Review: Lubec | Cosmic Debt

Dreamy underpop heroes Lubec return this week with a compelling sophomore sinfonietta, a collection that sees the Portland, Ore. trio table some of the widescreen optimism of its titanic 2014 full-length The Thrall to engage darker, more domestic themes. Although the relatively concise new set Cosmic Debt doesn't sprawl in the same attractively bohemian manner as The Thrall, it nonetheless presents arresting, figurative diversions into rawer emotion and almost provocatively dense production, as well as somewhat more literal diversions in the form of interstitial instrumentals that enhance the set's quasi-narrative arc. The true surprise of Cosmic Debt is not that it expands Lubec's already expansive view of guitar pop, not its beauty, sophistication or ready appeal, but rather that the whipsmart threesome does so many new things despite the record's smaller scale.

Cosmic Debt succeeds at being much more than a transitional effort, but is largely focused on difficult interpersonal transitions. It commences as if waking from a dream, with the steady, serene fade-in of "(high blood pressure)." The composition includes a pastiche of disembodied voices, including a decontextualized remark about the '90s that recalls the opening of Mogwai's classic "CODY." It's a transporting beginning, whose full potency is realized by the segue into "Clipped Wings." While that tune's title echoes somewhat the Icarus imagery from The Thrall's sparkling "Sunburn!," it also announces certain stylistic hallmarks of the album: a nearly saturated stereo field, Caroline Jackson's weighty and distorted piano, dueling and harmonized vocals, and thoughtful guitar playing. The most distinguishing element of Lubec's sonic arsenal, Ms. Jackson's booming, distorted piano, works in tandem with Matt Dressen's tasteful drumming to power the compositions, while fronter Eddie Charlton guitar playing applies more delicate textures. Dylan Wall's big, full production is most apparent in the ambient thrum that populates the space between the instruments and supplies substantial heft to Lubec's songs. Indeed, big reverbs magnify the restlessly creative trio's playing to such an extent it sounds as if it could blanket a large theater; fans can only hope Lubec's fortunes afford it that opportunity.

Lead single "Hard Potential" touts a driving rhythm and breathy vocals from Mr. Charlton, both lures difficult to resist, but the percussive bridge and cheese-grater, bending harmonics suggest the unease of Pac Northwest fellows Modest Mouse. The heretofore uncharacteristic angst on Cosmic Debt rings most true in the thrilling title track, whose serene but truncated verses give way to Charlton and Jackson confessing a seemingly generational bewilderment -- in what may be the band's most punk moment -- "I feel my cosmic debt, I don't know what it is!" Closer "Embers" -- shared with the universe by our friends at Post-Trash Monday -- stands particularly tall. While the tune deals with a particularly meaningful parting, in true Lubec fashion the song focuses on aftermath without dour mourning. Sure: the figurative and titular embers may not provide salvation, but damnation and purgatory are not Lubec's style. Here and elsewhere Cosmic Debt addresses the chasm between youthful optimism and idealism and the sometimes cold reality and necessary pragmatism that come part and parcel with maturity, but the band's resolve for positivity remains.

Cosmic Debt feels like an important step toward Lubec establishing a national profile, and certainly underscores that Lubec casually sips beers from a cooler at the vanguard of American guitar pop. Cosmic Debt will be released Sept. 30 by the Boston-based now label Disposable America; the set is available for pre-order now in a preposterously limited edition of 100 mustard yellow cassettes and will also be on offer as a digital download. An all-ages release show is slated for Saturday, Oct. 1, at Black Water in Portland, with support from fellow scenemakers Two Moons, Talkative, Dog Thieves and Radler. Stream the aforementioned "Hard Potential" via the embed below, and click through to pre-order your copy of Cosmic Debt. We are hearing chatter about an east coast tour this winter, so watch this space for all of your latest and greatest Lubec news.

Lubec: Bandcamp | Faceblorp



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Clicky Clicky Music Blog's Top Albums Of 2014: Jay Edition

It can feel anti-climactic, writing the intro blurb to the year-end list. The choices are made, the listening, the re-listening, the consideration all put to bed. But here's the thing: just listen again and the records spring to life -- and particularly these records: their greatness is re-greatened, just add water, and volume, the more the better. We revealed our top songs of the year here last week, and that list certainly was a strong indicator of what you'll find below. Namely: the best of the best, our favorite 10 records of 2014. Every year with a new Johnny Foreigner release is a great year, our position on that has been clear for the better part of the last decade. But there were plenty of things that were revelatory when we first heard them this year. We expected the Lubec record to be great, but did anyone expect it to overachieve so much? Certain street-level Ava Luna or Perfect Pussy fans might have expected those records to rule as hard as they did, but we were blown away. Ditto for Cookies, Literature and the mighty, mighty shoegaze concern She Sir, whose LP Go Guitars probably logged the most spins on our turntable this year of any new release. So below we break it all down (and maybe you already heard us talk it out with KoomDogg during one of the last three episodes of the Completely Conspicuous podcast). Our default position on indie rock and electronic music and the various permutations of same that we champion is decidedly optimistic. 2014 only strengthened that belief, and so we are totally stoked for 2015, which already looks like it will be brilliant based on the early notices of forthcoming LPs from Pile, Krill, Speedy Ortiz and Colleen (and maybe even The Replacements), as well as possible reissues from Lilys. Bet you can't eat just one. We humbly thank you for reading the blog in 2014.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- You Can Do Better -- Alcopop!/Lame-O

The Birmingham, England-based noise pop titans are not only amazingly prolific, but also remarkably consistent. Pessimists can sit around prognosticating a slump, but Johnny Foreigner gives no indication of obliging, even in the wake of releasing a sprawling masterwork, its third LP Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything. As we summed up here in March, the successor album "You Can Do Better is a powerful, diabolically catchy set, a compact firecracker of a record that ably and convincingly delivers the band's intelligent brand of bash and pop. The music is as dramatic and as emotionally vital as ever. The Brummies have stared down the challenge of its own album title." The lean and mean record touts potent ballads and brawlers and somehow, remarkably, was as strong as any prior release from the act. Johnny Foreigner will mark its official 10th anniversary next year, and we know fronter Alexei Berrow has already set to work on new songs for the next LP, and we couldn't be more stoked about what comes next whenever it gets here. Stream the set via the embed below, and buy it from Lame-O right here.



2. Lubec -- The Thrall -- Like Young

Oh how we waited and waited, but when Lubec's proper-ish full-length debut The Thrall finally arrived, it surpassed every expectation. The Portland dreampop unit's debut is like an ideal mate, both really smart and super pretty/handsome, and while the set didn't necessarily breach the overground, the magnificent guitar pop speaks for itself. As we said here in our review in September, "The Thrall is, simply put, a revelation, a fully realized and kaleidoscopic guitar-pop masterpiece that presents the band's striking songcraft and bright optimism within a shifting aural landscape that brilliantly balances clean, jagged leads, crystalline reverbs and thunderous percussion and fuzz." The band has already been writing new material and has studio time booked early next year, so there is more where that came from. Still, one could understand if Lubec rested on its laurels just a bit more, given the remarkable accomplishment this LP represents. Stream the set via the embed below, and buy it on cassette from Like Young right here.



3. Cookies -- Music For Touching -- Self-Released

Cookies' terrific full-length debut was preceded by a series of four 10" EPs packed with immaculate pop tracks, but even so Music For Touching was surprisingly excellent. The set synthesizes fronter Ben Sterling's affinity for contemporary pop and yen for engaging experimentalism, and the album's tracks hit the mark across the board, from the boundless groove of "Go Back" to the electrified euphoria of "1,000 Breakfasts With You." While the icy cool in meditative closer "The Dream" echoes certain tunes from Mr. Sterling's increasingly remote former life as part of the dynamite act Mobius Band, the path forward for Mr. Sterling's present project feels extremely ripe for exploration. Hopefully a new record isn't as long in coming as this one was; we reviewed Music For Touching here. Stream it via the embed below, and buy the set from the band right here.



