Peanut Butter Wolf curated 7" box set from Stones Throw

So every once in a while Stones Throw releases amazing contemporary or classic 45's...they have a whole series of just bonus 7"'s when you order Mad Lib full lengths and such, so they don't really make it to the 7Inches blog...as much as I want them and eventually bid on them on ebay...If I'm lucky they'll end up in a weird category everyone missed.
Today I happened across this massive 7" box set from Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf and Five Day Weekend records, it's not exactly a box, more like PiL's metal box, a sort of mini calendar to pack these 10 singles in. Haven't seen it for sale direct from ST, but Parasol has it for sale as of 12/1, you've been warned.
From what I understand these are re-edits by PB and never were even issued on vinyl in the first place so they haven't existed in this form ever anywhere...and it's fitting the 2nd great appreciator of all things 7"'s would press this up for sale on Stones Throw. In the area of old school Hip Hop I am sadly uneducated, but this would be a great jumping off point...a little more sad maybe I'm not playing them on two turntables, but I'd appreciate them just the same.

Peanut Butter Wolf
45 Live [10X7"] (PRE-ORDER: SALEABLE DECEMBER 1ST)
PS, US 10 45's packaged in a heavy-weight collector's tin. The 20 classic hip hop cuts, personally hand picked by PBW were taken from such iconic labels as Enjoy, Sleeping Bag, Fresh, Cold Chillin', & Strong City
FiveDayWeekend-7701
45-BOX
$51.50 - parasol

Fresh and Onlys Dan Melchior split on Volar Records

Dan Melchior Und Das Menace:
Daylight Robbery
A Delicate Genius Backstage

Fresh & Onlys:
A Taste Of Hunger
Black Coffin

The fresh and onlys have a couple of new singles coming out lately, just in time for the holidays! Like this split with Dan Melchior on the fledgling Volar Records, they still have color and reg vinyl available, but not for long I'm sure.

The Fresh and Onlys have been steadily evolving since their first fuzzy garage-y one. After that solo full length from Tim Cohen, I'm convinced they can and will go anywhere successfully. The foundation of elements are all there, the melodies, lyrically he's great, they play with early rock elements making that unsettling new/old sound. I've heard this before right? Sort of.
The new ones on myspace from their full length are just getting even catchier with sort of that Jeff Novak 60's reinterpretation feel. They actual era never sounded do good trust me...they are what it should have been. Lots of harmonies and jagged cuts, and all with a kind of optimism, keeping it all upbeat. The perfect way to sit down with some coffee and start the day off, I'm telling you.

Dan Melchior I have less experience with, just a couple of random singles after hearing so much about him, I still have no idea what to expect every time I put one on. Then recently he's exploded with a million releases, I can't keep up, and I push him to the back of the line...slow down man! But on a split with the F&O's? Of course I'm in. It ranges from tepid hippy-ish jams to screaming lo-fi distorted guitar solo for 2 minutes...a genre chameleon, all with an english accent. These are a perfect match.

Goner records has it and Academy too.

Blessure Grave triple split 7" on Release the Bats Records

Oh boy, this one is going to make you insane like it did me, Blessure Grave has this split single from Release The Bats, the amazing Swedish label, but as far as I can tell, they are the only ones offering it for presale so far. It's 60 Kr, I can't be bothered to figure out the exchange because I'm sure shipping would be out of control.
I know Revolver/Midheaven, who just updated their site, (wayyyy easier to navigate and find this stuff), doesn't have it listed yet...just the full length from Captured Tracks, which I have to get over to Academy and pick up actually.
There's a lot of comparisons to Joy Division of course, who, if you believe everything you read, have single handedly spawned the last couple years of interesting music. I'm hearing how closely related it could be to Ian Curtis and Closer, but this is an evolved version of that sound, something closer to Bauhaus... that full on beginning darkwave goth era. It's taking a step back to the origins of that sound...I hope those kids I see walking around with Evanescence or Marilyn Manson shirts eventually get a clue and trace it back to hear what's really happening to their beloved genre.
How can they sound so downright evil with an acoustic guitar is an accomplishment, like on '90 plus days' from a cassette release a little while back. This isn't depressing sad bastard music, I keep getting the feeling Blessure Grave is just metal/doom enough to kick your ass. It's that stark and full of alienation...they have to fight every day for this kind of finely honed darkness. You don't ever wake up in a good mood or watch Southpark...I really imagine that stereotype scene of a house full of death obsessed Rick's from the Young Ones.
The vocals are a little Danzig at times, deep echo's, but the track 'Reduce You to Black Smoke' from their 3 way split on DiTG is a truly great mix of this great synth line, slightly distorted vocals, and pure unsettling melody.

preorder from Release The Bats...BG blogged they are huge fans of the label that has consistently put out stuff they believe in, and were their first choice for this single and their full length, which again is going to cost me to import...they are evil to my wallet and my ears. A double threat.

Blessure Grave now gives us their first release on With previous releases on Night People, Captured Tracks and Holidays, San Diegos BlessureRTB. A limited 7" with 2 exclusive tracks that will not be on the upcoming debut album Judged By 12, Carried By 6 (which will be released early 2010, LP on RTB and CD on Alien 8). A perfect blend of post punk and goth, with influences from Danse Society, Death In June and Killing Joke. Artwork by Shawn Reed. 500 copies made, split release with Nail In The Coffin and Grotesque Modern - Release The Bats

Soft Pack tour single on Kemado Records

Saw this in an email from Insound, The Soft Pack has a new single out from Kemado Records for the start of their UK tour, this one has a Cure cover of 'Grinding Halt' on the A-Side (check it out at Gimmie Tinnitus blog).
The Cure has been coming up on random a lot lately for me, especially the early stuff, 17 seconds, Three Imaginary Boys...and it's aged amazingly well. It really just gets better and better...maybe it's what certain things have come back around to...Blessure Grave, Blank Dogs...that minimal, synth based, clear songwriting. It's not catchy necessarily, but it's just solid, and always just exactly the right amount of depressing. Sure his voice might be a bit much at times, but they are just plain amazing tracks, even a lesser song like this that I can't even place on an album..was it a single?
The Soft Pack are all those things and they take this minimal bassline foundation and Matty adds his signature vocals, which kind of sound really upbeat here...inappropriately enough...the B-Side Buick Skylark' I couldn't find on anything..maybe from their new album? Can't wait to hear that...I have to preorder from Insound and get this bonus single.

