Hoax Hunters / Snowy Owls - split Record Store Day release from Cherub Records

I'm torn about record store day this Saturday. On one hand I'm happy for smaller neighborhood record stores to get attention and customers in celebrating vinyl with limited releases from all kinds of labels. On the other hand for the regulars that come in every other day normally…it’s their worst nightmare. The lines will be around the block and once maximum capacity is allowed in at 9:01AM, they’ll grab everything, pushing and shoving, to flip it on ebay. It’s great for the store, they’ll probably do better than Christmas, but it seems like loyal customers are shut out in favor of speculators who could give a shit about the music. It’s a business after all, but it’s starting to feel like supermarket sweep, not a meeting of like-minded people who care about vinyl, they won’t have a chance of getting anything.
That could just be my experience in Brooklyn, the concentration of record nerds has reached a super saturation point and record store day is the tipping point. I want to think that in some smaller town you could walk in this Saturday and there might be a few more people than usual but this split lathe cut single from Cherub Records would be sitting on the shelf, waiting for you.
Photographer, PJ Sykes started Cherub Records back in 2001 with a focus on releasing records from friends in Virginia and in this case, his own Hoax Hunters project. Limited to 40 hand cut copies, the only way you’re going to be lucky enough to hear this is through the bandcamp link below (in a few days).

The Snowy Owls track “Kerfuffle” has a solid indie pop dense sound with big, lush vocals. It’s a Spacemen 3 style shoegaze with metallic plinky chords, lining up huge amounts of shakers, layers of distortion and near ghostly vocal. Perfectly in line with a late ‘90s shoegaze, the Lilys inspired early sound from A Brief History…Strong melodic lines that are solidly catchy pop while being thick in the fuzzy sonic department. With booming kick and tom, this type of music is inherently interested in an unbelievable amount of careful recording; it’s got to be difficult to not give in entirely to the process. It’s just as important to control this kind of chaos, that’s the exciting and the hard part. Don't even get these guys started about playing live, it’s a special nightmare to find the right level of punch for these layers to play nice. The grungy fuzz pauses and the melody plows in thick with toms and cathedral reverb tambourine hits. Their concocting a massive sound they keep pouring on over and over.

The Hoax Hunters side is after a big sound from a faster, harder place. PJ is fronting this one in an off the mic, almost hardcore inspired vocal that’s slightly distorted reminding me of Screaming Trees with that essential pop aesthetic but powering through huge chords and
gunning for the finish. This stays pop until the heavy echo breaks out on the lyric "Friction!" with the guitars dabbling in doom chords. They leap into this heavy, full throttle track, digging deep back to Space Needle, Varnaline or the tough Sebadoh track’s of Harmacy.

Lathe Cut Record Available Exclusively at Steady Sounds

Cherub Records is proud to announce Richmond’s Hoax Hunters and The Snowy Owls will team up for a split seven inch release in honor of Record Store Day on April 20, 2013. This limited edition release of 40 copies will be available in a “bronze smoke” square lathe cut record exclusively at Steady Sounds in Richmond. At least 10 copies will be distributed to other regional independent record stores starting Monday April 22nd and a standard digital only version of the single will be released on Tuesday April 23rd.

Hoax Hunters’ side features the tracks "Orbit [Don't Tell, Today] and "Color Coded" and The Snowy Owls contribute "Kerfuffle". Both bands will play at Steady Sounds on April 20, 2013 as part of the WRIR Record Store Day Crawl. Details on performances are available via WRIR’s website.

Hoax Hunters are fronted by PJ Sykes, best known for his music photography as seen in SPIN, Paste and on Merge Records releases. Bassist Tim Falen is the recording lead at WRIR and drummer in The Diamond Center. Drummer James O'Neill was formerly a member of seminal post-hardcore band Permanent.

Designer Matt Klimas, whose work includes posters for Superchunk, Protect All Families concert and Treasure Island Festival and is a member of The Low Branches, fronts The Snowy Owls. Bassist Allen Bergendahl is the recording engineer behind many Richmond bands as well as the Live At Ipanema series. Guitarist James Wingo also plays in Ghost Lotion and formerly was in Lubec with drummer Brandon Martin.

Both sides of this split were recorded by Allen Bergendahl with Tim Falen contributing mixing for a portion of the record.

Get the digital tracks from Cherub Records or if your really lucky, you can pick this up in a select few shops across the land in a few days.

Record Store Day 2011- Releases

Once again, record store day is coming, 3 weeks away on April 16th your local record store should have some new stuff. Just a quick note today to say the giant PDF list was just released of what's going to be out there, broken down by national releases and then regional exclusives and records that are part of Record Store day but may be released later also?
It's not a huge year for the singles, there's that Mastodon/ZZ Top split of course I have to hear, maybe a Wavves single? Probably won't make it this far northeast, and I've been meaning to check out Wild Flag.
I think the full lengths actually win this year with Tomboy, a Sonic Youth 12" exclusive for the day, another Ty Segall release, a Television live LP and Mississippi John Hurt re-release.

