John Thill on Limited Appeal Records

Limited Appeal Records have been challenging listeners for the past twelve years with releases from Anal Cunt and full Blown Aids, so I was expecting a speaker shattering punk or noise act from this single by John Thill. Instead Limited Appeal lived up to putting out whatever they want with this home recorded sounding single from a one man folk pop project currently based in California. With releases on Folktale and Unread Records he's finding a home on other labels with a similar philosophy placed alongside Samuel Locke Ward or Michael Hurley. He's got an inherent sadness like John Darnielle but more abstract, less spelling things out, which I might like even better. When a picture is just painted enough I can fill the rest in I'll make it even sadder and more introspective. Don't get me wrong there's a lot of humor to the tracks, they just happen to be funny because they're sad and true.

A-Side's "Las Lonely Girls" I figured he means 'LA's', but then he's also inventing the spanish conjugation of lonely girls which I like more anyway. A countdown into layers of John harmonizing with himself and an acoustic guitar, all of it immediately coming from that sincere and raw place that's impossible to manufacture. He manages to create a track that's aware of pop construction but still naive and sad with fantastic vocal harmony. Hayden and Ben Lee are coming to mind. "Lone Star" features more great vocal that wouldn't be considered traditionally great, he just puts everything into it like Jonathan Richman in this move from LA to Texas. A girl who's come to the giant state only to find the same boring things. In Strozek, the saddest thing was once they get to America everything is downhill. Moved out to make a new start and you don't get much. Drinking and just trying to get by. None of these tracks ever take the easy road. I'm really blown away by the ease of this, the lyric is dropped on this melody right from the start.

On B-Side's "In the City All Alone" this time he's got a cranky electric creaking and completely messing up whatever tune was there, man I love this kind of K Recs Beat Happening stuff. I'm finally finishing this book about Tracy Thorn and just realized how amazing The Marine Girls are, pretty similar with an American slant, there's a sort of sad blues, country sound to this, but with some jokey experimentation, like John Davis maybe? Pounded on acoustic, the hammered solo fades out and he's just got a great vocal with the harmonies working against each other. The swinging experimental sound of the rhythm makes this teetering see saw of instrumentation. No idea how he pulls this off. "A Girl Rides Her Bike" catches strings in the middle of a strum then switching to picking with that off kilter internal sense of rhythm on this one. A looped acoustic pattern that he places this vocal effortlessly over top. The strums get bounced to an echo for the last few measures and it's little touches like that that kill me before I even start paying attention to the lyrics.

Impressive black and white printed zine of drawings from John, 111 on black vinyl from Limited Appeal Records.

Former Ghosts / Whitman split on Folktale Records

There ought to be a special place on your seven inch shelves for split singles of bands covering each other. They are the rarest of splits and require a crazy investment from both bands to come up with a version of the song that will do justice to the original while putting their own spin on it. It's not something you're likely to have in your set list normally and could even risk a friendship if taken too far. It helps if you run the Folktale label like Chris from Whitman on the B-side of this split covering Former Ghosts. I'm just getting into Former Ghosts thanks to their cover of Whitman on the A-Side, but sadly nothing is available on vinyl here in the US it seems except this single which is good news for you, reader.

Former Ghosts cover Whitman's track "Shake" bringing their heavy electronic slant to this avant garde party. The depth and glitches used is astonishing, they aren't sounds from the same family or even neighborhood. Annie Lewandowski from Powerdove on vocals brings a clean, melancholy sound to the proceedings working as perfectly as Chris on the original vocal, her measured echo delivery working opposite the bleeps and bloops vying for attention, like a one night stand of Aphex Twin and Zola Jesus. It comes crashing apart in this end section redirecting the melody and dropping the vocal sounding sinister in the opposite way this doesn't feel like a bedroom or any instrument you've ever heard. The coldness adds something new to the track and the artists here couldn't be more opposite and therefore lead to the best covers of each others material.