4. Krill -- Steve Hears Pile In Malden And Bursts Into Tears -- Exploding In Sound

The smartest, most intellectually challenging act in contemporary indie rock this year scored big with an EP highlighted by a song in which the fronter imagines he is a literal piece of shit. Indeed, the tension between Krill's academic, "high art" idea/ls and visceral everyman narratives is perhaps the act's most potent calling card, but the band's very relatable humor and inclination toward rock songs that rock make Krill's work connect no matter the level at which the listener (or reviewer) chooses to engage. Steve Hears Pile In Malden And Bursts Into Tears was a triumph, and we are expecting big things from the band's next LP, A Distant Fist Unclenching, as well. The forthcoming collection is slated for release in February; buy Steve from Exploding In Sound right here.



5. Perfect Pussy -- Say Yes To Love -- Captured Tracks

The meteoric rise of Perfect Pussy in 2014 created a platform for the band's fiery, progressive politics, and set the stage for a planned 2015 solo set from brilliant fronter Meredith Graves. But, more importantly for us, the Syracuse noise-punk quintet's dynamite Say Yes To Love placed hardcore-influenced music center stage -- at least in the underground, which as we all know is the only 'ground that matters. The exhilarating record is arguably the best melodic hardcore collection since Fucked Up's David Comes To Life. We spent a lot of time listening to straightedge hardcore at the turn of the '90s, so Perfect Pussy's ferocious collection felt a bit like coming home, and a bit like sticking one's head out the window of a car at 60 miles per hour. The future feels bright for the act, and we're hopeful that its pronounced stances on social issues might also spur a revival of the liberal politics of two decades ago in independent rock music. Dillon Riley reviewed Say Yes To Love for Clicky Clicky right here in March. Buy the record from Captured Tracks right here.



6. She Sir -- Go Guitars -- Shelflife

Oh how we waited and waited and waited for this one, too. After all, She Sir's triumphant preceding set Who Can't Say Yes was released seven years -- an Internet lifetime -- ago. What we finally got in 2014 was the year's most lush and pristine dream-pop record. As strong as label Shelflife's roster is, and as focused as its aesthetic is, we were still overjoyed when the Portland-based enterprise announced it had signed the Austin quartet, as the pairing seemed ideal. Senior Writer Edward Charlton deemed Go Guitars, which he reviewed here in February, a "tour de force of sunny, spectral and shimmering rock" music. The Clicky Clicky Brain Trust expected it would be one of the year's best, and the Clicky Clicky Brain Trust was right. Buy Go Guitars from Shelflife right here, and stream it via the embed below.



7. Ava Luna -- Electric Balloon -- Western Vinyl

Something about the phrase "art-funk" really bothers us -- it's the built-in presumption that there isn't any art there unless you make sure to tag it on the front end (same deal with the phrase "art-pop"). Our personal hang-ups aside, the aforementioned descriptor is perfectly fitting for Ava Luna's ridiculously smart and tight LP Electric Balloon. We've seen the band live a couple times over the last couple years and their shows are mesmerizing. But the music on the LP is somehow even tighter, slightly frenetic, and rich and soulful despite a claustrophobic punk edge. We suppose it's that edge that translates more directly on the record as opposed to the stage. But, either way, it's a curious party record with a head on its shoulders. And it's one of the best records of the year. Stream Electric Balloon via the embed below, and purchase the set from Western Vinyl right here.



8. Literature -- Chorus -- Slumberland

Big, fizzing melodies and fuzzy guitars are a hallmark of the Slumberland sound, and Literature's diabolically catchy LP Chorus delivered perfectly on the Bay area label's pleasing proposition. We were surprised to learn Literature was operating out of Philadelphia, as we like to think we have a good idea of what is going on back in our former hometown. But it was a most welcome surprise, of course, and this record in particular did us a lot of good during some long and grueling stretches of work. We recall at least a couple days during which we listened to Chorus on repeat for a good five or six hours -- it's just that good, and what more could you want from a guitar-pop record? Like an ideal piece of chewing gum, the set stays fresh and flavorful for hours on end, and we look forward to hearing more from these pop savants. Buy Chorus from Slumberland right here.



9. Soccer Mom -- Soccer Mom -- 100m

Dark, beautiful and majestic, Soccer Mom's long-anticipated self-titled debut arrived and burned brightly, but the combustion was apparently too much for the act, which by the end of the summer had already announced that it was decommissioning the battle station and going into mothballs. Five-year-old Soccer Mom's record reigned in the band's overwhelming live sound, and in doing so illuminated the elegance, passion and pathos that make its songs so powerful. We highly recommend picking up the vinyl of this one, as finally hearing it on a proper turntable after listening to digital files and early mixes for about a year revealed a low-end punch we had not previously appreciated. Soccer Mom is a huge record, and sadly, is also now a monumental reminder. Will Scales and Dan Parlin recently announced they have formed a new act called Gold Muse with Young Adults' Chris Villon, Earthquake Party!'s Justin Lally and musical journeywoman Deb Warfield, and we are very excited about the possibilities there. Buy Soccer Mom -- which we premiered here in April -- from 100m Records right here.



10. Radiator Hospital -- Torch Songs -- Salinas

Sam Cook-Parrott's facility crafting catchy indie pop approaches awe-inspiring, and -- as good as Radiator Hospital's sophomore LP Torch Songs was -- there were signs that his estimable talents were seeping into more experimental territory. But his proverbial bread and butter, hook-laden power-pop anthems and poignant downer ballads, were still well-represented. The prolific songwriter's scrappy, fizzing anthems brim with emotion on this distinctly summery record. Staff Writer Dillon Riley reviewed Radiator Hospital's Torch Songs here in July. Stream the set via the embed below, and purchase it from Salinas right here.

Review: She Sir | Go Guitars

Whether it's successfully fusing genre signifiers from disparate decades, incorporating subtle and smart rhythms within its compositions, or even pulling through on years-long recording hiatuses, Austin-based quartet She Sir has made its name on finesse. The group revels in a thoughtful and careful approach, tinkering away at their perfect, distanced sound [forever. -- Ed.] with a patience that chagrins those addicted to the band's shoegazing pop. Finally, after years of starts, stops and whispers, She Sir is releasing its full-length debut, Go Guitars. It is a tour de force of sunny, spectral and shimmering rock that will be issued by Shelflife on vinyl and CD Tuesday, Feb. 25.

Abetting core players Russell Karloff (vocals, guitar, bass) and Matthew Grusha (vocals, bass, guitar) these days are Jeremy Cantrell on guitar and David Nathan on drums. And, right away, the power of the larger lineup is apparent: sure, opener "Portese" not only commences with the band's characteristically evocative guitar textures, but it also quickly communicates a subtle departure. With much more straightforward and foregrounded drumming and funkier bass work, the tune trumpets She Sir's shift in sonics away from the noise-pop of its stunning 2006 EP Who Can't Say Yes and the '60s psychedelia of the Yens 7". As Mr. Karloff told us a year ago, "It's really a blending of everything we've learned over the years. At this point, we're experienced enough to know exactly what it is we want to do, and we finally know how to achieve it." In press materials, the quartet points to Fleetwood Mac as a current influence. That iconic band, as well as a more general '70s (and even '80s) soft-rock studio vibe, seems to have captured Mssrs. Karloff and Grusha's restless attention. The combination of the two makes for some of the most relaxed, positive and forwardly sexual shoegaze Clicky Clicky has encountered. The singles for the new long-player, "Kissing Can Wait" and the previously reviewed "Condensedindents," each trade in such bright melodies and bouncy rhythms that sunshine, bikinis and dockside barbecues all feel like appropriate imagery, in contrast to the shoegaze genre's more typically dour evocations.

