Witch Gardens "Raindelay" on Highfive and Handshakes

This single was released way too long ago for me to just be getting to it now, but really that's how this year has been going. The singles keep coming out in exponential numbers, to anyone who's wondering if I'm getting to their review, I can't believe that honestly once a day isn't at all enough to keep up and in order to get all the last candidates in for the end of the year lists etc, I'm going to step things up until at least a little past the new year....
So Peter over at Highfive and Handshakes Records let me know about this Witch Garden "Rain Delay" single he put out a couple months ago and both of these fuzzy layered guitar tracks have everything to do with letting go of the summer grooves and settling into a long winter, but we can still hold on to those surf memories, even on the East Coast. Especially this A-Side "Goodbye Ball", which also might refer to equally as tragic loss of a ball into that yard that you aren't about to go get it from. Just let it go, no one wants to deal with that crazy neighbor. There's a huge Real Estate chorus guitar sound, along with that laid back focus on a harmony to the point of only catching tiny fragments of lyric. The slow snowflake falling tempo is broken by a snare on every beat chorus, taking a page right out of the origins of the Vivian Girls with Frankie on drums, the huge wooden batons and tambourine resting on the tom.

The B-Side might be more related to Grass Widow in their 3 part unique vocal harmony, working in a separate vein altogether from the reverb strum but with that Nodzzz kind of laid back vibe. When this one really picks up reflecting that stayed indoors insanity, it's a nice touch, they're driving themselves crazy in their own song. I'd also like to note it's no accident this comes from a label encouraging fair play with their moniker leading right to "Good game, good game, (yea right, yea right) HEY! I like that you can hear the hum of the cables trailing out after the song is over, but that's the kind of succinct vision they carry out with this one, exacting and thought out.

A criminally small run of 300 copies from Highfive and Handshakes...damn I love this sound, it is the definitive soundtrack for the last 5 years or so. Dum Dum Girls, The Babies, Best Coast...these guys aren't taking themselves too seriously and I like them more for it.