Today's Hotness: Gold-Bears, Bozmo, Mincer Ray

>> From its humble beginnings, the Slumberland Records catalog has always possessed a great spiritual unity, and an argument can be made that the revered label's aesthetic, as mapped by its recent output, is becoming more outwardly emotional and mature. It's in the remarkably affecting, folk-inspired rock of Withered Hand, and it's in the dazzling, exuberant new single "Simple And Sure" from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (who, strangely, are releasing the full-length that contains the single via a different label, Yebo). And it's also in the sparkling anthems of Atlanta-based guitar-pop giants Gold-Bears. That quintet's sophomore effort Dalliance will be released June 3 -- incidentally, the day after the band performs at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middlesex Lounge with local indie pop standouts Bent Shapes and shoegaze titans Soccer Mom [dee-tails]. As with another upcoming SLR band, The Proper Ornaments, Gold-Bears' two preview singles (the latest being the cascading, co-ed rush "Yeah, Tonight") draw from the '60s-influenced side of Slumberland's classic pop aesthetic, while pushing the emotion to the forefront in less usual ways. The first single "For You," is a step forward for Gold-Bears, particularly in terms of both audio fidelity and composition, when compared with the five-piece’s delightful 2011 debut. The song's impact is predicated on minimal, Ramones-inspired power chords and a thoughtful arrangement. What might at first seem a continuation of the band's frustrated, punk-ish yelp-pop in the tune's first half, though, shifts suddenly to a succession of refreshingly clear moments of triumph. At roughly the half-minute mark, a piano smartly lays a wedding-bell progression against the grind of the band, and emotionally flattens everything in the song's proverbial path. It's a simple move, but when that instrument counterbalances the fierce chord progression, it sets up a tight-throated rush that suddenly imbues aggressive lines like "You're a mistake" with a serious twist. Have you ever watched a song grow up before your very eyes? Spend three minutes with this one for sure: you can stream it via the Soundcloud embed below, and pre-order Dalliance from Slumberland right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> The madcap psychedelia lives! If our readers were truly in tune with this reviewer's taste, they would know he is very excited about the forthcoming cassette from Boston-born and now Berkeley, Calif.-based Bozmo. The set is called Leather Umbrella and it is due any day now on the un-Google-able Peaking Pear Records. The collection -- which was recorded entirely by Bozmo principal Bo Moore to a Tascam 388 -- presents a classic case of hard-shifting mod that chases it's own fascinating logic. The title track from the album has been loosed to the wilds of the Internerds for a couple weeks; it's a Revolver-esque jaunt through fields of poppies that features bouncy harmonized lead guitars and delicately picked verses that serve as a perfect foil to the bubbly guitar work that bookends the piece. Adorning the snappy composition are great, prominently mixed tambourines and period-correct vocal delays that neatly wrap the production in perfect 1967 indie dressing. While "Leather Umbrella" cycles resolutely between its A and B sections without further development, the overall energy and neat melodic flourishes recall our beloved Lilys circa Better Can't Make Your Life Better. That's high praise from this publication, don't you know. We've had an opportunity to delve into all of Leather Umbrella and are pleased to report that its contents are uniformly terrific, and, in fact, the brightest spots arrive back-to-back in the middle of the record. Here we find the mid-tempo strummer "Cheap Blue Memory," a slightly downcast mood piece with excellent lyrics, gentle vocal harmonies and an amazing, warped guitar solo. That tune is followed by the fuzzed-out pop triumph "Perry And The Vest," with high-voltage harmonies in the chorus and another, albeit briefer, transcendent guitar solo. The two tunes each clock at about three minutes and cry out for release as a vinyl 7", so if you've got unspent student loan money burning a hole in your pocket maybe now is the time to flush your future down the toilet and start your own indie label. While you ponder that exceedingly questionable advice, stream and download "Leather Umbrella" via the embed below and watch that Bandcamp page for information about the Leather Umbrella cassette, which may possibly be your most prized possession this summer. -- Edward Charlton



