BEST OF 2014

Year end show! Darren and I are back at it, the big show, coming back to figure out the years best singles of 2014.
My picks are limited just to the stuff that people sent me during the year and Darren sticks to stuff technically released this year...weird.
We talk about upcoming records from both of our labels including the crazy press coverage of Darren's Piss and Hair single the worlds first single made with human hair (and not really piss).

Darren from Velocity of Sound:

10 - Accordion Crimes / Glass Hits split on Snappy Little Numbers
9 - Dinosaur Jr. "Fade into you" on Subpop Records.
8 - Conor Oberst on Nonesuch Records
7 - Kelly Stoltz on Stroll on Records
6 - Night Sun on Burger Records
5 - Shannon and the Clams / Guantanamo Baywatch on Suicide Squeeze Records
4 - Yonatan Gat on Joyful Noise
3 - Morgan O’Kane / Ezekiel Healy split on Fat Elvis Records
2 - Ryan Adams on PAX-AM
1 - Old Head on Mind Cure Records

Jason:

10 - Birds in Weather - self released
9 - POW! on Grazer Records.
8 - Mystery Date on Pinata Records
7 - Wimps on Help Yourself Records
6 - The Sweets on Bleeding Gold Records
5 - Todayshits on Randy Records
4 - Broncho on CQ Records.
3 - Paul Messis on 13 O'Clock Records
2 - Personnel on Double Dot Dash Records
1 - Thigh Master on Tenth Court Records

Thanks everyone for reading and sending in records. You are all winners. Listen below.

Casual Friday's singles mixer - get ready to click the paypal button

Oh man, People in a Position to Know Records have just announced preorders for a slew of picnic plate 7"'s! I don't even understand how that's possible but Christmas got me into their stuff as of late and I jumped on that one...the rest of these guys I don't really know, but they're all letterpressed sleeves...this is just an amazing project. I hope he collects them in some kind of box. Amazing.

Hello! It has been predictably busy in PIAPTK HQ. Over the summer, we've been focusing on putting the new record lathes to work making one-sided flexi singles out of picnic plates. The "tonal coloring" and slight loss of fidelity that these records have hopefully adds to the experience and gives the songs a new flavor. You are helping to save a poor innocent picnic plate from the indignity of being used to hold hot wings and then carelessly discarded. They sound much better than you'd ever imagine.
And the covers were all hand-letterpressed, with hand-set type at the Community Print, Olympia's own community owned print shop. They are little pieces of art, in my opinion.

NOW, onto the Preorders. These will ship within the next week or two.

Benoit Pioulard - Little a Strongly More Grow I Picnic Plate
Lathe 7": - $5
On loan from Kranky, Benoit Pioulard churned out a harmonium version of a beautiful, echoey anthem for a one-sided picnic plate. Comes in Hand-set Letterpressed covers. Only 66 made! You can check out the original version of the tune at his Myspace
Perhaps I'm biased, but I think the Harmonium version is even better than the original!

Black Prairie - Blackest Crow Lathe Cut Picnic Plate 7": - $5
This is a one-sided single from Black Prairie (Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee and Nate Query from the Decemberists). A great old timey bluegrass tune. Comes in hand-set letter pressed covers. Only 111 made!

Electric Sunset - Destroyer Picnic Plate 7": - $5
Former Desolation Wilderness frontman, Nick Zwart, just released a killer album under the name Electric Sunset on K Records. It's got the same dreamy shoegaze that Desolation Wilderness had, but in a more electronic and synthy vein. Destroyer is a killer new track that
recently debuted on K's Zip-Pak (which you should definitely check out if you are a fan of music in it's digital form). Only 100 made, in hand-set letterpressed covers.