While the aforementioned yacht-gaze dreamers flank Go Guitars, the meat of the set boasts more strummy cuts, and tunes that employ quieter sections before flooding the stereo field with light in serial, monolithic choruses. "Bitter Bazaar" stages a moody breakdown at the two-and-a-half-minute-mark that transports listeners away from the summer fun to a romantic, air-conditioned moment of tension. "Mania Mantle" activates a pleasing, Jesus and Mary Chain-styled chug. The delicate acoustic guitar back-tracking of "Winter Skirt" echoes She Sir's absolutely flawless "You Could Be Tiger" single from 2012. Notably, throughout the album Karloff's soft vocals and the snappy percussion conspire to tie everything together. The approach highlights the fact that, despite the complex arrangements, there are actually not an overwhelming number of tracks in the mix, which makes it quite likely that She Sir can reproduce Go Guitars live.

Admittedly, this reviewer was hoping for some more non-traditional and classical instrumentation, after the fashion of previous songs such as "Lemongrass," a tune that masterfully married an indie sensibility to the band's academic background. Even so, Go Guitars finds the quartet in fine form, and reveals a looser iteration of the group that is clearly in command of the moment. In a current musical climate that emphasizes celebratory and hypnagogic beach-pop from hip corners of the country -- often of questionable substance -- She Sir once again show just how far that sound can go when approached with compositional expertise, patience and the lessons and benefits of time. Do yourself a favor, and give She Sir and their tremendous new collection yours. The band plays a record release show next week in Austin at The Mohawk, and is also slated to perform during the annual South By Southwest music confabulation next month as well. Purchase Go Guitars from Shelflife right here. -- Edward Charlton

She Sir: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud



Selected Prior She Sir Coverage:
Who Could Say No? The Clicky Clicky Interview With She Sir's Russell Karloff
Today's Hotness: She Sir
Review: She Sir | Yens EP
Best Of 2006 Addendum: She Sir's Who Can't Say Yes

Today's Hotness: Frankie Cosmos, The New Mendicants, Beach Volleyball

>> The hype surrounding NYC-based combo Frankie Cosmos belies the cloistered, personal vibe of their music -- proof positive, we suppose, that great songwriting finds its audience. The quartet, which is fronted by Greta Kline and includes among its number Aaron Maine of Porches., trades in the kind of plainly stated, lo-fi pop that lives and dies on personality. It's music that emphasizes unadorned, in-your-ear moments -- such as those that characterized Velvet Underground's third album -- as opposed to the blunt grandiosity and electronic immersion found more widely in today's underground. Frankie Cosmos' "Birthday Song" is a sweet, minute-and-a-half pop confection that recalls a certain stripe of indie pop that has not pinged the mainstream for years. The tune's biggest moments arrive at the end of each of the verses, when the drums shift into a half-time beat -- a trick borrowed from the metal and hardcore bands of our youth, perhaps, but it's very effective here, where Ms. Kline's vocals seem to get dragged down with a sadness that matches her year-closing observations and angst toward a changing world. Kline's wistfulness here is perfect and fresh for a band that hails from the Big Apple in 2014. With the success of Hospitality and now Frankie Cosmos, we're holding out hope for a full-blown indie pop renaissance emanating from New York City. "Birthday Song" is the second preview tune from the forthcoming collection Zentropy, a set of songs that is the first featuring a full-band iteration of Frankie Cosmos. Zentropy will be released as an LP by the Exploding In Sound-affiliated label Double Double Whammy March 4. The first 250 copies of the collection carried a screen-printed B-side and appear to have already sold out; another 200 pieces are pressed to white vinyl, and you can pre-order it right here. And although we do not know details and haven't yet cracked it open ourselves, fans would do well to note that Frankie Cosmos has issued what seems to be an even newer collection of recordings called Donutes, that can be snatched via Pukekos for free right here. Stream "Birthday Song" via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> If this -- along with last year's Black Hearted Brother album -- is any indication of the way things are rolling, yesterday's indie pop and shoegaze pioneers are finding plenty of fresh inspiration in new trios that embrace collective legacies, adaptability and excitement. Here we are referring, of course, to Into The Lime, the tremendous new collection from The New Mendicants, a threesome comprising Joe Pernice (The Pernice Brothers), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), and Mike Belisky (The Sadies). The set finds all three principles fluidly rotating duties while creating vibrant, cohesive work. With each successive track, it seems the band challenges itself again and again to create classic, harmony-laden pop in the vein of British Invasion bands such as The Hollies, Peter and Gordon, The Beatles pre-Revolver, and (more recently) XTC. Songs such as "Cruel Annette," "If You Only Knew Her," "High On The Skyline," and "A Very Sorry Christmas" all balance rich vocals that the light acoustic strumming, organ, and other period touches feel like the only extra weight the compositions could handle. The balance of the record emphasizes electric guitar, echoing at times Mr. Blake's Teenage Fanclub (with "Shouting Match") while coming as close to that classic band's power-pop euphoria as any combo in recent memory. Into The Lime, like BHB's Stars Are Our Home, so impressively balances the individual strengths of each band member that one can nearly cherry-pick them from any three-second clip form any song. Even so, the enthusiasm, songcraft and performances are so tight and fluid that it is hard to overstate the pop smarts at work. Perhaps the most telling gauge of success is this one: The New Mendicants on Into The Lime work free of whatever the confines of Teenage Fanclub, The Sadies or The Pernice Brothers might be, yet the disc feels like a welcome addition to any of their discographies. Buy the set from Ashmont Records right here, and stream the now seasonally inappropriate "A Very Sorry Christmas" via the Soundcloud embed below, and watch a beautiful and spare live iteration of "Follow You Down" right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> When we last tracked the arc of London shoegaze luminaries Beach Volleyball here last fall, we made sure to remark on the irony of their name, given the windswept, downcast vibe of the act's music. Now we are confronted with a second realization -- namely, that Beach Volleyball does classic, American-style shoegaze better than most American acts in the game. We're not the only ones taking a second look at the combo, as Oakland, Calif. and Berlin-based label Spiralchords announced late last month that it will reissue Beach Volleyball's full-length debut Broadcast later in February. The first teaser track from the collection this time around is "Contack," and it is a stunner. The short piece (short in shoegaze terms, anyway) is knotted and tense, and confidently arrays a driving group of chords. These bristle with texture, between the deep bass and droning, bending high notes, and the rhythm guitar's serrated tone applies an element of knife-fighting menace to the proceedings. Alex Smith's saddened drawl slips amid the textures, adding just the right pathos, contrasting against the noise rock danger and rolling drum beats. Closing with an ambient outro, the tune turns more contemplative as it slowly fades into greyscale. "Power Cuts," another pre-released tune (although, technically, all of them were "pre-released" last August), is similarly strong, and showcases again the driving snare and undulating bass of the rhythm section. These songs suggest a darker take on the early '90s, Isn't Anything-inspired rock of Americans all Lilys, She, Sir, Lorelei and The Swirlies -- bands unafraid to revel in mystery while staying true to their indie roots. Broadcast will be re-released digitally Feb. 28. Stream "Contack" below; it's not presently clear whether there will be a pre-order for the set, but keep watch at the Spiralchords Facebook page for additional release information. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: Hallelujah The Hills, Au.Ra, Foxes In Fiction + Benoit Pioulard

>> We had hoped to have had these remarks about Hallelujah The Hills' tremendous new single prepared in time for our coverage of last weeks' The Unfolding Synchronistic Improbable event, but doing it this way will have to do. The Boston-area indie rock institution led by Ryan Walsh on Valentine's Day released "The Three Minute Mark" b/w "Meet Me In The Car," with the A-side streaming at the act's Bandcamp dojo, where we've listened to it repeatedly for days and days and days. The single is available on limited edition, hand-made CD for five American dollars, and we'd say the A-side alone is worth your Abraham Lincoln. "The Three Minute Mark" -- which actually eclipses that total by about a half-minute -- deftly builds from a tense and quiet initial verse that rises from a cyclical bass line and a single acoustic guitar chord into a shuffling chorus. That shuffle is emphasized by a nifty, tight echo on the snare; by the time that becomes apparent Mr. Walsh is erecting a house of cards from the repeated line "I'll need about three minutes to explain just how I feel for you now" and layered horns, and indeed by the three-minute mark the song is cooking. To paraphrase the famous cigarette jingle, there's a lot to like; stream the tune via the Bandcamp embed below and click through to get your paws on the limited edition, physical article. According to the band, neither "The Three Minute Mark" nor "Meet Me In The Car" will feature on the next Hallelujah The Hills full-length. Hallelujah The Hills' most recent long-player was its third, titled No One Knows What Will Happen Next. It was released last May and featured excellent tunes including "Call Off Your Horses," the awesome video for which you can watch right here. The band, now in its eighth year of rockulescence, tonight wraps a short strand of live dates with a performance at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn, although we can assure you that if you are just learning this now there's little chance you'll make it to the show in time. So there's that. Stream "The Three Minute Mark" below.



