Preview of Palmist Records split series!

Been meaning to check out at least one of these split 12"'s from Palmist Records, Fatcat Records sister label specializing in these exclusive tracks from a lot of really great bands. A great cohesive package, down to the Trouble in Mind style sleeves, of splits from the very inception. I appreciate a label like Mississippi Records that comes out of the gate from the first release with a look like this and then curating a particular bunch of sounds the whole way...

First up is their US Girls/Slim Twig split, The US Girls on the preview track sound like they're going all out on that Shangri-La sound, heavy reverb on the layered harmony vocals with tambourine all shrouded in this spooky haze. Slim Twig is a solo project that recently has evolved into this live incarnation, rooted similarly in a psyche organ sound with Slim's vibrato bass vocal, a very weird carnival ride.

Palmist says united them on this split goes even further:
each artist's participates in the other's side; Slim Twig co-produced and recorded Remy's side, while the U.S. Girl lent her pipes to Twig's 'Priscilla'. 

Next up is a a couple of damaged sounding punk acts, The Bitches who are a London based guy/girl duo, drums and scuzzy bass coming together in a Nu Sensae edge of experimental sound way. A towering wall of fuzzy rhythm, one hell of a racket yelling back and forth, like Divorce. Played loud and packing a full length amount of tracks on one side. The flip side features Yuppies, who are taking me back to The Sediment Club's roomy vocal and post punk jagged riffing. All energy and off kilter sounds, falling apart completely punk.

Then they dropped this Whines/Burning Yellows preorder, a perfect combo.

They have five so far, all handnumbered in an edition of 500 and up for sale on the Palmist site, get ready for some overseas shipping, but I've seen these everywhere locally, Permanent Records in greenpoint has a selection of these, so they are definitely carried by the big US distro's stateside.

Jack Rose/Kurt Vile/U.S. Girls/Meg Baird-Meet The Philly Elite 7” on Kraak records

This sounds like a pretty amazing 4 way split from Kraak, a label based out of Belgium, apparently they had these four over for a festival and talked them into releasing all exclusive stuff to this single. Kurt Vile, alright, can't wait to hear what weirdo thing he's comitted to wax, U.S. Girls, more super weirdo punk and Jack Rose, can't get enought of his instrumental Fahey influence acoustic. I don't know Meg Baird, but she's from Philly, hence the comp name and must be equally interesting. Can't wait for this one.
I'm also just realizing that they are all from Philly...crazy, way to go PA.

So far I've seen this at Scratch records and Fusetron, kraak is sold out already and the other US distro link they have on their site wasn't working for me.

Kraak says:
Meet The Philly Elite | 7inch
MEG BAIRD/U.S. GIRLS/KURT VILE/JACK ROSE
KRAAK loves Philadelphia. In recent years Marshall Allen, Bardo Pond, Espers, Clockcleaner, Fern Knight and many other artists climbed the KRAAK stage. With some of them we developed a modern internet relationship. As if we were young lovers we decided to fly over to their side of the water for an evening of cheese steaks, Rocky Balboa and live music. On 6th July 2009 KRAAK set up a show at Kung Fu Necktie. The Flemish Primitives met the Philly Elite: Jack Rose, Meg Baird, Kurt Vile and U.S. Girls. To celebrate our love we also pressed this very awesome 7" with four exclusive tracks!
Master finger picker JACK ROSE is the mastodont of Philadelphia. His mix of drone infused raags, bluegrass and acoustic folk is as sweet as a crate of Saison Dupont. "mr. Rose visits Washington D.C" is a live improvisation from the first solo tour Jack did with Six Organs of Admittance and Fürsaxa. It's a raw piece dating from before his debut album.

KURT VILE's hit singles were the big surprise of the most recent Kraak festival. Classic American road pop and nineties melancholia. The dude likes his Duvel cold. "I Wanted Everything" is an amazing new song in the melodic Vile tradition, containing the lyrical one liner of the year "I ain't never going to go to work no more".

