Crystal Stilts - Love is a Wave on Slumberland

Finally, a new single...I just was disappointed after that UK single that basically was everything already on the album. So, UK, are you up to speed now?
Great.
This A-Side sounds really hopeful, or let's say optomistic. Love is a wave? It's more like what was I worried about? The drums are off in the distance, keeping the usual Frankie time, which makes this, as usual. She is the key to the debut album....and the Vivian Girls for that matter. She is a machine...pure consitency. Making frantic exhausting pounding essential.
'Angels prostituting?'....they really lay it on thick, like the Velvets, I guess they are playing with that contradiction; happy sound with fucked up depressing lyrics.
The thing I'm worried about with this sound as a listener is where do they go from here? Have they painted themselves into a corner with this sound? Would I be happy to listen to this for a few more albums? I guess they are going to answer this eventually.

Not with the B-Side 'Sugar Baby', this is just way to optomistic. I can understand the lyrics more...I'm not in love with this. The darkness is kind of gone, it's like they are reinterpreting that 50's reverb too much... it's too surf rock. He's even singing with emotion!!!! Why is he trying to sing. It's just subtle but it's enough to make this sound like it's coming from a different place. Would I have liked them if this was the first single I heard?
Strummed guitars...too kitch, I get it, this is kind of done ironically? I want sincerity! Be honest and work with those elements...I love them, but don't reference them...ike you are a cover band for an era. Disappointing...this song is not in line with what I was loving about them in the first place.
I mean these are the questions you ask yourself, how much am I falling for everyone's shit?
Do I even know what I like?
Damn!

Get it from Slumberland, it's on white vinyl, and I like the label on the 45...very classic:

We’re thrilled to be able to bring you this ace single, featuring two brand-new songs not to be found on their album. Love Is A Wave is a firm favorite of the band’s live show, a perfect two-minute pop nugget in the best punk rock tradition. Fired by an insistent fast-strummed riff, an eager beat and barely-contained feedback, Love Is A Wave is an instant classic that stands tall with tunes like “Never Understand” and “I Heard Her Call My Name” in the noise-pop pantheon. B-side Sugarbaby is no slouch either, sounding for all the world like The Clean if they had been produced by Lee Hazlewood back in Arizona in the late 50s. With a spookily evocative keyboard line, breathless backing vocals and undistorted twang, Sugarbaby could be from 1959, or 1969, or 1989. But it’s pure 2009, and another great example of how Crystal Stilts have managed to mine rock’s past and create something entirely new and crucial for today.

Crystal stilts on slumberland

I just ordered this a few days ago and I just can't wait to hear these new tracks from Crystal Stilts.
I also picked up the Pains of Being Pure at Heart single along with this no brainer because I've been hearing so much about those guys and I'm really curious to hear them for the first time the way I always want to experience new music...as a 7" vinyl single. I can concentrate and focus on two sides and hopefully hear what they feel is the strongest song and maybe something to show their range and willingness to experiment. This goes for the Stilts one as well.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, just wanted to make sure you still had a chance to get in on this first pressing of the Stilts single on white vinyl.

Both are available from Slumberland records, where you can also hear samples of what's in store for you on the 7"'s.

Crystal Stilts burst out of Brooklyn in 2008 to become one of the most talked about bands in years. Perfecting a sound that ably mixes post-punk gloom with classic 60s pop & garage, Suicide-ish 50s buzz/twang and a dash of 80s jangle, Crystal Stilts capped the year with the release of their amazing debut album, Alight of Night. Rightly recognized as one of the best albums of the year, Alight won rave reviews all over the place, from Pitchfork to The Wire to Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum and Exclaim. Tours with Vivian Girls and Love Is All only added to the excitement, building anticipation for Crystal Stilts’ next record.

We’re thrilled to be able to bring you this ace single, featuring two brand-new songs not to be found on their album. Love Is A Wave is a firm favorite of the band’s live show, a perfect two-minute pop nugget in the best punk rock tradition. Fired by an insistent fast-strummed riff, an eager beat and barely-contained feedback, Love Is A Wave is an instant classic that stands tall with tunes like “Never Understand” and “I Heard Her Call My Name” in the noise-pop pantheon. B-side Sugarbaby is no slouch either, sounding for all the world like The Clean if they had been produced by Lee Hazlewood back in Arizona in the late 50s. With a spookily evocative keyboard line, breathless backing vocals and undistorted twang, Sugarbaby could be from 1959, or 1969, or 1989. But it’s pure 2009, and another great example of how Crystal Stilts have managed to mine rock’s past and create something entirely new and crucial for today.

Crystal Stilts at Music Hall of Williamsburg 3-14-09

The thing live that struck me is how much Frankie really sets the tempo for this otherwise dreary sound. Watching her pound out this frantic tempo with two mallet handles is tiring just to watch. Its this constant pounding with her right hand that's keeping time like a high hat with the tom and then the snare is something like the accent hits. It's the most simple drumming style... really primitive and completely keeps this from getting bogged down in the slow psyche sound this could have ended up in. She singlehandedly sets the pace for the entire sound. Here is this kind of depressing shoegaze sound: muddied effected vocals, washed out heavy chorus strumming but Frankie keeps forcing the speed up to some kind of frantic dance track tempo. Taking the sound in this whole other direction then where you imagine it should be going.

The thing I notice about this live recording after the fact is how completely out of key Brad is...it's nothing I've noticed right away, it's not obviously off putting....it's kind of a genius, just a little too late in delivery, just a little lower than the guitar melody, that disaffected chorus low mumble.
It's not a compelling live performance, he holds his hands back behind his body kind of holding back, not engaging the crowd. Instead the keyboard player took up the mic in the stage banter role. He was making it his show, annoyingly on the mic in between every song, trying to heckle the crowd back, I guess making up for the lack of perceived stage presence. I could have done without it. Not every band has to be about forcing the crowd to have a good time. It's enough to be performing something interesting for me.
it's not necessarily the kind of thing that has to be rocking your ass, crowd surfing. You don't give anything up by not trying to win over an audience with your personality. It goes with the territory. I wouldn't expect these guys to be doing some kind of stand up routine. They shouldn't feel like they have to.
Where's the antagonism towards the audience? Are they just in such a mutually beneficial relationship that we're all worried about not stepping on each others toes?... I wouldn't mind a little distance. A little more mystery behind this sound.



Here is the show complete with encore: Crystal Stilts at MHOW, that's this weeks podcast. 42mb-45min.

Crystal Stilts on Angular records

Glad I randomly checked out Angular records thanks to Norman this morning and saw that this single from Crystal Stilts is due out Monday.

Say whatever you want about the sound being derivative but there's more to these songs...there's always great catchy melodies I want to hear a billion times on top of the ever present echo. There's nothing original on this release (no exclusive tracks or anything) so you really don't have to jump on it, both Departure and Prismatic Room are on the full length from Slumberland, so just go get that. I couldn't resist though, I pretty mush ordered it before I checked. That's how they roll for me right now. Hurry up, get it, it's good.

I heard that their drummer, Frankie is now full time with the Stilts and the Vivian Girls have replaced her with her doppelganger? I was thinking her drumming is such an essential part of that sound, it's really a unique piece of the puzzle, she put a undeniable spin on those tracks....anyone else that comes in is just going to be trying to recreate it. Maybe not, but it would be my fear as a drummer for sure.
I love to hear her stamp on the Stilts as well...that tambourine on a tom drum played at the same time....droning on, that heartbeat for every track. Overall the Stilts picked a very specific framework...a sound that always works....what I wanted every JAMC song to sound like, but then it would just get too uncatchy and I'd skip onto something else.
So they found their strength...that fuzzed out, 60's psyche - shoegaze sound and went all out with it.... then they wrote great tracks...like they are character actors auditioning for a play. Who are you getting? Who cares, they wear sunglasses...well it's good.

Only $8 including overseas shipping...wow I really must have a lot of faith in the post office again for some misguided reason...if there's any god, this will arrive intact from England, even though they live down the street.

Angular says:

Crystal Stilts - Departure

Brooklyn's spectral garage-pop quintet, Crystal Stilts, release their debut UK single through Angular, the first to be taken from forthcoming album ‘Alight of Night’.

Departure is a concise atmospheric echoing masterpiece, but has a pop sensibility that is already grabbing the attention of many people in the UK.

Ltd Edition 7"

Tracklisting:

Crystal Stilts - Departure (ARC043)

7" Vinyl Single

1.		Crystal Stilts - Departure
2.		Crystal Stilts - Prismatic Room

From Norman recs:
Crystal Stilts - 'Departure' (7" on Angular)

I really like Crystal Stilts but have suffered a slight problem with the vocals, as if they're merely incidental and detract from the relative richness & smoky analogue production of their 60's garage/noir-wave. It's not that they're remotely bad, or annoying. I merely wish they had a feisty female vocal to bounce of the slightly blurred sub JAMC/Interpol meandering. Get that Frankie lady who they nicked off Vivian Girls to holler a bit from her drum stool in future? These 2 tracks lifted from their original Slumberland full lengther and licensed to Angular for their 1st official UK release are quite different beasts, the first 'Departure' is fucking excellent, loaded with a shitkicking voodoo thump, a trashed scratchy Rickenbacker guitar squall, a looming bass grumbling away underneath & an overall vibe not unlike early Cure waltzing along a crumbling promenade with Clinic & VU! 'Prismatic Room' sounds like Blue Orchids & The Clean doing a drunken 60's psych cover on mogadon, the shambling tambourine-fuelled mess propped up with a cheeky organ that is both sad & uplifting at the same time, those lovely dying swallow tremolo effects poised for the very best in entertainment. Actually, I just got over my hang-up with the vocals, this is just excellent. SOTW. - Brian xxx

Podcast EP 33 - Crystal Stilts show

Episode 33 - Crystal Stilts
Here's the Crystal Stilts show at Less Artists More Condos.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Crystal Stilts at More Condos Less Artists 11-21-08 - (an open letter to photographers)

Take a look at that picture...I have a shitty iphone, and I'm happy with whatever dumb picture gets taken because I could care less.... Brooklyn vegan posts really annoy me when it's pages and pages of pics...who cares. Was the show even good?
I guess you don't give a fuck.
I was shooting in the dark by the way, but there were so many flashes gong off that I got at least 5 pics just lit by other peoples flashes....what the fuck people.

I'm sure Cheap Time and the Crystal Stilts have no problem with getting a little press, having people take their picture for their online music sites... whatever... but this show was seizure inducing.
Who cares if you fucking getting another shot for your portfolio?
This is about the band, and you are fucking with their performance, you are effecting the show for the audience and the band. You are a fucking distraction that has nothing to do with the music, you are a visual artist, you don't belong here.
You know why you have to take 9000 pictures? Because you are a shitty photographer.

I kept hoping the moshing crowd was going to break your fucking lens, push you over into the PA speakers. Dicks, reaching over people's heads holding the flash button down.... I just wanted to see someone accidentally dance jump up and smash the lens into your teeth.

You aren't a photographer if you get lucky once every 100 pictures. I see you going through the pics on the LCD, it's a god damn flip book.... fuck it shoot a movie, pull some stills....that would make more sense.
They are just fucking weird leeches who stare at their LCD's doing.... I don't know what.....hoping to sell a shot to some music publication down the road?...There has to be money in it for these asshole to be clambering over each other with bags and bags of equipment...I guess if you're really lucky someday you'll sell 8x10's on your website for $20, or have a show at some half ass gallery.
You make a name for yourself documenting other peoples performances. It's sad.
Where's the fucking skill in any of it? You show up at a show and point your camera...you're doing nothing but fucking up the performers and the show actually.
The heckler was less annoying...the dude chanting Arliss...I'd take 5 more of him over you trying to get a good shot. I wish crowds would start kicking these assholes....crack a few lenses, break some shit...let the photographer fucks shoot with zoom from the back row or risk getting their shit fucked up.
If I was fucking epileptic I would take it out on your camera...if I am epileptic and I don't know it yet, I'll take it out on your camera.
Fuck you.


That being said, Cheap Time opened and was a fucking powerhouse kick ass trio. With great pauses in rocking the shit out for a second of silence then jump back on the mic and into the sound. Like the NY Dolls and the Ramones dream band, they have as many hooks and harmonies and choruses to keep you up for weeks. Tight and satisfying, they don't give you a second to applaud, it's one song into another for a punishing 45 minute set.