>> It's not uncommon for this American blogger to wonder about and perhaps glorify the life of ex-pats. For one thing, there's the suggestion of European jet-setting, or contemplative Far East sightseeing, but even more so, there's the thrill of making a fresh start somewhere challenging and different. Our urge is heightened by our recollection that Berlin indie rockers Mincer Ray counts among its number not one, but two American ex-pats apparently in search of some great truth about scratchy, trad-sounding indie rock. Mincer Ray recently completed a new, long-playing collection, Fellow Traveler, which is available to download now for any price via Bandcamp. What quickly becomes apparent when playing the ten tracks is the extent to which the group has surpassed the delightful Guided By Voices-inspired lo-fi of 2012's Ray Mincer, which we wrote about here. The new set is more scattered but no less creative, at turns surprisingly rootsy and soulful, and at others sonically aggressive. "Couch Neighbor Catherine" and "Bassmaster" trade in shambolic loose strums that remind this reviewer of Pavement at their most country-inclined, or Palace Brothers at their most precise. "A Pickaxe From My Mom" and "Grand Tunk Plastic Lake" are both bits of classic, Yo La Tengo-styled indie. Instrumental "Great Trunk National Park" evokes Fugazi at their most willfully sloppy and the shape-shifting, instrumental closer "Das Grune Tor" utilizes a distorted whammy to great effect. Sure, the Berliners often evoke their touchstones, but the sense that they're having a blast and tapping into something pure makes one curious as to what great truth they've uncovered during their international adventure. Download Fellow Traveler via the embed below; it's for you. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: Royal Wedding, Halasan Bazar

>> Bursting forth with the ferocity of Link Wray's meanest, tobacco-spitting moments comes Boston's Royal Wedding. The trio's dilapidated, guttural, rockabilly skronk quickly drew us into its latest release, Inhabitants, which was released to the wilds of the Internerds last month. The EP, available as a pay-what-you-like download from Bandcamp right here, touts six skeletal and electrifying numbers. Echoed, harsh and dangerous-sounding effects fly from each instrument, but paint-by-numbers rock-shock sleaze Royal Wedding is not. Each song from the threesome's EP carries wisps of driving, atonal no-wave, like opener "S.C.U.M," the primal intensity of which recalls O.G. heroes like Mars or early Sonic Youth in the clean, serrated chops of tangled guitar. Elsewhere, singer Eric Boomhower's voice delightfully proves to be a dead-ringer for Thurston Moore at his most engaging on Royal Wedding songs including "Inhabitants" (which calls to mind Moore indulging Ramones-referencing yelps and vocal ticks in the late '80s). Royal Wedding's "This Many Phases" boasts such colossal delay on the mix in its early moments that the song nearly assumes a dub reggae posture. It's no secret that this reviewer greatly appreciates the repurposing of genre signifiers within a broad spectrum of popular styles. It's this ever-evolving conversation that creates most worthwhile contemporary music. It's also the stylistic bent that makes Royal Wedding's no-wave rockabilly fusion deserving of all the attention and praise it can get. Somebody get this band in a studio with Wharton Tiers! Royal Wedding play this Friday at Cambridge, MA's Plough And Stars, and the next day the act joins Clicky Clicky-approved garage ravers Thick Shakes at Collective A Go Go in Worcester. In the meantime, stream the entirety of Inhabitants via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> With some bands, sometimes it seems they have arrived on the scene via time machine. Halasan Bazar of Copenhagen is one such act. The quintet's latest album Space Junk, available for sale on vinyl right here via the Crash Symbols label, features on its cover a rendering of a futuristic farming-colony starship. It's not, however, toward the next space age that these men are headed, but rather some imagined one from an increasingly remote past. Indeed, the group of visionary tunesmiths sounds straight out of San Francisco, circa 1966. With a warm, jangling acoustic drive, Halasan Bazar repurposes the idealistic folk-rock synonymous with a bygone California, and augments it with modern hypnagogic tape warbling and gooey, spaced-out vibes. Further bolstering that concoction is singer Fredrik Eckhoff's bouncy and playful spirit, which helps the five-piece breathe new life in to both the musical past and present. Space Junk is highlighted by "Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad," which leaps into the stereo field with thoughtfully delayed guitar leads, cheapo keyboard lines and lo-fi fuzz. Mr.Eckhoff's Neil Young-evoking slacker croon makes the tune as bittersweet as its title tidily suggests. Elsewhere, the album plumbs more mellow depths with delicate, subdued and echoed folk numbers. Closer "Ease Up" is the best of these, touting a crisp, circular lead guitar guiding soft, beautiful melodies; the songs captures an intimate spirit reminiscent of certian numbers on Velvet Underground's serene third album. Halasan Bazar counts itself one among a growing number of European bedroom recording acts that smartly appropriate elements of the 60's pop avant-garde and re-interprets it via a youthful, weirdo aesthetic that sparks new sounds and songwriting perspectives. With the Elephant 6 scene somewhat dormant -- beyond Of Montreal's funk and soul exploits -- and the latest wave of garage-revival big dogs such as Ty Segall apparently more focused on the pounding hiss of the usual chords, one hopes more acts on our side of the pond will wake up and smell some of the same acid as Halasan Bazar. We'd suggest you pull the couch out into the back yard, get comfortable, and stream all of Space Junk via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: It Hugs Back, Black Tambourine