U.S. GIRLS is Megan Remy. With a reel-to-reel tapedeck, some delay and distorted vocals she became the Philadelphian queen of ultra lo-fi pop music. Sounds like tunnelvision Kinks after serious car accident caused by too much Orval. With "A day at the races" she delivers the shortest but most mind frying track on this 4-way split.

We never had MEG BAIRD solo on stage here, but we did admire her when she came around with her psych folk friends of Espers. On her own she's pretty much digging in the same zone: sixties folk, traditionals, hippy love and tea OD. "Wave crashed on rocks" is a cover of British eighties rock unit Felt.

Vivian Girls - new single=good...t-shirt=bad

Surf's Up fun pack? I know that looks like a joke, but check out their new site viviangirls.net. That site is new, and this 'fun pack' was just announced on the blog. It's a shirt, 7", postcards and button for $20.
I got news for the Vivian Girls...it's winter. This might be some kind of joke, and I'm not saying I might have some extra Christmas money but I don't want that crap fruit of the loom white shirt! Jesus. I hate those things, they fit like a box...and white! Forget it, the first time I eat it's going to be brown. I know I'm a t-shirt snob, but it's kind of like selling a beach towel and a frisbee...I want music! Although I might actually order that.
I'm just torn because it kind of seems like a waste. Environmentally it's not responsible. I guess I'm going to have to let that one go. Sad.
But I want to support them, and this $20 is going right in their pocket...I'll probably come around and let someone cooler than me wear it.
I remember posting about the US Girls with their latest single with the Beach Boys cover and thinking it was the Vivian Girls... looks like they had a single coming out with a Beach Boys cover as well. I wasn't that far off. The Beach Boys make perfect sense, the harmony's, the pop sensibility. There might be a little Brian Wilson in the experimental recording...but I never really saw their genius anyway. I know Pet Sounds is supposed to be amazing...and as I'm writing this I know I'll go listen to it again just to make sure....I doubt it every time.
Or it's just so commonplace now that I can't even hear how groundbreaking it was.
I still love when Vivian Girls come up, the punk harmony buried under a sea of distortion. It's pop in the way Times New Viking isn't. It's new and old at the same time.

Ok they got me, here's my Christmas money.

US Girls on Cherry burger

CBR-001 U.S. Girls Kankakee Memories EP

SIDE A: So Ladder Strong / Come See Lightly
SIDE B: O What A Nite / I Can Hear Music

I first saw this listed on the KDVS top 20 as being from the Vivian girls, so that's when I contacted Cherry burger to ask if they had a new Vivian Girls single coming out I didn't know about and they politely wrote back the artist they represent is US girls.
Ooops.
Then I saw this is at Academy and from SS records, so it most definitely has nothing to do with the Vivian Girls and more to do with the shitgaze sound. A severe mess of melody rising out of the murk.
The impression I got from the myspace tracks is the impressive amount of distortion...it's most likely synth but again it's hard to tell with the reverb/distortion/overmodulated sounds happening. The vocals kind of become another sound...words are chanted, sung out long to really get a crazy tone.
This is in the Dead Luke, Digital Leather, TV Ghost, Pocahaunted family of demented late at night seance computer ritual, 4 track recording glitch equipment...cans, metal microphones...nightmares of machines.
Perfect for a Monday morning...you're late to work, the coffee machine is broken, and you swear this is the day you quit.
Let US Girls help you.

$6.75 from Cherry Burger records

This is from Volcanic tongue:

US Girls
Kankakee Memories
Cherry Burger Records CBR-001

New four track EP from Megan Remy, with a bunch of tracks that confuse the late-night Suicide style of her Siltbreeze LP with a new-found – though still seriously malformed – pop aesthetic that would marry stomping Nancy & Lee-styled psych-pop with stomping one-drum rhythms, sheets of fuzz and a narcotic, basement atmosphere. Also features an inspired take on Phil Spector’s “I Can Hear Music” as made famous by The Beach Boys. Highly recommended.