Today's Hotness: Soccer Mom, Young Adults, Gabriel Saloman, Los Roys

>> For quite a few years we sided with Tom Petty, believing that the waiting was the hardest part. What we learned in the interim is that that feeling sort of subsides once you're an adult and a lot of life's waiting is behind you. Now we feel firmly ensconced in the Johnny Foreigner school of thought, which believes the hardest part is letting go. We were met yesterday with an opportunity to remember that, as news made its way to us that beloved Boston noise-pop goliath Soccer Mom was pulling the plug on its operation after just a couple more live shows. The context here is that The Mom will play as part of the bill for static-blasting scenemates Young Adults' final show Oct. 12. News of Young Adults' dissolution surfaced this spring, and we have steeled ourselves to the idea of living in a post-YA world, so the sting of the noisy power trio's demise has long since ebbed. But Soccer Mom's formal announcement today was certainly a surprise to many. The foursome -- founded by guitarist and singer Dan Parlin about five years ago -- rose slowly and steadily up from the Boston underground on the back of a couple singles and an EP, all of which we wrote about in these electronic pages, and with the release of its fiery self-titled full-length this past spring [review here, stream it via the embed below], it was as if the band had finally, finally arrived. Now after its show Oct. 12 and an as-yet-unannounced final show, The Mom is gone. If there is some consolation, it is that we're already hearing rumblings about new music projects coming from certain of the members of Soccer Mom, and there is similar news about new music coming from Young Adults fronter Chris Villon, and we look forward to bringing you more information about those things at the appropriate time. In the meantime, Young Adults intends to issue to the wilds of the Internets tomorrow two previously unreleased tunes "Old Kids" and "Void," and we can tell you that both of them rage against the dying of the light and are sure to inspire fist-banging mania among the band's adherents. Chances are if you keep an eye on the Young Adults Facebook page tomorrow you'll see the announcement, but you may also want to open a browser tab for this link and this link, too, just to make sure you've got an eye on things. Young Adults' final salvo into the proverbial breech will occur, as mentioned supra, Oct. 12 at Great Scott in Boston; in addition to Soccer Mom, California X and Earthquake Party! will also perform, making the show a wall-to-wall slayfest. All the details are at this Facebook event page. Now get some rest, you.



>> As the autumn leaves begin to turn and ultimately fall to the streets below, the bare trees will in turn make way for winter's eerie, late-night silences that seem to exist simply for fragile, emotional drone music. Overly sentimental, perhaps, but this reviewer will certainly be adding all 34 minutes of "The Disciplined Body" by Gabriel Saloman to his queue of introspective, ambient jams. Mr. Saloman, who operates out of Vancouver and may or may not be better know for his work with noise-duo Yellow Swans, has turned his attention of late to pleasing piano drones and swooping electronic zones for his latest, two-track release Movement Building Vol.1. The set that apparently collects recent work composed by Saloman to accompany a dance performance by fellow Vancouver-ite Daisy Karen Thompson called "Re-Marks on Source Material." Movement Building Vol.1 will be released by Shelter Press Oct. 18. An preview excerpt titled, for some reason, after the record and not the song, offers up a glimpse into Salomon's sonic world. The composition commences with glowing, quavering bass pulses, then slowly unravels. The front end of the excerpt at first sounds synthetic and vaguely electronic, but gradually gives way to a spacious instrumental section that captures the introspective, clenched emotions of the most chilly, starry evening. After two minutes, the overbearing bass steps aside and an impossibly reverberated guitar drapes a wandering, bottom-string motif over a kick drum that mimics a heartbeat -- an arresting move that gives the glacial track a queerly vital immediacy. And that's just a single excerpt! Stream "Movement Building Vol.1 (Excerpt)" as well as a second excerpt via the Soundcloud embeds below. These relatively quick flashes of the larger whole of "The Disciplined Body" makes purchasing the stark, 500-edition vinyl that much more tempting. Buy it from Shelter Press right here. -- Edward Charlton