Anyway, I'll take any excuse to buy things because otherwise I'll never be able to hear them.

Go get the PDF and check it our for yourself.


Lower Dens "Deer Knives" b/w "Tangiers"
Mastodon/ZZ Top Just Got Paid
SonicYouth Whore's Moaning
The Dodos "So Cold"
Wild Flag "Future Crimes" b/w "Glass Tambourine"
CSC Funk Band A Troll's Soiree
Deerhunter Memory Boy
Segall, Ty Ty Rex
Panda Bear Tomboy
Wavves Thorns / TV Luv Song

Record Store Day? (bonus/fake out V2)

Here's the sad list of stuff available this friday on record store day... is this the third year?

The best thing is maybe the Iron and Wine 12", but I haven't been so into his stuff lately after that full length...the most ridiculous release is a reissue of a Sinatra xmas album.

Whoop de do.

I would even go out fo my way if there was another split with Stephen Merritt and Bono or something.

There used to be splits with Jay Reatard! Live Pavement LP's!

I know it isn't up to the people promoting this, and it usually gives me a reason to go pick something up, but really there's nothing...I'm a little sad the bigger indies didn't put out anything at all. How about Kurt Vile, Matador?

Unbunny - Record Store Day single on Parasol

Speaking of record store day, I just saw from Parasol distro in their email that they have a few releases in the works for presale for record store day. I don't know if these are going to actually make it into any stores physically or if it's just a thing they are doing? Anyway this one from Unbunny caught my eye, it's someone I've been meaning to check out.
I think I expected this to be more homemade, 4 track home stuff, but it's reminding me, probably because of the layered vocals, of Built to Spill their later stuff, or even straight up Neil Young. High vocals and that same clever, sad, storytelling, he's definitely a great lyricist. It borders on too specific sometimes, but I'm smiling, that's a good thing. Like 'REM Drummer' it's literally about being the drummer in REM, and how they weren't there for him when he needed them? Maybe he was at one point?
I'm clueless.
It's great these aren't available on anything else, that's a single for ya. I would pick this up if I saw it April 17th. He's playing at Death by Audio the day after.

Unbunny
Cellphone b/w Winning Streak *RSD* (PRE-ORDER: SALEABLE APRIL 17TH)
PS, US Parasol Records is celebrating Record Store Day (Saturday, April 17th) with a slew of limited singles. Unbunny offer up a two alt-version exclusives, the full band version of "Cellphone" and a slower, moodier version of "Winning Streak" (both songs will appear in different form on Unbunny's upcoming album Moon Food, available June 1st). Black wax in gold sleeves, limited to 300. Looks for more PLG/RSD singles by Common Loon, Cameron McGill & What Army, Mazes, Elsinore and New Ruins, all w/exclusive, non-album tracks.
ParasolRSD2010-003
45
$4.00

Record Store Day singles

Didn't want to post these listings yesterday unless you thought it was some april fools internet bs. Here's what I saw coming out on Record Store Day, April 17th I'll be looking out for, at least I'm not spending a ton...it's a little thin this year, but that crazy Stephen Merritt Peter Gabriel split is interesting, not sure I would ever think those two would be on a split together, and definitely going to pick up that Dum Dum Girls single as well.
No podcast this week, but me and a friend from High School, Travis have been listening to singles on skype, and I'll be putting that together in the coming weeks.
Happy Friday.

Bon Iver/Peter Gabriel "Come Talk To Me"/"Flume" Bon Iver and Peter Gabriel cover each other. Bon Iver track is EXCLUSIVE to this release 7" vinyl
Built To Spill "Water Sleepers/Linus & Lucy (Live)" new tracks 7" single
Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding Pay For Me/Before It's Gone 2 new tracks from LA's Dum Dum Girls and London's Male Bonding 7" vinyl
Elvis Costello and the Attractions Live at Hollywood High EP individually numbered 7" of three previously unreleased tracks 7" vinyl
Fucked Up Daytrotter Sessions Label version is released with 10 different covers, ADA has regular cover 7" vinyl
Julian Casablancas 11th Dimension (WXRP live recording) b/w "Long Island Blues" (previously unreleased) Strokes founder's exclusive RSD 7" 7" vinyl
Peter Gabriel/Stephen Merritt Split 7" single The Book of Love b/w Not One of Us 7" vinyl
Various Artists Fragments from a Work in Progress Unreleased tracks by Blonde Redhead, The Big Pink, Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink, Tune Yards 12" vinyl Various Artists (Entrance Band, Damien Jurado, Lou Barlow, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and more It Happened Here Musicians who came through Bloomington, IN featuring live performances, recordings fom Bloomington, etc. 12" vinyl bundled with 7" bonus Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Skeletons" Studio Version Side A; Exclusive Live version Side B 7" vinyl

Sonic Youth / Jay Reatard Split single - Record Store day

Just wanted to give another record store day single it's proper coverage today, this one the Jay Reatard / Sonik You*h split.

