Today's Hotness: Strange Passage, Snowball ii, Mendez

>> Our music fandom is reborn with each great surprise, as when the unexpected find flips up against our thumbs in the record bin, or when a sound we love appears out of the blue right in the blog's backyard. This latter circumstance is what has us jazzed lately, said jazz having been sparked when friend-of-the-blog Jeff Breeze sent us a link to a smashing new debut EP from upstart Somerville, Mass. four Strange Passage. The quartet's Shine And Scatter EP echoes the melodic, guitar-centered sound of the turn-of-the-'90s UK with surprising competence and confidence. Indeed, the short set's four songs echo The House of Love and the early RIDE EPs, and -- more contemporaneously -- are startlingly reminiscent of the massively underrated and short-lived aughts combo The Boyfriends. While there is a thread of shoegaze shot through Strange Passage's alluring brand of guitar pop, and Boston continues to have a strong share of contemporary 'gaze practitioners, Strange Passage's music still feels somewhat delightfully off-trend. There are just not a lot of acts out there right now trying to write the next "Chelsea Girl" or "Shine On," are there? Shine And Scatter also boasts some production choices that make the EP feel particularly mature for a debut, including putting an understated, even-keeled vocal up front in the mix. It's a confident, but not showy, move. And so it almost feels as if Strange Passage has foregone the trials and travails of writing a first and second EP, and have just jumped in with a terrific third. Each song is dynamite, but the uptempo rager "Viaducts Burning Down" stands out with its urgent intensity, and the repeated feeling of resolution that comes with each recitation of the title in the chorus. Shine And Scatter was recorded through the late spring and early summer with hit-maker Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios in Western Mass. and self-released via Bandcamp Aug. 16. As impressive as its EP is, Strange Passage has yet to play a show; its first live outing is slated for Sept. 30 at The Democracy Center in Cambridge, Mass., where they will be joined by Amherst, Mass. noisemakers Dirt Devil and -- we're told -- others. We're torn about urging everyone out to the show, as every band deserves a chance to get its collective feet under them before being subjected to scrutiny. But all the same, we feel like it's going to be exciting seeing Strange Passage blossom, so, you know, you should probably go. Stream all of Shine And Scatter via the Bandcamp embed below.



>> That LA dream-pop concern Snowball ii jumps styles with its new album and latest single "I Doughnut Want To Live" is little surprise, given band mastermind Jackson Wargo may consider notable shape-shifter Kurt Heasley's long-running, magical Lilys one of his lodestars. Snowball ii's clever February 2016 debut long-player ? was often a devoutly shoegaze affair, and its most recent music prior to "I Doughnut Want To Live" were spooky, ethereal covers of Lilys' "Black Carpet Magic" and "Day Of The Monkey" for Colorful Acts: In The Presence of Lilys, a Lilys-themed compilation issued by The Blog That Celebrates Itself over the summer (for short-tenure Clicky Clicky readers, if the prospect of a Lilys comp excites, you should also check out our own). And while much of the Snowball ii's forthcoming sophomore set feels influenced by Sufjan Stevens, the appealing ballad "I Doughnut Want To Live" stands apart in the new collection. The deceptively serene song is built up from patient acoustic guitar strums and glistening leads in the verse whose optimism plays against Mr. Wargo's somber confession in the chorus ("'cause I don't think I can love her like I did before."). "I Doughnut Want To Live" is the first taste of Snowball ii's long-player Doughnut Holes, which the band recorded and produced at its own The Doughnut Shop studio and will released via its own Doughnut Records Sept. 16 (sense a theme? -- Ed.). Snowball ii celebrates the record with a release show the same day; a third Snowball ii LP is slated for 2016 release as well. Stream "I Doughnut Want To Live" via the Soundcloud embed below.



>> Singer and songwriter Gregory Mendez has made a bunch of music over the years, and a fair amount of it with input from The Superweaks' Evan Bernard, among others. Projects including Airport and Getting Sick eventually led to a well-received singer-songwriter thing under his own name, perhaps out of a desire to simplify. That presumed yen is manifested both in Mr. Mendez's new moniker and music; his latest effort Phone Records is attributed to the yet-more-concise Mendez, and the self-released collection features nine tunes tracked to a smartphone app. We mention the means of production here not to encourage folks to start sending us an avalanche of crap they made on their phones, but to underscore that it is still novel to encounter a recording made on a phone that is this good. The trick, of course, is to start with great songs or song ideas, as Mendez does. Phone Records presents what may be an unanswerable chicken and egg question: is the intimacy of these recordings enhanced by capturing the bedroom sessions on a phone's tiny microphone? More likely the production is just a side-effect of making do, but there is substantial charm to the feeling of "being there" as Mendez plies his trade. Songs including "Try" and "Control" firmly echo the balladry of early Elliot Smith (although the latter tune cleverly incorporates the synth melody from Soft Cell's iteration of "Tainted Love"), but Phone Records' more dynamic tunes, such as the shuffling, early Yo La Tengo-styled "Stained Glass Boys" and "Gum Trash," are its strongest. Album closer "The Drug Trafficker's Daughter" feels demo-ish in the way one would expect a phone recording to be, but that's the other side of the "hey-this-was-recorded-with-a-phone!" coin: some stuff feels like an idea waiting for fuller treatment. But the bulk of Phone Records feels accomplished, evidence that while Mendez may be seeking simplicity, his songcraft remains robust. Stream the entire thing via the Bandcamp embed below; the cassette-inclined will be pleased to know they can get a limited edition physical artifact from Houston-based Some Weird Sin Records right here.

Review: Happyness | Weird Little Birthday

Often, bands elect to clean themselves up when entering a professional studio, to figuratively comb back their collective hair and don their best shared suit. What are seen as mistakes get edited out, a winning take gets punched in over top of an off-key vocal, or a guitar is redone to scrub out amp buzz and microphone hiss. Others acts, however, take the opposite route, and point to an album that includes random and imprecise moments as an authentic snapshot of the experience, and thus, life. London indie rock trio Happyness seemed to take the latter approach when making its vital and consistently rewarding 2014 album Weird Little Birthday, which -- after a successful year for the band -- arrives in an expanded re-release this week via Bar/None in the United States and Moshi Moshi Records in the UK.

Weird Little Birthday is an exercise in charming, mid-fi messiness, a record that leverages the limits of a traditional three-piece to create sonically rich music that finds fresh poignancy in the mistakes, flubs and the random blurts of feedback that most acts would never think to celebrate. Steeped in the sounds and methods of buzzy '90s indie rock, Happyness incorporates enough modern influences -- indeed, enough of themselves -- to enliven its chosen amalgamation of sounds. The single "Naked Patients" borrows a millenial hook from Jeff Tweedy and then rides a steady, Yo La Tengo-esque bass groove for the duration. But the tune is highlighted by elements that are all Happyness: a swooning vocal in the chorus, and open-ended and jagged guitar soloing, during which fuzz pedals are turned on and off seemingly at random.

