Today's Hotness: Sister Palace, Twerps

>> Few bands have enticed this reviewer in his hometown of Portland, Oregon as much as emergent, dreamy rock act Sister Palace. Comiing along in the wake of its mid-2014, sold out The Purple Tape EP is the act’s towering first full-length, Count Yr Blessings. The set will be self-released Feb. 1, at the conclusion of a West Coast tour that kicked off Friday night in San Francisco. The new set has taken much of the scene by surprise, as few local acts have as ably harnessed the sounds of well-aged '90s indie touchstones and channeled that inspiration into something as pristine and powerful as Count Yr Blessings’ lead single "Corporeality." The tune opens with a simple, picked refrain and the lead singer's straightforward, soft vocals. And then there's that thing -- you’ll hear it: a mighty, powerful wordless chorus that not only calls to mind the finer aspects of those Steve Albini-recorded Breeders records, but also packs a melody so honest and serene that listeners will be able to do nothing but listen and nod along in abject pleasure. Maybe it's the great harmony that haunts the passage, or maybe it's the clear, open production capturing Mac Pogue’s drumming, but there’s a timelessness to the tune that suggests great things for this young band’s future. Add to that a creeping harmonic bridge that recalls guitar-band greats like Helium, Come, and the aforementioned Breeders, and you have a recipe for success that also adds something special and original to the Northwestern DIY rock scene. We would be remiss if we did not report that the balance of Count Yr Blessings is equally strong, and that we expect listeners will be hitting repeat on the mesmerizing ballad "Sister Vincent" as well as the understatedly brilliant "Fuck The Nation," which brings back the effective, simple vocal harmonies of "Corporeality." Oh, there's also a surprise '90s alt.rock cover tagged to the end of the set, which is nicely done, and puts a twee spin on something you've heard a million times before. But we don't wanna say too much. Pre-order Count Yr Blessings right here, or grab one from Sister Palace at one of the stops on its present tour -- we’ve listed the remaining dates below along with the album embed, which we highly recommend to your attention. -- Edward Charlton

01/24 -- Santa Cruz, CA -- SubRosa w/ Burnt Palms
01/25 -- Santa Barbara, CA -- Funzone w/ Spring, Waxer
01/28 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Redwoods w/ Badlands
01/29 -- San Luis Obispo, CA -- TBA
01/30 -- Oakland, CA -- TBA w/ Watercolor Paintings
01/31 -- Cottage Grove, OR -- Axe & Fiddle
02/01 -- Portland, OR -- The Know w/ Lubec



>> It's no surprise, Merge Records having a winner on its hands, as that is sort of their "thing" (have you seen its spring release schedule?). But we feel like the forthcoming sophomore LP from Aussie indie pop act Twerps is getting a bit lost in the shuffle, and, well, it shouldn't, as it has all the makings of a classic album (and the band is already influencing a new wave of English outfits, to boot). The Melbourne-based foursome's new set is titled Range Anxiety; it was preceded by a self-titled debut in 2011 and the Merge-issued 2014 EP Underlay. Range Anxiety is replete with inexhaustible melodies, jangly guitars and a beguiling blend of pep and melancholy that recalls the finest work of notable antipodean acts such as The Go-Betweens. Indeed, Range Anxiety nearly comes across as a hits collection, its track listing is so strong. The uptempo strummer "Simple Feelings" recasts The Feelies' mellow and resigned "Only Life" as a jittery pop gem, while the preview track "I Don't Mind" plays it cool from within a quiet cloud of, uh, something? Is that feedback? Backwards masked ride cymbal? Whatever it is, it's nifty, and plays well against the chorus's clean jangle and the tremeloed leads in the verse. Deep album cut "Cheap Education" goes back to the Feelies well again for its firmly cycled three-chord verse, but thrums with a caffeinated intensity that points relentlessly forward. Merge will release Range Anxiety Tuesday, and you can purchase it right here. Stream the aforementioned "I Don't Mind" and the entirely charming weirdo "Shoulders" (which reminds us of a more hi-fi take on the Glo-worm sound) via the Soundcloud embeds below.

Who Could Say No? The Clicky Clicky Interview With She, Sir’s Russell Karloff

[Photo: Aubrey Edwards] In our attention-deficient indie rock universe, where "flavor of the month" has devolved into "flavor of the day," music fans all too often encounter artists willing to sacrifice aspects of their art to the hype machine. Afflicted acts evince over-confident songwriting, album-leak scatter shots and hackneyed imagery. It's gotten to the point that when a band invests completely, humbly into their art alone, the audacity of such an act makes them stand out. Which brings us to Austin-based dream pop heroes She, Sir. The act first caught Clicky Clicky's attention five years ago with its self-released 2006 debut Who Can't Say Yes. The record introduced to the indie cognoscenti the band's careful integration of shoegaze and dream-pop elements, as well as an academic approach to composition that challenged fans to rethink the boundaries between genres.

