As we sum up the remainder of summer’s gifts and groans, Impose’s Week in Pop ramps up the fall outlook of indie forecasts and forthcoming coverages of intrigue. First from the viral feeds of the inescapable: Aphex Twin shared a listen to the first song in 13 years time; Faith No More is recording their first album since 1997; Death Grips got featured in an Adidas commercial; Billy Corgan alluded to a potential retiring of the Smashing Pumpkins franchise; CeeLo’s twitter debacle did not seem to be helping any of his matters; we mourn the passing of Joan Rivers; and guitar boffins all the world over rejoice as the University BIMM Dublin has just introduced the Kevin Shields Music Production Scholarship.
Turning things over now to a handful of the artists that are making waves — we’re talking world exclusive premieres, discussions, brand new media and more from Baseball Gregg, Satan Wriders, SILVA, Ruane Maurice, Woodsman, Souvenir Stand, Streight Angular, Shrimper’s Dennis & Allen Callaci, and more, co-curated by MLTD — in no particular order.
BASEBALL GREGG
Announcing the latest edition to the Harlot family, we are proud to introduce to you the Stockton by Italy duo, Baseball Gregg. The synergy began when Satan Wriders own Samuel Regan was studying abroad in Italy where he met Luca Lovisetto in his hometown of Bologna. The California tape-recorder-toting spirit takes on a coastal Mediterranean Balearic charm that doesn’t break the bank — but bets on EU-angled dream pop that inspires rounds of spontaneous celebrations and instant entertainment. Their debut self-titled tape is scheduled for release on Cassette Store Day, September 27 on Harlot in the States and La Barberia Records in Italy, and we are privileged to bring you the first sneak peak with the world premiere of, “Mathdance”. Filmed by Samuel, and fellow Satan Wrider Eli Wengrin around the Stockton area, the footage was sent across the Atlantic to Luca who edited the piece together with techniques of multimedia wizardry that involved passing the video through a projector, a VHS tape, a DVD, and other steps to gain that timeless, universal glow and glisten.
“Mathdance” unveils the creative chemistry between Sam and Luca, where Baseball Gregg makes a splash hit of energetic carpe diem. Mixing fun times in the setting sun at the delta, he busts out some skate board tricks and other outdoor activities, interspersed with found video of Sam’s family celebrating in constant rounds of eager, and optimistic dances. Luca gives a bit of Italo television, as the boundless joviality of Mr. Regan keeps the mood at a constant high, as fun time with friends, relatives, cherished moments, and preserved sundown scenery take over. Walking us through the new multinational collaboration, we got to know the collaborative world of Baseball Gregg a little better in our conversation with Luca, Sam, and Eli, following of debut of “Mathdance”.
Sam, Eli, what was the lake shoot like around Stockton?
Samuel: It was super fun. I usually only go to that spot on the delta late at night for bonfires or to go for bike rides, and it was actually the first time I’ve ever hung out there around sunset. A lot of my good friends came out to dance around which was cool. My boy Cameron Getty kept doing a lot of really rad stuff and as a result is in the video a lot.
Eli: Sammy invited me to participate as an extra in the video but I accidentally ended up manning the camera, which was cool. Lads Delta Marina is a weird place of gathering in Stockton where young people have been starting fires and drinking for decades. There’s a bit of cool, shitty graffiti and decay going on out there which makes for an odd but interesting visual accompaniment to the Gregg’s ultra lush track.
And Sam, how did you discover the old school VHS tapes of you and your family dancing that made their way into the video?
Samuel: Just to clarify, it’s not actually VHS but miniDV, which are smaller cassettes with higher quality (I think) than VHS. Anyway, I used to film a lot of skateboarding and other stuff with that camera back in my youth, and my mom would only ever let me use one of her tapes, so I just taped over and over the same tape all the time. When I got the camera out for the first time in a few years to film this video, I had to figure out which tape was my tape, and while looking for it I ended up watching tons of old family footage. Almost every tape had people dancing which was weird, but worked perfectly. I never ended up finding my tape, but just filmed the rest at the end of one of the other tapes. We even got to add some of that skating flare to my Mom’s old home movies.
Luca, what was the process like managing and arranging footage of skateboarding sunsets and lake time fun times along with Sam’s VHS memories into the video for “Mathdance”?
Luca: The very first idea for this video was shooting a real-action underground battle between Zumba Dancers and bad-ass Skaters. Then Sam found all those 90s’ happy cassettes of him and his relatives dancing, and they were awesome. Eli and Sam also shot a lot of tight dancing footage at Stockton river’s delta, but it looked really different from the family tapes. So, after editing everything with Final Cut, I transferred the video from computer to VHS multiple times in order to merge everything together better and to get that scratchy VHS look.
Luca: We were basically looking for a video in which everyone is dancing for no reason.
How did these international connections come about here in the Baseball Gregg family?
Samuel: I went to school in Italy last year and met Luca’s girlfriend, Stefania, in a math class. She was really nice and invited me to go see that movie The Bling Ring and Luca was there. I felt kinda embarrassed because the movie takes place in California, and I was afraid they’d think I was like the kids in the movie. I guess they didn’t though, because they still wanted to hang out and be my friend.
Luca: Sam spent a whole year here in Bologna, and after some time we started having this almost physiological need to make music together. After some time that we knew each other, I lent him a classical guitar and he wrote a lot of songs on it. He produced a lot of songs, and they were all very good; but in the end we sadly had to choose only few of them to record because he had already booked his flight back home and we hadn’t enough time to record everything properly.
Samuel: Yeah we decided to do this just a few months before I had to come back to the states. We probably could have made a lot more songs had time provided, but it’s probably better this way. It’s short and sweet, or something like that.
This super lo-fi video gives off the best visual accompaniment for “Mathdance”, and I was wondering what inspired this mathematical dream dancing song.
Luca: I wrote music and lyrics for this song last March, during a weird Saturday afternoon. Usually on Saturday mornings I teach guitar to a small group of children, and that very morning I taught them a standard four-chords progression in C. Between instructing, I started whistling the song melody, and then the title credit was taken from a drawing that I found on Facebook that same afternoon.
Tell us how Baseball Gregg first began, and what’s up with that extra ‘G’ in the name?
Luca: The extra ‘G’ in the name is dedicated to Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs head coach: we recorded this cassette during NBA Playoffs and I was kinda obsessed with them.
Also: the band’s name was decided after a long brainstorming made by Sam, in which he listed over 100 potential names (some examples: Wealthy Cum, Tweed Dreams, The Han Solos, David Lunch). Then, I just added the second ‘G.’