>> Remember our post last summer about Exeter, England-based Art Is Hard Records and their "Pizza Club" singles series? Well, that series wrapped up last year, but the clever label is back with another series for 2013. No, it's not more pizza boxes (alas). Instead, for one pound, lucky adherents receive an individualized, band-created postcard conveying a new digital single from the series every three weeks. The first installment, released ON DATE WHAT?, featured the bobbing dream-rock stunner "Morning" by Au.Ra. The Sydney, Australia-based band -- a two piece comprised of Tom Crandles and Tim Jenkins -- score with a slow-burning indie rocker built on a steadily enlarging pile of smooth and silky guitar loops. Previous singles from Au.Ra focused more on melodic electronic elements that echoed work by contemporaries Sun Glitters, or even Starslinger in terms of the instrumentation. But "Morning" evidences a more analog approach to Au.Ra's evolving soundscapes. After some delayed glide guitar in the opening, the band introduces a solid eighth-note bass line that recalls Kim Deal's influence. With this sensual rhythmic drive, the guitarist tastefully goes pedal-crazy on top with blasts of distortion, echoes that plop and fizz, clean strums, and circular melody lines that pile up into an extremely over-driven music box by the tune's close. The song shifts subtly throughout, the singer's vowel-heavy vocals sighing through verse and chorus. What makes the song so pleasing is its own forward groove and how everything within it shuffles. A cursory glance at the Art Is Hard roster should be enough to induce anyone to partake in the "Postcard Singles" club; a second single, from Manchester, England's Sorry, No, has already been revealed, but we’d venture it is still not too late to get in on the action. In a time of declining emphasis on the value of physical media within music, Art Is Hard (along with like-minded peers including, specifically, Alcopop!) deserves all the attention it can get, not just for its solutions to the conundrum facing the recorded music industry, but also for approaching the problem with impeccable taste. Order a "Morning" postcard here and stream the song via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> Thanks to the work of stalwart wide-angle outlets like The Wire, local Boston outlet Anti-Gravity Bunny and even Tiny Mix Tapes, artists branded with unpopular identifiers such as "ambient," "experimental," and "drone" receive a not insignificant amount of attention in this here Internet age -- perhaps not on par with that of today or tomorrow’s Pitchfork darling, but certainly greater than non-pop-oriented-or-derived artists received in the era of paper-only publishing. Or so it seems. The jury is out as to whether the greater exposure has translated into more artists working in these areas of specialization, but a swelling tide of tonal recordings rises to the ears of interested, aware listeners these days. One recent effort from Warren Hildebrand, a/k/a Foxes In Fiction, and Thomas Meluch, known better by his nom de music Benoit Pioulard (who will soon release his latest album Hymnal on Kranky), has captured our attention. "Ground Glass" is the A-side of a forthcoming single the pair will release next week via Wool Recordings, and it suggests a drifting, scraping shell of half-remembered dream-pop in the best way. Opening with a distant synth patch and a scratchy sample of a woman's confusion, the song abruptly blasts into a swirling, directionless fuzz. Anchored by a reverberated strum and a gorgeous, deep-voiced vocal, "Ground Glass" modulates infrequently, but even so beckons listeners to get lost in the rich tones and a carefully concocted floating effect. The bold, churning motion of the distortion as it decays and collapses is another remarkable element that makes the piece so enjoyable. In sum, the number suggests to this writer what might result were Austinites She, Sir to take a stab at the drum-less, gothic work of the groundbreaking lovesliescrushing. "Ground Glass" b/w "Etalon" will be released Feb. 28; you can stream the A-side below and pre-order the vinyl here. Speaking of both Benoit Pioulard and Anti-Gravity Bunny, the latter recently celebrated its five year anniversary with a free digital comp featuring a cracking collection of droney stuff including an apparently exclusive jam from Benoit Pioulard; grab that comp right here. -- Edward Charlton

Who Could Say No? The Clicky Clicky Interview With She, Sir’s Russell Karloff

[Photo: Aubrey Edwards] In our attention-deficient indie rock universe, where "flavor of the month" has devolved into "flavor of the day," music fans all too often encounter artists willing to sacrifice aspects of their art to the hype machine. Afflicted acts evince over-confident songwriting, album-leak scatter shots and hackneyed imagery. It's gotten to the point that when a band invests completely, humbly into their art alone, the audacity of such an act makes them stand out. Which brings us to Austin-based dream pop heroes She, Sir. The act first caught Clicky Clicky's attention five years ago with its self-released 2006 debut Who Can't Say Yes. The record introduced to the indie cognoscenti the band's careful integration of shoegaze and dream-pop elements, as well as an academic approach to composition that challenged fans to rethink the boundaries between genres.

After years of little word and almost exclusively local shows, She, Sir released the Yens 7" in 2010 on Japan's Happy Prince record label -- further proof of a broadening, if still decidedly underground, appeal [review]. A compilation album, Ev’ry Thing In Paris, followed, and anticipation for new music simmered on. With the band's considered approach, fans were safe in assuming something special must be coalescing behind the scenes, and this was confirmed in December with the announcement that the long-planned long-player Go Guitars will be released in 2013. Based on two advance tunes -- the funkier "Condensedindents," and the non-album gem "You Could Be Tiger" -- Go Guitars would seem to be an even further refinement of She, Sir's determined vision. Clicky Clicky's Edward Charlton recently spoke with She, Sir guitarist, vocalist, and co-songwriter Russell Karloff about the progress toward the new album, lessons learned in getting to this point, tricks-of-the-trade and even a "lost" first EP.

Clicky Clicky: Russell, thanks for chatting with us.

Russell Karloff: Yeah, no problem. We're really excited about the new stuff we're working on.

CC: We’re really pumped for Go Guitars, and it feels like the She, Sir story so far has been building up to its release. In what ways are you excited about what you're creating now, and how has the inspiration and history of the group factored into it?

RK: Yeah, it certainly does feel like everything's been leading up to this release. It’s like we've just been refining our sound over the years. The first record feels like it adheres to a genre; us being influenced by a handful of bands at the time: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, etc. With that first record, we ended up walking out of the studio with a pretty original sound, but it wasn't exactly the record we felt ourselves capable of. With our next release, the Yens 7", we switched it up and started reworking our process from the ground up, starting with bringing in a wider range of influences. The result, though a very short 4-song release, felt much more ambitious to us and was closer to the type of sound we'd set out to achieve.

CC: It seems like the new album is taking the results of Yens as a template and expanding on it?

RK: Yeah, exactly. The now nearly finished album keeps with the Yens producer Erik Wofford (Explosions In The Sky, Voxtrot), who we knew could give us the sound we were after. It also continues to refine our writing process in terms of incorporating wider influences. As where Yens was a little lighter, more acoustic in feeling, Go Guitars brings back the dense, heavy guitars we first introduced on Who Can't Say Yes. It's really a blending of everything we've learned over the years. At this point, we're experienced enough to know exactly what it is we want to do, and we finally know how to achieve it.

CC: That's got to be a great feeling.

RK: It's a good place to be. Most of the stuff on those first two releases feels very exploratory to me now as I listen back, but that has resulted in some pretty good songs too!

