Posts Tagged ‘The Numerators’

Top 10 Cassettes / 7”s of 2010

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Really, this list could be “PT-Music’s Top Ten Cassettes/7”s of the latter half of 2010″ since almost every entry is from July forward. I don’t know what my deal was for the first part of 2010, but I guess I didn’t buy that many records. Anyways, in no particular order here are some of my favorite cassette and 7” releases from Oh Ten:

Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti

Easily my favorite cassette of the year. Released by my favorite tape label Bathetic Records (and quickly re-released to no avail – both “pressings” are sold-out), Olsen sweetly croons about love, loss, and lost love. At the surface level, you get a series of pleasant sounding singer/songwriter tracks which you eat up like candy, but when you start attentively listening to the lyrics and storytelling (not sure how much is story and how much is real life for Olsen) you discover the haunting undertones and the darker side of the songs. A truly breathtaking recording.
Angel Olsen // Creator, Destroyer

Ducktails // Lost

Another sold-out cassette (sorry guys! not meaning to rub it in your faces…), this instrumental by Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile “combines outtakes from the new record (Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics), plus some lost gems from the past year.” Although most of it is just Mondanile dicking around playing seemingly improvised guitar licks with innumerable combinations of pedals, it’s nice to get a intimate peak at how some of these songs are constructed from the ground up.
Ducktails // Hamilton Road

The Numerators // Human Blanket

Coming at you with six tracks in a whopping 10 minutes and 52 seconds, it’s no stretch to say that this cassette released by Brooklyn (via Lubbock) acid/garage rockers The Numerators packs a punch. Although not a replacement for their live show, you do get an idea of what the band’s about (most notably the spastic 28 second “Take It Easy” that leaves you asking “what the fuck just happened”) which, when talking about The Numerators, is no easy feat!
The Numerators // That’s So Raiden

Coasting // S/T

My favorite 7’’ of the year comes from a badass duo of Brooklyn garage-rockers Madison Farmer and Fiona Campbell. These ladies have no qualms about leaving your face smeared on the dashboard, taking you into warp speed 9 with their blazing guitar licks and fast-tempo drumming. What’s great about this Group Tightener release is that it includes my two favorite tracks: the instrumental shred-fest “Coasting” and the more subdued (with vocals!) noise ballad “Hots for Teacher”.
Coasting // Coasting

Memoryhouse // Caregiver

One of two Suicide Sqeeze 7’’s I bought this past year (the other being a Coathangers/Numerators split), this bedroom-pop record by Canadian dreamers Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion keeps pace with the myriad of mp3s released by the duo in 2010. Smooth and airy, it’s easy to get lost in the melodies and vocals of any Memoryhouse song with “Caregiver” and “Heirloom” (the two tracks featured on this 7’’) is not an exception.
Memoryhouse // Caregiver

Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

I don’t know if there is a musician who is held at such high esteem in the blog world as Cecil Frena. I’m by no means a noteworthy blogger, yet every e-mail I get from him is friendly, personalized, and – as expected with Gobble Gobble – highly interesting. After coming onto the scene like a nuclear explosion, blasting out mp3-after-mp3, a pair of “proper” releases (courtesy of Royal Rhino Records) finally graced our presence at the end of the year. For those who want an introduction to the spastic concoctions Cecil & Co. produce, the 7’’ is a perfect start.
Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

Magic Kids / Smith Westers // Split 7’’

My favorite split record from the past year, this Fat Possum released 7’’ features the raucous anthem-ready jam “Imagine Pt. 3” from Chicago underage indie-rockers Smith Westerns and the bouncy, light-hearted “Superball” from Memphis’s Magic Kids. The 7’’ also gets my album cover trophy of the year, with each band parodying a previous album’s cover from the other.
Magic Kids // Superball

Cosmetics // Sleepwalker

Although not as good as their previous Captured Tracks 7’’, “Sleepwalker” is a woozy, synth-heavy dance track that you’ve come to expect from the Canadian couple. Printed on clear vinyl (a nice touch!), this recording is almost too beautiful to play! When you finally decide to take the plunge and place a needle on it, you get transported to a nameless trendy club where upstairs they’re playing the A-side and downstairs, in the dark basement, their spinning the B.
Cosmetics // Sleepwalking

