Here's one from The Paperhead on Trouble in Mind Records that must have come out a while back now, but honestly...who can really keep up with everything out there? Vinyl sales are up, new labels start every day and I'm not complaining...I think it's just when something this great comes out of nowhere I'm smacking myself in the head. What freaking took me so long? Pathetic.
A-Side "Pictures of Her Demise" solidifies TIM's place as the label to go to for this impressive, glam psyche-pop starting with everyone from Jeff Novak to The Resonars and finally this one from the Paperhead which is a shining example of that blown out, epic late '60s pop-psych. The whole period of experimentation right before glam and punk...I haven't heard something this complex and packed with abbreviated shifting melodies since that Jeff Novak single on Sweet Rot that made my top 10 of last year. The Paperhead sound on this one is the kind of thing that expands on that whole genre just a little bit more with a loose, raw garage sound. This recent resurgence of layered pop psych lately might be the ultimate case for home recording technology affecting a bands ability to revisit a genre so completely like this. Artists that might have not ever had access to the studio capabilities can now pile on the layers...this 'aint no 4track people.
The trio starts out with a peppery, bouncy bassline, twice as fast as the rest of this tempo with thin drums pushed way to the back, mic'd paper thin, not muddy, just a weird representations of what drums would sound like on a quartz radio across the street. Then they really pile on those Kinks style harmonies, complete with slight English affectations. Jangle guitar? This thing has that acoustic metal chingy sound in spades, but to pack the melodies in side by side like this is impressive. It might as well be the late 60's if you look at the guys sitting on the steps of a monument... this sort of thing is that Bright Eyes sort of genius to me, so alien from anything you could ever imagine putting together. I just sit there in awe of this complex stuff, it's almost off putting but they keep winning me back because of this unbelievable melody.
B-Side "She is above me" has a false start of a melody...and then...now I don't know the Beatles at all, really, no one listened to music in our house and I just skipped that period basically...and now I'm too old to appreciate it. I sadly know too much...and they are ruined for me...but this side has that same kind of weird playfulness and layered off kilter harmonies like Bungalow Bill or something from the White album? God I know nothing.. That "Tomorrow Never Knows" from Mad Men? Which actually had me reconsidering those guys. This has that slow, molasses push getting caught right in the center avalanche of dense melody. It's creeping along with tambourines and organs...a perfect ridiculously accurate sound that is perfectly executed. I would believe you if this was some kind of reissue. I'm calling it now, they've been sitting on this reel to reel for years. Has anyone seem these guys in person?
Go over to the label's site and listen to the sample over there, this is completely impressive and uniquely revisiting this style impeccably.
On marble swirl red vinyl with a monochrome slick printed sleeve this time...a first for Trouble in Mind.
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