Big Surr on infinity Cat Records Econoline series

Got an email from Big Surr last week about their single coming out on Infinity Cat Records as part of their Econoline series. It seems like when it's summer you can't get enough of these steamy, layered laid back tracks for the slow drive around, windows down, everything in slow motion and if it's winter you want to just be reminded of those times when things weren't so freezing cold...this one wins either way pretty much.

Checked out the video for one of the tracks on this one, "Cosine, Tangent", first of all what gives them the idea to title this with big school math terms! We're out here in the sand living it up with bonfires and burying lobsters in the firepits or something, I don't care about those degrees and probability graphs...but the huge blur sound from Big Surr let's them get away with it somehow. Maybe just to remind you math can be useful when figure what a low rent price this from this Nashville label that brought you Natural Child, Jeff and the Brotherhood. "Cosine, Tangent" has those heavy delayed vocals echo-ing forever inside a giant smooth cavern. Massive chords played in slow motion, harmonies elevating the whole thing into the heavens, feedbacking waves fading in and out. Like a dirty, distortion hazed Real Estate, the melodies creep up on you and just get better and better. Extended, the song thankfully takes forever and they break the zone out with a serious insane solo to snap you out of the lull for a minute and separate them from the typical shoegaze track. Infinity Cat says:

Big Surr is a fun band made up of five bebes who like to eat pizza and ice cream.
We recently released our Baked + Bruised 7" through the Infinity Cat Econoline series. The overall vibes are '90s shoegazey beach vibes. The songs sound warm & huge and feel like you are either drowning in an endless, warm outerspace ocean; layin' around at the beach in a black&white tv screen; or hanging out at a hazy, slow-motion Ty Segall houseparty where the roof is about to explode because everyone is having too much fun inside.

Get it from Infinity Cat or the band direct, I love this series and this single is a great big one, for summertime or those fond memories.

Top 10 7 inches of 2011 with Darren from VOS

TOP

Darren, from Velocity of Sound and I talked about our top 7" picks for the year.
Spoiler Alert.

Darren:

10) Wilco - Dpm records

9) The Ketamines - Hozac records 

8) Fresh and Onlys - Sexbeat Records

7) Raw Blow - self released

6) The Boomgates - Smart Guy records

5) The Vivian Girls - Polyvinyl Records

4) The Lower Dens - Sub Pop

3) D Watusi - Cass Records

2) Diarrhea Planet - Infinity Cat

1) Tim Cohen - Captured Tracks

Jason:

10) Natural Child/Liquor Store split on Almost Ready Records

9) Snakeflower 2 - Southpaw Records

8) The Whines - Mt. St. Mtn. Records

7) Ty Segall - Drag City

6) Jeff Novak - Trouble in Mind

5) Real Numbers - Floridas Dying

4) Grass Widow - HLR Records

3) Art Museums - Dul-Ci-Tone Records

2) White Stripes - Third Man Records

1) Jay Reatard - Shattered Records

Now go listen to us play excerpts and defend our picks - download the show here (48mb).

Stay tuned for an upcoming TOP 30! with Styrofoam Drone as I reserve the right to completely change the entire list.

Natural Child - White Man's Burden on Infinity Cat Records

Ended up catching Liquor Store and Natural Child over the weekend at Union Pool for their split 7" release on Almost Ready...and I almost got one...

Guys let me give you some advice...if you see a split single of your dreams out there on the table and no one is there selling merch you have to WAIT...stand there all night, because when you come back after a set or two, they're going to be sold out. If you have to physically pick it up with your bare hands and just stand there holding it like an idiot...then YOU DO IT. I learned my lesson when Seth told me they sold the last two on the table. What a sad beginning of Halloween. Very scary.

But the show was awesome, Liquor Store, yea buddied all kinds of punk, got to hang out with a bunch of good friends and Natural Child are so damn fun live with that classic rock stoner massive groove sound, they're just fun to watch. Having the best time, fucking around with the lyrics, changing them to Monster Mash, and just the sweet southern harmony from this sludge blues. I don't care who's done it before them, no one has ever taken it as not seriously as these three. Don't miss them, they will win you over by being simultaneously nice and out of their minds in the best way.

That's why the photo on the sleeve of the single I did end up picking up last night is so perfect. They genuinely want to hang out together and have the best attitude on stage. Liquor Store and Natural Child seem to go about writing the same way, take primal, hilarious points of view, in Liquor Store's case, it's with more of a hardcore punk sound about being an American man or eating a trash sandwich, while Natural Child sings a lot about weed and getting 'strange'... but they don't ever sound like they're selling it. On paper they're both impossible.

This single is green marble vinyl from Infinity Cat, who Billboard Magazine just named the 10th best indie label! I mean Billboard Magazine? That's like Nirvana winning a grammy....completely irrelevant, but still crazy that some big dumb institution like that actually noticed something like these guys....now that I think about it, it's kind of scary.

I thought the A-Side to this one "White Man's Burden", might be an alternate version of "White People" from 1971 but no... it's another take on the tongue in cheek idea of what exactly are white dudes blues?... surely some kind of oxymoron to begin with and maybe that's why they have the blues in the first place? Their lack of actual problems? It's sort of this ridiculous feel-bad-for-me track that's also saying they know exactly how dumb that sounds, but it can still rock as long and deep as Thin Lizzy.