How do you all know each other, meet, etc?
Luca: I met Sam last year thanks to my girlfriend Stefania who attended an Algebra course with him. He came here to Italy to study Math; I was in Bologna to study Medicine. Our very first talk was about Emma Watson’s accent in Bling Ring. We became very good friends and afterwards we made a couple of songs together for some Christmas compilations we had been invited to participate to.
I miss him quite a lot.
Samuel: Luca is maybe the sweetest person I’ve ever met.
Excited for your premiere release via Harlot stateside and Italian imprint La Barberia, can you all describe for us what it was like recording your debut album as Baseball Gregg?
Luca: The songs mostly took form in Sam’s room except for “Mathdance” and West Virginia which I had written before. After that Sam had written pretty everything, we recorded together all the six tracks in a couple of weeks in the top floor of my Bologna flat, mixing and mastering included. We used a drum-machine for the beats; Sam and me alternatively played guitars, bass, an 80s’ Roland synth and other minor instruments. Half of the songs are sung by Sam, the other half by me: the vocals have been recorded with a very cheap condenser mic we bathed in reverb. It’s an honor for me that our tiny DIY cassette will be published by these two labels I love, we have been very fortunate and privileged of such a nice double release.
Samuel: We recorded it all in either Luca’s apartment, where his girlfriend would cook us dinner, or in Luca’s parent’s basement, where his mom would cook us dinner. It was cool to have dinner made for me almost every night.
Recording anecdotes, favorite behind-the-music moments worth sharing?
Luca: We massively used this plugin called Kramer while recording the songs in Logic: we initially even wanted to call the cassette “Love Kramer”. Sam, tell how you first met Giovanni (head of Barberia Records, together with Luca Mazzieri).
Samuel: [laughs] Alright. I think it was April, and I took a train from Bologna to Milan to see La Luz. However the trains only run until around 11 or midnight, so I was going to miss the last train back to Bologna, and was planning on just hanging out all night in Milan. But while I was there I saw this guy Enzo Baruffaldi who I’d never met in real life, but who has a Christmas compilation he does every year that I had submitted a song to. I recognized Enzo and started talking to him, eventually asking him if I could bum a ride with him and his friends back to Bologna. His friend Stefano gave me a ride back in his big white van, and Giovanni was with them, and he was super nice and funny the whole ride home. Thanks again for the ride, Stefano!
As Stockton has been gaining attention and popularity, who are some of the local and maybe not so local artists we should be listening to?
Luca: I am definitely not a local, and I’m not a expert, but I’m a great fan of Surf Club, Mltd, Craft Spells, Meat Market and Satan Wriders (of course). Anyway, beyond these Stockton-related acts, I think you should all listen to Alvvays’ debut, my record of the summer.
Samuel: Some of my favorite not so local artists right now are Yogurt Brain and Baus from Oakland. Those guys rule. Even more not so local, I’m a bit of a Woolen Men and a big Dude York fan.
With your debut release dropping on cassette store day, September 27; what other cassettes are you all excited for?
Samuel: I just saw there is going to be a UV Race greatest hits tape coming out, and I don’t understand how they’re going to put all three of their albums and their EP onto a tape, so I’m curious about that.
Luca: I’ve heard that the debut of my favorite UK act of the year (Fear of Men) is gonna be released in the States too on Cassette Store Day via That Summer Feeling, a New Jersey based cassette label: don’t miss it American friends!
Baseball Gregg’s debut cassette for Harlot Stateside and La Barberia Records in Italy will be available September 27 for Cassette Store Day.
SATAN WRIDERS
Speaking of Satan Wriders, this week the Stockton heck raisers released their self-made video for one of our favorite singles of theirs, “Sun Coma”. Found off their Black Eyed Kids album from Harlot, we are brought through the thoroughfares of the 209 area code on “Freeway”, the garage clang and glare of “She’s Not Right”, the virtuosic reality bites of “Reality’s a Bitch”, ulterior and alternate realities of suburban strip-mall surrealism on “Hot Sidewalk (CVS dub)”, shamble core shore parties on “Goes to the Beach”, storming scuzz crashes on the wipe-out wonderland, “Wriders’ Journey”, title track tremors, melancholic melodies of, “Dead Children”, and the closing rhythmic, rock, and rider, “Therapy”.
Presenting you a Satan Wriders original made by the whole crew, we give you the official video for the sunny power pop single, “Sun Coma”. Rocking the VHS camcorder steez your grandma and parents used to shove in your face for kicks and laughs, get ready for John, Eli, and Sam wriding[sp] ahead on the attack and making a ruckus. Partaking in the budgeted DIY fashion of the day that looks to the analog mediums from back in the day — “Sun Coma” has it all. Fuzzy scan-lines and funky frames find John, Eli, and Sam discovering the weird powers they can wield with the help of a Wal-Mart scored gold chain. See the sights as they shake you out of your slumber, and out of your seat and into Stockton locales from delta bonfire bashes, flashing horns in the parking lot, and boogieing to the music in the back seat, with a nocturnal run through Stockton hang-outs. John Steiner wrote us the following statement about the new video, magical gold chains, and some vague clues and hints at what’s next in the works from the ‘Wriders:
Yo, it the Wriders here for the Week in Pop of our Lord September 2014 and we got a new video. This is the visual for “Sun Coma,” the second single and B-side opener of four Black Eyed Kids LP. Eli found a VHS camera in June and we’ve been toyin’ with it ever since. One day we were filming junk when Sam and John found a mystical gold chain lying in the back of a Wal-Mart parking lot. The chain radically altered the boys’ energies. We documented the positive-negative synergy for this resulting video.
Stay tuned for some exciting new Wriders in 2015. Lots of projects in the works, including a split with a certain group of West Coast All Stars…
RUANE MAURICE
The last time we enjoyed the company of Birmingham, UK’s Ruane Maurice, they co-curated an absolutely mental Week in Pop segment, so here they are again, presenting an exclusive stream of their self-titled album for Stars & Letters, followed by an interview round. Midlanders Matthew Forbes, Sam Lewis, and Chris Caedus pack a craft that combines gravely lyrical listings with the atmospheric production and beats that boom with like gavels striking sub-woofer bass drums.