I think what it is about The Cure is I can't trust my 16 year old self, he listened to some terrible things, so I usually immediately discount the Cure as from that era of my angsty high school experience. They have been beaten to death in my subconscious and I can't even think of them objectively anymore. Well....I haven't given them a chance.
For instance hearing their cover, I must have never actually heard the lyrics for Grinding Halt, and it goes right along with Hollywood's disaster armageddon obsession lately. 2012, I am legend, The Road.
'No food, no people. Stop short. Everything's coming to a grinding halt. No sound no people, no clocks, no people.'
That reminds me, I hope they do another season of The Colony, I loved that thing on discovery. Apocolyptic LA with a bunch of random people and have them attacked and fight for resources. A little sick maybe, but it wasn't another cheesy reality show.
I'll admit, I guess I think about that idea. How it would work out in Brooklyn.
Yikes.
I'm sure they would find me curled up in a corner with a pile of singles I can't play anymore rocking back and forth.
Ah geez.
Anyway, pick this up before the world ends and there's no more electricity and you can't listen to it.
How's that for incentive?


Insound says:
VINYL FORMAT. Tracks: "Grinding Halt" b|w "Buick Skylark." The Soft Pack (formerly the Muslims) have a full length coming out on Kemado in early 2010, but for now here is a limited edition tour only 7", hand numbered out of 500. The A-Side is a Cure cover!

Times New Viking at Mercury Lounge 11-18-09

Just to wrap things up this week, here is the TNV show at Mercury from a few days ago for your listening perusal.

Here's the link.

Times New Viking / Axemen tour single

Picked this up last night at the TNV show at Mercury Lounge with the Axemen...my friend Pat told me to look out for a tour only single at the merch table, and there it was.
Does a band with the power of Matador behind it have to press a split single, hand color the xerox sleeve and inscribe the inner label for their US tour with the Axemen? HELL NO.
But they did it anyway.
I have to admire this.
Plus they set out to educate an audience to a NZ band that probably deserves more due that I've never come across before, I'm always up for that.

Didn't know anything about the Axemen before they went on other than the brief mentions at Siltblog after their reissue by Tom of a huge part of their back catalog. I stood there watching thinking, 'I'm sure these guys are important' especially to the first few rows. I've been reading about their protest albums/accident (crash) into some government office in NZ, they weren't in it for the money obviously. I can respect anyone touring 20+ years later etc...but it just wasn't my thing. The one time they got me was an insane hardcore blast, but honestly they didn't seem happy about it. Have to dive further into the Siltbreeze catalog.
They cover each other on this thing which I wasn't expecting at all. The Axemen track on the single 'SIcKh & TYRED' is a great interpretation of the track from the TNV Stay Awake EP. I'm into it when they replicate the back and forth Beth Adam vocals. Sounds good. They have to feel pretty cool that these guys covered one of their tracks for this. I honestly had no idea until I played it this morning.
Times New Viking on the other side cover 'Rocks in my Heart' by the Axemen. Which includes the lyric 'Sick and Tired' also I noticed...weird. They make this song fit into their catalog, emphasizing the pop chords and immediacy, all with just a touch their special fuzz. Excellent...can't believe this really. I am honored guys. It's too much.

Here's Jared working on the covers...

Coreyfukinfeldman on Trigger on the Dutendoo Records

Wow, Tim sent me another round of music from Trigger on the Dutendoo Records. He's been pressing personal music projects into singles since 2002!!! What can I say, all my bands never made it past the 'stereo' recording from the boombox in the garage...should they be pressed now? No, never. But Tim had the foresight to start a label! Damn. He's like Mississippi records for his own life. Next thing you know you turn around and there's another piece pressed in vinyl that you kind of forgot about, but when you go back and listen it's pretty amazing. You can't even find the master anymore, it's just that one scratchy record that encapsulates one night of insanity...or two nights in this case.
All the similar projects through history are lost on 4-track cassettes in Salvation Armies, but this one will be that touchstone for the double bass speed metal distorted punk vocals set.
Like any recently discovered artifact, there's a story behind it that sets the scene from Tim's personal mythology. It's all in the liner notes, but briefly, a band was formed one night with one bass amp, and two basses. Tim didn't play drums, so he was on drums. Friends living together in some really clean, beautifully decorated place probably. They record one night with the help of beer. The tape is then lost inadvertently, found a year or so later. It's then played on a karaoke machine and recorded onto another tape with feedback and distortion... lyrics are written... this time with the help of whiskey and the 13 best are pressed into vinyl....it's like a fucking Eno oblique strategy card!
The time and effort that went into this doesn't try to show off though, it's subtle. A lot of low end vibration, frantic thin beats that are almost completely overwhelmed by the rumbling bass in an apt room mic'ed, bleeding through the walls. Lyrically, I wish it was mixed a little more understandably, but let's remember what we're working with here and that it also just might benefit from being mostly buried at times...for your ears sake.
The problem is you'll miss out on the genius of 'Geris in the kitchen on a skateboard singin':

It's the 80's / Let's do a lot of coke / and vote for Ronald Reagan!!!

Jello would be proud. This is another mammoth 13 song EP from the Dutendoo. On 7"'s alone I've heard more songs from this guy than from an entire career of some bands full length recordings. I'm working on getting him on the phone for a podcast interview...that is if he can take a night away from pressing records.

He wrote me something on the back of an old show flyer and I completely agree. 'Records...are an open diary sort of thing, and if they didn't exist then it's all just a story of a drunken memory that's near impossible to explain.' It's like Summersteps records...you don't need anyone, just put it together yourself and I guarantee it's a million times better than me wasting a minute thinking or listening to all the rest of the bullshit out there! Why? Because there's no alterior motives behind it, there's nothing but the desire to make music and unselfishly put it out into the world. That can be the number one criteria for owning a record for me.

I don't, however, take my own advice so no record of my life even exists yet. I need to start pressing records about what I had to eat this morning...but I won't..it's a funny idea, but I'll give up on it by lunch. Tim on the other hand... did it, and I am jealous....he went through with it and it's bad ass.

No myspace / label website...just hit up Tim directly at trigger.on.the.dutendoo (at) gmail to get your hands on all these documents....this guy is like the library of congress.
The library of Tim.

Landing, Vol.7 on Geographic North Records

The latest Geographic North single made it to my mailbox the other day from another band I've never had any experience with: Landing. They are from Middletown, CT, not a place I think I can name another band from actually, and not a place I would imagine these slow, dirgy epic soundscapes that are rattling the speakers to come from.
The North Side 'Into the Hall' has some vocals on top of slow drone electronics, that are going in Eno directions, until a snare march comes in with delayed quiet guitar melody. It's a little Jesu, a little Explosions...and the vocals are barely understandable, they are up close, louder than anything, but almost whispered around the same range as the bass and deep electronics so it bleeds into a single plane of melodic hummmmmm.

I have to say I'm impressed by the sound quality of the single at 33. There are super lows, and layers of subtle distortions, it sounds great on vinyl, this really highlights the range of sound they are dealing with.
The slow tension buildup, sounding kind of classically influenced...it's really reminding me of Locrian or Godspeed you... like on the B-Side with 'Following Daylight'...those slow, shifting layers of sound fading in and out. Just a huge black wall, you can't see the ends or top, it's just closing in.

All of it pressed on snow white vinyl with their trademark minimal geometric sleeve. This single, as well as subscriptions to the whole series, is still available from Geographic North, lots of interesting artists, way off the radar of my usual garage/no-fi/weirdness, and I'm grateful.

Sunset Rubdown picture disc on Aagoo Records

Spencer Krug is a musical genius...like Conner Oberst, he's beyond talented, it's a little off putting actually when I stop to think about it...there's no way to relate sometimes. He can't be a regular guy. He makes fun of himself onstage, it's not an act. But as many people as he's inspired top pick up a guitar, he's made as many walk down to the river and throw it in once and for all.

2 tracks here: "Insane Love Is Awakening" and "Coming To At Dawn" "written and recorded by Spencer in his house." it says...in a true sign of talent, the best work comes god knows when in your own space, working by yourself. Now go throw away the microphones and the old tapes....the pedals, or give them away. Someone else could make way better use of them obviously.

It seems like contradictory sides of Spencer are at work here, the piano, and electric guitar, but they're both performed with the exact same intensity. Coming to at Dawn he uses the easiest way to make the piano emotional...saturate it with an echo. There's nothing like killing a puppy like the big room piano sound. It doesn't matter what you sing...guys/recording companies have known this for years, in making out or selling records...it's a formula. You want to get an emotional response, play a piano in an empty room. It's better than a million wind machines and lightning. Now all that being said, you would think he'd never attempt to go this basic but he does and really earns it. I'll admit it...it makes me sad just hearing it, if I start to pay attention to the lyrics here I'm going to be pushed to the edge...next side already before I turn it up again and slit wrists.

Insane Love Awakening ...it's great to hear he's as adept on electric guitar as he is on piano. It's going to kill you, a lonely reverb twin amp in a room, someone playing pop chords...well 80's blue collar pop, and then his voice comes in with an echo no one else could pull off. He's in love with his voice, and it works. I really had to make sure I've never heard this before, it's pretty familiar lyrically, he's up to his old tricks. He's a short story novelist,..now how can I reconcile all this talent? What deals did he make? I don't try.

"I can only assume the answer was blue / I can only assume the answer is the breaking of an astronautical truce"

Still available from Aagoo Records...maybe because it's $10? But it's a piece of work, great picture disc, two amazing unreleased tracks...I subscribed to this 6 disc series maybe a year, more than a year ago? Come on guys finish this up!

Thanks to BleepBloing for the videos of both sides...hallelujah!

John Barrett and The Bass Drum of Death Interview

Episode 65 - download the MP3 here, or listen on the streaming embedded player lower right.

Talked to John from Bass Drum of Death this week about his single on Fat Possum, the tour he's currently on and a new single on Baby Don't Records sometime in January. Stick around at the end for the track 'Sucker Free' which is bad ass hyper fuzz garage blues. Nice.

John and The Bass Drum of Death are hitting the west coast the next few weeks, if you get a chance check them out live:

Nov 14 2009 8:00P	five stars bar (w/ lover!)	Los Angeles, California
Nov 15 2009 8:00P	bar pink (w/ lover!)	San Diego, California
Nov 16 2009 8:00P	yucca tap room (w/ lover!)	Phoenix, Arizona
Nov 17 2009 8:00P	burt’s (w/ lover!)	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Nov 18 2009 8:00P	three kings (w/ lover!)	Denver, Colorado
Nov 19 2009 8:00P	replay lounge (w/ lover!)	Lawrence, Kansas
Nov 20 2009 8:00P	o’leavers (w/ lover!)	Omaha, Nebraska
Nov 21 2009 8:00P	the bloodline (w/ lover!)	Chicago, Illinois
Nov 28 2009 8:00P	529 (w/ gg king, barreracudas)	Atlanta, Georgia

Dylan Ettinger and the Heat on Not Not Fun

Just got an email from NNF about this Dylan Ettinger single. I'm always impressed with NNF's site, the volume of releases they continue to put out and the amazing bands they consistently are exposing me to.
Dylan has his own cassette label El Tule and has been busy putting out a bunch of his work out on his own, but I think this is his first release on vinyl.
Based on his myspace, he's working in a sort of dense abstract experimentalism. Heavy on effects and making all kinds of weird sounds vocally, or maybe with samples, it's reminiscent of Ducktails live show, with less emphasis on the cool Caribbean vibe and more towards the ominous, (although those things peek in, kettle drum, windchimes). Like 'Pushin', I can hear the attraction to the harder to place sounds, creating this overall scary funhouse...you're lost, messed up on something and not coming down anytime soon...and that's the scariest, to lose control like that...it's only when you give in and just let it wash in, who knows when it's going to end. Just go with it that you relax and appreciate.
I love this detailed complexity of sound. It essentially seems easy to put this together and just let the sound happen, as if you could set up the paint and watch the painting come together. This has insane potential live to be a new experience every time, and that's where this way of working really shines. The recordings are templates for an experience...the photo sadly captures a sliver of the scene.

From the great NNF, who also repressed the Vibes single, which I still have to get a copy of.

Best Coast on Group Tightener / Art Fag Records

Pocahaunted has split (?, I'm pretty sure) and Bethany has moved on to her Best Coast project with Bob Bruno of Goliath Bird Eater...they have a drummer too, but played recent NYC shows with some recorded rhythm accompanyment. Monster Island, The Cake Shop...I missed them all...what a jerk.
Based on the myspace tracks, (still haven't picked any of these up yet, and that's gong to change) it's distorted vocal heavy and melodic. Slow droning guitar, great....well pop songs really...I'm a little surprised. I'm not hearing much of Pocahaunted here...I would never think it's related. Every track seems to be about literal relationships, 'When I'm with you, 'Wish he was you.'. 'ooooooo, baby.' It's that Shangri-La's full harmony and hand claps filter on an old mono speaker that can't handle the new sound. That's going around a lot. The ooooooo's are sung through bad mic's with the old MXR distortion...it's not even a voice anymore. That's a great sound, the blurring of the source into something else. It's right alongside Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Christmas Island, Wavves...you're going to get into this.

