLOAD)

I get a lot of e-mails from people about things they want me to write about and think I would like, and it's really cool that people do that & I am really very appreciative (even though I don't write about everything that I'm e-mailed about, I do my best to listen to all of it), but usually the things I enjoy listening to the most are things that I find out about completely incidentally, with no "please write about this" attached to it.

On Monday afternoon I came home to a stack of packages -- some 7"s and CDs from Jigsaw (really, really, I cannot say enough good things about what Chris is doing with his corner of the internet -- he has an amazing selection of indie rock and pop, the prices are good, and the shipping is expedient. It's everything you could ever want (and more!) from mail order), some Jordan Crane comics, and a mysterious package wrapped in plain brown paper.

The mystery package turned out to be a very generous and surprising piece of mail from Tae Won Yu. I'm quite a fan of Tae's art and music, and was nothing short of blown away to find this on my doorstep. One of the things in the package was a copy of Tiny Idols: Transmissions from the Indie Underground 1991-1995, vol. III. I took a quick look at the track listing & realized that I didn't recognize any of the bands (other than Tae's band, Kicking Giant), which made me even more excited to listen to the collection. So, I raced through lunch & then walked back to work, sat down at my desk, & plugged in my headphones.

& you know what? It's really, truly stunning. Mark from Snowglobe Records has curated a truly beautiful comp. There are 22 tracks and each of them brings something unique to the overall collection. It's hard to pick out favorites when each of the tracks are so strong (and so new to me!), but Small Factory, The Hazeltones, Witch Hazel, and Radon are definitely bands that I'll be looking to dig up some more on. The Tiny Idols series functions almost as an indie rock and pop Nuggets, collecting tracks from "lesser-known and underappreciated artists from the era who deserve reappraisal."

What I really love about Tiny Idols, aside from the music, is the care and attention that went into the compilation. The CD is accompanied by a beautiful, twenty page booklet that includes a bio of each of the 22 featured bands. A lot of information is packed into the bios, including a brief history of the band, major/notable recordings, band members, related projects, etc. It's not often that I come across a compilation so purposefully thought out & thoughtfully put together.

So often, independent music exists in tiny pieces of ephemera. It's easy to forget bands as old concert bills get crumpled and cassette tapes disintegrate. Scenes are packed away in boxes in closets and emerge later to be resold on eBay. Last month, Patton Oswalt had an article about geek culture on Wired where he said that the internet has changed the act of collecting knowledge -- that as we move towards an increasingly digital culture, we get closer and closer to "everything that ever was, available forever," and with it, instant, downloadable expertise. It's clear that the internet has changed the way that music is not only shared, but preserved, especially with regard to music that has been produced independently. It may not be possible to find a physical copy of a 7" limited to 200 copies or a tape limited to 75, but technology allows people to digitally transfer & instantly share these releases with each other (I won't lie, though, I'll always prefer a physical product to a download.) I like Tiny Idols because it's a compilation that seems to speak both to and against the concept of "everything that ever was, available forever." Tiny Idols gives you fragments of a scene, letting you peek into the windows to hear bits and pieces, but gently reminding you that the Big Picture, the experience of being there, is something that cannot be recreated. As our cultural products become increasingly digital (and everlasting), I think it's important to be reminded of the ephemeral and to recognize the importance of something that can't be perfectly preserved or recreated.

Volumes 1-3 of the Tiny Idols series are $10 each from Snowglobe Records, you can order online here. If the third compilation in the Tiny Idols series is this strong, I can't imagine how good 1 & 2 must be. Mike also has a Tiny Idols blog, though it's light on content and hasn't been updated for awhile.

Complete Track Listing

"I'll Be Around" - Sardina
"What to Want" - Small Factory
"Sugar Juice" - Vacation Bible School
Delirious" - The Hazeltones
"2,000" - Coctails
"Send" - It Thing
"Loon" - Poole
"Too Close" - The Christines
"Endure Me" - Honeybunch
"Just Don't Try" - Witch Hazel
"Today is a Fine Day to Die" - Apollonia Heck
"Kibbles and Bits" - Radon
"No Surprise" - Glue
"Bruce Jenner" - Honda
"Balboa's Canyon" - Zoom
"Crazy Steven" - Zen Frisbee
"The Girl with 10,000 Holes" - Baldo Rec
"Satellite" - Kicking Giant
"Pedal" - Crayon
"Ultra Crush" - Her Tears
"Girlwish" - Fudge
"Senile Felines" - Aleka's Attic

Bedroom Problems

2011-01-03T09:55:00.004-05:00

Dear Tumblr, there's a lot I have to thank you for -- getting my through seemingly endless workdays, aggregating photos of cats and scans from vintage comic books, occasionally thought provoking political writing and cultural criticism, but one of the better things that's come out of my relationship with Tumblr (at least, in the past few weeks) are these six songs by Bedroom Problems.

Bedroom Problems is the home-recording project of Maria, whose Tumblr indicates a spot-on taste in music & a discerning sense of style. The six songs that Maria has recorded and made available for free download have a great range -- I initially thought that Bedroom Problems would be a garage-y band (the first track, "You're Boring," has a relentless buzzsaw guitar coupled with howling vocals), but it's striking how much some of these songs (especially "At Least Counting is Easy" and "See You Next Wednesday?") remind me of Young Marble Giants in their catchy minimalism (also worth noting: the way she sings the word "you" in "See You Next Wednesday?" sort of reminds me of Sue Tompkins from Life Without Buildings.)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about taste-making, wondering how I develop a personal canon of what's I like (Mirah, Guided By Voices, Hüsker Dü, Kaia) and what I don't like/straight up don't care about (Radiohead, Girl Talk, uh, most stuff, actually, now that I think about it.) As I've gotten older & as my taste has expanded, I've realized that what I actually appreciate is music that reminds me of the possibilities of the individual/the "amateur." Maria's songs are very clearly the product of someone who loves to make and listen to music & I love that.

You can stream Maria's songs on her bandcamp and download them for free (you just need to provide an e-mail address.) If you're on Tumblr, Maria blogs as theoreticalgirl, and she also hosts a radio program, Her Jazz, on WPRB in Princeton, NJ. Maria is also in a Go-Go's cover band, Lust 2 Love. You can stream their version of "Vacation" here.

New album from Prisoners

2010-12-22T09:33:00.005-05:00

Prisoners, "Fix Yer Head" (DOWNLOAD)
Prisoners, "Brain Drain" (DOWNLOAD)

So, Drew asked me to write about the new Prisoners album, Pass the Stone, & was even kind enough to send me a Mediafire link with a download of the album, which is a big change from him handing me a CD and asking me to burn 5 copies of it, which is why I actually have three different versions of this album on my computer, BUT ANYWAY, it's actually pretty hard/weird for my to write about it for a lot of reasons, including, but not limited to:

The inevitable conflict of interest one enters into when they write about a project that their partner is involved in. (I worry that I will be either too nice as to avoid hurting feelings or too critical to prove that I'll say whatever I REALLY feel, even if my boyfriend is in the band.)
The fact that I'm actually accustomed to writing complete and total gushing praise for indie pop and lo fi indie rock bands, and what Prisoners do is something pretty different.
Also, thinking about writing about this album makes me feel like I'm really bad about writing about music.

So, that's my "full disclosure" list. All that aside, there are a lot of things that I really, really like about this album & two of those things are the first two songs, "Fix Yer Head" and "Brain Drain." In fact, I'd just as happily have accepted a 7" with just these two songs in place of an entire album (which is not to say that the album doesn't have any other good songs, it's really just that I like 7"s and have a relatively short attention span.) Honestly, it was an act of pretty good faith on Drew's part to even ask me to share my thoughts on Pass the Stone since my previous nuanced commentary of Prisoners has included such jams at, "It's so sad that you guys will never have a song as good as 'Freewheel' by Team Dresch."

Anyway, I think that part of what makes this album so interesting to me is that, over the last few months, I was really able to hear it develop. (You know, because every time they had a new set of mixes Drew would A) make me listen to it in the car and B) put it on my computer and burn copies so that other people in the band could listen to it.) The fact that I was able to hear these songs in various stages of development and sequenced in multiple ways really lends something to the experience of listening to the final product. In fact, the experience of watching the band in general grow, writing new songs, working to tighten up their live shows, etc. has helped me to reframe my own feelings about them (initial feelings: Does a band really need three guitars? Really?, present day feelings: It is sort of hard to imagine this band playing a show with only two dudes playing the guitar.)

The aforementioned "Fix Yer Head" and "Brain Drain" are both fantastic (and will be familiar to anyone who has seen Prisoners play a show in recent months), but aside from these two, the album's closing track, "Art Song," is probably my favorite (which is really saying something considering how frequently I complain about not liking slow songs.) The album also includes live show staples, "Boom Cha Cha," "Make You Cry," & "Street Creep," which are all all right songs (I know, I know, this is a really, really noncommittal statement -- I think talking about these "middle of the album" songs is where I really, really struggle, partially because of the overload of having heard these songs so many times & partially because, for me, some of these songs just don't "click.")

Prisoners have garnered a lot of comparisons to The Replacements in Cleveland's local music press -- something that Drew has whined to me about at length because he "just [doesn't] think [they] sound like The Replacements." I think that The Replacements comparison is an easy (and, to a degree, lazy) one to make, based largely on the fact that they wear flannel, have sloppy live shows, & feature a lead singer with a sometimes raspy sounding voice. I think there's also the fact that they're more or less a straight up rock and roll band with some garage and country influences at a time when there aren't many other young bands in Cleveland with a similar sound. I can see how comparing them to The Replacements might seem like a natural thing to do (especially when you hear the last 45 seconds of "Goner," which has undeniably Westerbergian elements.) Regardless of Drew's thoughts and feelings, I think that this comparison is one that's going to follow them for a long time.

I'm not going to lie, albums are all well and good, but I think that Prisoners' strength is really their live shows. They're honestly just a fun band to go see. I know I've seen them upwards of ten times this year & it's not just me -- I see a lot of the same people coming out for show after show. In fact, they have a show tonight with Wooly Bullies and The Prohibitionists at The Boo Box (1834 W. 45th in Ohio City).

If you can't make it out tonight, their album release show is December 30th at the Grog Shop with Cloud Nothings and Very Knees. Their new album will be available on cassette from Cylindrical Habitat Modules. (Their first album is still available on vinyl from Smog Veil.)

Prisoners, "Fix Yer Head" (DOWNLOAD)
Prisoners, "Brain Drain" (DOWNLOAD)

Brave Irene (New music feat. Rose Melberg!)

2010-12-15T09:11:00.005-05:00

I am so excited about this!!! This morning I got an e-mail from Alexa (who, practically a lifetime ago, hosted some of my poorly made websites) saying, that she was sure I had already heard, but just in case I hadn't, Rose Melberg was releasing a new EP this February. I hadn't heard! I am thrilled!

According to this Exclaim article, Rose has been fronting an all-female five piece band, Brave Irene, since December of 2009. They'll be releasing a debut 8 song EP on Slumberland Records on February 15, 2010.

Midheaven Mailorder has reviewed the EP and based on their description I am super stoked to hear it!

Melberg’s latest project is the Vancouver-based Brave Irene. Formed in December 2009 around the core of Melberg and Caitlin Gilroy, Brave Irene is comprised of five best mates whose friendship and camaraderie shines through the warmth of these lovely recordings. Gilroy’s and Jessica Wilkin’s keyboards play a prominent role in Brave Irene’s songs, adding a slightly psychedelic vibe that slots in well with early Flying Nun releases and even some of the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene.

Opener “No Fun” is a fuzzy gem that recalls New Zealand legends Look Blue Go Purple in its organ-driven folk / pop groove. The rhythms are really key here, with Laura Hatfield’s muscular drumming giving the songs a real oomph and momentum that perfectly complements their catchy-as-heck tunes. “Tangled Line” is an uptempo rocker that sports a unforgettable melody and droning organ lines. “Longest Day” continues where “No Fun” leaves off, the harmony vocals pushing the song forward. The EP wraps up with “Good Ideas” and “Campfire,” two more uptempo tunes full of great melodies, jangling guitars and those bubbling organs.

Brave Irene's EP will be available on 12" and CD on February 15th, 2010. According to Exclaim, the tracklist is as follows:

1. "No Fun"
2. "River to Sea"
3. "Tangled Line"
4. "Bank Holiday"
5. "Longest Day"
6. "Hit the Grass Running"
7. "Good Ideas"
8. "Campfire"

Brave Irene does has a MySpace, though there are no songs on it yet. (Hopefully as we get closer to February, the band will throw something up there.)

Though I've really enjoyed Rose's solo work, I'm very, very excited to hear that she's working with a full band again and hearing that this new release would fit well with early Flying Nun stuff has me even more excited. Thanks again to Alexa for so thoughtfully remembering how much I love Rose and sending this e-mail my way!

2010 in Review: 7"s

2010-12-13T16:15:00.010-05:00

Slowly (but, hopefully, surely) I'm continuing with my 2010 year in review posts. Last week I wrote about my favorite albums of 2010, this time I'm working on 7"s. There are a few other posts I'd like to make before the end of the year (most listened to artists, albums, and songs, best shows, & maybe a post about the handful of releases that don't fit in either the 7" or the album category...) Anyway, here are my 10 favorite 7"s of 2010 presented in alphabetical order by artist.

Best Coast, Something in the Way (PPM, out of print)

I tried not to double up on these lists (i.e. if someone was on favorite albums, I tried not to put them on favorite 7"s as well), but I couldn't help it. As much as I love the glossy (at least, comparatively glossy) sound of Best Coast's debut album, there's a soft spot in my heart for the fuzzed out pop sounds of this 7". "Something in the Way" is great, but "Already Gone," a sorrowful, drone-y meditation on lost relationships is (for me) the standout track.

("The Road")

The Blanche Hudson Weekend, Hate is a Loaded Gun (Squirrel Records) BUY IT!

God I love The Blanche Hudson Weekend. Really, I do. The Blanche Hudson Weekend consistently releases some of the most amazing songs out there. It sounds cheesy, but you get the sense that they really craft their songs. Every track on Hate is a Loaded Gun is a perfect mix of layered guitars and echoing vocals. Hate is a Loaded Gun's dark title and stark cover art suggest a series of bleak songs, but "Let Me Go" is an uptempo tune with driving pop guitars and a beat that, at times, mimics hand claps. "So Sick" is a little darker, with a composition that actually mimics the feeling of having a pounding headache (at least, as someone who currently has a pounding headache, that's what it sounds like to me.) The EP's closing track, "Song for Kristen," finds the space between "Let Me Go" and "So Sick" and settles in perfectly. It's just amazing.

("Let Me Go")

Cloud Nothings, Didn't You (Old Flame Records) BUY IT!

2010 was a big year for Cleveland's Cloud Nothings. They released a handful of great 7"s, did a ton of touring, and recorded their second album (forthcoming on Carpark), their 2009 debut Turning On (originally released on Bridgetown Records) was reissued on Carpark and Whichita... But my favorite thing Cloud Nothings did in 2010 is the b-side of this 7". "Even if it Worked Out" is the perfect pop song. I first heard the band play it earlier this year at the Happy Dog. I was sitting down playing a game of Ms. Pac Man, turning around in between completing boards so that I could see the band. Everything about "Even if it Worked Out" is just right on. I can't wait to see/hear was Cloud Nothings does in 2011 and am stoked about attending what is (I believe) their last show of 2010 (at the Grog Shop with Prisoners and The Very Knees on December 30th) -- hopefully Jami will be there with me!

("Even if it Worked Out" (live))

Japandroids, Younger Us (Polyvinyl) BUY IT!

Japandroids are probably the bro-est music I listen to, excepting the hardcore punk of my teen years that I refuse to let go of. "Younger Us" is the ultimate youth anthem -- the opening line, "Remember when we had them on the run," conjures up every last late night, legs up on the dashboard and out the window while friends drove, walking along train tracks, spitting at dudes who catcalled us. It doesn't hurt that the b-side, a cover of X's "Sex and Dying in High Society," is totally solid, too.

("Younger Us")

Mirah, Don't! (Mississippi) BUY IT!

What would any list of mine be without something by Mirah? Though Mirah didn't have any new albums in 2010, she did release this stunner of a single. "Don't!" originally appeared on Ragazza Pop, a girl group inspired comp, & I had initially thought that this single was just a re-release of that version -- instead, Mirah re-recorded it with a slight country twang, mixed with girl group-esque backing vocals, and just a hint of horns and piano. It sounds fresh and perfect and Mirah's voice is clear as a bell. I sincerely hope that 2011 brings me another Mirah album because I could listen to a solid hour of songs that sound just list this.

("Don't!" (Ragazza Pop version))

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Say No To Love (Slumberland/Fortuna Pop) BUY IT! US and UK

My favorite thing about "Say No To Love" (aside from the moment in the impeccably crafted video where Peggy eats a soft pretzel) is the line where Kip sings, "with the parking lot kids, with the loneliest crowd." Those few words hit me with such intensity and such precision, calling up the most specific, beautiful, and dark teenage memories I can recall. This song is heartbreakingly gorgeous and the Pains' second album is high atop my list of things to look forward to in 2011.

("Say No to Love")

Seapony, Dreaming (Double Denim, out of print)

It's fitting that Seapony should follow the Pains in this alphabetical list since it was Kip's recommendation that motivated me to listen to them in the first place. Seapony makes some of the music that I like best -- jangly, poppy, "Hey, I could do this!" sort of music. Though I occasionally venture into something edgier or harder or more "advanced" sounding, it is this kind of simple pop that I am most grateful for, that really reminds me of why I collect records and why I occasionally get my guitar out and play the few simple chords my tiny hands can handle. Though this 7" is sold out all over the place, you can stream it here.

("Dreaming")

Sourpatch, Mira Mija (HHBTM) BUY IT!

Sourpatch is the perfect band and it's breaking my heart that I have yet to catch them live. (I'm not writing an entry about the biggest letdowns of 2010, but if I was, my boss denying my request for time off and preventing me from attending the Athens Pop Fest would DOMINATE LIKE NO OTHER.) Anyway, Crushin' (released last December) was one of my favorite albums of 2009 and for good reason -- it took everything I like, mixed it all up, and spit it back out in a perfect half hour. The Mira Mija 7" brings four new songs echoing (and, in some cases, advancing) the pure pop perfection that was Crushin'. "Sky is Falling" is probably my favorite track -- it starts out with a dark guitar riff that reminds me of something from Black Candy and quickly builds into a simple & beautiful love song built around incredibly simple lyrics and accented with moments of feedback.

("Deli Dream")

Sweater Girls, Pretty When You Smile (HHBTM) BUY IT!

I was late to the game as far as Sweater Girls are concerned & only started listening to them earlier this month thanks to Matthew from Skatterbrain Good god, what I've been missing out on! Finally, a band that perfectly occupies the space between All Girl Summer Fun Band and The Softies. I'm so glad that I gave Sweater Girls a chance prior to the end of the year so that they could assume their rightful place on this list!

("Pretty When You Smile" (live))

Weed Hounds, Beach Bummed (Iron Pier) BUY IT!

Weed Hounds consistently produce some of my favorite shoegaze-pop blends out there. The two songs on Beach Bummed continue right where last year's debut tape left off. The b-side, "Skating Away from the Cops" is hazy and winding, like a summer afternoon in suburbia. Something about Weed Hounds' songs feels rough, incomplete, not quite form, and in that absence of perfection: perfect. Beach Bummed happens to be the only Weed Hounds release with the privilege of still being in print & I'm not sure how long it will last, so snap a copy up while you can.

("Skating Away from the Cops")

2010 in Review: Albums

2010-12-08T13:31:00.002-05:00

It's so hard for me to make end of the year posts. I know (without a doubt) that I will forget something, that I will misremember my relationship with an album, that something I will absolutely fall in love with will come out as soon as I "publish" my list, etc. Last year I did a post with my 10 favorite songs, 5 favorite albums, and 5 favorite shows of 2009. This year I'm going to start things off with my 10 favorite albums (UNRANKED, I cannot rank things!) and see how things go from there.

Allo Darlin, s/t (Fortuna Pop) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD and vinyl)

Allo Darlin topped my list of favorite songs last year with their single "Henry Rollins Don't Dance" and their full length album was probably one of my most anticipated albums of 2010. Thankfully it didn't disappoint! In fact, it probably exceeded my expectations. I don't know exactly what it is, but something about Allo Darlin just strikes a chord with me -- their lyrics are thoughtful, but never pretentious, their songs are catchy, and each one leads seamlessly into the next. The songs on Allo Darlin work well as songs but they work even better as a whole, coming together to assemble an album that works its way deep into your heart and stays there, keeping you young and sentimental.

Song That Caught Me By Surprise? Normally I don't like slow songs. In fact, I may or may not whine, "No slow songs!" any time Drew tries to listen to something slow in the car. Because of this, I didn't expect to develop any deep affinity for "Let's Go Swimming" & was more or less shocked when I found that it's one of the songs from Allo Darlin that's most likely to be stuck in my head at any given time.

(video for "My Heart is a Drummer")

Best Coast, Crazy for You (Mexican Summer) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD and vinyl)

So, I really have to give April credit for getting me into Best Coast. I wasn't a huge fan of Pocahaunted, so it's very likely that Best Coast would have flown right under my radar if she hadn't been actively championing their cause. Over the last year or so, I snapped up every Best Coast 7" I could find & fell in love with Bethany and Bobb's brand of sun drenched power chord driven pop ballads. I was worried that Crazy for You would be almost like a Best Coast Best Of, collecting their out of print 7"s, so I was stunned & surprised when they released an album that was almost 100% new material! "Goodbye" and "I Want To" are perfect pop songs -- they go as straight as an arrow right into the most teenage part of my heart, tapping into a sense of nostalgia that I didn't even know I had.

My favorite thing about this album? That it motivated me to start playing the guitar again.

(video for "Boyfriend")

Grass Widow, Past Time (Kill Rock Stars) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD, vinyl, and mp3)

Just like I owe April for Best Coast, I also owe her for Grass Widow. So much great music came out in 2010, but Grass Widow's Past Time was one of the first albums I heard in a long time that made me catch my breath and say, "Who is that and what are they doing?" Grass Widow is art and science. Listening to their music is like watching something come to life -- small sounds knit themselves together and unlikely words and phrases weave in and around each other and all of these elements come together in this beautiful, fragmented whole. Listening to a Grass Widow album is like getting the auditory equivalent of a micromosaic. I feel simultaneously overwhelmed and comforted by the mysteries of the universe.

Something weird that comes to mind when I listen to Past Time? About a million years ago, I remember seeing this animated show about kids who were enrolled in a mysterious academy where they were engaged in a series of duels that took place in an upside-down castle in the sky. The song that played as they were preparing to duel (an odd and frantic mix of pop, rock, and opera) comes to mind whenever I think of Grass Widow.

(video for "11 of Diamonds")

jj, jj n°3 (Sincerely Yours and Secretly Canadian) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD and vinyl)

You know? I really wasn't sure that I was going to put this album on this list, mainly because I was worried that people would think it was a bad pick. But you know what else? Nobody cares what I think, so why should I care what other people think? jj was one of the most disappointing live acts that Drew and I caught in 2010 & I know that experience totally ruined them for Drew, but I'm not gonna lie, I still really like jj. A lot of people panned this album when it came out & it does have a slow start, but there are some really, really gorgeous songs toward the middle/end of the album. Cleveland is literally enshrouded in snow today -- you can't see anything except this moving blanket of snow -- and it's perfect weather for listening to this album. I'm sitting at my desk with a mug of hot chocolate, a peppermint brownie, and "You Know" on the stereo and it just sounds/feels perfect.

If you still like jj in spite of their mega-bad live performances They have a new mixtape that will be dropping on Christmas eve!

(video for "Let Go")

Marnie Stern, s/t (Kill Rock Stars) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD, vinyl, and mp3)

I first got into Marnie Stern during my senior year of college. I was working in a data entry job for a non-profit. The work was mind numbing and there were days when Marnie's tapping was the only thing that could keep me going at my desk. I was so stoked when I heard that Marnie was going to have a new album and the more I heard about it, the better it sounded. Stylistically, this album is not a departure from Marnie's previous work, but there's something else happening here... There's an emotional undercurrent, a sense of immediacy -- I feel like on this album you get to hear Marnie as a person, not just as a guitarist. Maybe that's why this one is self titled?

Loving this album in spite of that bizarre Marnie Stern/Best Coast "feud."

(video for "Nothing Left")

No Joy, Ghost Blonde (Mexican Summer) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD, vinyl, and mp3)

There's a lot to love about No Joy's debut album. The first track, "Mediumship," is one of my favorite first songs on an album this year. I loved No Joy's first 7" on Mexican Summer and had been looking forward to their album for the last couple of months. Ghost Blonde is a dense swirl of guitars -- the albums ebbs and flows in terms of intensity, but it never stops being engaging. No Joy is definitely a band that I would love to have the opportunity to see live.

(video for "You Girls Smoke Cigarettes")

Robyn, Body Talk (Konichiwa) BUY IT HERE! (CD only)

The first CD single I ever owned was Robyn's "Show Me Love." The video was in heavy rotation when I was in the 5th grade and I vividly remember hanging out at my neighbor's house & watching video countdown shows so that I could hear & see Robyn. Much, much later, I saw the movie Fucking Åmål (notable not just for being a good movie, but for reminding me that "Show Me Love" existed), and even later, Robyn reinvented herself, ditching RCA & starting her own label. I feel like Body Talk seems almost out of place on this list, but seriously? It is so good! I mean, there are a dozen amazing songs on this album & I love it because listening to this record is like having my musical interests come full circle. Now, the kid I was like 15 years ago can connect with the person that I am now.

The only letdown? Robyn is coming to Cleveland and I would totally go, except she's playing at the House of Blues and I have a strict policy about not supporting chain venues in Cleveland. It's one of the few areas in my life where I can afford to "vote with my dollars." BUMMER.

(video for "Hang with Me")

Sleigh Bells, Treats (N.E.E.T.) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD and vinyl)

I spent a big portion of time (here on this blog) trying to decide whether or not I should write about the Sleigh Bells album. I mean, calling it "polarizing" makes it seem like a really big deal, but seriously? I feel like I spent a ton of time this year watching people bicker about whether or not the Sleigh Bells album was "good" or "interesting" or "gimmicky" or whatever. You know what? I really don't care. This album is full of jams! You know that Sweet Valley High book where Jessica Wakefield decides that she is sick of being a goody two shoes (which is sort of weird because it's not like Jessica was ever a particularly "good" person) and she dies her hair black and starts acting really bitchy? This album is that book! (Without a French accent.) Seriously, Sleigh Bells is the band that could have happened if Jessica Wakefield decided she wanted to adopt an edgy "musical" persona and stole the guitarist from The Droids (Sweet Valley's most popular and only band.)

