The two sides of Tim Cohen on Empty Cellar Records

I swear this Tim Cohen full length from Empty Cellar and Secret Seven Records has been on my turntable the past two weeks, off and on, but I keep coming back to it. It's a huge departure from his other project, The Fresh and Onlys, but like the Jeff Novak solo full length I am totally convinced that he's a huge talent that's going to take his solid songwriting ideas to whatever genre he ends up in... garage pop punk or this more intimate solo beautifully arranged masterpiece. If you remember Arvel from Empty Cellar clued me into this during our interview and I was really expecting some kind of Ty Segall distorted blues one man blowout, and this is completely in the other direction.
It's essentially a pretty quiet record, he's arranging subtle all over the place pretty minimally and switches from muted drum machine beats to heavily delayed acoustic guitar with hints of organ melody. It's completely restrained, distilled down to the essential parts. They are a collection of exceptional songs, not necessarily cohesive as a whole piece, but then again that's what I love, it keeps switching directions all within this subtle quiet framework. It's meant to be loud in complete silence, and keeps being so rewarding...immediately. Completely unexpected.
The first track 'Amazing Visions' is an acoustic piece with layered whispered vocals. All kinds of animal imagery, that sort of hallucinogenic folk. On 'Haunted Hymns' he's using all kinds of subtle effects; call and answer lyrics, but it never relies on those weird distinctive sounds or emotive vocals, it's a slow descent into pure songwriting, grounded in great melody and lyrics to come back to. 'Burn My Martyr', the last song on the A-Side even has this early Police feel, practically new wave, really sparse guitar instrumentation, kind of dark vocals, and it actually picks up to become slightly pop at one point. Vocally it's distant and unemotive in those moments Sting isn't trying so hard. It's all about the clean bassline and this cold new wave feel...it's one of my favorites, but really we'd have to be talking about a collection of unreleased singles or something from some length of time...not this package recorded last year in San Francisco(?).
'Open up the sky' on the B-Side has Chad Vangaalen written all over it to me, a lot of these do now that I think about it. His neo-folk style, combined with anti-human elements, drum machines, synth, but warped and muted out to fit this dreamlike journey... the slow deliberate machine beat with subtle synth and his layered falsetto vocals. Add a hint of beach boys type harmony and their multitrack experimentation, and he just keeps delivering these solid, really imaginative songs that stick in your head.
'I swear to God' uses his typical 4/4/ kick metronome beat with sleigh bells. Piano chords march right along with the hits, the vocals are always quiet, even contemplative, delivered just warbly enough and feeling but again, and I keep going back to this, the melodies are just so brilliant. A few other songs take that marching piano chord style, it's almost 60's pop, like Jeff Novak, it's taking that upbeat formula and making it sound damn good...and god forbid... on 'Burden of Being' he even takes everything away to just sing along with an acoustic guitar on a haunting completely sad track...that takes some balls not to drown it in effects..he's just that good my friend.
The sleeve and inserts for this are top notch...it's a heavy matte stock sleeve. The drawings, I'm assuming they're his, are great trippy doodles, on the back they're reproduced on that yellow legal ruled paper...really nice. The cardstock insert has another drawing and typewritten lyrics and thanks to every great label.
Insound's still got it...as well as aquarius I'm told, or try hitting up Empty Cellar direct, Arvel did mention on the interview I did with him this is going to be repressed...so get in line.

Pigeons 'Lunettes' on Soft Abuse

Just in from Soft Abuse is this single from Pigeons, who are apparently just north of 7inches central in the Bronx. An overlooked borough for sonic weirdness I have to say. The number of artists that flocked there in the past few years for huge cheap spaces to build out has just been growing...sorry but those years in Brooklyn are long gone. Have I been up there then? Not really. It's too far...and there isn't a music venue anywhere near there as far as I know, but give it a few years when Brooklyn is what the east village is now and the east village is fallen back into a homeless shanty town and the Bronx is where you want to be.
So it makes perfect sense I'd hear of an act from this area where future Silent Barns are every other corner and this endless 4 song EP is playing at 33. After spinning the first side for a while, I haven't even flipped it over yet. Both of these tracks are taking their sweet time, slowly preparing you as things get weirder and weirder.

The first track 'Tendresse' (go check out the download below) uses the tremolo warble from an old tube amp and Wednesday's (great name) ethereal layered foreign (?) vocals, it's headed into some kind of Blue Velvet territory. High and in trouble. Tambourine with the restrained tom only beat makes this just barely crawl. I think it's safe to say this is in the Velvets family of reinterpreted slowcore-psyche sound. When the wavering guitar is gone, you'll miss it.

The second track on this single, 'Lowest' is where things start to really get weirdo, the vocals become another high pitch peaking sound alongside a heavily delayed reverb guitar, the two start two play off each other...there's no beat to be concerned with, there's nothing to hold onto here, you're clinging to the simple electric strumming behind the main melody, but it's all blasted through a far away AM radio speaker in the back of the warehouse. The delay screams just a little bit after the first round of vocals and it's impressive, what a sound. This high sustained vocal and overblown note just hitting the same blaring frequency...unsettling. My favorite.

Finally over to the B-Side for 'Oubli', and I see what Siltbreeze was talking about, a pretty loose mix of saxophone over heavy drums, some meandering guitar lines, barely audible screams and yells from Wednesday...but all of these tracks are held down by those steady drums...a staple of that drone, freakout, psyche, the pulse to work out against the experiments.
Finally 'Cruel Circumstance' could almost be a late 90's 4-track tape. Vocals all close to the mic, drum machine heavy on the treble, acoustic guitar. It's a weird 13th Elevator shoegaze or something. It's a lot like this blown out cover, zoom into a grainy polaroid and crop away the context, don't color correct...this isn't exactly reality....more like finding something you didn't originally see. It's distinct in the end, and there's something a little off just under the surface.

According to an old Siltbreeze post, they have existed previously as Pigeons II, more freeform noise, sound collage on a release from Clark Griffins own Moran Tape Label, an ultra limited, Peter King handcut lathe advocate.

Leave it to the great Soft Abuse from Minnesota to point out this thing happening right in my backyard.

One time pressing of 400, get it from the Soft Abuse site...I'm working on more words about some of their other singles and full length stuff, great packaging and a slew of new ideas...Tim and Eric would say 'Great job!'