The Yo La Tengo comparison feels particularly apt, in part because the legendary Adam Lasus -- whose first production credit appears to be YLT's masterful 1992 EP Upside-Down -- mixed Weird Little Birthday, and this record's thick, blocky beats evoke a sense of fun similar to that found in the early releases of Space Needle, another Lasus production credit. But comparing the Londoners' music to that of Hoboken's finest is more apt due to the way both bands allow compositions to spread and breathe into longer, noisier explorations. The finest tunes on Weird Little Birthday are notably long; the transcendent cuts "Weird Little Birthday Girl" and "Montreal Rock Band Somewhere" clock in at over eight and five minute respectively, and provide ample room to both play out beautiful melodic ideas via meandering lead guitar and color and shade with subtle backing vocals and keys.

One of the best, and probably under-appreciated, parts of the Happyness sound are its lyrics, which are packed with great lines, including the snarky and amusing jab "I'm wearing Win Butler's hair" in the aforementioned "Montreal Rock Band Somewhere." That tune and three others are what make the 2015 release of Weird Little Birthdaya so-called "expanded 2.0," and many of these previously served as b-sides to Happyness singles. Elsewhere, opener "Baby Jesus (Jelly Boy)" incorporates widely panned, double-tracked vocals that project a downcast sadness and texture that both disorients and soothes. Preview single "Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste The Same" echoes slacker titans Pavement with its drawled verses (a comparison Happyness is probably as tired of hearing as Pavement was of hearing about its reverence for The Fall), while highlighting the trio's singular deadpan humor and violent imagery. The 2015 release of Weird Little Birthday marks the first time that the collection is available on wax within the good ol' U.S. of A, and you can purchase it from Bar/None right here. We also recommend visually consuming the threesome's new video "A Whole New Shape" which is over at Noisey, and this amazing live iteration of "Montreal Rock Band Somewhere" filmed at SXSW. Stream the entire expanded Weird Little Birthday via the Spotify embed below, and check out all of the band's remaining current U.S. tour dates below that. -- Edward Charlton

Happyness: Facebook | Soundcloud | Tumbledore



Upcoming U.S. Dates:
03.26 -- Boise, ID -- Treefort Music Festival
03.28 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Echo
03.29 -- Santa Ana, CA -- Burgerama 2015
03.30 -- San Francisco, CA -- Bottom of the Hill
04.01 -- Portland, OR -- Mississippi Studios
04.03 -- Seattle, WA -- The Sunset Tavern
04.04 -- Missoula, MT -- Stage 112
04.06 -- St, Paul, MN -- Turf Club
04.07 -- Iowa City, IA -- Gabe's Oasis
04.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Subterranean
04.09 -- Cleveland, OH -- Happy Dog East
04.10 -- Middletown, CT -- Wesleyan University
04.11 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Baby's All Right
04.12 -- Manhattan, NY -- Cake Shop.

Review: Playlounge | Pilot

We devote an inordinate amount of time to thinking about sound, the intentions behind deliberately expressed noise, the emotions achieved with aggressively cacaphonous indie rock. One unsurprising conclusion that we return to again and again is that often less is more. This determination is vital to approaching Pilot, the full length debut from London fuzz-rock pair Playlounge, a record that exhibits the great lengths an act can go with only four arms. Much like the best tunes on Blame Confusion, the recently released debut from sonic kinsmen Solids, on its long-player Playlounge achieve a cavernous boom-bap with little more than a few guitar overdubs, sizzling, cymbal-centric drumming, palpable, in-the-red distortion and tastefully applied reverbs. Importantly, Playlounge's blunt attack and appealing songcraft distinguish Pilot from even Solids' undeniable LP and similarly superlative contemporary guitar-pop.

Rather than trot out lively indie rock signifiers under a thick haze, or charm its way via shambolic song structuring, Pilot comes out guns ablaze, barely able to keep up with its own breakneck pace. Few records this year will sound as good blaring from a pair of external speakers in an otherwise empty bedroom/air guitar rehearsal space -- trust us, we would know. The biggest hooks come early and often, with guitarist Laurie Foster typically concocting even more melodies with his six-string than drummer Saam Watkins does with his often buried vocals. Album opener "I Am Lion" and infinitely spun preview track "Zero" -- which teases with chords that hint at Yo La Tengo's towering pop classic "Sugarcube," and hey look rad vid -- in particular pack plenty of ideas into mini-epic song suites.

The context of the rising success of their pals, Topshelf signatories Nai Harvest, draws the significance of regularly thrilling Pilot into sharper focus. That, along with the breakout success of noise-pop greats Joanna Gruesome, may lead neophytes to declare there's a bona fide movement going down across the pond -- although Clicky Clicky readers have seen regular coverage of these sorts of sounds from deep inside the fertile UK scene for something like eight years at this point. Indeed, heady, noisy, emo-gaze recordings have been crossing the Atlantic for years, and we don't expect that to abate any time soon. But Playlounge's maximal minimalist sound is very now. As of now, that act has no announced plans to tour America, but we hope that that will change soon; the duo has a half-dozen engagements pending in the UK and will announce additional late May dates soon. For now, pick up a copy of the Pilot on pink-with-glitter or pink-blue smeared vinyl via Dog Knight Productions right here. The record was available with an alternative cover in the UK today for Record Store Day, but those are now long gone. Stream "Zero" and "Wave And Waves And Waves" via the Soundcloud embeds below. -- Dillon Riley

Playlounge: Internerds | Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter

Today's Hotness: Mooncreatures, Tungs, Tapes & Tubes

>> Well, it didn't come as soon as we had hoped when we wrote about the band's first EP here two years ago, but Mooncreatures are indeed back, with another cinematic and evocative collection of heavily vibing ambient dreampop. The London-based duo's new, hermetic EP Gaslamps feels even more of a piece than its remarkable debut, as its six gentle songs steadily swell and breathe into one another. Band founder Rhys Griffiths describes the set as "a northern European night time record," but we'd put a finer point on it: the proceedings would seem to be aural travelogue of sorts, or so the song titles suggest. Opener "Cityscape, Hauptbahnhof" is all gauzy shimmer, as much an array of slowly shifting thoughts as it is cycle of pretty, waivering chords. The reverie is briefly suspended by a stretching tone that suggests a far off police siren, and the listener is suddenly transported to the second composition, the more intently structured dreamer "Tram To Brockenheim." The second half of the EP contains the sort of haunting half-dreams that hang in your consciousness for mere moments upon waking; these come in the form of the 44 second sketch "View From" and its two-minute successor "Expedition To." Gaslamps was released as a digital download March 14 via French label Beko, a concern that has also released music by the previously Hotnessed The Bilinda Butchers, Drug Rug and others. Stream the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below, and click through to purchase the full EP.



>> Earlier in 2014 we deemed Heavy Midgets' superlative LP Super Kings the first excellent surprise of the year, and now the label responsible for it, Richmond's Bad Grrrl Records, extends its streak of hot releases from the area's best DIY guitar bands with a new long player from reliable scene mainstays Tungs. Tungs' weirdly wonderful Not For Grandma finds the trio further pushing sonic boundaries and contorting its influences, as it has since debuting in 2010 with a set called Sleeping. More so than any of its prior collections, Not For Grandma catalogs the band's whims like a mixtape. Surprises abound -- we recommend going straight to the deep cut "Eggsack" and sticking around for the completely demented saxophone that abducts the song in its final 90 seconds -- as each song seems to almost inhabit a separate universe. Single "Roses" is an aggressive, minute-long punker in the vein of early '80s Black Flag, with plenty of palm muting, echoey vocals and a slick delay-time spin in the final seconds as the tune collapses. The threesome shifts gears hard for the following track "Geebus," whose clean guitar chops and falsetto vocals mark it as an R&B-tinged guitar-pop jam until thick distortion overtakes the tune in the chorus. Most impressive is the four-song stretch from "Bone Dry" to the doomy (but strangely gleeful) "Flesh Light," which posits an alternate reality in which punky, Bleach-era Nirvana and the darker, bent string, drop-D-tuned Pac. Northwest grunge were never watered down following Cobain & Co.'s rise to superstardom. All four of the songs revel in the classic fuzz of alternative America's '80s heyday, and the serrated and slack nature (check the goofy closer "Me Fucking You") of it all is as cathartic as it is oddly comforting. Not For Grandma is available from Bad Grrrl now on CD, tape and vinyl via this Bandcamp page. Stream all of the long-player via the embed below.



>> Tapes & Tubes' music is meditative and sturdily constructed, and it has a timeless quality that has a lot to do with great songcraft and probably a bit to do with the manner in which it is recorded, too. The act is the project of Olympia, Wash.-'s Austin Potter, a home recording and analog sound enthusiast whose love for the dreamier and more sedate side of Yo La Tengo (or, by extension, greatly underrated Brits It Hugs Back) is readily ascertained by listening to the recent collection Ebb Tide. Throughout the contemplative, 10-song set boxy, minimal drumming, organ and Mr. Potter's quiet vocals routinely work in tandem to create vividly murky moods and a sense of broad possibility. The collection offers affirmative nods in the direction of Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, in the form of covers of "I Remember You" and "God Knows," respectively. The former is a relatively deep cut from Reed's 1986 set Mistrial, which is widely considered to be, well, the album before the one that had everyone proclaiming (rightfully) that Lou Reed was "back" (that would be the 1989 opus New York). The original has its charms, but Potter's reinvention of "I Remember You" succeeds via its understated restraint: Reed's bouncy guitar is kept, but the awful canned rhythm tracks scrapped. The new interpretation gives a sense of the reasoned smarts Potter brings to a song, and those smarts are evidenced throughout Ebb Tide. "Beginning" echoes to a certain extent Yo La Tengo's masterful "On Our Way To Fall," but Potter's whispered vocals, almost impossibly, feel even more intimate than those of Ira Kaplan. The whirling drone of organ on Tapes & Tubes' "Haunted House" may be a little too perfect, but it goes far toward establishing a sheets-of-rain-down-the-windshield vibe as well as the tune's steady groove. Grooves aren't always a necessity, however: the shimmering ambient guitar exploration "Solo Guitar Two" is pretty and enchanting, and indicates that the music of Tapes & Tubes may be increasingly potent the more minimal its approach. Ebb Tide was self-released last month and is available as a digital download via Bandcamp; plans are in place for a limited-edition cassette release as well. An even newer short collection titled Amplifer is already on offer right here.

Review: Eros And The Eschaton | Home Address For Civil War

Here's a thing that is true: a lot of dream pop is not dream-like; as beautiful and as subdued as certain of it may be, the descriptor often acknowledges an aspiration, not an actuality. There are, however, bands that can jack right into a dream-state from the first note and navigate an entire set with admirable agency, building emerald cities of sound and then tearing them down like Leonardo DiCaprio in "Inception." Which brings us to the rising North Carolina dream-pop concern Eros And The Eschaton, whose debut full-length Home Address For Civil War is due Tuesday from Bar/None. The music on the collection grafts sweet, somnolent melodies to compositions that thrive on a balance of coarse shoegaze textures, palpable ambience and engaging pop intentions. Gently shot through the dreaminess and noise is a unifying pop sensibility that makes the record a satisfying and especially remarkable debut.

Eros And The Eschaton, as we wrote here in June, is Adam Hawkins and Kate Perdoni, although the band is augmented with additional players for shows. The principals met performing in Omaha, cemented their coupledom at some point thereafter, had a child, formed the band in 2012, and then settled in Greensboro. Perhaps the dreaminess of Home Address For Civil War is a result of the pair trying to do a band and raise a small kid at the same time (the record commences with a baby's cry before launching into the endlessly ascending "20 Different Days"). Or perhaps we are just projecting our own exhaustion. But within and throughout their patient, brilliant (and brilliantly mixed) set, Mr. Hawkins and Ms. Perdoni layer wavering organ, guitars, heavily reverbed percussion and murmured vocals to create tracks that are paradoxically as loud as they are intimate. The fixating charmer "You Know I Do" is as much a pastiche of feedback and ambient noise as it is a simple, crushingly poignant affirmation of love. At the beginning of "Over And Over," the pair's chanting of the title sounds like a confession, like an exchange of secrets. Closer "Trust Me I Know" opens with a gently pulse of organ and reverbed, looped guitar,  then slowly decays into a soft, swirling mist that dissipates gently over the span of more than five minutes.

Just releasing this latter song would constitute a triumph, but the record offers a lot more. There's Yo La Tengo-flavored pop candy like "Lately (I've Been Wondering)" and percussive cacophony to be found in "Terence McKenna," a song that recalls the noisier moments in the catalog of dreamy contemporaries Big Deal. Indie rock fans will find there's a lot of Yo La Tengo flavor to Home Address, facilitated in part by the similar approach to vocals taken by Hawkins and Ira Kaplan. That assessment is not meant to limit listeners' ideas of what Eros And The Eschaton is, but rather a signifier of the vast potential Hawkins and Perdoni are sitting on, potential that could enable Eros And The Eschaton to become as smart, incredibly nimble and widely varied act as the legendary New Jersey trio. Home Address For Civil War, we hope, is only a beginning. After playing a hometown festival date late this month, the band leaves home for most of September, when it will perform a series of mid-Atlantic and midwest dates to support the release of the record. Fans can also expect to see a music video soon, as details of a shoot were posted to the band's blog here. Two pre-release singles are available to stream below; pre-order Home Address For Civil War right here.

