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His skill in the studio has helped him build-up an enviable resume recording, producing and playing with artists including Luna, Beach House, Cass McCombs, Dean Wareham/Dean & Britta and Slumberland’s own The Mantles. Papercuts’ new album “Parallel Universe Blues” reflects Quever’s recent move from long-time musical home San Francisco to Los Angeles and all of the searching and self-exploration that accompanies leaving your home, your friends and your scene.
The sound is intimate and close, nicely balancing the sonic concerns of the last few Papercuts records. The opening pair of songs “Mattress On The Floor” and Laughing Man” superbly sets the table for the rest of the album: perfect Spectorian pop songs echoed down through The Velvet Underground, LA’s Paisley Underground, Spiritualized and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Never sacrificing song-writing for atmospherics, “Parallel Universe Blues” is a superb addition to the Papercuts catalogue.
Its themes of self-examination are as a timeless as the tunes themselves, the dreamy autumnal mood perfectly captured in the pastoral cover art. The album is a triumph and points to more great things in the future from Quever and Papercuts.
TRACK LISTING
Mattress On The Floor
Laughing Man
How To Quit Smoking
Sing To Me
Clean Living
Kathleen Says
Walk Backwards All Along St. Mary’s
Waking Up
Looking Through Heather
Since their self-titled 2017 the band has expanded to a four piece and honed their tunes with constant SoCal gigging. Their new album “Used To Yesterday” continues Smokescreen’s zeal for New Zealand pop but also incorporates influences from the more melodic side of Messthetics-era DIY pop and expands into classic indie pop territory, a natural fit for the Slumberland Records roster.
From the NZ-meets-Athens GA first single “The Lost Song” through the 12-string driven “Waiting For The Summer” to the Paisley Underground-tinged closer “Falling Down,” Smokescreens really excel in the quality of their songwriting and their ability to incorporate a disparate set of influences while still forging their own sound and identity.
TRACK LISTING
Someone New
Used To Yesterday
The Lost Song
Jolly Jane
Buddy
Waiting For Summer
Steel Blue Skies
Fool Me
It’s Not Right
Falling Down
Towards the end of her time spent in Los Angeles, Frankie reached out to Jorge Elbrecht (Tamaryn, Gang Gang Dance, Violens) and began sketching what became the basic outline of what felt like a new album. Then, rather fortuitously, Frankie ended up back in Brooklyn with the realization that "in the end, I’m on my own. I have to do these things on my own." The months that ensued meant basically working with no budget and finding ways to record in-between days. This time enabled Frankie to experiment musically with a variety of people that ultimately changed the way she worked.
The result of this existential odyssey is Cage Tropical, Frankie’s 4th album. It is awash with vintage synths, painterly effects pedals, upside down atmosphere and reverberating vocals. It evokes a new wave paranormality of sorts that drifts beyond the songs themselves. "My references aren’t just music," says Frankie, "I love old sci-fi. They Live is one of my favorite movies ever, same with Suspiria. 80’s sci-fi movies with a John Carpenter soundtrack, with silly synths – that makes it into my file, to the point that I’ll write lyrics incorporating that kind of stuff. It’s in there."
Beginning with the shimmery, cinematic and percussive sparkling of the album’s opening track "Love in Rockets," the song’s refrain of "a wheel, a wheel of wasting my life: a wheel, a wheel of wasting my time" immediately alludes to those darker circumstances that led to the creative origins of Cage Tropical. "It’s all essentially based on what happened to me in Los Angeles and then a return to Brooklyn," says Frankie. "Misery turned into something good. The whole record to me is a redemption record and it is the most positive one I’ve made"
"I feel like I am finally free from worrying about an outcome. I don’t care. I already lost everything. I already had the worst- case scenario. When that happens, you do become free. In the end, it’s about me rescuing myself via having this record."
TRACK LISTING
1. Love In Rockets
2. Dyson Sphere
3. Trouble
4. Art Bell
5. Dancing Down The Hall
6. Cage Tropical
7. Game To Play
8. Red Museum
9. Epic Slack
10. Decontrol
The idea was to broaden the Terry Malts concept and create a kaleidoscopic pop album that has a mixture of moods, each song turning to a different sound inspired by the records the band have loved over the years. The driving punk (Buzzcocks, The Undertones) that has been a cornerstone of the group’s sound sits snugly with songs steeped in indie-pop and power-pop (The Chills, Dwight Twilley). Once the band was ready to record they enlisted Monte Vallier (Soft Moon, Weekend, Swell) to co-produce at his Ruminator Audio studio in San Francisco.