Side A

01. Tendresse [mp3}
02. Lowest

Side B

01. Oubli
02. Cruel Circumstance

Pigeons make sublimely blasted / incredibly hallucinogenic songs from their base up in Bronx, NY. The trio of Wednesday Knudsen (in disguise on the sleeve), Clark Griffin and Carter Thornton have been active for a few years, releasing miniature-run cassettes and lathe cuts for Griffin's sub-underground Moran Tape Label that dealt in skronk, warp & mystery. Their wayward song-based creations are just as ambitious, melding dissonance, crude electronics & chanson pop . The pop element in their tunes, fully introduced on their brilliant Virgin Spectacle LP, firmly rests as the oddest element in the mix. Connections to the No Neck / Sound @ 1 crew & The Sea Donkeys exist, but Pigeons are wholly on their own plane. Lunettes, their first release since Virgin Spectacle, features four new song creations, arrives in lieu of their forthcoming LP Si Faustine (to be released by Olde English Spelling Bee), and provides a notion of what they're moving towards. - Soft Abuse

An Albatross on Kitty Play Records

Quick release note today from Kitty Play Records, my friend Ryan, from a previous podcast has a friend Mark who just put out this 12" live show from An Albatross.

Mark, if you end up reading this, get in touch for a podcast interview already!


hey boners, just a heads up: my friend Mark is putting this out, trying to get the word out because he releases great stuff (bastard noise, twodeadsluts, john wiese) and makes zero money. $20 shipped w/ tour poster. roughly 20 test pressings available now. the set is loud and crazy and the crowd boos at the end...what else do you want! - Ryan

Email direct: markdblumenthal( at ) aol.com

Drug Wars on Grizzly Records

This is a great cover, by Drug Wars, 3 color spraypaint job on some pressed particle board, it screams punk DIY. Making something out of nothing, that never gets old. Playing guitar, bass and drums at a frantic pace, with a Hot Snakes feel never gets old.

This San Diego based band has a lengthy genealogy, having played in a million other bands, and are most definitely on the other side of the fence when it comes to lo-fi, which I guess, as much as I don't want to admit it, has been co-opted by everyone to describe what's happening by a majority of the stuff I've been talking about. Would it matter if all these trendy guys were recorded straight? Probably...I wonder if Times New Viking stripped down without the 2" tape peaking if the songs would stand up? I'll never know...they made a choice to take that sound to an end game point. OK, they made a point. But it won't be recreated live either...I've seen it. So where does that leave Drug Wars? Well, you can clearly hear every note, and I wonder if I'll be going back to this more than I will the hissy garage mess of recent? It's a trend, I know...but it's interesting, even if it's just referencing that era of home recording with $4000 laptops and effects settings...I liked it.
So Drug Wars basically is following that post punk, anti-trend line of thought....what does that mean? Intelligent, unpredictable melodic lines, irregular rhythms, time signatures...a huge bass sound that's waving around, you can hear each hit...like someone is really pounding on the strings, getting this metallic twang on every note. The buried vocals are where this essentially works, the yelling and energy never gets too abrasive, or overpowering the music itself...again it's messing with the standard arrangement, subtly...lyrics, like song titles are pretty interchangeable...if you want to get down to that level and read my diary...well go ahead, but it's not necessary to get it right away. But it's there to take this to the next level. It's about the music, everyone's contribution.
Further 'post'-ing out like Austerity Program or Don Cab, they are foregoing the song naming process all together...what's the fucking point? Throw some numbers on them already, let's get to writing the next one. In fact the first side 9 and 8 run together in such a great way, I almost don't notice it every time, just barely sounds like a song change and not just another chorus variation. There's thought in these songs construction...it's easy to hear right away. 8 is the stand out track for me on the single, the one that makes me start rocking out at the keyboard, already thinking about playing this side just one more time to make sure I caught everything.

Besides having a name that's damn hard to google and come up with anything relevant, it's the best kind of post-hardcore-punk-rock, made enjoyable to listen to, clear, pounding, well constructed, not jumping on any bandwagons, or following trends...these guys get together and recapture some things that were happening 10 years ago, and they happen to do an amazing job of it, it's up there with the Drive like Jehu, Husker Du, even Fugazi...come on. Hot Snakes pulled together a bunch of genres and sounds together that I wasn't really thinking about at the time and made it all sound good...hell I will always be able to sing LAX, and suicide invoice in my head weather I like it or not. I had to reconsider a lot of bands after unconsciously loving everything they put out.

4 Tracks named 9, 8, and 46 all at 33 1/3, a proper punk EP, all of them are available to preview at their myspace...the melodies have been creeping into my head ever since. It's almost a shame actually, the quality is so god damn bad, if you go back and listen to the vinyl...shit it's like the lo-fi version of these guys...and you already know how they feel about that.

All of this is available from Grizzly Records for 4.50!!

Drug Wars
"9846"
500 7 inch copies $4.50

A:
1. 9
2. 8
B:
3. 4
4. 6

Adam Payne 'Maybelline Weeks EP' on Malt Duck Records

Melissa from Malt Duck Records sent this Adam Payne single to me recently and I remembered loving the dark electronics of their previous Mattress single. Turns out Mattress has got a full length out recently on Malt Duck as well...have to pick that up.
Plus the Them Themselves or They single I was into a while back as well, MD's got a great consistent direction, always interesting stuff from this label, so I had high expectations for Adam Payne and this Maybelline Weeks 7".

The 'Maybe' Side is a track from 2006; 'Onallisalland'. Great booming kick drum pounding through the speakers right away, with a peppy carnival organ pounding, like that (I had to look it up, it was one of those things driving me completely insane) The Riviera's 'California Sun'. The vocals are distorted with a bunch of layers, so I think it's going into a garagey feeling thing until the acoustic guitar comes in perfectly clean...no 'low-fi' filter on the whole thing here. The vocals get further and further out there with a doppler phaser thing taking over by the end, it's always changing enough and catchy to keep me going back to the beginning for another listen. A little Kurt Vile sounding even, solid pop with some interesting influences and experiments.
There's that playful feel to the recording, to hell with mistakes, there aren't any, just keep it, the more over the top the better, the first take is always the good one, when you aren't even trying. Combine with that California attitude and 'Everything's alright'... over and over...indeed. It certainly sounds like it.

The 'Side Lline' Side, '...if you...' is from 2009, an acoustic based track, deep on the muffled bass end, so you know you're hearing lots of punched down tracks upon tracks.He doubles layers of vocals here, through a messed up mic, swapping back and forth every verse with a shaker sound left and right. Those little details let me know there's a lot of thought here, in crafting essentially a pop song, but pushing the weirdness as far as possible. It's still related to the '06 track on the A-Side, same foundation of style. I heard he has a full length on Holy Mountain that's nothing like this, so if these are demo's or side project things....well I want more.
I think it's a lot like if Ween covered Nodzzz, start with that laid back vibe and then speed up the vocals, throw in a serious fuzz guitar solo, out of nowhere, sincere ridiculous vocals and you'd have some idea of where the Payne is going, it's classic 4-track, go where no one has gone before goodness.

