Today's Hotness: Pete Astor, Black Seas, Your Friend

>> It was The Loft and The Weather Prophets, more than any other single Creation Records band, that were responsible for turning this reviewer on to the wealth of great material that arrived via the imprint prior to My Bloody Valentine's revolutionary 1987 EP You Made Me Realise. The earnest and driven jangle of songs like "Up The Hill And Down The Slope" and "Almost Prayed" combined the clean drive of The Velvet Underground circa their self-titled 1969 third album with a homespun, plainspoken honesty that felt both welcoming and timeless. When we received word that Slumberland Records would release a solo album by Pete Astor, the fronter of the aforementioned Loft and Weather Prophets, we were sold right away. Called Spilt Milk and due on white vinyl Feb. 12, Mr. Astor's latest is a ten-song set that illustrates his firm command over the style and feel that made his early work so charming. Produced in part with James Hoare of cherished contemporary hitmakers Veronica Falls, Ultimate Painting and Proper Ornaments at Mr. Hoare's London-based home studio, Spilt Milk's music offers a similar warm and classic pop essence, one that hugs the listener like the trustiest worn cardigan. The record's first preview single "Really Something" immediately assures listeners that Astor's songwriting prowess remains honed; here and there his subtle, delicate throat croaks and cracks, conveying to each verse lyric some significant weight, before a deceptive chorus swoops in. The second preview taster for the LP, the ode to onanism "My Right Hand," incorporates VU-styled boogie alongside all manner of historical and cultural references to weave a complex yet exceedingly pleasant love song that passes by so briskly it begs for multiple, smiling repeats. We have heard the rest of the album, which is dynamite, and our assessment is that Spilt Milk makes a strong case for the best kind of later-life artistic statement. While Hoare's playing is all over the record -- he laid down guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and backing vocal tracks on the set -- and other players include legends Pam Berry (Black Tambourine) and Jack Hayter (Hefner) among others, the record never forgets the building blocks upon which Astor's legacy is founded, and not only celebrates them, but also has fun on its own terms, too. Stream the aforementioned "Really Something" and "My Right Hand" via the embeds below, and pre-order the album from Slumberland right here. Note that the set is a co-release with Fortuna Pop, which will issue Spilt Milk across the proverbial pond a day prior. -- Edward Charlton





>> This reviewer thought himself familiar with all of the deepest voices in rock. To be sure, since the the late '70s post-punk wave that lifted up the distinctively down-tuned larynxes of Ian Curtis, Robert Smith, Ian McCulloch and Morrissey, there has been a wealth of dark crooners at work in the genre. But, outside of perhaps the death metal scene (and setting aside the masterful grandfather of them all, Scott Walker), no voice has been as strikingly bottomless in recent memory as that of the singer of shadowy London dream-pop concern Black Seas. The mysterious ensemble, which largely eschews most online social media and whose only member we can prove exists is a fellow named Stav who once corresponded with Clicky Clicky, released late last year at long last a stirring self-titled debut EP. The six-song release follows -- after a lengthy pause -- a series of excellent digital one-offs, some of which it contains. Black Seas commences with the highlight "Laurie," which balances the kind of seasick tremolo abuse inspired by Loveless with the gloomy, violent and abstract sexuality of Xiu Xiu. The song is a slinky wonder, opening with a rolling drum beat before the brackish singing presents front and center with literate and colorful lyrics that raise more questions than answers. "There will be sentries in the shadows," the singer warns. While this sound has served well fellow Brits The Horrors -- especially on their Geoff Barrow-produced Primary Colours -- Black Seas opt to inhabit and intellectualize their frigid dystopia rather than aim for the arena rock rafters at every available moment. Its an ideal environment that fully bears the weight of a leaden voice. No less affecting the band's menacing eponymous track, a version of which we played during a New Music Night three years ago. Surprisingly perky bass playing underpins vast scraping guitar chords, while the singer stirringly emotes. The EP takes a turn for the more pop and upbeat with "Golden Child," although Black Seas employs the same building blocks to get where it needs to go. Clicky Clicky is very hopeful the appearance of this EP is a sign that the act will become a more active concern in 2016, as its music is terrifically compelling. Stream Black Seas via the SoundCloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> Your Friend -- not to be confused, of course, with Alexei Berrow's similarly terrific solo project Yr Friends -- is the brainchild of Kansas-based songwriter Taryn Miller, and her early work garnered sidelong notice in these electronic pages (or at least our Facebook page), but we now have occasion for a more thorough examination: the debut Your Friend long-player Gumption, which arrives at the end of the month. The first preview track from the collection is "Heathering," which gently sways, brightly sparkles and lushly drones under Ms. Miller's rich, searching vocal. Videos of Miller performing live a year or two back impressed because of her ability to build up layers of loops to create compelling compositions as a solo performer. While she continues to occasionally perform solo, "Heathering" feels free from any constraints whatsoever. Gumption was recorded at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn with studio founder and producer Nicolas Vernhes, who has also worked with Animal Collective, Deerhunter and The War On Drugs. The album is due Jan. 29 on vinyl 12", CD and as a digital download. Pre-order the set right here, and stream the aforementioned "Heathering" via the SoundCloud embed below. Your Friend plays the Middle East Downstairs April 12 as part of a big-ass spring tour, supporting Alex G and Porches; we implore you to make a note to arrive early to see Your Friend, because that's the smart move. Your Friend's Domino debut, a self-recorded EP titled Jekyll/Hyde, was released in early 2014.