Whitman covers a Former Ghosts track "New Orleans" pushing it into a pop pace with organic weird sounds and a low thud rhythm instead of heavy electronics and sticks to the familiar sounds of the bedroom. Chris keeps the same vulnerability of Former Ghosts's version but feels like he's delivering the lyric in the barest of intimate spaces, the kind with a lightbulb on a cord over the toy xylophone....nothing better to really hit the nostalgia home. Gets me every time. I'm hearing the lyric completely differently also, the way he's phrasing this, as much as previously they've built up this heavy rhythm he's ignoring it. He then changes the chorus to emphasize the original heartbreak with cello layered in with room noise and life happening throughout. Don't ask me why that's inherently sad, but this vocal about leaving the city and taking me with you certainly is. You want to think this would work out alright, but that kind of desperation never works in real life. It's taken the original, and stripped away the digital framework and elevated it with homemade sounds, taking it to an even more raw, emotional place. Desperately making a mountain out of mashed potatoes on the livingroom table, trying to communicate and making a huge beautiful mess in the process.

Pick this up from Folktale Records. Chris also did that great sleeve art and left the rest of us feeling lazy and boring.

Roco Jet on Folktale Records

I guess we'll never know how far the all encompassing influence of The Velvet Underground will go. How many bands in the future will owe their sound to that slow repetition. Their early psych will forever be the jumping off point for future artists and this single from Roco Jet feels like a modern West coast evolution of slow psych like The Fresh and Onlys combined with that chorus of angels trained vocal from Zola Jesus.

A-Side's "Oracle" is floating the entire length of the track with a heavy echo delay on No-ra's vocal, her single high otherworldly melody can suddenly break into two always looking for the structure in the middle of loose skeletal instrumentation from Jimi Cabeza. It's completely effortless and gets right into a groove from the drop of the needle and hovers along for the six minute ride and they use this kind of time. The vocalizations are a crystal perfect choir sound from a big chamber and maybe it's this time of year but it can still actually get to some deeper places. Why every store has to play the same 25 hit Christmas songs every year is criminal. If you work retail, I am sorry for you, that music over and over is slowly killing your ear. This would be the perfect antidote. It's dreamy and making sure it stays very clear and unembellished. A jangle heavy strum electric with slightly off key organ ramps up next to a bell from offshore, ringing out a warning in the foggy night. No-ra's a funeral march Vivian Girls, harmonizing with herself, a beautiful inner soundtrack of calm. Maritime bells ringing with a long distance ghost wail. It's probably the sound of the end. It's been pretty good, you could do worse than to celebrate with an epic number of '60s garage reverb that's fading away. Roco Jet nailed this hypnotizing sound that's making me nod off because they're doing it so right and the fireplace is warm and I've had a few egg nogs.

B-Side's "Open Door" has a very slow intro of barely audible ahh's and oo's behind this shimmery electric scratching away with the hugest delay. What is it about that duplication of each note fading with each return that can be so alien and familiar? This one might even be more beautiful than the A-Side. Almost operatic No-ra's belting out classical training but far away from the mic to only hint at what's going on over that mountain sounding supernatural and dreamlike where you forget to even miss the percussion. A human voice and Jimi on guitar providing a simple, gentle instrumentation for the vocal to be the centerpiece - even though I couldn't tell you what they were saying, this creates that mood more than anything. It's classical and working in epic scales while being this quiet understated thing that you aren't even positive is over when the needle returns to the beginning of the record.

Get this from Folktale Records on Black or Coke bottle clear vinyl.

Podcast Episode 9

Latest episode is up and we just realized we better get to picking our top list for 2013 so next week is the top singles of the YEAR. Finally settled once and for all.

This week we talked about a Ty Segall and Chad & the Meatbodies single, a Thee Oh Sees Singles Collection (Vol3!) on Castleface Records, New Jeff Novak on Trouble in Mind, New Tim Cohen on Empty Cellar, Jeff the Brotherhood box set on Infinity Cat, the singles club kickstarter and the new third man Vault Club is torn open to see what insanity they pressed up this month.

My pick for this week is the Roco Jet single on Folktale Records which I'll be getting to covering later this week, Darren picks the Flaming Lips Peace Sword RSD Release.

Call the singles hotline, leave a message about the show 347-770-1469, or vinyl we should check out, or your picks for the best of 2013.