Get it from Malt Duck Records...their third release, and I'm sold, I gotta hear more...of Adam, and Malt Duck.

MDR 003 ADAM PAYNE 'Maybelline Weeks' is currently in print.

Released August, 2009

300 Pressed --- 4$

- Malt Duck

Quick note: Got an email from the guys of Scribbler and the Radiator Family (check out the interview on the embedded player) just saying they've set up and online store and you can easily order all their stuff direct from them...nice.

We have a website where you can order our stuff now.
http://theradiatorfamily.blogspot.com/

Bonnie Prince Billy on Drag City

Will Oldham...it's been a while, I'm always curious to hear what direction you're going lately. I think it was a mistake to cover your own songs on 'Greatest', but really maybe you put this pressure on yourself to record constantly, so I could see where an idea would get away from you. Or maybe it was a really personal project and it turned into a full length. You've collaborated with tons of different people, it seems like you constantly push yourself and the sound. I even liked the electronic tracks you did a while back, just because I never expected you too. The Tortoise album, Mark Lannegan, that other one with the Icelandic vocalist. I wouldn't want to be the one trying to compile your discography.
Your latest (?) single is covers of Susuanna Wallumrod songs, never heard of her, but I'm sure she's got something. I heard you did a tour only single with her, were you covering each other on that one? Or was it a duet sort of thing...sorry I missed it. You both have pretty amazing voices that barely need any orchestration.
You seem to love 7" singles a little bit yourself. Do you ever have a hand in releasing them? I guess enough labels approach you and you must not turn anyone down. Or they go through your trash for tracks, and you're not following the tiny runs of Bonnie singles.
I guess you must have a full length coming out on Drag City soon, since they're putting this out. I wonder when the last time was you released a single with DC.
I remember I saw you at Tramps for the Drag City Review and you and your brother drank a bottle of Jack Daniels...the medium size ones. I worry about you sometimes, but I'm sure the road is hard, and there is a price to pay for every album and single.

"Stay" performed with Joshua Abrams, Jennifer Hutt, Emmett Kelly, Michael Zerang. Recorded by Neil Strauch with assist by Jake Westerman. "People Living" performed with Emmett Kelly and Cheyenne Mize. Recorded live by anonymous. Both songs by Susanna K. Wallumrød. - Drag City

Suetta full length on Summersteps Records

I know it's a 12", but after talking with Eric from Summersteps about this full length he released with members of the band that existed over 10 years ago now, I just had to hear it. Entitled 'Olympic Stain 1994-1996', it was exactly the time of my life when I couldn't start a band fast enough. A new one every weekend, it just had to be loud and consist of the same 4 friends. I was hoping some of that naivety and excitement of really not having much of a world view other than 120 minutes and some punk cassettes left in the garage.
I didn't need much of an excuse to listen to to this the past week or so now and see what I could come up with.
Pictured above are the four front covers of the LP, I should probably tell you there are only 300 of these, appropriately enough I got the Jason designed black and white cover. 'who smokes merits?' 'I will.' ...Exactly. That just kills me every time I look at it.

A-Side, song one 'Sonikally erik' is a great way to hit right on those influences that I heard were going on. All minor/weirdo chords scaling down the fretboard, quietly biding their time to blow up in that SY explosion and time change. This is a great instrumental that could honestly stand up against anything from that time period. Tons of great noise...my only complaint is it just fades out right in the middle of a distortion freakout...ok, who ruined that take?

'Girl', track 2, has got some sweet 90's sound, a strummed electric with that really distinct sound, like Dino Jr. or something. One guy comes in singing emotionally about being alone 'hold you like I hold no other girl', you know, you think this is going to be a little sappy number someone wrote for their girlfriend at the time...(that can really destroy a band, she doesn't even care, why did I think this was a good idea? But if you don't play it next time, that will mean something, then the band breaks up, I told you that song sucked)... but then another dude starts yelling, 'GIRL!' I love it, that dual personality. I think the opening guy is still happy about the relationship but then the second guy comes in and he's the one in the rain after the breakup with a pile of records. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. GIRL! while the other guy sings these serious ballad lyrics. Genius.

The vocals are almost Mudhoney sounding, that definite grunge yell, when everything was faithfully recorded, cleanly captured to tape by engineers. Bands fought a little to get a texture in there, something with less clarity.

Blue Light Special is another great song about making music, 'blow out all the amps' with a catchy melody, acoustic electric strum, and the Jason Lowenstein of the band is singing this time, clearly melodic and going to rock in short form a little nice off-key off kilter song about the creation process. This succeeds more than the grunge-ish stuff for me, it feels more honest, definitely more interesting to have this song about being in a band...that's kind of what the whole thing was about instead of imitating lyrics about life changing experiences...and love.

8 track warrior...now we're talking, pure low-fi sebadoh acoustic room jam. 'There's an 8 track on the ground, it's something that I found.' It's just a pure hilarious acoustic practice room, living room song, genius, probably written in 10 minutes, great chorus changes, probably mixed right in the room with one vocal mic and one for the room....I wish the rest of the album was like this...

Give me this over any overproduced alt-country, or hardcore I've heard before any day, every band with any or no talent working with the influences I'm hearing on this, do yourselves...well do me a favor and press it to vinyl. I want to hear it, I know I'm not the only one. Do a run of 100 like this...it's a selfish request but it's so important. I swear I will start a grant someday that's awarded every year to a band/artist that's as unaffected by the scene, the internet, as possible...like a contemporary outsider musician, it would cover pressing 1000 copies, whatever art they wanted and then maybe it would just be sold to subscribers. The goal would be to really capture the moment to that person, but purely outside of the music scene...I need to play the lottery.

It fucking charming to hear, sure it's not perfect, but that's what's so endearing about it, I know what it's like to just have this drive to create something with your friends, if your looking for purity, a day in the life of the late nineties then this is the unaffected, uninfluenced by money, studios, labels, close to a sound you are going to get. Seal it up in a time capsule, blast it out into space, it's the perfect document.

