Today's Hotness: Arctic Splash, Black Swan Runners

>> A world in which Joey Sweeney doesn't have an active band just feels weird. Or at least it feels weird in a different way from a world in which Mr. Sweeney does have an active band. We came up listening to his songs, going to the shows of his various bands (Barnabys, The Joey Sweeney Rock Band, and so forth), and then when he got himself growed up sometime during the last decade it seemed like he had finally put music down after shelving the quasi-eponymous The Trouble With Sweeney. So we were pleased to get a tip a couple months back that Sweeney has quietly bowed another project, Arctic Splash. The Philadelphia-based quintet made its live debut just last summer, and has apparently been at work for quite some time on a debut release, which at least last fall was contemplated as a three-song 12"/download jawn. What's the stuff sound like? It's hard to say: this live clip from the band's first show captures a band at its loosest; the demo "Denim Tuxedo" (someone alert Jon Wurster...) is spare and soulful; and the acoustic demo "Baptised In Vibe" embedded atop this piece is yet more spare, but more reminiscent of Sweeney's later stuff. Long-time readers with superlative memories will recall our occasional rants about Sweeney's unheralded rock period (1994-1996, or thereabouts), and obviously we'd like to see a return to the sweaty, glasses-pushing-up-the-nose Sweeney. Arctic Splash probably won't be that, but we're still quite excited to hear the debut release. Let's get it released, Team Splash, eh?

Denim Tuxedo (Demo) by arcticsplash

>> We're also jazzed for the debut release from Black Swan Runners, a new band from former Retriever and CoCo B's guy Kevin Castillo. We've been a fan of Castillo's music since college, which if you don't know was a long time ago. And we were a bit surprised that CoCo B's didn't have more of a break-out moment with its dazzling rocker "Give Up The Money/1982," from its very solid 2007 self-titled set. Be that as it may, there is new music coming from this new entity Black Swan Runners. Although how different is the new band? The personnel listed at the BSW Facebook page is the same as the personnel in the CoCo B's bio? No matter, we don't really care, so long as the rock is good. And based on some teaser video clips, we think we've got reason to be excited when the band's debut release comes out next month. The as-yet-untitled collection is in the can, after having been mixed by Alex Newport (who we talked about at some length here) and mastered by the seemingly ubiquitous Jeff Lipton. All we know right now is that one jam might be titled "Carolina In A White Coat," and whatever the title is, the tune is awesome. There's a bit more of a synth-and-electronic-beats thing going on in this clip, but the song seems no less affecting. We haven't discerned an official release date yet, but we'll keep you apprised.

Today's Hotness: Tre Orsi, The Boo Jays

>> You'll be excused for mistaking Tre Orsi's exceptional new rocker for a new, more aggressive track from California-based indie concern CoCo B's. Or even an old track from the late, lamented Lefty's Deceiver. But no, in fact Tre Orsi is Tre Orsi, and you will likely start hearing the name more and more with the release of the Denton, Texas-based indie rock act's debut full length. The collection is titled Devices + Emblems, and it will be released digitally by the rock-solid Comedy Minus One label June 8; the LP version of the record has been available from the band since late March. Devices + Emblems was produced by Bubba Kadane of Bedhead/The New Year fame, which may account for the transcendent guitar tone in the wonderful preview track "The Engineer" that we have posted below. Or maybe it does not account for that, perhaps the Tre Orsi chaps know from transcendent guitar tone, we don't want to short change them. "The Engineer" featured on the recent Matador scene comp Casual Victim Pile, and the band previously released a single "No. 7." The single is appended to the digital release of Devices + Emblems as bonus tracks. Pre-order the record right here.