The asphalt atmospheres of the self-titled begin on “Nomenclature” where you wander down Birmingham, UK roads past the shopping center, darting down clandestine corners to find subterranean spheres of under influences. But Ruane Maurice continue to traverse into a descending production staircase of many different hallways, tunnels, corridors, opening the multi-tiered doors of “Lakes”. A hallmark of the RM ethos is to cut tracks with many designated and specially tailored rooms, section, and layers, like whole onions in metal basket being slowly and steadily lowered into boiling vegetable oil. While Matty, Chris, and Sam will swear that they throw most considerations of direct influences in mind to favor their own creative process; “Farne” rocks something straight out of a post-new jack dance track, to the more contemporary creations of tracks like “Two Gates” that carries aftershocks of current west coast experimentation in rhythm, production, and rhyme.
And then on “Fish Tanks”, Ruane Maurice takes you on the full immersion trip. The attention to technical sound design keeps the beats jumping, as showcased on “Downlands”. Staying true to their creation of underworlds, hooligan attitudes, and rough exhaled expressions of occasional anger, “Peaked” brings the apex of these talents into a closing point. Experience the full-length debut from the Birmingham three, followed by our interview with Ruane Maurice.
How did Summer 2014 treat you all? Also how was the Worcester Music Festival?
The summer was one of transition. We’ve now all finished our degrees and progressing with our live show became our main focus. All the shows we’ve played have been such great experiences, Worcester not being an exception. But it’s all a learning curve, and there is always room to improve in how we want to impact an audience.
With the UK always coming out with some new DJ and/or dance craze movement, where have you all found much of your influence as a collective?
When recording we try not to concentrate on drawing from other artists. Our main focus has been on our relationships with each other and those around us, not necessarily based in music, but more trying to convey specific emotional responses to selected situations. We try not to mimic or capitalize on a scene that’s already in existence. If there was a specific manifesto we adhered to within the recording sessions it was to express influences based within personal instinct rather than direct influence from other musicians.
How do you figure out the dynamic of the rhythmic lyrical delivery and the production? Like, which comes first, the rhymes, or the production?
It honestly depends. Often it can be one of us texting everyone else with two lyrical lines and then a whole song forming from just that. That said, often one of us has presented a rough outline to a track musically and everything works around that motif.
You all are known to make very atmospheric environments on all of your tracks. How do you all manage to achieve this, do you imagine metal barrel echoes of sound, like on “Peaked”, or the choral discord dystrophy of “Fish Tanks”?
The last year has been based in experimentation, using a wide variety of analog hardware, to produce the intrinsic aural atmosphere which is on the record. That said, so much of what we use is temperamental to the point that the sound we get in each session can often not be replicated again. Those anomalies produce the spontaneity we wanted to be at the forefront of the recordings.
I like the kind of downer spheres of “Downlands” that almost feels like a world for downloads to inhabit. What’s the story behind that number?
“Downlands” was a house owned by Mattys grandparents. It holds special significance in that it was in the middle of the Somerset countryside and in complete isolation, but there was warmth and comfort in that space. Downlands was an attempt to recreate the connection to that feeling. Sonically it exists between extremities of sparse aural environments, with a level of comfort in the structuring.
Can you all walk us through what it was like recording this album? What was it like for the three of you?
We recorded it in Chrissy’s house in Bristol, locking ourselves away in that room. Recording, sleeping, and eating all happened in that space. It was necessary creatively for us all to get to that place of having complete focus day in, day out on nothing but writing and exploring what we wished to convey on the album. It was a period of high emotions both positive and negative, but that isolation was necessary to be as bluntly honest as we all could be.
Where did the name Ruane Maurice come from, if you all don’t mind my nosy/nerdy asking?
The name was derived by combining family names which were all pertinent to who we are now. It was a way of acknowledging those influences and respecting how much they have shaped what we are doing now.
What’s next for Ruane Maurice?
Our writing process is a continuous one, and our growth both musically and personally is often through that writing. We also constantly strive to improve the live show. That said we are at a point with it now, where the performances get increasingly more organic and spontaneous, with a real focus on live improvisation
Who else should we be listening to that we’re not?
Little Brother, Arch M, Eric Copeland, The Blow and Bobby Conn would be an excellent place to start.
Ruane Maurice’s self-titled will be available September 9 from Stars & Letters.
SILVA
Fresh off releasing the Janeiro EP that hosted remix versions from Teen Daze, Cosmic Kids and Marbeya Sound, Brazilian artist SILVA is about to release the album Ocean View September 23 from Six Degrees Records, but not before debuting the seaward gazing cut, “Vista Pro Mar”. Keeping the natural cycle of sounds that blend elements of land and sea in congress like on “January”, “Vista Pro Mar” surveys the unfurling expanses of ocean as far as the eyes can stretch out into the horizon’s vanishing point and to the ear’s furthest reach.
Sung in SILVA’s native Portuguese tongue, “Vista Pro Mar” gravitates toward the outlines of beaches the world over. Inspired by his hometown island of Vitória, in Espírito Santo, Brazil; the quaint conditions and warm waters encircle and greet the listener with an ecstatic electricity of the world’s most breathtaking sea views combined together. In our conversation with SILVA following the premiere of “Vista Pro Mar”, we learn about further Florida familial inspirations with nods to the Portuguese archipelago Madeira found in the Northern Atlantic. SILVA sends out a passport to all listeners to an exquisite island paradises escape, where nu-Samba syntheses spring to mind mental images of beautiful landscapes and seven seas flowing into each other as one. The worlds elicited from these new recordings provide a portal to a place where summer stays all winter long, and January evenings swelter with the tropical heat of hot August nights.
What first brought you into the music composition, production, singing and performance arts?
It was probably the influence of my mother and my uncle. They are both classically trained musicians and they use to give me a lot of encouragement since I was very young. I always loved music and my experiences with composition, production and other things happened in a really natural way. I found out I could sing a few years ago when I was living in Ireland and then I started writing my first songs and tried my first home recordings.
Thoughts on life roads that have lead up to the Janeiro EP and now the full-length, Ocean View?
Well, when I made my first album, which was released only in Brasil and Portugal, I produced everything at home. That process influenced me for sure and my music used to get more introspective. Then when I started playing the gigs I realized I wanted to explore other kinds of humor in music. Then I started to listen to my favorite Brazilian albums again and I got in touch with the good vibes that I was looking to put in my work.
What has the Brazil scene recently been like for you, and in what ways has the people, events, politics, and the recent World Cup fracas effected you, your work and those of your family and peers?
I have seen a growing and interesting music scene here, it’s just a pity that the Brazilian mainstream media only giveS space for the same old stuff. The World Cup was bound to fail and I was impressed that it was not worse. FIFA earned $15 billion and we inherit stadiums in inappropriate places with no future use.
Who are some other Brazilian artists in Brazil, or South America in general, that you think need more outside attention?