Amo Joy - "Straight To Plate" Live to Lathe Picnic Plate 7"+ CD: - $7
In the middle of their last West Coast tour, Amo Joy (one of my favorite psych pop bands out these days) took a day off in Olympia and spent all day recording live, straight into my three Presto 6N Record lathes. They recorded 7 songs, 5 times each. Each lathe added it's own unique coloring, and on average only two of the three lathes provided a usable recording. We also ran an output from the mixer into my computer to record raw digital versions of the amazing power-pysch-pop tunes. We then spent the night hand-making covers for all of them. Puff Paint,
Collages, paintings, etc were all employed. Every one of these records is unique. The performance was a one-time deal. Includes a CD-R with one performance of each song. Only 70 made! If you buy more than one copy, I will make sure that you get different songs for each one.

Christmas - Santa Cruz Picnic Plate Lathe 7": - $5
One of Olympia's best live bands, Spazz-Post-Psych-Surf-Punkers Christmas made this for their US tour. You can check out Santa Cruz and other tracks at their Myspace. It comes in hand-set Letterpressed covers... Only 55 made.

Lazer Zeppelin - Jane Jane Picnic Plate Lathe 7": - $5
Lazer Zeppelin is back with a brand new track called Jane Jane. As fuzzy and lo-fi and beautiful as you would expect. It comes in a letterpressed cover, which is only embossed... no ink was harmed in the making of this cover. You can check out a live version of Jane Jane on their Myspace. Ltd Ed of 77.

Safe - Carolina Picnic Plate Lathe 7": - $5
I saw San Francisco electronic duo Safe at a festival on a farm this summer and they blew me away! So, here is a single of their new track Carolina. In hand-set letterpressed covers. Ltd ed of 55.

Next up is the annual David Bazan single from Suicide Squeeze... they just make me say, another year already! Haven't been into them lately, but I also have that disease where since I already have the first 4 or 5, I'm stuck having to get the rest. Just like this fucking Star Wars in 3D! I'm going to have to see it. I'm a sick person!
A bunch of different colors so you can make sure you go insane picking them all up on top of everything else.

DAVID BAZAN
"WISH MY KIDS WERE HERE" b/w "I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY"

Here we go. The seventh installment of David Bazan's Christmas Singles Series has arrived. Suicide Squeeze Records has it – limited to 1000 copies (200 Orange, 400 Opaque Red, 400 Opaque Yellow). This 7-inch EP opens with a Bazan original, a heartbreaker of a track titled, "Wish My Kids Were Here." The flip revisits an old favorite, Longfellow's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," an update on a song he first recorded/released, in 2002, at the start of the series. The holidays promise transcendence, just around a corner. But Bazan knows better: things get pretty hopeless when family and true friendship are left behind. Music helps, certainly, songs can help to save us at such times...

Then Trouble in Mind Records comes out with another batch of 4 singles...I definitely am going to pick these two up...Personal & the Pizza's awesome punk pop and Wounded Lion doing their Muppet Babies track. I think it's hilarious those guys used to have all these songs about star wars and muppet babies on their myspace. Talk about a piece of work.

TIM018: Personal & the Pizzas "I Want You" b/w "(Don't Trust No) Party Boy" - P & da P's are back and this time they're getting a little sensitive. NOT SOFT, no way, man... but a little more down to heart maybe... a little more PERSONAL...know whut I mean? The A-side "I Want You" is right up there with those great mid-tempo Ramones ballads - Is it about a girl or a pizza? Don't know, don't wanna know...all we know is it's one killer tune. The B-Side, "(Don't Trust No) Party Boy" is a warning to all you out there that think that you can tame a "Party Boy"...well, It ain't happening and all you're gonna end up with is a big fat "I told you so." Leave it to Personal to teach you all a lesson or two (or three?) The single comes housed in the Trouble In Mind factory sleeve, includes a download code, & the first press comes on randomly mixed colored vinyl!