UV Race / Eddy Current Suppression Ring on Almost Ready Records

I know I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating, bands are defined by their live show. It’s one thing to listen to home recorded CD-R’s that have the benefit of intense tinkering and happy accidents but when that collection of musicians gets in front of an audience, they open themselves up to the very public hits and misses of their performance and those tensions or friendships at work.
Those unspoken elements are also present in the recordings of live shows. For those of us in the states, hard pressed to ever hear the Australian underground for ourselves, Almost Ready Records has re-released a definitive document of two of the greats: UV Race and Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
Having limited experience with both of these bands before listening to this split 12”, it’s impressive enough to make me seek out full length releases from both. Originally released on Aarght / Stained Circles Records this is a stripped down document of both bands, live, May 2nd, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. But it’s not the first time Almost Ready has recognized the similarity in more than just geography in these garage punk bands, having first put them together for Volume 7 of the “The World’s Lousy with Ideas” series back in 2009.

The A-Side from UV Race begins with lead singer, Marcus Reichsteiner reading an excerpt from Vasko Popa’s poem “Give Me Back My Rags”, a 13 part abstract folktale about a “monster” side of the narrator. This internal struggle is tied to UV Race’s primal point of view, a sort of battle between instinct and the trappings of modern life like the track off their first single “Lego Man”. Played immediately after the somber reading, it sounds utterly ferocious, clawing at rhythms with a frantic desperation, it’s tough and punk. This record is soaked in that all important immediacy, except for the applause at the end of the track you wouldn’t have any idea it’s directly off a soundboard at a Melbourne record store, Missing Link. It’s bringing back those post-punk ideals and has everything to do with Gang of Four’s harsh jagged sound, which has been waiting years for an heir and UV Race handily does the trick. Their brute approach to rhythm is equally quick and dirty with an intelligent political edge... of course they would lead off this record with some Serbian poetry.
“Outta Control Kids” kicks up the tempo further as this tips further into traditional punk. Dodging flying chords, Marcus yells “They’re outta control!”, an irony that isn’t lost on anyone there. “Bad News” has a fisty chord sound, beating along with the melody, full of paranoia. A sloppy backup jangle, related to the West Coast laid back garage of Nodzzz surfaces. Here the looseness works to throw you off the scent before their deeper cultural commentary rears it's snarling jaws. On “Am I In Love” they practically do away with the vocals altogether, leaving nothing but a choir of animal howling over a straight ahead tom rhythm before the strumming electric comes in. There’s no room for solo’s in their stylistic metaphor against individualism. They repeat, hardly even changing chords, a bare melody marching on. “M.A.S.H.” even resembles something from Pink Flag in it’s darker moments with Marcus' bursts of verse creeping in between the angled construction. This track also captures their skill at live improvisation, when the chorus becomes an impossible tangle of changes, it feels deliberate once this snaps back into shape. Nothing phases these guys, they’re about creating this awkward tension with calculated mistakes. Like true minimalists attempting to avoid the problem of creation all-together.
Like the ancient, powerful sound of an old punk band's live cassette you couldn’t possibly been alive to see, this will be the monument of UV Race at the height of their power... unless they happen to put out another live album.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring cranks up the B-Side with “Memory Lane” off their second album, Primary Colours which incredibly went on to win the Australian Music Prize about a year after this recording.
It’s been tossed around in reviews that UV Race is a younger sibling of sorts to Eddy... and the similarities are clear directly after that A-Side, the minimal simplicity and the straight ahead pounding of “Memory Lane” is a fundamental template. Their slow build of easygoing electric guitar in winding rhythm patterns could easily fit alongside UV’s references. Brendan Suppression’s vocal is right in the front of this mix with his garage snarl and slight blues feel of his lyrics. “Pitch a Tent” off their first self titled, comes at this straight ahead rock with a slight distortion with Brendan half singing and half talking parts of the vocal in a style that goes further back to the Kinks or The Sonics. A blinders-on rock and roll that’s forever interested in a bluesy, scratchy solo ending in a deafening flurry of distortion. “Time of Day” only ever appeared on a single and they dust it off to lean heavily on this bass line. A heavy crunch effect anchors this low end, and once the guitar struggles loose, it’s not going back in that cage.
“I Admit My Failures” has a moogy sounding bassline again and like those classic Wire tunes, these have that ability to grow quickly into impossibly catchy tunes that aren’t about volume or speed. They spread out, the guitar periodically jerking, grinding down after the initial burst. Brendan breaks this hyptnotic silence, peaking out his mic.
This side is surprisingly absent of audience, feeling like a proper album. I can’t stress that enough, this isn’t a traditional bootleg, as appropriate as that would be in this case. Saving the best for last they finish this side with the last track from Primary Colours, “I Don’t Wanna Play No More”. A thick and heavy one note guitar line is the core of this pounding tom track, pulling off the best kind of garage rock, amazing out of next to nothing.
“throw down your dice / pick up your winnings / count your losses / don’t you think it’s time / to say goodbye”
barely singing, because it would be too much to dress up this ugly melody.

