The Dad on Unread Records

Unread Records may have moved their headquarters recently to Pittsburgh, PA but thankfully their aesthetic hasn't changed a bit since Christopher first contacted me back in 2006. Their packaging always reminded me of early Shrimper or Homestead Records handmade quality that’s still inspiring to me today. You could see in the Xerox sleeve and catalog inserts or the hand written center labels that putting out your own singles was a really personal act. Unread sent in this single from The Dad, out of Omaha, Nebraska and it also recalls those home recorded late ‘90s sounds from those labels as well with a combination of off the rails garage and ramshackle punk in three tracks that held it together long enough for two sides of basement pop.

A-Side’s “7 A.M.” opens with a scuzzy bass setting the tempo of punk speed and before you know it they've built up a rickety, layered racket in the best kind of Yips way, different than just garage because they’re make sure things have that deliberate out of tune edge. It's home recorded and personally hand crafted while ignoring the typical sad bastard sound. No one’s feeling sorry for themselves in the cement block, bare bulb basement. It’s as if Mad Nanna were going more of a pop sound, less experimental or psych. There’s no time for self reflection here, they just can’t hold anything back, the layers piled on in dense melodies. They have an informal edge with off tempo manic punk vocals that keep this from ever getting too tight or together. I got to hand it to these guys, its exactly the kind of thing that straddles the line of garage without being laid back and post-punk frantic, jagged timings, pushing things right up to that edge. "Second Best Friends" blasts spastic organ and echo yelling reverb in this jangly jam. This sloppy, taped together sound and psych organ has something to do with the Johnny Ill Band if they were handled by Mike Rep. This second track is reinforcing their unusual rhythms in both of these tracks, a jagged spazzy pop sound that you couldn’t get any other way. It’s the same reason I love Times New Viking and Home Blitz, the way the recording captures their crazy ecstasy of playing.

B-Side’s "Getting Worse" has a sharp electric melody kick this off in a slower tempo. Rehearsal space gold of inspired delivery that wouldn’t reach these heights if you were taking things too seriously, they have their shit together, what could sound like apathy is spontaneity. Their riffs are jagged and tight exploding in muddy, treble spiked pop, the chorus on this particularly delivers like G. Green’s damaged pop.

Get it from Unread Records. I can't say enough about the really unique things Christopher has brought to my attention over the years. His catalog continues to expand with gems like this getting more essential.

Will Simmons - Rain Tonight EP on Unread Records

Here's another single from Will Simmons on long-running, Unread records. I think some of the first singles I got over four years ago were from Chris at Unread there and they have since completely inspired me to be able to press singles myself. A label can be this unpretentious, this sincere with no ulterior motive but to press stuff he was into for his friends and getting great artists out there into the world. That's why he's still around years later while I'm just writing about them.
I'm all talk, obviously.

'Rain Tonight', the first track on the A-Sid inevitably sounds like The Minks I was just listening to all afternoon probably in that same minimal way, how the notes are held forever. Also sounds like a Gold Robot single from Roman Ruins vocally, emotionally and physically close, a (Smog) feel...the slow songwriting school.
'Most Office Theme' I want to hear more of right away. I love the diversity of the 7" EP but then the one you really like it far too short, the on,y down side. Layers of plucked chords, their harmonies... this might be my favorite track, so many inspiring ideas here in less than a minute.
I love to hear a raw experimentation like, 'Chase Scene' which would be another sketch if it weren't for the brass section orchestration. The sparse, live room drum sounds with a back and forth of utilitarian guitar and bass against the frantic rim shot beat is at the perfect place, way more planning than a jam but not overdeveloped. Slow building horns over a little bit of a menacing tune.