United We Win: Hard Left On Class Struggle, Challenging Consensus, And Fighting The Most Important Fight

[PHOTO: Gina Clyne Photography] Oakland hard mod quartet Hard Left have surely released one of the best punk records of the year, and its neatest feat is being Really Fun and Actually Meaningful at one and the same time. The combo is comprised of veteran musicians whose collective credits include work with the legendary acts Black Tambourine, Boyracer and Lunchbox. Its cracking full-length debut We Are Hard Left came out earlier this week on Hard Left's own Future Perfect imprint, and it is propelled by big guitars and bigger guitar hooks, growled exhortations and ganged choruses. Even before we got our hands on the record back in March, we were struck by the entirely refreshing way Hard Left foregrounded its politics in early singles; if anything, the full-length doubles down on doling out messages of unity and informed dissent in vibrant, fist-pounding anthems like "Kicking It Off" and "Hard Left Rules OK," to name but two. As we found out, that is no accident. After chewing over the place of big-picture politics in contemporary indie rock in a chat window with fronter and co-founder Comrade Mike, we decided to throw open our conversation into a more in-depth interview. Comrade Tim, guitarist and singer for Hard Left, joined in on the fun, and the results are below. As much as we are grateful to Mike and Tim for the time they gave to this discussion, we are even more grateful for the forthright political message in their music. We think the guys would agree that the world doesn't need just another punk record; we would submit that what it needs is THIS punk record -- and more like it. Recent album release shows for We Are Hard Left have been described as "total chaos," and it is heartening that the audience is out there, ready for this music and its message. But, as we all know from consuming "news" "reports" every day, there is a lot more work to be done. Hard Left gave its record away one song a week ahead of its release, but if you have not yet heard it (and even if you have), jump to the bottom of the piece, click play on the Bandcamp embed, and then hop back up here and dig in.

Clicky Clicky: There is something very optimistic about We Are Hard Left -- it's right there in the opening lyrics of the record, innit? Just the fact that the record exists is a reassurance that there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful. Was that something the band felt was important to express?

Tim: Definitely. We are into the concept of uplift, and try to inspire a sense of common purpose and utopian possibility.

Mike: Absolutely correct. Given the challenges we all face right now it's so easy to be negative, preachy and finger-pointy. We want to avoid that vibe at all cost.

CC: There is a lightness to the record that comes from the tempos, the energy, the big guitars. It sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. I think all of you have known each other for some time. When you decided there was going to be this thing called Hard Left, was the idea of the band espousing a political message something that was right there from the beginning? Or were you guys excited just to have the opportunity to play together?

Tim: Well, Mike and I always tell the story of how we hatched this idea. We were hanging out at SLR headquarters, and I randomly said "I'm thinking about trying to join an Oi band," and Mike looked right at me and said "Let's form an Oi band!" A couple of weeks later, we were at the Rain Parade show in San Francisco, and I said, "you know, if we're going to do this band, it needs to be explicitly left;" and Mike said "yeah, HARD Left." And there it was. So the political message was central, always, but it kind of came about with the musical idea simultaneously. But in terms of lightness, yeah, I think we have a similar vision of a band that is serious in its politics, but doesn't take itself too seriously, and is vibrant in aesthetic terms, and is fun. We do get into a bit of pageantry and self-stylization, and we think that that adds to, rather than detracts from, the political message.

Mike: And you're right, the record was a lot of fun to make, and kind of easy as well. Donna, Tim and I worked on the songs a bit at home, went to AZ and ran through them a few times with Stew, then we hit record. All of the arrangement ideas and the excitement seem to come very naturally. So it is crazy fun.

CC: Something the blog has harped on at irregular intervals over the years has been the lack of political engagement by bands in the late 20th and early 21st century. The last song that got me really excited about the power of dissent and the potential for change was Report Suspicious Activity's "Subtle," and looking at the archives now I see that was 10 years ago. Vic Bondi is of a certain age, and I don't think there is a person involved in this interview whose age doesn't start with a 4. Recognizing that none of us is a sociologist, why do you think younger musicians aren't driven to tackle the important, macro issues now? The reaction to the Reagan/Thatcher era felt so electrifying, so strong, even from the safe suburban enclave in which I was raised. The reaction to the Bush era... well, at this point I can't even tell if there was one.