I would say Mahmundi, Telebossa, João Donato and Céu.
Thoughts on what it was like hearing the remixes from Teen Daze, Cosmic Kids and Marbeya Sound, rearranging your labors of love?
I loved it! It is a little weird the first time you hear someone rearranging your music, but it was a good surprise! They have made a good work on those remixes.
And thoughts on fusing the samba elements with the more contemporary and future styles?
I want to keep working on these ideas. Brazil has a lot of interesting rhythms and music genres that are still very traditional, I mean, they have not gone through a renewal process. I will not be presumptuous enough to say that I will do it, but it could be a nice try.
Everyone has their own attachments to sea, and I was wondering what sorts of costa vistas inspired Ocean View for you?
The first “vista” that inspired Ocean View was probably my hometown, Vitória. Vitória is an island, not so big but not even small and the coast is really beautiful with a few nice beaches. Florida has inspired me too as I have a sister living there. And Madeira, the Portuguese archipelago, inspired me a lot! I was there last year for a couple concerts and I stayed a few days to feel to good vibes of the island and to see some beautiful landscapes.
What was the album recording and arrangement process like for you?
First I produced and recorded almost everything at home and then I went to the studio to record some of the instruments properly. Then I went to Lisbon for a small tour and I finished the recordings there. After this process I went to San Francisco to do the mixing with Patrick Brown at Different Fur Studios.
What is the story behind the beach pop vibes of “Vista Pro Mar”?
“Vista Pro Mar” is the main song of the album not only because of the title but the whole vibe. The lyrics are kind of motivational and it brings the good feelings that the sea brings.
Give us the story about behind the Janeiro single, and how has Rio de Janeiro influenced your perspective, thoughts, and global musical leanings?
Janeiro was the first song I wrote for Ocean View and it has this name because it was made in January of the last year. It is a summery song (yes, it is summer in Brazil at the time) and it talks about the positive vibes of the year’s beginning.
SILVA’s second album, Ocean View, will be available September 23 from Six Degrees Records. Watch the following trailer for the album here:
WOODSMAN
Our good friends Woodsman out of the blue released the Teleseparation EP on Fire Talk Records, a companion piece to their self-titled album that saw release earlier on in the year. The revered trio of Trevor, Mark, and Dylan shed a little perspective on the inside approach to their recent recording processes, as you get to experience the self-titled’s closing track, “Teleseparation”, in one continuous jam divided into four portions.
The first part is like the onset of uncontrollable jubilation, like entering a forest of limitless and boundless wonders where the foliage, greenery, and surroundings are comprised of the composition of guitar chorded branches. The second section is a cycle that involves the connection and relationship of the rhythmic core to the guitar strings that continue on a perpetual panoramic of painted wildlife and all the hallucinations of grandeur, a vision questing warrior could hope for. The third part is the lull, like a tranquil pause to enjoy the amenities of a discovered lake hidden deep in the canopied ceiling covers of the woods. The fourth and final installment of the Teleseparation EP is one of the main attractions, where the Woodsman trio make up a labyrinthine lobby of friends, foes, heroes, villains, and the best stuff reserved typically for prog rock masterpieces, jam band gold, and drone delving soundscapes that reach Tolkien levels of epic proportions. Trevor joined up with us again to give us the following insights behind the latest Woodsman offering:
The last track on our self titled album from earlier this year was a composition we pulled from a much longer studio take. One way Woodsman approaches recording is to set up live and start playing with no preconceived notions of where we’re headed or where we might end up. It’s an exercise in chance and trust and really allows us to get out of our heads for a bit. That track “Teleseparation” was the distillation of a 30 minute jam that was excerpted and overdubbed on top of. This EP works as a companion piece to the record and lays out that entire 30 minute jam in 4 parts, no overdubs. If you listen to the EP then the more concise track back to back, you can really get a glimpse into the creative process. The EP is special in another way too because it marks the last time all four original members were in the studio together.
Woodsman’s Teleseparation EP is available now from Fire Talk Records.
SOUVENIR STAND
Stephanie Cupo first introduced us to her 60s singing project Souvenir Stand with the single “Wherever You Go” off the DAYS EP, and now we are happy to provide a listen to “Fall”, off the forthcoming Suprise 7″available October 2 from Silent Stereo Records. Pick ups, put down, and signs posted all around are described by Stephanie as distractions and diversions from the unexpected ways of finding and falling out of kindred companionship.
As the Souvenir Stand sound becomes a larger production of vast arrangements and an even more ambitious air; “Fall” is the sound of Cupo singing in front of her own pop orchestra. The sound sparkles in the happening sway of 60s saddled jukebox jive, as Stephanie savors the anachronistic forms with a modern day sincerity and shyness as she sings songs of sadness and expressions of enduring affection. The mysteries of empathy and opening oneself to the experience of love is sung in a flight of fancy where the courses of arrivals and departures of loved ones are illustrated in an autumn portrait of heart and happenstance.
What has the jump been like for you from your previous Beautiful Strange released DAYS EP to the upcoming Surprise for Silent Stereo Records?
It sounds a bit confusing but SURPRISE is being released both via Beautiful Strange and Silent Stereo Records. Beautiful Strange has been kind enough to press the physical 7 inch vinyl as well as all the free merchandise that comes with the order (free stuff, woo!) .
Silent Stereo Records is releasing SURPRISE digitally and also I recorded the single at their studio. I’m so grateful to be working once again with Beautiful Strange, and the opportunity to additionally work with Silent Stereo is a dream come true. I had wanted to work with them since I first heard a single song recorded there: “Don’t Count On Me” by Nouvellas on WFMU in like 2009. It is an all analog studio and it was truly a privilege to work with such talented and like-minded people.
The release itself is a slight shift in the sound to throw anyone off who thought they had Souvenir Stand all figured out, hence the name SURPRISE (get it?). I wanted the music to go beyond just upbeat girl group pop, although that style of music heavily influences me; there are many more styles I wanted to explore with this new single, most of which have slightly darker leanings.
How has the process of creating Surprise been, and what has surprised you creatively between the writing and recording stages?
The process was definitely new for me. These two songs had been kicking around as rough demos for a while, so when I chose to record them it gave me a pretty clean slate to work with. For example the full vision for “Fall” took some thought. If it was handled like a straight piano ballad you’ve got a “Let It Be” knock-off and I could already anticipate the impending harsh criticism or “meh” reactions. I’m not trying to tamper with the classics here!