TIM019: Wounded Lion "Pointed Sticks" b/w "Muppet Babies" - So you think you know the glam rock, huh? Well, L.A.'s Wounded Lion are here to school you otherwise by serving up one killer mutant Gary Glitter (via Lamps) sludge glam masterpiece on this 7-inch! The A-Side, "Pointed Sticks" is no ode to the Canadian power poppers of the same name, but it's sure to stick in your head for days & get those club feet a'tappin'! The B-Side is a surreal exploration of the story of Oedipus via a forgotten Saturday morning gang... THE MUPPET BABIES. We probably shouldn't say anymore other than the fact that this single is literally and figuratively two sides of one of the most creative bands going these days. The single comes housed in the Trouble In Mind factory sleeve, includes a download code, & the first press comes on randomly mixed colored vinyl!

Then Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records had to go and press this single from Sourpatch...I swear I have one of their earlier singles and loved it...unassuming indie, guy/girl vocals...really having a good time with the sound, a little shoegaze, a little twee. When you can combine all of these good times into one single then you've really got something. Another, better, kinder, gentler high school time....and it's an EP with 4 tracks...they're all great. If Nodzzz and the Softies got too wasted and woke up with each other.

SOURPATCH - Mira Mija - Happy Happy Birthday To Me - HHBTM 125
"Four friends switching off song writing duties over four tracks on what might be the best single this year. I could make up some crap to try to sell you this record, but I think Keenan Dowers of the Three Imaginary Girls sums this band up perfectly. 'I've been a fan of this band since last San Francisco popfest when they blew me away with their Tiger Trap-esque perfect indie pop punk and swooning boy girl vocals, and this was by far the best show I've ever seen them play. They are living proof that hardcore drummers should also always also be in indie pop bands. For a band that is heavily influenced by Rose Melberg's louder endeavors, you could tell they were nervous to be opening up for Go Sailor, but they channeled their nervous energy perfectly to produce a little slice of indie pop heaven.'" Limited to 500 copies in a silkscreen sleeve w/ digital download.

The Coathangers on Suicide Squeeze

I've been dreading writing about this every time I saw this draft.
This single is god awful.

And I appreciate Suicide Squeeze. How they decided recently to release a bunch of singles in the coming year, from Iron & Wine, these guys... The Coathangers. They even made a statement on the site saying how much singles have meant to them over the years... and they've released some amazing ones, the holiday Pedro the Lion ones..Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse...I used to look to them constantly to see what I didn't have, they stayed pretty much in print so if you wanted that Elliott Smith single you could find it anywhere.

So why isn't this particular one working? I can't speculate too much on The Coathangers new album except to say it's missing a lot of what made that self titled one great in the first place. The sloppy, crap garage recording...I could hear them having fun over everything else...coherency, skill, recording technique. It was just the energy they got across on that full length. I couldn't help but like it. The songs were about ridiculous shit without being campy...they traded vocals, instruments. It was like a rehearsal space tape of some awesome drunkeness.
The couple tracks I've heard of their latest don't sound like they're excited about anything, there's a lot of focus on production, the vocals are flat, they must have been recorded in separate rooms....are they sick of each other? Was it a lot of attention too fast?....The final product suffers.
Then there's the fact that these are remixes. I'm biased against the remix to begin with, it never should be the b-side, that's what the 12" dance bullshit is for, don't confuse me!....but these two are just lifeless, not that the fault lies with Dan Deacon or Judi Chicago completely...the thing they are remixing is sort of a punk-ish guitar based song...so where was that really going to go anyway? A new backbeat and then rearrange the vocals? Terrible.
The Dan Deacon one is slightly more interesting because it sounds even less like the source material than Judi, the vocals are cut up and repeated (that's not annoying) but at the end of the day your forcing a dance remix on songs that already are veering far off their original course.

I was thinking about what Mishka said about what you want a band to be...maybe it's my own...well it's definitely my own fault for having high expectations of any band. I get excited about that first single...I make up a backstory for them before there's even any info. But they won't be able to live up to it, I'm going to inevitably be disappointed...but I don't think that's exactly what's going on here. They used to be better, even after I got to know them and spent time with the full length. They promised more and I have the right to be disappointed...especially with this single...which I have to try to forget...for The Coathangers and Suicide Squeeze's sake.