Tim: I don't know. This is a really good and important question. I think the spirit of resistance comes in waves; and, a few important examples aside, we seem to be in the trough right now. I think it's seen not to be "cool" now to engage with anything, unless it's the minutia of personal taste-based stuff, like making artisan pickles or whatever. Not to single people out. I mean, food consumption and production is actually a really important site of struggle now, and will be even more so in the future. But I do think there's a suspicion of systematic analysis, married with a feeling -- carefully inculcated by the mainstream media and "liberal" opinion -- that things "went too far" in the 1960s, and that to be a "reasonable person" is to more or less accept the neo-liberal consensus, and eke out whatever personal resistance you can in matters of taste and consumption. Systematic analysis is brewing, and it will come back big time. History is never over.

Mike: I do think that there is a lot of engagement in issues of personal and identity politics right now, and that's great. There is a lot of talk about with those issues too, but we want to push people a bit to look at the bigger picture too.

CC: I wonder if it is not something to do with the fact that today there aren't as many chronologically proximal role models, meaning musicians championing progressive politics or dissenting politics, for bands today as there were for bands in the '80s. Even Hard Left looks to the '70s for inspiration, not just musically, but also politically, yeah?

Tim: Hard Left looks back as far back as 1789, but we also look to stuff in the present.

Mike: That might have something to do with it. But I do think that there's also a sense of hopelessness right now, the idea that what's wrong is just too big and too entrenched that there's no point in fighting back. As Tim states, any "reasonable person" accepts the neo-liberal consensus, when in fact it is that very ideological orthodoxy that's led us to this very dangerous point in history, politically, economically and ecologically.

CC: Say what you will about baby boomers and boomer nostalgia, but at least the legacy of '60s social protest echoed in some of the music of the '80s. But that echo didn't in turn echo with bands in the oughts. Was there anything happening in music a decade ago that relates to the progressive ideals that Hard Left is trying to promote?

Tim: Hmmm, dunno. I am tempted to say that there is no authentic youth culture any more, in the sense that youth subcultures used to at least nominally have some kind of political resistance attached to them. I think the commodification of everything has pretty much won. The very idea of the "hipster" illustrates this. The original "hipster" of the 1950s and '60s was someone who enacted a deep break with bourgeois culture, possibly in a political sense, but certainly in a more broadly cultural and spiritual sense (the Beats and so on). It's hard to see anything in modern so-called hipster culture that is dangerous, subversive, anti-conformist, or in any way breaks with the reign of commodification as first principle of bourgeois society. The problem with boomers and nostalgia for the 1960s is that it leaves out what was really going on in the 1960s. Pretty much the annoying part is all that is remembered -- tie dye or whatever. The multi-generational cross-class anti-authoritarian uprising against state violence (in Vietnam and at home) etc. etc. etc. is largely forgotten. Whose interests does that forgetting serve? The past always comes back as caricature. I'm old enough to remember, for example, that when punk started, it wasn't about mohawks. No one had a fucking mohawk or whatever. It was freaks plus "normal" people. And it was similar to the earlier revolt of the Beat generation. Smart, ironic, NOT buying in. No more heroes.

Mike: Just in terms of making and disseminating music, I might have expected the technological revolution of the late '90s/early '00s (home recording, cheap production, almost-free online distribution) might have had a more progressive resonance on the ideas behind the music as well. But it seems like a lot of the energy behind Internet-enabled arts production seems to head in a libertarian direction rather than one that seeks collective solutions to common problems.

CC: The real travesty is there is now little disagreement among the arts class, the music class, the creator class, whatever you want to call it, that the political system is broken, and that issues like income inequality and climate change must be addressed. One thing we talked about briefly a few weeks ago is that there is a willingness in indie and punk rock to pursue and promote identity politics or personal politics, but not to engage with macro political issues. Looking back, can you pinpoint where this turn away from macro issues toward identify politics could have happened?

Tim: I'll probably catch flack for it, but I think in an era of massive exploitation and take-backs, destruction of the planet, and unending war, there are bigger problems than whether your feelings are hurt because society doesn't recognize your particular flavor. It's too easy. It doesn't challenge capital at all. At THIS moment, I think class struggle needs to be in the foreground. What do I mean by class struggle? Let me be clear that I do NOT mean a too-easy demonization by each of the person just above them on the socioeconomic ladder. And I do not mean some kind of Old Left focus on "the workers" in the sense of factory workers. I DO mean a focus on who is doing the work and who is taking the profit produced by that work. Hard Left stands for a society in which the people who DO the work make the decisions about how the work is to be done, and reap the benefits of the work. Hard Left is about the "we" instead of the "I". A society in which each feels he or she is in a personal war with others for scarce resources is a not a society worth living in. I would add, however, that issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., HAVE to go together with the class struggle. There can't be any separation between them, because they aren't separate in reality.

Mike: I'm reminded of a bit in the DC installment of the Foo Fighters' "Sonic Highways" show, where Rick Rubin talks about US kids not being able to relate to punk because it was too much about class politics, and when US HC started talking about personal politics that it then became something that American kids could relate to. And I think that you can see that shift in emphasis throughout the 80s and 90s. As Tim points out, identity issues do go hand-in-hand and interact with class issues, but I guess one might say that it's easy to get caught up in the trees and lose sight of the forest.

