The Super Vacations - Heater Part II on Funny/ Not Funny Records

The Super Vacations are a real family affair. Two generations of music experience came together on their fuzzy, garage full length, Heater Part II on Funny/Not Funny Records. Rob and his brother Ryan make up The Vacations along with Mike Hill, Bladen Day and Ross Guthrie. Then Senior Ulsh brought his thirty years experience working as a professional sound engineer in Virginia Beach with a diverse group of artists such as Missy Elliott and Crystal Gayle into the studio with his sons. Having a serious recording engineer taking you and your brother to soccer practice must have had an immeasurable influence on the core of The Super Vacations’ dark psych sound that walks the line between a minimal new wave post punk and full blown mind altering psych. It’s an uncategorizable mix they are further refining on their third full length record.

“Faded Leather Jacket” the first track on the A-Side sets the rest of the tone for the album, pumping out their trademark rough, headbanging haze. Piles of rhythm guitar build under the electric reverb. Rob’s vocals are dark, delivering his pop Cramps sinister sound in a low baritone. It’s a chaotic kind of shoegaze that further buries itself under the packed dense layers, somehow finding room to expand in the chorus. The way they build catchy melodies out of this dizzying fog is similar to the way Mike Sniper from Blank Dogs was able to coax a damaged tune out of the finicky layers of imperfect electronics. Like this idea of a faded leather jacket, the best ones need to be broken in, worn all the time, like experimenting with this sound, there’s years of distilling this pop-psych into what finally ended up on vinyl.

Later tracks like “Ruby” and “Hexxing” aren’t afraid to push the limit of their frantic psych. Rob has combined his doubled up vocal with layers of higher register harmonies for thick sounding tracks with a surprising sinister edge. It’s not the loose paisley gateway psych from Strawberry Alarm Clock but instead something that might be pushing a conscious altering state completely over the edge. The percussion is heavy hitting, staring straight ahead, maintaining that driving beat without a lot of flourishes. The Vacations seem to be about the density of their sound, without distractions from the solid wall. It’s a punk-psych that inherently demands a certain speed and energy because everything is served up in under two minutes.

“El Ray” is one track that gets a little more relaxed, almost working towards a lush, new wave sound, dropping out for moments to breathe. It even draws on more of a late ‘90s sound from alternative bands, exploring the depths of rock guitar like Teenage Fanclub, with some of Yo La Tango’s effortless indie jangle.
Not afraid of extremes, they prod their melodic fog into straight feedback that shines through on “Above / Below”, which takes that high pitch loop right up a huge plateau of distortion. Rob’s lofty vocal emerges, as always, soaring above this fuzzy freight train without a trace of optimism. He gets away with that divide because in the end it’s so catchy and instantly likeable.
Saving the best for near last, “Kitchen Lites” drives home a slow strum guitar progression, bringing in a classic Modern English sound that all at once is an eerie shoegaze classic. Clearing room to breathe they drop the rhythm down to near molasses speed and end up with something you can nearly dance to, if you weren’t worried about something lurking just around the corner.

The Super Vacations have put together new versions of material from recent singles, creating a cohesive album of blinding bursts of psych, through combinations of unsettling haze and blistering speed. But to have your Dad work on your album is probably the best endorsement of all.



Pick this up from Funny/Not Funny Records.

The Mystic Fortress Sessions Vol. 1 Super Vacations / Eternal Summers split on Funny/Not Funny Records

Just got this split in from Harrisonburg, VA's Funny/Not Funny Records, a single under the ominous sounding possible series(?), The Mystic Fortress Sessions, Vol.1 from two Virginia buddies Eternal Summers and a band close to our heart over at Sweaters and Pearls Records, The Super Vacations. Looks like the Mystic Fortress, like all well named forts, is a recording studio where all 4 of these tracks were laid down. It could be the start of a series from these two bands or other acts recorded at the fort?...or it's just an spooky long name.

The A-Side from The Super Vacations features "Picnic" up first. As hazy, summertime as their titles are on this one, with their poppy aesthetic and layered harmonies of vocals, they continue to sound a little dark to me. It's such a weird combination of sunny dread, with all the post punk minimal basslines, and minor key melodies. Even Rob's vocals which blend into this haze can't possibly be celebrating what comes to mind when I hear "picnic". Don't get me wrong it's not ironic, they sincerely feel like Real Estate's type laments about suburbia that come off as sad and nostalgic. Maybe it's this understated way this whole instrumentation is put together, they don't seem to rely on a whole lot of effects or sub par recordings, just the slightly unsettling way it's crafted. Like listening to The Wire, it's all in the economy....or what you might call "songwriting". When you get to the second track, "Beer League", it's no less creepy with the inflection from Rob's vocals, his combination of rising and falling emphasis along with a high (female?) falsetto accompaniment. They're walking that line between a dense experimental psyche and this dark minimal post punk...I don't think I've really heard that in their previous work before...but go listen for yourself. Seriously, like 50 first dates, I wake up everyday excited because I've never heard all these singles! Look at them all!

