Micachu & The Shapes - Golden Phone 7"

I caught 'Lips' on NY Noise the other day randomly and it completely blew me away. Strumming an electric to get this washboard sound, throwing in a completely off harmonic melody. The guitar is new again. Like Abe Vigoda or Half Japanese...there is no reference. It's pure deliberate ignorance of everything that came before it. Totally new. It was just so raw
The track on this single 'Golden Phone' is nothing like 'Lips', sounding. It's super produced, embracing dance, heavy machine beat..the vocal quality clean...she's just able to pull out all these completely different references and bring them together in completely interesting ways. I'm not saying everything is genius, I get lost on some efforts on the full length when it goes English hip hop, but the talent is insanely apparent. She uses a ukulele like no one else.

Another track on her myspace 'Turn me Weller', has the best use of a whirring vacuum cleaner sound ever. In high school my genius friend Travis, who moved to my small town in upstate NY from somewhere cool, would make mix tapes from tapes he found at the thrift store...he made me one called 'The Piver' out of a Springsteen cassette, he whited out the track names for his own and the line in the 'R'. He had a track called 'Sonata for vacuum' where he taped his mom cleaning the living room and their dog going nuts. For someone that just discovered college radio with a painstaking antenna placement in the attic, this was like a complete revelation. I got it immediately...and bought a 4-track that summer.

and being equally impressed, but in a totally different way. She's done tons since then, and it's all pop experimental...with enough I just went back through some posts and remembered talking about Micachu about a year ago sounds to completely confuse. OK, I've gone on enough...I'll probably ruin it by being too in love with it and the expectations will be too high.

This all started from spotting an old blogger draft for this single and thought I'd try to track it down this morning. It's too bad but it looks like it's import only...

Get it from Rough Trade or Accidental

Micachu & The Shapes Golden Phone 7"
This is a 24 carrot golden piece of alt pop and not to be missed! It's the second single from the critically feted Jewellery album and perfectly showcases the band's intricate beats, vocal loops and junk punk clatter.

Always one to go the extra mile, Mica has also created a second mix tape as a follow up to last years word of mouth must have first installment. It features contributions and collaborations from a wealth of young talent including The XX, The Invisible, Man Like Me, Rowdy Superstar, Ghost Poet, Dels, Elan, Lime Headed Dog, Dog Bite, Gold Panda and many more.

Vivian Girls on Rough Trade

Looks like Rough Trade is getting onto the Vivian Girls train with a color vinyl 7" with two exclusive to this release. They are playing 9 billion shows at SXSW and then their myspace shows them touring through the Us and europe until August! That's pretty insane...I don't even think they are supporting anyone, at this point they must be headlining themselves. Well, good for them.
I just got that 12" from Troubleman Unlimited 'Live on WFMU', which I can't wait to hear, it was cool to see that they pressed it, I couldn't help myself. I think I downloaded it from WFMU earlier, but come on this will sound way better.
They keep coming up in playlists and I'm still enjoying the full length. I still feel like there is more life in these songs yet, I'm really curious to hear new stuff. They finished recording a new album already and to hear how their new drummer is going to change the sound. I still think it's interesting how they practically 'cast' the part. She literally looks exactly like Frankie...kind of weird. I'm sure they knew her and she's just as talented, it's a coincidence.

For the song Wild Eyes, I keep thinking they are singing 'why oh why oh why', instead of 'wild wild eyes'.

As exciting as this is, It's just too annoying to go through the check out process right now and deal with shipping and the exchange rate...sheesh what's wrong with me?

pre order this single and you will recieved a coloured vinyl version. two brand new and exclusive songs that are only available on this limited 7" on for us records (the label of rough trade shops). these two songs were recorded at the end of their last tour at studio plateaux on platts eyot island by kristian robinson from capitol k. 'moped girls' is one minute and 54 seconds of reverb drenched indie pop perfection that sounds like it should have been released in 1986 on the subway organization or 53rd and 3rd records. on the flip 'death' starts like a long lost 60's 'girls in the garage' nugget before turning into a much darker beast with reverb vocals and guitars taking the lead.