CC: I've got my own theory, and it is spelled g-r-u-n-g-e. I love everything Kurt Cobain did, but I feel like he is standing at a fork in the road. My favorite Youth Of Today song is "Disengage," but thinking about it in this context -- and knowing what we know about where Ray Cappo's head was at at the time -- I almost wish he was more specific: disengage with popular culture, disengage with consumer culture, but please, please, please fight like hell out in the streets against injustice. But instead, the message 20 to 25 years ago wasn't even the '60s' "turn on, tune in, drop out" -- it was just "drop out." Whether or not you agree that underground rock and roll got us into this, can underground rock and roll get us out?

Tim: Probably not. But we do what we can.

Mike: I hope so!

CC: Comrade Mike, purely from a practical perspective, it seems like singing these songs must be pretty physically demanding, at least on your throat?

Mike: It is, but I suppose I'm getting more and more used to it and it bothers me a bit less. What's kind of odd is that I wasn't really sure what was going to come out when I opened up my mouth to yell. That gravelly yell wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened and has now become part of the our style.

CC: You've been giving away one song a week from the new record, and will have given away the whole thing by the time of the official release. Hard Left's music is definitely for the proletariat, and it feels right to make it directly available to the people. But, of course, that's no way to sell a bunch of records. Or is it? Was the decision to give the music away a reflection of the band's politics, or an acknowledgement of the problems the music industry has found itself in since the turn of the century?

Mike: Both, really. We don't look at that band as any sort of money-earner, and really the goal is to get people to listen to the music. If they want to and can afford to buy an LP, that's great too, and we made the LP to be as high-quality and as affordable as possible so that people who do buy it get something nice for their money. I don't have any problem with people being compensated for their artistic work and so I don't have the opinion that all music should be free, or that downloads are necessarily inherently worthless, it just felt right to us. Giving away the download removes a lot of friction from getting the music out there, and once we decided to do that, then I just wanted to think of a way to get the most value out of it for the band. The song-a-week thing seemed like a nice way to get people excited about the record and loop-in as many blogs and music sites as possible, in hopes of spreading the music as widely as possible.

We Are Hard Left is available now as a 45RPM LP or digital download via the act's Bandcamp page right here. The LP comes packaged with a lyric insert and sticker, and its vivid cover art is our favorite of the year so far. A special bundle includes an iron-on patch bearing the slogan "All Power To The Imagination." Hard Left is contemplating a run of East Coast dates for mid-August, so keep an eye out for possible news on that front. Hard Left rules, OK? OK.

Hard Left: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud

Regolith A2E1: Sean Tracy Is A Songwriter

He rumbles the thunderstick for Boston anxiety-pop phenoms Chandeliers, he blasts the bottom end for Boston-and-New Hampshire-based shoegaze goliaths Bedroom Eyes, he does a bunch of other stuff, too. And now Sean Tracy is doing Regolith, Clicky Clicky's still new-car-smelling, month-long songwriting challenge. Attentive readers will recall it was just last month that we unveiled the results of Regolith Series 1, which featured scene stalwart Reuben Bettsak, and which produced this pretty dynamite collection of music (some of which will be performed this Sunday). We are very excited to have Mr. Tracy as our next songwriter-in-his-own-residence for this tripartite series. He's a New Hampshire native that has been keeping it real in the greater Allston/Brighton for several years, and we've been a fan since way back in 2010, when we put Chandeliers on a very hot bill at Precinct in Somerville, MA. As we mentioned supra, Tracy is also now playing bass in another Clicky Clicky fave act, Bedroom Eyes, which just released a totally sick new track called "Wild Sins" that we've embedded below. Incidentally, both acts he now plays with contributed tracks to our 2012 RIDE tribute comp NOFUCKINGWHERE. We think membership in two of the city's best bands is reason enough to bamboozle a gal or guy into doing Regolith, don't you? Either way, Tracy graciously has taken up the gauntlet and recently began work in earnest. We'll be sure to keep you apprised, as is the Regolith way, but before we go too much further, let's get acquainted. -- L. Tiburon Pacifico

CC: What is happening with your various projects right now?



 ST: Chandeliers is coming out with a full length LP this year. It's 12 tracks we recorded in January, that were written over the last two years or so. I'm really excited about it, and can't wait to put it out. We're doing a 2-day trip [this] week, out to Connecticut and Philadelphia, two places we have never played before, and planning a longer tour once we have records to sell.



Bedroom Eyes just released a single for a compilation and, besides that, we're finishing up some material that was tracked before I joined the band. That should be out soon. Besides that, we're writing new songs for an EP that we'll hopefully record later this year.



 I played in/play in a band called Dye (briefly, emphasis on briefly, called Kardashians). It's now mostly a recording project consisting of me and my friend Sam. We played two shows before he moved to the west coast and we have yet to release anything, but have 6-7 recorded songs that I really hope we will release this year. We practice as much as we can given the distance, maybe 2-3 times a year.



