Probably the most pleasant surprise from this mid-summer Captured Tracks 7” release extravaganza was getting to hear a trio of tracks from Brooklyn’s hazy indie-rock group Minks. Other than playing an mp3 of “Funeral Song” a while back, I hadn’t had a chance to get my feet wet with their tunes; but after a couple of spins of their latest 7”, I think it’s safe to say that I’m an auto-fan now.
Opening with the reverb-laden “Ophelia” on the A-side, Minks don’t get too lost in the mist of echo-y vocals and fuzzed out background guitar. At the one minute forty-five second mark, a crisp, and catchy, lead guitar line not only holds your attention but forces you to tap your foot to the groove. The reprieve from the fuzz is slight, as you get tossed back into the sea foam of the singer’s vocals and drift away for the remaining fifty seconds. On the B-side, Minks open with a dreamy, synth-heavy head-bobbin’ track in “Our Ritual” followed by a fucking-around instrumental, entitled “Believer Dog”, filled with noisy dissonance and groan-like sounds. Maybe it’s my being inundated with out-there instrumental music lately, but this third track is my favorite in the bunch.
Got my mid-summer batch of 7′’s from Captured Tracks earlier this week and, surprise surprise, they are all pretty damn AMAZING. Starting off the four-pack was the new 7” from Vancouver BC minimalist electro-pop group Cosmetics. With “Sleepwalking”, the A-side to this two-track vinyl, the synth/vocal duo of Aja Emma and Nic M produces a more upbeat track than what we’re used to, with the slightly spaced-out, woozy synth line reminding me more of drunken afternoons in the park than back alley solicitations. The B-side “The Cries” is a bit of a return-to-form for the pair, with driving bass pulses and near-monotonic, ritualistically chants of “I got the cries” pushing the track deeper into darkness.
You can check out the A-side and GvB approved “Sleepwalking” below before inevitably deciding to snag the 7” for a measly $5.50 (I seriously don’t know how they make money at C/T). An added bonus is that the vinyl is on clear wax (pictured above) which makes the physical release so much more aesthetically pleasing than an intangible mp3 file.
If I had to write down some of my favorite bands from the last five years, all-girl trios would probably dominate the list. I don’t know what it is, but the energy these women possess when they are slaying on their guitar/bass/drums is something that’s unparalleled. Certainly near the top of the over-talented trios is the Swedish group Liechtenstein.
Originally starting out as the brainchild of Naemi Pebaqué (bass), Teresa Jaksetic (guitar), and Renée Gustafsson (guitar, vocals), the project has had it’s fair share of restructuring — leaving the latter as the only original member in the current arrangement. What better way to usher in a new Liechtenstein era than to release a brand spanking new 7”, entitled “Passion for Water”, out now on Slumberland. Unsurprisingly, the music is just as catchy as some of the band’s earlier releases, however, it does seem to be a bit more mellowed out than say something like “Roses in the Park” (although the B-side “On the Tram” is pretty damn raucous). You can certainly tell that a new direction is forthcoming with this group, and I can’t wait to hear the result!
You can check out the A-side title track below as well as watch a video the band put together for the B-side “On the Tram”:
What better way to get an idea of what these folks are about than by just checking out the A-sides to both F/D releases below. Also, if you dig what you hear, you can get the label’s latest updates and musing by following their twitter feed here.
For those like me who didn’t jump on purchasing The Mantles’s Slumberland-released 7” back in October of last year, now’s the time to correct that error as I got word that it’s back in stock at the label’s store for a paltry $5. Hailing from San Fran, one of the epicenters of music innovation nowadays, this psych-infused garage rock quartet is a cut above the rest when it comes to making 70s-revival neo-jam band music.
Check out an mp3 for their track “Bad Design” (made available from the Slumberland site) and head on over to myspace to stream the B-side “Rachel”. And if you have deep pockets, you can purchase their Mexican Summer 12” as well.
I’ve been sitting on the Swedish group Korallreven for a while and a Ghostape remix of their splendid track “The Truest Faith” was enough to jolt me out of my slumber and finally post about them. Composed of the duo Daniel Tjäder and Marcus Joons (the former is also of Radio Dept. fame), Korallreven is just another drop in the already overflowing cup of blissfully sweet pop music that the Scandinavian country is known for. For the remix, Ghostape does what he does best: loop the song’s harmonious elements and cake over it with sonorous tribal percussion.