Seamonster // Two Birds

This five-track (!) 7’’ gives The Numerators a run for its money when it comes to bang-for-your-buck. Seamonster is the brainchild of Virgina’s self-professed “ambient/psychedelic/folk” musician Adrian Todd Webb, and with Two Birds you get just that: ambient/psych/folk tracks pieced together perfectly. Head over to Gold Robot Records to cop the release.
Seamonster // Oh Appalachia

Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight Pt. 2 | In the Cold

The first vinyl release from Bathetic Records and it’s a doozy! Smooth fuzzed out jams that you can seriously vibe out to — what more could you really want?
Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight (Part 2)

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Numerators + Coathangers // Split 7”

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Besides being two rad as fuck guys, The Numerators make some pretty solid garage rock jams — and it seems like the folks over at Suicide Squeeze Records has recognized this fact. Teaming up with Atlanta’s The Coathangers, the Rana brothers will have half of a split 7” out November 30th featuring the oldie-but-goodie “Strawberry Dreams” (the ladies are contributing “Chicken 30″). You can check out the track below and head over to Suicide Squeeze’s store to pre-order the record.

The Numerators // Strawberry Dreams

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The Numerators // Human Blanket EP

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Got to say, West Texas lo-fi heroes The Numerators have really outdone themselves lately. Between performing at some stellar SXSW gigs, taping a brand spankin’ new video, and planning an assault on the West Coast, the group has somehow found the time to record and release a crazy good six-track cassette-ready EP entitled Human Blanket which you can download FOR FREE from their website.

The disc is a fast and furious eleven minutes, blazing through each song as quickly as possible without coming up for air once. Before you know it, you’ll find yourselves hitting the end and pressing repeat to figure out what just happened. Fuzzed out, noise-filled, and as close of a replica as you’re going to get to their killer live show, Human Blanket shows what The Numerators do best: getting you off the wall and on the floor going crazy alongside every track. Check out two of my favorites from the recording below and cop the cassette from Burgers Records here (send a message/e-mail to the label):

The Numerators // That’s So Raiden

The Numerators // Green

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The Numerators // City of Gold [Video]

Monday, March 29th, 2010

What can I say, I’m a sucker for low-budget slow-motion videos. A preview of what’s to come on their upcoming West Coast tour, Lubbock’s own (or should I say Brooklyn bound?) lo-fi garage rockers The Numerators just unveiled their first music video since forever ago. Check it out below and, if you like it, snag the mp3:

The Numerators // City of Gold

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Burgers’s Post // Top 30 Songs of 2009

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Since I’m kind of exhausted of putting together lists, my good friend Burgers (who happens to be one-third of the lo-fi garage band The Numerators) took over the reigns and came up with this baadasssss list of his thirty favorite tracks of the year. After going through it, I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything on here. Chalk-full of great songs ranging from the well known to the more obscure, the list is bound to include some of your favorites as well as a handful of ones you’ve yet to discover. So without further ado, I’ll let him take over:
(more…)

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The Numerators // Summer 2009 Tour CD/R

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

If you live outside the state Texas, the likelihood that you would know about the city of Lubbock is very slim. Hell, even if you have heard about it you probably would think only of tumbleweeds, cowboy hats, and maybe Bobby Knight. Surprisingly in this dust-bowl relic of a town, which gave birth to rock & roll legend Buddy Holly, lies a pretty damn good music scene — even one judged by modern standards.

As one would expect there are a handful of great singer/songwriter and country acts that call Lubbock home, but there is also a budding garage/noise rock uprising taking place, championed most by the acid-rockers The Numerators. Looking solely at the descriptions they give on their facebook page, it’s tough to pinpoint their exact sound to an unexposed listener:

  • Local dirty living room-noise pop.
  • Drunkenly played stoner noise .
  • Bathroom rock (?!).
  • And my personal favorite: Neon Nursery Rhymes

This musical mystery is part of what’s great about the group: you never know exactly what one of their shows will entail. Now I’ve witnessed my fair share of Numerators sets in the past (after all, I went to college at Texas Tech), and I have to say that they are one of the most wildly unpredictable and hyper-energetic bands out there. Whether it be Michael Jackson covers, homemade hip-hop tracks, or just thrashing out their patented fuzzed out psych rock, they put on a damn good show.