The B-Side 'Live at Manassas' is an entire live show of all new tracks, nothing repeated from the first side, although I was curious how some of them would sound live. Stand-outs for me included, 'Roadside Diner' which just goes through so many styles, that strummed electric sensitive, to breakdown yelling, it's got elements of Bleach in here, pop punk, and an audience. 'I wish I had Tins', is great for opposite reasons, one of those throwaway songs that would be a B-Side you played instead of the A-Side. I think it's about chew? Classic. 'Extruder No. 3' is their 'Leaves Turn' and epic track of rock riddled with distortion...I could actually mistake this for an old unwound bootleg, it's raw, live, goes on forever, loud as hell vocals into the mic.
It's like listening to an old tape of a friends band in his basement, where you were too preoccupied trying to talk to some girl, or got stuck out in the backyard trying to find where you hid the beer and didn't pay attention, you basically missed it. You remember vague weird things but now you finally can hear the whole story.
This is just universal.

Some left from Summersteps...get it!

This collection of demos and home recordings committed to tape back in the mid-90s collect the best of the groups' output. Lost noisy indie rock chestnuts that recall the sound of their era's peers and influences while forging a shaky, endearing and unique sound of their own. The album will be available in a very limited handhumbered edition and will feature 4 different covers each representing one of the members of the band. Suetta features future members of Kid Icarus, amasa and Youth Aflame (The Choppers). We are accepting orders now. (Please indicate which band members' cover you would prefer. If not, one will be randomly selected for you.)

Sic Alps 'L Mansion' on Slumberland

When I heard about this Slumberland single from Sic Alps, and I saw it at Academy, I picked it up. I've been trying to figure them out for a while...some of the early youtube videos I first saw were black and white garage, super noise, a little wall of sound-y, I was into the duo sound, two guys lots of noise, sometimes catchy, messy, energetic. The single Semi-Streets just cemented it, The almost drone distorted guitar, playing slow almost behind the percussion time, buried distortion vocals...it's such a great song. How did they get a glimmer of a melody out of the layers of crackle, it didn't make sense. Then Strawberry Guillotine seemed to get slower and heavier, but to tell you the truth I can't think of anything off the full length US EZ on siltbreeze...I have to give that another go, because I heard so much promise in Semi-Streets, I love that single.

This single, "L Mansion" on SLR has this great sleeve with a million black and white pictures of mansions on the cover, you can barely catch the title in light pink floating around the excess. Then I'm reading that Ty Segall is part of the Alps!??? How many bands can one guy....how many singles???...I guess we'll find out. Supposedly he's playing on this, I didn't hear the influence right away on L Mansion. This is a slower acoustic number driven by the strum folk rhythm. It's kind of dorky 50's 60's with flat distortion vocals and reverbed harmonies. I guess I could see Ty playing the electric that finds its way in here and there, to add to that poppy melody.
Is that a washboard? Oh yea. A lonely electric piano vibe slides in for a solo at the end and I'm pretty baffled...that's nearly something I would expect from the Vivian Girls/hazy/shoegaze scene...weird.

The B-Side 'Superlungs my Supergirl' is a Donovan cover...but isn't Mike Donovan in the Alps? They are worse than area 51.
This one is back to the dirty pounding Alps I've been waiting for. They get great sound in the drums, I swear they are recorded separately, the kick is mic'ed differently or something...jesus, I know all these instruments, but they are really pushing some ideas about sound around here. I don't know this song, but it can stand on it's own. The vocals are layered, really clear and peaking. Crazy electric whines, a huge bass rumble from a mic behind a mattress...but all carefully layered, each sound was picked out, processed differently and thrown back together...it's a damn good one and continues to baffle. They might be even more interesting because I never know where they're going, and when they hit it for me, it's dead on..but I might get sick of song after song of semi-streets, so they're doing me a favor really.

They are all overseas this month, then come back to the West Coast for Dec...nothing my way for a while it seems, still haven't caught these guys...New Years resolution: see Sic Alps this year.

Also if you're interested I heard on All Things Considered yesterday this interview with Merge Records, when they started talking about their early singles, it was like NPR knew I would donate if they showed they shared my love of singles. Weird.

Sic Alps available on pink vinyl from Slumberland.
They have so many other singles that just came out, I'm never going to keep up.
Are they going to get a singles club already?
Check out their shop, bunch of new ones...sorry NPR, my support goes to SLR.

Sic Alps make music with their eyes on the past but their feet firmly in the present. Bits of psychedelia, folk, garage, punk and other fuh fairly well flow from their fingers, seamlessly worked together to render easy categorizations pointless. Over the course of numerous singles and albums on such fine labels as Siltbreeze, Mt St Mtn and Woodsist, Sic Alps' Mike Donovan and Matt Hartman have carved themselves a snug niche filled with fuzz, crackle, vibes and most of all cracking tunes. Now they're joined by kindred spirit Ty Segall, and the dynamic duo has become a true power trio.

Their first release as a three-piece is L. Mansion, a swinging little folk/beat tune that is totally timeless/out of time in the way of Sic Alps' best songs. As straightforwardly "pop" as anything they've done, and a totally effective summertime single. On the flip we get a banging cover of Donovan's ode to puff -- "Superlungs." Wild and thumping, Matt and Mike have definitely taken the Sunshine Superman on a little side trip to Detroit rock city. Two great sides of Sic Alps then, and another genre-busting addition to their excellent discography. - Slumberland

Fresh & Onlys on Trouble in Mind Records

Whoa! Where did this come from? First I found out about this Fresh and Onlys new single on a label I hadn't heard about before, Trouble in Mind, but I'm really loving where these guys are going based on the first couple of singles I've picked up. Loud up front, scratchy garage maniacs..all really solid. Haven't found these tracks anywhere online but based on all of their material I'm going for it.
Then I google the label and come across this Chicago Reader article about Trouble in Mind about the married couple from Cococoma running it! Amazing, I've loved those guys for a while and always picked up their stuff...pretty nuts. Great sleeve idea, printing a bunch of these and then having different inner labels...super smart.
Get it right from Trouble In Mind... who also released a Cococoma's single, Sonic Chicken and White Wires...there goes the rent money.

Fresh & Onlys
Laughter Is Contagious b/w Horrible Door (PRE-ORDER: SALEABLE SEPTEMBER 22ND)
PS, US A key band in the West Coast neo-psych garage revival (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps) that's sweeping the country. Each 45 pressed on randomly-mixed "trash" vinyl & incl. download coupon. These 2 tracks are exclusive to this single.

Melted Sunglasses on Weird Hug Records

Here's a new one from Weird Hug, a single from the band Melted Sunglasses who have connections to Jacuzzi Boys and TeePee??? Great southern weirdness in the Floridas Dying label scene.