After years of little word and almost exclusively local shows, She, Sir released the Yens 7" in 2010 on Japan's Happy Prince record label -- further proof of a broadening, if still decidedly underground, appeal [review]. A compilation album, Ev’ry Thing In Paris, followed, and anticipation for new music simmered on. With the band's considered approach, fans were safe in assuming something special must be coalescing behind the scenes, and this was confirmed in December with the announcement that the long-planned long-player Go Guitars will be released in 2013. Based on two advance tunes -- the funkier "Condensedindents," and the non-album gem "You Could Be Tiger" -- Go Guitars would seem to be an even further refinement of She, Sir's determined vision. Clicky Clicky's Edward Charlton recently spoke with She, Sir guitarist, vocalist, and co-songwriter Russell Karloff about the progress toward the new album, lessons learned in getting to this point, tricks-of-the-trade and even a "lost" first EP.

Clicky Clicky: Russell, thanks for chatting with us.

Russell Karloff: Yeah, no problem. We're really excited about the new stuff we're working on.

CC: We’re really pumped for Go Guitars, and it feels like the She, Sir story so far has been building up to its release. In what ways are you excited about what you're creating now, and how has the inspiration and history of the group factored into it?

RK: Yeah, it certainly does feel like everything's been leading up to this release. It’s like we've just been refining our sound over the years. The first record feels like it adheres to a genre; us being influenced by a handful of bands at the time: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, etc. With that first record, we ended up walking out of the studio with a pretty original sound, but it wasn't exactly the record we felt ourselves capable of. With our next release, the Yens 7", we switched it up and started reworking our process from the ground up, starting with bringing in a wider range of influences. The result, though a very short 4-song release, felt much more ambitious to us and was closer to the type of sound we'd set out to achieve.

CC: It seems like the new album is taking the results of Yens as a template and expanding on it?

RK: Yeah, exactly. The now nearly finished album keeps with the Yens producer Erik Wofford (Explosions In The Sky, Voxtrot), who we knew could give us the sound we were after. It also continues to refine our writing process in terms of incorporating wider influences. As where Yens was a little lighter, more acoustic in feeling, Go Guitars brings back the dense, heavy guitars we first introduced on Who Can't Say Yes. It's really a blending of everything we've learned over the years. At this point, we're experienced enough to know exactly what it is we want to do, and we finally know how to achieve it.

CC: That's got to be a great feeling.

RK: It's a good place to be. Most of the stuff on those first two releases feels very exploratory to me now as I listen back, but that has resulted in some pretty good songs too!

CC: So, as you were writing and exploring, how did lineup changes occur from Who Can't Say Yes up until now? It appears you now have a larger and more consistent lineup than in the past, at least based on the latest band photos.

RK: A lot of people don't know this, but M. Grusha and I recorded an entire She, Sir EP up in Minneapolis about a year before Who Can't Say Yes was recorded. We had the great fortune to work with Christopher McGuire (John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats), who was our drummer at the time. This was a great learning experience for us, in terms of learning about what we wanted out of the recording process, and what we wanted when working with other musicians. The album was ultimately scrapped because of production concerns, as we weren't getting the type of sound we wanted. We learned early on to be insistent with the sound you want and to be specific in what you require from the musicians you surround yourself with.

Anyway, we ended up moving to Texas later that year and starting over from scratch with a new EP, with new songs. We met Rick and James Vehslage (guitar and drums on Who Can't Say Yes) soon after arriving in town and they really helped us get the sound we wanted. We hit it off and before we knew it we were recording most of that record in their living room. Actually, it was about this time we first conceived the Go Guitars full-length. For so many different reasons, ranging from bad luck to pure idiocy, we had a bunch of lineup changes throughout the next few years. Mostly Grusha and I used this time to rework and refine our sound, getting closer to what we were after all along. Finally, our good friend Jeremy Cantrell (whose guitar work we'd admired for some time) agreed to join the band and that was the turning point for us. It is important to have a solid core of musicians in a band that have played together and known each other for a long period of time. Soon after, we were pleased to add drummer David Nathan to the group. We've all been playing together for a long time now, and it helps that we're all really good friends.

