Today's Hotness: Saint Solitude, Weekend, Oupa

>> Sometimes records hit you at inopportune times, and so it was that early this year when we were toiling away on Ice Planet Hoth for the Day Job we found ourselves suddenly addicted to Saint Solitude's 2010 set Journal Of Retreat. The set soundtracked about a thousand frozen February mornings that started with a cup of coffee as the sun came up through a window by a desk on the 24th floor of an office suite in the midwest that faced the Mississippi River. We couldn't believe then that we'd missed songwriter Dup Crosson's wonderful collection of sunshiney indie pop strummery, especially since we had already written about Saint Solitude in 2009 here, and we resolved to keep an eye out for New Things from the band. Well, our vigilance has finally been rewarded, as we received word earlier this week that Saint Solitude's next long-player By Some Great Storm will be issued Sept. 27, and it apparently has been influenced in part by Mr. Crosson's love for Smashing Pumpkins. That sounds like a recipe for success to us. Folks on the band's email list were treated to an outtake from the By Some Great Storm sessions called "Deliverance," and we're thinking that if this great track (Bandcamp embed below) didn't make the cut, then the new, 12-song record is going to be full of what we critics refer to as "hot shit." By Some Great Storm was recorded at Landslide Studio in Asheville, NC and it will be released by Alive And Well Records. Mr. Crosson, who once plied his craft as a solo artist, has put together a new band to realize his compositions in the flesh, and the quartet will tour around the East Coast this fall. Watch this space for details.


>> Contemporary noise-pop heroes Weekend are following up their acclaimed 2010 effort Sports with a new short-player called Red. The trio's five-song set is the product of three weeks in the studio prior to a tour of Europe last month; a new full-length is slated for release in 2012. San Francisco-based Weekend, which formed fewer than two years ago, plans a tour next month to support Red. In the meantime, stream the new barn-burner "Hazel" below; the song welds melody to noise in completely gratifying fashion, as we think you'll agree. In case you missed it, the song "End Times" from Sports was released as a single in May of this year, and you can stream the radio edit of the track right here.

Weekend - Hazel by Slumberland Records

>> A brief follow-up to our mention of Oupa earlier in the week. The act's debut Forget is now streaming en todo at Bandcamp right here. And there is yet another video to gaze upon, this one for the piano ballad "Windows," which is stark and beautiful, despite not being a cover of the Garden Party classic of the same name. Garden Party you say? Let's post that to SoundCloud and have a listen, why the hell not? Oh, right... Forget was released earlier this week in the U.S., UK and France on the Fat Possum, Boiled Egg and Atelier Ciseaux labels, respectively.

Garden Party's "Windows" by clicky clicky music blog

Today's Hotness: Yr Friends, Oupa, Faculties

>> Right, then, where were we...?

>> In the wake of his first solo performance last month under the moniker Yr Friends (shortened from Yr Dead Friends for some reason, as this site evidences, oh, also this), Johnny Foreigner fronter Alexei Berrow has digitally released an EP of Yr Friends material titled Yr Friends Are Lying To You. The EP contains three Berrow originals with characteristically verbose titles, and in true Berrow/JoFo fashion Yr Friends Are Lying To You comes packaged with lyrics, album art and art for the individual tracks as well. A fourth song is a relatively jaunty Irving Berlin composition that sits well with the other material. Uncompressed, airy and spare, Yr Friends' music is lo-fi in the same vein as, say, two of the great Alex Kemp's best, The Godrays' heart-spindling "Carkeys, Ponytail And Gum" or the similarly affecting Small Factory b-side "Movies." Or maybe the breakdown of the Lilys rarity "Excelsior Plainsides." The EP is available for purchase via the Bandcamp widgetini below. The timing may be a little off, as this quiet music may be more suited to the shortening days ahead (although we suppose stale-beer summer dawns will also suit it). But when you're ready to mope your way through your fall semester, this will be the perfect thing for you. And we're hopeful that when Berrow comes up for air after the inevitably lengthy machinations surrounding the release and support of Johnny Foreigner's eagerly anticipated third full-length (which may come packaged as/with a comic book?), that we'll hear more from Yr Friends.