What makes this album is The riffs! The riffs on this album fucking rule. Sometimes they're lifted from Funkadelic songs, sometimes they sound like they could have come from a lost Waitresses demo, sometimes you wonder if someone has replaced the lead guitar with some weird space guitar gun. RIFFS, PEOPLE. RIFFS.

(video for "Tell Em")

Surfer Blood, Astrocoast (Kanine) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD, vinyl, and mp3)

Astrocoast came out way back when in January -- it's almost like a distant memory. The songs still sound just as fresh, though. Surfer Blood came out of nowhere for me -- Drew mentioned offhand that he had heard something about them and that he wanted to hear their album & the next thing I knew, I was gushing all over the place about how good Astrocoast is. If jj was my surprise live act disappointment of 2010, Surfer Blood was my surprise live act "hey, they turned out quite well, didn't they?" They had a dynamic stage presence & seemed to honestly be having a great time playing their songs for an audience which is something that I feel like I sometimes don't see a whole lot of. I was shocked to hear that they'd signed to a major label (Warner Brothers), but it will be interesting to hear whatever comes from them next.

It was weird (but cool) to hear "Fast Jabroni" on last year's season finale of Community.

(video for "Swim")

Superchunk, Majesty Shredding (Merge) BUY IT HERE! (available on CD, vinyl, FLAC, and mp3)

It's no secret that I love Superchunk. I would probably put any old Superchunk album on my top ten list, whether or not I even liked it all that much, just out of solidarity with my love for Superchunk. In fact, I actually listened to Majesty Shredding twice before writing this just to make sure it's actually good & I'm not just looking at the world through Superchunk colored glasses. Fortunately, I am not delusional and Majesty Shredding really is an awesome album. Superchunk has been a constant for me for something like the past ten years & Majesty Shredding was a particularly exciting album for me because it was more or less the first "new" Superchunk album since I started listening to them.

In case you were wondering, the best thing about a new Superchunk album is that it's just as strong/good as an old Superchunk album.

(video for "My Gap Feels Weird" here -- embedding disabled)

A sampling of additional albums that could have been on this list...

Dum Dum Girls, I Will Be
Janelle Monáe, The ArchAndroid
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kevin Greenspon and Cloud Nothings, split CD
Let's Wrestle, In the Court of Wrestling Let's
Los Campesinos!, Romance is Boring
Tender Trap, Dansette Dansette
Wavves, King of the Beach
Wild Nothing, Gemini

Double Murder Suicide (Yes, Again)

2010-12-02T11:30:00.005-05:00

Double Murder Suicide, lexlugersexmagik (DOWNLOAD)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry about lexlugersexmagik, a lo-fi concept album about wrestling that Drew brought home a mystery copy of. Josh (the mind behind said lo-fi concept album about wrestling) has since given me permission (via a very friendly blog comment) to upload the entire album here (thanks, Josh!) So, for those of you who read about lexlugersexmagik & were, perhaps, intrigued by what you read, you're welcome to download the entire album.

You can read some really thoughtful prose on Josh's work at Coke Machine Glow. You can read my not so nearly as thoughtful prose here.

Double Murder Suicide, lexlugersexmagik (DOWNLOAD)

Might I Direct Your Attention Toward...

2010-12-02T09:24:00.005-05:00

I have been keeping these little post-it notes on my desk at work with reminders of things that I wanted to write about at great and extra-lengthy-length here, but the list just keeps getting longer and longer to the point where I am feeling not so much like "It will be fun to write about these things," but more like "Help me, help me, oh god, oh god." So here is my list, offered up with minimal commentary! I promise, I'll write more soon (I've been working on my end of year lists, so hopefully I'll actually get those done before, uh, the end of the year...)

Seapony (free EP + 7" on Double Denim Records) Seapony has been getting a lot of buzz lately & that buzz is well-deserved! Their free downloadable EP (available on their Bandcamp site) is a pop delight and so is their 7" (released on Double Denim Records.) Sadly, the 7" seems to be sold out (I snagged a copy from Rough Trade last week, but it looks like they're all gone now!), but you can still stream the 7" tracks here. I wouldn't be surprised if this was repressed (I also wouldn't imagine that it's too difficult to find mp3s online.) Seriously, though, if you're into Sourpatch or any number of great recent and classic pop groups, this won't be a disappointment.

Bad Banana Bad Banana's Crushfield demo is 10 songs of pop-ish, punk-ish nature written & performed by sisters Allison and Kate (who you may be familiar with by way of P.S. Eliot.) Their demo is up for free download and you can stream four of the demo tracks on Muxtape. On December 12th they're getting ready to hit the road with Sourpatch for a handful of east coast dates (Sourpatch will then head over to the UK and Bad Banana will continue touring the US.) You can view tour dates here.

Johnny Reb Okay, okay, I'm always talking about how I get these e-mails saying, "Listen to this!" and I am like, "Oh, okay," and then I don't and then months later, I think, "Well, maybe I'll give this a shot" and it turns out that it's something I would have really liked all along? Well, that happened again (surprise!) Johnny Reb has three tracks up for streaming on their MySpace along with relatively little information to accompany them. I don't really know who Johnny Reb is or if they have any official releases, but I do know that "When Were Spring" is an awesome song that I could listen to for quite awhile before burning out on it. Really, all three of the songs are quite good in a way that takes you by surprise in bits and pieces -- a lyric here, a guitar line there. I can sincerely say that I'm looking forward to hearing more. (You can read another write up of Johnny Reb on Brill Dream, who clearly responded to their press release in a much timelier fashion than I did. When will I learn?)

New 7" & video from Allo Darlin Allo Darlin's debut album was one of my top albums of 2010 (an entry with more on these "top albums" is likely forthcoming) and I have basically accepted the fact that I am just going to buckle down and buy every single single that this band releases. "My Heart is a Drummer" (a gorgeous Paul Simon-esque pop song) was one of my favorite tracks on their self titled album & it's just been released as a single on Fortuna Pop. You can pick up a copy direct from the label (to my knowledge, there aren't any US distros currently carrying this.) "My Heart is a Drummer" also recently got the video treatment -- you can check the video out here.

New 7" from Sweater Girls (& re-press of their first 7") Sweater Girls have a new single out on HHBTM (featuring great pop jams and adorable cover art by Leslie Dallion.) I'd heard a lot of buzz about Sweater Girls, but didn't give them a chance until recently (thanks to Matt from Skatterbrain.) I've ordered the new single from HHBTM along with the repress of their first 7". You can stream some Sweater Girls tracks on their MySpace.

New single from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart On December 14th Slumberland will release a new single from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The a-side, "Heart in Your Heartbreak" has been floating around on the internet for awhile, but the b-side, "The One", recently became available for free download via Fortuna Pop (which will release the single in the UK.) You can download it for free (you just need to supply an e-mail address) here.

New Blanche Hudson Weekend Release The Blanche Hudson Weekend was one of my top bands of 2010, so I'm so stoked to say that Squirrel Records has put together a CD compilation of their 7"s. Reverence, Severance, and Spite features tracks from The Blanche Hudson Weekend's 3 7"s along with a handful of new tracks and early demos. You can view a full tracklist and order direct from the label here. To my knowledge, there aren't any US distros that have this in stock, though Jigsaw Records does have the first 2 Blanche Hudson 7"s.

Broadcast One (Dandelion Radio Compilation) I always look forward to hearing from Odd Box about their new releases because they're either things that are right up my alley or they're things that challenge me & push me in new directions. Odd Box's latest compilation, Broadcast One, pays tribute to Dandelion Radio, an online radio station broadcasting in the tradition of John Peel and named after Peel's Dandelion Records label. Broadcast One features over an hour of music handpicked by Dandelion DJs (you can see a listing of who chose what song here.) You can pick up a copy of Broadcast One from Odd Box.

Odd Box Singles Club And speaking of Odd Box, they've sold out of the early bird edition of their singles club, but it's not too late to subscribe at the regular price. For (roughly) $56, you get 6 split singles featuring exclusive tracks from 12 different bands. I'm most excited about The Blanche Hudson Weekend and Bracelettes, but there's loads of great artists (you can view a full lineup and get more ordering information here.)

November Singles from EardrumpsPOP There's been another batch of free downloadable singles from EardrumsPOP. November offered new originals and covers from Insect Guide, Sometimes Always, and Baffin Island. These singles continue the series that EardrumsPOP began in October. I absolutely loved "Bats" from the Insect Guide single and "You Can All Hide" from the Sometimes Always single, both of these tracks are available to stream online on the EardrumsPOP site. Keep an ear out for new singles on the 10th and 20th of every month!

Old News is Good News: Free to Fight Comp

2010-11-19T09:32:00.003-05:00

Various Artists, Free to Fight (DOWNLOAD)

Two things:

1. So, the other day I was watching videos of Team Dresch on YouTube and I was watching a performance of "Freewheel" from a few years ago and there was this really sweet (as in heartwarming) moment where Jody Bleyle pumped her fist in the air at the point in the song where everyone shouts "Freewheel!"

2. I was reading this post on Tobi Vail's blog Jigsaw Underground where she poses some really interesting questions about the "meaning" of being in a band/being an artist. The question that really caught my attention was: is it really enough to make a cool sounding record? Was it ever?

I don't think that all art has to be political in intent, and I suppose it doesn't have to become political in interpretation, but I do think that over the years, I've become the kind of person who is unable to depoliticize their media consumption. In response to Tobi's question, I don't think it's "really enough to make a cool sounding record." BUT, as a consumer of cultural products, I think that people on the consuming end have the same opportunity to politicize a cultural product as the producer does and, in my opinion, I think that the consumer is invested with more power than the producer when it comes to acknowledging/interpreting/acting on political messages that may or may not be encoded into cultural products.

So, Tobi's question, for me, intersected with that moment of watching Jody Bleyle pump her first in the air & I was brought back to my early teens and listening to a copy of Jody's Free to Fight compilation dubbed onto cassette. Free to Fight was released on Jody's label, Candy Ass Records, in 1995 on double-CD and double-LP. The songs on Free to Fight mingled seamlessly with spoken word tracks featuring self defense tips. The compilation was accompanied by a 72 page booklet featuring work by feminist theorists, writers, and artists (if only I had a .pdf of the booklet to share with this!)

I'm not the kind of person who says things like "punk rock saved my life," but I am the kind of person who can sincerely say that Free to Fight helped me learn not just how to take steps toward better defending myself, but (more importantly) that I had the right to defend myself. As a young person, I saw and heard Free to Fight in the most immediate of senses: I was experiencing violence and needed help in learning how to respond -- now, I'm able to step back and consider (outside of the violence I experienced as a young person) the systemic issues that facilitated the need for a compilation like Free to Fight. I'm able to think about the fact that, in many ways, creating Free to Fight and touring behind it was an innovative way for artists to educate themselves and their communities about violence against women, how women can respond to acts of violence in the moment, how women can work with each other to address violence in their communities, etc.

Free to Fight is a cool sounding album, yeah, but it also speaks to a larger need. I don't think that every artist is obligated to do what Jody and the artists featured on Free to Fight did, but I do think that art can be made more meaningful and interesting when artists and listeners seek to engage politically, whether that engagement is direct or indirect*.

Trigger Warning The songs/self defense tips/spoken word on Free to Fight may be triggering for survivors of assault. Listen with caution.

Track List

1. Sarah Rides the Greyhound (spoken word)
2. Monster Snack - The Third Sex
3. Definition of Self Defense (self defense strategy)
4. Song for Anne Bannon - Team Dresch
5. Sleep'n wit' the Enemy - Mizzery
6. Violence is Violence (self defense strategy)
7. Killing Your Clone is Still Murder - Sue P. Fox
8. Carnation Red - Rebecca Gates
9. Body Language (self defense strategy)
10. Don't - Fifth Column
11. Yelling (self defense strategy)
12. Real Defense - 151
13. Make a Scene (self defense strategy)
14. The Martyr - Containe
15. Assertiveness Practice (self defense strategy)
16. New Terror Story - Nikki, Jen, Rueben
17. St. What's Her Name - The Lois
18. Alice's Story (spoken word)
19. Primary Targets (self defense strategy)
20. Target Practice (self defense strategy/song)
21. Striking (self defense strategy)
22. Disgracias - Cheesecake
23. Laura Sister Nobody Crosses the Street (spoken word)
24. Daddy's Crazy - Azteca X
25. Get Out of My Head - Heaven's to Betsy
26. Sylvia Gets Fancy (spoken word)
27. Forever Fired - Excuse Seventeen
28. Lucky One - Nikki McClure

Various Artists, Free to Fight (DOWNLOAD)

* I'm definitely interested in thinking more about music that is political, but that doesn't share a direct political message. I think Tobi's review of Grass Widow's Past Time speaks pretty eloquently about this.

Double Murder Suicide

2010-11-08T09:45:00.003-05:00

Double Murder Suicide, "Jake's A Snake" (DOWNLOAD)
Double Murder Suicide, "Turned Heel too" (DOWNLOAD)

Some people, especially people who actually know me, will probably think I'm kidding when I say that the best new (or, at least, new to me) album that I've heard lately is by a band called Double Murder Suicide, is called lexlugersexmagik*, and is all about wrestling.

But seriously, I'm not kidding.

Drew brought lexlugersexmagik home on Friday night after his show at The Happy Dog and I didn't really think much about it. I may have said, "That's cool," sort of half-heartedly, you know, in the way one does when one has been woken up at 2:30am after falling asleep while reading a particularly trying passage of Infinite Jest, but I'm pretty confident that I didn't have any profound commentary to share.

So, the next day Drew and I listened to the album in the car and I was really surprised when it turned out to be totally fucking awesome.

Okay, I don't know anything about wrestling. At all. I didn't watch wrestling growing up and I'm an only child, so I didn't have brothers who watched wrestling, and this morning while I was brushing my teeth and thinking about writing this, I tried to remember anyone I knew who had watched wrestling and only three people came to mind: two boys that I went to grade school with who wore oversized black t-shirts with famous wrestlers on them and who were always drawing swastikas and bomber planes on their desks and a boy I went to high school with who went to great lengths to try and cover up the fact that he watched wrestling as a kid and still had a massive wrestling action figure collection. Drew and I did watch The Wrestler once, so I guess that sort of gives me an idea (albeit a totally depressing one) of what wrestling is all about. Full disclosure: I actually had to google the names used in song titles (Lex Luger, Eric Bischoff, Chris Benoit, Kevin Nash) so that I could get a sense of who was being talked about.

Fortunately, you really don't need to know anything about wrestling to listen to this (though I would imagine that it's a more engaging listening experience/there are more opportunities for deeper level discourse around the album if you know a little bit -- or even a lot -- about wrestling.) Double Murder Suicide layers guitars, drum machine beats, and audio clips from televised wrestling matches to create amazing lo-fi pop songs... about wrestling. Really, the "about wrestling" part can even sort of be secondary. The primary thing you need to know is that these songs are super-catchy and fun to listen to.

I'll be honest -- the opening track didn't really grab me, but things pick up fast. "Jake's a Snake," "The Warrior Lives in Me," and "Turned Heel Too" are all fantastic. If you'd like to get a copy of lexlugersexmagik, send an e-mail to jg242302@ohio.edu. Sorry I don't have any actual information (like, you know, how much it costs.)

* I feel like an idiot for even typing this out because I assume it's the kind of thing that everyone already knows, but just in case: The title is clearly a parody of (homage to?) the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Double Murder Suicide, "Jake's A Snake" (DOWNLOAD)
Double Murder Suicide, "Turned Heel too" (DOWNLOAD)

Live in Oberlin, Guided By Voices

2010-11-01T10:56:00.004-04:00

Guided By Voices, "Big School" (DOWNLOAD)
Guided By Voices, "A Good Flying Bird" (DOWNLOAD)
Guided By Voices, "Let's Ride" (DOWNLOAD)
Guided By Voices, "Mincer Ray" (DOWNLOAD)

On Sunday night I saw the Guided By Voices "Classic Lineup" show down in Oberlin. I was really apprehensive about going (I always get nervous before "big" shows), but ended up having an amazing time. The band was tight and they played a near-perfect set. Every single song was a song that I wanted to hear -- though I was especially stoked on all the Tobin Sprout songs that were played ("A Good Flying Bird"!!!) All in all, it was totally worth the $30 ticket price.

I think that when bands reunite, it becomes even easier to view them as being commodities and/or potentially disingenuous in their performance. (Though the "genuine" nature of performance is, of course, negligible to begin with.) But I think it's especially interesting to consider the question of performance as a commodity in conjunction with a band like Guided By Voices. Throughout the show, Pollard frequently reminded people that the band members were from Ohio, that Ohio has a superior drinking culture, and that Guided By Voices is a drinking band. There's definitely an element of performance to GBV's drinking but that performance plays a critical role in the way that the band constructs community within their fan base (example: last night Pollard passed a bottle of tequila from the stage into the crowd and encouraged fans to pass it around amongst themselves.)

Last night's show definitely drew a varied crowd -- it wasn't difficult to differentiate GBV veterans from people who just really liked Bee Thousand from people who had friends that caught them earlier in the day and said, "Hey, are you doing anything tonight? Because if you're not..." The great thing about a show like last night's was that it welcomed people at all levels of interest in/experience with Guided By Voices. Of course, as someone who enjoys (but is not obsessed with) GBV, it may have been easier for me to have a good time. I know my Aunt (who first saw GBV in 1991 and spent the better part of the following 15-ish years attending any show they played within reasonable distance), struggled a little more with the crowd and construction of community than I did. On the way home, she brought up the "feel" of the show and mentioned how disheartening it was that last night's show didn't have the same sense of community as past Guided By Voices shows.

I really wish that I could have been at this show with friends. It had been such a long time since I was at a big show where the crowd didn't make me feel freaked out or uncomfortable. I mean, there were some displays of aggression at the show, but they were (for the most part) comfortable and enthusiastic. It would have been awesome if Jami or Brittany could have been there (on our first Columbus Dream Date, Jami and I were able to realize our dream of driving around in a car with Brittany and Alana singing along with Bee Thousand. Best day!)

The rash of recent indie rock and pop reunions (Pavement, GBV, Unrest, Go Sailor, etc.) also has me thinking about the expectations that people have for bands they grew up with (but have maybe never seen live) and how those expectations play into the experience they have when they attend a reunion show. I know Drew felt let down after we saw Pavement and he felt the same way about GBV last night. But I was thrilled with both shows (ok, so the crowd at Pavement left something to be desired, but the band was great.) I missed the Go Sailor reunion shows (San Francisco, CA and Athens, GA), but I feel like my coming of age was knit so tightly to their music that I'm almost uncomfortable with the idea of seeing them play -- it would just be too much. I'm honestly not sure what you're supposed to expect from a band that's recently reunited. I mean, I expected to see old dudes playing songs that I loved & that's what I got & I thought it was awesome. Maybe other people were expecting something different?

The only real disappointment last night was the $5 pizza Drew bought from the pizza truck waiting outside the venue. NOT A GOOD PIZZA!

Remaining tour dates for the Hallway of Shatterproof Glass Tour can be found here
Everything you've ever wanted to know about Guided By Voices can be found here
Guided By Voices is working on making out of print releases available via download here

Old News: The Poop Alley Tapes

2010-10-28T11:35:00.003-04:00

Various Artists, The Poop Alley Tapes (DOWNLOAD)

Last night, Drew woke me up at like one in the morning because he was losing his mind over the fact that the deluxe edition of Weezer's Pinkerton had leaked. My initial thoughts on the matter: I really don't think that I give a fuck about this. Of course, it's almost 12 hours later and I'm listening to the DE at my desk at work. Some of these songs are still great ("Tired of Sex," definitely still great, "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" (b-side featuring Anna Waronker from that dog., still great.) The best songs on Pinkerton would have fit perfectly on The Poop Alley Tapes, a 2 CD compilation of L.A. bands who had recorded at Tom Grimley's Poop Alley Studios (though not featured on this comp, Madigan and Jen from Tattle Tale both recorded at Poop Alley.)

Anyway, the high notes on this comp are HIGH. "California" by the Rentals is amazing (it's only about a hundred thousand times better than the tweaked version, "Barcelona," that showed up on Seven More Minutes), "Adam in June" by June Blake is another winner. Like any comp, this has its share of forgettable songs, but the good ones are so good that you totally forget the bad ones.

If nothing else, The Poop Alley Tapes is an artifact of a mostly lost scene & the only place you'll hear most of these bands. Which is a real shame, because I could listen to album after album by June Blake or The Strawberry Jams.

DISC ONE:

1. The Rentals - "California"
2. Benett - "Love On The Rocks"
3. Recess - "Study No. 1 For Symphony No. 1"
4. Josh Haden - "Ten Nights"
5. Jackknife - "Teenage Blues"
6. that dog. - "Ridiculous"
7. Too Much Girl - "Fascinating Girl"
8. Radies Man - "Honky Tonky Woman"
9. The Strawberry Jams - "Kinda Sorta Maybe"
10. Rump - "Alan's Got An Axe To Grind"
11. Crib - "Sty"
12. Fleabag - "Fading Fast"
13. The Haves - "Nevadaesque"
14. The Neptunas - "Hot Custom Long Board"
15. Bobby & The Magic Pacer - "Drinking Dogs"
16. Waldo The Dog Faced Boy - "Turkey's Lament"
17. Speculum Fight - "Hello There Chico"
18. Rod Poole - "Excerpt From The Composition"

DISC TWO:

1. Polar Goldie Cats - "Reverb Wa Doko"
2. Geraldine Fibbers - "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
3. Beck - "Girl Of My Dreams"
4. June Blake - "Adam In June"
5. Lowercase - "My Shame Your Shame"
6. Kryptonite Nixon - "Whiffle Ball"
7. Charles Brown Superstar - "Solid Gold"
8. Shady Ladies Of The Mother Lode - "Moistened"
9. Danny Frankel - "Rainbow Wig On Haight St."
10. Brown Cow - "Out?"
11. Nastassya Filippovna - "Ungodly Purple Watt"
12. Vector 3Niner - "The Deep Complexity Of Quotidian Chaos (Let's Vector)"
13. Slug - "Silver Man"

Both discs are included in the same .zip file.

Various Artists, The Poop Alley Tapes (DOWNLOAD)

Inaugural Singles from EardrumsPop

2010-10-25T18:15:00.003-04:00

So, have you heard about the singles project that EardrumsPop have been working on? Each month this fall they plan to release two free download-only singles (singles will be released on the tenth and twentieth of each month.) All singles will feature three songs (two originals and one cover) and will be accompanied by a pdf booklet featuring more original artwork, an interview with the band, and a photo interview conducted in collaboration with A Negative Narrative.

In the past, I've really struggled with digital releases/netlabels. In theory, I love the idea of music that is free and accessible to anyone with internet access, but I miss the feeling of exploring a new package, of having a physical product to hold. I think what I like best about the EardrumsPop singles is that they work to approximate that feeling of opening something new and listening to it for the first time & while all elements of their singles series are strictly digital, they come pretty close to hitting the mark.

The first two singles in the fall series (the October 10th and October 20th releases) are out now and are available to download here. Tiny Fireflies and Paper Fangs have each released a three song single for the series. Both bands craft warm and welcoming indie pop with electronic influences -- perfect for the time when (at least, here in Ohio) fall begins to turn into winter.

If you're interested in keeping up to date on future EardrumsPop releases, you can sign up for their newsletter here.

Haunted Houses + Drew Hill

2010-10-24T20:32:00.003-04:00

Remember a long time ago when I said I got a big box of tapes in the mail from Bathetic? It took me ages to get around to reviewing their reissue of Angel Olsen's Strange Cacti cassette (review here) & then it took me even longer to get around to assessing the rest of the mystery box's contents (okay, so I am actually still in the processing of addressing the rest of the box.) In addition to the Olsen tape, there were four other tapes (two of which are now sold out out -- Jon wasn't kidding when he said their stuff goes fast) & a 7". I'm coming to the end of a long, slow Sunday & thought that now might just be the right time to dig back into that box and see what else Bathetic has to offer.

Drew Hill, Seasons in Rust

Yesterday my friend Kate and I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art where we worked our way through three floors of immaculately preserved/restored artwork, ending up in the basement at the precipice of a traveling exhibit called "Treasures from Heaven." The words "Treasures from Heaven" make me think of Precious Moments figurines -- porcelain girls sheltering wide-eyed lambs, first communion dresses, and specially engraved mementos from Things Remembered -- but the actual exhibit was dark and sinister, tiny pouches containing saints' teeth and chips of bone, hunks of petrified wood with rust-colored blemishes on them, oxidized nails, boxes never meant to be opened. The songs on Seasons in Rust are like the audio equivalent of these artifacts and the reliquaries they were housed in -- eerie and unsettling, but you can't not look, you can't not listen.

You can view a track list & stream "Show Me a Grave" here.

Haunted Houses, Make Believe You're Dead

The first song on Make Believe You're Dead, "Dark Abandoned Rooms," sounds exactly like it's title would lead you to believe -- these are the sad and scary sounds of every abandoned party house. Make Believe You're Dead sounds like my life from ages fifteen to twenty condensed into a 35 minute cassette -- mournful, distorted sounds that bring up images of sunken in couches and rooms littered with cigarette butts and empty red plastic cups. For every moment of audibly palpable desperation, there are seconds of unexpected beauty (not unlike the moments in Guided By Voices albums -- the two songs out of 35 -- that remind you that people are probably right when they call Bob Pollard a genius.)

You can view a track list & stream "Evil Practices in Ritual" here.

I like listening to these tapes from Bathetic because they challenge me in a way that most music doesn't. I'm the kind of person who likes what they like, and most of what I like is easy to listen to. I know I've said it before, but I'm a fan of conventional pop music. I tend to focus on lyrics, I like to sing along to things. These tapes are, generally speaking, not sing along music. They force me to focus on something other than words -- to find meaning in the way that sounds are arranged.

Bathetic is currently running a special where US customers can get any 2 items for $12, North American (non-US) customers can get any 2 items for $14, and customers in any non-US/North American country can get any two items for $17. Shipping is included in these prices. You can view Bathetic's catalogue here.

MiniBoone/Sippy Cup Everything Showcase Info

2010-10-19T12:24:00.002-04:00

Oh man, when am I ever going to learn to stop letting things linger in my inbox? About a week ago Mike from Sippy Cup Everything sent me a quick e-mail about a new track from MiniBoone from their forthcoming 7" & he tagged on some CMJ information as well. And, of course, I let it sit there and thought, I'll definitely get to it soon. And then I went out and bought the new Marnie Stern album and listened to it over and over again all weekend long while Mike's e-mail languished in my inbox.