Eros And The Eschaton: Interwebs | Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud | Tumblr





08/23 -- Greensboro, NC -- The Greenbean
09/05 -- Raleigh, NC -- Slim's
09/10 -- Washington, DC -- The Sunshine District
09/11 -- Baltimore, MD -- Club K
09/12 -- Philadelphia, PA -- PhilaMOCA
09/13 -- New York, NY -- Piano's
09/16 -- Beloit, WI -- The Music House
09/17 -- Chicago, IL -- Big Forever
09/20 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Sound Gallery
09/21 -- Omaha, NE -- Slowdown
09/22 -- Omaha, NE -- DP Muller Studio
09/23 -- Omaha, NE -- Phenom Blues House
09/24 -- Kansas City, MO -- Record Bar
09/25 -- Lincoln, NE -- Vega
09/26 -- Ames, IA -- Maximum

Review: It Hugs Back | Recommended Record

With little fanfare -- at least here in America -- Kent, England-based It Hugs Back has been steadily building a formidable catalog of records and singles over the last several years. Its latest long-player, Recommended Record, is a lush, engaging and often aurally stunning marvel that gives the foursome a strong claim on a place in the vanguard of contemporary psych-pop. The set is roughly split into motorik groovers ("Sometimes") and gentle strummers that cushion persistently breathy vocals ("Teenage Drone"), although there are exciting moments that don't fit neatly into either pile, such as the blaring freakout "Big Sighs." That the music on Recommended Record runs the stylistic gamut with such ease is a tribute to the highly-developed and tasteful songwriting of the group, songwriting that evidences a keen ability to synthesize elements from a well-chosen stylistic palette.

The set commences with the charged, propulsive and kaleidoscopic rush of "Sa Sa Sa Sails," a sugary rocker that drips with the same sort of shuddering, guitar-heavy psychedelia as the best moments of the early Mercury Rev catalog. Even with the level of bombast high on the track, It Hugs Back guitarist and singer Matt Simms, who also plays guitar for post-punk legends WIRE these days, continues to sing with his characteristically dreamy, even delivery. From there the collection makes the first of many tidy transitions, here to the hip-shaking, organ-addled preview track "Go Magic!," which cleverly contrasts megaphoned lead vocals with pretty, terraced vocal harmonies and closes with wondrous, clanging guitars. The logically titled "Piano Drone" channels German legends Neu!, and the spooky "Sometimes" channels The Flaming Lips channeling Neu!, but Recommended Record also touts plenty of the catchy guitar pop -- in the vein of the Pitchfork-acknowledged 2009 single "Workday" -- that It Hugs Back is best known for. These include album highlight "Teenage Hands," as well as "Skateboard Rhythm," and the poignant, burbling "Waiting Room." That latter tune touts a subdued melody with swirled rhythm guitar that could have been inspired, perhaps improbably, by the introduction to Grateful Dead's "Crazy Fingers." While all of these reference points suggests a record that sounds scattershot and disjointed, in fact just the opposite is true, and -- as ever -- It Hugs Back succeeds by setting its own parameters in creating a warm, fuzzy and insular aesthetic.

Recommended Record will be issued on Safe And Sound Records worldwide on Monday and you can purchase it on CD or vinyl directly from It Hugs Back right here. All purchases are rewarded with an immediate digital download of the collection, and the first 100 pre-orders come packaged with a bonus EP. We've embedded a stream of the entire album below. It Hugs Back's prior record, the sophomore set Laughing Party, was released a year ago. We featured It Hugs Back in number 12 of our recently resuscitated Show Us Yours feature back in 2009.



It Hugs Back: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud

Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson, The Nimbleines

>> [Photo Credit: Malia James] Internationally sourced and London-based indie rock duo Big Deal disclosed earlier this week that it will release a sophomore set, June Gloom, June 4th. Which, you know, thank God it's actually being released in June, because, duh, am I right? If the spelling-challenged preview track "Teradactol" that first appeared online in November is any indication, the new collection promises a new, noisier and louder sound for the heretofore relatively reserved pair of Kacey Underwood and Alice Costello. June Gloom was produced by Rory Attwell, whose credentials include production work for Yuck as well as the recently released triumph from London's Veronica Falls. Underwood and Costelloe are abetted in the creation of the record by drummer Melissa Rigby (according to SPIN) and an unidentified bass player, yet another indicator that the softly forlorn Big Deal that first revealed itself with the skeletal and haunting single "Homework," released by Records Records Records in 2010, is a thing of the past. Or at least not quite so softly forlorn. June Gloom will be released by Mute and touts 12 tracks in total, and you can stream and download "Teradactol" via the Soundcloud embed below. A video for the first single from June Gloom has been filmed and, according to Big Deal's Facebook page, it will be unveiled soon. The duo's enchanting first full-length Lights Out was released via Mute in the US in January 2012, and we kicked its tires for readers right here.



>> Oslo-based emo heroes Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson this week relayed news that its 2005 debut Unnoticeable In A Tiny Town, Invisible In The City has been remastered and will be reissued in March on 180g vinyl by Doognad Records, also based in Norway. The set is available in a limited edition of 250 black LPs, and fans can get one via Doognad's Big Cartel dojo right here for the princely sum of 20 Euros, which according to the Googles Saturday afternoon equals USD $26.76. We're not saying Unnoticeable In A Tiny Town... on 180g vinyl isn't worth that kind of coin, we're just reporting here, folks. According to a Facebook post, the record was remastered by Will Killingsworth at Amherst, Mass.'s own Dead Air Studios. Older and hipper Clicky Clicky readers may recognize Mr. Killingsworth's name from his years playing guitar with screamo giants Orchid (readers may also recall Bedroom Eyes and Best Practices have both made exemplary records at Dead Air). Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson's most recent release, the 10" EP Small Changes We Hardly Notice, was released last summer and included the stunning opener "All I Remember Is Punk Rock." The set was one of our favorite releases of the year (although, as we got it on vinyl, its aggregate ITunes playcount didn't rate the EP for inclusion in our 2012 year-end list). Small Changes We Hardly Notice was issued domestically by emo powerhouse Count Your Lucky Stars Records -- keep your fingers crossed that the label might get some stock of the reissue of Unnoticable, so you don't have to eat some pesky international shipping. Since it is one of the greatest things since sliced bread, stream the tune "All I Can Remember Is Punk Rock" via the Soundcloud embed below. If you'd like to listen to the old master of Unnoticeable In A Tiny Town, Invisible In The City, it is available for streaming right here at Bandcamp.



>> There is a slippery but quantifiable charm to the debut digital single from the new oddball electropop duo The Nimbleines, who recently revealed themselves via the 12" extended mix of the tune "Let's Play Leaving." The song traverses some varied terrain while hewing closely to some familiar touchstones, laying in gentle vocals, synths and electric rhythm tracks that at different times echo vintage DEVO or Yo La Tengo's "Year Of The Shark." Even with the synth and programmed beats there is a lo-fi aura to the tune that gives it an earthy appeal; The Nimbleines certainly are not taking a sterile approach to the production values, something that we appreciate. The band is comprised of Boston musician and music journo Jonathan Donaldson, who some may know from his work from the delightfully quirky guitar act The I Want You, and Columbus, OH-based James Goodman, a fellow heretofore unknown to Clicky Clicky. The Nimbleines characterize themselves and an electropop/psych act, and its Facebook page indicates a full-length is planned. We don't feel the psych stewing on "Let's Play Leaving," just light, hooky, '80s-referencing synth-pop, so we'll be curious to hear more from the pair. In the meantime, the delicate hooks that cycle through the verse and chorus of "Let's Play Leaving" will give your ears plenty to contend with. Stream and download the tune via the Soundcloud embed below.