I'm just hearing Eternal Summers for the first time, who start off with B-Side's "On My Honor", it's a surprise to hear the mellow rhythm and soothing etherial vocal from Nicole, which only amplifies how I'm sure about that eerie tension of the Super Vacations on the flip side. To be basically working under the same premise to come to these completely different conclusions in a lot of ways makes me question the entire scientific community. It's like an uptempo Softies, that dreamy voice of Rose Melberg it's impossible to get sick of. There's the same sort of indie jangle in the guitar, but with a very deliberate nod to the Velvet Underground, here's the riff, listen for the subtlety, getting down into the slow psyche area of things...then on "Half the Time (stripped down version) they're making me rethink The Sundays place in psyche...it's not an album I would revisit, but in rural upstate NY before the internet, I can't tell if I made way more out of that album then should be acceptable. This track is reminding me of that period of time when I probably listened to that a lot...and again, I haven't heard it in years, I think vocally, the slight delay, the chorus, where the sounds are almost turning into the background instrumentation, I'm not sure anymore of where the lyric started. Add tremolo warbly guitar strums and it adds up to a shoegaze sort of revisit sound, that is most definitely the sound of an Eternal Summer.

Pretty sure these are exclusive to this release and is limited to just 300 on black vinyl with digital download code.... F/NF says:

Funny / Not Funny Records is proud to present "The Mystic Fortress Sessions Vol. 1." This record celebrates the creativity captured at the lair of the Magic Twig Community. For the first edition we bring you the pairing of long time friends Eternal Summers and The Super Vacations. From start to finish this release delivers rolling pop riffs and timeless melodies that in combination create the perfect vibe for any summertime release. This body of work speaks for itself, so make sure to order this limited, must have, release before it's gone.

The Ceiling Stares / Super Vacations Split singles ship today!

Hey guys, just wanted to thank everyone for ordering this one, they ship today.... as you're reading this ....on dark purple vinyl.

Darren talked United into a special color mix.

Get one if you would be so kind from my own Sweaters & Pearls Records.
I would like to keep doing it.


Here's a linoleum stamped 2 color insert!
Are you crazy?
Yes.
Might not do that again for a pressing of 500.

The Super Vacations 'Henry' on Shdwply Records

Been checking out The Super Vacations this morning, they have a single on Shdwply Records that isn't released yet exactly...the preorder red vinyl was (damn) but now it's just the regular old copy, which hasn't actually gone up yet, but should be any day now. Was really into the Florida single they just put out and then all of a sudden there's 10 more records from this label...just saw that the SV's self titled was Shdwply's first release...I swear I need a research intern.

So the Super Vacations are fuzzy garage with 90's indie rock influences. But every time I look at how I've just described them, the next track starts and it's completely different.
They use really nice high vocal harmonies against the distortion, the haze of an old tape machine, singing in a giant warehouse...the weirdo melodies...that's the thing that has to come naturally and can make or break this style. You have to be able to instinctively know where the melody is going...like Gary War, Ariel Pink...it's an internal melody that has to exist the way you're singing it, but it has no reference to what the guitar...what everything else is playing. That's what I want to hear.

'Henry' has this scary pop melody, like a demented old sitcom is up next...this is the theme song. But it was added 10 years after they shot it...it's hastily written, but would be better than any composed average mess. I think this is the A-Side track. It's interesting to have these psyche feeling trippy dreams clock in at under 2 minutes. They could really put out a mini EP on the 45. Before you know it that drugged out trip is over. Like smoking salvia.

According to Myspc the Void looks like it's the B-Side, this one is really going dark,depressing bassline, faraway guitar echo tone, and harmonized distorted vocals are reminding me of (I'm lazy) Joy Division, it's slow, taking it's time to build this rhythm like an old goth demo tape.

Found it for (pre) sale? on Midheaven distro...could be the red vinyl copies? Might not be. They have a new site, which is a huge upgrade from the black and white text thingy they had for the past 20 years...it worked, but searching was impossible...now it's good.

SUPER VACATIONS - Henry - Shdwply - SHDWPLY 012 - 7" - $ 5.25
***"Definitely one of the more ambitious and mysterioso bands of this run-down, SUPER VACATIONS provide a perfect example of a group turning the limitations of home-recording to their advantage, assembling a beguiling psych rock sound from the palette of slightly warped rock n' pop elements at their disposal. Their debut album burns through sixteen songs in about twenty-five minutes, each of them a swirling wonder of crisply recorded hi-hat n' snare grooves, twangin', FX heavy surf guitar, hazy layers of psychedelic jangle, occasional bursts of chaotic space-fuzz washout and ultra-compressed vocal tracks that range from pristine, chanted harmonies to distorted answering machine skree. Recalling the spirit of classic-era Guided By Voices records, these one-to-two minutes cuts are veritable bonsai trees of weird beauty that make their point and then disappear into the void, providing tantalizing glimpses into what we assume to be a whole universe of unguessed at four-track wonderment. Inevitably, Super Vacations' songwriting is sketchy and indistinct in comparison to the heights scaled on a daily basis by Ohio's finest in the mid-'90s, but nonetheless, they've got a good handle on the kind of sound they're going for, and the material at hand is up to the task, allowing them to stand proud alongside the very best of the '90s neo-psych-pop mob (Lilies, The Swirlies, pre-ego meltdown Brain Jonestown Massacre etc.) without ever having to venture beyond their basement. (I'd like to think this band's stuff was recorded in a basement. It... has that kinda feel to it. I'd be disillusioned to discover actual sunlight was involved at any stage.)"--Shdwply - midheaven