>> Remember Bozmo? We covered the Berkeley, Calif.-based outfit now and then, noting its awesome, wide-eyed '60s-inspired psychedelia. The act's sound is never too derivative, coming across more as homage than rote reproduction. More recently we turned on to the apparently affiliated California act Los Roys, whose latest self-released digital EP Hag Season seems to be further evidence that there must be something -- something murky and mod-garage -- in the obviously-only-proverbial Northern California water nowadays. Over the course of six tracks, Hag Season grounds itself in bright acoustic strumming while layered harmonies, snappy snare work and clean lead guitar flesh things out. The overall effect is not too far from some of the fractured pieces by White Fence, whose latest single on Famous Class comes highly recommended. Outside of the eponymous opening instrumental and similar closing track, Los Roys' EP offers up four perfectly realized pop songs that showcase humorous crooning and carefree lyrics in equal measure. "One Thing At A Time" strikes this listener as a sarcastic ode to dealing with life's many problems. "Honey Bear" not only revisits the very Lewis Carroll-esque whimsy that dominated much of the British freakbeat and psychedelic scenes from 1966-1968, but further adds to the tongue-in-cheek fun that Los Roys capture so well (Case in point: The dejected "fuck" that begins "Twisted"). Speaking of "Twisted," it's the best song of the bunch -- all fuzzy vocals and funny warbling and cackling that leads right into an odd, lounge-y electric guitar riff. For those who regard the slack, cut-up posturing and atonalism of the Pebbles, Vol.3: The Acid Gallery compilation as the pinnacle of boomer-generation creativity, Los Roys could not be any more appealing. They speak the truth, man! Stream Hag Season via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through to download it for any price. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: Gold-Bears, Bozmo, Mincer Ray

>> From its humble beginnings, the Slumberland Records catalog has always possessed a great spiritual unity, and an argument can be made that the revered label's aesthetic, as mapped by its recent output, is becoming more outwardly emotional and mature. It's in the remarkably affecting, folk-inspired rock of Withered Hand, and it's in the dazzling, exuberant new single "Simple And Sure" from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (who, strangely, are releasing the full-length that contains the single via a different label, Yebo). And it's also in the sparkling anthems of Atlanta-based guitar-pop giants Gold-Bears. That quintet's sophomore effort Dalliance will be released June 3 -- incidentally, the day after the band performs at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middlesex Lounge with local indie pop standouts Bent Shapes and shoegaze titans Soccer Mom [dee-tails]. As with another upcoming SLR band, The Proper Ornaments, Gold-Bears' two preview singles (the latest being the cascading, co-ed rush "Yeah, Tonight") draw from the '60s-influenced side of Slumberland's classic pop aesthetic, while pushing the emotion to the forefront in less usual ways. The first single "For You," is a step forward for Gold-Bears, particularly in terms of both audio fidelity and composition, when compared with the five-piece’s delightful 2011 debut. The song's impact is predicated on minimal, Ramones-inspired power chords and a thoughtful arrangement. What might at first seem a continuation of the band's frustrated, punk-ish yelp-pop in the tune's first half, though, shifts suddenly to a succession of refreshingly clear moments of triumph. At roughly the half-minute mark, a piano smartly lays a wedding-bell progression against the grind of the band, and emotionally flattens everything in the song's proverbial path. It's a simple move, but when that instrument counterbalances the fierce chord progression, it sets up a tight-throated rush that suddenly imbues aggressive lines like "You're a mistake" with a serious twist. Have you ever watched a song grow up before your very eyes? Spend three minutes with this one for sure: you can stream it via the Soundcloud embed below, and pre-order Dalliance from Slumberland right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> The madcap psychedelia lives! If our readers were truly in tune with this reviewer's taste, they would know he is very excited about the forthcoming cassette from Boston-born and now Berkeley, Calif.-based Bozmo. The set is called Leather Umbrella and it is due any day now on the un-Google-able Peaking Pear Records. The collection -- which was recorded entirely by Bozmo principal Bo Moore to a Tascam 388 -- presents a classic case of hard-shifting mod that chases it's own fascinating logic. The title track from the album has been loosed to the wilds of the Internerds for a couple weeks; it's a Revolver-esque jaunt through fields of poppies that features bouncy harmonized lead guitars and delicately picked verses that serve as a perfect foil to the bubbly guitar work that bookends the piece. Adorning the snappy composition are great, prominently mixed tambourines and period-correct vocal delays that neatly wrap the production in perfect 1967 indie dressing. While "Leather Umbrella" cycles resolutely between its A and B sections without further development, the overall energy and neat melodic flourishes recall our beloved Lilys circa Better Can't Make Your Life Better. That's high praise from this publication, don't you know. We've had an opportunity to delve into all of Leather Umbrella and are pleased to report that its contents are uniformly terrific, and, in fact, the brightest spots arrive back-to-back in the middle of the record. Here we find the mid-tempo strummer "Cheap Blue Memory," a slightly downcast mood piece with excellent lyrics, gentle vocal harmonies and an amazing, warped guitar solo. That tune is followed by the fuzzed-out pop triumph "Perry And The Vest," with high-voltage harmonies in the chorus and another, albeit briefer, transcendent guitar solo. The two tunes each clock at about three minutes and cry out for release as a vinyl 7", so if you've got unspent student loan money burning a hole in your pocket maybe now is the time to flush your future down the toilet and start your own indie label. While you ponder that exceedingly questionable advice, stream and download "Leather Umbrella" via the embed below and watch that Bandcamp page for information about the Leather Umbrella cassette, which may possibly be your most prized possession this summer. -- Edward Charlton