>> Appearing in the lo-fi bin just today is the long-awaited full-length from Oupa, a side project of Yuck fronter Daniel Blumberg that we first wrote about here in April. The new, seven-song collection -- available digitally or on cassette only -- is called Forget and it was recorded by Mr. Blumberg in his apartment this past January. Forget was released today by Fat Possum (also U.S. home to Yuck) in the States and yesterday on Blumberg's own newly commissioned label Boiled Egg in the UK; Forget is also available in France via Atelier Ciseaux, Veeee. A video for the mid-album selection "Physical" was posted to Vimeo last week, and you can watch the thing right here. As for Yuck, the London-based band is already preparing a return United States to continue riding the wave of popularity spawned by its terrific self-titled release that we've mentioned often. The quartet's first domestic date of the fall is at our very own T.T. The Bear's in Cambridge, MA Sept. 22 [TICKETS]; complete tour dates are posted to the band's web yert right here.

>> The self-titled EP from the decidedly -fi and future-present Brooklyn-based electronic duo Faculties was released a few weeks back. You've already heard and loved the teaser track "Weekend Warrior," but the EP has a lot more to offer. We've been grooving as of late on the spooky minimal glitch of "The Paranoid Style," which reminds us a touch of Lali Puna, albeit with big widescreen vocals. While it is more mid-tempo than "Weekend Warrior," the tune is a standout track. Stream the entire jawn via the Soundcloud embed below.

FACULTIES EP by statikluft

Today's Hotness: Oupa, Mercury Rev, Walter Schreifels

>> Do you remember all the confusion about Yuck and Yu(c)k, how the latter was a side project of the former? Probably not, these are the things that trouble only the most ridiculously fanatic among us. Our position on this was why bother confusing us, just pick one name and we'll accept the fact that you make guitar music and quieter music. Well, our unspoken and un-offered advice has gone unheeded, but the good news is that things are now somewhat less confusing. Yu(c)k is now Oupa. We know, you are relieved. But this is important; in case you were not aware Oupa is the solo vehicle of Yuck fronter Daniel Blumberg, and we love Yuck. Oupa plans to issue in July (via an as-yet unannounced label) a full-length set titled Forget, and although the collection will likely contain some songs with which we are familiar, it's the new stuff that we are most excited to hear. Here's an embed of the presumed titled track to Oupa's debut, which is pretty enough, but not as gripping as "Automatic" or as devastating as "Weakend." One final tangential thought -- doesn't the art above for Forget remind you of this?

Forget by Oupa

>> Let's just say at the top that we like old Mercury Rev better; Boces in particular. But even so, we think it is notable that the band's breakthrough record Deserter's Songs is being reissued May 15 by Co-op Music. The record, originally released in 1998 and Mercury Rev's fourth, so potently evokes specific good times. Nothing sexy, nothing exciting, just this: the first time we heard the record we had just flown into Charlotte, North Carolina, where our best friend picked up me and the missus and drove us in his Jeep on small roads out to a lake house in Morganton. The windows were open on the Jeep, the night was warm, and we cranked Deserter's Songs, and it was just perfect. The lead track, "Holes," in particular just haunts you. Co-op's reissue packages the collection with a second disc containing demos, outtakes and b-sides. To remind folks of how great this record is, the band is giving away the tune "Opus 40." Have a listen, maybe that first night it's warm enough for you to leave the windows open. European fans can catch the band when it unleashes a strand of live performances in mid-May; the full itinerary is at Mercury Rev's web dojo right here.

Mercury Rev -- "Opus 40" -- Deserter's Songs [reissue]
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[watch your favorite digital storefront for pre-order information]

>> We really did not know this until H-Dawg From Accounts Receivable told us: apparently there is already another Walter Schreifels solo record in the offing. According to an interview with Alter The Press from April 2010 (you read that correctly, we're reading this a year late), a new Schreifels solo set was "85% done." The same interview says that the reason it hasn't seen the light of day yet is because Mr. Schreifels was releasing the Rival Schools record (the wonderful set Pedals, issued last month) in the interim and wanted to take time to properly promote that. In the same interview Schreifels states the new solo set will be titled Jesus Is My Favorite Beatle, but it is hard to tell whether he was joking or not. Considering how roundly excellent Rival Schools' Pedals is, we expect it will be promoted through the summer, but who knows? Either way, we are excited for the new solo collection, and we'll keep you apprised. Schreifels' debut solo collection An Open Letter To The Scene was our second-favorite record of 2010 [review here].

>> While we weren't the most rabid or vocal fan, we are sorry to see neo-emo luminaries Joie De Vivre call it a day. The band's song "Summer In New London," which opened their 2010 collection The North End, was one of our Top 10 songs of 2010, although we ended up being to busy to publish our list (we did give The North End a nod in our aforementioned albums list). Sorry Joie De Vivre. There is apparently one more album in the can that will be issued post-humously. We look forward to hearing what the members of Joie De Vivre do next.