Anyway, after tearing myself away from the Las Robertas album this morning, I decided to listen to the track Mike passed on to me so that I could at least post the CMJ showcase info in good conscience & whoa! It's nearly six minutes long & not a second of those six minutes is boring.

"The Other Summer" is a high energy epic pop song -- Mike compares it to Springsteen, Queen, & Andrew WK, & yeah, yes, all of those -- but I also hear the good humored power pop of Pansy Division & the driving, sincere sound of J Church. This is a sleek six minutes -- it doesn't sound like anything else I've been asked to listen to or write about lately. If you're a fan of frenzied pop ballads, you probably ought to listen to this (you can stream it here.) "The Other Summer" is the a-side of a forthcoming 7", so keep your eye out for that.

If you're going to be at CMJ this week, you can catch MiniBoone at any of their six performances:

10/20 WED @ 9:00pm | Gigmaven Showcase @ National Underground
10/22 FRI @ 8:00pm | Whitesmith Entertainment Showcase @ Otto’s Shrunken Head
10/22 FRI @ 9:30pm | RethinkPopMusic Showcase @ Crash Mansion
10/23 SAT @ 7:00pm | Showcase @ Parkside Lounge
10/23 SAT @ 10:15pm | Deli Magazine Official CMJ Showcase @ Spike Hill
10/23 SAT @ midnight | AMI Entertainment Showcase @ Ace of Club

Sippy Cup Everything is hosting a showcase of their own on Friday, the performance schedule is as follows & all performances are taking place at Spike Hill:

1:00pm Little Racer (NYC)
1:50pm The Big Big Bucks (Boston)
2:40pm Young Adults (Boston)
3:30pm Slow Animal (New Jersey)
4:20pm Young Mammals (Houston)
5:10pm Pretty & Nice (Boston)

MiniBoone on Bandcamp
MiniBoone on MySpace
MiniBoone official site
MiniBoone releases on Drug Front Records
Sippy Cup Everything on Tumblr

Las Robertas

2010-10-19T09:42:00.003-04:00

Last week Art Fag Recordings released Cry Out Loud the debut full-length from Las Robertas, a sun-drenched-noisy-all-girl trio from Costa Rica. The record is 10 songs long and it's longer than half an hour, but shorter than 31 minutes. It sounds like you might expect it to -- crashing cymbals, buzzsaw guitars, layered, echoing vocals... I go back and forth in my feelings re: contemporary garage rock. Most of the time, I think it's boring, hollow sounding, and overdone. I'm not especially interested in current garage-style bands &, more often than not, just don't pay any attention to them. I guess that Hipster Runoff called Las Robertas “‘the final piece’ in commodifying the genre of ‘female garage rock bands,’” and in some ways I can get behind that, but in others I think it's important to push back on that statement.

I recently finished reading Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus. While I had mixed feelings about the book overall, one of the ways it succeeded was in reminding me of the importance of recognizing the challenges that women making music in a "traditionally male" genre often face. (And, to a larger extent, the challenges that women musicians in general are confronted by on a daily basis.) I think that garage is one of those genres that tends toward being male dominated (for lack of better phrasing), but lately there's been a shift in that. I'm hearing more and more all-girl garage bands, which is cool, but sadly, most of these groups don't strike me. I may listen to an album or a few songs and think, "Oh, that was nice," but I'm rarely motivated to listen again or to dig deeper.

So, here is where I stand with the Las Robertas LP -- Cry Out Loud is growing on me. At first listen, I wasn't exactly wowed. There is an overwhelming sense of sameness between songs. For me, it's a kind of sameness that isn't exactly suggestive of a pervasive aesthetic or a desire to create an album that moves seamlessly between songs... Instead, it's just sort of... the same. (This "sameness" is usually what prevents me from enjoying garage rock in general.) But, I'm on my third listen now (I'm really, really trying not to write this album off, especially since I have a copy of it coming in the mail) and what I'm finding is that there are some great moments in this record. Repeated listening helps to give you a sense for the way the album feels and, slowly but surely, individual songs begin to emerge ("In Between Buses" and "The Curse" are especially striking.)

If you're a fan of girl garage in the vein of Vivian Girls and/or ramshackle homemade pop, this album is not a hard sell. You will like it! It is that simple. If you are not a die-hard fan of these things, this might not catch you right away. It might grow on you slowly. It might not grow on you at all. It's easy to write groups off, especially all-girl groups working within male dominated genres. It's easy to choose not to give something a second or a third chance, but it's hard to predict what albums will do, so I recommend giving this time and space to grow on you.

"V for You," Las Robertas

Cry Out Loud is available from Art Fag on cassette, CD, and LP. You can stream some tracks from the album on Las Robertas' Bandcamp and MySpace pages, you can also (links below.)

Las Robertas Official Website
Las Robertas on Bandcamp
Las Robertas on MySpace
Las Robertas on Blogspot
Art Fag Recordings

What's In My Car

2010-10-17T18:44:00.003-04:00

I know that this is, for all intents and purposes, a music blog, but there's a lot that I think about and one of the things I've been thinking about lately is the ways in which the consumption of cultural products contributes to the creation/presentation of identities. People get ideas about other people based on what they like, what they own, etc. People who read this blog probably get a certain idea about me based on what I write about/how I write.

Anyway, I cleaned out my car today and pulled the following 15 CDs out of my glovebox and I was thinking, the music that you listen to when you're alone and have no one to impress is probably the music that speaks the most to your actual (non-constructed) identity. So, in the interest of transparency (and to better advance my quest to prove just how un-cool I am), here is what I pulled out of my car:

Asobi Seksu, Asobi Seksu (Friendly Fire Recordings, 2004) I got this for $1 from the Half Price Books in Mayfield. Shoegaze, dreampop, cheap as all get out.

Big Star, #1 Record/Radio City (Stax, reissued 1992) This belongs to Drew -- it's perfect for late night drives. The last time I listened to this I think we were driving back from Oberlin. It sounded just right in the country-dark.

The Casual Dots, The Casual Dots (Kill Rock Stars, 2003) I bought this when I was a junior (?) in high school because I was obsessed with their cover of "Bumblebee." It's still my favorite song on the album.

Gaze, Mitsumeru (K Records, 1998) Best pop CD! I could listen to this album over and over -- "Jelly Beans" and "Peeking Shows His Ignorance" are perfect songs.

Husker Du, The Living End (Warner, 1994) Husker Du live album. I got this from the used bin at Music Saves. Normally I'm not crazy about live albums, but this isn't half bad. I mainly keep it in the car so that I don't have to keep more than one Husker Du album with me.

Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville (Matador, 1993) Another album that I bought in high school. It will never get old.

Lois, Strumpet (K Records, 1993) If you're going to keep just one Lois album in your car, it should be Strumpet. I feel like a lot of people overlook Lois, which is a real shame -- she writes solid songs and has collaborated with some great musicians. She's definitely one of my favorite K artists.

Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster... (Arts and Crafts, 2008) These songs are just so good! Honestly, when this first came out, I thought I would burn out on it pretty quickly, but years later I still feel my heart get caught in my chest during "This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"" when Gareth says, "I know. I am wrong. I am sorry."

Mary Lou Lord, Got No Shadow (Sony/Work, 1998) Mary Lou Lord can be kind of tepid, it's true, but "Some Jingle Jangle Morning" is perf -- especially the "no one sees much of anyone these days" line.

The Microphones, Mt. Eerie (K Records, 2003) Drew bought this for me for $1 from the CD/Game Exchange on Coventry -- honestly, I'm not super crazy about this for general listening, but it's good for solo nighttime drives.

Mirah, C'mon Miracle (K Records, 2003) My favorite Mirah album for the car is actually that rarities comp that Modern Radio put out a couple of years ago, but C'mon Miracle is full of sweeping, majestic pop songs tinged with sophistication and sadness.

The Promise Ring, The Horse Latitudes (Jade Tree, 1997) From the second this starts up and I hear that opening line ("There will be ice cream"), I always feel my spirits lift.

Shonen Knife, Heavy Songs (Confidential Recordings, 2003) Another Music Saves used bin find -- Japanese all-girl pop punk trio.

Sugar, Copper Blue (Ryko, 1992) I love Husker Du and I love Bob Mould and I love Sugar and "If I Can't Change Your Mind" is singular in its greatness.

Various Artists, Fall Mix '09 (made by Alana, 2009) This is a mix that my friend, professional tattoo artist and karaoke enthusiast, Alana, made me. It's all nineties emo (The Promise Ring, American Football, cap'n Jazz, etc.) and it rules. Maybe I'll upload it since it's fall again.

New Release(s) from MJ Hibbett & The Validators

2010-10-11T10:27:00.003-04:00

So, I keep referring to this "backlog" of things I have to listen to, you know, like I'm just so overwhelmed with things to listen to (what a tragedy!), but it's true, I have a huge backlog of things that I was e-mailed about ages and ages ago and I feel downright awful (and ridiculous) that it's taken me so long to get to ~~some~~ most of them, especially when people made the effort to, you know, e-mail me well in advance so I can do things like talk about the shows they're playing to promote their releases.

Back on September 3rd (so, like, a month and a week ago which is like a zillion years in internet time), MJ Hibbett was kind enough to send me an e-mail about his latest releases with The Validators: Forest Moon of Enderby and Hibbett's Superstore. It is like MJ Hibbett is exactly in tune with how long it typically takes me to get things done, because I'm able to squeak this in just in time for his tour information to still be relevant(!!!) and for this to be posted before Forest Moon and Superstore are officially released.

Forest Moon of Enderby collects 12 rare b-sides and it comes packaged with a second rarities collection (a multimedia album entitled Hibbett's Superstore, containing an additional 23 tracks.) Back in May, I reviewed the MJ Hibbett & The Validator's album Regardez, Ecoutez, et Repetez and it's hard not to just copy and paste big quotes from that review because so much of what I liked about Regardez is done just as well in the songs on Forest Moon of Enderby, especially the fact that while MJ Hibbett & The Validators have such a great, youthful pop sound, their songs are, lyrically, deeply thoughtful and reflect a wide range of adult attitudes and experiences. I think you hear this especially in "Billy Jones is Dead," "Leave My Brother Alone," and "Graffiti On The Cenotaph."

While Forest Moon of Enderby collects rare full-band material, Hibbett's Superstore is focused primarily on Hibbett's solo recordings. The songs on Superstore range wildly in topic and length, but they're strung together by the same sensibilities that ground Hibbett's full-band work with The Validators: the lyrics are both sincere and clever and the music is relentlessly catchy.

MJ Hibbett & The Validators are unable to do a "traditional" tour in support of this release, but they've worked out a nice way of getting around that. Starting tonight, MJ Hibbett will be performing an acoustic set every two weeks in the upstairs room at The Lamb in London. Each performance will then be released as a free to download podcast. Hibbett's shows at The Lamb will involve collaboration with Chris T-T, The Bobby McGees, Gavin Osborn and members of Pocketbooks. If you can't make it out to The Lamb, podcasts will be available to download from Totally Acoustic and iTunes starting October 15th.

Forest Moon of Enderby (packaged along with Hibbett's Superstore) will be released on Oct. 18th and is currently available for pre-order right here. If you're interested in even more MJ Hibbett & The Validators, be sure to peruse their website.

TOUR DATES

Mon 11 Oct with Gavin Osborn and Dr Neil Brown
Tue 26 Oct with Winston Echo and Pete Green
Mon 8 Nov with Frankie Machine and The Bobby McGees
Tue 23 Nov with Dave Green and Jenny Lockyer
Tue 7 Dec with Keith TOTP and Tim Eveleigh
Tue 21 Dec with Chris T-T and Andy from Pocketbooks

All gigs take place in the upstairs room of The Lamb at 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, London WC1N 3LZ and start promptly at 7:30pm, finishing at 9:15pm.

Silje Nes

2010-10-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

Silje Nes, "The Grass Harp" (DOWNLOAD)
Silje Nes, "Crystals" (DOWNLOAD)

Miranda Lange from PMA PR first e-mailed me about Silje Nes about a month ago -- I don't know why, but I hesitated to act on her e-mail. To be honest, I'm not used to being e-mailed by PR people, I typically get e-mails from either bands/artists or labels (or I don't get e-mailed by anyone at all.) So, I let Miranda's e-mail sit while I went about my usual business of listening to the same mix CD 30 or 40 times in the car & then I got another e-mail from Miranda and then I got another (persistence and follow up is also something new to me.)

This morning I finally gave in and listened to Opticks, Silje's latest release. Opticks is Silje's second album and like her first it's home recorded and works within layers upon layers of sound, blending organic and inorganic elements to create pop songs that feel like cocoons. Opticks is not the type of music I typically listen to, so it's hard for me to come up with solid points of comparison, but I think that if you imagined a mix between Björk's Vespertine and Lykke Li's Youth Novels, you wouldn't be too off the mark.

Final Thought: It's fall here in Cleveland and soon it will be winter. Opticks seems destined to be a winter album -- something for crisp, colorless mornings spent indoors with a laptop and your headphones.

Order Opticks direct from FatCat Records here (US release is this coming Tuesday, 10/12; it's already available globally.)
Stream more songs by Silje and check out her UK/Europe tour dates on her MySpace

Silje Nes, "The Grass Harp" (DOWNLOAD)
Silje Nes, "Crystals" (DOWNLOAD)

Live in CLE (Last Night)

2010-10-10T12:20:00.003-04:00

Last night I went to a four-band, $5 show at the Happy Dog, which is probably one of my favorite places to see bands play. Full disclosure: as much as I love going out, sometimes instead of being packed in elbow to elbow with a bunch of people I don't know, I kind of just want to sit down, eat a hot dog, and listen to some music and the Happy Dog is the only place in Cleveland that lets that dream of mine come true. Also, I don't know why, but the older I get, the more skeptical I am about going out, but last night was a temporary break in my bad attitude and a nice reminder that cheap late nights can easily be as fulfilling as nights where I literally fall asleep face down in an English translation of a Norwegian novel, which is actually how most of my nights have gone lately.

Anyway, last night offered up four bands, two local (Library Time and Prisoners) and two touring (Party Photographers from Philadelphia, PA and SPORTS from Rochester, NY.)

I had never seen Library Time before -- they play fractured pop songs held together by synths & a saxophone. To my knowledge, they don't have any releases currently available, but you can stream their song "Africa" on their MySpace and if you like what you hear, they have a Cleveland show set up at the Cool Ranch on Nov. 12th.

Party Photographers were a four piece with a lead singer who looked like Clare Grogan and sang like Calvin Johnson, which is basically all I could hope to dream of re: people who front bands. They were touring in promotion of a new 7" (if they're not playing in your city, you can order it online via their MySpace.)

SPORTS from New Rochester reminded me of Elvis Costello & The Attractions. They were passing through Cleveland on a two day mini-tour and will (I hope!) tour more extensively when their LP is released. I'm currently having non-buyer's remorse over the fact that I didn't pick up one of the CDs they were selling because they were just so solid & fun (definitely listen to "Side Effect of Talk" on their MySpace.)

Prisoners played last & they sounded great. If you're in the Cleveland area & you haven't seen them play yet, you should come out next time they play. They've got a full-length LP out on Smog Veil and their second album is forthcoming. Prisoners have upcoming shows at Now That's Class and the Happy Dog, you can get the dates on their MySpace.

Upcoming Shows at the Happy Dog can be seen here.

Angel Olson

2010-10-07T22:43:00.005-04:00

When I was in high school, I had a friend who lived in what was probably a haunted house. It looked haunted, it sounded haunted, and at night, while we tried to sleep in her drafty, creaky bedroom, it felt haunted. I remember one night when we were fifteen, sitting in the kitchen with her dogs, making a tape of Christmas songs for her mother and at the end of the night, when we played the tape back, there wasn't a single song on it -- instead it played back the sound of us talking and laughing and the dogs' tails thumping against the floor. I remember how we tried to explain it -- the cassette deck didn't have an external microphone, there was no way for us to have accidentally recorded ourselves -- but somehow, there it was. There we were. "Maybe," I said, already certain that I was wrong, "maybe it has to do with magnets or something?"

Listening to Strange Cacti reminds me of that night. Angel Olsen's voice sounds like it is coming from somewhere else entirely -- she is not in the kitchen with us, though. She is in the barn out back, or the basement down below, or the attic that you had to climb a flight of dangerously narrow steps to get into.

Strange Cacti is a six song cassette recently reissued on Bathetic. Angel's songs are slow and mysterious and otherworldly. She has a rich, sad voice that reminds me of a cross between Jolie Holland and Leslie Gore (except I mean "You Don't Own Me" (YouTube), not "It's My Party.) The songs on Strange Cacti are night songs -- songs for dark places and sad, scary times -- but they're touching, too, haunting in all the right ways.

My favorite track on the cassette is "If It's Alive, It Will." You can stream it here.

Again, you can get Strange Cacti from Bathetic. Angel also has a cassette forthcoming on Love Lion. You can stream a few of Angel's songs on her MySpace.

Old News: Delta Dart Albums!

2010-10-04T12:13:00.003-04:00

Delta Dart, Lone Star LP (DOWNLOAD)
Delta Dart, Fight or Flight LP (DOWNLOAD)

So, when I posted that link to the Delta Dart demo tape uploaded to Soul Ponies, I received a request in the comments for Delta Dart's albums. I took a quick look around to see how available they still are and although they're still up for sale on the Paroxysm Records site, said site hasn't been updated since 2008, so you'll likely want to e-mail and check availability before sending them any money.

That said, here are Delta Dart's two full length LP's, Fight or Flight and Lone Star. Fight or Flight is complete, but for some reason I'm missing the last two tracks ("Fifteen" and "Extra Extra") are missing. I did some quick searching around the internet to see if I could recover them from another source, but didn't have any luck. So, sorry, but if you want a complete version of Lone Star, your best bet is to get in touch with the folks at Paroxysm or search out a used copy.

Anyway, as mentioned last week, Delta Dart is an all-girl three piece who made loud-quiet-loud riot grrrl type songs. They sound sort of like a cross between Tattle Tale and The Third Sex. You can get (slightly) more info on Delta Dart at the Paroxysm Records site.

Delta Dart, Lone Star LP (DOWNLOAD)
Delta Dart, Fight or Flight LP (DOWNLOAD)

Old News: Weatherbeat Scene and Delta Dart Demos

2010-09-28T09:48:00.003-04:00

Again I've got a huge backlog of stuff to listen to & review, a quick scroll through my inbox tells me that you can look forward to thoughts on the upcoming Katrina Stonehart/Vehicle Blues split on A. Karina tapes, songs by Hope Slide, two new releases from MJ Hibbett, songs by Summer Library, the list goes on and on... Plus I just got a big box of tapes from Bathetic Records that I'm hoping to listen to this week.

Anyway, I just wanted to direct you to two out of print releases recently uploaded by other blogs. Take the Pills! recently uploaded Welcome to the Wetherbeat Scene 1988-1991, an amazing comp put together by Stewart Anderson (Boyracer, 555 Records.) Wetherbeat features 36 songs from bands formed at Wetherby High School (many of them featuring Stewart himself.) I did some googling last night and while this is getting increasingly hard to come by, it looks like you can still get copies from Midheaven Maiorder for $7.25, which is TOTALLY WORTH IT. (Order here.)

Also worth a download is the Delta Dart demo tape recently uploaded at Soul Ponies. Delta Dart was a sort-of riot grrrl three piece out of (where else?) Olympia, WA. I picked up this demo tape a zillion years ago from the now-defunct Moon Rocket Distro which operated out of New Zealand.) The dual female vocals Delta Dart makes use of remind me of Tattle Tale (whose discography I uploaded awhile back.) I'll be honest, there's not much to differentiate Delta Dart from other female vocal driven riot grrrl type music, but I do have a soft spot for Delta Dart. To my knowledge, their albums Fight or Flight and Lone Star are both out of print, so I'm happy to upload them for anyone who might want them. Just ask!

Live in Cleveland/Giving It All Away (5)

2010-09-22T15:06:00.005-04:00

(Details for the give-away are at the bottom of the post!)

Last night Drew and I headed up to the Grog Shop to catch Best Coast with Male Bonding and local CLE band, Clovers. We had seen Best Coast once before, last April at the Sco, and you could tell that the BC hype machine had been working overtime since then. The tickets for this show cost about twice and much and there were maybe twice as many people there.

This show has some good moments and bad moments. I really enjoyed Clovers' opening set. I had seen them once or twice before at the Happy Dog & they grow on my every time. Their lo-fi surf pop sound was a great fit for Best Coast & the crowd seemed to really enjoy their performance. You can listen to some songs & see upcoming tour dates on their MySpace (Clevelanders -- Clovers will be playing this weekend for Ingenuity Fest & they also have a show in October at the aforementioned Happy Dog.)

Male Bonding really surprised me. I feel like I've been seeing their album cover all over the place, but I never really bothered to check them out. But after last night, you can consider me a convert. Male Bonding blend elements of hardcore and pop & there's almost nothing I like better than punk songs with infectious melodies. Their full-length, Nothing Hurts, is out now on Sub Pop. You can stream tracks from Nothing Hurts on their MySpace.

Best Coast was great -- they played pretty much every single song off their debut LP, Crazy for You (out now onMexican Summer.) The band was just is spirited as they were the last time Drew and I saw them & though they fucked up a few songs, Bethany Cosentino was candid in her stage banter & used those fuck ups as a way to engage with the audience. There was sort of a dark moment where someone in the audience shouted, "Where's Snacks?" (referring to Cosentino's cat) -- she replied, "Back in California," and you could just tell that she did not want to have this conversation and was probably sick of people corralling her into talking about her cat all the time because it's "quirky" or whatever. Things got ugly when the same heckler shouted, "I heard he had a medical condition," and Cosentino replied, "Yeah, he does." People in the audience started cracking jokes about her "sick" cat and she snapped and shouted, "It's not fucking funny, he gets seizures!" (The audience responded to this with a chorus of "My ______ (mom, brother, dog, etc.) gets seizures!" and "Epilepsy! EPILEPSY!!!")

Over the last few months, as Best Coast has become increasingly more popular/visible and this narrative of Bethany "cat lover" Cosentino has continued to grow, I've heard a lot of criticism about Cosentino's lyrics and the way she's focused both her songs and her public persona around cats, weed, and her boyfriend. Everyone says that it's naive or tame or cloying or whatever, but last night reminded me of just how risky it is to sincerely be who you are in a public forum. So you're not afraid to tell the whole world that you love your cat, Snacks? Great, people who don't know you will get drunk and make fun of you because your cat gets seizures.

Give-Away Details

The give-away is closed! Congrats to Miranda! So, as a give-away, I have a souvenir from last night: It's a Best Coast button, 2" in diameter featuring the bear from the California state flag. If you want one, just leave a comment here with the title of your favorite Best Coast song. (I understand that OpenID hasn't been working for everyone, unfortunately because of the volume of spam comments I sometimes get, I do have to have them moderated. If you're unable to post here, feel free to post elsewhere (on your own blog, tumblr, twitter, wherever) -- just e-mail me at heysideponytail@gmail.com with a link to your post.)) As always if you post a link to SP elsewhere, you'll get an extra number when I run the random number generator. I'll leave comments open until midnight on Sunday! This is open to everyone, not just US residents.

New Sourpatch 7" & video!

2010-09-20T20:13:00.001-04:00

I know we've been over this before, but I love Sourpatch. When I found out that I wouldn't be able to go to Athens PopFest this summer because of major work scheduling conflicts (I AM STILL BITTER ABOUT THIS!!!) Sourpatch was one of the bands I was saddest about missing. I love Sourpatch with all of the heart and sincerity that I typically reserve for bands like Go Sailor & Tiger Trap and why shouldn't I? Sourpatch is a self-described "four piece 90's pop-worship ensemble" and counts both Go Sailor and Tiger Trap among their major influences.

Sourpatch first stole my heart with a seven song demo on Where It's At Is Where You Are & followed up with an amazing album on Happy Happy Birthday To Me. Their latest, a 4 song EP (also released on HHBTM) seals the deal: this quartet makes perfect pop. "Deli Dream" and "Funny Inside" are sweet and sentimental, but not overly cute or cloying. "Sky is Falling" is a slight change of pace with male vocals, a guitar solo, & some slightly dissonant guitar noises/feedback, but it's just as catchy and heartfelt as the EP's first two tracks. "Into You," a 1 minute and 30 second indie pop jam closes things out.

The EP's four songs clock in at 7 minutes and 24 seconds, but the impressions of the songs linger much longer than their actual run time and it's not hard at all to find yourself wanting to start it over right from the beginning.

mira mija is out now on Happy Happy Birthday To Me. It has a beautiful screen printed sleeve and each 7" comes with a digital download. It's not up for order on the site just yet, but should be soon. If you can't be bothered to wait, Jigsaw has some available now & Chris is lightning quick when it comes to shipping things.

Check out the video for the 7"s lead track, "Deli Dream," below:

Sourpatch's full-length album (ALSO GREAT!) is available from HHBTM & you can check out more of their jams on MySpace.

Kevin Greenspon + Cloud Nothings

2010-09-08T15:17:00.005-04:00

Kevin Greenspoon, "Carpool Pepsi" (DOWNLOAD)
Cloud Nothings, "I Apologize" (DOWNLOAD)

I know, I know, I just wrote about that Bridgetown Records summer batch of releases, but I came home from work the other day & there was a copy of a new Bridgetown release sitting on my porch and I couldn't not write about it, especially when it's so good. The latest from Bridgetown is Kevin Greenspon + Cloud Nothings, a 10 song CD-split featuring 5 new songs from both of the featured artists. Drew and I listened to the split together in the car last night and since then I've listened to it four times at my desk -- honestly, it gets better every time.

I've been trying to think about how to talk about this album, because I am really bad at descriptive language and talking about what things sound like in concrete terms that will help someone to actually understand what they actually sound like, and most of the time the best I can do is to cobble together some weird story that doesn't actually make any sense but is maybe at least interesting.

So here is a story that will probably not tell you anything about what this split actually sounds like: When I was a senior in college, I went on a brief string of dates (maybe dates? maybe not dates?) with a guy a few years older than me who worked as an in-home portrait photographer and who drove all over rural poor communities in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana taking pictures of people who wanted to have something to remind them of what they worked so hard for. He lived in a studio apartment in Cincinnati and on our first (non-)date we drove around for miles listening to this cassette tape of dissonant pop music and I had never heard of any of the bands on it because by the time I was a senior in college I was emotionally numb and spent all of my free time listening "Dead Set On Destruction" by Husker Du and "History Lesson Part II" by Minutemen on repeat, I was too embarrassed to ask who any of the bands were, but I feel like these songs would have been a perfect fit.

