Writer on Loud and Clear Records

This isn't a new release from the Brooklyn duo of brothers Andy & James Ralph in Writer but it's the first time I'm hearing their crazy bunch of influences cobbled together. I can't help but wonder if it's the magic of the duo, let alone a blood related duo that would have something to do with the kind of reckless combinations of super pop pressed onto this single. That sense of experimentation and unselfconscious instinct has been encouraged from day one. This isn't their first single or tour and they aren't breaking up because they can't. Stuck with each other, making music together forever.

"Miss Mermaid" has all the hallmarks of an A-Side single, massive echo percussion kit with epic strides of jittery jangle electric. A looped sample and dirty crackling electric starts the cycle out, a hollow clack of sticks ring alongside this minimal and spooky opening. Andy's vocals are underwater warbled making perfect sense with these nautical themed vocals. The texture is great on this, even that loose deep kick sounds like it's muffled under a pillow reef. The change from that post punk jangle to the epic scale of this chorus is what makes this the A-Side though. Reverse piano strikes and chorus phaser warble pops up for the later verse but this distorted mess of a solo makes sure this isn't going too smiley. They're happy to play around with odd timings or techniques but it's all in service of this fantastic pop track. Like the Annuals it's almost an orchestral pop without the traditional string section, it's made up of a thousand tiny elements that add up to their mammoth statement.
B-Side's "Swamp Fire Lake" opens on a synthy sounding slow guitar melody joined by the schreech of a theremin or high jangle taught strings. Andy's laying down a monotone somber vocal before going big with laser bursts of distortion. Lots of changes; a sign of their wealth of ideas all jammed into these switchbacks and turns. Those pounding cathedral drums give this an eerie feel or I'm imagining this 'swamp fire lake' place which rumbles with tom strikes and swirling endlessly delayed guitars. An heir to Grandaddy that opening melody returns with blues twang and this falls even more on the side of backwoods creeps with laptops.

On marble dark grey/green vinyl from Loud & Clear Records.

Mrs. Magician on Loud and Clear Records

I was happy to find out the other day that Mrs. Magician has found another home with Loud and Clear Records, and put out one of their trademark sunny vibes single with the creepy monochrome matte sleeve. Looks like they got them selves a full length recently and I'll be on the lookout for their reverby harmony laden chorus jams.

A-Side's "The Spells" has that warble reverb and chorus together on the surf guitar, these guys waste no time getting right into this catchy melody, bouncy electric, punchy free form interpretation of this melody ending on the big harmony AHHH's, that throws this for a loop. They're real direct in this vocal about having the spells and feeling pathetic, turn off the phone / pretend your out ...but he's still home... I think because he's just distraught over this love. The feel bad sound mistaken for happy... hide it....Repeat.
They really have it togther, the stops and starts of a bigger loftier pop, but this stays pretty simple and loose in that great throwback unassuming way. They make it sound easy, like these riffs. I imagine live they're a pretty fun affair, halfway between a straight up indie pop outfit and layering on the psych and surf. But no confusion in the grinning. Consistently spreading good moods.

B-Side's "Angel baby" is that far off strums of reverb guitar for a mirror ball to descend into the slow dance groove, big time buried vocals. This could be some kind of update on that RAD song, "Send me an Angel" where he's cutting up the dancefloor on a bike. Classic slow dance material fitting of the name, dreamy vocals talking about love again, these guys are real sentimentalists. I don't feel ready for these feelings, we're just getting to know each other. They're moving too fast. Slow bassline and beach boys multilayered harmonies, all kinds of effect layers, stare into the spiral center label, you're getting sleepy. On Black Vinyyyylyllllllllll.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

From Loud and Clear Records - ed

Chairs Missing on Loud and Clear Records

When I was putting together the interview with Brad at Loud and Clear I included a track from this Chairs Missing single that I haven't been able to get out of my head...and what's gong on with these guys? Aside form this facebook page I'm sure people are waiting for a longer full length...(wait no more, should be done in about a week - ed). It's that swirls psych-pop that sounds like...well....not to plug my own release, but the Ceiling Stares / Super Vacations split...super melodic layered fuzz, on the border of so catchy you could almost move around to it, but at least have to hear it again.