CC: So, as you were writing and exploring, how did lineup changes occur from Who Can't Say Yes up until now? It appears you now have a larger and more consistent lineup than in the past, at least based on the latest band photos.

RK: A lot of people don't know this, but M. Grusha and I recorded an entire She, Sir EP up in Minneapolis about a year before Who Can't Say Yes was recorded. We had the great fortune to work with Christopher McGuire (John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats), who was our drummer at the time. This was a great learning experience for us, in terms of learning about what we wanted out of the recording process, and what we wanted when working with other musicians. The album was ultimately scrapped because of production concerns, as we weren't getting the type of sound we wanted. We learned early on to be insistent with the sound you want and to be specific in what you require from the musicians you surround yourself with.

Anyway, we ended up moving to Texas later that year and starting over from scratch with a new EP, with new songs. We met Rick and James Vehslage (guitar and drums on Who Can't Say Yes) soon after arriving in town and they really helped us get the sound we wanted. We hit it off and before we knew it we were recording most of that record in their living room. Actually, it was about this time we first conceived the Go Guitars full-length. For so many different reasons, ranging from bad luck to pure idiocy, we had a bunch of lineup changes throughout the next few years. Mostly Grusha and I used this time to rework and refine our sound, getting closer to what we were after all along. Finally, our good friend Jeremy Cantrell (whose guitar work we'd admired for some time) agreed to join the band and that was the turning point for us. It is important to have a solid core of musicians in a band that have played together and known each other for a long period of time. Soon after, we were pleased to add drummer David Nathan to the group. We've all been playing together for a long time now, and it helps that we're all really good friends.

CC: Nice to hear that it's leveled out. We wanted to focus some on the She, Sir composing process and the production aspect of the recordings, which has always been superb. First off, we can remember press for Who Can't Say Yes mentioning you and Grusha's academic background in regards to music. What's the story there? And how did that experience play into what you wanted the band to be?

RK: Grusha and I met in college in a music composition course. There aren't a lot of people interested in that type of thing, so we immediately bonded. In fact, we were both writing classical music -- string quartets, symphony orchestra pieces -- long before either of us ever had the idea of writing pop music. I feel that is a strong difference from where we come from compared to most others. We are interested in things like voice-leading, harmony, structure, and counterpoint. That's where we started out and that's basically still how we approach writing She, Sir songs. The guitars, drums, and vocals format is incidental.

I feel like most pop music, since its inception, has been built around the idea that anyone can understand it. Vocals are in the forefront and the chords of a song are easily delineated. With She, Sir, the music is dense, the chords are ambiguous at best, and the vocals are often low in the mix -- treated as just another instrument at our disposal. We hope the music can be viewed from a distance, judged as a whole, and unable to be easily dissected into components. Really, we feel that shoegaze and Motown records have these qualities in common and are two of our favorite styles.

CC: Is there a normal composing routine for a She, Sir song? We've always had the impression that you guys very careful and deliberately consider every part of the piece. Can we get a peek into that process?

RK: Yeah, that's true. You tend to go with the process that works best for you at the time. Back during Who Can't Say Yes, Grusha or I would usually have about 90% of a song completed in fine detail before showing it to the others to complete it. Sometimes, I'd write something I didn't really feel too strongly about and would come very near to throwing it out, but it would get saved at the last minute by someone else who believed in it.

"It's My Way of Staying Connected" is a good example of that. It wasn't until we got down to Texas, and started playing with Rick and James, that that song was resurrected. The point is, you can never ever assume to know when you've written something good. You have to be open to other people’s input. You have to allow other people to add to and critique songs, even if you've written 100% of it and don't want to change a thing. Other people approach things with fresh ears and must be part of the process. With this in mind, our writing process for Go Guitars has been much more democratic. These days, I often get together with Jeremy or Grusha to go over a rough idea before a song is anywhere near being finished.

I think we've settled into a process similar to what most bands find to be most productive: getting together with a group of people you trust musically in a room filled with instruments. As I said earlier, it is important to have high expectations for the group you're working with... but it is equally important to be flexible and open to new ideas.

CC: She, Sir has maintained a very full, saturated analog sound all along, without the usual trappings. How does the studio factor in to the process? Where's that rich reverb coming from? How much do you invest in amps and guitar pedals?

RK: A lot of bands that get lumped into the shoegaze genre, as we have, accomplish their wall of sound with a ton of pedals and big-sounding amps. For us, it isn't like that at all. While we still care to achieve that big wall of sound, we do it differently. We tend to use only a handful of pedals. Largely, the density of our sound is derived from intricate arrangements. We prefer to layer several instruments together, all doing something unique and contrapuntal, to create a wall of sound as opposed to running one instrument through an array of effects. We also value economy in our recordings. Every detail is deliberate and complementary; you'll never find a part that is needlessly doubled or just big for the sake of size.

Really, the reverb and delay effects are incidental. Again, as I said earlier, we hope our songs can be viewed from a distance, as a whole. Reverb and delay are natural tools that help us blur the lines and achieve this effect. We love a lot of shoegaze bands, but we don't really want to emulate them or their approach. Again, Erik Wofford understands this and has helped us in the studio at every step. It is easy to over-produce or under-produce a band like us, but we've had long conversations about what it is we're after in the studio. When we're in the studio, Erik is just like a member of the band. We bounce ideas off of each other and veto each other. Plus he has a plate reverb the size of most peoples' mattresses.

CC: Favorite guitar tunings?

RK: Who Can't Say Yes has tunings all over the place...EADG#BE, EADG#AE, DADG#AF#. There are a few standard tuning songs, too. Yens is mostly in standard. For Go Guitars, we mainly prefer EADG#BE.

CC: So, with all this leading up to now; what are your favorite things about Go Guitars? What other nuances are you excited for people to hear? The funk inspiration in "Condensedindents" was surprising, but totally natural. What else can we expect to hear on the album?

RK: Mainly we are excited to be working on a full-length release in general. Our previous efforts have been EPs -— either conceived that way or truncated for whatever reason. We've always valued diversity, reach, and overall cohesiveness in our releases. With this full-length, we finally have a format that allows us to really dig in and exposit these ideas. As you said, we're bringing in some deeper rhythm and bass elements. This includes bands like Fleetwood Mac and Prince. We're also really inspired by more recent groups like The Go-Betweens and The Eaves.

CC: Lastly, any tour plans lined up for the album release?

RK: We might put the show on the road at some point around the record release, but for now we're mostly trying to gain interest from labels that may be able to help us with more substantial arrangements in the future. All of our concentration really is on finishing this record. Though we've mostly finished the writing for it, there are about a million things yet to record in the studio.

CC: Well, the blog is looking forward to it. Good luck!

RK: Thanks!

She, Sir: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internet | YouTube

Today's Hotness: Lemonheads, She, Sir

>> We didn't expect to be learning stuff last Saturday night when we took in the big Varsity Drag show at Midway Cafe, so when fronter (and Lemonheads co-founder) Ben Deily laid out a surprising little history lesson for us, we were caught a bit off guard. We followed up this week with Mr. Deily who graciously reiterated his tale, which concerns one of our favorite Lemonheads songs, "Mallo Cup." When Evan Dando originally brought the song to the band, it bore the title "If Only You Were Dead," the arrangement lacked the metal vamp in the middle, and the chorus had entirely different words. In place of the familiar section that begins "I never will forget," the words instead were "If only you were dead, I'd walk on home, if only you were dead, I'd know I was alone." While Mr. Deily is a big fan of the popular, well-known version of the song, he and Varsity Drag tore through the original version at Midway Cafe Saturday, blowing both our 38-year-old mind as well as what remains lurking within of the mind of the 16-year-old kid who cut the lawn hundreds of times listening to Lemonheads' Lick on cassette. Earlier this fall -- in the wake of news that Deily and Dando were reuniting to create a new Lemonheads record along with Juliana Hatfield and Ryan Adams -- London-based Fire Records announced it will reissue in 2013 that record as well as Lemonheads' debut full-length Hate Your Friends and Creator, which along with Lick are the three records made during Deily's original tenure with Lemonheads. What's more -- and this is where we tie things together, people -- Fire Records issued "Mallo Cup" b/w "Mallo Cup (Live on VPRO 1989)" on "super-limited" edition 7" vinyl Nov. 26 (buy link). That live version is the one found on the tail end of Creator, as fans will likely recognize. It turns out "Mallo Cup" isn't the first Lemonheads single Fire has released; the label, through its Roughneck Records subsidiary, released a single for "Different Drum" in 1990. And that single, incidentally, contains our very favorite Lemonheads b-side "Paint," which was released domestically as part of the Favorite Spanish Dishes EP. While you twiddle your thumbs waiting for those album reissues, why not stream "Mallo Cup" via the embed below?