These ten songs sound exactly like that time in my life -- speedy, hazy, disoriented, but with this strong undercurrent of youth and vitality and melody. These songs sound like the hour long drive home at two in the morning -- like going 70mph in the pitch black dark, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the snow, sometimes with the windows down -- unsure if I am headed away from something or towards something, only sure that I am moving.

If you need something a little less "ripped from the closing monologue of an episode of My So-Called Life," this split is 18 minutes and 26 seconds of amazing lo-fi pop music. Kevin Greenspon is based in California and Cloud Nothings are right here in Cleveland, OH, so this CD crosses the country and bridges the haze of the Pacific coast with the scum of the post-industrial midwest.

You can pick this up on CD from Bridgetown for $8 (it's in an edition of just 250 copies, so if you want it, don't hesitate to pick it up.) It's also available on cassette from cass/flick (UK) for £4.99+shipping.

Kevin Greenspon, "Carpool Pepsi" (DOWNLOAD)
Cloud Nothings, "I Apologize" (DOWNLOAD)

Old News: Ragazza Pop Compilation

2010-08-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

Various Artists, Ragazza Pop (DOWNLOAD)

Earlier this summer, Mirah released a 7" on Mississippi Records. The a-side, "Don't!" just happened to be one of my favorite Mirah songs. A sixties girl group inspired number with a pounding piano and backing vocals from The Blow's Khaela Maricich. "Don't!" was featured on Modern Radio's Mirah rarities collection, The Old Days Feeling, but first appeared on Ragazza Pop, an amazing pop compilation with contributions from Mirah, Moe Tucker, The Shermans, and more.

Initially released in 2003, the comp is certainly old news, but if you missed it the first time around, it's certainly worth hearing. If you're a fan of "Don't!" you can pick the newly pressed 7" up for $6 at the K Records online shop.

The tracklist is as follows:

1. "Pop Conversation (Main Titles)"
2. "At the Airport #a" - Instant Café Records
3. "Her Words Hang In The Air" - The Ladybug Transistor
4. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - Moe Tucker
5. "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." - The Four Corners
6. "Loud and Laughing" - The Shermans
7. "Comme D'habitude" - Souvenir
8. "Star Watcher's Song" - Instant Café Records
9. "Flashin' Light (Some Girls Like to Disco) [Cocosuma remix]" - Valvola
10. "London" - Noonday Underground
11. "Liebe Auf Dem Land" - Die Moulinettes
12. "White Drops" - Plus-Tech Squeeze Box
13. "Mon Ange Gardien" - April March
14. "To Know Him Is To Love Him" - Moe Tucker
15. "Fine Day" - Three Berry Icecream
16. "The Sun Keeps Shining On Me" - Fonda
17. "Free" - The Mondo Crescendo
18. "Hey Lover" - The Aislers Set
19. "Don't" - Mirah
20. "Let Drive at Him" - Instant Café Records
21. "Summertime" - The Faraway Places
22. "I Wanna" - Moe Tucker
23. "Pop Conversation (End Titles)"

Various Artists, Ragazza Pop (DOWNLOAD)

New Releases from Allo Darlin!

2010-08-23T13:11:00.003-04:00

I got an e-mail on the Allo Darlin mailing list this afternoon with some exciting news! The group has a new 7" out on Fortuna Pop -- "If Loneliness Was Art" b/w "Girlfriend." According to the e-mail, the 7" arrives tomorrow and will soon be available to order either directly from the band or on the Fortuna Pop website. "If Loneliness Was Art" is the third single from Allo Darlin's gorgeous self-titled album (released earlier this summer on Fortuna Pop.) I already can't wait to order my copy!

The group has also contributed a song ("Tallulah") to the Hangover Lounge 10" comp. You can read about & listen to all of the tracks on the comp here. (The page for Allo Darlin's contribution is here.) The Hangover Lounge 10" is limited to 500 copies -- paypal £7 (UK) £8 (Europe) £10 (Americas) or £11 (Aus/NZ/Far East) to wiaiwya@hotmail.com. In addition to the blogspot site, you can stream the song and view more information on Allo Darlin's bandcamp page.

The band's e-mail also mentioned that they'll be touring the US in October, so I'll be sure to keep my eye out for those dates!

Bridgetown Records Summer Releases

2010-08-23T11:18:00.001-04:00

Summer is drawing to a close & I feel like a real jerk because I've had an e-mail from Kevin at Bridgetown about their summer batch of releases sitting in my inbox since July 15th. Kevin was kind enough to send me a selection of tracks from each of the albums included in this summer's package deal & there are some real gems. I've listened to his sampler a few times now but just haven't found the time to write about it here.

Anyway, as summer winds down, it's definitely worth your time to check out Bridgetown's summer batch -- it's seven albums (postage paid) for $30 (US, rates go up slightly for international shipping.) The seven albums include:

Kindest Lines, Kindest Lines CDr
Weed Diamond, Carry On + Sweater Kids combo CD
Ancient Crux, Stage Fright + Live in LA combo CDr
David Jaberi, Out CDr
R. Sawyer, I Burn CDr
Junior Low, Heavy CDr
Vehicle Blues, Changer CDr (I reviewed this back in June, you can read the review here)

As usual, Bridgetown delivers a great selection of lo-fi bedroom recordings, many of them with strong pop sensibilities. My favorite track out of the sampler Kevin sent to me was Weed Diamond's "All Of Denver Is Wasted." If you don't want to buy the whole combo pack, I would at least recommend picking up Weed Diamond's Carry On + Sweater Kids combo CDr. It's great ethereal lo-fi pop music and the combo CD features an EP and an out of print (remastered) cassette. "Mint in My Mouth" is one of my favorite songs from Weed Diamond's combo CD & you can view a video for it below.

Weed Diamond, "Mint in My Mouth"

New Releases from weePOP! Records

2010-08-22T19:23:00.004-04:00

My backlog of things to review is just getting bigger and bigger! weePOP! was recently kind enough to send along their two newest releases and since they were both short & sweet, I thought I'd listen to them to (hopefully) ease back into reviewing things. I apologize for the lack of reviews lately -- I work for a university and with students returning to class in just a week, my office is in the midst of our "busy" season. Hopefully things will calm down soon so that I can go back to doing nothing at my desk!

Anyway, Let's Whisper is the side project of Colin and Dana, who are both members of Vermont pop group The Smittens. Keep A Secret, their new 3" CD-R (out now on weePOP!), is just as intimate as its name suggests. "California Girls" borrows a line from the Beach Boys and blends it with Field Mice-esque pop: distinct guitar lines, clear as a bell vocals, and synthetic sounding percussion. My favorite moment of "California Girls" comes in the last 35 seconds or so, a delirious chorus of "where, where, where you going?" that quickly fades out into nothing. Things change pace with the second song, "Snowy Sunday," a plaintive bedroom pop ballad that sounds just as introspective and isolated as winter feels. "Meet Me On The Dancefloor" features male & female vocals accentuated by handclaps & "uh ohs." It's an upbeat number that comes close to being saccharine, but it's so sincere that it's hard to fault (especially the "Monday always comes too soon" line, which I'm really feeling right now.) The CD-R closes with "Holly in Wintertime," which is pretty downbeat (at least, compared to the rest of the release.) I think the resemblance to the Field Mice is strongest on this last track (not that that's a bad thing!) You can get Keep A Secret direct from weePOP! If you're in the UK it's $ pounds (including shipping) and if you're not, it's five pounds with shipping (a little over $7.)

Stars of Aviation also have a new 3" CD-R out on weePOP! By the Shore begins with the title track "By the Shore," a nicely arranged, straightforward pop number about summer holidays featuring piano & horns. "Deepest Dark Peru" is set to a beat that reminds me of one of those pre-recorded Casio "bossa nova" tracks. Sung in a combination of French and English, it has a nice laid back vibe & definitely sounds like something my mother would listen to while making breakfast, like Weekend's La Variete or something. "Underneath the Elms" sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on a Magnetic Fields record (well, the horns might give it away.) The closing track, "You Be The Boy, I'll Be The Girl" is my favorite track by far. Something about the vocals and orchestration reminds me just a touch of Belle and Sebastian (but one of their great non-album tracks, like "I'm Waking Up To Us.") There's an amazing country-ish sounding guitar line buried just under the vocals in the chorus that I can't get enough of -- something about this song really works for me in a way that the others don't. Like Keep A Secret, By the Shore is 4 pounds within the UK (including shipping) and 5 pounds (including shipping for international buyers.) You can get it direct from weePOP!

You can hear sample mp3s from both releases on the weePOP! site. weePOP! specializes in limited run 3" CD-Rs and 7" records.

Everything and More

2010-08-22T19:00:00.002-04:00

Back in June, I mentioned that Everything and More, a comprehensive Dolly Mixture box set was available for pre-order (you can view the old post here.) I went back and forth on whether or not to order it, eventually deciding that it was too expensive. In July, I saw that Jigsaw Records was offering a special where you could order the set for $35 -- I decided I would order when I got my next paycheck & then, of course, it sold out.

Long story ~~short~~ still sort of long... Everything and More is back in stock at Jigsaw and my copy came in the mail yesterday afternoon (honestly, I can't say enough good things about Jigsaw -- amazing selection of new and used records, fair prices, and extremely fast shipping.)

I also can't say enough good things about Everything and More. Normally I don't notice when things are remastered -- the music I typically listens to errs so heavily on the side of lo-fi that it's hard for me to appreciate good production/remastering work, but these songs sound beautiful. There's a distinctly noticeable jump in sound quality from the Dolly Mixture recordings I've heard in the past, making the songs sound new and fresh.

The box's packaging is beautiful (I'm a sucker for nice commercial design) & addition to band's full-length album, Demonstration Tapes, it includes all of their singles, the posthumously released Fireside EP, and a number of demos, covers, and live recordings.

I don't buy box sets often, but I highly recommend picking this up. If you're in the US, your best bet is probably the aforementioned Jigsaw. If you're in the UK/Europe, you can order it here.

Looking Glass

2010-08-03T08:37:00.000-04:00

Looking Glass, "Target" (DOWNLOAD)

And we continue our journey back in time through my inbox to July 21st, a mere two weeks ago! When Tom from Infinite Wisdom e-mailed me about the new EP from Looking Glass, a folkish quartet from London. The First Real Target is a four song EP and it sounds, to me, like a cross between the mellowest moments of Fevers and Mirrors era Bright Eyes crossed with Sufjan Stevens' Seven Swans.

So, that's the semi-logistical part & this is the sentimental makes-no-sense part: Back when I was in college, I did a summer semester where I took a grammar course that involved hours of time alone in the evenings diagramming sentences & biking the miles between my crummy sublet house and the English building where my grammar class was held every afternoon. That summer I lived with two other girls and we had almost no food and even less furniture and one of my housemates and I listened to the same sad songs obsessively while we lied around on the floor eating lemon ice. And I feel like this EP, particularly the song "Target," would have been the perfect addition to what was, essentially the last real summer of our youth. It is not at all hard for me to superimpose these songs over memories of aimless evenings, still summer air, late sunsets, the almost singular experience of living in a college town in the summer... I wish we had had these songs then. It certainly would have broken up the monotony of listening to "The Dress Looks Nice On You" on repeat.

The First Real Target will be released on CD on August 16th. You can preorder it right here for 4GBP. You can stream some of the songs (along with a few non-EP tracks) on MySpace.

Looking Glass, "Target" (DOWNLOAD)

Summer Releases from Solid Melts

2010-08-02T20:30:00.006-04:00

I'm not kidding around when I said that I had a backlog of reviews to get through! Internet technology (also known as my inbox) has fortunately allowed me to travel back in time to June 20th, which is when Drew e-mailed me about some (then) new releases on Solid Melts -- a cassette from HORSES called Sincerely Jackie Chan & a free (free!) digital comp called An Empire of Fun.

The HORSES cassette is limited to 50 copies and sounds like a dream -- literally. Everything seems filtered through a blue light, vocals are both distant and immediate and soft, looping background noises cocoon you in sound, creating a distorted sense of space and time. If you take a couple of minutes to listen to the songs available on their MySpace, you'll know exactly what I mean. Sincerely Jackie Chan is 20 minutes of hazy, atmospheric song collages with moments of startling lyrical clarity. You can stream tracks from the tape on Bandcamp & if you like it, you can pick up your copy for $6ppd (or $9 if you live outside of the US.) I've got to say -- at $6, if you like what you hear online, you really should buy the tape. There's something particularly special about owning limited edition tapes, I think. And I don't mean that in a snobby "collector-y" way at all -- I really just associate cassette tapes with a particular kind of analog joy. Again, Sincerely Jackie Chan is limited to 50 copies.

An Empire of Fun is Solid Melts' summer 2010 compilation & features tracks from Cloud Nothings, Vehicle Blues, Kevin Greenspon, & a whole host of other artist. So, here's a confession: I actually listen to a lot of commercial/traditional pop music. Like, all summer long I've been making mix CDs to listen to in the car and my most recent summer jams mix featured Prince, Bone Thugz 'N Harmony, and The Monkees. That said, it's probably not hard for you to infer that listening to something like An Empire of Fun -- which features songs that tend to be more about atmosphere than hooks -- is a real change of pace for me. Some of the songs on An Empire of Fun seem almost Lynchian in nature to me (which is a hardcore change of pace since I'm regularly talking about how all of my favorite Monkees songs are written by Neil Diamond.) There were a couple of songs on here that really caught my ear, though. "Discover" by Coasting was a pleasant surprise -- hooky with alternately sweet and aggressive female vocals buried under layers of noise. It sounds almost like a cross between Guided By Voices and Julie Ruin. "overpass" by Katrina Stonehart sounds sort of like a Jesus and Mary Chain song being played through a Yak Bak or a meat grinder, & "Ralphie" by Big Dogs is an unexpected spot of garage punk (complete with a whoa-oh chorus.) "Who Could Break Your Heart" by Lazy sounds almost like a lost track from a Berkley comp, not unlike something you might hear from The Modern Lovers. What I really appreciate about a release like An Empire of Fun (and I don't mean this is a snide way) is that it's free -- anyone who wants to try it can & you can take what you like & leave what you don't without feeling bad about it & then you have the opportunity to financially support the bands you did like by buying their other releases. So, if you're interested, you can download An Empire of Fun for free right here.

For more releases on the Solid Melts label, you can check out their site.

Giving It All Away (4)!

2010-08-01T13:16:00.005-04:00

It's been a little while since I've done a give away (not since May!) & since I'm working on getting caught up with a backlog of things and getting things rolling here again, I thought now might be as good a time as any.

Before I forget! To cut down on spam (I've been getting a ton of spam comments lately), I've switched over to moderated comments. If your comment doesn't show up immediately, don't worry. It's just sitting in the moderation queue.

So, this week I have a copy of a 7" by lo-fi Cleveland pop group, Cloud Nothings. "Morgan" b/w "Another Man" came out on Group Tightener in February and was sold out by May. Limited to 250 hand numbered & hand stamped copies, I'm honestly not sure where you can get a copy of this anymore. Maybe directly from the band? There might be a handful of distros with copies... I did a bit of quick googling, but wasn't able to find it online anywhere. I picked this up from Music Saves, a locally owned & operated Cleveland record store (to my knowledge, it was their last copy.)

So, to make this 7" your very own, leave a comment with one (or some) of your favorite song title(s) that have someone's name in them, a la "Morgan," this 7"s a-side. Some of my favorites include "Valerie" by The Monkees, "Josie" by Blink-182, "Rosie" by The Smugglers (with Rose Melberg), "Shelley" by The Dancehall Crashers -- I could keep going, but I won't.

Comments must be left by 12 midnight EST on Friday, August 6th. Please leave your e-mail address in your comment so that I can contact you!

Cloud Nothings do have a new (not yet sold out) 7" out on Old Flame Records, you can pick it up for $7 (postage paid) right here.

Group Tightener on MySpace
Cloud Nothings on MySpace
Bridgetown Records (where you can get Cloud Nothings' Turning On on CD for $6)

The Wendy Darlings

2010-08-01T12:35:00.003-04:00

The Wendy Darlings, "Zero Zero Seven" (DOWNLOAD)

First: I've got a huge backlog of reviews to get through, so I'm really sorry if you've e-mailed me about something and I haven't gotten back to you! I was e-mailed about this Wendy Darlings 7" back in the first week of July and am just now getting to it! (In all fairness, I did just move and have been working on cleaning the new house, getting the old house ready for an inspection, unpacking everything, etc.)

Second: I'm slowly, slowly working my way through the releases that have been e-mailed/regular mailed to me. If you've sent something my way, I promise that I'll get to it. It might just take awhile. Sorry!

Third: The Wendy Darlings. Back in April, The Wendy Darlings released a new 7" on UK label/mail order Marineville Records. The 7" has four new songs and they were kind enough to send an electronic version my way so that I could write a little bit about it here.

"Zero Zero Seven," the first song on the 7" is a ramshackle blast that reminds me of Tiger Trap or Heavenly with a heavy, heavy dose of sixties pop. This is a song that could find an easy home on many mix tapes. "Seven Years Bad Luck" takes the sonic intensity down a notch, but remains lyrically heartfelt and heavily indebted to fifties/sixties pop, sounding not unlike an indie pop version of Little Anthony's "Tears On My Pillow." The b-side is just as strong as the a-side, particularly the closing track, "Suffer Girl," which clocks in at just under two minutes

Here's a video for "Sunday So Bored" from the b-side of the new 7":

You can get the new Wendy Darlings 7" direct from Marineville.

The Wendy Darlings on MySpace

The Wendy Darlings, "Zero Zero Seven" (DOWNLOAD)

School for the Dead/The Fawns

2010-08-01T11:41:00.004-04:00

Last month I wrote about the Bourgeois Heroes EP on February Records and Rub Wrongways, who co-released the EP, was kind enough to get in touch and share some of their other releases with me.

A Telephone Built for Two, the sophomore album from School for the Dead, offers 11 indie pop jams for your approval. Henning Ohlenbusch's vocals are clear and self-assured, though his lyrics suggest a sense of interior confusion (like on the albums second track, "Feel Like I Should," where he wonders, "Why can't I feel the way I should?" or "This Time It Looks Good," a song about tenuous, yet promising, new beginnings.) Ohlenbusch's vocals almost remind me of someone, though I can't put my finger on who for the life of me...

At first, Telephone Built for Two seems about as straightforward as an indie pop record comes, but every now and then School for the Dead throws a curveball (like the harsh noise-collage that interrupts "Save My Place" for just a moment at around a minute and thirty seconds in.) Every time I found myself ready to write the album off, something brought my attention back (like the They Might Be Giants-esque "Journal of Lies," which I actually had to Google to double check that it wasn't a cover.)

You can preview A Telephone Built for Two in its entirety & purchase is here

School for the Dead's official site
School for the Dead on MySpace

A Nice Place to Be by The Fawns starts out with "Friends," a song that sounds like a lush tribute to The Softies or a lost track from The Innocence Mission. A Nice Place to Be sounds pleasantly familiar & would make great background music for Sunday morning breakfast and coffee. Honestly, it's hard for me to find something to say about A Nice Place to Be other than, "It's nice," which certainly doesn't seem fair to The Fawns. It's definitely evocative of soft, lo-fi indie pop with female leads -- think the aforementioned Softies & Innocence Mission & add: Laura Watling. While The Fawns might be sonically similar to these groups/artists, it's hard for me to think of them in the same way -- overall, they just don't have the same pull for me. That said, there are certainly a few gems on A Nice Place to Be ("I Can't Wait" definitely caught my ear.)

You can preview A Nice Place to Be in its entirety & purchase it here.

The Fawns' official site
The Fawns on MySpace
The Fawns on Facebook

Forming

2010-07-14T13:16:00.002-04:00

Forming, "Hate My Gutz" (DOWNLOAD)

I first found out about Crooked Direction Records when they released Weed Hounds' demo tape last year. As regular readers (uh, if there are any regular readers) know, I'm a big fan of Weed Hounds, so I was really excited when Crooked Direction contacted me about their most recent release, a seven song cassette from Long Beach's Forming. This cassette is limited to 100 copies and features 4 songs previously released on a 7" and 3 new tracks unavailable anywhere else.

"Hate My Gutz," the first track on Forming has riffs that remind me of Superchunk & sincere, almost broken sounding vocals that make me think of Jawbreaker or J Church or any number of bands whose songs got me through long drives and late nights. "The Night Before" could be a lost Dinosaur Jr. jam. In general, Forming is heavy on 80s/90s punk, alternative, and indie influences -- it's hard to imagine a fan of bands like J Church, Dinosaur Jr, Jawbreaker, Archers of Loaf, or Superchunk listening to this tape and not feeling a little smitten/swept off their feet.

If I were you, I would snap one of these hundred tapes up as soon as possible, especially if you're a fan of simple, solid, & sincere punk rock tunes.

Crooked Direction Records
Forming on MySpace

Forming, "Hate My Gutz" (DOWNLOAD)

First Impressions: Best Coast

2010-07-09T18:30:00.003-04:00

I wasn't planning on writing about the new Best Coast album, even though I listened to it three times at work today. And then I read Pitchfork Reviews Reviews's "Special Moment in Best Coast History", which makes a really compelling argument for writing about Crazy for You. As my last.fm account will attest, Best Coast is one of my most played/beloved artists of the last year (coming in 3rd place behind Fat Tulips and Liz Phair, which isn't too shabby since up until today I only had something like 20 Best Coast tracks to listen to vs. 138 for Liz Phair and 65 for Fat Tulips.) Best Coast was also one of the top shows I've seen this year (and not just because Bethany gave Drew props for his old school Weezer t-shirt.)

I basically wore out my Best Coast 7"s (and recognize that I'm in a pretty lucky position to even have actual 7"s to wear out), so I was so stoked when I heard that they were going to be releasing a full-length album on Mexican Summer. I pre-ordered it like the second it became available for pre-order and then I got kind of worried -- I noticed that I was skipping past the Best Coast track on my latest summer jams mix (preferring to listen to Prince's "When You Were Mine" or Elvis Costello's "Less Than Zero" over and over again) & that I got a little bristly when Drew said something about Best Coast being my favorite band, "They are not!" I insisted and then I wondered -- what if this meant I was getting over Best Coast? What if this meant the album would be a letdown?

And then, yesterday, that Best Coast/Kid Cudi/Rostam Batmanglij collab came out and it was awesome and my faith was totally restored. So no worries.

And the album? How have I not talked about the album yet? The album is so good. And do you know why? It has to do with the Baby-Sitters Club. I grew up reading Baby-Sitters Club books. A regular book was medium-length, big-print, about every day challenges faced by baby-sitters (i.e. having to deal with bratty kids.) But the books about summer vacation? Those were double length and they were always about going away somewhere and there was high-drama and heartache and maybe something wild and exciting, like an urgent accident? But everything was always fine by the end and everyone was on the beach or around the campfire or whatever, talking about how they wished summer would never be over so that they didn't have to go back to Stoneybrook, Connecticut? That is what this album is like. It is like a Super Special.

There are some familiar songs, "Boyfriend" and "Our Deal" have been streaming online for a few weeks now and "Bratty B" is brought back from the Where the Boys Are demo tape (and it's fantastic, just so you know.) But the new songs? The new songs are great, too. I love all of them. And because I'm home alone on a Friday night (waiting to head out for a show at the Grog Shop while watching TV on DVD), and because I've already compared the Best Coast album to a Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, I might as well go ahead and cement that Crazy for You Baby-Sitters Club connection by comparing members of the BSC to select Best Coast songs. (If you do not have a vast, in-depth knowledge of the individual members of the Baby-Sitters Club, well, that's what WikiPedia is for.)

"Crazy for You" is Stacy McGill, boy crazy but unsure, coltish, almost. Always anticipating her next great romance, but never really feeling fulfilled. Remember that scene in one of the earliest BSC books? Maybe even the first one? Where Stacy is wearing that sweet outfit made out of grey sweatshirt material? It's like a skirt and a top and it's grey with yellow numbers on it? And she's wearing yellow earrings shaped like numbers? And she's flirting with Kristy's older brother in Watson Brewer's kitchen? Talk about sass. This song is that moment -- savvy (but boy crazy) Stacey pursuing a mysterious older dude & then realizing that he's just not enough for her.

In the horrible event that MaryAnn Spier and Logan Bruno ever broke up, the soundtrack to their breakup would (CLEARLY) be "The End." It's sweetly chaste and sentimental, just like you would expect a MaryAnn Spier love song to be.

Pair together "Goodbye" & "Summer Mood" and you have the story of "California Casual" Dawn Schaffer, stuck in Stoneybrook & pining away for Palo City. Both songs are melancholy, searching for a sense of wholeness and completion. They are golden west coast valentines of the saddest, purest, most teenage kind.

The "you" in "Our Deal" reminds me of Kristy -- tight-lipped when it comes to her secret thoughts and feelings, wanting to maintain a sense of control and composure at the risk of seeming distant, alienating, maybe even bossy or withholding.

"I Want To" is Mallory Pike... Stuck at home with mono and then shuttled off to boarding school, pining for her pals in the BSC. When Bethany sings, "I want to go back to the first time, the first place," I can't help but thinking of Mallory thinking of happier times... Like the early days of her junior membership with the BSC.

"Bratty B" is Claudia Kishi, if, for no other reason, than it involves a telephone and Claudia is the only member of the Baby-Sitters Club with her own telephone line.

I love this album, I do. So much so that I will publicly embarrass myself on the internet by sharing my actual Best Coast/Baby-Sitter's Club related thoughts with you. Just like thinking about The Baby-Sitters Club brings me back to my literary first time & first place, Best Coast brings me back to the first time & first place of music and youth and independence and happiness. There is a sincerity to Best Coast that reminds me of why I love music and, especially, lo-fi pop music. I've already listened to it four times today & I'm still on pins and needles thinking about the fact that my physical copy will come in the mail at the end of the month. And that's how you know it's a Super Special.

You can order crazy for you from Mexican Summer records. It's due out at the end of July. Best Coast is currently prepping for a tour in support of the album, you can see tour dates here (scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

New Releases from Odd Box Records

2010-07-09T09:37:00.007-04:00

Ace Bushy Striptease, "Let Us Sit Quietly and Listen to Pop Punk" (DOWNLOAD)
The Smittens, "The Garden (Mesclun Mix)" (DOWNLOAD)

(Before I get into the reviews, if you're in Cleveland... Tonight Prisoners, Sun God, and Sweet Apple (members of Dinosaur Jr. and Cobra Verde) are playing at the Grog Shop! You should come out for it! Also, tonight is the Tremont Arts Hop and tomorrow is the Cain Park Arts Festival!)