Sonic Youth' 'No Garage' is completely rehearsal space recorded. The bass notes rumble the snare. The high hat is unbalanced, the crashes flattened in the distance. But it's completely alive. The guitar leads a deep groove, that gets more minimal by the measure, until it's just bass and kick working together in time while Thurston wails. It's a roller coaster...the groove comes back and they immediately break it down again. The only vocals are Thurston just barely audibly yelling 1,2,3,4 to lead into the real disintegration, total freakout.
This is rumored to be a demo of 'Anti-orgasm' from their unreleased new album The Eternal, I'm hoping there's more of this raw sound like the 'Helen Lundeburg' track from Ripped. It's hearing them like this that I completely re-appreciate everything....like listening to a live show, to be able to spontaneously create this noise, and to hear the control they have over an amp and a guitar, looking back at their vast catalog, it just continues to get better and better.
The best part of course is in exploiting the format itself, the track spirals out into an endless loop of feedback that's easy to get lost in for a few minutes afterwords. It's a shame when eventually you have to pick up the needle. But I have to hear the new Jay Reatard after all.

Jay offers up 'Hang them all', which is right in line with Blood Visions. It's brief, the hook is over way before it should be.
A weird synth sound creeps in before it's power ballad Cars influenced. The most processed, gated guitar sounds that would sound ridiculous anywhere else.
The rhymes are obvious, it all sounds vaguely familiar, but he's a master creator of choruses, just pure genius, it's all forgotten. Harmonizing with himself, two snare hits on the beat are setting up the chords to pound it home again and I'm screaming along at the top of my lungs. He's going to make me look like a reatard listening to it utterly happy with myself. It's a small price to pay.
There is a weird break of a cappella 'oh un ah oh' which the guitar mirrors and the snare suddenly takes on a march beat. Jay shys away from the ballad, thank god, and this is as sensitive as I've heard him sound in this section.
Not to be predictable... the track ends with some kind of layered acoustic flamenco guitar.
But that's Jay's unique genius, to mix all this up and come up with the perfect power pop punk every time.

Beck / Sonic Youth split 7" - Record Store Day

So I heard about all these exclusive releases from Matador and all the email's from every record store announcing Record Store Day. I thought I might be missing out in NY...no one I checked with was a part of this except Permanent Records, thank god, where people were actually waiting outside the store for it to open. There were two boxes of brand new singles...everything I'd been hearing about, including this split single from Beck and sonic youth, or should I say Sonik You*h, covering each other.

Sonic Youth covers 'Pay No Mind', one of the classic Beck tracks from Mellow Gold. It starts out with their trademark looping distortion which changes when Kim Gordon's sultry whisper kicks in. She's backed by Thurston or Lee, I think, both giving their own melodic take on the stream of consciousness... a little out of sync and tune. The crunchy distortion changes key and then a slow tom beat finishes the chorus. Then the time signature completely changes, rounds of fast tom fills ending in piercing feedback and then they repeat the whole thing ending in a wave of reverb feedback. It's perfect Sonic Youth, their amazing take on this insanely recognizable song, that's almost impossible to separate from the original. Sonic Youth does it, and in a totally original way. Lyrically they even make complete deliberate sense. Not enough credit is given to Steve for ever providing the perfect rhythm, keeping everything always together, a little something to hold onto in Sonic Youth's world, keeping Thurston's experimentalism accessible, but unexpected as this cover illustrates perfectly.
It's amazing this was recorded 3 months ago in what must be their new digs in NJ.

Becks cover of 'Green Light' is pretty old school acoustic Beck, I don't recognize the original from EVOL, so he's doing a pretty good job making it his own as well. You can hear him sitting on a stool adjusting the acoustic, hitting it with a hollow thump. He's focused on the vocal delivery, singing it with all kinds of inflection, unlike Thurston's mumbled deadpan. He's actually got a great voice when he wants to. The melody line on an acoustic is accompanied by what I think is a harpsichord, lending a weird harmonic to the single string acoustic picks, giving it a Sonic Youth dissonance alongside beck's own slightly off stuttered strumming. I could use more of this, it's a throwback to the Pay No Mind days and brings it back around to replaying the B-side Sonic Youth cover. Actually they are both labeled B-side...even in the gutter.

These MP3's are ripped and out there already with a couple of google searches, so if you missed out, they are pretty easy to find.