Although their live endeavors are becoming more-or-less well known, not much has been said about their music (well, unless you count a badass Fader review). I got my hands on a couple of tracks from their highly limited self-released Summer Tour 2009 CD/R, and I have to say that it is on par with other noise bands that have been making the rounds on some more established sites.

The two particular tracks that I enjoy most from the EP are “City of Gold” and “Strawberry Dreams”. The former begins with a repetitive hazy guitar line muddling your mind just enough before the foggy vocals, courtesy of singer Sammi Rana, push you over the auditory intoxicated legal limit. “Strawberry Dreams” on the other hand sobers you up a bit with its driving floor-tom beat, only to lead you down a path of chaotic destruction midway through before bringing you back to quasi-order by the finish. It’s an exhilarating roller coast ride to say the least.

Right now, The Numerators seem to be staying put in Lubbock for a while — with only a highlighted December 9th gig with much talked about Florida indie-rockers Surfer Blood on the schedule. However, if you do get a chance to see them live, DO IT! Trust me, you won’t regret it. If you need some tunes now, contact Burgers Records. As for a sample, here is a blast-from-the-past youtube video along with a “Strawberry Dreams” mp3:

The Numerators // Strawberry Dreams

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Did You Miss Me?

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

So after ping-ponging between two continents, I’ve finally settled down in my new hometown of Portland — one of the self-described indie-Meccas of the US. So instead of draggin’ out the “what I did over summer vacation” by filing a steady stream of posts that could easily be carried into the next decade, I decided to assemble most of the live shows I witnessed (and recorded) into a condensed three-part article. So without further ado, let’s pick up where I left off:

I was fully expecting the Antony & The Johnsons to be my final European concert, however, I noticed that Swedish indie-pop act Love Is All was playing in the basement of a bar with a known capacity of about fifty. Although this was two days before I left by train to Denmark and I needed to pack up all my shit, I decided this was too good of an event to pass up.

For a crowd of twenty die-hard fans, you really couldn’t have asked for a better show. Love Is All brought their patented high-energy act, tearing through their sophomore album A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night in its entirety while still sprinkling in highlights from their critically acclaimed debut Nine Times The Same Song (playing not one, but TWO renditions of “Make Out Fall Out Make Up”). Not only was the music stellar, but the band was one of the most cordial of any I have ever met. Where most up-and-coming buzz-worthy bands would scoff at such a paltry showing of support, Love Is All embraced the intimacy and put on a one-of-a-kind show.

Once arriving back to Lubbock, Texas after a brief stint in Denmark defending my thesis, I didn’t have much break since experimental Baltimore act Ponytail and SoCal garage rockers Mika Miko were set to play on different occassions within my first eight days on American soil. Opening for both acts were local acid-rockers The Numerators.

Being how I witnessed the Numerators in their infancy right before I left to go to Europe, I must say I was impressed at how much their live act has improved. Sonically, the noise is “cleaner” and more directed than anything they’ve recorded and with their constant motion moving around the stage and into the crowd, they are by far one of the most entertaining acts I’ve seen. I can’t wait until they release an LP and start touring seriously because I think they have a bright future ahead of them.

As for the main headliners, both Ponytail and Mika Miko did not disappoint. Both had energetic vocalists, blistering your ears with their shouts and screams disguised as “singing”, however Ponytail’s Molly Siegel took the cake by contorting her face into indescribable positions in order to get just the right sound out. As expected, it didn’t take long before a small (but destructive) mosh started and people were hanging from the rafters.

Molly Siegel of Ponytail

Molly Siegel of Ponytail

Jenna Thornhill of Mika Miko

Jenna Thornhill of Mika Miko

As for Mika Miko it was great to witness their raucous “don’t give a fuck attitude” that they seem to exhibit at every show they put on. With an endless supply of sub-three minute songs to rush through, Mika Miko easy packed more music into their 50 minute set than most headlining groups do in two hours. Unfortuantely, the group decided to disband earlier this month, so I won’t be able to witness the hurricane of sound from them ever again…

Well this is the end of the first part of my glorious return, tomorrow I’ll cover some more acts I caught over the summer in Lubbock as well as in Montreal and Portland. To tide you over, here are some mp3s from the mentioned acts:

Love Is All // New Beginnings

The Numerators // Strawberry Dreams

Ponytail // Beg Waves

Mika Miko // Turkey Sandwich

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