Ace Bushy Striptease, A Little More Suspicion in Our Fairy Tales Plz

Birmingham's Ace Bushy Striptease have self-released several LPs and EPs, but their forthcoming A Little More Suspicion in Our Fairy Tales Plz is their first album to see a formal release. A Little More Suspicion in Our Fairy Tales Plz is hard to categorize -- its 12 songs touch on a surprising number of genres, exhibiting elements of pop punk, hard core, lo-fi, twee -- some songs (like "Bon Nuit, J'ai Changé Mon Esprit" are sweet & hooky, others sound downright sinister -- see the first 2 minutes of so of the 8+ minute album closer, "I'llfinishyrfinish (I'll Finish You.)") But the range demonstrated on A Little More Suspicion in Our Fairy Tales is what keeps it interesting -- you never know what the next song is going to sound like, which gives the album a life of its own. A Little More Suspicion in Our Fairy Tales Plz is forthcoming and can be pre-ordered from Odd Box here.

The Smittens, Dancing Shoes: The Smittens Remixed

I'll be honest... prior to listening to this album, I had never really listened to the Smittens. I had heard a few songs here and there, but had no substantial exposure to their catalogue. I think it's almost easier to go into a remixes album this way -- instead of drawing direct comparisons between the remixes and their original versions, I'm able to let the remixes stand alone without a preconceived idea of what I thought the songs "should" sound like (I wish I could hear that Mirah remixes album with this sort of perspective!) Dancing Shoes features remixes of 8 songs from the Smittens' catalogue as remixed by fellow indie poppers (among them Mark Robinson, Nixon, and Steve Williams.) It's not often that I put my dancing shoes on, but these remixes were sweet and understated and called to mind some of my indie pop favorites. I'm not sure how die-hard Smittens fans might feel about these tracks, it can be hard to hear old songs in new ways, but if you're looking for something to keep you smiling, these 8 songs will probably do it. Sonically, a lot of these remixes remind me of the Japanese compilation album Sonido Uzumaki, which is a favorite of mine when I'm at work. Dancing Shoes is forthcoming and can be pre-ordered from Odd Box here.

Ace Bushy Striptease on MySpace
Ace Bushy Striptease Official Site
The Smittens on MySpace
The Smittens Official Site
Odd Box Records

Ace Bushy Striptease, "Let Us Sit Quietly and Listen to Pop Punk" (DOWNLOAD)
The Smittens, "The Garden (Mesclun Mix)" (DOWNLOAD)

Old News: Girlysound Tapes

2010-07-07T10:08:00.005-04:00

Girlysound Cassette #1 (DOWNLOAD)
Girlysound Cassette #2 (DOWNLOAD)
Girlysound Cassette #3 (DOWNLOAD)

So, growing up, Liz Phair was one of my favorite artists. According to last.fm, I've listened to nearly 1,000 Liz Phair songs since November of 2005, making her poised to become my second most listened to artist* And, while I have a strong and sentimental love for Liz, her last few albums really haven't clicked for me. At all. In fact, we're nearing the point where Liz Phair is just an album away from making more albums I don't like than albums I like.

Last weekend, Liz released her latest album, Funstyle, online only with little fanfare. You can sample the track "Bollywood" and buy the album for $5.99 here. I'll be honest, on my first go around, I couldn't even finish listening to "Bollywood" (which has Liz adopting a style not unlike Uffie or, perhaps more recognizably, Ke$ha.) I didn't buy the album.

I did listen to Funstyle at work this morning, though. It's a long 11 songs. Some people think it's a concept album about fame and creative control and artist agency. Some people think it's an album of weird demos/throwaway tracks from an upcoming "real" album. I'm not sure what I think, aside from not liking it.

Whenever Weezer makes a new album, Drew buys it, listens to it, gets bummed out, and then listens to a bunch of old Weezer demos. Which is a sad pattern, but an understandable one. So I thought in the wake of Funstyle it might be nice to remember Liz's humble origins and revisit the Girlysound tapes.

I've uploaded all three of Liz's Girlysound cassettes which collect 40 songs recorded on a 4-track in 1991. Many of the Girlysound songs were re-recorded/revisited on Liz's first three albums (plus the Juvenilia EP), but many of the best ones can be found only on these cassetts.

The Girlysound songs mix self-referentiality with references to popular culture ("Speed Racer," "Batmobile") and popular music ("Fuck of Die" samples Johnny Cash, "Slave" has a nod to the Jesus and Mary Chain, "Wild Thing" reimagines the Troggs.) Next year, these songs will be 20 years old, but they still sound immediate to me. I can't imagine the way I feel about songs like "Ant in Alaska," "Speed Racer," or "Elvis Song" changing any time soon.

Girlysound Cassette #1 (DOWNLOAD)
Girlysound Cassette #2 (DOWNLOAD)
Girlysound Cassette #3 (DOWNLOAD)

* She would probably already be there if my college roommate hadn't used my computer to listen to the Mountain Goats almost constantly while I was in class.

New Releases from Jigsaw Records

2010-07-06T08:44:00.004-04:00

Goblin Universe, "Comet" (DOWNLOAD)
Spraydog, "Polaroids Not Portraits" (DOWNLOAD)
Premise Beach, "Catching Up" (DOWNLOAD)
The Gazetteers, "Trapped Inside A Skill Crane" (DOWNLOAD)

Jigsaw Records is one of my favorite mail order shops online today. It never fails, whenever I browse their site I'm able to find somewhere between a handful and a crate-full of records and CDs that I'd love to have in my collection. But not only does Jigsaw have a great selection of new and used indie pop... But Jigsaw isn't just a mail order, they're also a label with a simple goal: release music that we like and keep prices low for everyone. Their CD releases are $5 and will stay in print indefinitely. Jigsaw is run by Chris from IndiePages, which pretty much guarantees you a great selection of music. Anyway, I was thrilled when Chris e-mailed me about Jigsaw's current and upcoming releases & have finally had a chance to sit down and sort my thoughts out about them.

Goblin Universe, True to Nothing

Goblin Universe was active during 2000/2001, self-releasing a CD-R and 7". True to Nothing collects both of these releases and adds a previously released comp track as well as two previously unreleased songs. These songs have a warm-home recorded sound, fuzzy vocals, and power chords. Superchunk's 2-CD set of demos and rarities, Cup of Sand, came out in 2003. I was still in high school and I bought it right away from the only record store in town that was selling it -- a place that specialized in metal and hardcore, but occasionally bought punk and indie stuff. It was in what my friends and I called "the Punk Rock Strip Mall." Home of Ohio Surf and Skate, Gen X Tattoo, and Tie-Dye Sky, which sold bongs, incense, and paisley tapestries. Though the songs on here are A) not written/recorded by Superchunk and B) pre-date the release (if not the recording) of Cup of Sand by a couple of years, they remind me so strongly of that collection that I can't help seeing myself at 16 listening to "Detroit has a Skyline." True to Nothing is out now on Jigsaw Records, you can pick up a CD for $5 and an LP for $15. My favorite tracks: "Comet," "Wet Lips," and "Don't Carry On."

Spraydog, Impress and Defend

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne's Spraydog has a lo-fi punk rock sound that's equal parts melodic and dissonant. They remind me of something you might come across on a Teenbeat comp (the female vocals on "Trading Zeniths" remind me a bit of Tuscadero, while the band's overall sound is not unlike Unrest*.) "Polaroids Not Portraits," the albums opening track, is a gorgeous hazy punk-pop song -- definitely one of my favorites on the album. I also love "Captive Hearts" with its dual male-female vocals is another winner. The songs on this album inhabit a range -- some are straight-up pop songs while others sound heavier, more dissonant sound. I tend to prefer the album's poppier songs, which are dispersed nicely throughout. Impress and Defend is available from Jigsaw on CD only. You can get it by itself for $5 or you can purchase it as a part of the Spraydog box package, which gets you all 6 Spraydog CDs for $20.

Premise Beach, At Promise Beach

The scratchy vocals on "Sidewalk Girl," the third track on At Promise Beach are what drew me into this release from Premise Beach. They had a rawness to them that reminded me of Be Still by Carrie Nations (one of my favorite punk albums, I wrote about it here a few months ago.) I don't know that I would drawn any further comparisons to Be Still, though -- there's something else happening on this album, occasional hand-clapping, squiggly guitar lines, warbling vocals that sometimes remind me of Feargal Sharkey from The Undertones... At Promise Beach is available on CD for $5 from Jigsaw. Premise Beach has now disbanded, but this CD collects all of their recorded material & is a nice little artifact of fun, sloppy, at times awkward pop music.

The Gazetteers, We Are Here

The first thing that I noticed about We Are Here was the song titles: "Perennial Fringe Candidate," "I Want To Be A One Hit Wonder," "More People Should Resign" -- all a bit self-aware and tongue-in-cheek. The second thing I noticed was the bouncy pop sound, located somewhere between mid-sixties AM radio and mid-nineties mail-order pop catalogue. My favorite songs on the album are probably "Monkees '67," a pop ballad about the pre-fab four's yearning for creative control, and "Trapped Inside a Skill Crane," a beautiful slower (at least, compared to the other songs on the album) pop song. Jigsaw compares them to Tullycraft and Jonathan Richman, two of my favorites, and the comparisons are solid. We Are Here has all of the sincerity & silliness that you would expect from either Tullycraft or Jonathan & though the recording was completed a few years ago, it sounds timeless and fresh today. Some of the songs on We Are Here also called to mind MJ Hibbett, who was reviewed here back in May. We Are Here is a forthcoming release and will be available from Jigsaw on July 27th. In the meantime, Jigsaw does have The Gazetteers' Territory Songs, a concept album about the US, available for $8.

* Incidentally, I know that Unrest is playing a couple reunion shows -- the Teenbeat website has a news item saying that Unrest is "touring" in July -- I wonder if this refers to the reunion shows that have already been played/announced or if there will be more. I hope there will be more!

Goblin Universe, "Comet" (DOWNLOAD)
Spraydog, "Polaroids Not Portraits" (DOWNLOAD)
Premise Beach, "Catching Up" (DOWNLOAD)
The Gazetteers, "Trapped Inside A Skill Crane" (DOWNLOAD)

Summer Jams Series #4: Weed Hounds

2010-07-02T10:14:00.005-04:00

After a hiatus, the Summer Jams Series has returned with Nick and Laura from Weed Hounds! Weed Hounds are getting ready to release a new 7", Beach Bummed b/w Skating Away From the Cops. The 7" is coming out on colored vinyl on Iron Pier records and you can order it here. Iron Pier is also giving out a free download of the single which you can download from their main page.

Weed Hounds are also preparing to embark on a summer tour of the southern US. Tour dates are listed here.

Nick's List:

"Can I Kick It?" - A Tribe Called Quest (listen to it here)

Love the way that this song utilizes the Lou Reed sample. Makes me wish I was at a block party in 1991 getting buzzed on zima and wearing fluorescents.

"Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones (listen to it here)

Keepin' it Queens. This song absolutely radiates summer warmth and the vision of Dee Dee taking the long bus ride down to the Rockaways to score some drugs. "Chewing out a Rhythm on my bubble gum, the sun is out, and i want some", just about says it all.

"Elephant Stone" - The Stone Roses (listen to it here)

This particular track always seems to recall memories of the summer nights that myself, Laura, and some friends of ours spent walking the pavement and swimming in the
warm ocean water. This is a song which will always lend itself well to lying wide awake long after the sun has risen.

Laura's List:

"Dreaming" - Blondie (listen to it here)

After coming back to this tune summer after summer, I've learned that it's perfect for driving to the beach with the windows down while singing as loud as possible. The driving guitars, Debbie Harry's vocals, and memories of singing along with friends make "Dreaming" a perennial favorite for me.

"The Moon" - The Microphones (listen to it here)

While I love spaced out songs that deal with the moon and stars, I appreciate that this song speaks to the experience of being grounded and that it sees the moon from the perspective of looking up and and feeling kind of insignificant in comparison, but not belittled. It reminds me of how being at the beach at night can put things into perspective.

"When I'm With You" - Best Coast (listen to it here)

There are several Best Coast songs that are great summer picks, but when I first heard this one a couple months ago, I had a feeling that it was going to be a summer jam of mine for 2010. It's equal parts carefree and dreamy and just makes me want to be with friends, have fun, and not care about anything else, which is what summer is all about!

In addition to their new 7" on Iron Pier, Weed Hounds also have a split with Dude Japan available from Rok Lok Records. Their now sold-out (and totally excellent) demo tape is being released on 7"s by the National Archive of Records. You can get copies of the first 7" direct from the band along with other releases & shirts. Weed Hounds also has a MySpace where you can stream songs.

New Releases from February Records

2010-07-01T08:54:00.004-04:00

The Cavemen Go, "Forget it Claudia" (DOWNLOAD)
Bourgeois Heroes, "The Boy at the Record Store" (DOWNLOAD)

Back in May, Danny from February Records (formerly Twee Fort) got in touch with me about some new pop releases on his label. I wrote up a little review & made a mental note to keep my eye on February Records and before I knew it, Danny was back in touch about a whole batch of new releases, including EPS, full-length albums, and free downloadable singles.

Honestly, it took me a couple of listens to actually get all the way through The Cavemen Go's album New Lives. It's no fault of the band's -- I tend to listen to music while I'm at work and I just kept getting interrupted by phone calls, meetings, etc. and every time I came back to my desk, I thought, "I should really start this over" (mainly because I like the first song, "Forget it Claudia" so much.) New Lives is a rock/pop album that reminds of music I grew up listening to: Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Squeeze. Songs like "Forget it Claudia" and "We're Not That Different" have that vibe especially. The piano in "We're Not That Different" really reminds me of something you might hear on an Elvis Costello record. This album came at a perfect time for me to listen to -- I just finished reading Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis (the sequel to his first novel, Less Than Zero) -- both books are laden with Elvis Costello allusions & I've been listening to songs like "Less Than Zero" by Elvis Costello and "So It Goes" by Nick Lowe on an endless loop lately. New Lives fits neatly into that pattern while offering something new.

Musical Postcards, the new EP from Bourgeois Heroes, has a loping, melodic pop sound that reminds me of a combination of certain Belle and Sebastian singles, The Monkees, The Beach Boys (for me, the Beach Boys influence is especially strong on the last track, "Holly"), and Harry Nilsson's songs for The Point (see this video for "Think About Your Troubles" or this one for "Me and My Arrow.") Worth noting is the fact that Musical Postcards is a long-distance collaboration between Elise and Jason, who built these songs through the process of mailing demos back and forth and sharing their feedback via phone and postcard. While I'm sure the distance was a lot to work around (& it certainly adds an interesting conceptual layer to the EP), Elise and Justin's collaboration is seamless & the vast geographical distance that shaped Musical Postcards leads to a gorgeous, intimate closeness. Listening to Musical Postcards feels like being very near to someone.

Secret Charisma is the one-man project of Brad San Martin of One Happy Island (whose debut LP I reviewed earlier this month.) Complications is a three-song single that takes selections from Brad's upcoming compilation of home recordings, Satellites: Home Recordings and Demos, 2004-2009. Instrumentally, these songs are pure pop with sweet ukulele strumming and soft, melodic keyboards, but the most striking thing for me was how much Brad's voice reminded me of Bob Pollard from Guided By Voices. Pollard's voice is easily one of my favorites in pop music, so this association was a welcome one for me. Complications is available as a free download here. "Angel, Please" a simple, strummy ukulele song is my favorite of the three and it's sandwiched neatly between the keyboard-poppy title track and "Lord Thomas," an understated traditional-sounding ballad that closes out the single. There's a lot of variety in these three songs, which makes me curious about what other genres might be explored on the forthcoming Satellites.

"Splashdown," the first song on Brilliant at Breakfast's new EP, Almost Verbose, starts out with the white noise of seagulls and waves crashing, and segues seamlessly into a sad and sincere personal narrative accentuated by keyboards, egg shakers, and great vocals that remind me of rocket or chiritori. Brilliant at Breakfast have a soft, sincere sound that reminds me of something you might come across through Shelflife Records, like The Shermans, Moving Pictures, or Language of Flowers. For all the sweetness of Brilliant at Breakfast's sound, some of their lyrics tend toward the darker side, exploring heartbreak, disappointment, confusion about one's place in life -- it's a delicate balance to maintain between their music and lyrics, but they do a lovely job. Almost Verbose is available as a free download from February Records.

Buy New Lives from February Records
Buy Musical Postcards from February Records
Download Complications for free
Download Almost Verbose for free

The Cavemen Go, "Forget it Claudia" (DOWNLOAD)
Bourgeois Heroes, "The Boy at the Record Store" (DOWNLOAD)

Live in Cleveland (Last Night)

2010-06-30T17:12:00.003-04:00

Last night Drew and I met up at the Happy Dog for the Burger Records showcase. Drew's friend, Tim, was playing his first show as the new drummer for local garage group The Wooly Bullies. The Wooly Bullies play loud & semi-relentless garage rock -- I say semi-relentless because everytime I felt like there was no stopping their forward momentum, they would fall back into an unexpected moment of softer melody. Seeing Tim drum was great & I'm really looking forward to seeing the Wooly Bullies play around town more. (I think they opened for Harlem a little while ago at Now That's Class -- I wanted to go to that show, but didn't end up making it... Just like I didn't make it to the Woven Bones show at Now That's Class last night.) Suggested listening from their MySpace: "Summer Town" and "Drunk Girls."

The Wooly Bullies were followed by The Pizazz, a trio from Detroit and the only other non-California band on the bill aside from The Wooly Bullies. I feel like whenever I talk about contemporary garage music, I'm talking about how I don't like it. I grew up listening to my dad's old Nuggets records & as far as I'm concerned, garage really doesn't get any better than "Moulty" by The Barbarians. Most of what I hear as far as contemporary garage goes doesn't have a tenth of the spirit of the spoken bridge of "Moulty," but The Pizazz were spirited & fun & mixed garage with surf and pop for a perfect short set. They've just released their LP, Get Out of My House (Drew picked up a copy at last night's show, I'm eager to listen to it!) & you can pre-order from Burger Records. According to the band, the first few people to pre-order will get a bonus LP of early material. Suggested listening from their MySpace: "Ocean Liner."

Cosmonauts were the last band we caught (I had to duck out early because of a big work event the next day) & a great way to round out the night. They had big echoing guitars and (on some of the songs) smooth, booming vocals that prompted me to bring up Danzig (much to Drew's chagrin -- but seriously, listen to "Neon Kids" on their MySpace & if you are the kind of person who occasionally likes to sing along to "Skulls" in the car, then you will probably get what I'm talking about.) My favorite song of their set was their closing number, the name of which I sadly didn't catch. It had gorgeous chiming guitars & was much slower than the rest of their set -- normally I'm not a slow song person, but this was paced just right & was a great song to end the night on. Drew picked up the Cosmonauts' cassette, which you can get online from Burger Records (scanning the cassette tracklist, it looks like the song I'm thinking of might have been "Stephanie.") Suggesting listening from their MySpace: "Neon Kids."

We had to duck out before the last two bands played (Cum Stain and Conspiracy of Owls), so I sadly can't comment on their sets. Anyway, for an unplanned night & a $3 cover, I had a great time. The Happy Dog has a couple of other great shows this week -- on Thursday they're hosting Bill Fox (of The Mice) and on Friday Young Mammals, Prisoners, and Cloud Nothings will be playing. I'll maybe be at Thursday's show & will definitely be there on Friday. On a food note: I highly recommend the Happy Dog's tater tots -- their homemade ketchup is awesome & so is the saffron aioli!

The Wooly Bullies on MySpace
The Pizazz on MySpace
The Cosmonauts on MySpace
Burger Records

Neverever, Angelic Swells

2010-06-24T13:35:00.005-04:00

Neverever, "Blue Genes" (DOWNLOAD)
Neverever, "Underwater Ballet" (DOWNLOAD)

About a year ago around this time, Drew and I went out to Portland to visit my friend April & our visit happily coincided with a show featuring The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (who, incidentally, have a great new video out that you can watch here -- just take a second and watch it if you haven't already seen it, it's so good!) Anyway, Neverever was one of the openers at that show (though they were going by the name The Champagne Socialists back then) and though their set was short and the sound was bad (terrible!), they've been in the back of my mind ever since.

I don't always do the best job of keeping up with new releases, so their debut album crept on up me, but I got my copy in the mail from Slumberland Records the other day & I've got to say, it's a real pleasant surprise for me. Angelic Swells features 11 songs (10 originals and a Plimsouls cover, "Now") & the majority of them are great! Jaihae Meek has a smooth yet commanding voice (think Mary Weiss in the opening moments of "Walking in the Sand" or "Out in the Streets" or Mari Wilson singing the bridge of "Just What I Always Wanted") & Neverever's songs incorporate hand-claps, foot-stomps, call-outs, girls'-rhymes, and a number of things that I find tremendously appealing that help to create this rough-and-tumble-post-bad-girl-group vibe that I am really into.

"Blue Genes" (which was previously released as a Champagne Socialists 7") is lyrically an unsettling narrative about an incestuous relationship disguised as an innocuous pop tune & "Coconut Shampoo" and "Underwater Ballet" (which just might be my favorite song on the album) are catchy stunners. The one true "oh no" moment on this for me is the song "Cowboys and Indians," a song that opens with Western-style gunshot sound effects and features Jihae "war whooping." Not kidding. I kind of can't even listen to it -- the outdated stereotypes of Native Americans that the song depicts make me cringe and whether or not they're coming from an "ironic" place or a "well-intentioned" place, I kind of just can't deal. There's been a lot of discussion on fashion blogs lately about Native American trends in North American (specifically US) fashion/white hipster culture (I tend to think of My Culture is Not a Trend as the locus of this dialogue) & I honestly hadn't expected those conversations to intersect with what I spend the majority of my time writing about here (you know, mail order records and pop music), but this song was a reminder that these discussions reach into all spheres, especially when people are talking about cultural products and the way that identities are constructed and information is disseminated through popular media.

Listening to "Cowboys and Indians" raises a lot of questions for me: who do narratives "belong" to? Whose place is it to temporarily adopt the identity of a culture and speak from that culture's perspective? What measures need to be taken to make sure that people's histories and stories are not carelessly appropriated and presented in a racist or otherwise demeaning context? (I see a lot of good discussions about this with regard to literature and writers setting stories in cultures that are not their own, but have seen little criticism about this specific to music. I'll have to do some looking and reading.) What images/associations do we evoke when we make use of outdated (and, more often than not, inaccurate) cultural signifiers (see the "war whooping" in this song)?

Maybe this is a time to point people toward that great bastion of multicultual education, Sesame Street. If you have 35 seconds, watch this animated clip, colloquially referred to as, "Indians don't talk like that!"

Anyway, I've read little specific criticism/commentary on "Cowboys and Indians" -- one review compares it to a Siouxsie Sioux b-side, another says, "The lyrical idiocy continues on “Cowboys and Indians”, a track that makes light of America’s colonial history into a weak metaphorical vehicle intended to convey a lovers’ quarrel."

So, I'm really at an impasse -- there's a lot that I like about this album sonically -- it sounds good. I love Jihae's vocals, I like the drums, I like the nods to fifties and sixties girl groups and seventies glam rock, but lyrically the album doesn't do much for me. "Cowboys and Indians" is troubling at best and unlistenable at worst &, honestly, it does cast a long, dark shadow over the album for me.

Angelic Swells is available on LP ($8) and CD ($10). You can order it direct from Slumberland here.

Thoughts I didn't have the wherewithall to integrate into this: Stylistically speaking, I quite like the look that Jihae and Wallace have cultivated for themselves. This album really is fun to listen to and I didn't expect to get so heavy in reviewing it, but I think it's important to turn a critical eye to things -- it doesn't mean you have to disown them, but I really think there's something to be said for being an active listener and not being afraid to actively interrogate the messages that are encoded into cultural products.

Neverever, "Blue Genes" (DOWNLOAD)
Neverever, "Underwater Ballet" (DOWNLOAD)

Dolly Mixture Reissues Available for Pre-Order

2010-06-23T08:23:00.005-04:00

Dolly Mixture, "He's So Frisky" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys Jane" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "My Rainbow Valley" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "Everything and More" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "Walk Away Renee (Live, The Lefte Banke cover)" (DOWNLOAD) (originally from 200 Troubled Teenagers

Oh my gosh, you guys! Oh My gosh! The Dolly Mixture box set and LP reissue are finally available for pre-order. Dolly Mixture is a post-punk trio formed in the late seventies whose music blends the tongue-in-cheek (or totally sincere? who can say) elements of bad-girl groups like the Shangri-Las with the staccato pop-ish punk-ish sound of groups like the Undertones (who they once toured with.)

I'm listening to Dolly Mixture as I write this (right now I'm listening to "Ernie Ball," though it literally just segued into "He's So Frisky") and here's what strikes me: these girls sound like they are soundtracking an episode of Hanna Barbara's Penelope Pitstop -- their songs are mundane in subject matter, but the vocals make them sound impossibly urgent -- especially the group backing vocals, which make me think of a chorus of awesome lady racers watching over Penelope. At least, the fast-paced songs sound this way. The slow songs sound like someone writing about Trixie Belden's best pal, sheltered-rich-girl, Honey Wheeler, who probably spent her pre-Trixie days staring dreamily out of windows and imagining what it would be like to have a life.

I am slowly realizing how absurd all of this sounds.

Anyway, in their time together, Dolly Mixture released a handful of 7"s, an album (Demonstration Tapes) and an EP and the soon to be released CD set, Everything and More, collects all of it. You can view the track list for Everything and More (which, incidentally, is packaged gorgeously and comes with a 32 page booklet) here. The CD set is 20GBP (about $30) plus shipping. Pre-order it here.

In addition to the CD box set, there is also a soon to be released re-issue of Demonstration Tapes that's being put out by Germs of Youth. The LP is hand stamped, signed by the band, and limited to 300 copies. Like the CD set, it's currently available for pre-order. You can order yours here.

The official release date for both the CD set & the LP is July 5th.

While we're at it, you can download a great live performance from 1982 here.

Dolly Mixture, "He's So Frisky" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys Jane" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "My Rainbow Valley" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "Everything and More" (DOWNLOAD)
Dolly Mixture, "Walk Away Renee (Live, The Lefte Banke cover)" (DOWNLOAD) (originally from 200 Troubled Teenagers

Allo Darlin' Release Full Length Album

2010-06-21T14:04:00.001-04:00

Allo Darlin, "Silver Dollars" (DOWNLOAD)
Allo Darlin, "Kiss Your Lips" (DOWNLOADM)

After their stunning single "Henry Rollins Don't Dance" on WeePOP! and their series of fantastic 7"s on Fortuna Pop, Allo Darlin's full-length album quickly became one of my most anticipated releases for 2010 and after months of waiting, it's finally here!