Pick up this essential re-release on white vinyl from Almost Ready. The sleeve looks like a combination of the original handdrawn cassette covers that made up a run of the 300 released originally. The reverse has track titles and a drawing of the actual cassette tape. Like all great 7inch splits, both sides build on each other, offering a sampling of the two, encouraging comparison. Even better, this recording started out on an even more obscure and overlooked format only to make this giant leap to vinyl four years later...further proof you'll be kicking yourself later.

Ezra Buchla / Whitman split on Folktale records

Got an elaborately packaged single in from Folktale Records out of Portland, Williamsburg's sister city. It always amazes me sometimes checking back on labels at just how many releases these guys have already put out, and I still feel like I barely know the label. What I do know is that they've put out some really unique artifacts, a picnic plate lathe cut packaged with a box of candles and a 5" record. it's inspiring that a smaller label like this can still push the limits of the single format...you don't have to have unlimited funds and a pressing plant down the street to do tri-color vinyl, or records inside records.

The A-Side of this split is from Ezra Buchla, entitled "Black Rabbit" it starts out with some droning low bass tones and synth just hardly audible above the crackling of the surface of the vinyl. Quieter distant and buried vocals...I think... coming off like Godspeed You Black Emperor, exploring this kind of sonic landscape, taking time to slowly develop. A healthy guitar distortion rises out of this humming and bashing on the strings. The chords are drawn out infinitely long, and there's a bunch of voices now, some kind of devilish imp chorus. They're reversed and decayed, combining into a real creepy mass.
Like Locrian, this is born out of real depths of dread... the catharsis never really coming, just building and building on this vaguely ominous feel. Real damaged and unsettling in a pretty traditional way. He's not using any weirdo instrumentation or new fangled effects to shock...it's a slow creep... piling on layers, strings and samples. I almost don't want the lyrics spelled out on that insert, I'm already deciphering it into something even more sinister (not that this isn't already in a dark place). Ezra was in the Mae-shi who I've only ever heard rumors and stories about their shows, and this single makes me want to go backwards and check them out as well.

Whitman on the B-Side, includes Christopher Payne, the puveyor of Folktale, with the track "Scorpion". This has Christopher's dual vocal over crickets and a bare bones electric, or hushed acoustic, no effects whatsoever. Dealing with that same hopeless, blank place as the reverse, coming at it from a more folk place. With the depth of a Bill Callahan, this is a powerful songwriter who is comfortable being completely naked, thanks to his unique delivery. So closely mic'd you hear lips crack to start to sing in just above a whisper like John Davis...you still have to lean in a bit, and the layers just barely lining up but remaining two separate and distinct deliveries following the minimal chords. A cello peeks in to hum along under this night time scene. I hope it was recorded outside at night and knowing Folktale, it probably was.

Get this one from Folktale direct, come with a huge printed insert on cardstock, great thick black ink on brown chipboard sleeve, perfect design for the creepy minimal drones inside.
It says: "This is serious as the apocalypse".
Cryptic scrawling in the gutter.
Not to be listened to in a dark place emotionally.

Check out Black Rabbit via Ezra's page, Whitman's full length below:

BROTHER MITYA AND FRIENDS on Folktale Records

Got a single from Brother Mitya and Friends from Folktale Records. Brother Mitya is based on the west coast and has a fragile acoustic style of folk that's being expanded upon with a variety of instrumentation on this release.

