Noise For Toys II: Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Coaches (EP Release), Kindling, Gold Muse | Make Out Point | 12 Dec.

It feels good to give back. And as we age, and recognize how we've relied on others to carry us through the times we needed carrying, that good feeling only grows stronger each time we are able to give. Sure, our virtual lives at times seems like an endless chain of crowdfunding requests, some laughable, others heart-wrenching. But that's for good reason: at its best, the "crowd" is strong, and can accomplish amazing things. Sadly, it seems sometimes the idea gets lost, or at least seems so self-evident as to go unheeded, that the community exists for the benefit of the community. While it may not be apparent on a daily basis, our fortunes all rise and fall together. And a little help from everyone can go a long way.

Take toys. A toy for a kid that has less and needs a little more can mean the world, the difference between hopelessness and hope. To try to help tip the scales toward the latter for as many young people as possible this holiday season, we've once again banded together with our good friends from noise-rock five Coaches and South Shore music blogging standard-bearer The Ash Gray Proclamation to parlay our collective affinity for independent music into something bigger and better: Noise For Toys II. The show is this Saturday at 8PM at Make Out Point, which is an alias for an alternative show space. To get the address, hit us up or ask a punk. While that might seem a touch complicated, the overarching idea is simple. You bring an unwrapped toy to this incredible rock show, we do what needs doing to get it into the hands of a kid, and you get to see four of the finest underground rock acts the region has to offer. Coaches will play, of course, and we've tapped other hitmakers of the day for the event, as well: No Idea recording artists Kindling, rising dream-core goliaths Elizabeth Colour Wheel, and Gold Muse, the recently commissioned collab featuring members of Soccer Mom, Swirlies and Earthquake Party!.

This bill is almost too good to be true. Readers will recall from this piece last week that Coaches is celebrating the release of its terrific new EP Shush as part of the show. Additionally, Western Mass. bigs Kindling are packing up their three-guitar attack and towering wall of sound and trekking to Boston for the show. Released just last month, the quintet's stormy Galaxies 12" touts four tunes that build off its early, Velocity Girl-inspired sound and rev it up with blunt, punky energy. Elizabeth Colour Wheel's recent ascent continues unabated; its very successful 2015 included the release of a debut EP (which Clicky Clicky premiered right here), some well-received singles (including the holiday-themed Dolly Party cover embedded below) and many mesmerizing live shows. Gold Muse just in the past week released to the wilds of the Interzizzles its debut digital single, "Easy Dance" b/w "Sometimes Smiling," and it is light, nimble and intoxicating. The pop-leaning sound may be a bit of a surprise given the combo's component parts, but with ready hooks, fluid dynamics and Deborah Warfield's inviting vocals, each song is a winner. So yeah, we think the show is going to be really great.

Look, we recognize our game is indie rock, and our day-to-day is not about curing society's ills. But at its heart indie rock is optimistic, in that we all believe there is a better way to make, live, and breathe music. There are kids out there that need a reason to be optimistic, too, some sign that there are people out there pulling for them. Let's be those people. And let's rock Saturday night. Let's rock most steadfastly. Stream tunes from the four bands via the embeds below.

Elizabeth Colour Wheel: Bandcamp | Facebook
Coaches: Bandcamp | Facebook
Kindling: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds
Gold Muse: Bandcamp | Facebook

Infinity Girl, Kindling, Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Big Eater | Out Of The Blue Too | 8 Nov.

Just look at this goddamn show tonight.

Infinity Girl: Bandcamp | Facebook
Kindling: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds
Elizabeth Colour Wheel: Bandcamp | Facebook
Big Eater: Bandcamp | Facebook