Here the speakers are decoding grinding layers of guitars, sweet sustained distortion fed through a bad am radio speaker under the mess of scratchy vocals. I'm hearing a little Mayyors vibe here too, must be that pummeling full guitar.
Make no mistake, they want to rock, 'Yea.... It's party time' you get where this is going, balls out rock, act like an idiot, make some glorious noise. We're not too serious, you shouldn't be either.
'Sparks' the A-Side, is on their myspace and they are referring to that mutated jacked up sports drink, not the things that fly off in industrial videos from welding. You can just make out the can on the cover, very subtle, as soon as those guys put the needle on the record you should expect a call from their legal team.
I don't know how this fits into the above mentioned bands, if this is a one off side project, or you see where it goes. That seems to be an interesting trend, to see what hits, have a few projects going at once, it kind of shows no matter the talent, there's still a lot of luck involved.
Well go luck to you guys, great name and fuzzed out garage sound that's everywhere...it's a no brainer.

Get it from Weird Hug records...still pressing the freaking hits!

MELTED SUNGLASSES - s/t - Weird Hug - WHR 004 - 7"
Debut Single from Miami, Florida's MELTED SUNGLASSES. These guys just want to drink with you. Psychedelic, yet super catchy guitar riffs, with a luster of pounding punk sound. These songs showcase the guitar brilliance of band member Teepee and with songs about shotgunning Sparks cans and sunglasses melting off your face, these guys are just looking for a good time.

I think I hate my 45's dot blogspot Interview

I ended up talking with Jim from I think I hate my 45's, a blog I follow regularly. We ended up emailing back and forth after my friend Matt from Boston in an old podcast mentioned the Wicked Farleys, and as it turns out his brother used to play with them, it's a tiny tiny world.
We tried to meet up at the Kurt Vile show at Mercury, but ended up talking for an episode for 7inches instead. Lot's of nerding out about live shows in NY, and of course those tiny pieces of vinyl that brought us together...Amoeba records, first singles, early Slumberland handmade sleeves, writing professionally and what he's going to do when he gets finally gets to Z.

Here's the podcast this week, my Interview with I think I hate my 45's. EP64, (27min)

I put up a streaming player thingy so those not inclined to download the MP3, and manually add it to itunes (someday I'll figure out the xml to subscribe) can listen instantly on the right column there.

Raging Dickbrain - Prunalogsusan split on trigger on the Dutendoo

So Tim sent me another single from his Prunalogsusan project with a note that he'd prefer if I didn't post about it and Tim I just have to say, that's fucking ridiculous. This is an amazing sound collage, home recorded nightmare, especially when I think about 10 years ago, and the experimental cassette stuff I was dubbing from my friend Tim. Let alone making it every chance I got. Was it any good? I honestly think that's besides the point. this is a document that couldn't be made today...well, if this was pressed from material recorded in the last few months, then it's a faithful nostalgic look at the late 90's 4-track cassette culture. That's a very specific moment...Tim, you've nailed it and pressed on vinyl is the way it should be heard.

Tim also cleared up a few things about his last single, it seems the description I found for the '23' single was actually for this one, the sleeve which I complained about was actually an homage to an F.O.D. album from the 80's...oops, that one was lost on me...and the label is dute-n-doo, not the duodenum, which is what I think I was thinking about...yikes, I had to take it there.

The prunalogsusan side:
Now that I think about it, this is perfect for the ADD piece of me, not only is it a single, but it's 13 songs on the PP side, I'm definitely not ever wishing it would end already, in fact it's like I listened to a whole album without the extended mix. I fast forwarded through it. It's a cliff notes of the era and PP's body of work. I mean an extended release of some of these ideas really pushed out to 2 or 3 minutes wouldn't be a bad thing. I like the single forces these to their core elements, and you get the idea of what kinds of madness this guy is going through right away and it doesn't ever get boring. He's flipping channels and you're getting pieces of some insane things. You get a Burroughs audio cut-up.
You can't set out to record something like this, it really would have to develop over 10 years. You loose tapes, find an old projects unfinished, get a new instrument, scrap the drum track start over....find tapes you don't even remember recording...we're just scratching the surface with this single.

The Raging Dickbrain side:
Starts out with a lot of crap piano and growling, the sleeve lists 31 tracks and I don't know exactly how he's going to get to the other 30, unless this is like the Goldberg variations for animal from the Muppet's....it's halfway over, that's got to be it. So it's a conceptual album...alright. can't say I'm actually going to listen to that again...I also wish the tracks were separated, if you're listing them on the sleeve, it would be great to have to drop the needle down on one if you played it for some college radio station.

You can bet your ass this is playing at 33, or they would be in serious trouble. Love the sleeve this time by the way, those douche bags from some reality show, Heidi and her stupid boyfriend? Raging Dickbrain is pretty much perfect. Then the PP side is two more idiots the boyfriend is grabbing his girl awkwardly as she tries to get away...it's bleak, more proof popular culture is a toilet.
Contact him directly at trigger.on.the.dutendoo (at) gmail.com or go buy it now off ebay, you were looking at other 7"'s anyway.


By the way, I picked a winner last time for the Prunalog giveaway and it went unclaimed...first one to email me with 'Prunalog' in the subject gets the '23' single no strings attached...fingers crossed...please, please live in the US.

The Tunnels self titled on Super Secret Records

Super Secret Records sent their latest single from The Tunnels who have that laid back lush psyche throwback sound. Right away I'm thinking Velvet Underground, especially on the first track 'No Love'. A slow hypnotic vibe from slow strummed guitars and hammond style organ. Chris Catalena has this washed out buried full sounding vocals that get even better with Rachel's backup harmonies.
They stick with that mellow melody and just ride it out, this is one of those bands that has the benefit of hindsight, they take the best parts from that era's sound and put them back together in such a great way. I recognize the influences right away, but honestly I'm disappointed when I revisit some of the 13th floor elevators, that 70's psychedelic classics. I can appreciate them in context, and for originating the sound, but it's sometimes just homework to get through them and really try to go back to that time, to think about what else was going on at the same time. It's bands like The Tunnels and all the garage blues punk revisiting that's going around on numerous labels that makes me appreciate that history, but I want it filtered through now. I don't think it's been done as good as it can get. I think you can only make it better by reexamining the style, and making it sound new again. Look at Wooden Shjips, they get me excited about that era again, I still have to search for things I haven't heard... looking for that band that doesn't exist.
This vinyl sounds like I could have just pulled it from a dusty crate, it has all this history scratched into it, and I'm about to go listen to White Light White Heat again...I know it's an easy comparison, but it's the touchstone for that time period, that effected so much and for good reason. The Tunnels appreciate it too, and are making a sincere stab at giving it new life. I'm into it.
Revisionist history, these influences keep popping up, and get re categorized by The Tunnels, what if those era bands didn't get overindulgent, what if they didn't become the huge success they were, would I hear it the same way? Has everyone just told me the Velvet Underground is amazing so many times I just agree?