"The Terror" on the A-Side, starts out with a buried bossanova sounding organ beat, like something from the Maya Tone on Arise Therefore off in the distance. I like when the mechanics like this are exposed, maybe just for a metronome, but then kind of disregarded, exiled to the back of the track eventually overrun by live recorded drums. I like that contrast on something understated like this. It's sort of putting that mode of production in it's place...keep the beat, or function in the demo, but I also need a human. A first just Hilal and a guitar, the piece quickly expands, and I love the almost disappearing falsetto vocal dealing with all these terrors. Loneliness, alienation, but dealt with very specifically in the lyrics, very specific situations referred to that are still universal and maybe are real terror, because they aren't a monster or ghost...they just make you do stupid things because you're scared in the parking lot after an interview. It's all delivered in a quiet, not rushed, contemplation..while also sounding like it's all going to fall apart, he can barely express the situation without giving something of himself away. The terror chanters serve to unsettlingly sound like the choir they are...out on the lawn, in the middle of the suburban street with the trumpet layered, and distant fades the track out.

B-Sides' "Tenderness" then ups the ante with viola, cello and pedal steel. Both of these tracks are so well put together, it's hard to think of this coming off a single....they have the production of something very serious...and classic. Hilal on this track breaks the silence with that acoustic accompanied by the cello at first, which is joined by that viola...all of a sudden it's like those Nick Drake tracks that took a while to get into because of that after the fact instrumentation, the orchestral arrangements. Hilal has a pronounced room echo on his vocal here, each syllable louder than the last, mic'd right off a PA, with a really weird backup chorus of high maybe pitch shifted "Sha la la". A western slide steel changes that chorus. Lyrically, these are great tracks, he's got a real interesting writing style, packed with an insane amount of depth to a tiny paragraph, it will take a while to decipher on this one, but I think you'd keep hearing new things all the time. Eventually this one takes a turn to a '70s smooth jazz bass feel, and I would love to hear just this extended for an entire track. A classical '70's Candi Staton. The thing is, all of these changes are subtle, you don't hear them coming, it isn't abrupt. He's sneaking a lot of things that shouldn't work in here...or are overused at the very least, but it really doesn't ever go near that line. Really nice stuff. I could take a full length of this.

Incredible illustrated sleeve from Kristina Collantes, who happens to sing backup on both of these tracks. The style and this expression reminded me of Adrian Tomaine....that detached contemporary style...printed on off purple white stock. Black vinyl with download card from Folktale Records.

John Barba - Sleep on Folktale/Silencio Records

Got another single from Folktale Records in, this one from Jon Barba out of Oakland, CA. Heavy black cardstock white screened sleeve, Color lyric insert and some shots of Jon playing live. Jon used to play under the name Nicole Kidman,

Side A - "Twenty Ten", Jon has a really unusual vocal, after watching a couple of videos I feel pretty confident that there aren't any effects or tape speed manipulations happening, he's got a natural high vibrato and is going for it Calvin Jonhson style. A cheap keyboard drum rhythm starts this bedroom pop folk project, a real massive synth organ sound creates most of this melody and Jon is hardly singing, it's more of a quick stream of consciousness disjointed memory, mostly about trying to forget the year 2010. It's not the futuristic hovercar, house on mars year we were promised by popular science. Jon sounds like he's also coming to that realization that it's just another year, things are the same as they ever were, they aren't going to change very much so appreciate those little things, they're the most important. A cup of coffee, a video game.
There's a point when a bunch of electronics come in for the chorus and it borders on this 4 track Dan Deacon, or definitely Casiotone FTPA layers of forgotten unused sounds. The lyrics just barely keep up with the melody, taking in a breath as fast as possible to get that overwhelming range of emotion out on this side before the track runs out.

The B-side, "Pop Punk on CD" is another tinny cheap beat with the handclaps, I get the sense that for Jon he doesn't need much to write a song anyway, this is merely a stand in for the rhythm, he's got a lot of journal entries to get through. A lot of conflicting feelings, a lot of fucked up memories. This one is sort of a list of private jokes between friends, now they're getting to that point where it's harder to keep in touch. Lives are getting more serious and full of responsibility and who knows why you haven't hung out that much anymore. It's just not the same. Just a keyboard melody and layers of slightly distorted raw as hell vocals working out the awful realizations. It's taking me back to not having much in NY and not really caring what happened next, no plans. That and I'm listening to the audiobook of 'Get in the Van. Get out that lyric insert, you're going to want to follow along. There's elements of A A Faulty Chromosome, Why? and the Mountain Goats all wrapped up into one guy.