Tre Orsi's "The Engineer"

>> In addition to being a holiday and a time of year, Halloween is also a state of mind. We know this because Mrs. Clicky Clicky is all about Halloween no matter what the calendar says. She would seem to have a kindred spirit in Naveed Mir, the sole proprietor of the Portland, Ore.-based spooky surf-psych band The Boo Jays. Mr. Mir's own Astrodorque Records will issue June 24 The Boo Jays' four-song single Happy Halloween on cassette and 7" glow in the dark vinyl. It's a little B-52s, a little Bauhaus, and more than a little awesome. Reverbed, bending guitar chords, eerie vintage synth and quietly growled vocals are the pleasantly recognizable psych signifiers for "Creepy Crawlin'." But the song we like best is "We Drank Your Blood With The Owls," which leads off side B of the planned release. The uptempo track rides breakneck drumming while Mir offers some of his hookier vocal and organ melodies. All the while a lead guitar line ripples under the weight of something like overdriven Small Stone under a canopy of crash cymbal. It's a hot track. Mir has graciously consented to let us give the track away here. Check it out, and if you dig it, order the vinyl here.

The Boo Jays' "We Drank Your Blood With The Owls"

Today's Hotness: Dinosaur Pile-Up, Matt Pond PA, Coco B's

>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Henry] Leeds-based power trio Dinosaur Pile-Up's debut single "My Rock N' Roll" will be released Dec. 8 in a limited edition of 500 by fledgling label Friends Vs. Records. Whoever wrote the promo blurb at Rough Trade is brilliantly funny -- observe: "[Dinosaur Pile-Up's] songs are proving very popular among people who like to go out to watch rock bands." The flipside of the planned single is the original demo for the percolating gem "Love Is A Boat And We're Sinking," which was floating around the Internerdzzz earlier this fall and reminds us very much of the incredibly under-rated and sadly defunct Michigan act Rain Is Wet. Anyhow, someone please tell us when a band forms and takes the name Dinosaur Pile-Up Jr., because the very idea makes us extremely happy. Pre-order "My Rock N' Roll" from Rough Trade right here. Stream it at the band's MySpace dojo right here, where you can also inspect the band's various live commitments through the end of January.

>> What with our holiday pause we're a day late and a dollar short on the Matt Pond PA news, which of course is that the revered, Philly-based chamber pop outfit has just release a free ep awesomely titled Freeep, which was apparently recorded in a cabin in Bearsville, NY, which surprisingly actually exists. The EP actually has a much longer title, according to the MPPA web site, which is The Dawn before the Dark Leaves or Water off a Black Dog’s Back or Amazing Life or Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons or May we never go go mental, may we always stay stay gentle or The Fear of not Being Afraid or Erica Harris and her Ubiquitous Threads or The Warmth Within the Warren or Dreaming of Sleeping or Saying It to Keep It From Happening or This is not the Dark Leaves or Living for Liv Ullman or The Odds of a Sunrise or Whispering Pines or You’ll be the Rhythm and I’ll be the Beat and I’ll be the Rhythm and You’ll be the Beat or The Grass Harp or Goodbye Barcelona or Why is my copy of the Moviegoer Floating in a Puddle Beside the Car. You can download the whole shebang right here, and we're recommending that you do. Opener "Hearts And Minds" is uptempo and airy and unsurprisingly soars in places. Three beautiful numbered tracks, "#1," "#3" and "#5" also standout; "#3" in particular glistens with soft intensity, and the trio of songs remind us very much of J Mascis' untitled tracks from the Gas, Food, Lodging soundtrack. Matt Pond PA's numbered numbers are very fetching, so we're posting them below.

Matt Pond PA -- "#1" -- Freeep
Matt Pond PA -- "#3" -- Freeep
Matt Pond PA -- "#5" -- Freeep
[right click and save as]
[download the entire Freep from Matt Pond PA's web site right here]

>> Earlier this month we expended a couple minutes confirming our belief that Coco B's self-titled debut was in fact released in 2007, because the band's superlative rocker "Give Up The Money (1982)" was in the running to be one of our top songs of the year for 2008 otherwise. Unfortunately, its 2007 release disqualifies it, but that doesn't mean the song is any less great. It also seems to have a long shelf life (not unlike Say Hi To Your Mom's "Let's Talk About Spaceships," now that we think about it). The latest twinkle of attention for the track comes courtesy of lifestyle brand and apparel maker Nike (hey Nike, how did that whole sweatshop thing shake out? We'll have to Google that). Nike has used the track in a video of some guys riding BMX bikes like it was, well, "like it was 1982." You can watch the video here -- gotta say, it's pretty bad-ass.