The Crystal Stilts then set up... all kinds of weird black boxes perched on suitcases. Cardigans all around...guitarist JB stares at the back wall, either that or he's monitoring some kind of custom tube pedal and barely strums, just quick additions. One chorus strum here and there, or in that Velvet Underground monotony. It's hard to really decide what's making this sound come together...Frankie has the signature sound for sure, she banging away with the caveman drummer approach, hunched over staring at the top of the snare, hidden by ponytails....holding some kind of woodblock sticks...I swear. The tamborine on top of a tom, that's the thing that works so well on Vivian Girls and the Stilts, it's this ever present sleigh bell time sound that adds another layer of rhythm to the snare kick snare kick 1,2,3,4 time.

Brad Hargett is huge, with crazy robert smith fucked hair, holding the mic with both hands, and barely moving...this isn't a doom and gloom band, but everything would lead you to believe that so far. It's almost like a Brian Wilson nightmare...it's sad and hopeful somehow. Like that sad bastard in art class who out of nowhere makes something really nice.
The vocals of course are buried thanks to some effect box he would reach down and adjust here and there. But this is fast, even danceable...really Velvets influenced again, especially this choice of venue, the overhead projector casting a mesh fence shadow across the wall in someone's apartment in the village...really is this a joke? It's too perfect.
They sound like a crappy recording so it's perfect, it's a wall of sound, all bass and echo vocals...with Frankie harmony here and there. It's like they unabashedly took the best parts of JAMC, Velvet Underground and just go with it...there's nothing not to like...it's the perfect homage to the sound... time period, making it seem new again because they do it so well.

In Summary:
Photographers: Chill the fuck out, have some respect for the people there to watch the show, not further their career, especially if there isn't a press area like you fucks should be corralled in. More Condos Less Artists isn't the venue for you...go to terminal 5.
Bands: I don't know where you stand. Cheap Time said something at the end about having a seizure, and please stop, so he can't be the only one. I know you want coverage, so you probably side with the photogs, but maybe that band of horses dude had a point? Then again there's a lot of hype with the Stilts, they could have been in bed with every one of these people, what do I know?
Audience: Kick the shit out of annoying photographers, or at least mosh into their lens, maybe cause some damage. You don't have to make it obvious.

I'll post the show Friday...look for that.....and I'm not cutting out the heckler dude. Anyone that just yells 'Larry Sanders season 2!' or 'Anyone who likes Jimmy James from News Radio, make some mutherfucking noise!' is pretty awesome in my book.

Crystal Stilts have a 12" that Compiles their s/t 12" and the Shattered Shine 7" and it can be had all over place or from Insound. Cheap time has a couple singles that are sold out at the source, but Insound looks like they have some copies as well as the usual distos to the right there...

A place to bury strangers

I was recording a podcast this weekend with some friends...kind of a Matt(x10) situation and I gave up playing singles and started playing Crystal Stilts. My friend Ryan brought up A place to Bury Strangers having a similar sound, and I happened to come across this single on Insound....but the only thing to me that's the same is a lot of reverb and feedback...even on the drums.
I think the thing that separates A place.... and JAMC from Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts is that the Girls and Stilts don't ever rely on or hope for feedback, it's just a warm, really distant sound, very controlled. A place... want the soundscape of almost pure sound...a shattering high pierce feedback on sustain...well.... god knows what effects are in a chain from the strings to the amps. Like Justice Yeldham or something, take the sound that's so taken for granted and really make it unrecognizable.

The track here 'I know I'll see you', has a real early cure phased bassline punctuated by waves of just metallic washes of neverending string sound.
But this track feels a lot gentler than other ones like Runaround.... screaming, overmodulated guitars, that alomost take over every other sound...I kind of thought my laptop speakers were a little fucked up for a second or it was skipping streaming from myspace. It's super JAMC here...down to the drum machines....I wonder if they use tthem live? Either way I'm guessing it's hard on the ears.
I think my only disapointment is that this was then this was remixed for the B-Side...ouch.

It's available from Insound: VINYL FORMAT. Double A-side featuring a remix from The Clapp. A dark metallic ring of the gritty tin of guitars, "I Know I'll See You" is a saw-soaked raw track, fusing Factory Records-esque mystery with addictive pulses of eardrum piercing austerity. Static-laden sonic qualities create sounds that evolve to sound like a slinky Werewolf attack of saturated distortion; hardly surprising given front man Oliver Ackermann's sideline building hand-wired guitar pedals.

Now it's all making sense after checking out this pitchfork video of the Death by Audio space...this is the guy from A place to bury strangers. That space is huge and as amazing as I thought it must be.
I bet he keeps the best sounds to himself.