The B-Side 'Pretty Things' takes some time working out a melody over the swirly guitars. This time Rachel is taking lead vocals buried into the mix with layers of harmony from the rest of the band. There's a lot more interesting breakout guitar happening in this one, real warm, distorted, ugly bent sustained chords. This is also going Manchester shoegaze with the layers of guitar effects and almost unrecognizable vocals, going for that overall feeling over content.

It all keeps coming back around, now I have to go find that Ride album.

Great minimalist pop art sleeve as well, Shhhhhhhh! (available) from Super Secret Records.

Frankie Rose on Slumberland

It's confirmed, Frankie was the epicenter of the Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts, it's all in the drums. You wouldn't think that would completely control the sound, but it's the constant thing I think that carries through the three bands best songs. Sure there's a specific feel of guitar effects for the two, washy, reverb, buried, but she creates the tempo, she keeps it all from getting bogged down in slow dance sludge, it's always at least double time to the obvious guitar riffs. She created this style in the Vivian Girls, perfected it further in the Stilts, and this solo stuff is going to take it even one step further.
I don't know who else is int he band, or how much they are driving the sound, but I have to think based on her previous involvement that she's even coming up with melodies, probably the overall feel of the tracks.
When I saw her drum for the Stilts, I remember her playing 'Where do you run to?', it was a Vivian Girls track, so I was confused, but now that she posted a demo of it on her myspace she must have gotten credit on that one and taken it with her for this Frankie solo project.
Good on her, she's just ahead of every curve, pretty much single handedly coming up with an entire sub genre Brooklyn scene.
This track 'Thee Only One, is that dense rocking tempo swirl, heavy reverb, who knows how many guitar layers. The drums are a mile away, under everything a Frankie special: a tambourine perpetually glued to the tom, or maybe snare in this case, strummed chords that are all treble like metal reverb chimes. Her vocals, layered harmonies, with ahhh's of course...but it's a rock solid start to this solo project I want to hear more of.

Newly redesigned Midheaven (nice work guys) has it for preorder, or wait until Slumberland finally offers an add to cart button.

ROSE, FRANKIE - Thee Only One - Slumberland - SL 110 - 7" - $ 4.00
***As a founding member, songwriter, instrumentalist, and vocalist in Vivian Girls and drummer and occasional vocalist in Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose has been an integral part of two of the most highly acclaimed and influential groups to come out of Brooklyn's still-vital music scene in the past several years. Her solo project not only reflects the earmarks of both those groups, but also reveals her as a fully-formed artist in her own right. Ms. Rose's music is haunted by the ghosts of '60s girl group Brill Building and '80s and '90s noise-pop in equal measure. It's a spooky, lovely sound--her ethereal yet affectation-free voice swirling in a sea of church-like harmonies over a bed of tambourines, bells, and propulsive drumming. Recalling in spirit groups like The Aislers Set and Black Tambourine, Rose's music is timeless and immediate, both deeply personal and completely universal. Pitchfork cited "Where Do You Run To?" as one of the best songs of 2008, and after much anticipation Slumberland presents Rose's debut single. Recorded at Marlborough Farms Studio with Gary Olson, Kyle Forrester, and Crystal Stilts' J.B. Townsend, "Thee Only One" is a perfect slice of surf-tinged noise-pop. Laden with rumbling reverb and tangy guitar twang, it's an ideal tune with which to wrap up another (almost) endless summer. On the flip, "Hollow Life" is a more subdued affair--spectral psychedelia that resembles nothing so much as Opal's Kendra Smith at her most haunting. Building to a mesmerizing crescendo, "Hollow Life" is a sublime complement to "Thee Only One," rounding out this single in fine fashion.

De Kift on Mississippi Records

Dear Mississippi Records,
How do you do it? Where do you come up with these amazing reissues? How did you find out about this band from De Kift the Netherlands from the late 80's? Did you used to listen to them? Are you just making up band names and typing them into myspace?
You're like my friend Jay, when we first started skating in high school, he would bring over tapes of the coolest music; Dead Kennedys, Dead Milkmen, the Gorilla Biscuits, 7 Seconds. He was the best, I couldn't keep up with his cassettes, every time we hung out was a music education, while we wiped out on the launch ramp.
Even now you're still that older brother who knows about really amazing music you never heard of, that influenced all the crap you're listening to lately...even if you look them up now, and they don't sound anything like they used to (Franz Ferdinand covers De Kift?). But I'm not going to question you, I know you know what you're talking about, plus you're just a nice guy, you're coming from a good place and are just selling things at cost to you, I appreciate it. It's really altruistic, sharing your music knowledge, Mississippi Records.
Maybe you're like Jack Black in High Fidelity and I'm the guy that wants to buy 'I just called to say I love you', but you don't laugh at me or tell me to leave, you just calmly release another record of things I've never heard of.
Thanks for not kicking me out of the store.
But please... are you scared of the mailorder business? Do you want to send me on an internet scavenger hunt like a sorority girl? Is that part of it? You have to be a little mysterious, so I want to hang out even more?

That's pretty sneaky Mississippi, but it makes me sad we can't be closer.

This ebay listing has all the tracks to preview which was very nice.

Get it from Fusetron:

*Artist: DE KIFT
Title: De Kift
Format: 7"
Label: Mississippi
Country: USA
Price: $6.00
"Spunky 1988 release. A fairly unknown predecessor to their debut LP Yverzucht. Impossible to find and never reissued. Three songs of driving rhythms and volatile speech. Another testament to the uniquely prolific 80s Dutch punk scene." Awesome tri-fold, heavy cardstock sleeve with Dutch/English lyrics. -Mississippi

Sufjan live at Bowery

I caught the Sufjan show at the Bowery recently, his 'practice/workshop' tour and happened to record it. It came out pretty damn good, but I even spent time cleaning it up.
I'm listening to it right now, and not just because I'm posting it, because the new tracks are great, all electronic glitch, like Digital Ash Digital Urn, and he played every great song from Illinoise and Michigan...ridiculous
I swear you can hear someone crying, who came back by the bar to get napkins during Casmir Pulaski Day.
It's perfectly quiet, no one yells out songs like dickheads, really the only distracting thing is the floor creaking, and people whispering if you can believe that.
He's a god damn humble genius, he doesn't let you down. No wonder he sells out 4 nights in a row.
I have to sell some things for that BQE vinyl...like my kidneys.

So for the Friday show it's Sufjan at the bowery. All 7 hours.

Dust to Digital - earliest recorded voice?

