Podcast episode 23 - Post RSD

Darren kicks things off talking about his latest release from Shockwave Riderz, with tips for this crazy splatter pressing. Pitchfork covered it here.

New Ty single on Drag City - (Thanks @rockyshane on twitter)

3RD MAN Vault Vs. Insound - who's selling the exclusive Vault pressing? What happens to poor saps like Darren who already ordered the Vault version from Insound?

The LP for Third Man Records' Vault package #20 will be the ONLY limited version of JACK WHITE'S NEW ALBUM LAZARETTO to be released. Pressed on split-color blue-and-white vinyl and coupled with exclusive album art, this alternate presentation of the album is both insightful and deserving. Also exclusive to the Vault is a fold-out poster accompanying the album, featuring a classic National Archives photo that serves as a recurrent image throughout the album art.

We talked about Conor Oberst's new record on Nonesuch and his Record Store day single. A couple of new ones from Mt. St. Mtn.: Burnt Ones & The Mallard.

Crazy pressings of Thee Oh Sees and Dylan Shearer from Castleface and Empty Cellar.

Darren's pick is Satellite of Love various artists single.

Jason's pick is Darren's Shockwave Riderz single.

Podcast Episode 21 - news news news

Tiny record chat, this week, Neutral Milk Hotel show blues, Warm soda pentacolor!, new mammoth cave, Simply Saucer - Bullet Proof Nothing 7", PIAPTK offshoot label first release - Eric Slick's "Out of Habit" from Solid Gold, New Real Estate single on Domino, new Death single on drag city, Hussy/digital leather split, SISYPHUS! (aka Serengeti, Son Lux, & Sufjan Stevens) & Hew Time on Joyful Noise

Shockwave Riderz are coming from Darren's VELOCITY OF SOUND


Get the episode HERE

New podcast is up - Episode 6

The 7inches podcast (episode 6) - itunes feed here

Your up to the minute seven inch news coverage for the tristate area. 

This week we cover:
The great Drag City, Ty Segall, Gemini debacle of 2013.

Post by Drag City Records.

The roundtable review of Gemini from The Firenote, The Polyvinyl 4-track seven inch club?!!!!!, The WFMU Record fair and the new Rough Trade shop in Williamsburg.

Darren’s pick for the week is the Mud City Manglers on Mind Cure Records - great record store releasing a new single from a new Pittsburg band every month.

Jason’s pick for the week is the new Minks record on Captured Tracks, Tides End and has trouble explaining why he's completely loving it.

The seven inches hotline is free for scared singles: (347)770-1469
Leave a message about the show and 7" singles we should check out.

Check out Darren’s releases over at Velocity of sound.

Sophia Knapp on Drag City

Sophia Knapp's solo debut single on Drag City stems from her full length work with Lights...sorry, Cliffie Swan in that she's still drawing on very classic songwriting from across genres. At times it reminds you of '70s Fleetwood Mac all the way to Beach House and the ethereal sound that they conjured out of a cloud of swirling melody.

The A-Side's title track, 'Nothing to Lose' features Sophia's high register layered vocal over quiet tremolo electric and organ? or synth. They're both so quiet weaving in and out of each other's melodies, at this low backup volume, their indistinguishable. Sophia has a ridiculous, natural voice and with no effects whatsoever it deserves to be front and center like this. I can't help but keep comparing this to Victoria Legrand's way of creating a melody independently from the instrumentation. They both aren't relying on anything to drive the vocal. They never echo a chord progression. Give Sophia the slightest strum of a chord, barely a hint at an organ hum and she continues right along with a focused distinct solo performance.

Smartly the instrumentation shows huge restraint and almost becomes psychedelic in it's meandering off on it's own, improvising within the bare melody and providing the skeleton for Sophia's talent. The understated foundation follows into the chorus, keeping this vaseline on the lens fog. To be honest, I'm not even unpacking the vocal content at all, still after a bunch of listens I get caught up in just listening to voice and what has to be a testament to this trance; I keep forgetting to really pay attention to her imagery.


The Side B is a remix by Caroline Polachek of Chairlift who emphasizes a more electronic slant, with a heavy wave bassline with more texture in the percussion hits but remaining focused on Sophia's breathy vocals. It's a natural collaboration, Chairlift's understated electronica and Sophia's powerful vocal. This remix squarely places it in a contemporary place, the psyche and '70s making way for the fade of an envelope filter.


