Seacats "The 7" Burger" on Fin Records

The Seacats are apple pie, cherry tree's and ever waving plains. They seem to be playing with that romanticized idea of an America that's something of a vanishing reality...or maybe I've been watching too many Frontline documentaries about the vanishing middle class. But this Atari style burger graphic on the cover and their "Extra Point" single on Fin with the Baseball theme makes you a little nostalgic for the childhood days of not being worried about where your next single was coming from or where you were going to put them all.

The video for A-Side's "Firewood" is taking on more 'merica with a track that clicks in with metal snapping and bursts of chunky riffs in an odd signature that's perfect for the 'ba ba da ba's' from the rest of the band in frantic yelps. Mike is delivering his sarcastic apologies in Robert Pollard's matter of fact style. This is their valuable hunting knife in this blue collar setting. This character is oppressed by a lot I could relate to in my tiny town, the strip mall, deer hanging in the neighbors yard and no one to relate to. Seacats manage to craft their typical super pop with thousands of changes, and heavy handed production (this time by the great Steve Fisk) landing in the middle of catchy, gushing pop. It's got that spazzy, goofball feel that goes without saying in living this lifestyle of party pop. They let loose and happen to be disciplined in order to pull this complex track off.

For B-Side's "Lately" they serve up a jangly guitar and Josh takes on the vocal this side, which you'd only know by paying close attention to the menu on the reverse side of the sleeve as their delivery is practically identical. A super optimistic track reminding me of Apples in Stereo or The Lilys there's that similar gleaming fun time feel. Some crazy psych style running down the middle of this and Josh heads right towards falsetto every chance he gets. At the very end of this side you've got some classic bleeping arcade style 8 bit video game theme song and a sample of someone saying "Hotdog / Hotdog / h / hot / Hotdog" for the folks who are more dog inclined. They didn't forget you.

They even served burgers at their record release party.

Get it on beefy brown color vinyl with Fin's all out handnumbered packaging, an edition of 500.

Interview with Christian at Fin Records

Fin Records in their first full calendar year have just put the wraps on something around 30 records in 2012 and don't seem to be letting up anytime soon. What started out focused on artists in the Seattle area has steadily expanded to put out releases by artists from around the country and soon - the globe.
I spoke to Christian from Fin a week ago about his shared love of the seven inch format and how important it is for the label to have that physical object be a part of the bands expression. They've got a bunch of surprises lined up for the coming year and even possibly a branch of Fin opening up outside the country.

The podcast opens with Christian's own project The Diving Bell and features excerpts from Canyons of Static, The Seacats and The Walkabouts releases throughout.

But it's all about putting the handcrafted artifact down on a record player at the end of the day and appreciating the work involved in this 7" work of art because like Christian says, "Everyday is record store day at Fin."

Download the MP3 here.

Seacats - Extra Point on Fin Records

Fin Records out of Seattle, who put out that impressively packaged Diving Bell single sent in their latest from Seacats, a five piece from Kelso Washington. They carry this national pastime design through to the inner sleeve which is also full color with band baseball card photos on one side and a felt diamond graphic with liner notes on the other. Are their extra points in baseball? No. Even I know that. Are there extra points in 7inches? They just got one with the red vinyl.

The A-Side, "We Don't Sleep", a tin can electric repeated loop is the '90s foundation to the thin, distant falsetto vocal from Josh Davis, but it's a case of holding back like Weezer's Blue album to gradually build this one up over a few verses, layer in more sets of vocals, a booming track of drums...to blow this one over the high back wall in the park. The guitars and keys keep coming, handclaps, extra innings. They've been really holding back for that light smashing homerun. There's even a synth, guitar melody that's a page out of the old good Weezers Pink album. It's got a huge slick sound like that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots experimental shiny pop...and was produced by 15 year old member Mike Davis? They're obviously having fun, ending up in that late '90s place when this could have ended up in the rotation of that alternative DJ. It's a damn quick power pop hit, and I'm a little sad all that work ends up hitting the wall so fast, but then they cut the grooves wide on this one and I'll just go play it again.

The B-Side, "Hard Truth" finds these Seacat dudes on some kind of ranch, in a slow country scene. Cheap, rattling guitars, banjos and talking 'bout the hard truth. Josh is joined by Sheena Graves for that she and him duet feel. Pickup everything from a steel guitar, a clarinet... organs. Already it's one of those B-Side tracks when everything's said and done that's going to be a mystery...you can hear the elements that ended up in those huge power pop hits, but how did we get there from here?
Whoa! Hidden track. Cheap synth sounds, crappy drum machine...messing around after hours having just listened to Ween. Monotone, "Football, football, it's my favorite sport. This is the extra point song...I get it now. Name a bunch of football terms and teams and it's like they've compacted Ween's entire discography into one single. There is no telling where these guys are headed. These three tracks prove they aren't tied to any particular sound and are going to stay surprising.
Unlike baseball.

Get this one from Fin Records.