The Cargo records UK blog had this great post about a crazy 45 from Dust to Digital Records. Dust to Digital looks like an amazing label, they have really elaborate wood crate CD box sets of field recordings, home recorded farmers, shape note singing (?), blues...but not on vinyl unfortunately, except for this single...which really is one of those crazy things, like the Hot Lixx air guitar single, really an art piece, a story that you frag out and play for friends of friends who want to hear a seven inch.
It seems like this is all about the packaging and the story, and it's some story. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville created an 'Au Clair phonautogram' Basically it functions like an edison cylinder, and was blackened by oil lamp smoke. He then attached a needle to the end of a diaphragm/horn thing, talked into the horn and the waves were converted into vibrations in the smoke (!) that then could be played back (!!). This is 20 seconds of that historic recording.
They went all out on the inserts for the 7" too there's a three-panel sleeve that folds out to 21 inches long with a complete reproduction of the Au Clair phonautogram itself, there's an etching on the reverse side of the vinyl and all kinds of other catalog stuff.

A couple of things...why is it weird to see an old newsreel and think 'every one of these people are dead now', and why is that the first thing I think of?...That this is some kind of ghost, did it freak people out in 1860? Could they even understand what was happening? Did they run from the room shouting witchcraft? Then I start thinking about Evil Dead II, and they play that reel to reel that summons the devil mess that kills everyone...can recorded sound function the same as speaking it? Can dogs recognize commands from recordings? If the demon summing lines existed on the magnetic tape, why would it matter if you even had to play it out loud?...it's there isn't it? What if Steven Hawkings read the book out loud? Would the demons conjur up as some kind of robot? Or would they just ignore it? It's probably all in the pronunciation.
One more thing...I remember watching on an old 'In Search Of' or just reading a book about weird shit from the elementary school library a million years ago that always stuck with me.. that someone had 'played' a clay pot? That basically the pottery wheel was the rotating cylinder and people talking would transfer vocal vibrations on to the clay through straw etc. I always wanted to have a laser device that would rotate around the pot to play it, in a futuristic lab. I imagined you would hear like people talking in some weird ancient voices and horses, carts, kids...and that's it. But it probably doesn't work that way. If at all, you dummy.
Good idea though.

Congradulations Mr de Martinville and D2D, you are creators of the oldest 7" single, not a feat anyone will be challenging soon. It's impressive....and slightly insane.
That's a recipe for genius.

Get it from Dust to Digital Records.

Weirdo records also has it also...with probably more reasonable shipping.
Scott de Martinville, Edouard Leon ~ Au Clair de la Lune
Parolortone/Dust to Digital ~ $8.00
one sided 7 inch 2009/1860 new
Most art acquisition is not dependent upon 20th century technological progress in the way that record collecting is. So here's a lovely way to celebrate it's unique charms. The Phonautogram was a French invention which recorded sound on a paper-wrapped cylinder. The paper was removed from the cylinder and dipped in alcohol, like you would do in a photography darkroom. Last year a team of researchers discovered the paper, scanned it, & used a computer to extract the sound. They successfully pushed back the date of the first recorded sound 17 years. It was thought at the time that the voice singing 'Au Clair de la Lune' was a woman's, but further reading of the inventors notes supports the idea that it's the inventor himself, Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville. Beautifully designed package (by Rob Millis, of Climax Golden Twins), that shows you the smoked paper, the patent notes, and a drawing of the phonautogram recording device. 20 seconds long.

John Carpenter on mexican summer

I have to admit I know nothing about John Carpenter, but Mexican Summer has had a string of amazing releases...all drool worthy packaging and always low pressings from Kurt Vile and Ariel Pink so I've been keeping them on my radar so I don't miss out on the next anything they put out.
Both of these tracks previously were on a self released EP, but since have been pulled for this single. They're both available on his myspace page, the first, The Seasons is super split left and right. I was half listening at first so I could still hear things around me...ha, and I missed the whole right side bassline, which actually sound like it's an electric, then the drums are all left channel? That's crazy...I like it, and maybe it's myspace? It better not be. It's reverb, slightly surf, dark psyche-60's Velvets guitar. Repeating, heavy effects on the vocals, they're still really clear, just way back in the mix.
The channel separation makes it sound like there are two separate competing songs coming together. I'm getting a late 60's Doors kind of thing here when he starts yelling for a second, or Scott Walker definitely...or even Mark Lannegan, not as defined a voice, upfront dark blues, but something like that.
'Haunt My Home' continues the crazy separation, the guitar on bassline is in the right channel and it's super warm sounding, I want to turn this up. You know those subtle really full sounding tracks that get better really loud. He's really mixed far back there at some points and then Leonard Cohen's you with some deep whispering. John Carpenter has a rock solid vision of what he's about and you can pretty much be sure of the consistency and where it might be going. He's got that disturbed, loner singer songwriter thing...

It's all pretty dark, maybe because it's just unusual in the landscape of weirdo/garage/noise that comes out daily.

From Mexican Summer Records.

Rosemary Krust on dull knife records

I really missed these guys and their anti-genre aesthetic, there's some no-fi songs like Early Fire Song, and then really quiet heartbreakers like 'Blank Stare' where Katherine is just singing, really beautifully, a catchy melody about her heart being a blank stare...
They're calling themselves free twee, which actually was coined by DJ Rick himself...and I'm thinking this is the Yips, her voice with guitar, at least when they get minimal. I guess the Yips fit into that twee thing too, I just never thought of them that way. Twee has such terrible connotations, all I can think of is Kimya Dawson and I want to barf. I'm not saying I don't love it sometimes more than anything but the bad things of twee heavily outweigh the good sometimes.

I'm all behind all the experimentation from RK in that pop way, or with those pop instruments...and I never miss the drums, it's kind of weird to all of a sudden remember I haven't heard a single beat of any kind. They're just working with that droning melody sometimes, it doesn't need anything else. They didn't pick an easy road, but you can't help it, this is it. I love it. The melody with insanity, always minimal, searching for that new sound, or at least an exciting one, the mistakes, the ungrounded cable, the un-preciousness.

I don't know what tracks are on this single, but like I've been saying, it's going to be a consistent inconsistency of guitar and vocals. Can't wait.

KDVS has a great show 'Phoning it in' where they played over the phone a whole set, I love that idea, it even sounds great, check it out.

KNIFE013 Rosemary Krust - Bernt Anker 7"
4 songs of noisy, delicate, barely there pop songs--all hanging together by a thread. The Baltimore duo of Katherine Plummer and William Hardy have a sound that harkens back to a time when twee wasn't a bad word and lo-fi wasn't marketing jargon. Rosemary Krust seemlesly blend the fuzz and fumble of Charalambides with the naive pop of Beat Happening, finding their own charming niche. They've even been referenced as an American version Garbage & The Flowers, which certainly isn't a bad thing. 300 hand-numbered copies.