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.

Forever Now: The Infinity Girl Interview

It's that they make it look so easy, that's what initially enticed us to approach the chaps in upstart Boston shoegaze unit Infinity Girl for an interview. With almost zero warning, the foursome issued in May a very impressive full-length debut, Stop Being On My Side, which we reviewed here last month. There were no singles and very few shows to serve as harbingers for the set, making the band's sudden leap into the vanguard of the city's expanding shoegaze scene all the more surprising. With its remarkable debut out, a personnel change brought on by the departure of founding bassist Ransom for Los Angeles, and some great live bills facing Infinity Girl in August, we thought it was high time to check in with the band, which is certainly among the most promising of Boston's current crop of startlingly good young bands. Fronter and guitarist Nolan Eley and drummer Sebastian Modak were very gracious with their time, and while we ultimately didn't learn why it is the songs seem to come so easily, we did get a feel for how the band did what it did and does what it does.

Clicky Clicky: You've just released a very good record. If you could choose another, released by anyone ever, that you wish Infinity Girl could have made itself, what would it be? And you're not allowed to say Loveless.

Nolan Eley: If I was answering this for myself I might say Emergency And I by Dismemberment Plan, but as a band we'd probably go with Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.

Sebastian Modak: I think it would have been pretty nice to have made Yuck's recent record. Personally, I would be content with life if I had played drums on Fugazi's 13 Songs (yeah, it's a compilation, but whatever). I can't even imagine what it would feel like to play those songs live.

CC: There were very few shows and no singles leading up to the release of the record. And that's one of the things that made a big impression on me: no single, no fucking around, just a handful of shows and then BOOM, a wonderful, fully formed full-length. It reminds me of the genesis story of the Greek goddess Athena. Did Infinity Girl feel like it was important to make such a strong statement right out of the starting gate?

NE: Thank you, to be honest, it was kind of surprising how easily it happened. I think we just wanted to record the songs we had and at first we were thinking it was probably going to be a 6-track EP when we initially went into the studio. We had just learned "Void" at that point and decided trying to record it. We did a few takes that weren't that great, but listening back, the energy was so good we decided to include that on the record. Shortly after those sessions happened Seb and I wrote "By Now" and we were all like 'we have to put this on the record.' So we went into the studio and recorded that. So at this point we were sitting on 8 songs and thinking 'is this an EP or a full length?' Then "Pulling A Smile From A Drawer" happened almost on accident, I was messing around with this piano at The Record Company, it's an acoustic piano but it has electric pickups on it, so I was running it through a bunch of guitar pedals, just messing around. Thank God somebody hit the record button. Anyways, after that I got the idea to record some instrumental tracks. Those, I think, helped the record really flow together as a full length and brought it up to 11 tracks.

CC: Who does the bulk of Infinity Girl's songwriting?

NE: I've done most of the songwriting so far, but the songwriting process is evolving as we play more.

SM: [When t]he band started [it was] based around songs Nolan had already written. We were already friends and I heard him playing at a weekly songwriter's circle that some close friends of mine used to run at All Asia [in Cambridge, Mass.]. I immediately started fantasizing about how great the songs would sound, louder and with a full band. What you hear on the record is mostly from Nolan's existing songs. But as the band has evolved, so has the songwriting process. I wrote the lyrics to "By Now," while I was in Spain and sent them to Nolan while he was in China... So, it's not always just Nolan. But most of the time he'll be the one that turns our ideas into something that sounds kind of like a song.

CC: The reason I ask about songwriters is that, from a songwriting standpoint, there seems to be a tension in your music between the more pure shoegaze stuff and something like "Cellophane And Gold," which is more uptempo and has almost a punk edge, or the lyrics to the chorus of "Cannons," which is surprisingly up top of the mix and pretty emo?

NE: I think the reason for this is that most of the songs on the record did not start out as a band writing them together. I have always just written and recorded music for fun. Sometimes I would keep the songs hidden on my computer, sometimes I would put them online for my friends to hear. Creating an album with a consistent aesthetic was not my priority. I just wrote the songs how I felt that day or that week. Some of them were straight-up shoegaze, some of them with complex orchestral arrangments, some folky, some electronic. I guess the songs that made it onto the record and into the Infinity Girl catalog were the ones that translated over to a four-piece rock band the easiest.

SM: It's also a product of what we're listening to. Sure, a lot of what has influenced us comes from the same time period, but when you're (subconsciously or otherwise) thinking about "Big Day Coming" by Yo La Tengo and "The Leper" by Dinosaur the result can be all over the place. And I think that's a good thing.

CC: Did you heavily demo Stop Being On My Side? I'm just curious to know how hard you had to work to get the sounds on the record? Did you bring a record to the producer and say "make it sound like this?"

NE: About half the songs I had recorded beforehand, for my own personal enjoyment, so this gave the producer and the band a pretty strong idea of what certain songs were going to sound like. Also we recorded some live demos in our practice space so we could all listen to the songs and share ideas about them. From experience I gained recording my own music, I already had a lot of ideas as far as the sounds for the record. I just had to get these ideas across to the other people involved in making it.

SM: Once we got the idea in our heads to make a record, we reached out to our friend (and new bassist) Mitch Stewart to produce. He and Pat McCusker engineered it at The Record Company -- they're both close friends of ours (I went to high school with Mitch and play in another band with both of them called Friendly People). We did a couple of demos in our practice space as well and I think both Mitch and Pat knew what we wanted in terms of sounds by the time we spent two insane nights at The Record Company. It was a really open, not to mention surreal, experience, considering the time of night we were able to get recording time, and the sounds kind of shaped themselves along the way.

CC: Shoegaze, or at least shoegaze influences, certainly seems to be having a moment in the Boston music scene right now. Does that sort of external influence, what you are seeing out in clubs and basements, factor into what you do at all?

NE: I've been mostly unaware of the local shoegaze scene until recently, and I'm pretty excited about it. I would say that the music we make mostly just comes from us liking the music we like and being friends enough to share a few hours a week together playing what we like playing.

SM: It helps that people are into it right now, but we're just a band that is doing what we individually and collectively love to do. If it turns out that people are into it, then that's fantastic and we really appreciate it. But we'd be doing it anyway if we were the only noisy band in town. It's just that ALL our shows would be at the Elks Lodge, if that was the case.

CC: The common conception is that a band in the early part of its career focuses in and settles on a style in time. Do you guys step back and think about where you are heading, about where you might be stylistically two years from now?

NE: We don't really think about this too much, I know I'll always keep writing music that reflects the music I'm currently listening to, and what's happening in my life, and we will always want to play music, so wherever that takes us is where we'll end up. As long as everyone else in the band doesn't hate me and I don't hate them we'll keep on doing this thing.

CC: Assuming people can agree on what the term shoegaze really means anymore, it's hard to think of a lot of examples of shoegaze bands that have had long, continuous careers -- much to my own disappointent, I'll say. This is sort of a loaded question, but as songwriters and music fans, do you think shoegaze is too limiting a style to sustain a band creatively over the course of, say, a ten-year career?