This 5 the 2011 7" vinyl equivalent of an old '90s Sebadoh tape. You don't know what's coming next...it's not concerned with coherency or an overall concept. It's showing off just a little bit maybe, getting off on this genre jumping. Who doesn't have these pieces without a home lying around forgotten in the depths of shoe boxes full of cassettes. Sometimes the only way to exorcise those ideas is to put 6 minutes on two sides of a seven inch.
The liner notes, as you would expect are as massive as the track list. Really extensive notes from Will and a writer friend of his.I get off especially on reading these two takes on each track. I, of course can relate to taking every song seriously and spending time with them as their own entities - the weird paths they take. I'd love to see more of this, the combination of my two favorite things, listening to music and reading about it. You know how many albums I've come to love through appreciating someone else's experience of the artist?

Will Simmons strength is listening to what the song is telling him, what direction any particular piece needs to go because he can execute all of it. The slight flamenco of 'Tiptoe on Tiles' to the pop 4 track of 'Blue Blonde' to cheap Casiotone beats under sweet reverb on 'Spy theme'. Which is channeling instrumental suspense music so familiar I know it's been used somewhere. Beyond just genre is his willingness to experiment with tones...I think he's got a steel drum or is that a synth. He's taking chances, transforming the lowly everyday sounds into complex compositions. I respect the process of elevating these sounds to something else. This process leads to the best kind of music. The self-made music that handicaps itself from the beginning because whatever success you find at the end is going to be based on your talent putting it together. You won't be fooling yourself, hitting on a few lucky chords recorded on a terrible tape payer so people mistake the production quality and energy for talent.

Get it from Unread Records.

pittsburg has more then three rivers flowing through it. will simmons breathes in and out the tainted oxygen, rubs the rust from the steel strings, and lets another batch of tunes take hold. even though these songs were recorded over the past (how long has it been? ie: see catalog number) half dozen years, and it has been a good decade or so since the last proper simmons release, these two sides go down smooth...and keep you guessing as to what exactly has passed you by? here we see seven short snippets that glimpse as much into the past as they do towards the future. will has always had a knack for grasping the "tone" and this disc is not short on tone. you get haunting beauty. wispered melody. long drives into the early morning fog. oh - and an instant classic quirky pop song or two. limited to an initial pressing of 100 copies in silkscreened sleeves. includes digital download.

"rain, tonight"
"most office theme"
"chase scene"

"tiptoed on tiles"
"blue blonde"
"spy theme"
"loose boots"

Kids of the Atomic Age on Unread Records

Christopher at Unread has been pressing singles and releasing cassettes for way longer than I've been seriously writing about singles. He has an extensive back catalog and keeps surprising me with releases from all kinds of bands... like this lathe cut from Kids of the Atomic Age, which Christopher was/is a member...I don't see him listed in the liner notes but I know he'll be joining them on a live tour soon enough, and hopefully they make it to Brooklyn.
The sleeve is silk screened art from Chris; a couple of kids coming together, drunk and singing with a messy typewriter font. It's super nostalgic...the whole thing could be from the late 90's and this was at the bottom of that pile...I guess it's timeless in that way.
This kind of one man 4-track project is always going to exist. It's not about the technology anymore, but the immediacy of capturing these really personal moments. It's a little voyeuristic, and anyone can relate to self doubt and substance abuse.
Then there's the elusive lathe cut...if there is anything more precious than a seven inch, it's the handcrafted lathe cut single. This one is not only clear but super thick, square on the edge even, and the needle can sometimes slide into the side of the groove somehow and give the whole thing an entirely different texture.
The A-Side 'Winter Nights', reminds me of the early home recorded stuff from John Davis, or Calvin Johnson, it's the late night, alone in the bedroom, barely able to lay the vocal track down. It's even Connor Oberst, so confessional and autobiographical in obscure lyric ways that I'm straining to hear, feeling a little bit bad spying on that couple out the back window, fighting in their apartment. I know their happy sometimes.
Slow tempo bassline with minimal drum machine, echo on a xylophone, with layered high earnest vocals... it's the kind of thing that takes courage, people are actually going to hear this after all...hell, you might even have to play with that macho garage punk band setting their cymbals on fire that just got off stage. It takes just as much balls to perform this sentiment.