Show Us Yours #24: Kindling

Attentive readers with fairly decent memories know that Clicky Clicky fell pretty hard for Western Mass.-based shoegaze duo Kindling early on, back when it was intent on building an open-ended catalogue of demos called Spare Room [link] in an apartment. Well, it turns out the little shoegaze pair that could -- comprised of bike shop guy and Ampere fronter Stephen Pierce and Gretchen Williams, whose proverbial bag is global health and human rights -- had a big 2014: releasing its beautifully blurred debut single "Spike & Wave" via Dallas-based Moon Sound Records; moving into a proper practice space; expanding its lineup to include dudes named Andy, Andy and Jonathan; and performing its first live gigs. And 2015 looks to be even bigger, as the now-quintet plans to record a couple times this month, including a shoe brand-sponsored session at Q Division Studios in Somerville, before starting to track a Kindling full-length later in the year. We decided to check in with guitarist and co-founder Stephen Pierce for an interview before things got too hairy, to learn more about Kindling's new rehearsal digs at Easthampton, Mass.' Sonelab and general goings-on. We thank Mr. Pierce for his time and attentiveness, and invite you to read our exchange below.

Clicky Clicky: So why do you use this practice space? What makes it the best space for Kindling right now?

Stephen Pierce: Sonelab is great. It's a three-minute bike ride or drive from most of our houses, which is huge and makes it feel worth it for me to go down there even if just for an hour or so to work on ideas. It's a 24-hour space, too, which is nice when you can't start practice sometimes until 9pm. Because it's in a warehouse that otherwise hasn't been too developed (beyond the studio, the practice spaces, and two (!!) breweries), we don't have to really worry too much about disturbing anyone. A luxury, to be sure, for a loud band.

CC: Is there an idiosyncrasy or quirk to the space that has affected the sound of one of your songs, or even the overall Kindling sound? I imagine that might have been more of an issue before you moved into Sonelab, yeah?

SP: I think having the green light to get every amp going at once has had an impact on what full-band Kindling sounds like, sure. Like, when I'd plug in at home, or even when recording Gretchen's vocals for the 7", we'd be hyper-aware that we were right above the downstairs neighbor's living room. They're friends of ours, but that made us even more conscious of volume than we would've been had they been strangers. Like, it's easier to just say "fuck 'em, they can deal with it" if you don't know who you're inconveniencing. I guess I'd still feel pretty guilty about that, too. In any case, sound changes when it gets louder, and the songs that we had quietly written and recorded at home get a chance to open up now that we're A) a full band, and B) at Sonelab.

CC: You walk into your space. What's the first thing that you smell?

SP: Any sort of mix of old warehouse smells, like old wood, and lately solder if I've been working on wiring pedals. We never let it get so bad that it smells like old beer, but a world could exist where that may happen someday.

CC: I assume with the recording studio as part of the complex -- that's right, yeah? -- the spaces must be pretty well sound-proofed? Or can you only play when there are no sessions on? Does Mr. Pizzoferrato ever wander in?

SP: Well, the studio is definitely a part of it, but they have a good buffer between the studio and the rooms. I've never heard anything coming from the studio when I'm in our room, and they're super soundproofed, so I've got to imagine that they don't hear whatever's going on in the spaces. We can play whenever. The rooms themselves, though, will definitely experience bleed from neighboring rooms, but I don't think it would really ever be audible while playing except for, like, the quietest bands. No one's drowning anyone else out, I don't think.

With Justin, usually it's the other way around, where I'll go pop into the studio and hang out in his control room with him when buddies are recording, but that's not super often. I try to be conscious about how an outsider's presence may alter a band's studio experience or productivity or whatever. As ya do, I make sure that I'm not coming at the worst possible time before going in. You know.

CC: I didn't realize that Ampere was still a going concern until I saw some notices about recent shows.

SP: Ha, yeah! We're still at it. As long as people want us to do the occasional cool thing in a part of the world that we've never visited, we're down. Like, we're going to Sweden in April to play a single show. Ampere usually practices at Will's studio, Dead Air, in Leverett, which is about 30 minutes from Easthampton, but [we] recently practiced at the Kindling space for the first time. It was fun, but it just sounded and felt weirdly different. I'm sure it was mostly just the context of one band practicing where another band lives.

CC: Kindling has expanded since we first started writing about the band. Has that changed the songwriting process at all? Would you say Kindling is now more "bandy?"