>> It's not uncommon for this American blogger to wonder about and perhaps glorify the life of ex-pats. For one thing, there's the suggestion of European jet-setting, or contemplative Far East sightseeing, but even more so, there's the thrill of making a fresh start somewhere challenging and different. Our urge is heightened by our recollection that Berlin indie rockers Mincer Ray counts among its number not one, but two American ex-pats apparently in search of some great truth about scratchy, trad-sounding indie rock. Mincer Ray recently completed a new, long-playing collection, Fellow Traveler, which is available to download now for any price via Bandcamp. What quickly becomes apparent when playing the ten tracks is the extent to which the group has surpassed the delightful Guided By Voices-inspired lo-fi of 2012's Ray Mincer, which we wrote about here. The new set is more scattered but no less creative, at turns surprisingly rootsy and soulful, and at others sonically aggressive. "Couch Neighbor Catherine" and "Bassmaster" trade in shambolic loose strums that remind this reviewer of Pavement at their most country-inclined, or Palace Brothers at their most precise. "A Pickaxe From My Mom" and "Grand Tunk Plastic Lake" are both bits of classic, Yo La Tengo-styled indie. Instrumental "Great Trunk National Park" evokes Fugazi at their most willfully sloppy and the shape-shifting, instrumental closer "Das Grune Tor" utilizes a distorted whammy to great effect. Sure, the Berliners often evoke their touchstones, but the sense that they're having a blast and tapping into something pure makes one curious as to what great truth they've uncovered during their international adventure. Download Fellow Traveler via the embed below; it's for you. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: Young Adults, Bozmo, Silkworm