CC: Nice to hear that it's leveled out. We wanted to focus some on the She, Sir composing process and the production aspect of the recordings, which has always been superb. First off, we can remember press for Who Can't Say Yes mentioning you and Grusha's academic background in regards to music. What's the story there? And how did that experience play into what you wanted the band to be?

RK: Grusha and I met in college in a music composition course. There aren't a lot of people interested in that type of thing, so we immediately bonded. In fact, we were both writing classical music -- string quartets, symphony orchestra pieces -- long before either of us ever had the idea of writing pop music. I feel that is a strong difference from where we come from compared to most others. We are interested in things like voice-leading, harmony, structure, and counterpoint. That's where we started out and that's basically still how we approach writing She, Sir songs. The guitars, drums, and vocals format is incidental.

I feel like most pop music, since its inception, has been built around the idea that anyone can understand it. Vocals are in the forefront and the chords of a song are easily delineated. With She, Sir, the music is dense, the chords are ambiguous at best, and the vocals are often low in the mix -- treated as just another instrument at our disposal. We hope the music can be viewed from a distance, judged as a whole, and unable to be easily dissected into components. Really, we feel that shoegaze and Motown records have these qualities in common and are two of our favorite styles.

CC: Is there a normal composing routine for a She, Sir song? We've always had the impression that you guys very careful and deliberately consider every part of the piece. Can we get a peek into that process?

RK: Yeah, that's true. You tend to go with the process that works best for you at the time. Back during Who Can't Say Yes, Grusha or I would usually have about 90% of a song completed in fine detail before showing it to the others to complete it. Sometimes, I'd write something I didn't really feel too strongly about and would come very near to throwing it out, but it would get saved at the last minute by someone else who believed in it.

"It's My Way of Staying Connected" is a good example of that. It wasn't until we got down to Texas, and started playing with Rick and James, that that song was resurrected. The point is, you can never ever assume to know when you've written something good. You have to be open to other people’s input. You have to allow other people to add to and critique songs, even if you've written 100% of it and don't want to change a thing. Other people approach things with fresh ears and must be part of the process. With this in mind, our writing process for Go Guitars has been much more democratic. These days, I often get together with Jeremy or Grusha to go over a rough idea before a song is anywhere near being finished.

I think we've settled into a process similar to what most bands find to be most productive: getting together with a group of people you trust musically in a room filled with instruments. As I said earlier, it is important to have high expectations for the group you're working with... but it is equally important to be flexible and open to new ideas.

CC: She, Sir has maintained a very full, saturated analog sound all along, without the usual trappings. How does the studio factor in to the process? Where's that rich reverb coming from? How much do you invest in amps and guitar pedals?

RK: A lot of bands that get lumped into the shoegaze genre, as we have, accomplish their wall of sound with a ton of pedals and big-sounding amps. For us, it isn't like that at all. While we still care to achieve that big wall of sound, we do it differently. We tend to use only a handful of pedals. Largely, the density of our sound is derived from intricate arrangements. We prefer to layer several instruments together, all doing something unique and contrapuntal, to create a wall of sound as opposed to running one instrument through an array of effects. We also value economy in our recordings. Every detail is deliberate and complementary; you'll never find a part that is needlessly doubled or just big for the sake of size.

Really, the reverb and delay effects are incidental. Again, as I said earlier, we hope our songs can be viewed from a distance, as a whole. Reverb and delay are natural tools that help us blur the lines and achieve this effect. We love a lot of shoegaze bands, but we don't really want to emulate them or their approach. Again, Erik Wofford understands this and has helped us in the studio at every step. It is easy to over-produce or under-produce a band like us, but we've had long conversations about what it is we're after in the studio. When we're in the studio, Erik is just like a member of the band. We bounce ideas off of each other and veto each other. Plus he has a plate reverb the size of most peoples' mattresses.

CC: Favorite guitar tunings?

RK: Who Can't Say Yes has tunings all over the place...EADG#BE, EADG#AE, DADG#AF#. There are a few standard tuning songs, too. Yens is mostly in standard. For Go Guitars, we mainly prefer EADG#BE.

CC: So, with all this leading up to now; what are your favorite things about Go Guitars? What other nuances are you excited for people to hear? The funk inspiration in "Condensedindents" was surprising, but totally natural. What else can we expect to hear on the album?

RK: Mainly we are excited to be working on a full-length release in general. Our previous efforts have been EPs -— either conceived that way or truncated for whatever reason. We've always valued diversity, reach, and overall cohesiveness in our releases. With this full-length, we finally have a format that allows us to really dig in and exposit these ideas. As you said, we're bringing in some deeper rhythm and bass elements. This includes bands like Fleetwood Mac and Prince. We're also really inspired by more recent groups like The Go-Betweens and The Eaves.