SP: I mean, we're definitely a BAND and we definitely develop by interacting with each other's parts, but the writing process is still something I do at home or on my own at the space rather than at practice. I tend to get the song fully worked out and recorded before we try to start learning it together. The recordings streamline things, make it easier to communicate ideas, especially when you're a guy that isn't super comfortable with the idea of telling people what to do. I've been in bands with Andy, our drummer, since I was a teenager, though - so, really, the drums that I hear in my head when working on the songs at home end up syncing up perfectly with the sort of stuff he'd do. From exposure, Andy's become the drummer in my head, which definitely makes things easy and fast on that end.

CC: So you are the sole songwriter then? Does Gretchen contribute lyrics, or is that all you as well?

SP: No, I'd hesitate to say that I'm the sole songwriter. When you bring other people into a creative thing, whatever you start with becomes a lot more fluid. There's an ebb and a flow. Gretchen brings a lot to shaping the songs, and often the recordings that I begin with will be edited to, like, change a lead or something based on her feedback. It's really important to the band, I think, to have her as a creative partner. It forces me to think outside of myself, which can be hard for me to do after spending, you know, a full day playing the same riff over and over, then listening back to that riff. New ideas that I wouldn't necessarily land on by myself come from that. And lyrically, it's a split responsibility. We started the band together, and I'd never ever want to downplay how important a role she plays in what the end-product is.

CC: All that aside, what do the next six months look like for Kindling?

SP: We're recording a few times [this month] -- two days with Justin, and one day at Q Division in Somerville for a Converse Rubber Tracks session. They have a few pieces of cool gear there that I've never used before, like an Echoplex EP-3 and a Roland Space Echo, so we wrote a song kind of designed to make the most of that stuff. Not too far after that, we'll be going back to Sonelab to record a full-length, which we're just about done working on. The hope is to spend a few weekends playing shows - like New York/Brooklyn, Boston, Philly or wherever makes sense - with friends' bands, but I guess with the recordings coming up so soon, we'll think harder about firming that sort of thing up after we're done. I think it's best for me to only be super-focused on one thing at a time. There's a good deal of insanity, by the way, that goes into our process. All of which [is] on my end.

Moon Sounds Records plans to issue "Spike & Wave" on cassette, according to this Facebook status, so for those of you who feel the vinyl 7" isn't quite anachronistic enough for you, take heart! Apparently, the 300-piece initial pressing of the single to vinyl is dwindling, so if you want one of those, you'd best get on that now. We premiered the single right here in July, and we are very much looking forward to hearing the planned new recordings.

Previous Show Us Yours episodes:
Shapes And Sizes | Dirty On Purpose | Relay | Mobius Band | Frightened Rabbit | Assembly Now | Meneguar | Okay Paddy | Charmparticles | Calories | Sun Airway | It Hugs Back | Lubec | A Giant Dog | Bent Shapes | Krill | Golden Gurls | Earthquake Party! | Hallelujah The Hills | Seeds Of Doubt | The Cherry Wave | Coaches | Night Mechanic

Today's Hotness: Dangerous Ponies, Johnny Foreigner, Fiocz

>> Veteran Philly-based indie pop concern Dangerous Ponies are knee-deep in the hoopla of a massive, six-week spring tour to promote its latest release, the EP Tenderheart. The four-song collection, produced and co-engineered by ex-Algernon Cadwallader guitarist Joe Reinhart, includes the title track as well as the tunes "Sparks," "California" and "Dogfite," and it was released digitally March 8. Tenderheart will be released on 7" vinyl March 27, just days before the collective founded and fronted by Chrissy Tashjian blows into Boston for what will surely be a barn-burner of a show at some place called Discovery Zone with white-hot Boston aggro-twee trio Earthquake Party!. Incidentally, Ms. Tashjian is abetted by a half-dozen "friends, family and lovers" (Facebook's words, not ours, LOL) including the five-different-band-having, wholly righteous dude Evan Bernard on guitar and vocals. The EP boasts invigorating pop numbers notable as much for their punk energy as they are for the creative arrangements, vocal harmonies (particularly those sunshiney ahhhhhhs on "Sparks," and the layered interplay in the brilliant chorus of "California.") and pro performances that elevate Dangerous Ponies' music far above the realm of anything one might refer to as "pop-punk." The admixture is significantly enhanced by the depth provided by Reinhart, et al.'s imaginative production, but goddamn if plain writing awesome songs doesn't help a whole lot, too (srsly, have you seen this? / spot the Ampere T). Tenderheart, as we noted supra, is already available digitally now and pre-orders for the vinyl issue (as well as orders for the digital) are being taken through the Dangerous Ponies Bandcamp yert right here. Stream the entirety of the delightful EP via the embed below. Complete spring tour dates can be inspected right here. Dangerous Ponies released a self-titled debut full-length in Jan. 2011, and the Dr. Ponie Medicine Ponie EP in 2009, both of which are also available via Bandcamp.