This Group Tightener single is really a mini-EP with four tracks, one of them a cover of the Beach Boys 'In My Room', which I have to hear. They are such an influence on everything lately, I guess always...so I'm forced to listen to Pet Sounds again and try to get it this time....or just stick with the Best Coast and all the ways it's reinterpreted. It's better.
No, I have to appreciate what came before all this, it just feels like work...and Brian Wilsons autobiography was terrible.
Did you record music? Oh I forgot because ALL I READ ABOUT WAS YOUR STUPID PATHETIC DRUG HABITS AND DOUCHEBAG THERAPIST!

Artist: BEST COAST
Title: Make You Mine
Format: 7"
Label: Group Tightener
Country: USA
Price: $6.50
"Former POCAHAUNTED member BETHANY COSENTINO (aka BEST COAST) embodies California. Her songs are effortlessly ramshackle, layers of fuzzed guitar and a voice with enough heft and soul that it brings to mind 1950s girl soul groups or even a female-centric Beach Boys. Theres also a sense of permanent longing, an inescapable melancholy that can only come from living near the beach, perpetually sunny but a little sad too. Her four-song Make you Mine 7-inch was recorded with longtime friend BOBB BRUNO, and is packed with enough hooks and gorgeous melodies to fill an entire album. It is Group Tighteners first release." - GroupTightener - fusetron



Artist: BEST COAST
Title: Sun Was High (So Was I)
Format: 7"
Label: Art Fag
Country: USA
Price: $6.50 - fusetron

Fusetron has got the Art Fag single still...

The Super Vacations 'Henry' on Shdwply Records

Been checking out The Super Vacations this morning, they have a single on Shdwply Records that isn't released yet exactly...the preorder red vinyl was (damn) but now it's just the regular old copy, which hasn't actually gone up yet, but should be any day now. Was really into the Florida single they just put out and then all of a sudden there's 10 more records from this label...just saw that the SV's self titled was Shdwply's first release...I swear I need a research intern.

So the Super Vacations are fuzzy garage with 90's indie rock influences. But every time I look at how I've just described them, the next track starts and it's completely different.
They use really nice high vocal harmonies against the distortion, the haze of an old tape machine, singing in a giant warehouse...the weirdo melodies...that's the thing that has to come naturally and can make or break this style. You have to be able to instinctively know where the melody is going...like Gary War, Ariel Pink...it's an internal melody that has to exist the way you're singing it, but it has no reference to what the guitar...what everything else is playing. That's what I want to hear.

'Henry' has this scary pop melody, like a demented old sitcom is up next...this is the theme song. But it was added 10 years after they shot it...it's hastily written, but would be better than any composed average mess. I think this is the A-Side track. It's interesting to have these psyche feeling trippy dreams clock in at under 2 minutes. They could really put out a mini EP on the 45. Before you know it that drugged out trip is over. Like smoking salvia.

According to Myspc the Void looks like it's the B-Side, this one is really going dark,depressing bassline, faraway guitar echo tone, and harmonized distorted vocals are reminding me of (I'm lazy) Joy Division, it's slow, taking it's time to build this rhythm like an old goth demo tape.

Found it for (pre) sale? on Midheaven distro...could be the red vinyl copies? Might not be. They have a new site, which is a huge upgrade from the black and white text thingy they had for the past 20 years...it worked, but searching was impossible...now it's good.

SUPER VACATIONS - Henry - Shdwply - SHDWPLY 012 - 7" - $ 5.25
***"Definitely one of the more ambitious and mysterioso bands of this run-down, SUPER VACATIONS provide a perfect example of a group turning the limitations of home-recording to their advantage, assembling a beguiling psych rock sound from the palette of slightly warped rock n' pop elements at their disposal. Their debut album burns through sixteen songs in about twenty-five minutes, each of them a swirling wonder of crisply recorded hi-hat n' snare grooves, twangin', FX heavy surf guitar, hazy layers of psychedelic jangle, occasional bursts of chaotic space-fuzz washout and ultra-compressed vocal tracks that range from pristine, chanted harmonies to distorted answering machine skree. Recalling the spirit of classic-era Guided By Voices records, these one-to-two minutes cuts are veritable bonsai trees of weird beauty that make their point and then disappear into the void, providing tantalizing glimpses into what we assume to be a whole universe of unguessed at four-track wonderment. Inevitably, Super Vacations' songwriting is sketchy and indistinct in comparison to the heights scaled on a daily basis by Ohio's finest in the mid-'90s, but nonetheless, they've got a good handle on the kind of sound they're going for, and the material at hand is up to the task, allowing them to stand proud alongside the very best of the '90s neo-psych-pop mob (Lilies, The Swirlies, pre-ego meltdown Brain Jonestown Massacre etc.) without ever having to venture beyond their basement. (I'd like to think this band's stuff was recorded in a basement. It... has that kinda feel to it. I'd be disillusioned to discover actual sunlight was involved at any stage.)"--Shdwply - midheaven

Psychedelic Horseshit - 'Too Many Hits' 2x7" on Columbus Discount Records

I remember getting the first PH (I can't spell and psychedelic just hurts me every time) single with stapled pieces of notebook paper, and magazine photos to the sleeve. I'll admit I just bought it solely based on the name, they had balls to call themselves that based on someone's first impression of what they were doing... I figured it was a joke side project and this would be their only release. Would I ever get tired if dragging it out and saying 'this is Psychedelic Horseshit...no the name of the band is...' probably not. Definitely not...so it was a win win situation really. I don't remember much of the sound of that single except it was pretty anti-melody extreme. Like the new TNV, but without a song...nice, it was an end game for an age that's for sure. But this double single is a huge range of great for PH, and I'm starting to take them really seriously.