The second track Pen Pal Antics, sounds a little more upbeat...it's starting a brand new day, throwing away a bad report card. The chorus of voices intermingles with the crackly imperfections and dropouts of the lathe cut, and you're sure just one more play through and it's going to disintegrate. It really adds to the whole mood of this piece. It's a fleeting document, loose diary pages blew off the windowsill and are out in the street.
The B-Side, 'There is no help for you': Bryon has that teenage quality to his voice, that Cap'n Jazz pure emotional delivery....or Sunny Day Real Estate when I wouldn't ever think that it's going to work, but then of course it does better than anything. It has to. There's no pretense to it, not trying to sound like anything else. He uses it to the best of anything on A collection of Songs recorded 1995-1997.
The instrumentation here is way off in the background, the focus is always on the vocals and the content, telling the sweetly pathetic story and from under the hiss of a handcut single, it's the reason seven inches are still great, how it reminds me of pawing through new Sebadoh and Palace singles and then you take a chance on that green sleeve, Needle in the Hay and it doesn't leave the turntable for days.
...and I don't even want to be in this place, crying into my beer. Like two people on the subway reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and not even noticing each other. But it's too late, the kids can't help it.

Get it from Unread Records. If you're into the even more obscure cassette tape format, KOTAA and Chris have got some releases for you. If you this sounds good on 7", it has to get even better on the tiny reel to reel's.

the kids of the atomic age monkier was originally used for the collective songwriting output of a group of friends who randomly recorded sporadic nonsense in the drunken confines of one "members" parents basement. since the early 90s the name has been scrawled onto the labels of many a four track tape, but these days the "kid" has been "out there" and "doing it" with much more sincerity and gusto then the humble origins would have foretold. this new chapter finds bryon endocryn veering from the usual pop structure he has been traveling in over the past few years, as he gives forth three songs in heavy bass/keyboard mode. narry a guitar in sight...the result is honest, unwavering, and catchy as all hell. the new (old) twee? heartbreak and loss? brutal and uncompromising? you be the judge. limited to 50 hand cut lathe copies on clear vinyl, with stamped and silkscreened sleeve. this labor of love cost $10.

Ramon Speed - Effulgence and Alacrity EP on Unread Records

Ramon Speed grew up in Omaha around the same time as neighbors Simon Joyner and Conor Oberst. They must have crossed paths, the three of them, and I found a random few references here and there online, but it wasn't easy. I think it was a weird time for Omaha, let's face it.
But don't let the somber angel statue silkscreen on the cover throw you. Flip it over and there's a couple of skaters, laughing, carrying their boards to another warehouse skate spot. This EP carries the feeling and that connection between the classic universal statement indie and personal anti-production contemporary sound. It's got the best things about home recording from John Davis, Sebadoh, the rest of the unsung indie outsiders that reintroduced me to music on K Recs, Kill Rock Stars in 7" doses.
This single brought it all back, I'm excited about the whole scene, it's all worthy of consideration, it's the first thing I ever listened to, it took a huge amount of effort to finally make it to the turntable.
This sound is the indescribable thing that was Omaha, hell Saddle Creek then. Maybe it's a complete outsiders perspective of classic 90's indie Americana. The way music was being delivered was just changing and all these new voices sprang up...they were always there, but now they could finally get a real shot, on their own terms. Maybe being in middle America all of the pop culture got filtered down into an area separated by geography, with it's own inner narrative happening to come up with a completely new direction of indie. So it all gets more honest, more sincere. Or that's the only thing that still carries any currency after the 80's was this movement...music from your experience. Sort of along the lines of grunge even...reject the image....that was happening everywhere. If that had something to do with the alienation of suburbia then that was what's honest. I don't know if it was even recognized at the time, or if it took a few years to see the bare honesty of their musical statements.
It also sounds like the 13 years in between the good old days and this single haven't changed a thing, for me this could be Lync or Cap'n Jazz, the raw melodic impassioned indie that has to start off with a great rhythm. 'Amputee' has the odd time signature percussion, all flat sounding...It sounds like Ramon recorded all of this live, but there's a restraint that comes from keeping it down all those years at 2 AM upstairs, blankets on the walls. There's a definitive construction, it's been completely thought out, there's no room for free improv. For better or worse I know what I'm doing. the vocals have a little bit of phaser...he's not trying to be a vocalist, he has to be.
Then on '36,000 feet'....the combination of just off in the distance piano with those smacking drums....distorted guitar just on the surface, it's perfect. The drums have to be that way, you couldn't capture the immediacy of this if you wanted, it's one of those sincere happy accidents.
That's just the A-Side, which I listened to over and over this weekend, thinking about this one. Never even flipped it over.
This is a great single all around, 4 tracks at 33 1/3 that recaptured all of the beginnings of indie rock in a personal way.
It's great, I'll be tracking down earlier stuff.