Get it from the great Drag City Records.

Trash Humpers 7" Soundtrack on Drag City

I saw that Drag City was releasing this single from the Trash Humpers, which would have been a great name of a band, and who I searched for online for a while before realizing, 'Yes this single actually the soundtrack from that movie 'Trash Humpers' by Harmony Korine.' I'm a genius.
Couldn't find samples of this anywhere, he's got a myspace and collaborates with one of the guys from Gang Gang Dance as some side project, but there's no audio up at all.
This guy is a piece of work, you hate him or...probably just think he's ok, and of course he's fine with that. He tries to be controversial, or probably he can't help but be his druggo/weirdo self...but parts of it seem like kind of an act.
I buy that he makes movies that are for better or worse completely his own, that you are in for a specific experience as a viewer, maybe a little frustrating at times but it's a fuck hell of a lot better than the A-Team. Who needs a linear narrative story?

I think he's maybe fucking with interviewers when he said:

"I was staying in the Shibuya District. I had really gotten into eating a special kind of blowfish. I think at some point I had a reaction to the blowfish. I was staying in the hotel room for days on end. I was smoking this kind of amphetamine that was getting me excited about life. I was hanging out with these transvestite karaoke performers. We would just stay inside the hotel. I would take pictures off of these monitors that I had. At that point in my life, I had read all of these books on Pentecostal preachers and people who were building up tolerances to strychnine. I guess in that state, I had thought that I should start building up a tolerance to Clorox bleach."

Either that or he is that much of a douche. I mean that quote comes from someone who would be such an annoying fucking pretentious dick...But he wants to be an asshole and generally piss people off, he's made a career of it. I want to think there's more to it than just that, and that kind of media whore is obvious. But I kind of imagine he was the character from Lost in Translation, but I guess that was Spike Jonze? They must be buddies...
If this single is solo Harmony then good on him, it's going to definitely be weirdo, let's hope in a good way. It just might be the first entire movie soundtrack on a single I know of and then he'll smear it with his fake shit and signature...so if the sounds suck, there's always DNA.

The track listing is very important as it's the only thing providing some clues as to where this is going:

Trash Torch Song Lullaby 1:21
Rumble :22
Night Time 1:16
Three Little Devils :50
Chitshit :49
Kitchen Strangulation 2:07
You Girls Juss Suck Large Fat Penis 5:06
Sweet Night :51
Sleep My Darlin 2:11

Handmade (and hand-filthed!) sleeves! Original soundtrack to the Major Motion Picture.
Limited copies signed (vandalized?) by director Harmony Korine.

Bonnie Prince Billy on Drag City

Will Oldham...it's been a while, I'm always curious to hear what direction you're going lately. I think it was a mistake to cover your own songs on 'Greatest', but really maybe you put this pressure on yourself to record constantly, so I could see where an idea would get away from you. Or maybe it was a really personal project and it turned into a full length. You've collaborated with tons of different people, it seems like you constantly push yourself and the sound. I even liked the electronic tracks you did a while back, just because I never expected you too. The Tortoise album, Mark Lannegan, that other one with the Icelandic vocalist. I wouldn't want to be the one trying to compile your discography.
Your latest (?) single is covers of Susuanna Wallumrod songs, never heard of her, but I'm sure she's got something. I heard you did a tour only single with her, were you covering each other on that one? Or was it a duet sort of thing...sorry I missed it. You both have pretty amazing voices that barely need any orchestration.
You seem to love 7" singles a little bit yourself. Do you ever have a hand in releasing them? I guess enough labels approach you and you must not turn anyone down. Or they go through your trash for tracks, and you're not following the tiny runs of Bonnie singles.
I guess you must have a full length coming out on Drag City soon, since they're putting this out. I wonder when the last time was you released a single with DC.
I remember I saw you at Tramps for the Drag City Review and you and your brother drank a bottle of Jack Daniels...the medium size ones. I worry about you sometimes, but I'm sure the road is hard, and there is a price to pay for every album and single.

"Stay" performed with Joshua Abrams, Jennifer Hutt, Emmett Kelly, Michael Zerang. Recorded by Neil Strauch with assist by Jake Westerman. "People Living" performed with Emmett Kelly and Cheyenne Mize. Recorded live by anonymous. Both songs by Susanna K. Wallumrød. - Drag City