NE: Shoegaze is such a niche genre. Loveless simultaneously created and destroyed it. Everything that can be said in that language has been pretty much said on that album. I think the only way shoegaze bands can survive is if they have something else to offer along with it. It's not really straight-up shoegaze bands that are surviving but mostly bands with shoegaze influences; bands like Deerhunter or Yo La Tengo that have these undoubtedly shoegaze moments but are diverse enough in their arrangements to avoid being pigeonholed as just a shoegaze band.

SM: Whenever I'm describing Infinity Girl to people, I'll use the word "shoegazey," and immediately feel like an idiot. But it kind of makes sense. It's true that the term "shoegaze" has lost a lot of its significance over time, but I don't think bands like ours are making shoegaze music, in the most traditional sense of the word. Sure, we're inspired by bands like MBV and JAMC but we'll never be them or even sound like contemporaries. That music came out of a very specific time and place, both literally and culturally. What's happening now is its own beast and I think it will develop in its own way, independent of nostalgia. I think we're part of that and that will definitely sustain us creatively. The risk comes only if we box ourselves in, and I don't think that has happened or will happen any time soon.

CC: You've got two shows coming up next month. Will these be the first with Mitch Stewart playing bass live for you?

SM: Yes. Having spent so much time with the songs -- producing, engineering and mixing the record -- it was very easy having him take over on bass. I think he knows the parts better than the rest of us do at this point. Surprised he's not too sick of them at this point. That being said, Ransom is a big part of what has made Infinity Girl what it is and I hope he hates LA (joking... sort of).

CC: What's next for Infinity Girl after the shows in August? What do the next six months look like for you guys?

NE: We are just trying to play as many shows as we can around the area, and get people listening to our record. We've got an EP (probably) still in the demo stage, we haven't started recording anything yet. The songs sound summery and less dark than Stop Being On My Side does, so it would be nice if we could get it done while it's still warm out. Obviously though we're not going to compromise anything just so we can rush it out before the next equinox.

CC: Thanks so much for giving this interview, guys.

SM: Thank YOU. It's fantastic what you are doing for the Boston music scene with your blog. Far too few people are pointing people towards good music with the consistency and eloquence that you do. It's humbling to be included in all of that.

NE: Thank you for taking an interest in us! Seriously, we've all been fans of this blog for a while now and it's so cool to be included in it.

See Infinity Girl live at Precinct in Somerville Aug. 4 [Facebook event page] and at TT The Bear's Aug. 30 with the mighty Soccer Mom and serial face-melters Young Adults [tickets].

Infinity Girl: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube

Review: Infinity Girl | Stop Being On My Side

Upstart Boston quartet Infinity Girl last month quietly released a dominating debut, a seamless collection of 11 shoegaze songs that evidences a remarkable facility for recreating the cacaphony, exhalation and swirl that are hallmarks of the genre. The great paradox of apparent success for shoegaze adherents is that successfully emulating the sounds of its most prominent forebearers doesn't afford contemporary bands the opportunity to establish a singular personality upon which to trade. But on its long-player Stop Being On My Side, Infinity Girl with some regularity fearlessly steers into the genre's margins, where listeners can hear the band starting to plot where the past ends and Infinity Girl begins.

That the Boston act has produced something this good only six months after playing its first show is astonishing. Stop Being On My Side is stacked with anthemic, guitar-drenched and melodic noise-pop the likes of which we haven't heard since the last Fleeting Joys record. The Bostonians' "Please Forget" is textbook shoegaze in the very best sense, spiraling, dense and emotionally engaged. The beautifully blurred verses of "By Now" set off triumphant, swooning choruses punctuated by octaved guitars approximating clarion blare. The most immediate numbers impressively channel the classic sound of recently reactivated titans My Bloody Valentine (the shape-shifting "Pulling A Smile From A Drawer;" the sculpted, fiery album opener "Poppyblush"), but there is substantial charm to be found in the songs that echo the sounds of less obvious progenitors such as Yo La Tengo ("Even If"), Velocity Girl ("Cellophane And Gold") and even Pavement (compare the meandering denouement of "Cannons" to the bridge of the fabled slackers' "Starlings In The Slipstream")

Infinity Girl's remarkable acuity for echoing My Bloody Valentine is all the more notable because it goes beyond a recreation of the elder band's sonics. Perhaps more than any peer in recent memory, Infinity Girl succeeds at emulating the Dublin-spawned act's sensual/sexual appeal where most contemporaries often present cold and detached. It's in the pulsing breaths of the bending chords of "By Now," and the insistent, quietly violent arc of feedback throughout "Even If," which spreads like a line of skin appearing from beneath an unstoppable tear in a black stocking. And, if we are hearing the (naughty) lyrics correctly, it is explicit in Infinity Girl's "Void."

But as stated supra, it is when Infinity Girl incorporates elements of ancillary styles such as power-pop ("Cellophane And Gold") and even emo (the startling shouts that punctuate "Cannons" also puncture the mesmerizing record's fourth wall somewhat) that the proceedings begin to take on a unique flavor, and the resulting hybrid that populates Stop Being On My Side brims with melodic and textural possibilities. Infinity Girl self-released the set via Bandcamp May 8; check out streams of "Even If" and "By Now" below. The foursome's next local live dates are at Precinct in Somerville Aug. 4 and TT The Bear's in Cambridge Aug. 30. If they can do it again like they did it last time, those shows will definitely smoke.

Infinity Girl: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube

Today's Hotness: Fire Island Pines, MaoTzu, High Heels

>> The delicate and charming Cornwall, England-based indie pop concern Fire Island Pines, of whom we first wrote here last April, returns next week with a tidy 7" EP. Rickie Lee Jones' four songs combine clean, ringing guitars with sincere, spoke-sung vocals that suggest a more leisurely Morrissey as much as they do a far more youthful Tindersticks. It's certainly a sound under-represented among the louder and more psychedelic devastations that have dominated indie music recently. The EP is available in a limited edition of 150 black vinyl discs packaged with a postcard that carries a link to download digital versions of the songs. It's worth noting Fire Island Pines takes its name from a small beach resort town near Long Island that has earned a reputation for lavish, drug-fueled boardwalk celebrations in the summer months. And really, there couldn't be better imagery than that for a song like "I Was A Runaway." Starting with a faraway reverb serenade, the song builds to the moment a wayward character would enter an amazing party, swept in the spectacle of tan faces and beautiful nightlife. As the march continues, the snare locks in and bright melodies dance around lines like "Where was your elegance?," and "tripping over your shoes, and falling into your car." This is indie rock for the cocktail party, and all the things that make such parties memorable, awkward, and out of time. Stream all of the Rickie Lee Jones EP below, and preorder right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> MaoTzu is enigmatic Chicago songwriter Jamarcus Drake, perhaps the latest notable torchbearer for the Syd Barrett School Of Effortless Whimsy. Mr. Drake's third and latest MaoTzu release, Doodles, is brimming with bedroom charm and enlivened by commensurate audio fidelity. While certain tracks seem more realized than others, the entire collection is unified by a never-ending sense of inspiration (several songs refer to anime, video games and TV shows). The serene strummer "Howl's Moving Castle" transverses the same hazy space mapped by the sweet spot in Pink Floyd's catalogue, the weird post-Barrett, pre-Darkside Of The Moon records. "Case Closed" takes a dreamier route than much of the rest of Doodles, but the choppy guitar, hand-clap breaks, and the amazing guitar solo that closes out the tune mark it as another album highlight. Drake logs time with a number of Chicago-area bands including Martin, King Of Yale and Forestcousin, but we're hopeful he continues to mine MaoTzu for its substantial and quirky gold. Stream "Howl's Moving Castle" below. -- Edward Charlton