>> Just as our hunger for new She, Sir jams was rumbling again in the wake of the delicious digital single "You Could Be Tiger" [coverage here], the Austin-based dream pop heroes have announced they will finally release the long-anticipated Go Guitars full length early in 2013 on Japan's Happy Prince Records; the band continues to look for a suitable domestic label situation for the record. But clearly the season of giving is upon us, as the group is also sharing the first single from the planned album, "Condensedindents." The new tune confirms that the act continues its delicate revisions to the tape-saturated noise-pop which first captured our hearts with the brilliant, brilliant 2006 mini-album Who Can’t Say Yes. "Condensedindents" stands apart immediately, as it is marked by She, Sir's signature timeless sonics and composition, but also appropriates signifiers hence unheard. Specifically, there's a smooth, '70s-funk-inspired bass line that mingles with the delay pedals. That single instrument imbues the song with a playful, relaxed bounce that transports She, Sir's dream-pop to the yacht club. Add to this the brief yet effective and creamy guitar strums in the breakdown, and you've got all the makings of another classic from collaborators Russell Karloff and M. Grusha. The duo now works with a steady slate of members including lead guitarist Jeremy Cantrell and drummer David Nathan, both of whom seem to fit seamlessly into the band's aesthetic. She, Sir fans have had to be patient while the band simmered in the studio and practice space in recent years, but the release of Go Guitars is looking and sounding like it will be fine reward for all the good boys and girls that kept the faith. For now, enjoy "Condensedindents" via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: She, Sir, Velcro, Quicksand, Occurrence

>> For most music fans, there are usually one or two bands so beloved and pure that with each new second of recorded sound they offer, the results feel like a lovingly wrapped gift from an old friend. Here at Clicky Clicky HQ, one of those groups is Austin's thoughtful and restless She, Sir, which is touting a new, free digital single "You Could Be Tiger," available here. Like most long-term relationships, a fair amount of patience is required in order for things to bloom, and the quartet -- founded by the duo of Russell Karloff and M. Grusha -- are no exception. Unconcerned with churning out rushed laptop sessions or pointless album filler, She, Sir is devoted to the cult of the song, fervently, almost spiritually, calibrating and exploring tones, drum patterns and complex academic harmonies in order to perfectly realize their psychedelic mini-suites. Schedules, studio money and the disposable hustle of contemporary indie rock be damned; there are more timeless motives at play here. "You Could Be Tiger" is the best summation of the band's approach yet, highlighting She, Sir's talent for pounding instrumental passages and quick verses and refrains in less than two-and-a-half minutes. Like the material on 2010's Yens EP [review], "You Could Be Tiger," which will not be included on a planned LP, further refines the band's ability to mix its established avant tendencies (dream-pop textures, complicated time signatures and unique alternate tunings) with '60s-inspired psych-pop songwriting. Along with the band's usual delicate analogue production, the highlight here is the gorgeous 12-string acoustic melody and outro solo which repurposes jangle rock touchstones like The Byrds and later, The Rain Parade and mid-period Lilys. It’s all just further testament to how this band, like their hero Brian Wilson, exudes the prodigal coolness of a visionary lost in a room full of instruments, in search of some greater truth. The She, Sir web site notes that new singles from the planned album will materialize later in the year, so here's hoping that the presents keep on coming. -- Edward Charlton



>> It's time to acknowledge that there is simply something in the water in Australia and New Zealand to account for that corner of the globe's glut of quality guitar-pop songwriters producing innocent, unpretentious and glistening nuggets of indie pop, year in and year out. The Clean, The Go-Betweens, The Lucksmiths, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, the list goes on. And now add to it newcomers Velcro, a Melbourne-based trio that trades in mellow and ramshackle strummers of the Aussie variety. As much is clear based on the strength of the act's forthcoming debut EP Dreamboat, due Aug. 13 on cassette from the new London-based Njord imprint. Velcro bucks today's typical indie-rock production trends by featuring a very dry run-through of their occasionally Pavement-esque songs. The snare drum is front and center, with no affectations. The electric guitars cut through with plenty of attack and each string in the chords can be heard individually. And fronter Curtis Wakeling’s warbly Grant McLennan-by-way-of-Adam Green vocals offer up pure sincerity. Title track "Dreamboat" opens the EP with an up-front, diving female vocal hook, but the tune hinges on the descent into the second part of the chord progression, where things go from plucky and melodic to punchy and throbbing; the repeated low chords approximate a snap of the senses after a mid-afternoon daydream. The Dreamboat EP is available from Released By Njord for four pounds, and you can click through the Bandcamp embed below to purchase. Fans who are wholly smitten may want to peruse Velcro's own Bandcamp page, which appears to feature a mess of additional songs. -- Edward Charlton



>> From the "This Is Awesome" department comes word that the kind folks at ShopRadioCast (and, in Canada, Dine Alone Records) will reissue post-hardcore standouts Quicksand’s 1993 masterpiece Slip. The re-release will be pressed onto crisp 180-gram vinyl in a limited edition of 1,500 pieces and will be available Sept. 11. Fans will be excited to learn that Quicksand's undeniable cover of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?," originally released as a b-side to the "Dine Alone" single, is included on the reissue. Domestic punters so inclined can choose between red-and-black or green-and-yellow swirled LPs (Dine Alone is selling the good ol’ black). And the whole she-bang is remastered! The blogosphere was set abuzz in June when the band reunited to play a one-off show for Revelation Records’ 25th anniversary. Now the band has just announced a show in Brooklyn for Sept. 25, the night after a previously announced date at Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan; Quicksand are also slated to perform in Los Angeles at FYF Fest in September. Is there more to come? We don't know, but we do know that fronter Walter Schreifels is very busy, and apparently too busy to release his hotly anticipated second solo record any time soon. In the meantime, pre-order Slip at ShopRadioCast and pass the wait by screaming "Head To Wall" in the car, because that's what this reviewer plans to do [I'd choose "Too Official." -- Ed.]. -- Edward Charlton

>> Cambridge, Mass.-based electronic concern Occurrence, the long-time musical outlet of playwright and deeply cool dude Ken Urban (who, among other things, indirectly introduced us to Superchunk in 1992), has officially annexed frequent collaborator Wayne S. Feldman into the band. Mr. Feldman's musical pedigree is both long and curious, but most recently he has helped Mr. Urban mix the last two Occurrence records and contributed guitar and sonics to the band's contribution to Clicky Clicky's Ride tribute compilation Nofuckingwhere, the track "Nowhere." Feldman also starred in the crushingly poignant, Jeff Stern-directed video for Occurrence's "Bleeder," which you can watch here. Mssrs. Urban and Feldman are currently writing and recording a new record, but you can stream their exquisitely dark take on "Nowhere" below.

Today's Hotness: Grown Ups, She Sir, E.R.