Sometimes you spend so long waiting for something that you begin to worry that there's no possible way for it to live up to your expectations & I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about that happening with this album. GOOD NEWS: I can say without reservation that that is totally not the case here. I love this album! Perhaps even more than I initially thought I would! It's only ten songs long, but each song is a perfect pop gem. Honestly, my least favorite song on the album ("Heartbeat Chili") is still a good song & the best songs on the album are just brilliant.

I can't get over how strong the first four songs are -- "Dreaming" & "The Polaroid Song" were both previously released as the a-sides of 7"s on Fortuna Pop, but hold their own on the album & still sound fresh months after their initial releases. The next two songs "Silver Dollars" and "Kiss Your Lips" are peak moments in the album for me -- I love the push and pull of "Silver Dollars," there's a great forward pop momentum balanced by softer/quieter moments. "Woody Allen," "Let's Go Swimming," and "My Heart is a Drummer" are also winning tracks. Normally I'm not one for slow songs (I'm just not that patient/attentive), but "Let's Go Swimming" is stunning. "Woody Allen" could have been unfortunately trite if almost anyone else had recorded it, but here it's sweet and sincere (I love the descriptor of things getting so bad that they become "Bergman bad.")

One of the many reviews collected by Fortuna Pop compares this album to Jonathan Richman, a comparison I never would have though to make, but now I can't believe I didn't see the connection. The songs here are on par with some of Jonathan's best when it comes to precision-details & sweet sincerity & and hearts-on-sleeves openness. I'd love to hear their take on a song like "Parties in the U.S.A." or "Back in Your Life." Likewise, I bet Jonathan could tear up "Kiss Your Lips" or "My Heart is a Drummer."

Allo Darlin is out now on Fortuna Pop. You can get it on vinyl and CD. Fortuna Pop also still has the Dreaming 7" and Polaroid Song 7" in stock here.

More posts about Allo Darlin!

Allo Darlin, "Silver Dollars" (DOWNLOAD)
Allo Darlin, "Kiss Your Lips" (DOWNLOAD)

One Happy Island

2010-06-18T08:34:00.001-04:00

One Happy Island, "Cave City Sunrise" (DOWNLOAD)

One Happy Island comes out of Boston, MA and lists Cub, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, Squeeze, and The Everly Brothers as being among their influences, which is basically like a recipe for winning me over. The band has previously released 3 EPs and is now getting ready to release their first full length album on Odd Box Records on July 5th.

3 Things I like about the new One Happy Island album

1. It's uneven. Not all of the songs on this album are great, which seems like a weird or maybe even negative thing to say, but I really, really like that in a release. Not every song has to be or is meant to be perfect and the sloppy/incomplete feeling ones often end up being the most charming. I like the way that uneven albums let you go and then draw you back in -- they don't constantly demand your attention and emotional presence, you can enjoy them for what they are.

2. It has a delicate balance of happy, childlike songs & more sophisticated ones. I love "Elegant Elephant" because of it's upbeat rhymes & bouncy melody, but what really gets me is the way it's juxtaposed against the softer, sadder "How to Hurt," a gorgeous, spare song that has bits and pieces that remind me of sad sixties girl ballads (especially the tiny burst of drums at the very end.)

3. It plays fast. I'm not sure how to best explain what I mean by this -- just that you start listening, you get caught up in it, and before you know it, it's over and you're thinking about maybe listening to it again (which is how I've come to listen to this album 2 or 3 times today.)

The new album will be available from Odd Box on July 5th. It appears to be a CD only release & you can pre-order it here.

You can stream some One Happy Island songs on their MySpace & you can purchase additional releases from their website (they have the Secret Party That The Other Party Doesn't Know About EP as well as a limited edition compilation CD that collects their first three EPs.)

Odd Box also has a download up for "Elegant Elephant", one of my favorite songs on the album. If you're on the fence about buying the album, download it & see what you think!

For good measure, here's a video of the band performing "Elegant Elephant" at the NYC PopFest!

One Happy Island, "Cave City Sunrise" (DOWNLOAD)

New Releases from yesboyicecream

2010-06-16T11:58:00.000-04:00

Soda Fountain Rag, "Are Philosophers Lonely?" (DOWNLOAD)
The Positions, "The Real Thing" (DOWNLOAD)

Last week Emmet from yesboyicecream sent me an e-mail about two new releases, both 10"s, which was really exciting for me because I have a particular fondness for 10" records & they seem all too rare. Though both Soda Fountain Rag & The Positions have been around for some time, they're new to me & these releases were my first exposure to them.

Reel Around Me collects 9 new songs from Norway's Soda Fountain Rag, a one-woman show run by Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl. Reel Around Me widens Soda Fountain Rag from just Jordhal, to feature the touring line-up of guitarist Anders Kaasen and bassist Princess Niko. It's a brief release, clocking in at just under 20 minutes with no song lasting longer than 2 minutes and 46 seconds, but the brevity is definitely part of its charm. Everything about this 10" is upbeat (see the opening track, "Dogwalkin' Shoes") -- and if not upbeat, at least a little cheeky (see the baroque pop ditty "You Are Not Invited to My Wedding.") My favorite song is definitely "Are Philosophers Lonely?" It's a sunny pop jam with a sprinkling of horns & it's been lodged in my brain all day. You can get Reel Around Me direct from yesboyicecream here. Soda Fountain Rag is also on MySpace & there's a SoundCloud page for the album, you can stream tracks on both. Reel Around Me will become officially available on July 5th!

The second 10" release, also available on July 5th, is a 6-song mini-album by The Positions. It's been almost four years since The Positions released their debut album, so their sound has had time to shift and settle and I like where they've landed. The Positions strike me as sounding distinctly international, though they're from Washington, D.C. "The Real Thing" is the standout track for me on this -- the horns just sound so bright, it reminds me of a great combination of Beulah and Free Loan Investments. The Positions have a very polished sound, which is a real change of pace from what I've been listening to lately (a lot of hazy, distorted pop) -- these songs are glossy, bright, and bold. Again, the physical release is available on July 5th, but for the month of June you can get Tonight! as a free download on The Positions' bandcamp page (where you can also stream the release.)

Again, both of these are coming out as 10"s on yesboyicecream next month, so if you like what you hear, be sure to support both groups & pick up their releases!

Soda Fountain Rag, "Are Philosophers Lonely?" (DOWNLOAD)
The Positions, "The Real Thing" (DOWNLOAD)

Pearl Harbor Announce Name Change, New EP

2010-06-15T13:23:00.005-04:00

The girls from Pearl Harbor recently announced that they're undergoing a name change -- their new EP will be released under the name Puro Instinct. You can get a digital copy of the Puro Instinct EP here for $5 & the vinyl version will be out next month on Gloriette. The EP features two previously released songs ("California Shakedown" and "Slivers of You") as well as two new ones.

If you'd like to sample before you buy, you can stream the full EP on Bandcamp. I was already a fan of "California Shakedown," but the new songs are great, too. "Can't Take You Anywhere" is slow and summery, layered with subtle synth hooks. "I've Got Some Happiness (Leland)," the other new track, has a slightly different sound (the synth is a little more video-game-ish, which was jarring for me at first) -- but, something happens around 2 minutes and 50 seconds in and whatever it is, I really, really like it. It feels like a few new elements are introduced and everything starts to work together in a really beautiful loop. The track is a cover, originally released by San Francisco guitarist Leland in the seventies. You can hear the original here -- it's really kind of amazing in a washed out seventies pop sort of way.

Puro Instinct will be kicking off a US national tour next month, for tour dates (as well as ordering information for current releases), you can see their MySpace (no Ohio dates, but they are playing the Magic Stick in Detroit.)

You can still get copies of the Something About the Chaparral repress and the Slivers of You 7" (which, costs an exorbitant $30 after international shipping & the awful exchange rate are factored in.)

In other news: I have a backlog of things to get to! Including releases from yesboyicecream, Odd Box, and Slumberland. I'll hopefully be getting to all of that soon!

Live in Cleveland (Sunday Night)

2010-06-07T20:52:00.005-04:00

"All of our songs are about sex or creepy stuff or creepy sex, which makes dedicating them to people sort of hard." -- Kip Berman, prior to dedicating a song to a friend at Sunday's show

Sunday night Drew and I went to see the Pains of Being Pure at Heart along with Surfer Blood and Hooray for Earth at the Beachland Ballroom. We had seen the Pains twice before (both shows were last summer, one was here at the Beachland Tavern and the other was across the country in Portland, OR, where we were visiting my friend, April), but we had never seen Surfer Blood & Hooray for Earth was new to us in general.

The show was really fantastic, maybe the best I've seen so far this year? I wasn't sure what to expect from Surfer Blood's live show -- April saw them in PDX and said that they were great, but they had also recently retweeted a lot of things from people at shows saying, "Surfer Blood sucks," so, you know, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Fortunately, they were awesome! I know that I am kind of prone to making weird connections (like that period I went through a couple of months back where I was convinced that every band I listened to sounded like the Human League), so I'm assuming that no one will be surprised when I say that I spent most of Surfer Blood's show thinking that their lead singer/guitarist, JP, reminded me of Martin Fry from ABC, which I mean in the most awesome way possible. Seriously, I bet Surfer Blood would do an amazing cover of "All of My Heart" or "Poison Arrow". Anyway, the band played at least 8 songs off of their album Astro Coast (including "Twin Peaks," "Anchorage," and "Fast Jabroni") plus one new song prefaced with the directive, "You better not fucking YouTube this." But somebody taped it at their Allegheny College show back in March and then put it on YouTube, so you can listen to "I'm Not Ready" here -- I'm listening to it now and am getting back into that headspace where I'm thinking about the obvious connection between Surfer Blood and ABC -- I really think it's in the vocals.

Anyway, bottom line, Surfer Blood was fantastic! I seriously almost didn't want them to stop playing -- I probably would have stood there and watched/listened to them play their album again. The whole set made me really wish that I had a time machine and could go back to that night I was visiting friends in Columbus and we were driving around town doing things that we would want to do on our respective dream dates (like: getting bubble tea and fried tofu, playing arcade games, driving around town singing along to Guided By Voices) because Surfer Blood was there that night and I foolishly decided not to go when what I actually should have done was gone with my friends because it was Dream Date Day and that would have been a great end to it.

The Pains came on shortly after Surfer Blood finished playing & tore their way through a ten song set. The majority of their songs were from their debut album on Slumberland, which is awesome, but I always hope to hear some more 7" b-sides or tracks from their EPs. They did play "103" and "Higher Than the Stars," both non-album tracks, and they came back after their set for an amazing rendition of their eponymous track, "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart," from their first EP. This may have been the highlight of the show for me, actually. The band was joined onstage by members of Hooray for Earth and Surfer Blood and the whole scene was just really goofy and joyous and heartwarming. If I actually knew how to review anything and if last night's show was a movie, I would totally be calling it the feel good film of the year. It was just really apparent that all three bands had a strong sense of mutual respect for each other, that they all liked each other's music, and were having a really good time touring together, & that final song just struck me as being really emblematic of all that.

The Pains had a new single with them on tour, out as of today on Slumberland (US) and Fortuna Pop (UK) records. You can stream the a-side, "Say No to Love," on the Pains' press page. The single is fantastic and I really suggest buying a copy. (It's also pressed on beautiful seafoam green vinyl, if that kind of thing makes a difference for you, and each 7" comes with an mp3 download code.) In addition to playing the new single, the band also played a new as-yet unrecorded song called "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now," which is one of two new songs they've been playing recently (the other is "The Heart in Your Heartbreak," which wasn't played at Sunday's show.) When he introduced the song, Kip made a joke about how it was going to be on their "greatest hits" album "in February" & a Slumberland press release for the Say No to Love 7" mentions that after this tour, the band will be returning to the studio to record their second album, so maybe February is worth noting on your calendar if you're a fan of the Pains.

Remaining US shows for all three bands are as follows:

8 June — Memphis, TN – Hi Tone Cafe
9 June — Birmingham, AL – Bottletree Cafe
10 June — Tallahassee, FL – The Engine Room
11 June — Orlando, FL – Club at Firestone
12 June — Miami, FL – Grand Central
13 June — Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits
15 June — Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
16 June — Washington, DC – Black Cat

After their US tour concludes, the Pains will be heading overseas where they're headlining this summer's Indietracks festival in the UK. Surfer Blood is going global with dates in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK -- all over the place!

Get the new Pains single direct from Slumberland or direct from Fortuna Pop.

Surfer Blood's LP, Astro Coast, is available on vinyl and CD from InSound.

Hooray for Earth pre-orders and reissues are also available at InSound.

& while I'm in the process of piling up links down here, I really recommend reading this interview with the band on The Alternate Side. It's a little dated (back from when the Pains played SXSW), but really great.

Vehicle Blues/Bridgetown Records

2010-06-04T12:12:00.005-04:00

Vehicle Blues, "Changer" (DOWNLOAD)

ATTN Cleveland! Don't forget, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will be playing the Beachland Ballroom with Surfer Blood this Sunday! The Pains put on a great show in the Beachland Tavern last year and I am super stoked to see them again. Tickets are $12 in advance/$14 at the door. I got mine at Music Saves!

Kevin from Bridgetown Records recently contacted me about his label's latest release, an album by Vehicle Blues called Changer. Vehicle Blues have a driving shoegaze pop sound that reminds me of some of my all-time and current favorite groups. If you listen to Galaxie 500 or Weed Hounds, you should definitely consider throwing down $6 for Changer. I can't imagine you'd regret it. (If you enjoyed that Singing Bridges EP I posted about the other week, that's probably another good indicator that you'd like this!)

Kevin also included some sampler tracks from other Bridgetown releases. I was already a fan of local Bridgetown band, Cloud Nothings (Clevelanders, mark your calendars! They will be playing at Blue Arrow Records and Books on Tuesday, July 20th with Weed Hounds. I can't wait!), but the samplers introduced me to some new and unfamiliar artists: Nicole Kidman have a quirky, home-brewed pop sound that reminds me of Daniel Johnston, Trudgers blend melodic guitar hooks with ghostly vocals for a result that reminds me of a slightly more pop, totally more lo-fi Joy Division, and BYODeath won me over with a song that sounded like it was stolen straight from Bob Pollard's garage, in the best possible way.

Bridgetown currently has some great deals going, you can get a "Just Before Summer" deal of 8 pre-selected albums ($28ppd in the US, $32 ppd for overseas) or you can get any 5 albums for $20ppd (US) or $24ppd (overseas.) To order, see the Bridgetown Records site.

Vehicle Blues, "Changer" (DOWNLOAD)

Young Mammals

2010-06-02T13:15:00.003-04:00

Young Mammals, "Confetti" (DOWNLOAD)

Sorry that I haven't been posting lately! I've been in Chicago for the last few days visiting a friend & participating in Girls Rock! Chicago's annual Ladies Rock Camp (which was an all-around awesome experience! I came home totally not in the mood to do my day job, but feeling motivated to keep playing my guitar for the first time in years.)

Anyway, I also came home to an e-mail about the band Young Mammals, a quartet out of Houston, TX, who are touring in support of their album Carrots this summer. (You can check out a complete list of tour dates here -- they'll be playing at the Happy Dog in Cleveland on July 2nd with Prisoners.)

I feel like lately there has sort of been this glut of fuzzy pop music and I've got to say that that's just fine with me. Young Mammals fit well with a lot of the new music I've been enjoying lately -- groups like Cloud Nothings, Fungi Girls, Smith Westerns, etc. I'm a sucker for a catchy pop song with a lo-fi vibe and Carrots offers up more than its fair share of those. The album opener, "Carrots" reminds me of Animal Collective's "Peacebone" with it's driving mix of straightforward pop melodies mixed with less conventional, almost dissonant moments (and, of course, some yelping vocals and a build of frenzied guitar sounds.) I also really liked "Dragon Wagon" and "Wires and Buttons."

You can stream the first three tracks from Carrots here & view a complete list of your dates for young Mammals here. I'm so glad that Mike e-mailed me about Young Mammals, I'll definitely be checking them out at the Happy Dog this July! As always, if you have something you want me to hear, send me an e-mail at heysideponytail@gmail.com

Young Mammals, "Confetti" (DOWNLOAD)

Live In Cleveland (Last Saturday)

2010-05-24T11:59:00.003-04:00

Before I get started, I pulled the winner for the Go Sailor 7" this morning! Child of the Sea, e-mail me at heysideponytail@gmail.com with your address so I can send it to you!

Saturday night was a benefit show at the Beachland Tavern for the (recently renamed) North Collinwood Alley Cat Project. Prisoners played along with local band Rainy Day Saints and touring band The Kyle Sowashes (who won my heart when they covered "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" by Guided By Voices.) It was a great night & I'd love to write a lot about everyone, but for the sake of brevity, I'm just going to focus on Prisoners.

Full disclosure: when Drew first started playing with Prisoners, I wasn't exactly wowed. I had seen them once before (at the Blue Arrow for the 7" release show) and left feeling sort of whateverish and then they kind of fell off my radar. I remember thinking that they sounded a lot like The Replacements and also like I wanted to just go home and listen to Gaze or something.

I am a first impressions kind of person -- I have a lot of knee jerk reactions and am regularly declaring that I "hate" things (as in, "I hate the Lost finale," "I hate the song 'Perfect Day,'" "I hate everyone all the time" (ok, that's not something I said, but Kate said it while we were eating lunch today and I could totally identify) etc.) I almost never revise these initial reactions. I mean, I've honestly been sitting here for the last three or four minutes trying to think of a time I've changed my mind about not liking something and I can't think of an example.

But, I'm starting to change my mind about Prisoners. When Drew started playing with them, he had a CD-R of the album and a live bootleg that he would listen to in the car while trying to learn his parts. I was not into this. I still remember getting in the car to go copy zines before the Chicago Zine Fest and groaning when I realized that he had left a Prisoners CD in the CD player. It was frustrating to have my regular regimen of car songs (Bee Thousand, Exile in Guyville, and Strumpet interrupted.) But I left it in and on the way back, one of the songs caught my ear and I actually got a little mad at myself for liking it because I am not into retracting my opinions and having Drew give his patented "Drew's always right" speech (FYI: "Drew's always right is pretty much the full text of this speech.)

Anyway, last night was a tipping point for me, in the kind of way where I am going to have to listen to Drew tell me that he's always right, because Prisoners played an amazing set at the Beachland Tavern and I had to listen to like a zillion people talk about how great they were and accept that they were right. It was an awesome set. I've seen them a couple of times since Drew starting playing with them and they get better every time, but last night was definitely a marked improvement from the last time I had seen them & I'm actually (get this!) really looking forward to the next time I get to see them (which will probably be on June 7th with The Jacuzzi Boys, since I'll be out of town for their show on the 28th.)

Their full-length LP is due out on June 19th (there's going to be an album release show at the Blue Arrow), but you can already buy copies from Blue Arrow Records or direct from the band at shows. They've got upcoming shows at the Beachland Tavern and Now That's Class and there's a midwest tour in the works, too. You can see tour dates and sample songs on their MySpace.

Summer Jams Series #3: The Blanche Hudson Weekend

2010-05-21T09:12:00.007-04:00

These week's summer jams comes courtesy of Caroline and Darren of The Blanche Hudson Weekend. Each one of them was kind enough to write a little bit about their favorite summer songs &, as usual, I've ended up with another list of impeccable summer jams.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend have 2 7"s out, The Letters to Daddy EP and The Rats in the Cellar EP, both of which are fantastic noisy pop music with shoegaze-y hints. If you're in the UK, you can get their 7"s straight from the label at Odd Box Records and if you're in the US, you can get them from Jigsaw Mailorder (which I really can't say enough good things about.) They're also on MySpace & will be playing at IndieTracks this summer. I've got one previous post about The Blanche Hudson Weekend that you can read here.

& ~~one~~ two last things before we're onto the list:

Clevelanders! You should come out tomorrow night for the Waterloo Alley Cat Project benefit! There will be a raffle with lots of prizes from local businesses on Waterloo & there will also be a $5 show at the Beachland Tavern. Drew will be playing with Prisoners, so I'll definitely be there. This weekend is also Weapons of Mass Creation Fest which kicks off at noon tomorrow.
Don't forget about that Go Sailor 7"! You have until midnight EST on Sunday to leave a comment for it!

Caroline's List:

Eaten by the Monster of Love - Sparks (listen to it here)

This year summer is officially cancelled in the UK, and as such we're facing a very blue period. To try and escape this misery my favourite artist at the moment is Sparks. I'm listening to them a lot. I'm really impressed by the theatricality of their output and their longevity. Right now, the song I'm playing the most is Eaten By The Monster Of Love. This will soundtrack my life over the next few months into what we laughably refer to as "summer". Don't let it get me ...

How Soon Is Now - The Smiths (listen to it here)

Another song, which I never thought of as a summer song, but became one a couple of years ago, is "How Soon Is Now". Darren and I were at a festival where Morrissey was playing a solo set, and he's not been at his best in recent years so we decided to give him a miss. However, he opened the set with this beauty, and as soon as we heard that guitar we looked at each other and without saying a word we both ran as fast as we could to the stage he was playing on. So now whenever I hear this song, I’m reminded of that night at the end of summer.

Pink Sunshine - Fuzzbox (listen to it here)

My all-time summer song though is Fuzzbox's Pink Sunshine. How could anyone fail to be seduced by the charms of these ladies with their raggle taggle hair and '80s appeal? These girls made being in a band look like amazing fun. I was just a kid when I first heard this song, and even then I loved the fuzz, reverbed to fuck drums, the handclaps and the sighs ... and what a chorus: All together now ... pink, pink sunshine......

Darren's List

River Man - Nick Drake (listen to it here)

This song has summer written all over it. I actually first heard it on a summer day too, which was perfect. It's a very English sound - the voice , the music. It couldn't have come from anywhere other than the UK. Just hearing it conjures up images of the countryside, gently flowing rivers and streams, rolling fields, quiet rural villages and sitting in a pub garden in the late afternoon with the sun shining down. Every so often, I like to dig out some Nick Drake music and just relax. Pink Moon is probably my favourite album of his because it's dark and has a real sadness to it, but this track is the one that reminds me most of the summer.

Manic Monday - The Bangles (listen to it here)

The song that soundtracked one summer when I was a little kid. This is just a really great pop song. It's as simple as that. Whenever I hear it I'm transported back to playing in the street with my friends, riding my bike and then running indoors at 7 30 to drink a Pepsi and watch Top Of The Pops, hoping to hear this song and see Susanna Hoffs. Definitely one of the first women I fell in love with. I'm still a big fan of early Bangles stuff, and I don't mind admitting that either.

Tractor Rape Chain - Guided By Voices (listen to it here)

Again , this just says "summer" in big , bold letters. It reminds me of being about 18 or 19 years old, when i first got into Guided By Voices. A friend of mine made a cassette of a whole bunch of their songs for me, and this one was about the 3rd or 4th track on there. Me and my friends used to go out on Fridays, stay out all night, and I'd make my way back home the next day through the Saturday shopping crowd, walk in through the door mid afternoon and just collapse on my bed, usually with the sound of my Guided By Voices cassette playing on the stereo. By the time this song started up, I was usually just drifting off to sleep. This track , particularly the intro, always takes me back to a drunken, hot summer when you didn't give a damn about anything but hanging out with your friends and having a good time. Back then, you never wanted the summer to end.

MJ Hibbett & The Validators

2010-05-18T12:27:00.005-04:00

The other day I got an e-mail from Mark of MJ Hibbett & The Validators alerting me to the fact that they've released last year's Regardez, Ecoutez, Et Repetez and through Bandcamp (which is, incidentally, kind of an amazing site.) And I though, well, that's nice, I'll have to listen to that, etc. and then went about the rest of my work day and ran some errands and didn't really return to it until this afternoon.

BUT (really, I'm getting there) this afternoon I was sitting at my desk at work listening to the new Janelle Monae album (which is very good and very different from what I normally listen to and post about here -- maybe I'll get to that in a separate entry) when I thought, you know, I really should listen to that MJ Hibbett & The Validators album before I get caught up in something else (you know, like working.)

I hadn't really had to much prior exposure to MJ Hibbett & The Validators -- Drew has a couple of their 7"s and I enjoyed their cover of "Glory Days" for WIAIWYA's Bruce Springsteen tribute, but I had never heard a full album from them & I have to say, I was really pleasantly surprised!

The opening track, "Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid," is a stunningly sincere pop tune. I also really enjoyed "Best Behaviour" and "Red Black Gold." The Bandcamp stream was a little spotty for me -- once songs started playing, they would play all the way through, but occasionally songs just wouldn't start. (It's entirely probable that this was a problem on my end either with my wifi connection or my computer.) The album has a nice blend of "serious" songs and humorous ones, though things are more or less uptempo throughout. I'll admit that lyrically some songs didn't work for me (especially "Do More, Eat Less" and "All the Good Men"), I think that's mainly due to me being an almost deathly serious sort of person, especially when it comes to things like the discourse around how/why people eat [1] or what motivates people to act on sexual desire & the fact that I tend to come at these issues from a very specific place -- it can be hard for me to shut off the academic part of my brain and stop analyzing things sometimes. I can only assume that Drew would tell me to deal with it because these songs are awesome & I'd imagine that many other people feel the same way. But anyway, at their core, even the songs I got hung up over are coming from a place of personal experience and genuine sincerity and I definitely don't want to invalidate that with my hang-ups.

My final thought: I love the blend of emotions that this album invokes -- garden variety happiness, nostalgia, a resigned crankiness (exemplified in "We're Old and We're Tired (and We Want to Go Home)," which just might be a new anthem of mine.) I love that this album sounds deeply youthful, but lyrically reflects a much wider range of emotions that tend to come with age. So many of these songs seem informed by a lifetime of experiences that help to make them seem wise, but the sound that MJ Hibbett & The Validators create has the album sounding anything by old and stale.

Regardez, Ecoutez, Et Repetez can be streamed in full here. You can pick the album up on CD for 10GBP or get it in download form for 5GBP.

The band has made a great promotional video for the album that you can watch here:

They've also made a video for the song, "My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once":

As always, if you have something that you want me to listen to, feel free to send me an e-mail at heysideponytail@gmail.com!

[1] Like, just a few weeks ago, Drew and I got into a protracted argument about the title of Michael Pollan's new-ish book, Food Rules and how I thought it was a loaded/problematic title because it suggested that there were inherently good/appropriate ways to eat for all people & Drew was like, "But he's just saying that people should eat less! And should try to have more fresh food instead of processed food!" But I couldn't get over the semantics of the title. ANYWAY, let's just try and keep my boring beliefs out of this.