>> The High Heels cohort counts among its number conspirators including members of Wussy and Why?, but it is helmed by Austin Brown, a man who seems to be in touch with the finer points of '90s indie rock. The second and latest High Heels long player, On Square Waves, is rife with fuzzy, down-tuned guitar pounders and short kitchen-sink instrumentals laced together into a seamless fever dream of music. "Tracers Emblazoned" is a yearning, melodic anthem in 108-second miniature that touts spectral guitar leads and complementary stream-of-consciousness lyrics bolstered by simple vocal harmonies. "Unspooled Coil" sets out a steady gallop of twinkly, tremolo plinks and fat bass. Brown tastefully indulges in some free-associative imagery that recalls Kim Gordon at times and the overall vibe is not unlike Yo La Tengo at their most Electr-O-Pura-fied. Thick and delightful stuff. On Square Waves was released via Bandcamp earlier this month; check out the embed of "Unspooled Coil" below and grab the entire collection right here. -- Edward Charlton

Rock Over Boston Over Hoboken: Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Residency

[Peter Prescott sings the Volcano Suns' "Cover" at the night 5 of Yo La Tengo's 2010 Hannukah residency at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ 12/5/2010. Photo by Michael Piantigini. More here.]

It's sort of like when Boston sold out nine nights at the Centrum in the 80's, except Yo La Tengo does it every year (when they're not on tour, at least).

Every 25th of Kislev (I looked that up), they bogart the schedule of Maxwell's - their legendary Hoboken hometown home base club - to celebrate Hanukkah with an 8 night stand. The only Hanukkah actually visible is the old-school electric menorah sitting on bassist James McNew's formidable amplifier, but these shows are their own sort of revival. Over the years, they've developed their own tradition: the openers are always a surprise - never announced in advance (at least until the first person with a Twitter account arrives at the club), there's a comedian, a mix CD by one of the band or someone close, and the money goes to charity. Sounds good to me.

Watching the coverage of the shows leading up to our night (5) was excruciating - M Ward? Parting Gifts? Jeff Tweedy? SYL JOHNSON? How could they possibly top those?

Mission of Burma has been laying low of late, and they've apparently been writing songs. After opening with "Nu Disco," they tore through a half-dozen or so great new ones before settling into fun cover times: Cream's "NSU," Brian Eno's "7 Deadly Finns," Buzzcocks' "I Don't Mind," an amazing Wipers' "Youth of America," closing it out with a raging run through the Dils' "Class War." The dark, low-ceilinged Maxwell's recalled the smaller clubs that Burma haven't really had to play in their second life. Man does it work for them: Peter Prescott's now-mandatory sound baffle barely contained him, and the now leonine Roger Miller was animated and nearly wild, slashing through impossible chords.

There's not really any info on when we might hear that new Burma album, but I am now officially anticipating it eagerly.

How very clever of Yo La Tengo to provide a comedic palate cleanser, because Burma was hard to follow. It was even tougher for comedian Wyatt Cenac, I'd imagine. How do you get a crowd energized by punk rock and anticipating the headliner to pay attention to your talking? Luckily, the crowd was friendly and jubilant and Cenac mostly connected for his brief set.

I'll try not to gush too much about our hosts, but it ain't easy. Yo La Tengo have proven to be so versatile and reliable over the years and though it would be natural to worry how a band can maintain momentum through an 8 night stand, one needn't.

Yo La Tengo makes a point of keeping things interesting for themselves, as well as their fans; sometimes they're on the road telling stories and playing acoustic, sometimes they're live-soundtracking old undersea nature films, and sometimes they're just making noise (and, in the new year, they're apparently doing all that, plus acting and more). Sunday night's opening set demonstrated that versatility: after easing into things with landmark album I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One's gentle instrumental "Green Arrow," they wound up the buzz with "Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop" from a 1996 split single with Stereolab, leading to guitarist Ira Kaplan working up his first guitar freak-out of the night in "Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)." Turning on a dime, the band instantly hushed the-now frenzied crowd with And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out's confessional "The Crying of Lot G." The mood swing was breathtaking.

The rest of the set was just as varied, with the old and the new; the quiet ("Pablo and Andrea"), the poppy ("Sugarcube"), and the frenzied ("Mushroom Cloud of Hiss"). The band showed no signs of flagging energy, playing with as much intensity as I've ever seen them.

The night's Boston-based undercurrent continued at the top of the encore when the high bidder of an auction benefiting WFMU turned in a more than credible take on Jonathan Richman's "Astral Plane" with a Roger Miller-abetted Yo La Tengo's backing. How cool must that have been?

Swapping out one Burma for a pair, Bob Weston (who had been sitting in with Yo La Tengo all night doing the live sound collage-ing he does with Burma) strapped on a bass while Peter Prescott led his partial Volcano Suns lineup/Yo La Tengo mash-up through a version of the Suns' "Cover" that left me itching to see another full Suns reunion or maybe a reunion of the Prescott-fronted Kustomized.

The rest of Burma joined in for the last trio of covers capped off by Burma-associates Dredd Foole and the Din's "So Tough."

Yes, yet even more Boston. It was super nice of those Mets fans to be so welcoming of us Sox fans.

-Michael Piantigini

Don't miss Ira Kaplan's Hanukkah Diary.

Yo La Tengo: Internets | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter
Mission of Burma: Internets | MySpace
Wyatt Cenac: Internets | IMDB

Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Varsity Drag, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

>> We ignore about as many pitches in a day as breaths we inhale, but there are certain folks whose recommendations are lead-pipe cinches, and we got one of those cinchy pitches a few weeks ago about the fast-rising, London-based indie rock duo Big Deal. The pair, whose MySpace URL is charmingingly MySpace.com/WeAreABigDeal, flew onto the radar of the British rock press after only its second show, and Big Deal's debut single "Homework" b/w a cover of Big Star's "13" doesn't even street until 18 Nov. and is not yet available for pre-order. The single, incidentally, will be issued by London's Records Records Records, who you may recall recently issued the completely terrific Superman Revenge Squad EP Dead Crow Blues. Anyway, Big Deal is songwriters and guitarists Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe, and the pair's music sounds a fair amount like another hotly tipped London act, that being Yuck, which means Big Deal sounds like Yo La Tengo, in the best way possible.