Unread Records says:

ramon returns to form on four new cuts, after a lucky thirteen year hiatus. between 1994 and 1996 ramon speed released aproximately 60 songs from the not-always-so-safe confines of the home taping milieu, now nearly a vestige...these efforts were primarily memorialized by chris deden and simon joyners sing, eunuchs! as well as rob carmicheals catsup plate labels. there were also a smattering of compilation appearances along side such genre giants as : the mountain goats, lambchop, the bruces, etc. etc. these four songs dont necessarily pick up where ramon left off, but glow with the same bright light that made him so adored among so few...limited to 300 copies, in multi-colored screenprinted sleeves.

Lonnie Eugene Methe 'Hey Jack' on Unread Records

Chris, from the long running Unread Records sent his latest single from Lonnie Eugene Methe to the 7inches NY office and I'm grateful as always. Turns out he's got a bunch of limited edition lathe's coming out soon and a flexi disc/book series! I'm going to hopefully get him on the phone to talk about these upcoming releases and what he's been up to the past 5 years or so releasing whatever strikes him in Baltimore.

This recording just aches sadness from the needle drop. It's reflecting this hard hard winter most of the east coast is increasingly finding itself in these days. A premonition of what I'm sitting in, and just made it out of a few days ago.
Maybe it's the huge room piano sound, or just the mic catching a breath a little too close, not many people can get away with this kind of outpouring of emotion, but Lonnie pulls it off easily without any vocal or musical gimmicks. Stripped down songwriting...just good writing period. Thankfully the lyrics are reproduced on the reverse sleeve because he's got a knack for this heartbreaking narrative. It's laid out, not too cleverly, just simply in a way you wish you could.
In 'Calendar Work', lines about never ending time and physical work...in such a beautiful way. I think that's what can ultimately get you through the overwhelming sadness, is the simple arrangement, and sincerity. It has to be heard...you'll make it through. Like Bill Callahan, but in a higher vulnerable register, they are classic reminiscences of the mundane. It's not a grandiose statement of the state of things...it's a note on a napkin, a scratch on the wall of the bathroom. The everyday...and those are the things that can be the most illuminating.

Turns out a couple of years ago now Chris sent Outer Space Gamelan (a damn good site that I still miss) a cassette release from Methe and he had this light to shed on the mysterious performer:

The legend here is that Christopher Fischer moved into Lonnie Eugene Methe (of a band called Naturaliste - know em? I don't)'s old house and found a tape in the rafters of the house and persuaded Methe to let him release it.

'Wounds of Winter' has an extra layer of tape hiss, and pop, from a boombox or 4-Track in Omaha but when you capture something like this, none of that matters. It can't be duplicated, it's an imperfect snapshot and you fill in the rest of the blanks. The room he's in, the at a weather outside, if it's the middle of the night, or early morning...but it's far away from anything.

That's what kills me about Neon Indian or Dan Deacon etc, the weird forced feeling of fun. It could exist at party , in the background and it wouldn't bother me, in fact it would sound right at home...and live it creates a feel of having a good time...but I think that's what's suspect, the forced soundtrack to a party. I guess I don't feel like a one man party, so this doesn't ever get played at home when I want to study something, really let it sink in. It's a distraction and I think, I don't want to watch Die Hard again...where's the documentaries?

