Radical Dads on Eau Records

I always respected Sam Martineau's idea at EAU Records of combining his 7" single releases with his art practice. He's always pushing the lowly single beyond simply handmade by screening every cover himself with a unique art piece in the 7x7 inch sleeve space. You could just pick this up for Sam's work regardless of the vinyl inside for a crazy deal on his work, but then you get a band like Radical Dads optimistic super indie pop, who I haven't had a chance before now to check out, and it gets downright embarrassing. Who do you think you are taking advantage of these guys?

"Creature Out" blasts into a high register swerving guitar melody with Lindsay Baker on vocals reminding me of my favorite pure indie, Dog Day or The Big Sleep's blasted layered indie rock. It's a melody driven percussion that bounces out from behind the tight echo lyric of pure crazy optimism. The two guitars rattling against each other in rough melodies creating this lower end without those perky bass guitars. It's a distilled powerful indie pop I always keep a special place for that I came across in The Shout Out Louds or back further in The Amps.
B-Side's "Slammer" opens with a forward acoustic and smother distortion while Lindsay again references the greatest female fronted pop, here coming off like a super charged Spinnanes until they hit this chorus which manages to elevate this into serious heights. It started out with nothing but a steady heavy beat, minimal reverb guitar and Lindsay's vocal. The massive plateau is about High fi's and Crystal Light? A nostalgic massive pop that reaches higher and higher, almost moving cynical creeps like me. Feeling impossibly planned but just loosely making this happen. You have to walk away feeling good when this finally spins down, I don't even have a real copy of this and can't stop rewinding the digital track on their site. They're determined not to let you walk away with anything but a goofy smile.

Radical Dad's are also appealing to your wallet over on their site as their 7" being a really smart investment. It's why anyone buys a single really.

Jason Frederick / Love Story In Blood Red on Eau Records

Sam Martineau has been combining his art practice with vinyl seven inches, something I am a huge fan of, using the sleeve space as a blank canvas for his collage work, individually composing each one. I think I found mine among the 300 or so examples on his site, and it's a cooler solution then printing them commercially, and fits perfectly with, in this case, Jason's own handmade recorded sound.

A-Side's "Ohio" starts out with applause that dies out into a thinly recorded hissy stormer. Lots of energy, with an overdubbed vocal in a Guided by Voices style... or like G. Green, he's doing everything himself on this one, playing it all in this bedroom/demo style. Jangly guitar, with a haggarded desparation, singing into an old telephone, with a tiny bit of garage feel, all the layers peaking into crash cymbals. I think this sort of energy makes more sense when it's all coming out in a dam breaking scenario like this. Why would you be quietly singing in the middle of the night into the 4-track? Unless you're completely beaten and at the end of your rope. But this is a release of a lot of bullshit... major therapy building to the eventual collapse drum solo freakout. Everything falls apart into more applause and a tv sample about livestock. Liner notes say this was recorded in Ohio, and I'm not sure it's casting a very nice light on the experience there in the end. Full of promise, built up expectations and then complete and utter destruction.

"Build You Up" features Jason with his full band project, Love Story in Blood Red. There's a crisp, pro sound on this side, getting the whole band in sharp focus this time. Plenty of backup vocals that he's managed to corral as opposed to that out of control demo sound. This '50s indie pop is a complicated number with everyone stepping in musically with their various parts, a solo here, breakaway from the main melody there. I'm interested in this clear version of events, this time full of that optimistic direction with everyone singing "build you up / don't wanna get you down" over and over. The piano's, rigid drums, and structed guitar all adds up to a jilty bouncing unassuming number, that's celebrating this person sincerely. You should be so lucky.

Handmade covers from Sam at Eau Records, various screens, handpainting and assembled collage elements in an edition of 500.

Harbor Lights / Ribs split single on Power Records

Sam Martineau actually ended up sending me a couple different sleeve versions of this single from Power Records along with a super nice handwritten note about both bands. I still think it's funny that singles are not only a nostalgic format, but they compel bands and labels to still actually write something with a pen and paper. You remember those? Arcade Fire's latest album is all about them.

It sounds like Sam was behind the initial concept to get these two bands together and produce one of a kind handmade original art for each sleeve, an endeavor I wonder if he has plans to continue, this being the first single of it's kind in this series. (?)
Harbor lights has the A-Side track, 'The Price is Right'. They play their 3 guitars to pretty epic heights in this power pop movement. Soaring multiple guitar melodies from the minute the needle hits the record. The layers and layers work in tandem like Copper Blue. The song is all climax, once it opens up, about 3 seconds in, it stays in this rapid fire mode with Robins layered vocals speeding along. They're pushing this complex track along without pause, guitars falling in and out of sync with each other creating one hell of an impenetrable melodic wall.
There's no chorus, it's one long verse, over before it began, but you still have to play it a few times to grasp on to those things that slipped through last time. The bridges and repetition.
Is there such a thing as math-pop?
The band Ribs on the B-side is a collection of guys from all over the midwest, from bands like the MEANS, Love story in Blood Red, White Hassle and Beat the Devil among others.
This track, A Red 1, has a kind of angular heavy hitting off rhythm blues inspired feel. Jason on lead vocals has a gravely Hamilton Leithauser from the Walkmen sounding delivery. The lead guitar here is pushing this great canned distortion through a metal barrel with the cone opposite the mic, working against a treble heavy jangle electric. Jason works out a super original melody over the loose funk time rhythm that separates other kinds of experiments in timing like this.

Sam's art that accompanies the record is heavy hand painted cardstock, I had to look closely, thinking it was some kind of adhesive tape. Right away when you pick this up you're aware that someone went to a lot of trouble to put this together. It's also maybe echoing the angular jagged directions, the precise sounds each of the bands are making. and upon closer inspection there's an awful lot of heart and hard work that goes into these cover pieces. Like Peter Halley's circuits or Aakash Nihalani's public tape work, it's a cool idea to put it all together in a form that I can appreciate: the 7" single.

Here's hoping Sam has another 500, hand made, hand numbered, hand labeled singles in him.

Check out a bunch of work and pick up this single from both of these bands over at Power Recordings

P.S.
Holy Christ, go read this much more informed 7" review by a real writer, Doug Mosurock at Still Single. Any band would be damn lucky to have praise from the man himself like this.