New Allo Darlin’: “History Lessons”
Allo Darlin’ played a super gorgeous acoustic version of super gorgeous new song “History Lessons” for Balcony TV in Barcelona last week! More, please, ASAP. It’s Allo Darlin’ season again! Watch below:
Love Parade "Life"
Love Parade
Life
Life
I’m starting the day with some coffee and this 1990 jangling classic from Love Parade. Maybe you should, too!
OMG OMG OMG! Attention! OMG! So Allison and Katie Crutchfield covering Grimes’ “Oblivion” for Rookie Mag’s May Theme Song is likely to be the best thing you’ll hear all week. It translates to their ragged, trebly guitar pop tendencies better than I could have ever expected and HELLO YES I’VE JUST CLICKED PLAY FOR THE 7TH TIME A ROW.
Cassolette’s new single (their very best yet, IMO) is out next week on Manic Pop Records and I can’t keep it out of my head! The mailbox mixup of “Return To Sender” seems to take equal cues from both the charming storytelling of Camera Obscura and the melodic growl of ¡Simpatico!-era Velocity Girl. YES REALLY. It’s popsicle-good for the sunniest days of Spring and Summer and you can order it soon!
The band will be heading out on tour on May 22 (next week!) en route to NYC Popfest! I’d urge you (if you haven’t already!) to pop over to their kickstarter page to help them get there, and get some fantastic Cassolette goodies while you’re at it! Postcards, custom mix cds, records, downloads, tshirts, cover songs, you name it! It’s a win/win!
Here is some first-class reverby jangle to start your day (and, if you’re me, to play on repeat for the rest of the day) from Melbourne-to-NYC band Free Time. The culmination of two years of Dion Nania’s trans-pacific back and forth (including bouts of bass duties for Twerps and moonlighting in Scott and Charlene’s Wedding), the self-titled debut of his very own Free Time is an effortless-sounding, but meticulously crafted record of sunny hooks and sprawling, hummable Malkmusesque solos with no shortage of melody. This song is a fucking dreamboat.
It’s out May 28 on Underwater Peoples! GET IT!
English Singles "Ordinary Girls"
English Singles
Ordinary Girls
Ordinary Girls
After a bit of a delay, English Singles’ sophomore outing for Slumberland Records is a finally out out out! A-side “Ordinary Girls” (along with the whole damn thing, truly) is an instant classic. If the immediately singable and, dare we, twee as fuck lyrics—”Ordinary girls, walking from the park on a Sunday / Ordinary girls, stopping at the shops on a Monday / Don’t you wish that they had a secret side? / And someday you could be together”—don’t reel you in then the jangling 12-string melodies will surely hook you by the lip.
A shambolic pop wave crashed on west coast rocks and our Summers will all be the better for it.
Order it asap from Slumberland or pick it up at your favorite spot.
Skatterbrain Monthly Mix: May!
Now that we’ve got at least one whole foot planted firmly into the Springtime, it’s safe to bet that every monthly mix until September is going to be tailored to sunny days, warm nights, and racing hearts. May is a step in the right direction! Listen for new tracks this month from Giant Drag, Sea Pinks, Bluffing, Lisa Bouvier, and History of Manners. (If you’re into that sweet, breezy late-90s Shelflife Records sound then History of Manners might just be your new favorite thing.) And the whole thing is bookended by Saint Etienne and Pipas. How can you go wrong?
DOWNLOAD AWAY! (121mb, .zip)
- Saint Etienne “Erica America”
- The Garlands “Don’t Cry”
- Liechtenstein “Fast Forward”
- Sally Shapiro “I Dream With An Angel Tonight”
- Mellonta Tauta “Dawn”
- Terry Malts “No Big Deal”
- Giant Drag “We Like The Weather”
- Sea Pinks “Magpie Eyes”
- Close Lobsters “Got Apprehension”
- Big Dipper “Meet The Witch”
- Saturday Looks Good To Me “Polar Bear”
- The Orchids “Peaches”
- Bluffing “Salad”
- Lisa Bouvier “Every Year Until We Die”
- History of Manners “Compulsory”
- Pipas “Bye Bye”
XOXO
Rocketship “Hey, Hey Girl” (live at Zoots, 1996)
Today’s as good a day as any to rewatch all of the videos of this Rocketship set from 1996 at Zoots in Detroit! The quality is kinda poor, but it’s pretty hard to complain when their are barely 10 (maybe?) live videos of Rocketship even in existence.
Post Modern Team "Fade Away"
Post Modern Team
Fade Away
Fade Away
I should have probably learned my lesson by now, but I’m still always delighted and surprised when a band from Japan sounds like, well, how Post Modern Team sound.
Since first coming across them early last year I’ve yet to hear anything less than stellar from them; but the three songs that make up their new Nite Life Lounge EP, out via the very consistently impressive Ano(t)raks Records, might be their best yet! EP bookends “Nite Life Lounge” and “Betterdays” are the type of twinkling dreampop gems I’ve come to expect from PMT, but it’s “Fade Away” that is most impressive here (and hopefully indicative of things to come). It plays like a Teenage Fanclub classic run through an indiepop filter (so basically it’s the kind of thing you’d have found on a Bus Stop compilation back when) and YES it’s exactly as good as that sounds.
Golden Grrrls "Older Today"
Golden Grrrls
Older Today
Older Today
Just going to go on record real quick and mention that Golden Grrrls’ debut self-titled LP is probably the most consistently rewarding record I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this year. I’m closing in on probably 30-40 listens straight through at this point and perfect little things like the coda towards the end (around 1:56ish) of “Older Today” still have a way of pulling my eyes and ears wide open and reminding me why pop music is my favorite part of almost every day.