Muxtape No. 9: Tired Of All The Largesse

Welcome to the weekly Muxtape. More auditory spelunking into the '90s, and into things that sound like they came from the '90s. You can stream all the tracks at this link, and we've jotted some thoughts about each track below, as is our wont.

1. Coco B's -- "Give Up The Money/1982" -- RCRDLBL download
(After learning of the whole Retriever/Coco B's connection last week we dove into the latter band's stuff and have been enjoying it. After our third or fourth run through this track it finally occurred to us why we dug it so much. Put simply, Coco B's 2008 = Haywood 1994. Even one of the Haywood guys think so. This one is a rocker with lots of guitars; it even has a slight hint of something Walter Schreifels-ish in the vocal.)

2. Versus -- "Glitter Of Love" -- Secret Swingers
(A song filled with many guitar lines we stole at one point or another. After re-ripping our Versus records it was hard to pick which track to include. We thought pulling something off The Stars Are Insane would be a little obvious, so here is a superlative mid-period track from the band's 1996 set. Tons of interlaced guitars and gratuitous movie star references. This one has a big lyrical payoff at the end when Richard Baluyut shouts "we can try to pretend that we're still in love.")

3. Clown Down -- "Living Alone" -- Living Alone
(Before the guys in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!! who are not Alec Ounsworth were in The Clap, they lived in Boston and had a band called Clown Down. We never saw them live but a friend of ours who is a friend of theirs gave us a CD-R of what were purported to be the band's demos. Turns out the demos were this record, the title track of which you can hear here is one hot bummer. Some nice "oohs" in here; it's surprisingly hard to get those right.)

4. Bedhead -- "Bedside Table" -- What Fun Life Was
(Two band names in a row with an internal rhyme scheme. We also recently re-ripped all of our Bedhead and have had a nice time rediscovering certain tracks. This one is amazingly peaceful at first with its smiling little ride cymbal-enabled trudge around the corners of your mind. Of course, the track has a tumultuous ending, but you didn't just think they were going to stand around with all of those Telecasters and not rock out eventually, did you?)

5. Joey Sweeney -- "Largesse" -- Heartache Baseball
(More ride cymbal in here, that must be why we sequenced things this way. We almost went with "My Name Is Rich," which we think about when we're waiting at a bar alone, or "Fixing Coffee," which we think about when, well, that one's kind of obvious. But this quiet number has a nice feeling of resignation to it, and it seems to go nicely with a morning in the middle of a heat wave. We really like the talking in the background toward the end that stretches the space. One of Sweeney's best lines is in here, namely "Why do you want a disease when you know we could get by on a cold?")

6. Sebadoh -- "Happily Divided (Demo)" -- Bubble And Scrape [Expanded Reissue]
(This has always been our favorite Sebadoh jam. The new expanded reissue of Bubble And Scrape is almost out in the U.S. and it is chock full of interesting extras, but perhaps the best is this demo. Although the demo of "Soul And Fire" is nice as well. We had high hopes for Bakesale after hearing "Skull" on the Hotel Massachusetts compilation, but that record never was able to eclipse our affection for Bubble And Scrape.)

7. Come -- "Shoot Me First" -- Near Life Experience
(Relatively rare instance of journeyman musician Chris Brokaw taking the lead vocal on a Come track, which is understandable: Brokaw's voice is adequate, but Zedek's has always been singularly emotive and powerful. And maybe that's why Mr. Brokaw has so many great lines in this song, as at the time he may have had fewer outlets for them. "When you laugh I can see everything I think you used to see in me.")

8. The Sea And Cake -- "The Sporting Life" -- The Fawn
(Bit of a hard contrast here. This track is as light as "Shoot Me First" is dark. It's sort of got the "Thriller" bass line going. In our opinion this song epitomizes the best of the more electronic efforts from the veteran Chicago foursome. The song has especially strong impact in the context of all of the amazing guitar-based tracks on the band's prior set The Biz, a copy of which should exist in every household in America.)

9. Tricky -- "The Lovecats" -- Vulnerable
(A nice cover and an attempt at an appropriate segue to the Willie Williams jam.)