 CC: What instruments do you play? When did you start playing them?



 ST: I play guitar (7 years), bass (5 years), and I can play drums a little. I have a kit, but don't really (never) play it. I can also "play" keyboard, if pressing keys and hoping they make pretty sounds counts as playing... [it does. -- Ed.]



 CC: How long have you been writing music?



 ST: I guess ever since I got my first guitar. I always tried to write my own parts, really simple ones at first, even though I couldn't really translate the ideas into actual playing. I actually sort of learned how to write songs by recording my own stuff with Garageband when I was around 19 or 20, and that's when I started messing with multi-tracking, learning how to mix audio, junk like that. And then after being in a band that worked on songs together, and seeing how that process went, I kind of eventually started working on more complex parts and full songs of my own.



 CC: What are your songwriting influences? Do you feel like there's an influence on your music that is obvious to you but might not necessarily be apparent to a listener?



 ST: Very, very many. I guess the biggest influences are my favorite bands, mostly jangly guitar bands from the '80s, and c86 bands: McCarthy, The Bodines, The Smiths, The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, '90s Slumberland stuff, especially Black Tambourine and Henry's Dress. Early Modest Mouse, '90s Kinsella-sphere emo, like Cap'n Jazz, American Football, Joan of Arc (that first album), The Promise Ring, and other stuff like Sunny Day Real Estate, Braid, early Fugazi, and older punk bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains and The Wipers. For more contemporary stuff, Grouper, Deerhunter and Broadcast. Is this too many? [No. -- Ed.]



 I've also got a real place in my heart for old doo-wop stuff, like from the '50s and '60s. Not that I think that sound influences what I write, but I really admire how simple, in terms of structure and lyrics, that most of those songs are. But you can still tell there's real emotion that goes into it.



 CC: How would you describe your songwriting (not recording) process. Are the songs planned out, or is the process more organic, with single chords or melodies developing into parts, which then develop into songs? Or do you have a back catalog of riffs/parts/progressions that you mix and match until they find a home?



 ST: Well actually, I write quite a bit by recording. If I have one or two parts that go together, I'll record it and listen for how another part might work its way in there. Hearing something play back usually helps me decide what works and what doesn't, and where structural things and transitions should go. It feels a lot different playing a song vs. hearing it recorded. It's almost like how I "proofread" a song.



 Typically I'll have a few parts that will not really have a set order/duration, but almost always the part that comes to me first ends up being the chorus, and I kind of work the other parts around that.



CC: Do you normally write your songs alone, or are you used to writing with others? Will this project change the way you typically write?



 ST: Most of the songs that I write, I write by myself, so this is actually somewhat normal for me.



 CC: Where will you be doing your writing and recording throughout this project?



 ST: My bedroom/apartment, and maybe some in my practice space.



 CC: What are your goals/aspirations for this project?



 ST: My goal is really to push myself outside of my comfort zone, and by that I mean, actually PRODUCE something. Since I was 19, I have started writing and recording literally dozens of songs, some finished, many more unfinished, but zero that I've formally released. It's partly an insecurity thing, but it's also an attention span/schedule thing: I have ADHD, I work full time, I play and practice in two bands, and I have a girlfriend. There's not a lot of time in between for me to focus on songwriting, and this is a really good excuse for that, and it's just a cool idea for a project, too.

What else can we tell you? Here's the Face book deets for that show Chandeliers are playing in Philly Saturday night: all of our Philadelpia pheoples should hit that. The threesome is back in Allston Rock City April 30 supporting this bill at O'Brien's toplined by Streight Angular. Enough of my yakkin', how about some songs?





Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Bedroom Eyes
Today's Hotness: Chandeliers
Review: Bedroom Eyes | What Are You Wrong With
Bedroom Eyes Record Release Show With Sneeze, Lube, Kal Marks And Big Mess
And Then Some Days We Get Awesome Mail 12
Clicky Clicky Music Presents... N O F U C K I N G W H E R E
Young Adults, BDRM Eyes, Chandeliers and The Living City | The Box Fort, Allston Rock City | Jan. 28
Today's Hotness: BDRM Eyes