Giving It All Away (3)

2010-05-17T10:45:00.005-04:00

The giveaway is closed! I ran the random number generator on random.org this morning and the winner commented under the blogger ID Child of the Sea. I don't have any contact information for you, so get in touch with me at heysideponytail@gmail.com so I can get your address.

I'm very excited for a number of reasons:

The final lineup for the Athens PopFest is due to be announced Friday!
Also this Friday: Tickets for the Athens PopFest will go on sale.
Go Sailor has been confirmed to play a reunion show at this year's Athens PopFest

Clearly there is a bit of a pattern here.

Sadly, I was unable to attend Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary showcases, which broke my heart a little bit at first and then it broke my heart a whole lot when I heard about the amazing bands who planned to reunite for the experience, including Go Sailor. I thought, "Surely I have missed my only chance to see this amazing, perfect band." And then I heard that they would also be playing the Athens PopFest, which patched my heart right back up.

So, to celebrate all things Go Sailor/all things Athens PopFest, I'm giving away a Go Sailor single! This 7" is on blue vinyl & was pressed for the Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary shows, it's a one-sided single & features an alternate mix of the Go Sailor song "Long Distance."

If you'd like me to mail this to you, just leave a comment here telling me either A) the best show you've attended or B) the upcoming show that you're looking forward to the most. Just like last time, if you post about this elsewhere & link back to Side Ponytail, I'll give you two extra numbers in the random number drawing.

I'll leave comments open until midnight (EST) on Sunday, May 23rd, so have at it!

Like the previous giveaway, this one is also open to international participants!

If you're interested in staying up to date on Athens PopFest stuff, check out these links & if you're planning on being at the Athens PopFest, feel free to let me know!

Athens PopFest on Facebook
Athens PopFest Official Website (coming soon)
Athens PopFest thread on Anorak (this is where I've been getting my Athens PopFest news)
HHBTM website

Summer Jams Series #2: Allo Darlin'

2010-05-14T09:03:00.003-04:00

I feel like I'm always finding new reasons to bemoan the fact that I have yet to hear Allo Darlin's full length album. First my "Dreaming" 7" came in the mail, then I found a used copy of WIAIWYA's Bruce Springsteen tribute comp (Play Some Pool, Skip Some School, Act Real Cool) in a Half Price Books in Mayfield (of all places!) and their cover of "Atlantic City" blew my mind, then Elizabeth Darling agreed to write up some of her favorite songs for the summer jams series! Oh well, at least we're getting closer and closer to the albums June release on Fortuna Pop.

So, without any further griping from me, here are Elizabeth's summer jams!

Cassius Clay - The Wave Pictures (listen to a live version here)

This song sounds best in the summer. I don't really understand what it means, but I love it anyway. I really love the way it sounds. Simon Trought, who recorded our album and also this one by the Wave Pictures, plays guitar on this and he was really upset the band wouldn't let him fix all of his ropey playing. I kind of love it for that. Drums are great on this one too - go Jonny.

A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill - Jens Lekman (listen to a live version (recorded at Cleveland's own Beachland Ballroom!) here)

An obvious choice but how can you go past it. Reminds me so much of summer's past in Sweden. I still love love this song even though I've heard it about a million zillion times.

The Hott Chord is Struck - Still Flyin' (listen here)

Have been getting more and more into this band since we played a couple of shows with them at SXSW and had a blast dancing to them. We're playing another show with them in London in a few weeks and I can't wait. It just makes me so happy. It's exactly my kind of thing.

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Paul Simon (listen here)

A classic, but it doesn't get much better than this, does it?

Dancing - Standard Fare (listen here)

I love this band so much. We've become friends over the last 6 months or so, we play a lot of the same shows in England and we did at SXSW too. I think Emma's voice is so amazing. I love this song - it makes me so so so happy. It's a classic already. They're playing our album launch with us at the Lexington in June and I am so excited. I can't wait for the summer.

A few thoughts of my own! I had never heard The Wave Pictures before, but am really digging that song! The same thing goes for Still Flyin'. Listening to "Dancing" makes me extra excited to see Standard Fare at the Athens Popfest this summer.

If you like Elizabeth's list, I bet you'd like Allo Darlin' too! They currently have two singles ("Polaroid Song" and "Dreaming") available from Fortuna Pop and a forthcoming full length album. They'll be in the US next weekend for the NYC Popfest along with some other Fortuna Pop acts, including Tender Trap.

Allo Darlin' have both an official website and a MySpace. You can purchase records and mp3s via their official site, including an mp3 version of their now sold out "Henry Rollins Don't Dance" single.

(Previous SP posts about/mentioning Allo Darlin' can be found here.)

And Clevelanders, don't forget! Tonight is the West Side Food Not Bombs Benefit at Now That's Class! Drew will be there with Prisoners and I might show up too.

The summer jams series will be back next week with The Blanche Hudson Weekend!

Singing Bridges

2010-05-13T12:21:00.002-04:00

William from Singing Bridges sent me an e-mail the other day about the band's new EP, Three Trains. Honestly, sometimes I get a little nervous when people get in touch with me about potentially reviewing something because I worry about not liking it and then being in the awkward position of figuring out what I should do next (write a lukewarm review? pretend I forgot about it and hope for the best? etc.) Fortunately, just seconds into "Bee," the EP's first track, I knew I wasn't going to have anything to worry about.

"Bee" is a lush shoegazey song that reminds me of My Bloody Valentine (and something Chuck Klosterman wrote about shoegaze that used the phrase "swirling guitars" in excess.) The EP's second song, "Crazy Street," changes things up a bit with a ramshackle indie pop sound (not unlike a combination of Gaze and the Shermans), featuring feathery female vocals. "Sunny Day" starts out with a bass line that immediately makes me think of "Ceremony" by New Order and builds from there, ultimately reminding me of a stripped down Galaxie 500 -- simple lyrics, simple chords, but a sound that somehow works its way into your memory. "Edith Keeler" is another great lo-fi pop number & sounds a bit like one of those little germs of songs recorded by Guided By Voices grown into a full two and half minutes. "Disappear (Nitrogen)" is the darkest song on the album by far, sounding not unlike a mix of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine.

So, this is the part where I get sort of conversational, because I just reread that last paragraph and realized how namedrop-y it was and how much I talked about Singing Bridges in terms of other bands that they sort of sound like at certain moments -- which in a way really diminishes their music, because it is great & not just because sometimes it sounds like Galaxie 500 or Gaze or whatever. It's good because it's straightforward and it stays with you.

You can sample Singing Bridges via their MySpace (I recommend listening to "Bee" and "Crazy Street") and you can order their Three Trains EP through Skipping Stones (it's $5.50 for US orders and $7.50 for international, prices include shipping.)

In sum, I'm so happy that William e-mailed me about this EP & I think you should listen to it! (And if you think that there's anything I should be listening to, feel free to send me an e-mail at heysideponytail@gmail.com!)

Lastly, for Clevelanders! If you're looking for something to do tomorrow night, Prisoners are playing the West Side Food Not Bombs Benefit at Now That's Class. There is a 50% chance I will be there lurking around while Drew plays the bass.

Live in Cleveland (Last Night)

2010-05-12T09:11:00.002-04:00

Last night I went up to the Beachland Ballroom to see Local Natives and Suckers, who are both on Frenchkiss Records. Local Natives started out the night early, playing a brief in store (4 songs, I think?) at Music Saves prior to the show, but I missed out on that because I was over at Blue Arrow Records helping them get some things ready for next Saturday's Waterloo Feral Cat Project Benefit. But, I heard that the in-store was well attended (around 60 people, which is a lot to cram into Music Saves!) & when I showed up there were still plenty of people milling around (including the band.)

I actually hadn't really planned on attending the Local Natives show. I listened to their album once a month or so ago and it didn't really catch me, but Drew and I were offered the opportunity to go for free, so we thought, "Why not?" &, on the whole, it was a decent decision (aside from the relatively minor setback of missing Lost and having our DVR cut off the last 15 minutes because the broadcast was delayed due to a "weather emergency." ANYWAY.)

A little while ago (maybe a week? a month? longer?) I was listening to stonecoldbikini on WRUW and Christin described a band (I can't remember what band -- if only I had known that this information would become semi-critical to a blog entry in my near future) as "forest rock" and then went on to vaguely elaborate by saying, "you know, dudes with beards harmonizing" (or something to that effect.) Which is pretty spot on for Local Natives (though they're more accurately described as mustachioed (as opposed to bearded.)

ANYWAY -- they certainly aren't bad, it's just that the whole "dudes with beards harmonizing/forest rock" thing isn't something that I've really developed a taste for yet. But, I think that in a lot of cases, it can be nice to go into a show with no real expectations. So that's what I did & here's what I found:

The Local Natives; live show definitely kept my attention in a way that their record didn't. They played a great, brief set (somewhere around 40 minutes, which was just right for me) & surprised me with a cover of "Warning Sign" by Talking Heads (which likely would have been less of a surprise if I had read CLE music blogger Erin's interview with the band over on her blog Dust Sleeve.) The Ballroom was pretty packed, which was great to see, & the crowd clearly had favorite tunes that they were waiting to hear (the band did an awesome job pacing these songs throughout their set, so when it seemed that the crowd's attention was beginning to wander, they were pulled back in.)

The opening band, Frenchkiss label-mates Suckers, was also a pleasant surprise. They had a vaguely Animal Collective-ish sound (which is invariably my go to descriptor for almost anything that involves the combo of guitars, electronics, and yelping) & by the end of their set it seemed like they had really won the crowd over.

Local Natives and Suckers are midway through their tour. You can view remaining tour dates & sample songs on their MySpace (a handful of the remaining tour dates are already sold out, so if they're coming to your town & you want to be there, you may want to consider buying tickets in advance.)

Birds of California and The Month of June

2010-05-11T09:36:00.001-04:00

EPs from Birds of California and The Month of June mark the inaugural releases from February Records (formerly known as Tweefort.)

I'm terrible at writing proper reviews (even when asked), but here are some quick impressions:

Last week, when I wrote about The Honey Skoolmates, I mentioned a compilation called Moshi Moshi: Pop International Style. Though Birds of California are based in Portland, OR, the songs on their EP Great Expectations sound like they would be right at home on that much beloved (by me) 2CD set (maybe it's the horns?) The three song EP starts out sweet with "Great Expectations" (I love the horns, chimes, etc. in this track -- there's a lot going on, but it never becomes overwhelming.) The next song, "Saturday," is a bit slower, but has the same layered instrumentation and backing vocals (not unlike something you might hear on a Beulah album.) The EP closes with "Laugh Out Loud," a fast-paced pop romp that might just be my favorite out of the three tracks.

Great Expectations is available as a free download from February Records (DOWNLOAD)

Call it Art by The Month of June has an atmospheric electronic sound utilizing synthesizers and a vocoder. Out of the three songs on the EP, the second ("Daffodil") is my favorite by far -- it's in "Daffodil" that I really heard the comparisons that February Records makes between The Month of June and acts like Panda Bear Galaxie 500.

Call it Art is available as a free download from Feruary Records (DOWNLOAD)

February Records has a number of other releases available for free download, including a sampler of bands playing the Elm City Popfest and Home and Abroad vol. 2, a compilation of Connecticut, US, and international indie pop groups.

Summer Jams Series #1: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

2010-05-07T13:32:00.004-04:00

As everyone knows by now, I've been really into summer songs lately. I've identified my favorite summer songs (and, where appropriate, sent summer themed mixed out to friends) & I've been asking other people about their favorite summer songs -- first just my friends, then people who read this blog, &, most recently, musicians.

So, the idea is that this summer there's going to be a series of posts curated by artists about their favorite summer songs. Many of the people who have agreed to share their summer jams will be on the road this summer, so be sure to see them if they're coming your way!

To start things off, we have a post by Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The Pains are touring the US this summer (you can see dates here) before heading overseas to headline Indietracks and play a few dates around the UK.

Kip's summer jams are as follows!

1. "Sunny Sundae Smile" by My Bloody Valentine (listen here)

People say, "you guys rip off Sunny Sundae Smile-era My Bloody Valentine." And they're totally right. I know why the later stuff is legendary, but to me there's something that just hits me in the center of the chest with this song, the lyrics, music, enthusiasm, feelings, treble-- I never really get tired of listening to this, or really anything off this EP ("Sylvie's Head," "Paint a Rainbow," "Kiss the Eclipse").

2. "Wild Eyes" by The Vivian Girls (listen here)

It's really hard to pick a single Vivian Girls song, as there are several that feel extra perfect on a summer day. But there's something about this song that feels equal parts carefree and dead serious. It hints at a sort of dangerous summer love-- maybe it won't last forever, but while it does, it's all that matters.

3. "Girl From Mars" by Ash (listen here)

Anyone that's been around me for more than three minutes has heard me talk about how all I want to do in life is someday write a song this awesome (and maybe play a show with The Strokes). I may never do it, but from the first time I heard this on Alternative Radio as a kid to now, it just seems like total, unabashed wonderfulness.

4. "Our Deal" by Best Coast (listen here)

This is probably going to be the song to beat for summer 2010. I really like songs that say a lot of stuff with not that many words-- I think that's a really hard thing to do. I really like her voice and vibe a lot, and the arrangements with the backing "ahhhs" and piano (right?) give it that magical 60s feeling.

5. "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins (listen here)

"Mayonaise" is awesome, as is "Cherub Rock," "Rocket," GeeK U.S.A. and a bunch more from Siamese Dream. But to me, this, along with "Nevermind" by Nirvana and Dirty/Goo-era Sonic Youth and the first two Weezer records is the apex of American 90s alt guitar music-- equal parts raw and gooey. The James Iha lead lines with the bendy stuff is just the coolest-- how come no one does that anymore?

---
So, an infinite thanks to Kip for being kind enough to kick this off! Be sure to support the Pains on their tour this summer -- they'll have a new single with them called "Say No to Love" (if you're in the US, it's being released on Slumberland and Insound is already taking preorders, UK listeners will be able to get a copy via Fortuna Pop.) "Say No to Love" is also streaming on Pitchfork (I'll be honest -- this Pitchfork stream hasn't been working for me, but here's an audio-only YouTube video.)

Clevelanders -- the Pains will be at the Beachland Ballroom on June 6th. If you're in the area, you should definitely come out for the show!

The Summer Jams Series will continue next week with a post by Elizabeth from Allo Darlin'!

New Blanche Hudson Weekend Song

2010-05-05T08:55:00.005-04:00

There's a new Blanche Hudson Weekend song! It's called "Let Me Go" and you can stream it via their MySpace page.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend takes their name from the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and contains former members of Manhattan Love Suicides. (Not unlike MLS) The Blanche Hudson Weekend blends shoegazy guitars with lovely pop vocals -- a combination that's especially noticeable on "Let Me Go," which is a delightfully upbeat track.

The Blanche Hudson weekend have released two 7"s to date, The Rats in the Cellar EP (Odd Box Records) and The Letters to Daddy EP (Squirrel Records.) If you're in the US and don't want to pay overseas shipping, Jisgaw Mailorder has The Letters to Daddy EP in stock for $6.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend is gearing up for their first ever live show (they'll be playing in London on July 20th) and will also be playing at Indietracks this summer (which features an all around astounding lineup. I wish I could be there!)

I know that this post is ostensibly about the new BHW song, but while you're over at their MySpace page, I really recommend listening to all of the stuff they have posted, especially "Grip of Fear" and "Only Snow" from The Rats in the Cellar EP. I can't get over how good those two songs are -- absolutely gorgeous.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend on MySpace
Odd Box Records
Squirrel Records
Jisgaw Mailorder (US orders, has The Letters to Daddy EP)

Courtney Love (The Band)

2010-05-04T13:35:00.002-04:00

Courtney Love, Hey! Antoinette 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, Highlights 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, Uncrushworthy 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, "Don't Mix the Colors (Live)" (Beat Happening cover) (DOWNLOAD)

Awhile ago Tukru asked if anyone had Courtney Love's cover of "Don't Mix the Colors" (or any other Courtney Love in general) and I say, "I do, I do!" and then promptly forgot to share it with her. So, here it is, somewhat belatedly.

Courtney Love is the sweet team of Lois Maffeo (vocals, guitar) and Pat Maley (drums). They released 3 7"s together and contributed tracks to a compilation or two. Generally speaking, I'm a big fan of Lois, but I'm especially partial to these songs she recorded with Pat. "Uncrushworthy," "Hey! Antoinette," "Motorcycle Boy," songs don't get much better than these.

The songs are simple, just guitars and drums and Lois's voice, but they'll win your heart over in an instant. What I love about music like this is that it really invites the listener to participate -- if you listen to this & like it, there's nothing to stop you from jumping in and doing it on your own.

The Courtney Love 7"s are out of print now, but aren't especially hard to find (or expensive) on the used market, especially if you're willing to be vigilant.

For more on Courtney Love, check out this delightful archived interview with Lois.

Courtney Love, Hey! Antoinette 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, Highlights 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, Uncrushworthy 7" (DOWNLOAD)
Courtney Love, "Don't Mix the Colors (Live)" (Beat Happening cover) (DOWNLOAD)

Honey Skoolmates

2010-05-04T10:55:00.002-04:00

Honey Skoolmates, Your Aquarium EP (DOWNLOAD)

This morning I was hit by a weird wave of nostalgia for the Honey Skoolmates, a band I haven't listened to in years (and had very limited exposure to to begin with.) They contributed a track called "Go Now!" to a 2CD comp called Moshi Moshi: Pop International Style. I listened to that song constantly and longed for more of their endearing pop tunes, but was never really able to track anything down aside from their EP Your Aquarium.

Your Aquarium has just 5 songs sung in Japanese and English, but they're lovely and understated. Something about their sound is both shy and welcoming, not quite as intimate as Rocket or Chiritori, but still as endearing.

A YouTube search turns up one lonely video of them performing their song "Ryme to the Ocean" (from their full length album Insomniac):

A general Google search is just as scarce (aside for results for the Moshi Moshi comp and a Velvet Underground tribute album curated by Gerard Malanga), though it does look like you can still buy Your Aquarium and Insomniac here, from CD Japan.

If you're an international pop fan, definitely give this a listen (and invest in a used copy of that Moshi Moshi comp, it's full of pop gems!)

Honey Skoolmates, Your Aquarium EP (DOWNLOAD)

Weed Hounds Announce Summer Tour

2010-05-03T08:47:00.003-04:00

I'm stoked to say that Weed Hounds are hitting the road this summer (and have scheduled a stop in Cleveland!) They've mentioned that they're in need of help booking shows, so if you live in one of these cities you should send them an e-mail at weedhounds[at]gmail[dot]com.

The Weed Hounds demo tape was one of my favorite releases last year. It's sold out now, but you can download it here. It has four perfect dreamy shoegaze pop anthems & set the stage perfectly for their split with Dude Japan, which you can order direct from the label (Rok Lok) or from the band via their tumblr (they're also offering pre-orders for their upcoming 7" and a sweet Gossip Girl inspired t-shirt.)

Their tour schedule is as follows:

7/4 Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD w/ Girlfriends

7/5 Richmond, VA w/ Girlfriends

7/6 NC w/ Girlfriends

7/7 SC w/ Girlfriends

7/8 Athens, GA w/ Girlfriends

7/9 Birmingham, AL w/ Girlfriends

7/10 Jackson, MS w/ Girlfriends

7/11 Circle Bar in New Orleans, LA w/ Girlfriends

7/12 Super Happy Fun Land in Houston, TX w/ Girlfriends

7/13 Club1808 Austin, TX w/ Girlfriends

7/14 Dallas/Denton, TX

7/15 Little Rock, AK

7/16 Memphis, TN

7/17 Nashville, TN

7/18 Louisville, KY

7/19 Columbus or Cincinnati, OH

7/20 Cleveland, OH

7/21 Pittsburgh, PA

7/22 Philadelphia, PA

7/23 New Brunswick, NJ

P.S. I ran the random number generator this morning and the winner was reggaechicken -- I've messaged you via tumblr, but just in case you see it here first: send me your mailing address so I can ship you your 7"!

New Tender Trap Single

2010-05-01T08:33:00.004-04:00

Tender Trap have released a new single from their forthcoming LP for free online! You can download "Girls with Guns" free from the Fortuna Pop website right here.

Tender Trap consists of former members of Heavenly, Marine Research, and Police Cats as well as Elizabeth Darling from Allo Darlin'. The e-mail I received from Fortuna Pop indicted that the single might soon be available from Slumberland as well, though I'm not sure if they meant it will be available as a download or a physical release (I'm leaning towards download as right now neither label's site has a physical release available.) ANYWAY, for those of you in the US, Slumberland will be handling US distribution of Tender Trap's upcoming 3rd LP, Dansette, Dansette. (Speaking of Slumberland, I just dropped $40 on their website this morning, so maybe I'll be doing a mailorder roundup edition of "What I Bought.")

So, to actually talk about the song for a second, "Girls with Guns" is a girl gang anthem in which Heavenly vows revenge, saying, "We are ready to get mean/We are watching out/For all the girls around this town/And you will be found out/If you try to bring one of those girls down." I love the way this song is driven -- the guitars are relentless, but without losing any of Tender Trap's delightful pop sensibilities. There are also a few little guitar/bass flourishes that make me think of old western soundtracks, which is in amazing touch.

Fortuna Pop says:

It's a riot-grrrl-esque tale of sisterhood and revenge that wouldn’t be out of place among the punkest moments of Amelia Fletcher's previous outfits. While guitars and drums rush by in a blur, Amelia and her new girl crew swear a cold-hearted vengeance on the unreliable and untrustworthy menfolk of the town.

Tender Trap will be playing in the US on May 21st as a part of the New York Popfest (fellow Fortuna Poppers Allo Darlin' will also play a gig there -- I wish I could go!)

Tender Trap has made a video for "Girls with Guns" & I've embedded it below:

What I've Been Listening To This Week

2010-04-30T12:35:00.002-04:00

It's Friday afternoon and in just a few short hours I'll be cutting out of work early (admittedly, this early departure really just has to do with doing more work, only from outside of my cubicle), but until then, I thought I'd pass the time with a brief analysis of what I've been listening to lately.

I'm always interested in the ways we present ourselves vs. the ways we're actually, privately living. The music I write about here is a public expression of what I've been listening to, thinking about, seeing, etc., but the "private" side of things (all the things I listen to and don't write about here) is usually a totally different story.

So, here are my top ten artists this week according to my last.fm account:

1. Free Loan Investments Is their better springtime music than Free Loan Investments? Not today, there isn't. Their cover of "Rush Hour" from Shelflife's You're Still Young at Heart comp is making my heart flutter and my head spin.

2 & 3. Delta Dart and Mary Timony are tied for second place. I woke up in a Delta Dart kind of mood this morning and listened to their albums Fight or Flight and Lone Star. I've been really into Mary Timony's album The Golden Dove lately, especially the song "Blood Tree." I mentioned this on twitter and my friend Brittany said that Mary Timony is a witch who enchants all of her tunes, which is way better than Drew's claim that Mary Timony is a watered-down Sonic Youth ripoff.

4. Best Coast I'm still riding the high of seeing Best Coast in Oberlin a few weeks ago (review here) and have been listening to their tour CD-R & other tracks a ton (they would probably actually be number one for this week if last.fm had tracked the amount of times I streamed their new song.)

5. Mirah I don't know why, but this week I was in the mood to listen to Advisory Committee (I think this was probably inspired by the recently announced Thao and Mirah tour) & I'm always in the mood to listen to Mirah b-sides and compilation tracks ("Tumwater Falls" is the perfect springtime song.)

6. Pearl Harbor I just found out about Pearl Harbor this week from my friend April and wrote about their lazy California pop jams yesterday. This morning I ordered the repress of their Something About the Chaparral 12".

7. Little Red Car Wreck I wrote about Little Red Car Wreck way back when. Their album Motor Like A Mother is one of my mainstays and has been for something like 10 years now.

8. Allo Darlin' Are all of you too good for that free Allo Darlin' 7"? Hardly anyone has commented on that entry! You have until midnight (EST) on Sunday. Anyway, I've been really into some of the new Allo Darlin' tracks (especially "Dreaming" and "My Heart is a Drummer") and that is duly reflected in my last.fm stats.

9. Churchbuilder Churchbuilder is another band that I wrote about a long time ago. Akron based pop with dreamy synths and songs about Flannery O'Conor and bad northeastern Ohio weather.

10. The Lemonheads I was in a mopey mood on Monday morning and started my work week off by listening to the Lemonheads' album Car Button Cloth -- it's the perfect sad springtime record, especially with songs like "Hospital" and "The Outdoor Life."

Pearl Harbor

2010-04-28T09:28:00.005-04:00

Pearl Harbor, "Sunburn" (DOWNLOAD)
Pearl Harbor, "California Shakedown" (DOWNLOAD)

UPDATE You can get the repress of Something About the Chaparral (along with a cassette version of the EP) direct from Pearl Harbor for $15 (postage paid) today only (4/30/2010.) Further information and a PayPal link is here. I'm assuming they have a limited number of these available, so don't wait on ordering yours if you're sure you want one. These are now sold out, but the repress of Something About the Chaparral is now officially available on the Mexican Summer website. You can order it here.

I am just going to start lurking April for all of my new music. This morning she introduced me to Pearl Harbor, an LA duo who write and perform some seriously gorgeous shimmering pop songs that make me think of the following (in no particular order): Galaxie 500, unicorns, costume jewelry, roller skates, tv shows set in imaginary high schools in California, and the opening sequence of the Less Than Zero movie. Pearl Harbor makes beautiful, lush tunes and it's honestly difficult to stop myself from just writing things like: "lush, atmospheric, dreamy, etc." over and over and over.

What's especially interesting is that normally I am not interested in anything "lush, atmospheric, dreamy, etc." In fact, normally I think that kind of stuff is boring and I take pains to avoid it (with a few rare exceptions -- I guess up until now there was (aside from Galaxie 500) actually only one exception, Panda Bear's Person Pitch.) Just yesterday Drew and I were in the car and I was talking about how much I hate soundscapes, if that gives you any idea of what I usually don't like in a song.

Anyway, if Pearl Harbor can get me listening to the kind of stuff I normally ACTIVELY DISCUSS DISLIKING, I think it's safe to assume that they are good at what they do.

They currently have two releases to their name: There's a debut 12" Something About the Chaparrals on Mexican Summer (view it here). I am admittedly not sure of what's going on with this -- the first press is sold out, I've heard there's a repress on turquoise vinyl (which the Mexican Summer site seems to suggest is sold out -- BUT all over the internet it's listed as having a May release date and less than 24 hours ago Pearl Harbor posted about it on Twitter in a way that suggested it should be readily available... Perhaps weirdest of all: you seem to be able to preorder it from Best Buy. I am not entirely sure what that's all about. Maybe it's one of those "sold out at the label, still available through distros" situations?)

