Tripping the Light Fantastic on Cloudberry Records

There are those bands that can effortlessly come up with insanely catchy indie pop. It's a real gift, and the most rewarding for me still as a jaded, cynical listener to go back to The Softies, The Lilys, Bunnygrunt or hell Death Cab's Something About Airplanes, which I will still defend as some of the greatest late '90s indie pop. I'd debatably throw Sebadoh and all Lou's side projects from that period in there as well but not all of that stuff is pop gold. This single from Tripping the Light Fantastic is going to find itself next to all of that solid indie rock that I will turn to when nothing else is going to get me through.

That jangle guitar comes on strong on A-Side's "Heavy Heart" with the experimental indie production of those classic twee sounds I'm a sucker for. From the C86 tape all the way to Belle and Sebastian. It's reminding me of all the super crafted pop from musicians who just want to create the most optimistic tunes with all the seriousness in the world. It also reminds me that that Sundays record and The Unicorns is impossibly expensive. It's why those teen movies can still get to me like Adventureland, relationships are complicated and maybe it's just that first idea of really wanting to be with someone that's hard to shake. Dear diary this poppy stuff takes me right to that place, I can't even take apart the music, but I'm hearing some of those Softies melodies if they expanded their sound with bass lines and alternate backup harmonies. Maybe Dog Day comes close to this explosion of pop…or Bearsuit. There's just an unexpected enthusiasm for the act of creating that really comes across. It's inspiring but a little out of reach, the lyrical content here is about being a little depressed and carrying that weight around of the past but I'm sorry guys all I can hear is naive pop joy.

On B-Side's "The Postcard" these guys are making me realize too that there's been an incredible void where Death Cab used to be - Something About Airplanes will not be ruined no matter what they've done since. Tripping the Light doesn't compose in that experimental shoegaze but a similar concise minimal sound where every note really counts, the effects are carefully deliberated on and used sparingly in a bursting at the seams way it's no wonder these last measures want to continue on forever. I don't get a hint of irony from these guys, it's also making me rethink 'artisinal' or 'small batch' catch phrases. I can't give a lot of shit to local businesses making really good products. Are these guys doing something wrong because they don't like in some dripping blood death metal world? Anyone shitting on this is a heartless ghoul robot. For the rest of us there's this fantastic single from Tripping the Light Fantastic.

Get this from Cloudberry Records in Astoria (!)

Tripping the Light Fantastic / Honeyheads split on Dufflecoat Records

I'm a little obsessed with how a physical place can affect or influence a sound, especially since these days it really shouldn't. The two bands on this split single from Dufflecoat Records are definitely more than friendly and give you some idea of what the indie pop scene in Hamburg, Germany must be like. Like the Shout Out Louds or Love is All I want to think they arrive at these unique approaches thanks to their own specific culture and place. As much as they're influenced by the same things as the rest of the world, it's viewed through a different lens and results in combinations like this.

Tripping the Light Fantastic open with "Neon Ant Colony" who's bleeps and warbled sheets of aluminum turn into a bouncy jangle guitar reminding me of Ski Patrol or The Drums. There's some kind of warble or slight wavering to the vocal... a processing that has to have been added after the fact. Organs blaring away under these guitar chords and big vocal choruses giving this a huge pop reach that ends up with the Polyphonic Spree meeting Chrissy Hynde on top of a ferris wheel looking down at the song title in question. It's unbelievably chippy so intent on getting as shiny as possible with a Clap Your Hands authenticity, hitting on this sequence of happy chords that could go round and round forever. A spectral distorted guitar on "Lover Not A Fighter" runs right into a new wave sound that can be so optimistic, they really get into the production of these tracks, like The Annuals or a little like the Magnetic Fields throwing anything that will stick; weird phasers and layers of room effects on to end up in a new pop place and when it's done like this it honestly makes sense. If you're going to rely on those effects then use them to their fullest and in a way that doesn't try to hide what they are. Expose the process, whats going on behind this curtain? That's what makes it all the more amazing.

The Double AA side (these guys aint no B-side material!) from Honeyheads, "Funeral Joe" comes out with a talking heads pop nervous weirdness combined with an island, tropical sound. Toms and odd rhythms against that high twinkly treble electric challenging the fact it all fits together with a crazy attitude and clear vision. This side has me even more thinking about The Drums or Tennis. This screamy distorted guitar is a bizarre metal way to end this but they just about get away with it. "Song of Sealed Lips" introduces a new vocalist (I think) and a fast tom rhythm in a sort of pop Siouxsie track. Off kilter enough to be another movement of the first track, this could be a duet, or a response to funeral joe galloping along, effortless in arrangement, there's nothing on the surface or plugged in to make this ever seem like it could get so big. Exuberant pop like the A-Side, they hit on gleaming chords and line them to up so when the light hits them it's a prism. Or given the right angle and distance leaves catch fire...or the ants in that colony.

Pick this up import from Dufflecoat Records and get more from both bands thanks to Jigsaw Records who are regularly importing the stuff.