Today's Hotness: School Shoes, Withered Hand, Tadoma, Mutes

>> We're increasingly spoiled by the tremendous surprises dropping under our noses over at Bandcamp. Sure, a flat vinyl circle is always going to be our preferred media, but these days nothing is as immediate and sudden as the sensory blitzkrieg and subsequent rush of a digital taster from a hot and fresh band. Boston's latest bedroom dream-pop export School Shoes last month propounded via Bandcamp a perfect pair with its demos "Cults" and "Dress." The brainchild of a gentleman named Ty Ueda, School Shoes' two tracks fuzz and crackle with delicious analog enthusiasm. Both feature such expansive and pristine hooks that even in their demo-ish state they already feel Captured Tracks-ready -- even arena-ready -- in spirit and scope [and remind this blog’s executive editor of a certain incredible Portland, Ore.-based indie rock foursome -- Ed.]. Opener "Cults" is unapologetically exuberant pop. Commencing with a taut, picked guitar riff and snare-centered beat, the tune echoes turn-of-the-decade Brooklynites Beach Fossils with the twitchy anxiousness of the instrumentation. After a dreamy opening, Ueda's voice enters, and it's a real stunner: clear and expressive, but with enough deep cool to keep the frumpy taste-makers happy. Better still, the voice provides a great focal point as the tunes confidently reveal themselves, jangling from a bed of reverb and delay and driving a gently lifting chord progression in the chorus. "Dress" opens with more primal hisses and ramblings before embracing a classic indie two-chord pull and push whose persistence and quiet passion echo the Belle & Sebastian outlier from 1996's Tigermilk, "Electric Renaissance." New-wave bass and double-tracked vocals emphasize the tune's charm, which is amplified further still by the instrumental interplay. All of the instruments work in concert as though School Shoes was a complete live band with multiple personalities, which is very impressive. Stream both tracks below, and click through the embed to grab the demos for further future untethered enjoyment. -- Edward Charlton



>> It amused this reviewer more than a little when he first read that new Slumberland signees Withered Hand are promoting their forthcoming sophomore long-player, New Gods, with a song called "Black Tambourine." The tune even features Pam Berry of the very same dreamy and legendary institution from which that name is borrowed! However, as soon as the track in question is heard, it's apparent that it is no simple-minded act of hero worship, but rather a promising introduction to a Scottish artist by the name of Dan Willson. Mr Willson creates what Scotsmen toiling in indie rock do best –- honest, inviting pop music in the vein of Teenage Fanclub. If Withered Hand's previous album Good News is any indication, however, the project is a unique signing for Slumberland, seeing as that record featured a much heavier folk-rock sound. However, "Black Tambourine" may prove that Willson has set his sights on the sounds of the '60s; the track is a shockingly good exercise in power pop. Opening with cheery snare work and bouncy bass, the song structure belies the lyrical concern: aging and doing so with grace. "I'm older now, but I feel the same, but I'm not the same," sings Willson, offering a sentiment with which many can surely relate. Ms. Berry delicately accentuates his vocals, then offers greater support in a series of subtle choruses. These sneak up on the listener with their tunefulness -- much in the same way the organ creeps in to nearly match the volume of the fuzz guitar solo by the conclusion. "Black Tambourine" may be a bit of a grower, but when that moment arrives, one won't forget it. With the announcement of New Gods for early next year, 2014 is already proving to be another exciting and unexpected chapter for such Slumberland. It's also worth noting that this is the second release to be released in partnership with U.K. imprint Fortuna POP!, which this year co-released Weird Sister by Clicky faves Joanna Gruesome. So you know, all very good signs. Listen to "Black Tambourine" via the embed below, and buy it from ITunes here. -- Edward Charlton



>> What does Tadoma sound like? It's a great question, because even after spending some time with Nascent Zones, the recently self-released odds-and-sods collection from Philadelphia electronic producer and Tadoma mastermind Joe Patitucci, a simple answer is hard to pinpoint. In 2008 this blog described the music as "Boards Of Canada meets More-era Pink Floyd." But this recently issued collection of never-quite-finished tracks tickles the brain while recalling a broader variety of musical and cultural touchstones. Indeed, Nascent Zones features such a diverse array of instrumental approaches that there is really -- to embrace the hackneyed phrase -- something for everyone here. Some of the loop-heavy tracks nearly approach hip-hop, such as the bouncy opener, while the more ambient pieces often incorporate orchestral elements that only increase their size and scope. Mr. Patitucci describes the idea behind Nascent Zones as "a place or zone you enter and as these zones I am making available are somewhat unfinished, it only seemed appropriate that I use this name." Unfinished or not, many of the tracks feature transporting instrumental melodies and warm, analog production that feels especially cozy in headphones. Two compositions toward the front end of the set, "Rover" and "Contact," express Patitucci's strengths by pairing simple yet non-traditional guitar work with carefully calibrated vintage synths. "Rover" begins with a de-tuned strum that recalls dream-poppers of yore -- and the many whirring noises, simple drum pads, and clean, bleeping sounds remind this reviewer not only of Stereolab or Seefeel, but also of certain moments by the relatively unheralded Philadelphia dream-pop unit Flowchart. "Contact" leans toward early krautrock, as well as the opulent, unfolding guitar tapestries of post-punkers like Durutti Column. Grab all of Nascent Zones for any price here, and stream the entire set via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> There's always moments during the holiday season that grab one sharply by the lapels. Maybe it's the quick pang of nostalgia -- the realization that one's youthful revelry is fleeting. Or maybe, it's a beer in hand and some end-of-the-year reflection during a solitary snowfall. Few music fans go without at least one of those soundtrackable moments this time of year (Boston, you apparently have at least six inches of snow to thoughtfully stand under coming your way Thursday evening), and a recently released single from Birmingham, England's Mutes is perfectly suited for such duty. Helmed by a gentleman named James, as we noted here in April, this project proffers carefully looped electric guitar and subtle, gorgeous melodies that pirouette broadly before fading into the mist they emerged from. The celestial instrumental "Kissing Trees" sparkles quietly, and the entrancing way the guitar tumbles through the melody is proof that quality songwriting always wins. "Memory Serves," which touts spectral and downcast vocals, and echoes Grenadine's chilling 1992 A-side "Fillings," or even a slowed-down take on the hyper-charged hammer-ons of bands like Clicky Clicky faves Algernon Cadwallader or Johnny Foreigner. James' soft vocal establishes a lonely dreaminess, intoning "there's nothing to live for." With all of this in mind, it’s easy to think of Mutes as a sort of John Fahy or Billy Bragg of dream pop -- alone up there on the stage, and all the better for it. Grab the Starvation Age single for any price, and be ready for the next soundtrackable moment. -- Edward Charlton