There's also the Slivers of You 7" available from Japanese mail order label Big Love (the link takes you to and English-language ordering page.) It sounds like Pearl Harbor will have a few of these to sell on their upcoming tour with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Magic Kids (you can see tour dates on their MySpace.)

The two songs I've uploaded with this post are "Sunburn" (the first track off the 12") and "California Shakedown" (the b-side from the 7".) It's a real shame that The OC is no longer on the air, because this song would work seriously well with a California teens driving down the 101 montage. I can seriously see Summer Roberts' hair blowing in the wind when I listen to this. "California Shakedown" is a little darker -- a little more Sweet Valley High Elizabeth Wakefield remembers that time she was kidnapped and kept under the floor of a burning building. OK, maybe not that dark. It's probably a little more Jessica Wakefield remembers that time she almost let Bruce Patman take off her bikini top and thinks to herself, "I thought I knew everything back then." Which is, when you think about, still pretty dark.

So, there you have it. Pearl Harbor: music for girls who remember when they thought they knew everything.

Pearl Harbor on blogger
Pearl Harbor on twitter
Pearl Harbor on facebook
Pearl Harbor on MySpace
Order the Slivers of You 7" here

Pearl Harbor, "Sunburn" (DOWNLOAD)
Pearl Harbor, "California Shakedown" (DOWNLOAD)

New Best Coast Song

2010-04-27T19:43:00.002-04:00

Black Iris is streaming a new Best Coast song, "Our Deal," from her forthcoming solo album. You can listen to it here.

I wish I had an arbitrary rating system that I used for this sort of thing, because I would happily give this "5 out of 5 cats" or rank it on par with "The OC season one" (versus, of course, later seasons of The OC.)

What I am trying to say here is: listen to this song. I have been for the last half hour. It's a gorgeous, lazy, mournful pop song. I'm beginning to think that Best Coast writes those types of songs better than almost anyone else.

Giving It All Away (2)

2010-04-27T10:19:00.005-04:00

I ran the random number generator this morning (5/3/10) and the winner is reggaechicken! I sent you a message via tumblr, but in case you see it here first, send me an e-mail with your mailing address so that I can send you your 7"!

I didn't anticipate having another item to give away so soon, but I've ended up with another copy of the Allo Darlin' The Polaroid Song 7" (b/w the lovely "Will You Spend New Year's With Me?") and what am I going to do with two? Raffle one off, obviously.

So, here's the deal: if you'd like to have an Allo Darlin' 7" of your very own, leave a comment by midnight on Sunday, May 2nd (EST) with one of your favorite summer jams and you're in the running.

If you're the kind of person who likes to have an edge in these sorts of things, you can link to Side Ponytail from elsewhere on the internet (and comment here or e-mail me at sideponytail@riseup.net to let me know!) and I'll give you 2 extra numbers when I run the random number generator on Monday morning. This is, obviously, not mandatory.

The previous giveaway was restricted to US residents... This one is not! So feel free to enter if you live abroad.

For those of you who might not be familiar with Allo Darlin', I've written about them on SP several times. They had my top single of 2009 with "Henry Rollins Don't Dance" and I am eagerly, eagerly awaiting their upcoming full length on Fortuna Pop (due in June -- but if you're lucky enough to catch them live, they're already selling it at shows.)

Allo Darlin' will be playing at the NYC Popfest (wish I could be there!) and has a lovely website with more information and some free downloads.

& here's a video for "The Polaroid Song":

Mirah announces tour with Thao!

2010-04-26T14:18:00.002-04:00

I'm certainly blogging away this afternoon!

I'm super stoked to say that Mirah (who is, in case you haven't picked up on it by now, basically my favorite musician in the entire world) is hitting the road with Thao Nguyen. They'll be touring this summer as Thao and Mirah with The Most of All and I couldn't be more exuberant. They're not going to be hitting Ohio on this tour, but they're Detroit date falls on a Saturday, so I'll likely be making the trip up to Michigan.

I've got to say that I'm a little bummed that they'll be closing their tour at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. There's a good multi-part FAQ right here about MWMF's identity a space for "womyn born womyn" & what this policy means for the trans community. (The FAQ is divided over several pages & includes some good info, I suggest taking a look at it if you're not familiar with the MWMF.)

Dates are as follows:

Jun 9, 2010 - Albuquerque, New Mexico
Launchpad - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 11, 2010 - Austin, Texis
The Mohawk - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 12, 2010 - Houston, Texis
Orange Show Center for Visionary Art - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 13, 2010 - Dallas, Texis
The Loft - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 15, 2010 - New Orleans, Louisiana
One Eyed Jack's - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 16, 2010 - Tallahassee, Florida
The Engine Room - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 18, 2010 - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Local 506 - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 20, 2010 - Washington, DC
Black Cat - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 21, 2010 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
First Unitarian Church - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 23, 2010 - Cambridge, Massachusetts
Middle East - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 24, 2010 - Brooklyn, New York
Music Hall of Williamsburg - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 25, 2010 - Montreal, Quebec
La Sala Rossa - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 26, 2010 - Toronto, Ontario
The Horseshoe - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 27, 2010 - Detroit, Michigan
Magic Stick - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jun 28, 2010 - Chicago, Illinois
Lincoln Hall - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jul 1, 2010 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cedar Cultural Center - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jul 5, 2010 - Denver, Colorado
Hi-Dive - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Jul 7, 2010 - Salt Lake City, Utah
Urban Lounge - w/ Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with The Most of All)

Aug 7, 2010 - Hart, Michigan
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival - w/ Thao with the Get Down Stay Down (Thao and Mirah with the Most of All)

Grass Widow

2010-04-26T11:33:00.002-04:00

Grass Widow, "To Where" (DOWNLOAD)

I wanted to write about Grass Widow last week, but just didn't have the time (I had to go out of town for work and wasn't able to get a post together.) But, better late than never, right?

My friend April introduced me to Grass Widow early last week when she posted one of their songs on her Tumblr. I was instantly smitten! Grass Widow fits in so neatly with a lot of what I've been listening to lately: fuzzy, hazy, pop music with female vocals. "To Where," the first song off of their first full length LP is a perfect summer jam (sorry for all of the "summer jams" talk lately, but in the interest of full disclosure, I am probably going to be yammering on about summer jams until September, AT LEAST. Until then, it is summer jam season.)

"To Where" is a perfect first track for an album -- it sounds like it's overflowing with enthusiasm, it makes me want to get up and move around, it is all muddled voices and bright colors and fast guitars, like a sonic water color, which sounds really cheesy until you listen to the song and realize that "it sounds like a water color" is actually the PERFECT SIMILE and I am a rock critic GENIUS.

Grass Widow is currently on tour and they're playing up and down the general west coast area with some killer bands -- including Brilliant Colors and Mike Watt and the Missingmen. April planned on catching their Portland show yesterday night and I certainly hope she did so that I can live vicariously through her experiences.

Aside from their full length, Grass Widow also has an EP out on Captured Tracks -- which, according to the Captured Tracks website, is sold out. Good news, though, a few distros still have it. If you're in the US, you can order from InSound and if you're in the UK you can order from Soft Power Vinyl and Rough Trade. You can order the LP direct from the band via their website (see links below!)

Grass Widow's official website
Grass Widow on MySpace

Grass Widow, "To Where" (DOWNLOAD)

Record Store Day 2010

2010-04-20T12:09:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday was the third annual Record Store Day, a highly anticipated event for Drew and something that I more or less enjoy. I had to work Saturday morning, but was able to meet Drew in the line to get into Music Saves, one of the independently owned stores on Waterloo Rd. near the Beachland. The line more than doubled in length while we were waiting and by the time we were done shopping and had checked out, there was still a decent line of people waiting to get into the store.

My haul is (mostly) pictured above & breaks down as follows:

Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding split 7"
Thermals/Cribs split 7"
Surfer Blood/Holiday Shores split 7"
Built to Spill 7"
Superchunk 7"
Let's Wrestle/The Love Language split 7"
Unusual Animals vol. 1 (Asthmatic Kitty split 7", free in my grab bag!)
Music Saves loaded me up with additional free goodies including stickers, a Helper T-Cells CD, a Sufjan Stevens comic book, Cleveland postcards, & the center from a copy of the new Hold Steady album, which was pressed here in Cleveland (this will probably become a coaster)
USED a copy of the Barbarians' "Moulty" 7" from the Blue Arrow (also on Waterloo)
USED VIA MAILORDER The Softies' "Love Seat" 7", Best Coast "Make You Mine" 7", Skatterbrain's CD-R comp If You Like Everything, There's Nothing Left to Love!

I think that's everything...

The Blue Arrow and Music Saves put on a joint series of shows featuring local bands Prisoners (this was Drew's third show playing with them), The Muttering Retreats, Tastycakes, The Very Knees, and Cloud Nothings. I think I caught a little bit (or all) of everyone's sets (with the exception of the Muttering Retreats.) Cloud Nothings were a lot of fun (they played my favorite song of theirs & staple of this year's summer jams, "Can't Stay Awake") & so were Prisoners (who will be apparently playing a ton of shows in the coming months, so I guess I can look forward to Drew never moving his amplifier out of our living space.)

Maybe it's the Ladypalooza stuff going on over at Tiger Beatdown, but lately I feel as though I have been hyper conscious of the way my gender informs the experiences I have out and about in the "real world" as it relates to music. "Sexist Encounters with Music Snobs" have become an institution in my journal (dudes who work at Guitar Center who tell me, "If you just practice hard enough, even you could be in a band!," record store clerks who I assume that I basically exist as Drew's mobile record holder, people who ask me if I am a "groupie"), but I feel like lately I've been hyper aware of positioning myself as a female within record culture and wondering what that means in a larger context. This is all a very long way of saying that waiting in line on Record Store Day, I was subject to some conversations that totally helped me to understand why my girl friends don't want to go to the record store with me or go to shows or even talk about music in a way that is more meaningful than, "Oh yeah, I really like that song."

I found myself having a sort of on the street existential crisis because I became totally paranoid about whether or not I was one of Those Elitist Record People who talked about things like having rare Deerhunter singles (FULL DISCLOSURE: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO DEERHUNTER IS!) I heard a lot of people talking about their music blogs in ways that both made me both ashamed of having a music blog and proud of myself for never talking about it in real life (which is kind of weird, I mean, why should I be proud of myself for not sharing something?)

Ultimately, I have some mixed feelings about Record Store Day. I say it all the time, but community is one of the main things that drew me into an ongoing appreciation of music & while I love that Record Store Day, in many ways, helps to foster a sense of community by getting people to go out and support independently owned stores (& from what I hear, people in Cleveland showed a lot of support), I don't get a sense of community from listening to people brag about who has what (I mean, we might as well just get it out there, my ability to collect records is a direct product of my class privilege) or seeing people re-sell Record Store Day releases on eBay (Blur's ONE SIDED 7" is selling for upwards of $100 on the auction market -- over $100 for JUST ONE SONG).

All that said, I would more or less call Record Store Day 2010 a success.

"My Thoughts on Riot Grrrl"

2010-04-19T09:37:00.003-04:00

Conversations with Drew have shown me that there is no quicker way to bore people to tears than to offer them a chance to hear my thoughts on riot grrrl, but there has been so much ongoing discussion around the idea of a "riot grrrl revival" in the so-called "blogosphere" that I feel like I can't help but continue putting my opinions out there, especially because I seem to have found myself in the unpopular position of thinking that a "riot grrrl revival" is A) unnecessary and B) perhaps a bad idea.

I feel like whenever I have these discussions online, I have to throw in this obligatory, "But I love riot grrrl!" and yeah, I do. I came of age listening to riot grrrl records, riot grrrl heavily informed my personal politics, and I still have a heavy admiration for many of the musicians involved in riot grrrl. All that said, I feel that even from my first general moments of interest in the riot grrrl movement, I understood riot grrrl as something that existed as a specific cultural moment in time. I never wanted to call myself a riot grrrl, but I feel like my general detachment from the riot grrrl label did nothing to compromise my interest in the intersections of music and feminist politics. But, all that said, I still find myself getting apprehensive when I see all of the buzz about a riot grrrl revival.

I feel like there's been a lot of talk about how "original" riot grrrls are protective of/territorial about the riot grrrl movement. That they are, perhaps, trying to keep all of the riot grrrl for themselves. I don't think that is true AT ALL. In fact, I think that they are working to encourage parties who are interested in riot grrrl by telling them, "You are already valuable and should be doing your own thing," and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that message. I think they're also working to make people who weren't a part of the original riot grrrl scene more cognizant of some of riot grrrl's troubled history in the hopes of preventing a scene that blindly and unintentionally reproduces those same failings. While many people speaking out in the interests of having a riot grrrl revival have indicated that they are aware of these issues, there seems to be a general consensus that "we're all more educated now and these things won't be problems anymore," which is an approach that really worries me.

Just because someone is well-intentioned and aware of their race, class, or cis privilege doesn't mean that they are immune from saying/doing problematic things (we all know that no one is immune). More importantly, it also doesn't mean that they are necessarily any better prepared to respond appropriately in the event they do or say something that is racist, classist, transphobic, etc. The volume of people I have seen saying that when it comes to the riot grrrl revival "race won't be a problem, class won't be a problem, transphobia won't be a problem," seems to suggest a complete and total lack of both interest and willingness to seriously engage around these issues and what they meant for riot grrrl/what they will mean for a riot grrrl revival, and that lack of serious engagement leads me to think that these issues will continue to be problems within the context of a "future" riot grrrl movement.

I'm also a little bit troubled by the general attachment to the riot grrrl name. To me, at this point in time, such an attachment suggests more of a brand name identification than anything else. I can be a girl, play a guitar, make a zine, write letters to friends, engage in community building, etc. all without calling myself a riot grrrl. Naming something is a very loaded act and I wonder, if we're all so aware of riot grrrl's problematic history and the bad baggage that the riot grrrl name often carries for working class girls, pocs, and transfolk, why we want to carry that name over into a movement that is supposedly more inclusive and aware.

While I understand the value in drawing both musical and political inspiration by looking backwards, I sometimes worry that by fixating so wholly and fervently on riot grrrl that we erase the women who were doing musical and political work before riot grrrl and who continue to do so in its wake. I feel like we do this even when it comes to original riot grrrls themselves. I mean, members of bands like Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney, and Bratmobile have not stopped existing -- in fact, many of them are continuing to work on their own creative projects. Yet many people continue to fixate on what they were doing 15 years ago as opposed to what they are doing in the here and now. I also worry about the tacit assumption that all lady punks have a vested interest in the riot grrrl movement -- there are plenty of people out there who explicitly do not want to identify as riot grrrls and when we push their critiques to the margins in the hopes of "keeping it posi," we effectively engage in the same silencing of marginalized populations that some of the original riot grrrls engaged in.

I’m in no way opposed to a movement that encourages girls/ladies/women/ANYONE to empower themselves, especially when that empowerment occurs through expressing themselves and creating work that reflects their thoughts and experiences. I am 100% for working to create an environment that facilitates girl-centric music, writing, and art, that isn’t afraid to both personalize and politicize those cultural products, that promotes networking between girls that helps to create an infrastructure where girls are more able to take their bands (or other projects) on tour, can connect with other girls who share their interests and beliefs, can share resources with each other & support each other, etc. What I don't understand is why people feel the need to organize such a movement around the riot grrrl name. I'm all about intent and having a reasoned out though process, so I'm really interested in the why around all this. Why call it a riot grrrl revival? I've heard a lot of people saying, "Because I love riot grrrl," and to me, that's just not a strong enough response to counter the concerns that the riot grrrl name often evokes.

Live in Oberlin (Last Night)

2010-04-16T10:07:00.005-04:00

Best Coast Tour CD-R (DOWNLOAD)

Last night Drew and I went down to Oberlin for the Best Coast show and I'm so glad that we did. It was definitely the best $5 I've spent on a recent night on the town. I was a little hesitant about another night at the Sco after the bad experience Drew and I had when we saw Girls/Dum Dum Girls, but it must have just been the crowd that Girls drew. The audience for the Best Coast show was much smaller & on the whole, uncomfortable invasions of my personal space decreased by about 100%, which was much appreciated.

The opening band, Geffika, was a duo (drums & guitar) that played some pretty heavy, sludgy rock. Their music wasn't really my style, but I did like the last song that they played -- it felt much faster compared to the rest of their set & seemed more like a hardcore punk song. Even though I wasn't super into Geffika, I really appreciated having the experience of seeing them play. Even though I try not to be, I'm (in many ways) very limited in what I listen to, especially when it comes to music made by women, so it was really cool to have an experience that forced me outside of those limits. It was also cool to know that Jessica, one half of Geffica, is Bethany's childhood best friend. One of the main things I appreciate about independent music is the idea of communities as opposed to scenes & I feel like seeing Geffica and Best Coast play together really reinforced that for me.

Best Coast played an awesome, awesome set! Bethany had a gorgeous sonic blue Fender Mustang with a tortoiseshell pick guard (I don't know why, but I've been really into noting people's gear lately) & her band was spot on. I loved the interplay between Bethany and Bobb Bruno & their drummer was awesome too!

They played a long set of short songs (if that description makes any sense) including a couple of covers, songs from their 7"s, and a bunch of really wonderful new songs that have me super stoked about their rumored upcoming full-length.

All of the Best Coast vinyl is long sold out (I feel lucky to have what I do!), but the band was selling CD-Rs of their current discography decorated with Lisa Frank stickers. While it's not my typical policy to share full releases, I've ripped and uploaded my CD-R since all of BC's vinyl is way out of print (and currently being trafficked on eBay for more than 5 or 6 times it's original sale price -- something that I feel very strongly about, in the "HEY, THAT'S WRONG" sort of way) & since not everyone will be able to see Best Coast, I'm sharing this. That said, if you have the chance to see the band, please support them and buy a shirt and/or a CD-R. It's worth it!

For those of you who are new to the Best Coast party, Best Coast started out as Bethany Cosentino's bedroom recording project -- fuzzy guitar pop inspired by California, cats, and weed. Bethany writes some beautiful songs and I love the way her music sounds with a full band. She's released a handful of all now sold out 7"s with Art Fag, Black Iris, & some other labels and has a rumored full length album on the horizon.

If you want to sample a song before you commit to downloading the tour CD-R, here's the video for "When I'm With You" (the A-Side from a 7" released on Black Iris.)

ALSO: Of course, the day I publish an article on Liz Phair vs. Rivers Cuomo (see here), Drew decides to wear a Weezer shirt to the Best Coast show & Bethany says to him, from the stage, between songs, "I like your Weezer shirt," and after the show even goes so far as to say, "I wasn't trying to be a bitch/make fun of you when I said I liked your shirt, Weezer rules!" She then went on to explain that she learned how to play "Keep Fishing" for this tour, but that her bandmates didn't, so they haven't been covering it. Oh Rivers Cuomo, can I go a single day without you playing a pivotal role in my life? Probably not.

Best Coast Tour CD-R (DOWNLOAD)

Ladypalooza at Tiger Beatdown

2010-04-15T16:40:00.002-04:00

(Liz Phair performing "Fuck and Run" live in 1995)

Sorry for the lack of updates this week! I've been busy prepping a piece for Tiger Beatdown's music series "LADYPALOOZA: The Tiger Beatdown Lilith Fair Experience, But If Lilith Fair Didn't Suck, And Also Were a Blog." My piece -- some jumbled thoughts on Liz Phair's "Fuck and Run" vs. Weezer's "Tired of Sex" -- went up this afternoon, so if you're interested in some lighthearted cultural criticism centered around 90's alternative rock and pop, I recommend that you head over to Tiger Beatdown and check it out.

In other SP news, tonight I'm seeing Best Coast (!!!) and this Saturday is Record Store Day, so expect some concert reviews along with some "what I bought" type stuff.

Allo, Darlin' (Dreaming 7")

2010-04-09T23:27:00.003-04:00

Just the other week I posted about the video for Allo, Darlin's new single, "Dreaming," and bemoaned that the 7" had yet to be made available for online purchase (view post). Well, good things come to those who gripe on the internet, because this afternoon I got this latest installment of Fortuna Pop's e-newsletter saying that the 7" is up in the shop and available for order. (Clearly I have already ordered a copy.)

If you'd like to order one for yourself (and I highly recommend that you do), just head over here. Shipping is free within the UK, but if you're having it shipped overseas, it's a bit more. With the shipping charge and the exchange from British Pounds to US Dollars, my total was just over $7 (not too shabby, considering it has to travel across an ocean to get to my record player.)

If you don't want to shell out for the 7" (or, you know, if you don't have a record player), the single is available as a free download here.

You can get more Allo, Darlin' (including some super charming demo recordings) at their Official Site

Tullycraft (Well, Tullycraft-related)

2010-04-08T16:39:00.001-04:00

So, who do you love? I certainly hope the answer is Tullycraft. I still remember the first Tullycraft song I ever heard -- the inimitable "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid To Know About" (link goes to a YouTube video) -- it was everything I wanted in a song, sweet (but a little snobby, just like me!), an instant mix tape staple, and an index of new bands to check out.

The other day I found out about an exciting project -- a proposed tribute album to Tullycraft, whose list of participating artists is just as fabulous as the artists listed off in "Pop Songs..." Wish I'd Kept A Scrabpook is the project's tentative title & you can expect it to feature tracks by Rose Melberg, The Smittens, Bunnygrunt, Math and Physics Club, and more.

So, what's the catch? In order to move forward with the comp, Lee needs to raise $1,000. There's a kickstarter.com page where you can read more about the project and, if you're feeling generous, make a donation. Kickstarter requires a minimum donation of $1 & your donation is only deducted from your account if the project meets its fundraising goal by the predetermined deadline. Donations will be open for Wish I'd Kept A Scrapbook until May 15th. The good news is, Lee has already raised $400 for the project! If you check out the donations page you'll see that depending on how much you donate, you can receive goodies like free mp3s, stickers, t-shirts, even getting your name in the liner notes!

If you're a Tullycraft fan, I really encourage you to support this project by making a donation.

If you're new to Tullycraft, you can check out their official site which happens to feature a totally boss daily mp3 blog.

Live in Oberlin (Last Night)

2010-04-08T10:29:00.003-04:00

Last night was a rough one. Drew and I drove out to Oberlin to see Girls and Dum Dum Girls at the Sco, an on-campus venue in Oberlin's student union. I was really looking forward to the show -- we had seen Girls twice before (once in Portland opening for the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and once in Cleveland opening for Los Campesinons!), but we had never seen a show where they were headlining. We had also heard that they had added a keyboard player to their line up, so I was interested in hearing how that changed their sound. I was also super stoked to see Dum Dum Girls. I've been listening to them a lot over the last six months or so but had never had the chance to see them live until last night.

The opening act, Leisure, sounded like something my mom would listen to while making Sunday brunch.* The lead singer landed somewhere in between Robert Smith & the dude from Spandeau Ballet & they were heavy on keyboards and jangly guitars, which are things I normally like a lot, but for some reason they just weren't doing it for me last night. Maybe I am just destined to hate on opening bands? I hope not. The crowd was very thin during this portion of the show, but as their set started to wind down, the venue began to get really crowded.

Dum Dum Girls were great -- they started off slow with their cover of "Play With Fire" from the Jail La La 7" & then proceeded to pretty much play all the hits. I was especially happy to hear "Catholicked" and "Yours Alone." I had it in the back of my head that it would be nice to hear "Ship of Love," but they didn't play that one. The band was fantastic though. They sounded great, they played a great set, they seemed really nice, etc. I loved their Silvertone guitars Towards the end of their set (maybe the last two songs?) the crowd started to get weirdly aggressive, though (really crushing in towards the stage, moshing, etc.)

Girls played a fantastic 13 song set that included the bulk of the tracks from their debut LP, Album. Their stage presence was right on & it was just fun to watch them play. Honestly, they get better and better every time we see them. Unfortunately, I started to have a really hard time with the crowd during their performance. Everyone was packed in super tight, a lot of people were being unreasonably aggressive, & people who weren't moshing were talking super loud and playing with their iPhones and Backberries. I'm not a huge fan of having to ward off unwarranted physical contact and I had to do that a lot last night. It was like some weird exercise in fighting off my inherently punk instinct to spit on people who invade my personal space at a show.**

It's hard, because I really don't want to make this about the crowd -- I feel like these experiences should ultimately be about the music & both Girls and Dum Dum Girls played an amazing show to an awful audience last night, which is admirable, but also terrible because, seriously, I think people who take the risk of putting themselves out there in such a public way should at least be treated with respect. (Also, can people not repeatedly scream out requests? Or is this a thing that has to happen? I feel old and crotchety for having these complaints, but I would really rather listen to a band play through their set without each song being punctuated by some dude shrieking, "Play ___!!!" but maybe that is just me.)

In fact, I think a big part of it is just me. On the way home Drew and I were talking about how we both staunchly situate ourselves within the "No Fun" camp. I mean, I hated college kids back when I was one and working full-time in higher education hasn't done a whole lot to facilitate a change of heart. So, being packed in with like 300 college kids is basically one of my worst possible nightmares. On top of that, I am secretly a 15 year-old sanctimonious straight-edger who has an unreasonably short fuse for the ways that people are prone to heckling bands and encroaching on other people's personal space while wasted.

Also on the way home, I was talking with Drew re: my thoughts on Japandroids (who we saw on Tuesday night) and the idea of "dude bands" drawing a particular audience which results in a particular atmosphere at their shows. I think if you were to compare Japandroids to Girls, while both are all-male ensembles, most people would walk away with the conclusion that Japandroids are a dude band and Girls aren't, and while the Japandroids show certainly attracted a large number of straight-up bros, the Girls show attracted an extreme number of the even more insidious "hipster bros," the majority of whom didn't seem to have any concern for making sure their actions reflected a desire for everyone at the show to both have a good time and also feel safe. At the Japandroids show, I was near a group of bros who were very friendly and very courteous, and also took the time to talk to the people around them (mainly petite girls who had elbowed their way up front so that they could actually see the band), saying "Hey, I really love this band and am probably going to get really into it, but if I get too close to you or if I bump into you or anything like that, let me know so that I can back off." It would have been SUPER COOL if some of the dudes at last night's show had shown similar concerns instead of assuming that they could grind all over me.

Anyway, Dum Dum Girls have their first full length out on Sub Pop (you can read my thoughts on that here & Girls are still riding high on their LP Album which came out on True Panther Sounds. They're still touring & if they're coming anywhere near you, you should definitely, definitely catch them. Don't let my crabbing stop you!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the keyboard player is a good addition for Girls.

* In case you are wondering: My mom's typical Sunday brunch music includes stuff like Weekend, if that helps you piece their sound together.
** An exercise I had limited success with.