The Ar-Kaics on Speakertree Records

There was a time that seven inches were hardly worth the trouble for labels to even bother coming up with any kind of art for a sleeve. If some music crazed hooligans were going down to their local record store because they just had to have the latest cut from their favorite band ... well they were going to buy it anyways so why even take the time? The artless 45. Just a paper sleeve ma'am. A lot of times it's a good indicator to move on when faced with a thousand 45 boxes...just skip the paper sleeve ones, way before an era I'm interested in today. But wait - The Ar-Kaics, a three piece from Richmond, Virginia, are taking it that far back to release a jukebox style big hole single with just a center label to go on. Keeping things simple with equal parts fuzz and distortion in a way something from that era couldn't have even drempt of.

On A-Side's "She Does Those Things To Me" heavy jangle chords open this track up for a wave of distortion to jam in on the left channel and sit there in it's hazy fog from the other side of the room. Distorted, reverb tinged vocals blasted into the mic against their loose, fuzzy sound that slides ocassionally out of time. The ahh's rising to the ceiling with those lead vocals screaming away in a blues explosion sound that came together in an afternoon gin a stroke of genius not overthinking a meaty riff like this with a powerful reverb filling in the cracks with a solid cavestomp beat. Repeated straight through to the end, that title lyric over and over, a shaker elevating the chorus to an extra epic garage level. Straight through the roof these guys can combine all that blues and garage with the sonic texture of an Edison telephone - nothing better.

"Don't Need Your Love" harkens back to Wounded Lion with their snotty, in-your-face party vocal, The Ar-Kaics guys came to have a good time with their juxtaposition of sunny vocals and who gives a shit attitude. They might not fight you in that punk rock battle of the bands, but they aren't going to get off stage either and just might knock a few things over in the process. Full of deceptively simple chords and berevity this one gets a tinny metallic solo from the left channel again. Reminds me of The Zombies tracks, they were really in love with the huge stereo separation. The Ar-Kaics get in on the faders and come to think of it, ride in that same doo whopper garage style with a lot less sweetness. This could have been in the rotation with the Fresh & Only's debut as well. Pure mellow fuzz sound with a careless punk attitude.

Get this from Speakertree Records, who I also just noticed released a full length from our pal Adam Widener. I bet he fit 35 tracks of PUNKOP on that long player.

Lilys / Big Troubles split on Speakertree Records

I've somehow managed to keep my big mouth shut about this single Blair told me about a few weeks ago, I think we happened to talk about the Lilys or something and this came up. The Lilys and really Kurt Heasley are one of those bands that really had to grow on me...I think it started with A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns which had all of that layered speaker melting epic guitar with his trademark harmony work, which of coure took on a life of it's own in future releases. Partially it was hard to know what to make of it, but like Deerhoof or Xiu Xiu, the more I keep putting this on, (sadly I only have some old MP3's) the more I appreciate what a freaking genius Kurt is. I do have that Nanny in Manhattan single which is what blew it all open for me. This hyper Pet Sounds aesthetic... just incredibly complex songwriting that must have been impossible to recreate live.
A friend who had some success in the late '90s went to record their full length with Kurt in an old Colt 45 warehouse and the process working with him sounded completely amazing. The ideas he brought to the table as a producer made me rethink that entire idea, how much he loved working with other artists and being able to put his own touch on these bands just starting out....really inspiring.

"Well Traveled is Protest" is one of those moments, and I've probably built it up now way too much of course, but while it's playing you already want to restart it because it's actually happening...a new track! I'm missing things, it's going by too fast...completely dense with that flowing distinctly Lilys harmony that reminds me of the garage '60s kinks sound or all progressive rock filtered through an experimental take on every sound that hits the wax. One measure of reverse guitar... a piercing whistle organ note grinding through the whole pile, there's hardly a repeated section, the whole thing is always changing. He gets away with these Malkmus style lyrics and bizarre english glam harmonies. There's a little of that indie rock goofy style and Cheap Time's devotion to that layered T-Rex huge sound. It's baffling the places this track goes, the folk style style start, the pavement refrain, the Ziggy Stardust chorus. I pray this leads to rereleasing his previous material and a new record.