It is the group’s first album recorded in a studio. 2012’s Killing Time & "Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere" were both recorded in various practice spaces by guitarist Corey Cunningham and the group was intent on shaking the lo- fi tag. The freedom of the studio allowed the band to expand on their sound with the addition of 12-string electric guitars, piano, organ, and sound effects. From driving opener “Used To Be” through jangling ballad “Gentle Eyes” to first single “Seen Everything” and haunting closer “When The Nighttime Comes,” Terry Malts have put the augmented sonic palette in the service of some of their strongest tunes yet. The resulting album, Lost At The Party is a lovingly-crafted love letter to pop music in all it’s forms.
TRACK LISTING
Used To Be
Won’t Come To Find You
Gentle Eyes
Your Turn
It’s Not Me
Waiting For The Bomb
Seen Everything
And Suddenly
Come Back
Playtime
When The Nighttime Comes
From album opener “Deep In The Back of Your Mind” through first single “Flowers” and the lushly romantic “Will You Let Go Of My Heart?” Williams has honed his trademark blend of power-pop, orchestrated soft-rock and layered, melodic jangle-pop to a perfect edge. The elegant “Games” is a great example of what Devon does best — complex emotions played against a driving pop tune. It’s these contrasts that enliven Gilding The Lily and the consummate skill with which Williams arranges and executes his beautiful songs that mark him as a truly unique talent.
TRACK LISTING
1: Deep In The Back Of Your Mind
2: Games
3: All I Gave To Do
4: Pendulum
5: Flowers
6: Around In A Maze
7: Puzzle
8: Rabbit Hole
9: Will You Let Go Of My Heart?
10: Lost My Concentration
11: Gilding The Lily
Follow up to 2012 debut Killing Time, Nobody Realizes This is Nowhere a punchy record packed with buzzsaw guitars and surprisingly catchy melodies. Recorded by the band and mixed with long-time associated Monte Vallier (Weekend, Wax Idols, Soft Moon).
Reminiscent of forbears such as The Undertones, Buzzcocks and Descendants, packed with upbeat tunes but don’t let that fool you; the lyrics from bassist/vocalist Phil Benson are smart but very, very dark. Guitarist Corey Cunningham just plain shreds, piling on layered attacks of buzz, howl and scree. Holding down the bottom is the rock steady drumming of Nathan Sweatt.
From ripping opener to ‘Two Faces’ through alienated first single ‘I Was Not There’ right down to closer ‘So Serious’, Nobody Realizes This is Nowhere is a bold step for Terry Malts and one of the great punk records of 2013.
TRACK LISTING
1. Two Faces
2. Human Race
3. Life’s Not A Dream
4. I Was Not There
5. They’re Feeding
6. Buy Buy Baby
7. No Tomorrow
8. Walking With You
9. Well Adjusted
10. Comfortably Dumb
11. So Serious
Violens’ sophomore effort True shifts course toward a more subtle and desaturated sonic landscape. The writing process began while traveling together on tour, and showcases a more collaborative effort. Band members Iddo Arad (backing vocals, synths, guitar) and Myles Matheny (backing vocals bass, guitar) had a much larger influence on the songwriting and the album’s sonic direction. Framed by Will Berman’s distinctive drumming, True shows the band interacting and reflecting in ways both promising and exciting.
The album’s first single, “Totally True,” sports a stone-washed, semi-improvised feel, celebrating bands like The Chameleons and Martin Newell’s Cleaners From Venus. Elsewhere, “Unfolding Black Wings” (the band’s aural approximation of a Goya etching) nods to Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. While the song’s lyrics reflect upon a sort of unimaginable winged beast, the music conveys its attack with a forward-marching rhythm as unorthodox guitar tunings provide manic chord changes and blistering single-note melodies. “When to Let Go” delivers a classic mélange of guitar pop (not unlike Sonic Flower Groove-era Primal Scream) and ’60s harmony groups (Zombies, Beach Boys, The Millennium), while “Watch the Streams” features ’60s ghost organs and a Brill Building pop beat that coalesces with stacked vocal harmonies.