We (meaning myself, Dennis Pierce, and Andrew Pierce at Silent Stereo Studio) first tried to take the song into Byrds territory – this meant Clarence White style dual guitar lines. And believe me, the parts sounded amazing, but ultimately it didn’t seem like the proper style for this particular song and I figured out I wanted to lean more toward the unusual and eerie sounds of later era Beatles, Beach Boys and even Joe Meek. (I have this unrealistic dream that someday the alternate country version of “Fall” will be released on my career spanning the box set…so let’s all hold our breath for that one…)
So we changed the feel of the song. Just to name a few elements we added unusual organ sounds, a guitar solo through a Leslie doubled by a melodica, alternated washed out and dry drums, and I added three part harmony on sax. This is why we joked it was the “mix of a mad man” once the full arrangement was done. I see that as a positive though, the song turned out to be far from a carbon copy. I think there’s pride in that and the arrangement suits the mood of the song, it’s not just “weird for the sake of weird” (hopefully other people agree!). I guess the entire process was a composite of the unexpected but it had a way of coming together just the way it needed to.
“Fall” already feels like a larger arrangement and execution than your previous single, “Wherever You Go”, how did you manage to capture that old world LA 60s sound of echo and well applied electric buzz in your current sound?
First of all thank you! That question itself is quite the compliment! This need to bring a huge Phil Spector-esque arrangement to “Fall” was originally rooted in the concern that the chord structure was too basic. I can’t and won’t compete with a classic piano ballad, so I needed to bring some unusual sounds to a very familiar chord progression.
To me, the most important factor to capturing a sound like this is the use of the studio as an instrument. Analog echo and reverb were key, and not just to gloss over the vocals, but to also alternate the drum sound and create an overall setting for the song’s mood. As a slight nod to Brian Wilson’s “Caroline, No” we used a technique of washing out and echoing the sound of a drumstick hit similar to his choice of using a plastic bottle. I truly believe that subtle effects like that become a way to enhance the personality of the song and it’s the layering of these subtleties make the song unique and complete.
How had your experience of classical music studies and saxophone impacted your approach to pop music?
Hmmm…. I think my experience with the saxophone has influenced the melodic nature of the songs I write. I was never comfortable improvising and blowing sax like Lisa Simpson, as much as I wanted to be her from about age six. I couldn’t really get into a-tonal contemporary classical music either. I needed melody. I wanted to play ballads, or something with a tune to it. When I had to learn challenging (seemingly unmusical) things, I would of course, but it wasn’t my cup of tea, it was just stressful.
Call me sappy but I wanted to connect to the music a little, emote a little. I’ve never been good at it in person, so this was something I looked to do through music. So I guess my tastes in saxophone were foreshadowing of the more personal connection I would find in songwriting, shaping my own melodies and then getting to arrange around them.
Also my studies have influenced my music because I like to give all the songs a little touch of saxophone in my own style. Even if it’s just a bari sax holding out bass notes, I always find it give another dimension to the music.
What other indie artists have you been enjoying lately that you feel need more attention?
My favorite indie band out there is hands down Chalk and Numbers and some others I really enjoy are Dentist and The Jeanies.
Fall/winter/ 2015 plan for Souvenir Stand?
We have a release show at the Cake Shop in NYC on October 2nd! That will be the first chance to pick up the vinyl and then they will be up on Bandcamp through the Souvenir Stand page for the US and the Beautiful Strange Bandcamp for UK/International purchases.
The plan for 2015 is still piecing itself together but at the moment we have a lot of unrecorded material and I keep trying to churn out new music all the time. So hopefully a more substantial release of music will be on the way in additional to just continuing to play live around the NYC area…and in a perfect world, maybe tackling some of the music synchronization world too.
STREIGHT ANGULAR
While thinking about the Boston underground scenes, we received this dance-gymnastics instructional video for the song, “I Miss You” made from Boston eccentrics, Streight Angular. The independent array found in the Massachusetts capital remained a mystery to many of us outsiders until a Guerilla Toss article brought a whole other dimension of fun, weird, and wild to our attention, and into our radar scopes.
Grabbing attention with their infectious and eye-catching “Everyone is Syncopated” video, “I Miss U” operates on the creation and cradling of memories. The east coast home made pop sound comes through with that DIY honesty that hits all the heart-strung and nerve-attached marks that sounds and feel like something that everyone can respond to in their own way. Following the video, Al Polk from Streight Angular joined our discussion party to give us further looks inside the indie Boston scenes.
Can you share some words about how the song “I Miss U” came about?
It is a simple love song, about someone who needs to confess how much they miss someone whether they know it or not. It really isn’t just meant to be about missing a person, but it could be missing anything. Longing is one of the things that all humans have in common. It actually can cause a lot of pain and distress especially if someone has an addictive personality. It’s basically about missing something that you fear you may lose or have lost. The riff is pretty cool too!
How did the gymnastics instructional video become the visual centerpiece for, “I Miss U”?
We have been really into surrealism, especially Salvador Dali. We recently had the opportunity to travel to Europe and visited a bunch of modern art museums and saw some of Dali’s work in person and it blew our minds. Dali’s art always used familiar things, but displayed in a really strange way. We wanted to do something like that.
It is like someone’s memory. It is like a dream. We only have images in our minds of people or things we long for or try and remember the best things about them, like ghosts. Our friend is a fantastic dancer and gymnast and she seemed to be a great subject to film and create a memory world.
What types of pangs and longings informed “I Miss You”?
This song was written rather quickly. I was sitting with my guitar in my friends apartment in New York, longing to get back to Boston to my love and drummer Theresa. I do a lot of traveling trying to make connections spread the word of our band and I was feeling bummed that I was all alone and felt like I was at a dead end.
I found these interesting chords and the words “I miss you, more than you will ever know” came out.
It is simple, but it seems to get the point across. Also, when you miss someone it’s the simple things you remember, like the color of someone’s hair. Sometimes it’s like people will never know how much you care about them, because sometimes we don’t show it.
What’s the latest and greatest happenings from the Boston scenes?
Whitehaus Family Record is an awesome DIY space and Cheapseats run by Erich Haygun is a complete chaos four hour monthly event where anyone can sign up and poets, dance, nudity, saxophone, lights, art rock, and folk all come together. It’s pretty amazing. There is a a local paper put out by Boston Hassle called Boston Counter Cultural Compass. It has a lot of great articles and helps spread the word of underground shows and new bands. We even have a crazy online reality TV Show in town called Quiet Desperation led by a bunch of manic creative types.
Boston is full of really cool bands and artists. Mostly playing in basements and at dingy rock clubs like Out of the Blue Gallery, O’Briens Pub or The Middle East Club and TT the Bear’s. There is quite a variety of sounds from punk, and indie to jazz and hip-hop.