Footage: Earthquake Party's Totally Thermonuclear "Pretty Little Hand"

Boston indie pop sensations Earthquake Party premiered the video embedded above for its cataclysmic hit "Pretty Little Hand" over at the Boston Phoenix's On The Download blog earlier tonight. As you can see, it is a monster. A deceptively simple performance clip comprised of tight shots that shudder under the pressure of the band's tightly compacted and euphoric pop. There are additional insights from the clip's director over at On The Download. We last wrote about Earthquake Party here in February on the eve of the band's first tour, and in the wake of a superlative radio session on WMBR's Pipeline! in which the trio ably covered both Black Tambourine and Guided By Voices. Earthquake Party's sole release at this point is the Vs. Pizza cassingle, upon which "Pretty Little Hand" first appeared. Vs. Pizza was first issued in November before a second edition was created earlier this year due to demand. We remain eager to hear more from the threesome, whose next area performance is at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge May 30 with Thunders and two DJ sets.

Earthquake Party! Ride Imaginary Fault Line To Chicago, Back

We've been meaning to make mention of Boston fuzz-pop superlatives Earthquake Party! for weeks, ever since being blown away by their recent radio session for the inimitable Pipeline! show on WMBR hosted by Jeff Breeze. Seriously, have you heard this thing? There's a blinding version of "Pretty Little Hands," the highlight track of the band's recent Vs. Pizza cassingle release that we wrote about here in January. There are massive covers of Black Tambourine's "Throw Aggi From The Bridge" and Guided By Voices' "Tractor Rape Chain." And then there's cracking new tracks like the garage basher "Trash." What more could you ask for? Seriously, what's your problem?

Earthquake Party embarks next week on its very first tour, but not before a local gig tomorrow night hosted by Allston Pudding. Thereafter, as the title of this post suggests, the band tours out to Chicago and back with a second limited edition of Vs. Pizza in tow (this one on white cassettes, as opposed to the first edition's black). The trio rounds things out at Cake Shop in New York March 11, after which we hope they are heading straight back into the studio. In the meantime, you can stream the cassingle below, and download Earthquake Party!'s Pipeline! session right here. Get out to the show tomorrow.

Today's Hotness: New Years Evil, Misra Lemonheads, Annabel

>> Some things just sound classic. A forthcoming split single from Plymouth and Portsmouth, England-based Art Is Hard Records touts music that could just have easily have been produced by indie acts in 1992 as 2010, right down to production values, big guitars and general attitude (confusion, disappointment, heartache). This is a good thing. The A-side of the single features Exeter, England trio New Years Evil's squalling and enchanted anthem to disaffection "Shame," and the flip touts Falmouth, England's The Black Tambourines' decidedly surfy, definitely Slumberland-y "Tommy." Certainly The Black Tambourines must be aware of the seminal D.C. indie shoegaze pop act Black Tambourine, as "Tommy" is awash in the latter band's reverb, distortion and pep. "Shame" b/w "Tommy" will be released by Art Is Hard Nov. 29 on 7" vinyl. The single comes packaged with a 5-track digital EP, 'zine and photo print. The digital EP contains the aforementioned tracks as well as The Black Tambourines' "Youth" and "Let You Down (Reworked)" as well as New Years Evil's "Echo Canyon (home demo)." We don't imagine they are making a ton of these, so you'd best pre-order right here. The stream of New Years Evil's "Shame" awaits your attention below.