D1-A-Side (45): ...like this first song 'Endless Fascination', it's a kinder, gentler PH, really clean catchy acoustic. All of their playing is just sloppy enough to give it that one-take quality, they are about the composition of the track as a whole. There's multiple tracks of acoustic solo's, organ, all panned in either direction, so it's just on the border of sounding completely chaotic. Whatever echo/reverb he's got on the vocals is just perfect, it's not too giant, he also has a great Thurston quality to the vocals, slightly distorted, with the acoustic, it's like a really amazing rehearsal space SY session. This pleasant acoustic surprise continues further with 'Sun-bleached kool aid.' The two acoustics are on either channel, just slightly behind each other. The acoustic solo section is phased out distorted strum, with a new layer of guitar on top of the former mess. They have great original ideas for constructing a song...and it's just a bonus that I wouldn't mind putting these on now and then...just for fun. If they came up on random, (you see I have a big system with 25 record players and a relay switch box that triggers them, so I can have songs at 'Random'. Like a 10 disc changer in the trunk of the car, except these are in the other apt I have to rent. It's complicated.)
The B-Side of this first disc, gets a little tropical and more chaotic here. Laser beams, slow guitar, ukulele, random bursts of repeated synth/samples. These are the tracks that get challenging, and ou have to be ready for that ride.
Once Green crystal cigs, it's like they are in the garage with extra distortion. The vocals/lyrics always rule, it's trippy, of course psychey, but they really are trying to give you a catchy pop song. It's just they are from another planet...so it's different.
'Blurry Times' really pulls out the stops. Imagine a chorus made out of the most annoying 'eeeeeeeennnnnnnn' tone from an electronic experiment radio shack kit. It pierces through the vocals, the acoustic doesn't stand a chance....everything is blasted out by this tone. Genius. I love it.

D2 - A-Side (33): 'Let down (and hangin around)' opens with the opening of a can of beer and some tuning up. This one really blasts out the distortion...I love this folk, sonic youth mess. If I had to choose between TNV and PH...well...don't make me. The melody that keeps blasting into the song is just great. It's a mix of room noise, plugged right in, dropping pieces out, or the cable itself cuts out, and they kept it. They really appreciate the mess of making music....well I appreciate their mess anyway....I appreciate it when I hear a carefully placed effect panned all the way right. I know that's a pretty specific choice they had to make, it took work to set up the mix that way...yes it's ridiculous, but it's not gimmicky for it's own sake. They are having fun with the possibilities and making it all sound really good. It can all stand up on it's own without the headphone version. Based on the freewheeling feel of this I'd be really interested to see these guys live, they have a sense of humor.

B-Side: ...For a minute 'Astral Weeks Again' sounds like Nodzzz...it's really pop...or the Dead Milkmen...I keep hearing them in a lot of stuff like this. Especially the vocal delivery, it's fast, talking a little snotty...harmonica never sounded so good, here's the difference between TNV and these guys, yes they are very similar in fidelity, this is just a texture thing I'm hearing. This sounds like a live rehearsal space, everything is recorded clean, there isn't a hiss because of the medium they are recording on to, it's all in the room, or pedals...I hear silence in parts...each piece is on it's own distortion plane...it's not a huge layer of wax paper indiscriminately layered on the whole thing. It's not better or worse...just a different way to approach the rock....wait a second I swear there is a distorted banjo in one of these...

This was way above and beyond what Columbus Discount promised for Year One of the series, this sleeve is really nice, and the discs fit into folder pockets at the bottom of the whole thing. A double single is more than I ever hoped for, and there's my name, in the edition #... damn that's weird. Just when you think it couldn't get better, they pull something like this. Year two, I can't wait....

I'm sorry there's no where to get this, I just felt like talking about it. Go over to a friends house, get together people, listen to records you don't have and can never get. It's about more than just being a creepy collector hoarding records in the basement.

Interview - A Faulty Chromosome

I first came across A Faulty Chromosome pretty randomly; a friend of a friend sends a link to a myspace, and when I finally took some time with it I couldn't get it out of my head. What immediately struck me was the dense packing of intimate recorded sounds. The layers of multiple takes of vocals, the homemade hours of experimentation. On tracks like 'Them pleasures of the Flesh' where brief bursts of individual guitar melodies are hard faded back and forth on opposite channels, I have to pay close attention to the dizzying arrangement. The fact the vocals are often times layered, slightly whispered, breathy... you have to really lean in and catch them, or at least turn the entire arrangement up to try to decipher it. But I don't think it's so much about the precise words. It's creating a feeling, like the best stuff I'm drawn to, the atmospherics. Creating a sheer wall of melody and then picking away pieces, creating through a kind of pop reduction. The sheer number of sounds that fade in and out, toy synth, telephones, old drum machines, xylophones, samples of kids... I get caught up in this insane haze of sounds that he creates all while coming up with great catchy pop. He's the kind of composer that can obviously play anything put in front of him, embracing the mistakes, keeping that beautiful bent guitar off note.
On his first album 'As An E-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit' with Jackie O, right away he creates this ringing rhythm over a manic cheap drum machine snare sounding pretty upbeat, and then the vocals in an echoed low register, with a sort of Gang of Four indifference, just coming in over the ever increasing complexity of sounds. Lyrically, he keeps delivering these completely amazing lines why are you wearing glasses / so you can't see / what the future might bring That's the greatest sentiment ever associated with the JFK assassination. The whole album carries that slightly sadly beautiful tragedy feel. I can't imagine how these are interpreted live, but I would love to find out.

In the tradition of doing something a little different for Friday's post on 7Inches, I had to try to get in contact with Eric from A Faulty Chromosome and ask about this album. I imagined I'd convince him to press a seven inch. Unfortunately I don't have the cash to jump into that scenario right now, but go listen my wish single: Jackie O on the A-Side and 'Bad Thing' on the B-Side on his myspace. ('Them pleasures of the flesh' would have to be it's own, it's definitely an A-Side...the B would have to be a demo version of an album track, that one is so great...the main guitar melody, with that back and forth single distorted note. So really we're talking about 2 singles. See every time I hear this I'm trying to figure out what I could live without to sell so I can fund this box set of singles in my mind, that's how strongly I feel about it, but I couldn't keep it to myself anymore.)

After finishing his latest 'Craving to be coddled so we feel fake-safe', he's currently raising money on Kickstarter to pay off recording costs, and he has some hilarious donation possibilities including, getting into every live show they ever play with a lifetime membership card, writing a song about anything you want, performing it live in your town, making a video for it, personally thanking you in the liner notes, or throwing you acoversong slumber party. I never wished I had $3000 more. Go support his work, I can't wait to hear this, and after that digital single you won't either.