Things are fresh and weird in the underground.
What are you all recording right now?
We are working on a new album tentatively titled Let’s Go Back to the Future full of upbeat songs that have different rhythms like rock, salsa, reggae, and pop. We are going to work with Chris McLaughlin (Fanfarlo, Aberdeen City , Mean Creek) at Studio 1867 which is a huge old masonic temple. We hope to get some good energy from it. This year we put out a tape called Super Party Fun Time! that you should check out in the meantime at our Bandcamp page (http://itsstreightangular.bandcamp.com/)
Other Boston-bands we should be vibing to?
There are a lot of cool bands coming out especially anything on Feeding Tube Records, Bird Organ, Guerilla Toss, Viva Viva, Anubispop, Earthquake Party! The Nickel and Dime Band, Casey Desmond, All Eyes on Me, Concealed Creatures, Rob Potylo, The Cars.. haha I can’t think of anymore, I’m stoned [laughs].
Listen to more from Streight Angular via Bandcamp.
ALLEN & DENNIS CALLACI, AARON ALCALA
From the head desks at Shrimper Records, Cassette Store Day is just around the corner (September 27), and they’re readying Allen & Dennis Callaci Sings/Aaron Alcala Plays the Smiths Songbook on cassette, featuring the following classic Morrissey/Marr tune of possession and pride, “I Won’t Share You”. The softer, and almost acoustic rendering from the fellows behind Refrigerator and Adam Lipman provide a more stripped-down song of heartbreak, long goodbyes, parting glances, and such that creates the exasperated and vulnerable motions of reaching out for the presence of someone that is not there. The Callaci brothers up the stakes and turn the degrees of sadness up (or down, depending on how you hear it/look at it), while Aaron’s piano notes and guitar work ignite the electrical panel that illuminates the co-dependent and crushed memories that never fade from the heart’s consciousness. Dennis Callaci described it for us like this:
The original idea for this cassette, and it had been in the cassette form in our minds from the get go, was a lark by my wife to sand some Smiths songs down to their country roots (can’t say that we were fully successful in our go round as “I Won’t Share You” is much more Patty Waters, and “Golden Lights” reminds me more of a second drawer Phil & Don than Ira & Charlie).
Allen and I harmonize on most of the songs, which was rarely the case in Refrigerator, and we were joined by Aaron Alcala who plays most of the instrumentation as these songs were all cut live with one or two minor instrumental overdubs at his place over a few summer nights in July and August. Still dig the idea of recording then hand-dubbing tapes when I can find the time (like this one) for a quick one-month turn around.
Allen Callaci also joined in the conversation, speaking about what The Smiths mean to him today.
The Smiths musically embodied the lonely spirit of the social outcast empathatically, sometimes with an inward viciousness and outward outrage and at other times with a sly and biting humor, better than any other band of their age. I think of these recordings as both a salute and thank you to that spirit from one underdog to another.
DINNER
Captured Tracks‘ latest signing, Dinner is the outfit of the Berlinbased, by way of LA/Denmark artist Anders Rheden who is preparing a new upcoming EP, Oui!, following up two recent EPs and a meditative journey tape (with word of a full-length to drop next year).
First, you are invited to the strange-bird world of wonk and pomp on the introductory video, “Meet Dinner!” (what would be an otherwise awkward video dating segment, if it had not been for sparse specs and tech talk).
Then if you still are not sure whether or not Captured Tracks is trolling you or punking you with this Dinner schtick, decide for yourself with the classic fitted karaoke kookiness of, “Girl”.
Taking you deeper into the rabbit hole of this breaking development, we were able to enjoy a conversation with Anders from Dinner, over long distance cables, and some of the following strange tales:
For you what have you found interesting, fascinating, odd, or otherwise about the differences and similarities of LA and Berlin?
Both cities seem to have a dark undercurrent, energetically speaking. At least, so it feels to me. When I’m at the old Theosophist lodge in Beachwood Canyon it feels like it’s a nexus for all the light energy present in LA… But so many places in that city just feel…. if not evil, then mysterious, to say the least.
I remember ending up in a car with some rich kids from the Palisades. I was standing outside a strip bar where Geneva Jacuzzi just played. These kids walked by, and took me with them to a party in the Hills. We ended up in a park behind the house in the black of night, fog everywhere. I honestly thought they were going to kill Dinner. They were howling at the moon. They started harmonizing in these hi-pitched voices. A lot of sexual tension. I guess they were just high on life. Or money, or drugs or whatever. I felt I was in that park with four demons. They didn’t seem human…To me, LA is a place where several realities collide. Demonic realms meet our world, for instance.
How did Dinner first begin?
It was autumn in Copenhagen. I was sitting with a friend on his balcony, in the sun, sharing a cigarette. The love of my life had just left me. And I didn’t know what to do — with music or with my life. My friend, Jannis from the band Choir of Young Believers, suggested that I let him produce me. (I used to produce his band in the past). And that I let him decide everything. So I did – I let go completely and put everything in his hands, as a way of letting go, and sacrificing my will to the universe. Jannis called in Caecilie Trier (CTM) and Nicolai Koch (pre-be-un), and together they made all the creative decisions. We went into a studio for two days and came out with seven arrangements for songs I’d written.
They decided I should sing, not me. I protested, but I’d promised to obey, so I did.
Why Dinner as a name, and why not breakfast, or lunch, or brunch, snack, or dessert?
Because dinner is the king of meals.
Berlin always has great artists, who are you digging from there right now?
To me the coolest thing about the Berlin music scene is the fact that Sean Nicholas Savage is living here. I’m meeting him for coffee on Sunday, actually. To me, he’s the sexiest guy in music right now. I saw Mr. Savage play a show in Amsterdam last year. He had such a hypnotic presence! Nice taste in blazer jackets and jewlery too.
What’s the latest and most shaking thing in LA right now?
In LA, a few weeks ago I was at this New Age / art fair, as a meditation trainer. The whole thing was put together by Top 40 and Dinner’s new friend Diva Dompe. (Recently, Diva did a mass-hypnosis-session in the heated roof-top pool at the Ace hotel, downtown LA. With Dinner I’ve done guided group-meditations a bunch of times during live-shows, but never in swimwear. She’s cool). It’s really nice to see that there seems to be more and more people in LA mixing up music and art with New Age. Check out Geneviève Belleveau’s stuff.
The hazy-dream-brooder-blur of “Girl” is a lo-fi tape enthusiasts dream. How do you combine that kind of heavy weighted vocals with such minimalist but awe-inspiring notes, and vintage-futurism vibes?