I'll be looking forward to the Iron and Wine one, although I'm not really into what he's been up to recently either.

Enough....It's time for some meat and beer and fireworks until Tuesday.

The Coathangers and JEFF The Brotherhood are up first, both with 7-inch EPs due on July 20th: Atlanta's favorite ladies hand two of their beloved tracks (143 and Arthritis Sux from their Suicide Squeeze debut, "Scramble") to Dan Deacon and Judi Chicago for the specialist treatment... What emerges is pure, ringing joy; from JC's bounce-down dub to the pulsing ‘closing-credits' anthem Deacon somehow Frankenstein's from the band's original tracks. Meanwhile JEFF The Brotherhood, aka Nashville's real-bros, Jake and Jamin Orrall, bring more of their - now legendary - tune shredding to Suicide Squeeze. Two sweet and ripping tracks, highlighted with laser-light solos and melodic guitar hooks that phase thru space on this limited edition 7".

David Bazan XMAS - Suicide squeeze

It's never too early to think about Christmas and the David Bazan xmas series..this has been 5 years running now, well not including 2004...3 pedro the lion christmas miracles and one previous Bazan solo present...that's a lot of inches.
I mean at this point I can't not get this. I don't know how well It's hard to find a friend holds up, it reminds me of high school, without having listened to it exactly then...but it has that dated feel...I still love the drum sound, it's near perfect for this minimal recording, it just captures this great room feel.
The other christmas singles are always interesting, I'm glad he's kept them up. It's an excuse to go back and play them back to back wrapping presents. Maybe it should be a special christmas podcast episode...I have more than enough xmas related singles....hmmmm, I'll see if I can get my act together.

For all things Suicide Squeeze Records please visit www.suicidesqueeze.net and/or www.myspace.com/suicidesqueezerecords

Limited to 1,000 copies! Continuing with the Yule-time tradition, David Bazan delivers his own rendition of the timeless Christmas classic "Jingle Bells" and an original Holiday verse entitled "All I Want For Christmas." Pressed on red (400), white (200) and green (400) vinyl this 7" marks the fifth in a series of limited edition Christmas singles for SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS. Shipping Now! Not in stores until November 4, 2008! Side A - Jingle Bells Side B - All I Want For Christmas Price - $6.00 Buy Here: www.suicidesqueeze.net

black moth super rainbow - suicide squeeze

I was reading about the crazy bubblegum pink scratch and sniff vinyl LP that was released by these guys a little while back and came across an announcement about this release coming soon on suicide squeeze, who again amazingly along with Matador it seems are putting out more singles than ever.
This is a crazy mashup of 70's influenced progressive synth rock and daft punk vocordered vocals, kind of trip hoppy and electronic. It's dance-psychadelia. How this has anything to do with Pittsburgh I have no idea. There are bands that defy geography, like deerhunter, I can't relate that sound to Atlanta, but maybe it's the isolation...the idea that there isn't the heavy outside influence. There might be room to experiment, they might not be as bombarded or even have the expectation of being on Pitchfork someday. I guess everyone does, they're all waiting to be discovered in some way, but maybe it's less imagined in places like pittsburgh, I have no idea.
They are using really authentic analog synth instruments and seem like they make an effort to be able to play this stuff live, it's not set up as a lot of backing cut up samples or anything. Definitely out on their own not a part of anything. Almost instrumental at times but always weird.

And that's hardly the only slice of vinyl BMSR will serve up this year: The trippy troupe also delivers the "Zodiac Girl" 7" via Suicide Squeeze on May 6, as previously reported. Catch of whiff of the weirdness that is Black Moth Super Rainbow at any of the act's upcoming live dates.

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW - ZODIAC GIRLS/ The fields are..