The B-Side's " Ray Thompson's Blues" is another less than serious blues track about wanting to be in Miami, drunk on the beach, quitting your job, proving your girlfriend wrong with a pocketful of weed....see what I mean, these are troubles that more responsible people would be pissed off about, but it's up to guys like this to sincerely not give a fuck and make you love them for it. It comes off as an adult Beach Boys, the alternate Stones verision of the Jacuzzi Boys. Dreaming of the beach instead of sounding like one.

"Bang my Head" can't help but sound like 'Do wah ditty" to me, that rhythm and even melody keeps popping in my head, but the harmony lyric delivery from Seth and Wes thankfully takes it somewhere else, the way they're yelling to each other. I forget half of their songs, and it's like I'm hearing them for the first time again but I still catch every ridiculous honest truth:

"I can live my life like a maniac." ...or be forced to have sex with someone you didn't want to have sex with or smoke crack....all of which they make sound pretty funny...definitely guys.

Oh shit, but both of their singles on Infinity Cat are actually sold out! Or are they? No surprise there I guess. Go see them and get these from the merch table AFTER you grabbed them and waited patiently. That's your burden...those are your blues.

I'm so sad for you.

Write a freaking song about it.

Diarrhea Planet on Infinity Cat

Just found out about this single from Diarrhea Planet today from Infinity Cat Records, looks like it's part of their "Econoline series", this being the second release. Like an old crappy touring van, Diarrhea Planet is rolling into town with 3 new tracks on this one.
Of course they are from Nashville...which is just an out of control epicenter of bands and labels.
I think Ryan brought this band to my attention originally knowing how much I love crazy band names...but they are so much more than just a back of the school bus insult. The visual that comes to mind is priceless...a planet of diarrhea? Steer clear.
They remind me of seeing Natural Child, another artist on Infinity Cat's roster, who similarly rocked the hell out of Bruar Falls, with punk rock garage energy, catchy and reckless songs...it takes a lot for a band to win you over cold like that. They were having a great time and took the crowd along for the ride. Diarrhea Planet is also going to make that wet river of rock come out all at once. You feel drained, but in the end it's for the best, you are going to heal...drink a lot of water, or electrolytes. Pediasure.

I'm still listening to ALOHA!, these slop rock anthems never seem to get old and I can turn to them at any time to sing out loud quietly at my desk...'partied the shit out of myself'. Have fun, let's make a plan to not always listen to serious music ok guys?

The series and this single is strictly limited to 350 copies.

I also learned it's very hard to spell diarrhea, I have to sound it out in my head and that cracks me up.
I like small records.
I am five.

Pujol Preorder on Velocity of Sound Records

I'll admit it, I knew about this one for a little while and actually was afraid I was hinting at it a little too obviously, but Velocity of Sound has officially given the OK for preorders for this new Pujol 45. They really weren't kidding about him releasing the most singles this year.
Why not? 2009 was year of the Segall, and I still can't get enough of that screeching punk pop distortion, same goes for Useless Eaters, when you've opened the floodgates like this, it's all coming out, get it pressed already.

Tracklist:
A Side: ANGELBABY
B Side: OVER THE COUNTER CULTURE JAM

"ANGELBABY", from the up coming Infinity Cat release, "X File On Main St.", takes a super gritty, blues direction to the garage. It starts off with what sounds like a live excerpt from a show, talking on the mic before Pujol hijacks a bassline stripped out of an old funk 45. There's a lot of soul to his mini breakdown, James Brown style. Whispering - 'Just wash my feet'. If you listen closely is he actually saying 'spread your legs' instead of wings? Is there a definitive answer in the gutter of the vinyl to shed some light on this homophonic dilemma? Well, sort of.
I just realized this track is just a bassline and kick ass percussion groove, an attack of handclaps, tambourine... metal slaps. It's just minimal and you have to not only have a presence and confidence but talent to will a song out of nothing like this.
What has he done to this raw place on a handful of singles? How is he getting this authentic? Whatever the history, Pujol is dusting off some old things that still work, and calling them better than new.
There's a babies crying or laughing recording that subtly works in behind the layers of backup vocals as the song starts to trail off. It's a bizarre arrangement for classic rock-blues and it's impressively simple to bring them together, but then that's the whole trick.

The tight, wet reverb (that's totally inappropriate, blame Pujol) on 'OVER THE COUNTER CULTURE JAM' is taking his sound over to the West Coast for a side, or does this one owe more to that Southern Blue Moon of Kentucky picking? You wouldn't know this otherwise as Pujol, the recording itself is a raw garage sound, and it's exclusive to the VOS single. It's a little window into his process, the kind of artifact that's only going to exist on this B-side. Was this destined to never end up officially released until now? Are there pieces of this in extended tracks on X-File...? Did they lose the vocal track?

These two sleeves will also keep you guessing. Is that Pujol surfing on the top of that van above? Or is Pujol on the Evil Weevil sleeve? Then, who is that other guy? What were they doing on top of a van? Is that pizza? And what is a black and white swirl vinyl going to look like? Is that code for grey?

Go try to get some answers from Velocity of Sound....or at least the single.