Get it from Folktale Records, who says:

You might remember an awkward kid from West Covina, Ca. who hid under a giant home made elephant mask and played catchy yet incredibly personal songs on his Yamaha keyboard under the moniker Nicole Kidman. Well, that kid was Jon Barba and he is back, dropping the moniker and making the move to Oakland, Ca. This record contains two new songs that are easily his best to date (and that's saying a lot). The songs on this record are more produced than his previous cassette releases but without loosing any of the warm, lo-fi character his recordings are known for. Lyricaly this record is more angsty than some of his other offerings, but the songs are catchy as hell and will likely be stuck in your head for days after listening. Record comes in a plastic sleeve with screen printed covers and comes with an insert/lyric sheet and a digital download of the songs on the record. Pressing of 330 records. Co-released with Silencio Recordings.

Splintercake / Foot Ox split on Folktale /Stankhouse/ Tiny Panda Records

We go from found reel to reel psyche projects from yesterday into the '90s 4-track bedrooms of Splintercake and Foot Ox. A liner note even says: All songs recorded in Bri and Teague's bedroom, both bands jammed into a tiny bedroom, hunched over, on the dressers, one in the bathroom...No, they probably recorded one at a time thanks to the magic of multiple track home recording...this might be on a cassette 4-track? More likely these days it's your standard laptop...and I can't help but love this sound....the first singles I ever really heard were of this persuasion, not only were they amazing artifacts, but every one was full of new home recording techniques to emulate.
So a split 33 1/3 EP with 6 tracks like this...I would have definitely picked this up, yesterday or today, and it's a pretty amazing document of a scene going on in AZ.
The doodle 2 color sleeve I imagine is exactly the sort of jumble of influences that make up a lot of the tracks inside, like visual samples.

The Foot Ox side starts with "Colorado Springs", a masterpiece of almost The Unicorns proportions. Mathy off-rhythms combined in an effort to force together totally unexpected percussion phrases...and they do it in spite of the self imposed restrictions. There's heavy indie guitar work in here as well....it's just a solid, slightly experimental pop track that I wonder if only can be created in that kind of completely free form environment. I get it, you don't want to dick around like this in a studio...and it's too bad, so many bands could benefit from that.
"Robert", the next one, has a really moving cello track and wavery Jeff Magnum, rapid fire vocal craftily jammed together. "Swimming in your bloody stomach." They have that catching you off guard pop and then give you a lyric about birth like that.
This runs right into "Pomegranate", literally they must have been recorded one right after another.
All of this single has that abstract, naive, childlike longing sort of raw emotional feel with a slight nasal vocal, a bit like Built to Spill's Doug Martch. But it's the ramshackle, thrown together sound I love, a random array of elements they are drawing from... an essential part of that DIY ethic that says, "That broken keyboard just might have a great melody in there..." or "The SK-1? That's as good as a guitar." (Which they actually convince me of at the end of this.)
It's all so sincere, it's immediately heartbreaking. The kind of strangers diary entry that you actually have something in common with. A chorus of voices singing together over the layers of rhythms and instrumentation slightly out of sync in the way that's impossible to fake.
There's some obligatory crazy sample keyboard meltdown madness at the end of this side which is kind of nice actually, is this the SK-1 again? Damn you can hear the talent in just this little 20 sec cheap keyboard piece.
The Splintercake side, first track, "Forever Sleeping": if I was going to start from scratch and create the perfect indie pop sound, it would have to consist of a guy and girl vocal, like Splintercake. This combination over the densely interwoven guitar and bass melody...just like the Swirlies...or Krecs or Slumberland Sound. It's the sound of a bedroom and something you have to put together with friends. Maybe that's why ultimately this sound is so familiar and why it immediately seems like home.
Then, holy shit, "Unfair" comes out in the middle with big time synth break beats and a yelling rap vocal. It's so ridiculous, but completely committed. Just the fact they go in this direction, why not? It's the kind of thing that made the Unicorns tracks so fun to listen to. Their weren't any boundaries. There's even the old school use of samples...I'm glad to hear that coming back, maybe it went overboard at the time and went out of fashion, but that idea of random snippets of dialogue etc in a song can be so great.
"Proud partner" then goes back to that layered harmonic indie...like Bunnygrunt pure american home unassuming indie rock. This one even ends with the hiss of a cassette tape rolling and the hum of a TV. A quiet intimate conversation, an unwelcome explanation bordering on heartbreak. Exactly what both sides of this single are about.
Experimental pop home recording, hearing DIY from the tiny grooves. Really it's what the most successful 7" singles are all about for me. An EP of 6 track, 2 unknown (to me) bands and catchy raw imperfect recordings of talented friends.
Perfect sound 4fr.

Go listen to samples of these tracks and get it from Folktale Records who still has the yellow vinyl pressing available. Can also be found at Stankhouse and Tiny Panda.

Clark8 "Snooze" EP on Folktale Records

I keep forgetting to take a picture of the awesome art all over the cardboard mailer that Chris from Folktale did...serious sketches, and layers of paint... reminds me of Unread Records personal touches that aren't even a part of the album release. It makes you kind of realize how ridiculous clicking 'like' or confirming a 'friend' request is. I've never met Chris and here's a real, one of a kind effort. Getting records in the mail never gets old.

The color sleeve of this single of a giant spider climbing into a sleeping guys ear caught my attention right away because it's pretty much my worst nightmare. It's that Star trek movie with the bugs things that were in the helmet that ate into your brain? Thanks for reliving this nightmare Walt Gorecki...appreciate it.

Like the 5" from Folktale there's lots to go through....a Clark8 glossy postcard, xerox liner notes, lyrics and a download card from deadformat.net (ha...digital is the dead format...nice).

The A-Side from Clark8 starts out with "Snooze", the title track and this lyric, "Right before I go to bed I brush my teeth with a cigarette." The layered emotional vocals have seen a lot of....let's say....L.I.V.I.N. as Matthew McConaughey would say. Cleanly produced, crisp isolated vocals, and percussion, you can hear each pinging soprano tom hit. It's weirdly reminding me of the Verve Pipe type of alternative rock sound. I know...that's not even a genre anymore. The next track, "No purchase necessary" has some abstract imagery about a mirror, and the vocals on this entire effort are mixed way out in front. There's a folk moment with some serious fuzz that picks this track up into it's groove. They seem to want to work with comfortable low tempo grooves for vocalist Rich to get in there and flesh out his epic narrative.

"Push Down" on the B-Side has a harder rocking core with an emo, Promise Ring chorus sound that then changes gears completely into a rumbly little reggae mix. An almost synth guitar effect from the very beginning is back and a heavy rock comes around full circle. It's a jarring change, they're really running the gamut of styles for a song that seems to be about ending up at a mental hospital...and is improbably upbeat....but then again, maybe these changes are reflecting that schizophrenic, multiple personality of the character here...nicely played Clark8. I never thought I would say this but....checkmate to ME.
The final track, "Blue Widow" is another way too catchy song about weed and blow, which would really be enough to pull me in but then they go and deliver a spoken word section "...another missed connection in a craigslist ad", and "just txt me so that I can hit you back". I imagine this is coming from the character dead set on self destruction in the earlier verses, that sentiment clearly clashing with the sunny direction of the instrumentation.
There's no mystery to any of the sounds captured here, a huge amount of attention was spent on the details, you can hear it...down to the eclectic arrangement of styles and clever lyrics. They could share a bill with Kid Icarus quite nicely...that party rock, alternative sound.
Rich drives the rock storytelling feel of Clark8 with a lot to say across 4 songs on the EP, from asylums to cigarettes...mirrors to craigslist ad's, the kind of rock star life where you try to get you best material out of salvaging these messed up situations and heading into the rehearsal space to put every last thing down in that notebook.

The reverse of this sleeve looks like the victim from the front has arisen to a rainbow of enlightenment...so that's at least positive for the protagonist...unless he's dead.

Get it from Folktale Records:

Had this record been made during the previous decade their is no doubt in our minds that it would have charted on alternative rock stations everywhere. Clark 8 brings you four new songs that are undeniably catchy and captured with warm perfection. Reminicent of mid-90's alternative rock/pop punk, these songs, despite being new recordings, will evoke some kind of nostalgia, and may even get you to start dusting off some of your CD (or cassette) collection you'd forgotten you had. These records were made in a pressing of 500 with 300 on black, 100 on transparent blue, and 100 on a mix of blue and white (think non-fat milk). They come with full color covers with art by Walt Gorecki and a lyric sheet as well as a download card for free MP3's of the record.

Whitman - No Babies 5" split anomoly on Folktale records

Chris at Folktale Records sent me this freakishly small 5" record, the likes of which I dumbly can't say I have another example of anywhere actually....the great thing is that it fits into a CD-R record 7" style sleeve, which honestly almost made me put it in the pile of CD's I'll never get to. Sorry about that Chris, lesson learned, and let it not be said that 7Inches covers the occasional non 7inch from time to time.

No Babies on the A-Side (?, there's not even room in the gutter for matrix labels) does "Morlocks take Manhattan". Why does this seem so crazy, it's throwing me off just looking at this thing...it's kind of like altogether reinventing the CD format. Here's this object that's the same feel essentially, but only has two tracks....take that CD's!
This side has No Babies sounding clearly like they're in a live room space, performing all together, one take, starting very quietly at first with the hint of a low string instrument, a cello maybe and a post punk off time beat. Minimal electric notes pierce
the soothing female vocals, but it's short lived. They explode into Foot Village bursts of spastic tempo rhythm with yelling vocals and saxophone (?) squeals. These organic sounding additions sound great being a part of this raw performance, and I think I'm questioning exactly what's there because of the sheer free form cacophony style in this middle section. There have to be a heck of a lot of people jammed into this basement space and that deliberate dynamic contrast catches you off guard. I appreciate the vocal about riding in the pouring rain, just barely forgetting about the past few weeks of nothing but and bringing a change of clothes to work again because I just can't bring myself to wear rainpants AND a jacket. Pointless.

Whitman offers, "Here's to denying our existence" on the other side which has an equally minimal soft beginning. Slow acoustic loud picking and a chorus of layered vocals, like an old John Davis single, without the crazy accent....and they then also bang in heavy distortion meltdowns on the left then the right channels making you jump...it could be from a cassette, massively hissy and dense with the layers of destruction.
This brief lyric is all the track needed:
"About a quarter of me hopes that you're happy - and the rest of me hopes you're dead."
This can't be longer than 60 seconds...and the only trouble I'm finding with this format is you have to be really careful about placing the needle down - just a hair past the starting point of this and my turntable wants to automatically reset the needle back to the beginning. Whitman is working on kickstarting his long overdue full length with various packages of color vinyl and playing in your livingroom. Oh the shows I would have in my aptartment like Aimee Mann in Portlandia if I win that lottery I never play.

Not only is it the tiniest record, and reason enough to pick up but, it's packed with a nice printed lyric insert, catalog and download card, with a great skull painting on the cover which is mirrored on the record inner label as well... overall a nicely put together package, with some equally as unusual efforts from both these bands.

Get this one from Folktale Records who have a ton of great releases:

This record starts off with the forlorn and familiar plucking of Los Angeles based, Whitman's guitar, which is shortly joined by shaky vocals that deliver some of his most brutally honest and straight forward lyrics yet. Then things take a bit of a turn as your ears get pummeled with shrieks of white noise and tape garble. A short but haunting journey, showing you Whitman at his best. On the flip side, current Oakland residents No Babies start their song off with a catchy beat, bass clarinet, and vocals that are surprisingly melodic. This is a pleasant surprise for anyone who is used to their energy packed live shows, but it doesn't last long, the beat picks up and chaos ensues, leaving you with an exhausted but satisfied feeling in just under two minutes. This is a one time pressing of 549 5" records on black vinyl. They come in full color covers with art by Anthony Fonda and Christopher Payne and include a lyric sheet and MP3 download card.