There's no better way to experience the intimacy of an acoustic personal project like this...just don't expect to feel better about anything when it's over.

Myth or not, I'm super glad this made it to 7 inch vinyl, the most intimate human scale format for just 5$ PPD from Chris at unreadrecords (at) hotmail.com.

Charlie McAlister on Unread / Tick Tock records

Christopher from Unread records sent me his latest release for review from Charlie McAlister. It looks like it's backed by a couple different labels, Unread being one of them. I have to admit I didn't know anything about this prolific homespun musician, until I started looking up his myspace, and that's where the ball unraveled. Apparently Charlie has released somewhere near 80 self released tapes on his own and small labels that he's seen come and go. I imagine he's the kind of guy that has been all over the country and seen every bar back room, pizza place, basement there is to play, and fought his way out of some of them.

A-Side "Carolina bi-product beach ball boogie" It sounds like we caught Charlie mid sentence talking about his feet (?) and then the track launches into spastic banjo/acoustic/washboard singing verse after verse of rapid fire lyrics in almost square dance style. It's going to take a few listens to work through even catching half the one liners in here. The percussion sounds like people working with whatever's laying around...beer boxes, trash cans, to keep up with this insane tempo folk madman.

I'm Freezing: The second track on the A-Side is mostly instrumental, Charlie creates this repetitive blues bassline with a distorted guitar soloing on top that repeats measure after measure. The song periodically cuts out and Charlie says 'I'm freezing' and 'It's cold in here'. At first I thought the tape stopped or he was messing with a loop of some kind. By the last breakdown he's groaning from the cold. And then the maddening little bassline is back, with more hooting and howling, to end Side A. I'm sure he was freezing out in some garage or barn and that's how this track started and they pressed record. I've been there, Charlie.

I don't love you anymore: The guitar has this really warm tube sound, and Charlie's yelling again either into something distorting his voice or the recording is just peaking out. There's at least 4 different strummed instruments coming together to create this carnival hootenanny. Maybe there's a Ukulele here? It's really perfect.
This has to be the best use of the trumpet sound on the SK-1, it actually works, only after repeated listens I'm realizing what that sound has to be.
As expected Charlie, as narrator, is really pissed off and gets more unrestrained as the song goes on. At the end it sounds like everyone simultaneously hitting the mic at once before the tape is stopped, and that's the homemade touch that makes me pay just a little more attention.

'Memories in the Rain' is a slow distorted drawling guitar melody that seems to get me everytime. At first Charlie's yelling off in the distance, probably at himself playing on the other 3 tracks. It's almost a sad kind of howl to just set the tone of this sincere bedroom middle of the night recording. When the main vocals start it's really up front, close to the mic. He has a kind of nasal Daniel Johnston voice, but there's some low end to his vocals here, as opposed to the typical metallic sounding distortion of the other ones. This has to be my favorite track...it's reminding me of the Mountain Goats, their home recorded feel stuff, it's spontaneous and couldn't exist any other way. It isn't too self conscious, it's not going for the obvious gag, the drums sound like cardboard boxes, it fades out with the sound of the rain.

Where does this fit into anything I've been listening to lately? Well, it really doesn't, Charlie is really out there in his own world, nearly outsider, but it seems like he's well adjusted to society enough to go on lengthy tours, and probably win over everyone he meets.

From Unread records:
Charlie Mcalister - "carolina bi-product" [seven inch] four new delicious cuts of classic mcalister strum and fuckery on pink platter.
span across and feel up some babes while square dancing on the beach. deal with the robot inside, and throw yourself out into the surf...only to drift away and rust up.
limited to 500 copies, with seven or so different hand screened covers, and co-released with : tick tock, doormat tx, borrowdeer, and carl.
A
"carolina bi-product beachball boogie"
"im freezing"
B
"i dont love you anymore"
"memories in the rain"

On Sardine colored vinyl...which is a kind of light purple. It plays at 33 and I'm pretty sure all the sleeves are hand silkscreened and different. Mine looks nothing like either of the ones pictured on Unread or Tick Tock.