Hailing from a city which is unexpectedly know for it's avant-garde sensibility, Pittsburgh's Black Moth Super Rainbow intricately infuse a psychedelic pastiche that seamlessly weaves between the world's of folk, electronic and pop. 2007 was a big year for the band, not only did they release the critically acclaimed, Dandelion Gum which garnered accolades from such publications as Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Village Voice and MTV. The band also scored opening slots for acts The Flaming Lips and Aesop Rock. This limited edition 7" features two brand spanking new tracks from these innovative rockers. Side - A Zodiac Girls and Side - B The Fields are Breathing are choc full of the bands signature sound of electro, synth-pop rock. 7" includes a coupon for a free download of the single in MP3 format.

Another week of the podcast was sadly missed...I'm going to be off for a little bit being in the middle of a move, but will be back shortly, check out some past episodes and I will be back.

School of Seven Bells on Suicide Squeeze

Side A – Silent Grips
Side B – Used To

This is the third 7" this year in suicide squeeze's crazy push for 7" domination in releasing an eclectic bunch of new music. Like Health and the Coathangers before it, School of seven bells is in good company. SSB has ex-secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis here who seems to be working the electronics more than the strings. The secret machines opened for sonic Youth and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's at McCareen pool and remember the machines working a lot of guitar atmopherics, with really heavy loops, filling the space with this huge sound, their seven inch skipping when the bass kicks in.
This track on their myspace, Silent Grips, is the oppposite, sneaking up, really subtle. It has this weird vocal melody that gets the last thing from stuck in my head, I can't ever remember it, it's hard to place and the last thing I would expect for this light, meandering, soft electronics feel, but it fits, and is just plain weird and original.

Limited to 2,000 copies! Comprised of ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and On! Air! Library! sister set Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. School of Seven Bells intricately infuse a psych-rock aesthetic that freely weaves itself in an ethereal of lush harmonics, richly textured beats and ripping riffs. This limited edition 7” features a brand spanking new track from the band, “Silent Grips” and a unique cover of Wire’s “Used To”. This is the third release in a series of 7” releases in 2008 for Suicide Squeeze. Pressed on Green vinyl!

On Suicide Squeeze.

Coathangers on Suicide Squeeze

More awesome unassuming authenic-ness from the Coathangers. I have to catch them again when they come through NY.
It's all about the feeling, getting this aesthetic across, it's simple and catchy, I want to believe they are really friends and came up with this organically in garages one summer just fucking around.
I don't think they have this great plan to change music, but are taking full advantage of the attention that's coming their way in the form of this seven inch on Suicide Squeeze, and with tons of deserved hype.
Plus two new tracks not on the full length?...this is a must order immediately. Really the best compliment is that they aren't just pigeonholed into some riot grrrl punk act....on the full length they go from crazy samples from old etiquette records, to stabs at reggae, slow acoustic numbers, trading vocals. You can't point to any one leader, there's no one and everyone driving this train. It's this collective of talent, from the manic pounding keyboard playing of Bebe, to Rusty's solid banging and vocals, even trading instruments live for 'Nestle in my Boobies'. Sure with tracks like 'Shut the fuck up' and 'Don't touch my shit.' they are going for attention, but it's unmanufactured. And not so seriously they aren't making fun of themselves just a little bit. I mean come on, Rusty Coathanger? That's fucking awesome.
It's some serious fun, half Besties, half Sleater Kinney, the perfect balance between down home sincere fucking ridiculous shit.
Can't wait.

THE COATHANGERS "SHAKE SHAKE B/W DREAMBOAT" 7" ON SALE NOW Hailing from the ATL this all girl outfit of vivacious rockers sonically mix a post-punk aesthetic with a sultry edge. Since forming in 2006 the band has shared the stage with such bands as Black Lips, Jay Reatard and Deerhunter. This limited edition 7" features two previously unreleased tracks, Side A - Shake Shake and B Side - Dreamboat. Both tracks are chock-full of brash melodies that swing gracefully between the soulful and the grit. This single will be in stores everywhere starting March 18, 2008 but can be purchased now (!) by visiting our online store. Comes with a coupon for a FREE download of the tracks in MP3 format.