Get it from Dull Knife Records.

Useless Eaters and Jay Reatard at Le Poisson Rouge 10-1-09

Pics by Molly

I ended up checking out Le poisson rouge for the first time Friday night since I heard Jay Reatard was bringing his Shattered Records tour there. It was an amazing lineup, Jay, Box Elders, No bunny, Hunx...insane. I've been meaning to check out the space, they've been booking really varied shows there and I kind of thought it must be a fairly small space being on Bleecker Street...so if Jay was playing there then it couldn't be all that bad. The space is pretty crazy, a little fancy pants but has a great stage, and great sound. It's a perfect alternative to Bowery, bigger than Mercury, but it's not so huge that it's pointless. Someone clued me into Jay playing with the first band Useless Eaters, and since the show wasn't starting until 11:30 or so I figured on catching them and I'm glad I did. Seth Sutton is a maniac, the second they got on he was jumping around, and listening to his myspace stuff, this stripped down thin sounding punk was a different story live. I like the recorded tracks a lot, don't get me wrong, but like Jay and Ty, it somehow gets better live. When you see it with the energy that Seth has, every song is great...he blew me away. I can see why Jay was supporting on bass, it's great that he's helping all these bands out first of all, starting his label, turning the whole thing into a way to get exposure for all this stuff he's obviously into. There was an insane light show going on at first and Jay squashed it two songs in. 'Can you stop with the overhead lights? Just turn em off. This ain't no fucking rave alright?' Seth plays with this great tight reverb echo, at times it's pretty minimal, like 'Malfunction' starts out with a great bassline with his tight bursts of melody. Single notes to punchy hard chords. It's that post-punk, punked back up sound. He's got the perfect combination of stripped down, catchy pop punk down, I'm sure he's like 19 and it figures. He's heard it all I'm sure, but then out of sheer balls, just takes it to a new place. I can't remember the last time I was completely along for the ride a few songs in. Especially since he's such a great performer...he's amazing, I was into every song. Incredible. So of course this morning I've been trying to track down anything he's got out. Luckily there's this single from Goner, couldn't find it on their site though, maybe it's gone already, or didn't go up yet, but it's available at Midheaven and Insound.

Jay's show was amazing, as usual, he's even great at bigger venue's but here it was complete mayhem, the tiny space was one big mosh pit, people flying around, I could barely pat attention watching for falling bodies. There was just no where else to go once he started playing, the place erupted. I kind of understand why beer just goes flying, they're possessed, it's like an epileptic convulsion...whatever's in you hand goes flying. He got pissed at one point about someones smelly sweater. He was yelling at them to stop something...I don't know...he yells for a minute and then kills 'Greed money useless children' and who knows, he's a force.

Heather from Out Of Order Records Interview

This Friday's podcast, Episode 62 (20min) is an interview I did with Heather from Out of Order Records. We talked about her latest release from GGreen of course and how the single came about. She also got into her sold out pressings of The Dissimilars and The Trashies ... how she just beat Plastic Idol Records by an email to the tracks on the Dissimilars single. Heather was a DJ at KDVS and was exposed to an insane amount of music there with her show Live in the Warzone. She also publishes her Out of Order zine and comics about being vinyl obsessed.

As if I needed another perfect example of a homegrown label from someone passionate enough to put some money behind music they believe in, Heather made it sound way too easy and fun not to try...soon.

Very soon.

Green Green 'Swimsuit Drugs' on Out of Order - Orange Regret Records

Bear with me, there's a pretty weirdo background story of how I ended up with this latest offering from Out Of Order Records and Orange Regret Records.
I was working on this art project I needed 1" buttons for, and ended up coming across Heather's etsy store. When I emailed her at outoforderrecords.com I had to check that out that URL because you never know... and of course there's a 7"! You just never know.

So I talked to Heather about her latest single (of course I couldn't help myself) and then I ended up interviewing her for the podcast which will be up tomorrow...in the mean time I've been spinning this Swimsuit Drugs Green Green, (or for legal reasons) G Green single. Previous sold out releases from OOR, the Trashies and The Dissimilars are in the hardcore/punk side of the 45, while this GGreen outfit is punishing speakers in an altogether different way with his Low-Fi Uber Alles.

On the A-Side you're hit with 'Swimsuit Drugs'. I'm not sure what's more distorted; the guitar, or the vocals. It's definitely a different sound from both, not necessarily effects, but separate textures, the guitar input was turned up to 11, and then the vocals are run through some kind of pedal effect. But the thing that makes this more than another fuzzy, muffled tune is the vocal melody, or anti-melody I should say. He's honestly singing along to something no one can hear, it's pretty unique...I want to say he's something of a low-fi Tiny Tim....well, not exactly. It's like he's drowning, or drunk and really has something important to say. He's got the answers and no one is paying attention...so needless to say he's getting pretty frustrated. There's an organ-ish synth under all this that starts to break down as well, just running up and down the keys. It's working with it's own weirdo outsider logic.
It's mysterious how they arrived at this melody, what's going to happen to this live and why on earth they make drugs for swimsuits.

The B-Side 'Mouth on the Floor', is equally obscured by the sound waves being clipped off at high levels. For some reason I'm responding to this melody more than the A-Side, it's slightly less chaotic, and sticks with you. It's a textured recording of a tortured suffering guy just rocking out some kind of blues/folk in an underground cave. Again it's massively distorted/blown out/overmodulated, rerecorded, bounced down to fisher price recorders...it's an art, this kind of texture. But really what I can't get over is the vocal stylings on this one. It's almost even more wavering, yelling. If it wasn't so blurred by no-fi I don't think I'd be able to make out much of what he's saying thanks to his style. I'm itching to hear this clear as day. It just might be more compelling. Impossible notes from a disturbed individual...I don't think he's faking.
Yikes.

300 pressed on black vinyl

Get it from Out of Order records, who says:

Hey all, Out of Order Records is back with a co-release with Orange Regret.

Green Green or GGreen, is a fine lad from Northern California who makes psych-pop, bedroom recordings which are fresh, revealing and fun. They sound extra great on vinyl.

You can now pre-order his debut on the elixir of musical formats, 7" vinyl!

Go to outoforderrecords.com to pre-order the Green Green bundle which includes a 7" and button. Only 300 are being pressed and they are already going fast.

This beauty should be out by the end of April, fingers crossed.

Green Green also has upcoming releases on Malt Duck and on Pat's Stumparumper Records. Heather knows a good thing when she hears one.