Here's my ichat interview, minus sprawling tangets (double space), with Eric from A Faulty Chromosome:

7Inches: You're in the middle of mixing your new album?
AFC: today and every single day, yes.
7Inches: Are you from LA?
AFC: born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago
7Inches: How did you end up out there?
AFC: moved to LA after college when I had the bad idea that I should try my hand in writing
7Inches: I wonder how much geography has to do with sound.
AFC: I think geography has a lot to do with insanity. Like, upon moving to Austin, I could go an entire day without hearing a car honk or someone scream at a stranger... it helped remind me that there were still nice people alive on earth


7Inches: What I love about Faulty Chromosome is that you were just putting it out there to pay what you want, the audience will find you
AFC: it's... well, it's uncompromising, that's for sure. It's challenging myself not to be generic, it's scraping the barnacles off the inside of my skull and saying "here you go people" and it's hard because I'm making it really difficult for myself to succeed
AFC: but -- at the same time -- you get people saying "I crave hearing pleasures of the flesh like I crave rough sex" ... and I'm like ... "oh man, that song is about the exact opposite of what you just said... am i a total failure at what i'm trying to do here?" and people say "hey, you sound like clap your hands..."
and it feels really... i mean, i have to remind myself that these people don't have the same record collection i do, so they can't know, and i don't want to be rude...
i have a band sometimes.... i have people with varying degrees of mental problems who i have to coax into helping me play sometimes...it's 97% me thinking out loud hoping someone understand what i'm saying amidst the majority of those who look really confused. i make it hard on myself because... okay, so what kind of music am i making? pop music. indie pop. whatever..." twee" i mean, i loved everything on slumberland when i was in high school, but i don't relate to slumberland.. or pop.. or popfests...
7Inches: I just hear amazing experimentation with sound, layers and layers of all kinds of stuff, I keep hearing new things everytime I listen to it.....I wouldn't think twee at all, more like that tradition of 4-track sebadoh, early smog....especially Ariel Pink
AFC: gahh... i've played with ariel pink a few times... and i can't seem to talk to him, he looks at the ground and seems to always be on a lot of drugs
7Inches: this combination of influences, coming up with something completely new....that would be a perfect show, you and Ariel Pink...when did that happen?
AFC: (even though i lived in la for a few years, i couldn't get a show to save my life, as i had no cool friends to get my foot in the door, so didn't get to play with ariel pink until here in austin... everytime he tours, i bother the club to let us play...)
7Inches: It's obvious to me you have years of messing with sound behind you, for me that's what's important, experimentation...I'm reading this book about Brian Eno and he keeps talking about accidents and making them important. I hear a bunch of amazing accidents.
AFC: yeah! what's frustrating is finding someone who understands that embracing accidents makes everything better... my friend who is helping me record went to school for audio engineering, and every time i think of something "weird" he reverts to the textbook in his brain that clearly states "you should not do this." so it's challenging having to try to justify why it's okay..... man, i'd love to be able to work with brian eno one day (it's so confusing why u2 is so awful.. i mean, shouldn't eno force them to be better?). yeah, i guess that's what i'm trying to understand... a lot of music seems really insincere to me, and i don't know if i'm being a jerk and judging them, or if i'm just paying closer attention than most people, and i'm actually right.


7Inches: don't you think the internet, myspace, etc has kind of leveled the music field?
AFC: in our youth, we depended on the following for new music: older siblings / the library / zines... if i hadn't gotten the super bowl shuffle, or if i hadn't heard my friend's older brother's copy of the replacement's "stink," would I have become a consumer of top 40? this is what i wonder.
AFC: that's how i view the internet, i think.. it's assisting the lazy to be lazier.
7Inches: Ok, but if you couldn't afford to buy every zine or 7 inch at the record store you can go search online...but you can at least hear the music for yourself and make up your own mind.
AFC: You "could" make up your own mind, but we live in a shame-based culture, and I remember how I lost friends for not liking the same music when I was a kid
7Inches: I can't believe that...sure in some cases bands get popular because of hype, but great music is going to be appreciated...it's the business side of it that sucks. I have to say, I've played in bands in NY, and the booking, recording...all that shit sucked...I couldn't hack it for sure. I completely appreciate people that can.
AFC: i guess i just wish that i could live to see a day where people like that aren't a teenie tiny minority... i guess that's why i make music: in hopes that i find more people like that so we can remind each other. but that's always the trick, isn't it? talking to yourself to say "you're not the crazy one.... don't forget that! keep up the good work!"
7Inches:....but really what's the alternative? You're not going to give it up right? You have to do it.
AFC: I might take a vacation here and there to regain a sense of sanity.


AFC: so you like 7" , huh? I was always offended by them... they were too much money, it just seemed the opposite of "DIY"
7Inches: I completely disagree! When I had no money the only thing I could get was a $3 single and then at least hear something of what I was missing. No record co is going to put this out, then put up a couple hundred bucks and put it out yourself...punk was founded on that idea
AFC: i had two strikes against me growing up: 1) no money 2) my mom loves Jesus and wouldn't let me listen to music at all so no money made me only rely on stealing old cassettes, dubbing stuff from friends / the library... so a 7" was always just way too much for me (not to mention that i walkman was easier to hide than a record player)....
7Inches: Yea, I understand, i just saw the 7" as a way to hear new music I couldn't get anywhere else...it was the cheapest form of music
AFC: that makes sense...
7Inches: It's just another format that seems to still be viable for people that love music and want that object, and have to put everything down and seriously listen to something
AFC: it's just, the internet is free... i wonder if i shouldn't just give everything away? it's not like i "want" money so much as unfortunately need it...and people still buy 7"'s ? Everyone I know that has them do it more for "collector" reasons (which seems kind of creepy to me)
7Inches: Well sure, there is the collector aspect, like comic books and baseball cards, but it's also the only way to hear something new, before an album is done, if it ever does....to reach those people serious about music...I think it's a pretty important subgroup of people that by the nature of the format are into music, who would appreciate your stuff...and search out the full length....see the live show
AFC: (not that it ever ends; I'll be done mixing in a few weeks, then I have to mail hundreds of promos in hopes people like it....)
AFC: it would be a nice change, that's for sure... this album is an ALBUM... i mean, it could be one, giant song... so it'd be nice not to have to puzzle-piece together a bunch of little things in hopes that it makes sense next to each other


AFC: i don't know how this friend-of-a-friend heard the song, but there's still the uphill climb of trying to find the people that would appreciate it
7Inches: I know there is, I know nothing about the industry...I think by default 7"'s are are a world of people working outside that structure
at least that what it seems like talking to labels
AFC: well then, I really need to get on board the 7" choo-choo. labels don't respond to me, so I don't know. I sent out the first album to maybe 40 labels, not one reply.
AFC: so... it's things like that where I am forced to seriously consider the fact that I'm doing something wrong
7Inches: That sucks, but it doesn't mean anything....
AFC: it's contingent upon there being at least "some" people who like it...for every two people who say nice things, 85 give a look like I have a giant goiter on my forehead.
AFC: I guess i just want to make sure I'm accessible....not weird for weird's sake


7Inches: Can't we just all make music and paypal each other for it?
AFC: yaaaaay!...we will find out... (i think the new album is weirder than the first one)
7Inches: it's like that long tail theory...people only need a few hundred believing in what they do and paying $10 for you to make 30,000 a year
AFC: i would LOVE to make $30,000/yr.
AFC: i've never even made half that, so I would live like a king
7Inches: ....so 97 more to go....or something like that

2 x new Great Pop Supplement 7"'s - Their 50th!!!