You can check out the video for the original track as well as an mp3 for the remix (via: GvB). Also included is the B-side to their recently released Acephale 7” which, from both an aesthetic and sonic perspective, is a must-have record.
Got a sweet press release from the folks over at Underwater Peoples about an hour ago announcing an upcoming release from New Jersey native Julian Lynch. Although both tracks featured on the 7” aren’t anything new (“Droplet on a Hot Stone” and “Nen Vole” were both on the Wild Animal Kingdom Records released Born2Run cassette which you can somehow still purchase here), it’s always nice to have them in a vinyl format.
You can pre-order the 7” from UP’s store here and while you’re at it, I’d recommend snagging the re-issue of Real Estate’s Live on the Radio LP as well. It’s one of my favorite pieces of wax in my collection. For those who are unaware of what Mr. Lynch’s music sounds like, here is a track he did for the UP Winter Compilation:
This year my only Record Store Day purchase was a Yeah Yeah Yeahs 7” featuring both a studio and live version of “Skeletons”, a track taken from their stellar 2009 album It’s Blitz. Maybe next year I’ll shop on Record Store Day rather than five days afterwards… Anyways, the two reasons why I bought the vinyl was: 1) I was curious to hear a high audio quality live recording and 2) I really dug the photo that guitarist Nick Zinner took for the cover (see above).
I’ve always thought that Yeah Yeah Yeah’s strong suit has not been their raucously energetic anthems but rather their blissfully sweet ballads. Clearly, “Skeletons” can be entered as evidence to argue this point. Opting for gentleness rather than her patented harshness, Karen O’s vocals appear tenative—if not completely hesistant—at times, especially her pronouncements of “love don’t cry” during the chorus as a sea of synth swells begin to rise up and wash over the track. Gorgeous doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I couldn’t find an mp3 of the live recording from their show in Williamsburg which serves as the B-side of the 7”, but here is an acoustic rendition of the track that is just as beautiful:
Although I don’t always agree with Jackpot Records’ pricing on LPs, they always amaze me with their great selection of 7′’s marked at incredibly reasonable rates. Case in point: Chicago’s resident lo-fi rockers Campfires’s 2009 release on the often-priceyMexican Summer imprint which I found for less than even what the label was asking for it. No doubt, this was an auto-buy for me as I’ve been jamming the group incessantly for the past month or so.
The A-side is composed of two quick-fire tracks entitled “Stormy Late Fall” and “Rustic Arcadia”. The former, coming in at 78 seconds, is the lengthier of the two and my personal favorite on the 7”. Drawing you in hook-line-and-sinker after a few bars of fuzzed out guitar strums, the track charmingly unfolds when Jeff Wallis enters with his relaxed voice sung over a swirling din of reverb — keeping true to the song’s appellation. The entirely instrumental “Rustic Arcadia” on the other hand jumps forward about two seasons and, if butted up against Real Estate’s “Let’s Rock the Beach”, would make for a killer 1-2 punch on anybody’s chilled-out mixtape. Not to be outdone by its flip side counterpart, the B-side houses the single track “She Was Down” which is 3 minutes of music cut much in the same fashion.
As a whole, the 7” is such a great listen that it makes me regret not buying the group’s latest split-cassette in time before it sold-out. No worries for the recently initiated though, Mexican Summer still has a handful of copies left of their debut which you can snag from their store here. If you need more convincing, check out below the excellent opener “Stormy Late Fall”:
Received in the mail yesterday the first release from both the formerly anonymous pop-duo Cults and their blog-centric label Forest Family Records. Without diving too deep into the ramifications of music critics entering the realm of band promotion (one would argue that’s exactly what all buzz blogs do), the label’s 001 release is a picture perfect vinyl both aesthetically and sonically.
As for the band, much has already been said about their 60s inspired feel-good tunes that I don’t think I could add much to the discussion. One thing the 7” lacks is any surprises, as both the A & B-sides are songs which have been widely circulated and available for free download for a while. However, it’s always nice to have a tangible copy of such pleasant sounding tunes. Not only that, but the vinyl itself, printed in translucent orange that makes the grooves “pop-out”, is arguably one of the best-looking records in my collection!
If you haven’t heard Cults, you must not have been using the internet correctly the past two months. However, if that’s the case, you can check out the A-side “Go Outside” below and download the three tracks they’ve recorded in their short career directly from their bandcamp page:
