Monday, August 8, 2011

The Ceiling Stares / Super Vacations Split single on Velocity of Sound + Sweaters and Pearls Records



Got an advance copy of this split from my buddy Darren at Velocity of Sound and myself at Sweaters and Pearls Records....wait...that's me? Yes it is good reader, I up and started a label...finally.
Darren, who had a split in mind with the fantastic Ceiling Stares about 6 months ago seemed like the perfect opportunity to team up with someone who could show me the ropes. So with a blank side and psyche on my mind I contacted The Super Vacations and the rest is history that could end up in your mailbox.
S&P 001, is finally ready and I've been trying really hard to keep my big mouth shut until it was finished so I didn't hex* myself.

The Ceiling Stares reside in Pittsburgh, PA and impressed Darren so much live that he immediately had to see if he could put out, 'A Tunnel Through the Air' on vinyl, which ended up here being the A-Side... not that one side is better than the other mind you.
The 5 piece makes use of their numbers to quickly work in a winding layered riff, both guitars working a complex rhythm back and forth, with a subtle organ melody taking shape driven by an unstoppable snare attack. If there was ever such a thing as psyche-punk, it may be the time to introduce some distant relative here. Get ready for a long player folks, this clocks in at over 5 minutes, so was cut at 33 of course. But how would it even be related to psyche unless it took its time worming this melody deep in your skull. The vocals are upon the lyrics from the very first line, some sort of extended Greek chorus, working as much at the changes as the instrumentation. Heavy distortion guitar leads the big sound, separated big time into a major stereo experience...I know you've heard stereo before, but not like this.

Minutes and degrees
Without them we'd be lost at sea

But give this track a minute to tunnel through your speakers, over at their bandcamp page for yourself.

The Super Vacations take full advantage of the long distance pace set by the Stares to introduce two tracks here that are exclusive to this single "Hexing" and "Controller". Rob explained these are demo versions of tracks they are recording for a new album. By 'demo' he means they went all out recording in full rock fidelity and spent hours on the mix, I honestly think he might have mistakenly sent the final versions, or they're a band full of perfectionists, because this isn't your mom's demo. *"Hexing" kicks off, when the needle drops with a stuttered distorted rhythm at frantic pace, and psyche never attempted these speeds before. On top of that it's a sinister sounding track, pounding out that punchy rhythm, guitars speeding forward, the layered harmonies in a minor key....spooky.
Talking about a curse, and riding an elevator (to the 13th floor?) it sounds like the vocal here is looking forward to the 'hexing' it's going to take to get through this one. You and me both buddy.
"Controller", up next gives you just a moment to catch your breath in between tracks and this power groove drives another scary power psyche track. They have a way of unsettling that driving rhythm with the vocal, overwhelm with a huge layered haze and that's it, even if you wanted to turn back, the path home is gone.
I'm really happy to be able to press something that might have otherwise never even seen the light of day, not only can you get a sense of what they're up to next, but hear it in it's early stage of development. That's why the 45 is still alive and why I know you and I still buy singles.

Check out all these tracks on the fake record player at S&P. The sleeves have been printed, the test pressings were approved, and now it's time to order the shit out of this!
It's available over here at the new sweaters and pearls site, which again in case anyone is confused, is definitely the new label part of 7inches or at Darren's Velocity Of Sound Records. He's got the green ones and my run is purple. 250 pressed of each.
The Super Vacations are touring a little around their neck of the woods to sell these in person, so you can always support the band and get one live or even contact The Ceiling Stares directly....we're all in this thing together.

The records, I'm told, are being shipped to me this week, they won't actually go out in the mail until next week sometime, but I'll keep everyone posted.
Any issues, shipping problems, etc. I can be reached at jdean99 at gmail dot com or jason at sweatersandpearls dot com.

Thanks as always for reading and if you can support the label so I can press more in the future, then double thanks. Rest assured I've got a few more records in the works for later this year.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:55 PM

    Did you just review your own release?

    ReplyDelete
  2. YES I DID! It's genius. Single of the year. Damn I'm good.

    ReplyDelete