>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Ryan Bach] You don't need us to tell you one of the biggest stories in the musical underground this summer is the Cap'n Jazz reunion shows. But it is worth reminding indie rock fans that the seminal second-wave emo band's exuberant and angular style of indie rock has been embraced by many contemporary disciples. One such act is Chicago/Indiana-based emo superlatives Grown Ups, whose new full length More Songs is the maiden U.S. release of the rock-solid, U.K.-based label Big Scary Monsters. More Songs, which Big Scary Monsters released May 18, contains newly recorded versions of four songs from the band's 2009 Songs EP, alongside six brand new anthems. One of the new tracks, "Pears," began streaming a couple months ahead of the release of the new record, and the band's publicist has given us the exclusive go-ahead to post the track here. "Pears" surfaces from harsh feedback and sinewy, tangled guitar lines and blossoms into a composition that cycles through jitters and crescendos. It's a fist-pounding, crowd shouter. It's the summers of your youth in convenient pill form; if you are living through your youth now, well, turn this up.

Grown Ups' "Pears"
[buy More Songs from Big Scary Monsters right here]

>> Austin-based shoegaze geniuses She Sir disclosed here early this month that tracks from its jaw-dropping full-length debut Who Can't Say Yes and from its recently released Yens EP are being collected on a forthcoming set titled Ev'ry Thing In Paris. The material from She Sir's Who Can't Say Yes has been remastered, and Ev'ry Thing in Paris also contains a re-recorded version of the 2006 tune "You Can't Change A Thing." Sadly, the collection will initially be available only in Japan and Asia on Happy Prince Records, which releases the record July 14. A European release is in the works, and a limited number of copies of Ev'ry Thing In Paris will be set aside for sale to American fans, presumably through the Internerds. Japanese fans or those brave enough to try to buy something through a web site written mostly in Japanese will be able to buy the record from Nature Bliss right here. If you find that too daunting, don't despair: the entire thing has been posted for streaming at Last.FM right here. Make sure to click here to look at the sweet packaging.

>> Beatings co-fronter and solo rocker Eldridge Rodriguez returns this month with a new EP titled There's No Gray Area, No Middle Ground... You Are a Thief. The four-song release was recorded between sessions for The Beatings' triumphant sixth full-length Late Season Kids and the forthcoming E.R. full-length You Are Released. We've only listened to the EP a couple times so far, but fans are going to be very pleased. It's hard not to dub "They Do It In Spite Of Us" the hit of the EP, what with the lyrics concerning monkeys throwing feces, and the giddy piano and (we presume, faux) maniacal strings. Great stuff. Midriff Records releases There's No Gray Area, No Middle Ground... You Are a Thief June 29.

Review: She Sir | Yens EP [MP3]

There are two phenomenal shoegaze acts operating out of Austin, Texas of which we are aware, and 2010 seems like it will be a big year for both the mighty Ringo Deathstarr and the more cerebral and mysterious She Sir. The latter act, as we noted here in late October, has been promising a follow-up to 2006's devastating full-length Who Can't Say Yes for some time. While the planned sophomore set Go Guitars has been delayed until "later in 2010," Yens reiterates -- more concisely, across four songs and fewer than nine minutes -- some of the dense guitar swirl, reverberant pining sentiments and arresting melodies that made the band's debut so captivating. According to lead songwriter Russell Karloff, "although we have a fair number of new studio recordings sitting unfinished and/or in progress, Yens was our answer to getting something out sooner rather than later."

She Sir has stated that Go Guitars will be "as diverse as it is coherent," and we expect the coherence is more readily apparent across the full length than simply the four tracks here. Yens places less emphasis on dense sheets of guitar, which we admittedly miss, but the point of the EP seems to be to play up the new directions of which the band speaks at its web site. And so the typically magnificent opener "Ginger" offers shoegaze swirl familiar from Who Can't Say Yes, while "Lemongrass" -- which we've posted below -- exhibits a broadened palette centered around organ, bowed strings and bright ethereal vocals. The short closer "Boystown" is even more stylistically distant from the material on the first release, as it touts foregrounded Animal Collective-ish layered vocals underpinned faintly by percussion, organ and guitar.

Mr. Karloff tells Clicky Clicky that She Sir plans a return to the studio in February ("and beyond") to continue crafting Go Guitars. It is interesting to note that She Sir was previously billed as the duo of Karloff and M. Grusha, but the credits for Yens note the four tracks were written entirely by Karloff, with only certain "editing and supplementation" executed by Mr. Grusha and a fellow named Jeremy Cantrell. Yens will be available in digital format tomorrow; a 7" vinyl version will be issued Feb. 15 in a limited edition of 300.

She Sir -- "Lemongrass" -- Yens EP
[right click and save as]
[buy She Sir music from the band right here]

Previous She Sir Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko, Pants Yell!, Shout Out Louds, She Sir
Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, She Sir, Armalite
Today's Hotness: She Sir, Deadbeat, The Radishes
Best Of 2006 Addendum: She, Sir's Who Can't Say Yes

Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko, Pants Yell!, Shout Out Louds, She Sir

>> We were rapping with our tweeps last week on the Interzizzles about the wonderful Glaswegian indie rock trio Projeckt A-ko, who released the superlative full-length Yoyodyne this past spring. The discussion reminded us that when we had communicated with band fronter Fergus Lawrie last he had mentioned that writing and recording for a new Projekt A-ko was already in the works. We checked back in with Mr. Lawrie last weekend, who provided us with an update on all things A-ko. Recording started a year ago at The Diving Bell studio in Glasgow, at which time drum tracks for five cuts (including the oft-discussed cover of the amazing Drop Nineteens classic "Winona") were recorded. In August Projekt A-ko returned to work and committed to tape bass and rhythm guitar tracks for the aforementioned five cuts, and the band hopes to finish eight songs by Christmas. The plan is to record some additional songs in 2010 and aim for a June release. Lawrie reports that the new songs are "heavier and deeper" than the material on Yoyodyne, and offers My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins as reference points for the sound. Touring is still not in the cards for Projekt A-ko, sadly, as the band members have other commitments, although Lawrie notes he has felt conflicted when turning down gig and tour offers. While we wait for new Projekt A-ko music, here's an awesome non-album track called "Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch."

Projekt A-ko -- "Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch"
[right click and save as]
[buy Yoyodyne from the band right here]

>> Cambridge, Mass.'s own twee pop stars Pants Yell! will release their fourth album (and Slumberland Records debut) Received Pronunciation Nov. 10, and the trio is promoting the release with the MP3 "Cold Hands." Our quick and first impression of the track is that it's not immediately hooky, but the production is spectacular and tight and the guitars are heavier and generally sound amazing. Pants Yell! hit the road the day after release day for a nine-day tour of the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. We're posting the tour dates below.

Pants Yell! -- "Cold Hands" -- Received Pronunciation
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[buy Pants Yell! records from Newbury Comics right here]

11/11 -- Bronxville, NY -- Sarah Lawrence College
11/12 -- Philadelphia, PA -- University of Pennsylvania
11/13 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat (SLR 20th Anniversary show)
11/14 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Bell House (SLR 20th Anniversary show)
11/15 -- Bethlehem, PA -- Secret Art Space
11/16 -- Cambridge, MA -- Zuzu
11/20 -- Portland, ME -- Space Gallery
12/05 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Bruar Falls

>> Swedish indie pop phenoms Shout Out Louds return with its third full length Work, which will be issued by Merge on Feb. 23 in the U.S. The set was recorded with Phil Ek, whose work you know from classic albums by Built To Spill, Modest Mouse and Unwound. You can watch a short preview promo of Work right here. Shout Out Louds' sophomore set Our Ill Wills was released in 2007 and the record closed with the amazing brooder "Hard Rain," and we are hoping as hard as we can hope that the new record will pick up where "Hard Rain" left off, because that track is amazing.

>> We ran this out our Twitter feed the other night, but it is worth repeating here that Austin, Texas-based shoegaze luminaries She Sir have pushed the release of their sophomore set Go Guitars to next summer. But in the near-term the band intends to issue the four-song, digital and vinyl Yen EP, and you can hear two of the tracks "Ginger" (sadly not a Lilys cover, but still exceptional) and "Lemongrass" at the band's Internet Home Page right here.

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, She, Sir, Armalite

>> This is our 900th post. And that only counts Blogger posts. Factoring the old home-made Comcast sites and posts to Junkmedia's World Of Sound blog and various other stints and guest positions and, well, we sort of wonder whether we would have been better off devoting the time to learning tennis or something. OK, that's not true. We like rock.

>> If you live in the U.K. you have many things for which to be thankful, nationalized health care among them. But also there is the small matter of the release of Birmingham, England indie titans Johnny Foreigner's full-length debut. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light is released by Best Before Records Monday. We haven't heard the set ourselves (well, at least not all together in a row with the CD case in our hands), but the acclaim seems largely positive, although not as effusive as it was for the release of the band's annihilating Arcs Across The City EP. Even so, it is understandable that faced with the task of releasing its first full-length, the trio might end up with one or two tracks that are less than stellar in the running order. That said, Waited Up 'Til It Was Light is some 13 songs in length -- the band could have easily held some back, but that's never been Johnny Foreigner's style. The deal has always been that the band writes songs and presents them and fans listen to them. Recall that this is an act that gave away a 16-song demo for free, and at least in the good old days would just email the tracks to you. So despite some criticism of certain tracks on the new record (even we are not crazy about "DJs Get Doubts," although there was a time when we were on the fence about "Henning's Favorite," which of course we grew past), we remain largely excited to hear the entire thing from start to finish. And with huge tracks such as "Salt, Pepa And Spindarella," "Eyes Wide Terrified" and "Our Bipolar Friends," Waited Up 'Til It Was Light already has hits to spare. Speaking of "Eyes Wide Terrified," the band recorded a version of the track last fall for a Radio One session and we, uh, borrowed it from the band's MySpace player for safe-keeping. It is slightly different from the album version, and we're posting it below. It's brilliant, and every time Alexei gets to the lines "I'm not that lucky, these t-shirts don't fold themselves" we get chills.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Eyes Wide Terrified" -- Radio One session
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[buy Waited Up 'Til It Was Light from RecordStore.Co.Uk right here even though with the exchange rate suckage; and the economy generally in the crapper; and with the fuel crisis likely never resolving because we are all fat slobs who can't ride a bike; you should instead use the money to buy groceries or a hand-cranked radio or whatnot]

>> Austin, Texas-based shoegaze supergeniuses She, Sir are featured here in a new interview segment at something called Vimby. The core duo of Russell Karloff and M. Grusha discuss its glorious 2006 EP Who Can't Say Yes and the forthcoming full-length Go Guitars. Having loved and lost a great shoegaze band many times before, we are slightly concerned, as the new set is apparently a departure from the '90s-referencing shoegaze sounds of the EP and will feature fewer guitars and broader instrumentation, including brass and woodwinds. "On the newer stuff we're doing, you know, we're sort of taking it back even further, trying to bring back a real sort of vintage, kind of a '60s sound, you know, trying to bring back a lot of that professionalism I think has somehow been lost since the '60s," Mr. Karloff tells the invisible Vimby interviewer. The apparent stylistic shift conjurs memories of RIDE's unforgivable 1994 mis-step Carnival Of Light. That said, we haven't heard any of the forthcoming She, Sir and it could very well be amazing. It certainly sounds interesting. "I'm hoping that there won't be much guitar in this at all, which I'm looking forward to as a contrast from the EP," Karloff continues in the video. "We're bringing in flutes, oboes, I think there's going to be an accordion in there, french horn, in addition to that we'll have a stack of vocals, you know, females, guys, crowds."

>> Hardcore supergroup Armalite -- which features former Fracture/Atom And His Package dude (and hockey fan) Atom Goren and that guy Dan Yemin who is in every great Jersey hardcore band -- will play a rare show at Richmond, Virginia's Best Friends Day festival. Curiously, the festival is actually three days long, Friday Aug. 15 through Sunday Aug. 17. This is the festival's eighth year, and seventh with music; more details here. Armalite's Armalite was one of our favorite records of 2006; read the whole list here.

Armalite -- "I Am A Pancreas (I Seek to Understand Me)" -- Armalite
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[buy Armalite from No Idea Records here]

Today's Hotness: She, Sir, Deadbeat, The Radishes

>> [UPDATED: See End Of First Paragraph] If this photo (not the one above) is legitimate -- and we have no reason to believe otherwise -- then superlative Texas shoegazers She, Sir must have recently recorded a live session for Internet radio streamer WOXY.com. This is terrifically exciting because the band released in 2006 a seven-song set, Who Can't Say Yes, that was a flawless concoction of sounds made famous (to us, anyway) by Ride and Lilys. As we reported here in January, She, Sir has been working on a new record titled Go Guitars with the assistance of producer Erik Wofford (Explosions In The Sky, Voxtrot). We inspected the WOXY Lounge Acts page and there is no indication of when the She, Sir session will be posted, but we'll keep our eyes on it. In other news, the band reports at its web site that it has been auditioning candidates to serve as a permanent rhythm section, replacing a rotating cast of players. Hopefully the move to a permanent lineup will result in some East Coast touring. In the meantime, enjoy the stellar lead track from Who Can't Say Yes. Update: so it turns out the picture linked above was in fact old, and the She, Sir WOXY session was recorded last year. We've added a direct link to an MP3 of the session below, and we're downloading it now to hear it.

She, Sir -- "I Love You, Blowtorch Eyes" -- Who Can't Say Yes
She, Sir -- 2007 WOXY Session
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[buy Who Can't Say Yes from the band here]

>> We went to EMusic the other night to check out the newly acquired Rolling Stones offerings (oh how we love the live sets Get Yer Ya-Yas Out and Got Live If You Want It) and got sidetracked by the presence on the main page of a newish single from dub-influenced electronic music producer Deadbeat. We've had a thing for the Montreal-based act (actually one dood, Scott Monteith) ever since reviewing the set Something Borrowed, Something Blue for Junkmedia back in March 2004 [review here]. While the single "Eastward On To Mecca" was released by Wagon Repair/Zebralution, we associate Deadbeat with Stefan Betke's ~scape label, which has also released a number of Deadbeat recordings. It is interesting to note that while Betke's Pole project left us cold after the introduction of rapping into a series of EPs in 2005 (and the full-length Steingarten never completely fired our imagination, either), Deadbeat has stuck closer to the dub-influenced sounds that have been one of the more prominent hallmarks of the ~scape catalogue, and thus Deadbeat has also continued to move us with its grooves. If you are a fan, we highly recommend grabbing "Eastward On To Mecca" from EMusic here.

>> The title track to The Manhattan Love Suicides' recently issued, limited edition 7" EP Clusterf*ck is now streaming at Leeds-based Squirrel Records' MySpace cabin here. The band sounds even more like erstwhile Slumberland Records noise merchants Henry's Dress than ever before, and that is a good thing. The Manhattan Love Suicides' EP has four tracks in all, including "Detroit Diesel," "Burning Wire" and "Heat And Panic." So the obvious question now is, "will anybody sell me this thing as MP3s?" Well, let's have a look. Nope. But we bet if you watch EMusic it will eventually pop up here.

>> Readers may recall we reported here that L.A.-based rockers The Radishes would be giving away their forthcoming Strychnine EP for free prior to its April 15 release. Well the band has made good. Hit this link to download four straightforward hard rockers from the quartet. The title track seems to betray a love of taut, sludgy mid-'80s stoner metal, and the tune features a guitar solo courtesy of former MC-5 man Wayne Kramer. The set also includes a slow-burning psyched out cover of the John Lennon cut, "I Found Out," which the deceased Beatle issued on his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band LP in 1970. We ranted about The Radishes blistering rocker "Hook Me Up" here in November.

>> We were curious about references made to the band Lump when we saw pop-punkers Varsity Drag earlier this year [review], and after corresponding with Lisa Drag and poking around on the Interweb we got turned onto the recently resuscitated '90s indie rockers. For all the guitar distortion and '90s nostalgia you're looking for, look no further than this recently posted video for Lump's rocker "Thirteen." The clip was apparently cobbled together by film students during the band's heyday in and around Lump's Fitchburg, Mass. stomping grounds.