>> Earlier this evening Birmingham, England-based noise-pop heroes Johnny Foreigner finally revealed the full skinny vis a vis its recently promised mini-album. The self-recorded and self-produced short set is titled Manhattan Projects, and 22 very lucky fans snapped up in minutes the physical version of same, much to our chagrin (you turn your back from the Internet for ONE MINUTE to feed your kid...). That tangible manifestation of Manhattan Projects packages "4 unique 8" x 6" photos from our November trip to America and Canada, with hand drawn bastardiasations and special effects by Lewes" (guitarist Lewes Herriot) along with a download of six songs. Fortunately for the rest of us, the music is also available sans the photo set. As we reported earlier this month, the half-dozen songs are re-worked version of older tunes with tweaked names alongside some new tunes. So the Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything highlight "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs" becomes "(Don't) Throw Us Your Slang;" the recent EP standout track "3hearts" becomes "Free Starts" (a version that includes a performance from the inimitable Jack Pop of Alcopop! Records himself); and the 2008 single "Eyes Wide Terrified" becomes "Ice Slide Terrordive;" etc. Manhattan Projects, so named for a comic book that as best we can tell has the same premise as one of our many favorite Michael Paré films, is clotted with gems, but definitely hang around until the end for the stirring, even-quieter-than-the-rest closer "Riff Clitchard (Cursed Version)." The tune commences with a hypnotic guitar arpeggio and a subdued vocal from bassist Kelly Southern and then breaks down like a crumbling, old-world automaton -- it reminds us of the crushing final number, "Yr Loved," from the brilliant 2010 EP You Thought You Saw A Shooting Star But Yr Eyes Were Blurred With Tears And That Lighthouse Can Be Pretty Deceiving With The Sky So Clear And Sea So Calm. Listen to the entirety of the new collection via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through to purchase, which we highly recommend you do. Johnny Foreigner has promised two more releases this year, and Manhattan Projects has us even more excited for them than you would normally expect out of us, rabid love for Johnny Foreigner and all.



>> After selling out of its debut release almost entirely on pre-orders earlier this year, fledgling London-based experimental music label Glass Reservoir returns next month with a full-length from Zurich-based electronic music producer Fiocz. The 10-song collection, titled Social Cognition, will be issued under the catalog number TGGR002 in a limited edition of 50 CDs and as a digital download. Fiocz, according to Glass Reservoir, "is an innovative experimental analogue modular synth composer who builds intricate compositions one patchcord at a time." As we alluded to supra, Glass Reservoir's initial release, Benjamin Shaw's spooky, buzzing Summer In The Box Room, sold out quickly. With certain of its compositions (particularly "Dysphoria") touting almost conventional rhythms, Social Cognition is perhaps even more accessible, so we expect it will be snapped up by fans of thoughtful abstract music in a similarly expedient fashion. Indeed, Fiocz's tracks convey their own odd sense of groove that frames patient, shaded ambient drones that are sourced in part from field recordings of Fiocz's work, home and "surrounding environments." The result recalls elements of the work of electronic producers a decade ago, such as the more subdued productions of bigs such as Squarepusher (we're thinking "My Fucking Sound") or even not-so-bigs such as Lawrence ("Titel 4"). Social Cognition will be released April 29. Stream via the embed below the album track "Subtyping," a pensive mecha-groover which clicks and stammers and hums with much solemnity. Pre-orders for Social Cognition will be taken beginning March 29, and it is our advice that if you want this thing you pre-order early and often.