This whole thing brings up something I'm torn about, all of this record store day stuff is on ebay of course, for way inflated prices...buy it now's for 29.99, 49.99. Hopefully not for sale from the record stores themselves, but they can't always on the up and up. I was tempted to pick up extra copies myself, but if I happened to be a little late and some asshole ahead of me had a stack of the same single I'd be pissed. I wasn't going to be that dick. At the same time maybe you are giving an opportunity for someone who couldn't make it to the store that day for whatever reason to get one, even if it is at an inflated price. I could imagine being sick or out of the country and being so glad to even come across a copy for sale on ebay. I just think you have to use some judgement. I just can't live with myself being such a son of a bitch opportunist. But if you are...well I can't fault that either. You went to the store, maybe waited in line, so sell it to someone who really want's it, and has no other way to get it.

It actually was briefly for sale on Becks merch site too, for about a minute.

In honor the 2nd annual Record Store Day, we’ll be releasing the following limited edition vinyl titles, only available at independent retailers taking part in RSD.

OLE-864-7 Jay Reatard “Hang Them All” 7″ b/w Sonic Youth - “No Garage”
OLE-865-7 Sonic Youth - “Pay No Mind” (Beck cover) b/w Beck - “Green Light” (Sonic Youth cover) 7″
OLE-855-1 Pavement Live In Germany LP

We’re making 2500 each of the above. After they’re gone, as the Bard Of Hookset, NH might’ve said (if he collected records), tough fuckin’ shit.

I heard there were color copies of these thrown in, I got one on black.

Coconut Coolouts on floridas dying

I remember hearing about Coconut Coolouts before I even started 7inches, I probably picked up an old single at Academy, just because I saw them mentioned everywhere.
They sound like a real party rock band...you might not go out of your way and drive two hours to see them, but if they were playing in the neighborhood, it would be a good time irregardless. In interviews they sound like great guys, they are a band that gets together outside of playing music...they aren't going to take it to the next level and quit their jobs and go tour, but in this case it would probably ruin them, and why they like music in the first place. It will insure they will be around forever releasing consistent singles like 'We drink blood.' I like the organ - guitar chord back and forth they set up to then pull out a more rocking Jacuzzi Boys sounding single...I like this direction...it's the strongest track for me on their myspace. All chorus yelling about drinking blood all night.

From Floridas Dying, so you know this is alright.

Coconut Coolouts
We Drink Blood
PS, US Seattle's biggest party starters are back w/ another single of infectious party pop. 2 songs about drinking blood & bashing nerds. And the added bonus of the COOLOUTS ode to last year's Shotgun Heard Around The World.
FloridasDying
45

I'll be waking up early to head out to see who's participating in record store day and what singles should be available. Hopefully the beck/sonic youth split where they cover each other....and the jay reatard/somnic youth split, and a Pavement live in Germany LP among others.

Here's the podcast for this week Episode 49 (30min). We continue talking about music formats and then go into a Beck marathon, every single is played and scientology is discussed. Then we finish it off with the love is all bonus 7" from their latest release.

Record Store Day? It's Tomorrow. Yay!

I didn't really hear anything about record store day until this email from Merge yesterday:

On Saturday, April 19, 2008, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate Record Store Day. Merge will be doing our part to help these great cultural institutions celebrate by giving away a FREE limited edition split seven-inch record featuring new unreleased songs by Destroyer and Wye Oak.
Track listing:
A. Destroyer, "Madame Butterflies"
B. Wye Oak, "Prodigy"

The only way to get one of these seven-inches is to visit a participating independent music store on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 19, and see if they have one on hand. Check out the list of participating stores HERE.

The only place surprisingly in brooklyn on this list was a place I've never heard of in downtown brooklyn, Basement Mix?

I don't know destroyer too well... it might be hard to get behind that voice...wye oak is playing that quiet to explosion card pretty well, acoustic to wall of sound, very put together, male female layered vocals that send it into a hushed place for a minute, but I'm waiting for the windows to shake. Then they bring it down with another acoustic number...weird.

This is a great idea, even if they have like one copy, I can get behind any excuse to go to the record store and buy records and maybe it helps these places stay around. These are the stores from high fidelity, a bunch of fucking characters, guys that organize the local shows, all play in bands, and can recommend stuff to not douche's who are honestly looing for something. Sure they can be elitist pricks, or look down on finding a white stripes 7 inch in their shit bin, but at the end of the day when I want to get something after work, come home sit in the easy chair by the record player and rock out, these are the places I want to go. Free seven inch? Great, I'll take it.

Episode 12: Mika Miko - yellow hairdryer single A side, yo la tengo - mr tough, architecture in helsinki - maybe you can owe me,
lot's of academy records finds, and why I don't get yo la tengo.