Hope these aren't gone already but I finally had a minute to mention these two new singles from The Great Pop Suplement genre, you get the second coming of psyche, Wooden ...I don't know how Dom keeps up with this pace of putting out quality releases. He's just one man for god sakes! One man who just released his 50th; a split single with Spaceman 3 and Wooden Shjips? Amazing. If I know GPS, then the digital jpg graphic above is pointless to even put up there...the packaging will be extensive and handcrafted, let alone the vinyl is split colored as well...nuts. GPS specialized in making every release special in some way...as if the recording wasn't enough, and in Spacemen 3's case, true pioneers of the shoegazeShjips to cover one of their songs on the B-Side!. I'm going to admit here, I didn't catch on to S3 when they were around, I keep hearing about their obvious influence and only briefly heard a few tracks here and there. This could be the push I've been looking for, go all out and listen to the history. Here GPS put the demo to their last single on vinyl...I'm sure this was hard to find to begin with and impossible on vinyl.
Honestly, how Dom puts this quality together is a mystery...and with just enough to press on to the next?
The Jack Rose single I'm looking forward to as well, I get into acoustic instrumental Fahey stuff all the time and between him and Blackshaw, I'm into this resurgence of technical acoustic as well. The last single by him on GPS was great, and I'm surprised to see another one actually, but what works, works. He's playing NYC the 20th at Abrons Art Center on Grand Street, can't wait to see him live.
Bottom line, the label is completely impressive, I love the quality of these singles, the detail, the inserts, packaging...he's curated a collection of really interesting, cutting edge artists from all genre's on top of it, and I blindly order whenever I'm feeling particularly flush...wish these could be had some other way stateside, but that's the catch to getting some of most interesting singles ever pressed....
Dom says:


2 x new GPS 7"'s are ready, i'm having to do pre-orders and encourage payments now if only cos' so many people are asking and i just don't know what i have left and the things aren't even delivered yet!

both releases i have had my hands tied on, as regards quantity. gps49 is a pressing of 500 only and gps50 had to be no more than 1000.

gps49 jack rose and the black twigs "shooting creek" 7"

very limited uk tour single from jack rose backed with the twigs, for sale exclusively on november's uk jaunt, but available mailorder from the label in advance. 2 exclusive tunes recorded in nice lo-fi style in jack's kitchen. Jack's last GPS 45 sold out in 48 hours and because there are just 400 commercial copies of this one- as things stand this looks set to go the same way. cost is £4.99.

gps50 spacemen 3 "big city" (demo) / wooden shjips "i believe it" 7"

For it's 50th release the great pop supplement offers up this incredible pairing of like minded spirits, for a total one off split 45. 2 unreleased nuggets from legendary psych rockers from both sides of the pond. The Spacemen tune is a beautiful demo to their last ever single, the mighty "big city". stripped of it's lyrical nod to the electric prunes, but still very much displaying the kraftwerk influence of the original, the softer spoken lyrical passages offer up an almost confessional electro blues variant, unique to this early take.

After 2 studio LPs, Wooden Shjips are often bracketed with the Spacemen, with their blissed out Velvets / Doors / Kraut sound- so it's perhaps of no surprise that they should take on a Spacemen gem for their own reworking. "I Believe It" from the classic "Playing with Fire" album gets the nod for a radical overhaul- where the original's predominantly keyboard lead is given the Shjips' guitar fuzz and 2 note organ treatment. a killer take on an old favourite, debuted recently on the road and offered up here as their first outright UK release. Packaging as ever with the GPS is from the top drawer, cover art is provided by natty brooker (the original spacemen percussionist) and is from original work put together during his time within the band's first line-up. A pretty much essential and incredible 45, destined not to hang around long....

on this one i tried to bust a gut to make it no more expensive than a regular gps release, but when i tell you it's on duo tone colour vinyl with inserts / sticker etc, i'm genuinely sorry to have to ask as much as £5.49 on this one. (one look in the rough trade racks reveals several 45s priced higher than this even without sleeves i hasten to add!)

so for uk orders on BOTH singles it's: £11.50 incl post
for europe it's £12 for both with post and everywhere else it's £13 incl post. paypal as ever is best, on this email address. i must just point out that the uk postal service is knackered- so do bear with me on these! - GPS

More details from Norman Recs, who also have it available to order...

Or go direct and get a hold of Dom at thegreatpopsupplement (at) hotmail.com.

Wounded Lion 'Friendly' on In The Red Records

Here's the latest Wounded Lion from In The Red Records I picked up at Academy a little while back and I've been meaning to give it a spin. Had a hell of a time figuring out at exactly what speed to play this at. you know with crazy effects, pitch shifting and the like, I actually played this according to instruction (45) and was convinced for a while they were going in a new direction...oh, In The Red...you confuse me, the A-Side is 33 and the B-Side is 45...sheesh guys.
So now I got that sorted out, I'm onto 'Friendly?' Lyrically, as usual, it kills.
Some people are friendly / that's because they're crazy
...and all lyric variations on that rhyme, that's a good way to look at it...so true guys. It's their slow, dredged out dirty persistent 'post-garage' (myspace category) sound all lead by Brad's narrative sung drawn out syllable talk/statement vocals.
Then comes the Wild Man Fischer cover 'Big Boots', it's perfect content for Wounded Lion, they give it a sort of blues explosion sound, howling vocals and fuzz guitar.
The lyrics are of course about boots, a real nice pair the narrator just got, Janet Jackson's got boots, no jacket required. Brad's really blues talking about these boots, pure John Spencer. Turns out this Wild Man Fischer was a Wesley Willis kind of character from LA, who suffers from ROCK 'N ROLL PNEUMONIA! (-Mark Prindle) and wrote this sometime in the 70's before or after his stint with Zappa...he's had a pretty insane, literally, life, and I think is still releasing albums on Rhino records...of course. It's a perfect fit, Wounded Lion would have written this sooner or later, maybe he's a direct influence on Brad's lyrics, it would make perfect sense.