Big Troubles hit me a couple years back with a couple of singles I picked up on Olde English Spelling Bee and I can see how they're completely related in their own dense pop approaches. Big Troubles is playing with a nostalgia sound and all kind of fuzz and hiss, in unexpected directions... maybe experimenting more with what they can get away with surrounding a pop song and the recording process....both of these guys are about the process...a heavy involved process that results in tracks that take a lot of serious examination while being able to appreciate them on that surface pop level. It's up to you.

This historic single is up for presale over at speakertree, I had to post about it before I even got my review copy because I'm sure this isn't going to be out there very long.
I've also been digging that Swimsuit album, especially the back photo...it's got a kind of Brilliant Colors, Broken Water kind of indie brut sound, swapping guy girl vocals...just raw and pop and punk all at the same time.

The Unwed Teenage Mothers on Speakertree Records

I've been emailing back and forth with Blair from Speakertree Records the past few weeks, he put out that great Cloud Nothings full length a while ago, on sky blue marbly vinyl I might add...the one that started it all. The second I heard a track somewhere on someone's blog...or maybe it was a single, I had to track down the label and hear more of the bedroom multilayered recordings of Dylan Baldi. I love Turning On, I like his recent stuff as well, but for me it's always amazing to hear the very first effort of someone like this, what can be done with next to nothing, no audience yet even...I guess it's about that perfect moment when no one else is even involved...it's completely pure in some inexplicable way.
The reason I'm even talking about Dylan is that this single from The Unwed Teenage Mothers sounds a lot like those collaged, cut and paste pop songs on that album, with a glam/garage focused twists and turns. Colin Sneed is the bass drum (and snare, etc) in the Bass Drum of Death along with three other gentlemen and this sounds a lot like Colin endlessly messing around, Adam Widener style at all hours.

"If You Think Your Lonely Now" hit me with all the home craftiness that Turning On did, because this is obviously a label completely after my heart and every last spareable dollar. The track is completely optimistic, with a far off, under a matress vocal and insane attention to these hooks, they're completely deliberated, hours of spontaneous chord contemplations. It's all here...the choppy boosted low end and the room tone of all kinds of spaces, direct line in guitars, and empty concrete rooms...the layers all lining up in support of this heartbreaking pop song. Sad because it sounds like there's so much of the band invested in this, how they're trying to make it sound like it's not a big deal. Like those moments when Sebadoh would almost go too far, but somehow still got away with it. They make an upbeat pop sound while the content goes exactly the opposite, overcompensating almost for not meaning to blast you with so much raw sunshine. "FFI" the second one, did I mention this is a four song EP? What else would come out of this home pop? There's a real muted and echo'd vocal under the instrumentation, and again...that's what I love about this sound, it's got a sense of space, the tiny bedroom, a cavernous basement, it gives the track a weird sense of time also. You inherently feel it must have all been completed at different times, pieced together during different moods... An acoustic slowly works it's calm way out of the haze by the end and I love the callback to the foundation of this one. It was always there, you get that sense of where it came from...that bluesy beginning, and end up going glam. Sugary fun, pop tracks, intimately fawned over. Like Jeff Novak demo tracks, a huge amount of pure talent... all unfiltered, unpolished....the best kind, perfect for a seven inch.
"Why does it have to be tonight?" on the B-Side crafts a heavy phaser, wet guitar track... all these pieces are so heavily thought out, they carry that frantic, pop energy but are really skillfully thought out. There's a careful attention to detail in all the punches...like this backup singing and spazzy drums. The vocals are still super buried, giving him room to really belt this out, but weirdly it's taking me back to something like Sebadoh rather than straight garage rock. I guess I'm hearing the seriousness... it isn't a jokey, drunken mess. It feels like a huge elephant carefull stepping around the furniture, massive and incredible.
"Rain" takes the fuzz and just pounds away in this steady beat, a few layers of strum, all jammed together, getting a capella almost, a sort of JAMC with multiple thin, english layers...into Happy Monday bouncing dance places. Heavy fuzz comes back with a classic, beefy rock style, all the the pieces carefully placed into this intricate mosaic. Some english glam and so much harmony under this distortion sound. Not an strangling wall...a warm blanket.
Lot's of experimentation from guys who know their way around an instrument or two, and a hell of a catalog to draw from in their head. From Speakertree Records...who have a physical store by the way...run by the guys from Harding St Assembly Labs.