Bleeding Gold Records are never ones for repeating themselves when it comes to vinyl pressings and I know you're asking yourself "So what kind of splatter split pressing is it going to be this time"? - Nice try - how about BLUE GLOW IN THE DARK VINYL. The first time I've ever heard of such nonsense as well as this duo out of North Carolina, The Sweets. Last year they decided to release an EP every month while living in different cities and these four tracks were rerecorded in their basement studio, presumably together again for this four track EP they want you to play in the dark.
A-Side's "Coffee in the Morning" introduces a sliver of their various styles in a surf sound that is desperately missing in the throes of this long ass winter. Twinkling clear guitar melodies, no fuzz, with a 'waaaaooooo' surf twang guitar, this track is hanging out at the beach, no pretension, unselfconscious. The rattling snare and rolling toms are mic'd in this huge garage way with a clang of cymbal or chime clink on the edge of the stand. They've captured that '60-s worn kit sound and married it to a reverb modern surf. They already feel like they get into a weird groove and like Ween would, take it to it's logical conclusion. I don't think they start out with a predetermined direction, this one wandered into that jangle surf. What do you expect? Whaaaa-oooooo.
Stabby jabs at electric open "He is My neighbor" with thick chords as if Ty Segall kicked off the fuzz and focused on this clean sound by accident. Odd timings, bouncing in a reverb vocal like Talking Heads, slightly post punk and cool with a loose, unrehearsed freedom at the same time. Breaking things down with slow textured tom rolls, kind of Kinks glam rock with Jeff Novak's ghost wandering the halls just out of sight.
B-Side's "Sister" uses an old Strokes riff above this heavy drum section, still raw but heavy pop, they aren't overworked or have too much attitude they're obviously comfortable going in a lot of directions but in love with these guitar sounds and massive room drums. Any effects are just icing on any of their collective cakes, they aren't a crutch, just decoration in their junkyard, like a crazy hermit who built a tower out of trash. Who knows why that teddy bear it sitting on top of the shopping cart next to an old TV. But it looks great.
"Mr Key" is some kind of reinvention of English glam about a literal weirdo in the neighborhood, Mr. Key. Jangle like this is unprecedented in their crazy directions of slide acoustic and static plastic trash bags percussion. Understated vocals and they know when to use these elements, it's all very restrained for working with the palette of everything out there, like the Flaming Lips conceptually or Grandaddy. You can hear the sounds that have been absorbed and reconfigured, all junk pop from the last 10 years thrown into the pot with surf and the garage glam stuff from long ago. A band like this that can absorb and reference all of those things while coming up with new variations is one I'll be picking up everything out there.
Preorder this from Bleeding Gold Records who offer this exclusive stream to 7inches of "He Is My Neighbor". The rest of this EP is out there in the usual sites, collect them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment