Witch Gardens "Raindelay" on Highfive and Handshakes

This single was released way too long ago for me to just be getting to it now, but really that's how this year has been going. The singles keep coming out in exponential numbers, to anyone who's wondering if I'm getting to their review, I can't believe that honestly once a day isn't at all enough to keep up and in order to get all the last candidates in for the end of the year lists etc, I'm going to step things up until at least a little past the new year....
So Peter over at Highfive and Handshakes Records let me know about this Witch Garden "Rain Delay" single he put out a couple months ago and both of these fuzzy layered guitar tracks have everything to do with letting go of the summer grooves and settling into a long winter, but we can still hold on to those surf memories, even on the East Coast. Especially this A-Side "Goodbye Ball", which also might refer to equally as tragic loss of a ball into that yard that you aren't about to go get it from. Just let it go, no one wants to deal with that crazy neighbor. There's a huge Real Estate chorus guitar sound, along with that laid back focus on a harmony to the point of only catching tiny fragments of lyric. The slow snowflake falling tempo is broken by a snare on every beat chorus, taking a page right out of the origins of the Vivian Girls with Frankie on drums, the huge wooden batons and tambourine resting on the tom.

The B-Side might be more related to Grass Widow in their 3 part unique vocal harmony, working in a separate vein altogether from the reverb strum but with that Nodzzz kind of laid back vibe. When this one really picks up reflecting that stayed indoors insanity, it's a nice touch, they're driving themselves crazy in their own song. I'd also like to note it's no accident this comes from a label encouraging fair play with their moniker leading right to "Good game, good game, (yea right, yea right) HEY! I like that you can hear the hum of the cables trailing out after the song is over, but that's the kind of succinct vision they carry out with this one, exacting and thought out.

A criminally small run of 300 copies from Highfive and Handshakes...damn I love this sound, it is the definitive soundtrack for the last 5 years or so. Dum Dum Girls, The Babies, Best Coast...these guys aren't taking themselves too seriously and I like them more for it.

Christmas on Highfives and Handshakes Records

This one is from Highfives and Handshakes records, the A-Side starts out with 'Pies'. I don't think I ever noticed the kind of super surf feel they have at times, it's stripped down garage, but the guitar carries this high surf melody and Emily really is unleashed to any kind of obvious structures. She really goes out there on her own a lot of the time, it's impressive, she's really confident and it's completely her own. Just in sheer dynamics she's got everything from a Diamanda Galas terrifying scream to a sort of early Bjork sugarcubes wavery personal language. It's not as obtrusive or front and center as either of them, there's plenty of echo and live room sound to keep it grounded with the band, it just can't help but stand out.
The B-Side El Colorado is in a 60's psyche-out place...sort of a hint of Janis...and maybe some Dirty Beaches environmental scene setting kind of sound. It could just be this particular echo, but it sounds pretty much rooted in that era for me. It's a sound that combines a sort of blues and jam out time of the late 60's. It's unexpected.

This one, the Metal 7", you can order from Highfives +Handshakes direct and they'll send it when it hits the shelves on the 27th.






The second single they have out is a clear handcut flexi from an edition of 57 as part of a gallery show they had locally here at the Rare Gallery. Art and seven inches, that's practically too perfect
The A-Side of this one, has more of their surf inspired melodies and with major reverb on Emily's vocal track. She's wailing on this one, getting a little haunted house, there's some pain in her vocal this time, as she draws out the lyrics into howls. But it's not so experimental that it's impossible to enjoy, she's just an impossible to ignore force blowing in your town.
'Punch in' gets more minimal, and the guitar juts in, jarring little bursts of that echo, this time getting all Sediment Club for the B-Side, throwing out the melody for an experimental deconstruction. This combination of surf, new wave, and Emily's, Shannon and the Clams classic delivery and just plain powerful voice is going to keep Christmas interesting for holidays yet to come.

Both still available from Highfives+Handshakes.

I heard they are headed towards Brooklyn after 8/27 including:

9/9 - SHEA STADIUM w/Total Slacker - BK, NY
9/10 - UNION POOL w/ Darlings, Mermiads - BK, NY