New Years Evil's "Shame"

>> [EDIT 2: Hold on, don't get too excited -- it seems the email in question may not have meant what we thought it meant. -- Ed.] The recently resuscitated Misra Records will release a compilation of old material next year, which old material will be selected by certain bands, including Lemonheads, which we presume to mean Evan Dando. The end. Since we rarely write about the band outside of the context of our beloved Varsity Drag, you probably aren't aware that Lemonheads are among our top 10 favorite bands, all time. We don't follow what the modern day Lemonheads and Mr. Dando do that closely, but we were very excited by an email we received today that states Lemonheads will cover a Mendoza Line song for a forthcoming compilation entitled, somewhat clunkily, Misra Records Presents: An Artist-Curated Misra Legacy Compilation. The Mendoza Line are another top Clicky Clicky fave, so the prospect of the defunct indie rock concern's music being recorded by another revered artist is most welcome. We have no idea which song Dando takes on, but here are five Mendoza Line tunes we'd love to hear him record:

1. "I Hope That You Remember To Forget"
2. "Road To Insolvency"
3. "Rats Alley"
4. "Dollars To Donuts"
5. "We'll Never Make The Final Reel"

The compilation is slotted to hit sales racks just prior to an early March release by recently resuscitated Misra's Southeast Engine. Curiously, among other cover combinations that will apparently appear on the comp is one in which one-hit-wonders Black Kids cover supremely under-appreciated and now-defunct Mobius Band. Wild, man, wild.

>> The more we listen to Annabel's "The Forgetting Of Names And Faces," the more we can't get enough. The tune is the lead track of the Kent, Ohio quartet's forthcoming 7" EP Here We Are Tomorrow. The EP is packed with hook-filled, sing-along-able lo-fi indie punk. It will be released Dec. 14 by Tiny Engines -- the label responsible for Everyone Everywhere's self-titled, best-of-2010 emo tour de force -- in a limited edition of 500 (300 on blue vinyl and 200 on maroon vinyl packed with hand-screened and hand-numbered inserts). Pre-order Here We Are Tomorrow right here. It's the right move. Speaking of Everyone Everywhere, the band and Annabel play a show in Philadelphia Friday night at ZAK House. We don't know where that is, but we bet you could figure it out in the event you need to be rocked tomorrow.

Annabel by Ben Hendricks

Today's Hotness: Zookeeper, Film School, Slumberland Records

>> Longtime readers may recall this post from November expressing surprise at encountering YouTube footage of excellent second-wave emo juggernaut Mineral. The band's 1996 release The Power Of Failing received much play in our old silver Volvo in our final year of undergraduate study. We were equally surprised to get an email reporting that former Mineral (and Gloria Record) fronter Chris Simpson has returned to the world of music after a bit of a hiatus with a new and surprisingly rootsier project called Zookeeper. We've got links to two MP3s below, but make certain you to hit this album stream and listen to the track "Delivery Room," which is our favorite cut on the album. Simspon's ear for a big melodies clearly weathered the hiatus well, and we have to say that the one thing about Mineral's recordings that didn't work for us was all the treble: Zookeeper's broader instrumentation softens the over-all assault. It is a bit jarring to hear Simpson's voice paired with shuffling acoustic guitars and juke-joint organ, but the music is fantastic. Zookeeper's self-titled EP was released last year; a full-length platter Becoming All Things is expected to be released this fall. In a MySpace post last year Simpson stated that he had written and recorded about 40 tracks, so we can likely expect a lot more to come. For those of you itching for some of that old Mineral video footage, here is the band doing the awesome cut "Parking Lot," and Crank! has Mineral music posted here.

Zookeeper -- "I Live In The Mess You Are" -- Zookeeper EP
Zookeeper -- "Tax Collector" -- Zookeeper EP
[right click and save as / buy the Zookeeper EP here]

>> We just got wind of the news that San Francisco-based nu-gaze quintet Film School, which made a big splash a year or two back for being on of the first bands to have the theft of their gear widely written about in the blogosphere (that was weird), have completed a new record. The set is titled Hideout and it is to be released on Beggars Banquet Sept. 11. Hideout was mixed by Phil Ek, who you may recall worked on all the good Built To Spill records. Film School recently added a different rhythm section and a new guitarist, and it will be interesting to hear whether that makes much of a difference. Film School's eponymous full-length debut was released by Beggars last year; it has several standout tracks including "Breet" and "Garrison" that we enjoy listening to with our ears.

>> Speaking of excellent dreampop type stuff, digital music service Rhapsody recently added some of our favorite recordings to its catalog by licensing a bunch of Slumberland Records releases. Chief among these are Rocketship's flawless and crucial 1996 set A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, which we can and have listened to on repeat for heroic lengths of time. It's that good. Another one of our favorites is Lorelei's stirring Asleep EP and Black Tambourine's discography. All of the Rocketship record is classic, and make a point to listen to "The Sky Is Falling" from the Asleep EP. And don't forget that Slumberland offers a generous amount of MP3s through its recently revamped web site. Below are a few of our all-time favorites. We remember the chills we got when we heard this first one, in Brookhouser's van. And we clearly remember hearing the second one on WPRB on the way to a gig at Princeton's Terrace Club, and thinking it was so good we may as well just stop making music. And eventually, about 10 years later, we did.

Velocity Girl -- "My Forgotten Favorite" -- DRYL 10 7" (out of print)
Lilys -- "Claire Hates Me" -- In The Presence Of Nothing (out of print, stop at nothing to acquire)
Boyracer -- "The Useless Romantic" -- More Songs About Frustration And Self Hate (out of print)
[right click and save as]