10. Willie Williams -- "Armagideon Time" -- Version Dread Dub Specialist
(The original version of the track made more popular -- at least to us -- by The Clash.)

11. The Remote Viewer -- "It's So Funny How We Don't Talk Anymore" -- Let Your Heart Draw A Line
(Nice emo electronic jam. We should buy this record; can't recall where this MP3 came from.)

12. Seam -- "Autopilot" -- The Problem With Me
(Very purposeful and well-crafted devlopment in this track. Persistent layering. Hypnotic. The soundtrack to the blizzard of 1995.)

Today's Hotness: Coco B's, The Hold Steady, Pink Floyd

>> Loyal readers may recall a couple pleas [1, 2] for MP3s of an old Retriever single from 1995. As we noted in March we finally thought to search for the erstwhile L.A.-based act's stuff on EMusic and turned up a very nice compilation track. And then we forgot about Retriever again until this past weekend, when we wondered what would happen if we simply Googled around a bit for information about the band. And lo and behold, the Internet served up all the information and MP3s we could ask for, and provided links so we could buy even more Retriever goodness. And along the way we learned that Kevin Retriever has a new band you may have heard of called Coco B's, which were featured just the other day here at the RCRDLBL music blog thingamajig. The good news for us is that Coco B's sound just like Retriever, so we're totally on board with the quartet. RCRDLBL has a few Coco B's MP3s you can download at the link supra (definitely pull down and listen to "Give Up The Money/1982," which sounds a bit like a gentler Quicksand). But the link we'd like you to really think about clicking is this one, where you can download a whole lotta Coco B's demos, and also a whole lotta Retriever jams, including the one that got us started on this hunt in the first place, "Q-Tip" (released on a split single with Rock Band #47 in 1995). Since they're offering, we're also linking to "Evil K," the hot number we discovered on the comp at EMusic. Coco B's next gig is June 12 at Alex's Bar in Long Beach, CA.

Retriever -- "Q-Tip" -- Retriever/Rock Band #47 split single
Retriever -- "Evil K" -- Greatest Moments Of Doubt
[right click and save as]
[make yourself happy and buy Coco B's and Retriever records right here]

>> Did you know that The Hold Steady's forthcoming fourth full-length Stay Positive will be issued digitally by EMusic June 17? Well, it looked like it was true for a couple shining days, but now an update to the 17Dots blog indicates that the chaps at Vagrant are having second thoughts. Even so, this updated blog post hasn't completely recanted the claim yet, so there is still some hope that in fewer than two weeks you will be knee deep in Mssrs. Finn and Kubler's freshest batch of boozing anthems. We were not initially taken with the lead single "Sequestered In Memphis" (would it kill you guys to turn up the rhythm guitar just a little more in the verse?) but it has since wangled its way into the forefront of our minds with its ultra-simple lyrical hook. The physical release of Stay Positive is slated for July 15. "Yeah, sure, I'll tell my story again..."

>> We love the weird post-Barrett, pre-Dark Side Of The Moon Pink Floyd catalog, as well as bootleg recordings of the quartet during the period (which were showing up online with surprising frequency this spring). So it was with great interest we read this NME item about Floyd guitarist David Gilmour deigning to perform June 15 with a Floyd tribute act for a performance of the 1970 epic Atom Heart Mother. You know, the one with the cow on it. Atom Heart Mother includes two very long proggy pieces, and then three short songs, one written by each of the writing Floyd members. It is really a wonderful record. One of the shorter tunes is Gilmour's ballad "Fat Old Sun," which was covered by the early '90s Montreal-based four-tracking concern Mennen with great, gritty success. We really thought this track came from a Purr Mama Resistor cassette comp, but we just checked the site and it isn't on any of them. We must have gotten it straight from the source. Check it out.

Mennen -- "Fat Old Sun" -- A Four-Track Joint
[right click and save as]

>> Notable British indie rockers Fields will make their live return at the end of the month, playing the Proud Gallery in London June 28. A MySpace blog post indicates the band will be playing new material. Who's going to YouTube some of that for us?