Dear friend! What a nice question.
I try my best to sing with the voice The Universe gave me. I’m glad you hear it like vintage-futurism.
Tell us about the creative jump, growth, and development for you creatively from your earlier EPs to the forthcoming limited release of EP, Oui!, from Austin’s Red Eye Transit, forthcoming stuff for Captured, etc.
Oh. I don’t know. I’m doing now what I’ve always done. Which is pretty uncool, really, it’s the same as most other bands: I just want to sound like the Velvet Underground. But then I talk to a girl at a party in Liechtenstein, or I meditate on God a little, or whatever it is I do on an average afternoon, and that seems to mess things up, and as a result, whatever music I then channel sounds more like Dinner than the Velvets, alas.
What else are working on, working with, and what other weirdness should we expect from Diner?
My European booking agent, Erin, just suggested that I do an instructive meditation / aerobics video meant for home use. That sounds like a neat idea.
Words of wisdom from Dinner?
Don’t do drugs. Or maybe do drugs? I don’t know.
Listen to more Dinner via Captured Tracks.
We caught up with producer sergioisdead in an interview segment some months back, and now we have his Remixes release that takes on slowed, cumulus cloud reworks of Sam Smith, M.I.A., FKA twigs’ “Two Weeks”, Imogen Heap, Bey, Schoolboy Q and A$AP, Blood Orange, the xx, Kitty Pryde, and more. In case you don’t know, Sergio Otaegui has produced for luminaries like Lil B, DaVinci, MondreMAN, TINK, Perrion, and more. A producer to keep a constant ear on.
SPC ECO is Rose Berlin, Jarek Leskiewicz, and Dean Garcia who sent out the color draped visuals from HKG in planetary sky fall of, “Fallen Stars”. Taken from their new album Sirens and Satellites available September 9 from Saint Marie Records; the distresses and chaos of the world moves in slow motion where everything falls beautifully apart like a meteor shower or hail storm of unraveling objects, and formerly unified entities.
The Lees Of Memory (made up of former Superdrag dudes) are prepping to release, Sisyphus Says, on September 16 from SideOneDummy, and we present the latest single, “Little Fallen Star”. The large amphitheater arched angles of pop craft crash like car-crashed comets striking the world we know while the Knoxville legends hit with the hottest guitar licks that were never made in the 90s. Read our interview with The Lees, along with our debut of “Not a Second More” here. Also look out for Superdrag re-releases also from SideOneDummy.
In more SideOneDummy news, they’re releasing Restorations’ LP3 October 28, with a sneak look and listen to the Mitchell Wojcik and John Komar video for “Separate Songs”. Separate lives, tales, sung at the same time, in separate places, and separate states of minds find a kind of emotive weighted cognitive meeting even if millions of miles away. Restorations are portrayed indulging in the sports that idly pass away the time that the lonely enjoy in between the distances where their lyrics calculate the maps between the respective solitudes of estranged partners. Their massive headlining tour starts October 24 in Asbury Park, NJ.
Our Columbus, Ohio buds Connections’ released their new album Into Sixes on Anyway Records, and we have the Stephen Tringali video that is like short film about delinquent behaviors, and the buddy system of raising hell and taking names later. The louder sound of Connections is given a fitting visual feast to match the anarchy, and angst with a beat-em up action sequence and series of chaotic adventures.
Peep the Fantavious Fritz video shot on location at Arbutus Records HQ in Montreal for TOPS’ “Way To Be Loved”, off the just released album, Picture You Staring from Arbutus, of course. Catch Mr. Mac Demarco getting groovy in his cameo.
Chase Harris of Deep Cuts dropped the self-made video for “Serpents”, from their upcoming Love Grows EP, available September 12. Chase’s video blends performance images, mixed with the glistening waves that shine with the moon’s reflective light beaming on the rolling sea waters, outdoor afternoons, and palm tree neon bar lights that pass like disembodied ghosts in the night. “Serpents” is a single that has our ears perked for more fun yet to arrive from the Houston band with their upcoming EP. But now ride the Caribbean gulf chords found on Deep Cuts’ new single, and enjoy the visuals made entirely with an iPhone 5. Chase wrote us the following exclusive on making the video, the Love Grows EP, and more:
The video for “Serpents” was inspired by a debaucherous weekend I spent with some friends at a beach house on Galveston Island, which is about a 45 minute drive south from Houston. A lot of the footage I got that weekend made it in the video: my friend Ben getting a DIY stick + poke tattoo, the neon palm tree from my room at the beach house, the shot of the San Luis hotel, and the through-shot of the Pleasure Pier lights reflecting on the water. To supplement that I filmed some stuff against a black sheet in my room and added some other random videos from the past year.
Everything you see in the video I captured with my iPhone 5, then dumped into a bootleg version of Final Cut. I had never used the software before, or done any film-making/ whatever, so it did take me a couple weeks of tinkering to figure this out. And I guess you could say the budget for this video was about $7 (My Wal-Mart black sheet cost $6-something).
“Serpents” is on our upcoming first EP, Love Grows. We did things the old-fashioned way, meaning before we ever really had legit recorded music, we played over 30,000 hundred million shows to save up money. Then, we hit the same studio where Destiny’s Child recorded their 8x platinum album, The Writing’s on the Wall, and tracked Love Grows in two days. They gave us a great deal, Chris (our engineer) rocks, and they had the tape facilities we wanted. Treaty Oak pressed CDs and all of this is hitting the interwebs September 12.
Listen to more Deep Cuts via Bandcamp.
Oval remixed Aunt Dracula’s “Rainjacket” and supplied the Logan Owlbeemoth visuals that portray dark, fuzzy analogue reception transmissions for the viewer and listener to discern at their own active path of receptive description, and responses based upon reactionary stimuli that challenges the integrity and constitutions of the membranes that contain the master control panel of inhibitions. Watch as the remix veers things to the most therapeutic rhythmic new jazz, and the static on the screen moves in uniform with the densest color spectrum hues of blue.
Montreal pop starlet Mozart Sister recently released her much anticipated and lauded album Being on Asthmatic Kitty, and before that we had the privilege to catch up with Mozart’s Sister frontwoman — and our Canadian idol — Caila Thompson-Hannant in an interview feature, and now we present you with Martin and Eva’s video for “Good Thing Bad Thing” that features multiple Cailas enjoying themselves at a house party all of her own, and own design (not to mention, owning it all the while). The video is everything you imagined the song would be as acted out in a serious but playful statement of autonomous reiterations that takes the bad with the good in the spirited indie soul motion for even greater things.