>> Hot on the proverbial heels of releasing the best holiday EP of 2012, Kent, England-based noise pop superlatives It Hugs Back have disclosed it will release its third long-player in March 2013. The forthcoming set is titled Recommended Record, it touts 10 tunes clocking in at 35 minutes, and it was recorded in the summer and fall of 2012. A bracing and brief teaser track from Recommended Record, "Go Magic!," is available to download for free right now -- right click and save as on this link while it lasts. During its 146 seconds the song harnesses the kraut rhythms and kinetic drive of the holiday EP's lead track "Snow Angel," but uses these to propel a more mod-inspired droner featuring a slap-backed lead, fizzing organ and sweet background harmonies. The Kentish quartet's sophomore set, Laughing Party, was issued on Safe And Sound Records last spring. It Hugs Back singer and guitarist Matt Simms may or may not be better known for his gig as touring guitarist for the current iteration of the legendary UK post-punk band Wire. Even so, Simms' own act has consistently delivered excellent, dreamy and slightly dark pop; It Hugs Back's brilliant, Yo La Tengo-esque song "Work Day" even got a little nod from Pantsfork back in 2009.



>> We're sure that if we still trolled message boards as we did years ago when we had less going on we'd see the sort of discussions about the importance of Soundcloud that we think the service deserves. It's not simply the technology we love, but also that it attracts folks like Archie Moore, a man whose C.V. includes stretches with all-time-greats Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine, among others, and it is this latter, massively influential band we're thinking about today. That's because Mr. Moore recently posted the first demo version of the Black Tambourine track "By Tomorrow," and it is wonderful. Moore mans the bass, Mike Schulman the guitar, Pam Berry takes the vocal and Brian Nelson works the kit. The song was one of several demoed in Northern Virginia in Oct. 1990; the session was engineered by a fellow named Ken whose mother's basement was used to house the proceedings. "By Tomorrow" was the lead track of a Black Tambourine EP released by Slumberland Records in Nov. 1991 as DRYL-9. We're hopeful that Moore and others will continue to unearth recordings such as these, as it rewards our deeply held belief that important, amazing music from our favorite bands continues to sit out there waiting to be revealed. As part of the Chickfactor 'zine's 20th anniversary celebrations last year, Black Tambourine temporarily un-retired in 2012 to release the wonderful OneTwoThreeFour double 7", which featured the band covering four Ramones tracks; more info here.