The Terrys' gospel is succinct, direct, sincere and timed expertly with next year's looming apocalypse: life is hopeless, enjoy! With a live reputation that bleeds funky "punk" attitude, the trio crammed this urgency into the Terry Malts studio edition. Recorded by a machine, then expertly mixed by human being Monte Vallier (Swell, Half Church), Killing Time may compel you to type the following buzzwords into your blog (which, I love, by the way!): catchy, husky, hunky, sharp, blue-collar, rocking, hockey-rock, working-class, perfect, near-perfect, nothalf- bad, and / or not-bad. It's an album, it's a lifestyle, it's a 34-minute hour of pure, unadulterated Malts... all right?
Now Brilliant Colors team up again with The Pool’s Alex Yusimov (who recorded their first album as well as Grass Widow and many of Portland’s finest indie bands) to create 'Again and Again', a great step forward for the band. The songwriting is still as infectious as ever, but the tunes are now more carefully arranged, pushing the band far beyond their punk roots to something as elemental as pop gets. Songs like opener “Hey Dan,” the sprightly “Value Lines” and “Hitting Traffic” combine guitarist / singer Jess Scott’s catchy-as-hell riffs with Diane Anastasio’s steady, rolling beats and Michelle Hill’s dense basslines. Their well fashioned songs are deceptively simple—straightforwardly rocking but also richly layered, revealing new twists on each listen.
The mood is confessional and late-night dreamy; Scott’s unadorned vocals and eloquent lyrics are personal, direct and atmospherically deployed, mixed in with the songs like another instrument. They can be heard to great effect on tougher songs like “Back to the Tricks” and “Painting Truths,” tempering those tunes’ punchy punk dynamics with their melodic sensibility. Add in classic-sounding stormers like “Cult Face” and “How Much Younger” and one has all the makings of another great Brilliant Colors album, one that shows how finely they’ve honed their own unique brand of punk-informed crash-pop.
STAFF COMMENTS
Darryl says: Jangly and cute C86 infused indie-pop, that'll hit the mark for fans of Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Cystal Stilts et al. On the US label Slumberland.TRACK LISTING
01. Hey Dan
02. How Much Younger
03. Value Lines
04. Round Your Way
05. Back To The Tricks
06. Cult Face
07. Painting Truths
08. Hitting Traffic
09. Telephone Stories
10. L.A.’s
Following a well-received string of tapes and CDRs, Procedure Club’s first 'proper' album is noisy, lo-fi pop with the emphasis on noise. From the pure synth pop of "Feel Sorry For Me" to the overdriven swoon of "Dead Bird" to the blown-out "Nautical Song", carefully constructed tunes are given a fierce work-over by layers of guitar fuzz and synth scree. Songs like "Vermont" and "Artificial Light" could practically be some lost C86 gems, while "Awfully Managed Pigeons" looks back to early Velvet Underground's garage racket (check the sick Cale-esque baseline) and "Rather" fondly recalls Amy Linton's late Henry's Dress / Aislers Set classics. Throughout, Andrea's vocals are the secret weapon, neatly playing catchy melodies off the drum machine clatter and guitar haze.
On "Doomed Forever", Procedure Club strikes just the right balance between the songs and the noise, between structure and chaos. Rather than allowing the recording methodology to stand-in for tunes and ideas, they've created a rather amazing record where those parts mesh perfectly and create a unique sound-world that challenges the ear as it coaxes the listener in with melody.
TRACK LISTING
1. Feel Sorry For Me
2. Vermont
3. Dead Bird
4. Artificial Light
5. Confined
6. Slut Fossil
7. Awfully Managed Pigeons
8. Nautical Song
9. Rather
10. Jupiter
11. Seventh Circle Of Hell
Feelies and The Replacements, Manatee created a straight-ahead brand of power-pop that's as impassioned as it is timeless. "Indecision" is an uptempo tune driven by a naggingly catchy guitar riff and Keith Neal's ace vocals. Hearkening back to the 80s heyday of Game Theory, The Replacements and The Smithereens, the track is an effortlessly rocking pop gem that demonstrates the enduring strength of the basic guitar / bass / drums format when combined with great songwriting and a passionate delivery.
"Fifteen Minute Drive" is a moodier affair, a minimal strum ’n’ drum that snaps along nicely until it reaches a squalling stun-guitar coda, what was once a subliminal bed of noise becoming a torrent of squeal and feedback. That combination of melody and untamed noise is a fine summation of the Manatee aesthetic, and of course makes the four-piece a natural for the Slumberland roster.