Good morning! Here is a song that fits well within the context of waking up in a daze: "Top of the Hill" is the opening track from Conduits' upcoming self-titled debut (out March 20th). It's a shoegaze affair, gently lulling you from one dream to the next until they are standing on top of your smiling corpse, waving a victorious flag.
The sad part is that this band is signed to Team Love, a label that is horrible at supporting their artists and I can't even begin to imagine that they even know what to do with a record like this - but that's what happens when friends do business with friends.
So it's up to you, listener - make sure these guys get heard, because they're gonna need all the help they can get - good luck to you and me both!
After seeing that a good chunk of artists (Craig Wedren, The Felice Brothers, David Dondero) were no longer recording for New York label Team Love, I visited their website to see if they were still functioning. Turns out, they are, and one of their crown jewels (that they managed to keep) has a new LP coming out.
The Berg Sans Nipple return with their first new album in many years: it's called "Build With Erosion" and today you get a taste of 2 songs from it, both really good and enough to leave you wanting more. Definitely more vocal this time around!
"Build With Erosion" is out March 15th. I'm looking forward to it.
Next week sees the release of Tilly and the Wall's "o", the 3rd in their catalogue and the closest they've gotten to recapturing the magic from their debut 2004's "Wild Like Children". Along the way, they seemed to lose the promise they were bursting with, delivering a lackluster sophomore album and completely unlistenable 7 inch single in "Beat Control", so there were little expectations in "o", which happens to work in their favour. Forging through the shit storm, the band deliver a strong, mature sounding effort that almost gets it, with only a few predictable bumps along the way.
Things don't fully kick up until the second song and the album's stand out, "Pot Kettle Black", an example of the right direction for the band to go in. It keeps their tapping and infectious vocals on top of hard hitting drums and a loud, fucking bad ass guitar line. From there, we never reach that high point again, but luckily it fluctuates very little. "Jumbler" and "Dust Me Off" keep things going, and every now and then it trips up, with messes like "Falling Without Knowing", which attempts to dream and float, but ends up floating out of interest, and the absolute rubbish-fest of "Too Excited", a mess of studio dicking around that someone made the mistake of translating into a song.
Of course, that's just looking at the music. Lyrically, this turns into a whole different review. "o"'s nostalgia trip of lost tall grass, high school cattiness and ice cream is a double edged sword: it's enough to rope in listeners with it's charm, but not enough to keep them. As you get through each song, you look for some maturity in the lyrics but it's just not there, which doesn't seem right for a band well into their 3rd album. Musically, they've finally found their sound, mashed between the classic tap dancing and bass and drums rock. Lyrically, we're all still waiting for them to grow up.
In an effort to stay current, I've decided to delay my planned mp3 post to focus on a video that came to my attention via the always wonderful Stereogum.
Today, they premiered a video for the new single "Beat Control" by Omaha's Tilly and the Wall. Now I must say, this is a real backwards leap in pop music, with rhymes written like they taken from a high school girl's diary who just discovered 80's night at her local teen center. I will shamefully admit that at one time I enjoyed the group's first record, but I mean seriously at this point, it's time to come clean: all of this cutesy rubbish is a gimmick right?
Take the video itself: their smiles look painted on, goofy for the sake of a teenage fanbase, dressed like complete retards peddling recycled keyboard drum beats and a lazy organ line. They even resort to pounding "the beat" into our heads forcefully instead of taking the time to actually write a respectable hook.
For what looks like 2 records now, the band took what people liked about them and saturated it into an unrecognizable mess, accepting the fact that they will never write anything timeless or worthwhile in their recording careers. I mean honestly guys, your fans are going to grow up and leave you for better records... are you prepared for the future? Judging from "Beat Control", I think it's safe to say not even in the slightest.
However, there is a small beam of hope: this is only a 7 inch single track, with no plans to put it on the band's upcoming full length, though something tells me that it will still be more of the same throw up they've been calling songs all this time. Pick this up? Fuck no.
When we last A Weather, I was enjoying their then recently released "Feather Test" single and loving it. Here they return with "Cove", coming March 4th on Team Love. They still sounds the same, except a little better and thankfully with more than 2 songs to offer us. A wonderful offering of dream pop goodness, pick this little guy up when you see it in your record shop.
See you dudes in Portland this fall, my one big regret is that when I lived there, I never saw you live. Weak.
Tracklisting:
1. Spiders, Snakes 2. Shirley Road Shirley 3. Screw Up Your Courage 4. Small Potatoes 5. Hanging Towers Of Baltimore 6 Pilot’s Arrow 7. Oh My Stars 8. Pinky Toe 9. It’s Good To Know
MP3:A Weather - The Feather Test MP3:A Weather - One More One Night Stand A Weather is a Portland band that I discovered like a minute AFTER I moved. Rats! They just released a 7 inch inch for the song "The Feather Test" on Team Love and if you ever needed proof that vinyl sounds better, get this. The songs certainly are special and beautiful on their own, but on wax they just get beyond warm. It's touching.
The real gem here is when you flip over the lp to the b-side "One More One Night Stand", a true harmony injected gem that sounds so good it's like they're singing it into your ear while you slumber (but in a non creepy way).
So here it is, the entire 7 inch. Enjoy it, but do try to pick it up. It's cheap and really does flourish in the vinyl format. A full length is planned for release in early 2008. We're all stoked.
Also, here is a live video of the band playing "The Feather Test" live in Seattle earlier this year.
What made me fall head over heels for them was this video:
"Along the Quai", released this past Tueaday, is 8 songs that feel very warm and organic despite featuring many computerized sounds. However, it also features soft vocals low in the mix, melodica, trumpet and more. Anyone who is familiar with Aspegren knows his background has always been as a drummer and that's no different here. I'd say the drums stand out the most. At times, both members play percussion and it really does wonders to make the songs stand out. Watch that video, you'll see what I mean.
Also worth seeking out is the vinyl version of this record: It's a double 180 gram vinyl with 2 bonus tracks. Both the cd and lp have a really cool cutout on the cover.