>> Boston-spawned indie-punk titans Young Adults at long last today made an enhanced version of its electrifying Born In '91 cassingle available as a five-song digital download and (limited edition) CD. The original version of Born In '91 was issued last summer as a cassette sold at the trio's live shows, but the 2013 version is not just easier for the non-tape-obsessed to use. It also touts some newly recorded guitar tracks on the title track and the opener "Context," as well as a "more chaotic-sounding mix courtesy of Justin Pizzoferrato," Young Adults guitarist Chris Villon told Clicky Clicky earlier this week. "The cassette versions are like 'lite' versions of these!" The new-and-improved Born In '91 EP was to have been made available via Bandcamp Feb. 14, but the set was already online as of this morning and you can stream the entire thing via the embed below. The balance of the EP program consists of additional tunes "Spectre," "College Rock" and "Stasis;" fans will recall the cassingle contained only "Born In '91," "Context" and Young Adults' blistering cover of Ride's "Decay," which originally appeared on Clicky Clicky's Nofuckingwhere compilation released in May 2012 [download the comp here]. Young Adults will sell the limited edition CD version of Born In '91 at three shows lined up for the final weekend of February (the CD version comes packaged in a slim DVD case with lyrics and art). The first of these shows is a headline slot Thursday the 21st on an epic TT The Bear's bill that includes Connecticut legends Suicide Dolls, the very hotly tipped Earthquake Party and the mighty Soccer Mom. Dig the Facebook event page for that show right here. Young Adults' previously issued full-length, Black Hole, was released by Prague-based AmDiscs in 2010.



>> We've got the typical love-hate relationship with music PR types, but there have certainly been situations where we've been downright grateful for the right pitch at the right time. For example, we had no idea that Barry Black was Eric Bachmann of Archers Of Loaf until somebody (probably the guy from Alias) got us on the phone and made us pull the disc from the mountain of submissions clogging the college radio music director's office in 1995. Similarly, and more recently, we would not have turned onto the jangly, Kinks-styled brilliance of formerly local (but now Berkeley, Calif.-based) garage rock heroes Bozmo were it not for an unexpected email from a Boston PR concern (we think it was from Sippy Cup Everything). Around the time of the exchange, Bozmo -- the vehicle of mastermind Bo Moore -- had just put out its wonderful long-player Hosanna In The Highest [at Bandcamp here], and after spending an entire evening streaming it over and over off Bandcamp we plunked down for the vinyl, and have been a satisfied customer ever since. Now Bozmo is back with an intoxicating single featuring the overdriven stomper "B A Tree" on the A-side. The tune touts a thunderous call-and-response verse that layers even-more-crushing guitar over crushing guitar, while organ struggles to get atop the mix to join the clattering snare beat and terrific vocals and harmonies. The flip is the more subdued "Lakehouse," a song laced with buoyant 12-string leads that spiral off mild clouds of psychedelia and prop up a gentler, more wistful, but no less affecting vocal. "Lakehouse" apparently also features playing from the aforementioned Earthquake Party's drummer Josh "J-Raff" Carrasco. Taken in sum, "B A Tree" b/w "Lakehouse" is our favorite single of the year to date, and it is available to download from Bandcamp for free/paywhutyalike, so get yourself on that immediamente. Allston Pudding premiered the video for "B A Tree" earlier this month; check it out right here.

>> To the extent that there was a cat and a bag, and the cat was in the bag, well, now that cat is out of the bag. What? We're talking about Comedy Minus One Records finally coming out and saying what its social media tidbits have been suggesting for a while now: that the label is preparing a deluxe reissue of Silkworm's towering work of genius, the 1993 LP Libertine. The release, to come later this year, will apparently be made manifest in various packagings including a double LP, and there will be various tiers of pre-order delights on offer. Comedy Minus One aims to include among these a download of live versions of the songs from the LP, but the label has come up short in its hunt for recordings of "The Cigarette Lighters" and "Oh How We Laughed." so, if you have recordings of these songs, Comedy Minus One wants to hear from you. Click the hyperlink above or shoot an email to Clicky Clicky Executive Editor Jay and he can put you in touch. For those of you who don't know, Libertine is a startlingly beautiful record that features classic, unfuckwithable Silkworm jams including "Wild In My Days," "Couldn't You Wait?," "Grotto Of Miracles," "Cotton Girl" and "There Is A Party Tonight In Warsaw." Fans of the band should also be made aware of the pending release of the apparently exhaustive documentary Couldn't You Wait? The Story Of Silkworm, which we believe is being released as a download this month. Full details, as well as scads of excellent video clips, teasers and outtakes, can be found at the documentary's Facebook page right here.