CC: Lastly, any tour plans lined up for the album release?

RK: We might put the show on the road at some point around the record release, but for now we're mostly trying to gain interest from labels that may be able to help us with more substantial arrangements in the future. All of our concentration really is on finishing this record. Though we've mostly finished the writing for it, there are about a million things yet to record in the studio.

CC: Well, the blog is looking forward to it. Good luck!

RK: Thanks!

She, Sir: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internet | YouTube

Today's Hotness: Calories, Hospitality, Fashoda Crisis, Soccer Mom

>> Birmingham, England-based indie punk heroes Calories resurfaced last week with the blistering tune "Summer's Not," a non-album freebie and precursor to the act's planned third full-length. No release date or title for the forthcoming long-player have been revealed as of yet. Interestingly, the band's Facebook page (which lists Calories' interests as "swimming | minimalism") states that Dominique James -- formerly of Sunset Cinema Club and most recently best known as the engineer/producer of a number of Johnny Foreigner recordings -- is now a member of Calories, swelling its personnel to four members for what we believe to be the first time. "Summer's Not" is the first we've heard from Calories since the release of the band's terrific, best-of-2010 release Basic Nature [review], which was issued by Tough Love. The song is no departure from the band's characteristic blend of power, brevity and anthemic melodies. The production eschews gloss in favor of grit and buzzsaw fuzz, feedback flares through the crevices between beats, and chunky bass smacks up against the face of the stereo field. It's a wonderful little number. That "Summer's Not" is not included on the next record would seem a portentous fact: if the band didn't think this song made the cut, how friggin' awesome is this record going to be? We can't wait to hear it. Stream "Summer's Not" below.



>> After spending the majority of 2012 touring behind this year's delightful self-titled full-length, Clicky Clicky faves Hospitality return with a new 7" on Merge, "The Drift" b/w "Monkey," due Oct. 30th. The label has shared the b-side, which we've embedded below, and it's certainly strong enough to have been a lead cut. The tune is a smash, much more like the music from the band's live set we wrote about here last spring than the jazzy acoustics of the band's self-titled debut [review]. Almost certainly energized from their time on the road, Brooklyn-based Hospitality sounds lean and confident, with upfront bass and vocals that are evocative and precise. Fronter Amber Papini's singing twists and questions, while a clean electric guitar stair-steps through the mix, beckoning the listener with fevered New Wave visions. Pitchfork lazily referred to this one as "proggy," and man, is that a shame. To set the record straight, "Monkey" is a tightly coiled bit of brainy pop, unafraid to tread new ground in song structure without sacrificing anything in catchiness or relevance. Like XTC, The Go-Betweens, and this writer's beloved Lilys and The Mabuses, Hospitality are beginning to enter the realm of the chord-geniuses; compositional miscreants too damned smart and playful for their own good, and now apparently the sort of band whose music is tragically confused with that of Genesis or Yes. Prog? Please. Class? You better believe it. Buy the single from Merge right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> On the virtual A-side to its new digital single, "Horatio," notable Southend, UK-based howlers Fashoda Crisis have dialed back (slightly) its characteristic vitriol and raw power to pitch a bizarre tale of demented human/equine co-dependence. It's the same sort of odd, mildly psychedelic narrative that fueled those early, Syd Barrett-penned Floyd singles, although here it is contextualized by a martial stomp. Fashoda Crisis fronter Sim Ralph is easily able to pull it off, as his stentorian declamations are equally as compelling when alternated with spooked whispering and superficially curious ranting ("...education, Education, EDUCATION!"). "Horatio" and its fiery digital flipside "He's Got Gills" feature on the band's planned Jowls Of Justice EP, which will be released on vinyl and as a download by Cognitive Dissonance Records next month; pre-orders will begin shortly, according to the band. In the meantime, stream "Horatio" below. We wrote about "He's Got Gills" here in August.



>> Boston-based noise-rock titans Soccer Mom announced this week the quartet will release a digital single, "Brides" b/w "Canoe," the first new music from the band in more than a year. The tunes will be issued by 100m Records Nov. 6. The band supports shoegazers Young Prism at Great Scott in Boston the prior night, and promised to have CDs of the single available at the show. Both songs have featured in recent live sets from Soccer Mom (indeed, "Canoe" was in the band's set March 30), so fans lucky enough to have seen the band's dominating performances recently will have passing familiarity with them. 100m is already offering pre-orders for "Brides" b/w "Canoe" right here. Get into it. We previously wrote about Soccer Mom's amazing 10" You Are Not Going To Heaven here in July 2011.