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.

Cosmetics // Sleepwalking

Knew it was only a matter of time before some producer/DJ put his own personal touch on one of The Cosmetics dark dance tracks. Taken from one of my favorite 7”s of the year, “Black Leather Glove” is the B-side to the group’s Captured Tracks debut and London beatmaker Premier Rang keeps most of the haunting vibe of the original intact.

Rearranging the essential elements (pulsating bass beat, fluttering synth lines) and nearly doubling the track’s length, Rang gives more time for the song to evolve on this remake while only adding on a minimum amount of instrumentation. Better than the original? It’s up for you to decide:

Cosmetics // Black Leather Gloves (Premier Rang Remix) [via: p4k]

Cosmetics // Black Leather Gloves

EDIT: So it’s not really a Premier Rang remix, but rather a remake of the track by the Cosmetics themselves with some input from Premier Rang. Here’s what Nic had to say about it:

Our friend Premier Rang came up with a new arrangement of our song using samples – and then we replayed all the samples on analogue synths, and added a few new elements, did new vocals and produced the final mix.

Apologies for my shoddy fact-checking. Anyways, if you’re a fellow Portlander, I highly recommend checking them out at East End on the 17th of this month. Trust me, it’ll be awesome!

No need for just the US girl garage-punk bands like Vivian Girls, Finally Punk, and Explode Into Colors to have all the fun, right? Hailing from the UK, the female trio Wetdog has been making a splash just as much across the pond as their gender-equivalents here in The States. With an uneasy, off-kilter feel that you’re positive is going to come crashing down at any second, every song on their Captured Tracks 7” somehow winds up rescuing itself from total collapse while getting you caught up in the whirlwind in the process.

Like most of these garage punk 7”s, Lower Leg tries to squeeze as much music as you can into a 7” double-sided piece of wax. Consisting of a lengthy single A-side track and a pair of sub 2-minute songs on the B, you’ll be done spinning the record for the third time before you’ve really understood what you’ve just listened to. Although relatively tame in comparison to some of their noisy songs, the super-poppy title track still has some bite to it. One second you’re chanting along to the final syllables of each couplet (“The lower leg’s fine / the lower leg’s NOT FINE”), and then *BAM* you’re hit by a tempo change and some intense bass playing before being thrown back down to the slower-paced sing-along verses.

Now the first B-side track, entitled “The Burry Man”, will be more familiar to long-time Wetdog fans. Chalk-full of discordant chords and bizarre insane asylum-like shouts of “Like I Said” and “BAAAaaaahhhhh” which are more than enough to make you feel slightly uncomfortable, it’s the noise-filled counter to “Lower Leg”. Taking cues from both the tracks before it, “How Sweet the Sound” seems to blend both pop & noise, alternating between the two in this song fit for a carnival ride.

You can check out “Lower Leg” as well as “Jane Bowles”, one of my favorite track of theirs, below. If you like their stuff, head over to C/T to cop a 7” or to Angular Records to snag their LP Frauhaus! (can’t seem to find a US distro for that one…)

Wetdog // Lower Leg

Wetdog // Jane Bowles

Also, the guys at PodOmatic pieced together a nice 40 minute mix of Wetdog material that is sure to give you a better introduction to the band, so check it out here.

[Shout out to Adult Acid for introducing me to band]

Yesterday I got a treat when my set of five new Captured Track 7”s arrived in the mail. I’ll be posting my impressions on the other four later this week, but for now I’ll dive into the one I was most excited about: Veronica Falls‘ Found Love in a Graveyard.

Judging by the album art alone, you would think this was the back cover to another Woodsist release, but instead of being filled with noisy lo-fi goodness that “the other” NY label tends to gravitate towards, Veronica Falls C/T release is a concoction of sweet pop mixed with shadowy Raveonettes-like lyrics (the confectionery equivalent being somewhere along the lines of “dark chocolate”). I mean, the title of both the 7” and the A-side epitomizes their music best, tipping you off on what to expect before the needle ever hits the wax.

“Found Love in a Graveyard” is unquestionable their largest hit to date, garnering a lot of attention from a lot of people who know music better than me. Opening with an ominous guitar line and ghostly hums from vocalist Roxanne Clifford, the track could easily have gone down the uber-creepy path like Fielder’s “The Watcher”. Instead, it switches gears at the arrival of the first chorus, generating some extremely catchy lo-fi pop.

On the other hand, the B-side “Starry Eyes” — a Roky Erickson cover — is much more straightforward 50s pop than its flip-side counterpart. With bouncy lighthearted instrumentation ripped straight from The Crickets playbook, the track tempers the country feel of the original, letting the pop shine through more clearly. Although Clifford doesn’t possess as unique of a voice as Erickson, she holds her own with her soft-spoken whimsical rendition.

You can check out Veronica Falls version of “Starry Eyes” [Via: Transparent] as well as a rare Erickson acoustic performance of the song below:

Veronica Falls // Starry Eyes (Roky Erickson Cover)

Without a doubt, Captured Tracks is most responsible for my downfall into poverty. Arguably the best label of 2009 (and unquestionably if fellow NY label Woodsist wasn’t around), C/T has been blazing a trail with their stellar 7” releases which I seem to be eating up like candy. My recent purchase, which I have to admit was due to the awesome cover, is from the San Diego garage indie-rock band Christmas Island.

Combining the titles of both sides, you wind up with a topic I’ve already covered, however each track is meant to be taken separately — lamenting the problems encountered at the ages of nineteen and twenty-nine. The younger A-side certainly expounds upon the Wavves’ “So Bored” feeling of not having anything to do while a teenager. The opening lines “growing up in a small town / nothing every happens / spend your time hanging around / nothing every happens” sets the mood of the track, giving the sense that Christmas Islands formed as a band more from a blasé attitude the members all shared than a common music appreciation. Similar to Nathan Williams’s seemingly paradoxical description of boredom using high-energy driving beats, “Nineteen” isn’t a sorrowful woe-is-me type song, but rather a fast-moving “call to action” type track.

The B-side “Twenty-Nine” has a more laid-back vibe to it chiefly due to the surf-y guitar line which certainly echoes the “everything is out of my control” feeling one has when you get older. Another theme expressed throughout is the sense of no accomplishment even at a relatively young age. Unless you are going for a Fields Medal, there’s no reason to feel a strain of not making your mark on the world when you’re twenty-nine; however, it’s natural to do so — and the song represents well this illogical worrisome.

Here’s a track from the 7” (which you can buy here):

Christmas Island // Twenty-Nine