The A-Side, "To The Hills", feels like San Diego baby. Heavy surf reverb and vocal harmony...specifically that ducktails spring metallic reverb, but instead of a tropical tinged kettle drum, it's got a more rock edge, filling in those woven spaces with big time medlodies and muted twangs.
A lot like that Slow Animal single, who also get away with this kind of nostalgic stoner vibe. A slightly rowdier bunch of guys in a room reinterpreting any Real Estate album, laid back, completely fun, the sun shining down, teasing out that sparkly reverb, a lazy tom beat bobbing back and forth. This melody is really taking over, way stronger than it should be, and just as simple and classic as "budweiser sprite makes you feel alright"....damn I love that song and keep meaning to try that drink one lazy deck chair day. I need some sun.
I like the tape recorder pressing of stop at the end, you'd never know this wasn't straight off the reel to reel instead of the cassette.

B-Side's, "Feels Like it Should" starts with a distant Sergio Leone twang electric, the bigger delay is on the vocal this time. The Fresh and Onlys... Frankie Rose should be taking notes a bit, or Ski lodge, this one is going more pop than psych, wrapping around melodies, surf kettle druming electric plinks like Abe Vigoda, synth bells chiming. Then throwing back to A Psychedelic Furs or Modern English feel, I know what you're thinking but that After The Snow album is a fantastic unappreciated gem.
This hints at No Age even in it's quieter moments, these guys have an impressive future ahead of them, I am looking forward to tracking down more. They can take their time and experiment but keep the all important sunny melody front and center without getting too crazy with the effects or tape hiss. A fantastic balance of contemporary reverb surf psych and throwback new wave. Excellent work, and one of the impressive futures of Loud and Clear, check them out, this is a great single.

...and guys don't think I didn't notice The Wire reference.

Color xerox sleeve on thick purple vinyl from Loud and Clear Records.

Interview with Brad from Loud and Clear Records

I got a chance to talk to Brad from Loud + Clear Records a couple of weeks back... I got an email about his 10th anniversary show, he sent me some singles, and had to find out how I'd missed hearing about his long running label. We talk about him recently quitting his 9-5, opening a recording studio, and learning things the DIY-hard-way from day one.
Brad's put out a bunch of singles recently because vinyl rules, but still believes in keeping things available on the interweb and itunes because we aren't all record nerds and it's about the music dammit!

I play an excerpt of his Chairs Missing single and the Goodbye Blue Monday/Comfortable For You split. All for sale over here at the L+C store.

Download the MP3 from this link here

And by the way, PIAPTK put those Wooden Wand / Catherine Irwin splits up for sale!

Comfortable For You / Goodbye Blue Monday on Loud and Clear Records

I got a chance to talk to Brad from Loud and Clear Records a little while back and should have an MP3 interview posted next week about running the label and pressing singles throughout their 10 year history, like this split single from 2004 from Comfortable for You and Goodbye Blue Monday. From the looks of things I'm guessing both of these San Diego based bands don't exist in these form anymore, but it's interesting to hear this kind of mathy hardcore coming out of San Diego around the time of At The Drive In and The Dismemberment Plan.

Comfortable For You kicked off the A-side with, "He plays in the key of bitchin'". This almost had me thinking it was going to be completely instrumental, all the mathy combinations of guitars, heavily split between channels, deep gutteral distortions.
Steve on one of those guitars and vocals has a really high register vocal, when he isn't sounding controlled, it's going for a losing control screech, sort of the exact opposite of that bass-y cookie monster vocal style....makes sense.
The guitars are driving whatever weird looped rhythm they feel like, leaving it up to the drums to try to ground this into somewhat of a regimented hardcore, they both end up nailing it and leave these guitars off on their own to create walls of distortion bursts and delicate fingerpicking, right into that verse melody. He's clearly going for a real tortured vocal, and almost playing with the delivery in the same way as both guitars, going for something that's equally as dynamic.

The B-Side is from Goodbyle Blue Monday "Pull the right strings" and Brad was right in thinking these guys were made for each other, it's a perfect split single marriage. If you were into one, you'd be a fan of the other. Their odd rhythm guitar melody gets worked right into a punishing massive beat, it's the same setup as CFY even... bass drums, two guitars, with different results within the genre. Everything drops out for a measure to focus on this guitar part, going from math right to a kind of emo sound
from 6 years ago now, when those two things were regularly colliding. This breakdown part has some crazy weird effect which gives the bass a chance to get slightly experimental. Eventually a distorted vocals kind of comes in Helmet style with that similar huge hitting sound, with more optimism, none of the doom and gloom of todays boom. How it sounds hopeful shouldn't make sense, but they pull this off. A refrain of the picked distortion and then silence. They've spent days trying to pull that off.

On clear red vinyl from Loud and Clear Records.