Then the highly anticipated B-Side, CCR's Bad Moon Rising... it's freaking priceless, huge echo on the vocals, standing on the edge of a canyon, wind machines, blasting this sinister take out into the echo. When the chorus hits there's a little octave changer or something to just give it a real off note deep crunch. There's screeching guitars, delay, echo, it's a great swirling mess, like a classic rock vortex swallowing the garage band...It never sounded so evil.
It's a success..he's changed it for me, if you can take an overplayed song like this and give CCR CPR, well that is just plain talent. Just when you think 'Oh Pony People was great, but maybe that was some kind of fluke?' They take a classic cannon in classic rock and wounded lionize it. Wow.


From In the Red Records:

WOUNDED LION Friendly?, Big Boots / Bad Moon Rising 7" single Los Angeles' favorite sons latest single appears on their new home, ITR. One incredible original, one Wild Man Fischer cover and one from CCR. One of the best live bands in the world today. Equal parts VU, Mary Chain, New Creation, Modern Lovers, The Clean and just great music in general. Debut album coming on ITR soon! - In the red

Here's their powerpoint video for 'Friendly?':

Ariel Pink 'Kind of Kind' on Big Love Records

Just found this new Ariel Pink single from a Japanese label Big Love Records...I think I saw it listed on ebay and just assumed it was an old import single I never heard of, but these guys still have copies, as well as maybe Fusetron? Check the distro links below. I'm trying to find a way to get this without overseas shipping.
God knows I love Ariel, too much...and both of these tracks have that great crazy patina of millions of muddy tracks and multiple layers of vocals. The way he skips right into a new melody without any kind of transition, in RSM's Brain, the B-Side, I don't know how you manage to program a drum rhythm to break like this. I have to think accidents play into his recordings a lot, but then again they have to be insanely mapped out...so it's a combination of both I guess. Songs mashed together that weren't intended to be? He records little ideas and then jams them together? As you can tell this guy is a complete mystery to me, and that's why I keep coming back to it. Every last thing is worth tracking down because they are just completely unconventional and I have no frame of reference for them. What I wouldn't give to see a video of the process behind just one song, from beginning to end.
Kind of Kind sounds actually a little more traditional, slow number, he's playing it straight and it makes sense. Could be a cover? It's regular strummed rhythm and even not as crazy vocals. he can be sensitive when he wants...well pretty much all the time. It's just not ever in the way you'd expect.

What are these tracks from? I have no idea, they aren't on anything I've heard. They're very Haunted Graffiti / Oddities Sodomies, so they're amazing.

You can hear samples from both sides on Jet Set Records distro and get it Direct from Big Love's paypal store...but you'll have to convert to Yen and pay who knows what for shipping. To be honest I didn't bother converting it.

Good luck.

Pumice - Persever 7" on Soft Abuse Records

I knew I've heard of Pumice before...I looked up an old post....ok, This is Stephan Neville from New Zealand with the low-fi 4 track stuff...this got me thinking, I need to reexamine that categorization. You can't just throw that around anymore. 4-track doesn't mean it was recorded to a cassette and bounced down a million times, with that inherent hiss and hands on craft. It's hilarious to even think there was a dolby noise reduction setting on the Tascam...it was always on, but I could never hear any change. So most likely it's recorded on a computer, with some kind of mixer software, but anything with the word laptop in it just makes me think about some kind of electronic, minimal, rave, DJ world. So it's home recorded. Experimental? In the way that he's using sounds in unconventional ways. So what's going on? Is this low-fi? Yes...at times. And that's going around lately don't get me wrong, it might be a red flag to some readers. It's practically required these days, and not even out of necessity, purely for texture, to maybe take itself a little less seriously? Things recorded too perfectly, lose the human element? All of this is at work on this new single from Pumice on Soft Abuse.

Pumice has been around since '91 but has been on a bit of a hiatus the past few years, but is back with this new original and a couple of covers on the B-Side.
To me this single, the A-Side, 'The dawn chorus of kina' is reminding me of The Microphones, and Mt Eerie stuff, intensely personal, idiosyncratic visions of making music. This track runs through all kinds of emotional landscapes from repetitive beat with layers of muddy guitars bleeding into one solid hazy melody that later breaks down into jagged angular strums, and then gets real quiet bringing the first melody back with a double time kick beat. Deconstructing the original melody and mixing it up, turning it over into something new by the time it comes out on the other side. It's an instrumental journey.
I'm surprised I really haven't hear him brought up in the low-fi conversations, the timeline, having started during the time of all the other low-fi contemporaries. If anything I think that's what being from New Zealand gets you...you're lumped in with the Dead C...all the flying nun stuff...you can't break away from that categorization.

Both of the covers on the B-Side are miles away from the introspective first side, but these are covers remember? The first 'Open Up' is a Michael Hurley song from his 1971 album 'Armchair Boogie'. Both are played with a ukulele sound, or maybe just capo-ed up acoustics, I'm even catching an accent, on these quiet syrupy tracks. Lots of echo, layers of vocals, with just enough tempo to keep it from stalling completely. Goth Folk for an acoustic indie set. Especially on 'Pacific Ocean', from a contemporary NZ band, The Axemen who must have played a show or two with Pumice. It's more upbeat, but Pumice just has this melancholy style that takes this somewhat optimistic song and flips it.

Get it direct from Soft Abuse....they also put out a tour Grouper/Pumice split that I think you'll have to track down on ebay at this point...I'm going to be getting his full length efforts from SA after hearing this single.

Following a mammoth tour of Europe, Japan & the US in 2007-2008, Stefan Geoffrey Neville took a sabbatical from Pumice. After a silence of several months, Stefan slowly began to re-emerge in New Zealand, playing (the drums) with a few bands in Auckland. Slowly, a few proper Pumice gigs were played & soon thereafter, in January 2009, Neville started work on a new batch of recordings. One of those found a home on the split single with Grouper, while the others, appear on Persevere; a befitting title for Neville's first new grip of songs following his hiatus. Three songs comprise Persevere: 'The Dawn Chorus of Kina,' an ode to (alleged) singing sea urchin, and covers from two vision-sharing kindred spirits: The Axemen ('Pacific Ocean') and Michael Hurley ('Open Up'). Persevere is released in an edition of 500 copies, housed in textured paper sleeves adorned with Neville's signature dog drawings. - Soft Abuse