It seems Unread has released several full lengths from Charlie in the past and at least one is still available, so you can get a double dose of Charlie who won't sound like anything else on your shelf.

Unread records • Split Park/A Boy Named Thor

I was contacted by Christopher from Unread records last week to say he come across 7inches and wanted to send me a few releases for possible review. I am so glad he did. I loved them all and I'm going to give them the individual review they deserve in the next couple of days.

Maybe he caught me with these recordings at the right time but it's the most optimistic stuff I have heard in a while. I think I was a little stuck in a noise/experimental rut, but these seven inches made me want to put the needle back at the beginning of the record and flip it over just one more time. They are pure pleasure. I wanted to hear that melody stuck in my head the next day. Nothing made me happier last night. I played right through all three he sent and took notes. This is great great stuff. Pretty much they all have been recorded at 33 1/3 and packed with tracks. These are all mini EP's and we briefly emailed back and forth about this seven inch possibility, how it's been used by some notable bands and taking full advantage of it. Don't leave any groove unfilled.
This stuff is for fans of home recorded, personal, challenging music. Like early smog records where I never knew what to expect.
The first seven inch I can't get off my record player is the split seven inch pictured above by Park and A Boy Named Thor. Recorded in Chicago in 2000 (at least the Park side) this is a great sample of both artists range, you can really get a sense of them with 3 tracks by each, more than enough to know to look for a full length somewhere.

I don't know a thing about twee, or that genre, I guess it might be classified as such. I just think if it's an interesting song....if the music is good it can be recorded on anything, the songs are good period. I guess if you are into that stuff then get it, but that's not a reason to buy anything in my book.

The first track from Park 'Scout' just immediately took me back to listening to sebadoh or beck for the first time and just realizing it was ok to get it all out, there are no mistakes...that way of working, the earnestness of it. It's impossible to get something to sound like this unless you choose to. The immediacy, trying to capture those temporary moments. I can hear this pouring out of Park all at once one night, staying up until it's finished. That just gets me, that freedom, a reminder of all the possibilities by just pressing play and record.

All I used to do was sit in my bedroom and mess around with the 4 track, this completely and successfully brings it all back. The doubled vocals, quiet keyboard track, overlapped lines from the chorus and microphone bumps....and the fact that I'm listening to it on a record player makes it even better. The second track 'Like she's addicted...' was recorded in a room full of pots and pans, pieces of metal, and he pulls out a likable melody and really interesting drum track out of that pile. There's pieces of sped up recordings, previous tracks under the cassette reel bleeding through at the end of the song. It's like this unearthed jem was saved from blowing in the wind on the side of the road, and thank Unread records for rewinding the tape back on the reel with a pencil and pressing a seven inch, complete with custom watercolor.

A Boy Named Thor, Jason Corace is on the B-side and right away there's a sample from 'Grey gardens' , Edith beale asking the maysles if she'll look ok dancing.
I thought it was playing somehow at 45 though, he's really messed with the pitch of the layers of vocal tracks and it sounds ween-esque. That's another band that completely blew my mind in high school right when you hi that age of really realizing there is a whole crazy world of amazing stuff you can;t even imagine. Everything hasn't been done, and you are a little humbled.
The second track 'Dance Party USA' is a slow echoey high pitch high school dance band song, that keeps changing beats devolving into a drum machine and then back to the live track. This goes from that scene with Michael J Fox trying to save his parents on the dance floor to some kind of roadhouse scene. An instrumental number that even your grandma would love.

Bottom line I am checking out the entire catalog of Unread, and looking further into these bands.
Go now and get all available seven inches from Unread records they deserve every penny. I am jealous, it's hearing something like this, that makes me think I should get off the keyboard and go record something, or at least get someone good to record something and let me put out a seven inch for them.