Peep the Behn Fannin for Tera Melos’ sun-stroked heatwave pop, “Sunburn” off their Sargent House album, X’ed Out. It’s the adventures of a gigantic hot dog that gets cosmic in all kinds of weird and righteous ways, as the visuals pour on the oddness ecstasy to that power garage business you crave. Hopefully our Sac-town heroes get a Rite Aid or Doritos sponsorship from all this meshugas.
Recorded straight out of the cuts of Vladivostok Russia with producer Sasha DZA—we got the new Mykki Blanco cut, “New Feelings” that presents new thoughts and sensations straight from NYC’s own favorite doll. More from Betty Rubble herself with the forthcoming Gay Dog Food: Fem Slick available in October. Get your freaky on, with Sasha’s production that rolls in and out of the mix’s consciousness.
Check out the following advance invitation to experience the wonder that is Lemonade’s album, Minus Tide, ahead of its release September 9 from the esteemed imprint, Cascine. The stresses of the cityscapes dissolve by the time you reach “Durutti Shores”, stepping through the pachinko machine glittering and illuminate “Stepping”, the clearest synth waters of “Clearest”, existences captured and covered in the eternal atmospheres of “Water Colored Visions”, expanding hands and arms out to the very furthest “Reaches”, keeping you “Awake” at night, and rising to the morning “Orchid Bloom”, the velvet silk landing of “Come Down Softly”, the post-Balearic disco-dance-deluxe of “OST”, leaving you somewhere between the ebb and tidal casts of, “Minus Tide”. With sensibilities stretching to everywhere but most US styled pop—you won’t believe these blokes are Brooklyn based.
London’s electro-maestro Lee Gamble follows up releases like, Dutch Tvashar Plumes and Diversions 1994-1996 with news of the upcoming album, KOCH, available September 16 from PAN. On the listen to “Nueme”, the understated undertones provide the listener with those surface pick-ups from mic’d recordings that make all the drum instrumentation and components sound like they were made in the adjacent room from the microphones.
Asteroid No.4 sent us some psych-scented candies and treats upstream with the water wading, “The River”, off their upcoming self-titled album available September 23 from Bad Vibrations Records.
Formerly known as Gondola, Brooklyn’s Piers dropped the single “The Rook” that brings back rookie memories and late nights of chess enjoyed with good company over gin and tonics. Piers’ self-titled will arrive into the world on September 16, following up 2013’s We Are The Map.
Teeel dropped us some solid disco-gold easy action with the banger, “Disk Go”, from the upcoming album, Hydrostatic available September 9 from Mush Records.
Time to get heavy, loud, snotty, and onerus on the sludge moving masher, “Horus”, from UK duo God Damn, available October 27 from o.g. indie guardians, One Little Indian Records.
Scott and Charlene’s Wedding take you on a jangle-wagon ride to the “Aiport”, off their Back On The Tools tour tape from Fire Records, that can be found anywhere these Aussies are traveling on their US tour, from now through October 1. For further listening to these DIY wunderkinds, we recommend their recent album, Any Port In A Storm.
Their album Lose is available now in the States through Barsuk and in the EU from Tough Love, and we got the Milton Ladd video for Cymbals Eat Guitars’ “Laramie”, full of beach crashing visuals of shadows, smoke screens, and close-up performance shots of the band. Find them touring September with Bob Mould, in a tour that runs on through October 30 that features appearances from Slothrust, Generationals, and Brand New.
Currently touring the States with Bear In Heaven; Young Magic dropped the summer shining Sun Glitters remix of “Something In The Water”, originally off Breathing Statues available from Carpark Records.
Brooklyn’s Monogold are dropping their newest release since 2011 with the November 11 slated release of the EP, This Bloom, sending us into the shimmering tractor beam appeal and hypnotism from the single, “Holograms”.
We introduced you to Icelandic duo Young Karin (formerly known as Highlands) the other week in an interview and premiere exclusive, and this week bring the celebratory and chill red-lit-tint party vibes in Narvi Creative’s video for “Hearts”. Young Karin’s forthcoming debut will be available from Pannonica Records.
Useless Eaters plunge us into the brooding darkness of demolition on, “Out In The Night”, off the upcoming album, Bleeding Moon available October 7 from Castle Face.
Monika Heidemann, aka HEIDEMANN, dropped the Orphan EP this week, sending synth sweet sensation on “Swords”, the keyboard nightfall fueled “Well Well”, rebirth rites on “Another Life”, to the adulating update of ABBA’s “The Visitors”. It’s the new-no-wave or anti-wave, that keeps the feeling plugged into the mainframe, with the central soul core of Monika’s centered, and untouched vocal delivery.
ODESZA lent us the visual vibrations for “Say My Name (feat. Zyra)”, directed by Ian Pons Jewell starring Stephanie Hunt off their upcoming album In Return available September 9 from Counter Records. Watch as this lusty couple makes a run to find an available swimming pool while playing out every rich romantic fantasia before breaking the cinematic fourth wall of illusion.
Announcing the forthcoming of Driftless Ambient 1 available September 23 from your friends at Driftless Recordings, leading you down to the still pastures and quiet, calming waters of CFCF’s ambient-drone driver; “Prisma”.
MLTD’S WEEK IN POP
To borrow a good ass Nich Eggert tweet; “I have sandwiches overflowing the pockets of my jacket and no one in this laundromat seems to give a fuck…wake up people…” Here are some songs I’ve been into over the course of my life.
Hausu, “Leaning Mess”
I first saw Hausu at a bike shop in Davis during the summer of 2011. I was playing in Loftons at the time which was pretty hard to deal with on its own but I had also failed a driving test that day and Hausu really killed it and they kept killing it for a few more years, releasing the full length, Total, in the process which is one of the finest albums of the past twenty years or so. Most truly great things end before you want them to and Hausu was just another example. Hausu 4 life.
The Clean, “Thumbs Off”
Last summer or two summer’s ago maybe, me and my friend Sam met up at noon or so and drank a bunch of beers on his front lawn and listened to this song a few times in a row.
English Beat, “Save It For Later”
In 2011 I sent a text to my then girlfriend that was just a line from this song, she responded with, “what?” and I said, “nothing.”
Everly Brothers, “All I Have To Do Is Dream”
There’s a radio station in Stockton, 840 AM, they recently flipped formats from a oldies station to Christian talk, nothing against Christian talk but I want the old 840 AM back.
The Beach Boys, “Meant For You”
Thank you, and god bless.
Listen to MLTD via Bandcamp.