"Homework" b/w "13" will be released in a limited vinyl edition with "hand finished" artwork (we don't know what that means, but yeah, awesome?), and both tracks are already streaming at the aforementioned MySpace along with three others. NME recently posted the smouldering strummer "Locked Up" as its track of the day, and we're taking the liberty of re-posting the track below because it is brilliant. Big Deal are apparently recording new material with Gordon Raphael, who aging hipsters may recollect was the producer of the early Strokes material; according to Wikipedia Mr. Raphael now works out of Urchin Studios in London.

Big Deal's "Homework," "13" and "Locked Up"

>> An update on the goings-on of hometown indie punk superheroes Varsity Drag is overdue. Sadly, drummer extraordinaire Josh Pickering has parted with the band. Word is -- well, actually we read it here -- that Mr. Pickering has been succeeded on the stool by a cat named Jonas Meyer, who is currently rehearsing with founding member Ben Deily and trusty bassist Lisa Marie Deily. And from the WTF file: Varsity Drag has been tapped to provide music for a forthcoming production of "Hamlet" being staged by an area theater company in 2011. No word what that music will sound like or whether it will be available for general consumption by non-theater goers. Varsity Drag's most recent release was the digital single "White Cat In A Snowstorm," a song originally written and released by UK punkers Ipanema. The song is slated to appear on a comp being concatenated by the Drag's UK label Boss Tunage, but no release date on the comp has been disclosed. Grab the track here or stream it below.




>> Dream pop phenoms The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will release a sophomore full-length recording on Slumberland Records in March 2011. The album as yet has no title, but a first single, "Heart In Your Heartbreak," will be issued in November with an exclusive b-side. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's self-titled debut was released last year, as was the band's Higher Than The Stars EP. The New York-based quartet is on tour through the end of November and you can review all tour dates at the band's Myspace hacienda right here.

Today's Hotness: Young Adults, Yuck

>> There is a new, noisy Boston-based indie rock band out there. OK, there are like 10,000 of those, newly minted just about every September. But fledgling post-punk trio Young Adults -- only in its fifth month of band-ness -- is building a profile on the back of a demo recorded with Dan Gonzalez at Boston's Esthudio in January. To borrow a phrase from our beloved Varsity Drag, the Young Adults demo sounds a bit like it was recorded in a metal shipping container, but the scritchy, swaggering tracks shine through a low-hanging haze of white noise and reverb because of undeniable melodies and infectious energy. Actually, to say "shine through" suggests that the white noise and reverb are an impediment, but in fact the opposite is true -- not unlike as with the great Minneapolis duo Red Pens we wrote about here last month. Young Adults was cool enough to let us offer an MP3 from the demo, so below you will find the tune "Annulation." The band has two shows coming up in the next several weeks, which shows you can read more about at the band's MySpace dojo right here.

Young Adults -- "Annulation" -- Demo 2010
[right click and save as]

>> We've got It's Getting Boring By The Sea to thank for introducing us to Yuck, although we don't have a lot of hard information to share about the band. We think it is a duo, as we've seen photos including either a guy or a gal. And we think that they are based in London, although the band's MySpace shack helpfully also offers New Jersey and Hiroshima as possible locales as well. There are three Yuck tunes rapidly winding their way through the internerds like a burning fuse right now: a spare piano ballad titled "Automatic;" the flanneldenimcigarettesSSTsoggyweekend strummer "Sunday," which is a jangly revelation; and the uptempo, tambourine-appointed rocker "Georgia," which suggests a steady diet of Yo La Tengo and Teenage Fanclub. The latter track will be released as part of a split single March 15 by Transparent Records; the single will be limited to 300 copies and is Transparent catalog number TP11. We haven't a clue how you order/pre-order the "Georgia" split single, but we expect if you refresh the Transparent MySpace page enough times a buy link will appear at some point. To help you maintain what should be a very substantial level of excitement about Yuck, we're posting the version of "Sunday" we scored from It's Getting Boring By The Sea.

Yuck -- "Sunday" -- Demo
[right click and save as]
[keep clicking this link until you can figure out how to pre-order the "Georgia" split, then buy it]

Michael Piantigini's Top Albums of 2009

Listened to a lot of great new stuff this year, 10 of my most appreciated below. What better way to work out your (and my) love/hate relationship with Top 10 lists?

1. The Low Anthem, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)

If I were truly in-the-know, the earlier indie release of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin should have been one of my top 10 of 2008, but lucky for me – and the world generally – Providence, RI trio The Low Anthem got promoted to the show this year and their sophomore album was re-released by Nonesuch. After seeing this performance of “This Goddamn House” from the band’s 2007 debut What The Crow Brings, a gut-punch performance so powerful and affecting that it makes one question their whole life, I was prepared to pack it all in and follow them around on tour or something. Or, at least, see them as much as I can. Of course, my punishment for not getting hip sooner is that I missed them in your more intimate venues, but their recent opening slot with Blind Pilot at the Paradise demonstrated that they are one of those rare quiet bands that can silence the chattiest of crowds and hold us mesmerized.

When I realized that the composer of “This Goddamn House” wasn’t even in the band anymore, I naturally worried that what was left couldn’t possibly be as good. Thankfully, I thought wrong and Charlie Darwin more than lives up to my hopes. The gentle songs are gentler, the rockers more ramshackle. The music more varied and the arrangements more creative. And songs to match: “To Ohio” feels like it’s always been there, and we’ve just discovered it on some lost reel of tape. The set makes you feel like privileged – like you’ve been invited to the most amazing, house party in the best sounding living room ever.

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

2. Lo Moda, Replica Watches (Creative Capitalism)

Internet details on the Baltimore combo Lo Moda are hard to pin down, but listening to their two albums, 2007’s Gospel Store Front and this year’s Replica Watches, that mystery (whether inadvertent or not) seems to suit them fine. Alternately playful, hooky, sinister, and often all three, describing this album makes it sound much more difficult than it really is. For all the odd, creative arrangements of insistent droney riffs, there’s just enough hook to grab onto and get under the skin.

“Robespierre” riffs its way into an organ hook and string drone over a marching rhythm section while telling us “we’re practically nowhere,” but the building droner “Real Real” – simpler than it seems with droning strings, organs, and guitars trying to break free certainly feels like its heading somewhere. That somewhere may be the perfect pop gem “Paper Bombs” that has all the aforementioned properties, but in a tighter, neater package. If I was doing a "Top Songs" of the year it would surely be near the top. If one isn’t enough, I’m certain that if “Simple Geographies” were done got the exposure it deserves, it’d be some kind of hit.

Lo Moda: MySpace

3. Obits, I Blame You (Sub Pop)

Sort of like a more punk rock Feelies, Obits have the same jittery energy as their brothers and sister across the Hudson, but with louder guitars, grittier vocals, and an angrier attitude. It actually doesn’t seem fair to compare them to the Feelies, since Obits have more than their share of college/alternative/indie rock pedigree just from main singer and guitars Rick Froberg’s tenure in Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes alone. If the Low Anthem’s album sounds like you’re in the best sounding living room ever, this hooky, dual guitar (which is different from guitar-dueling!), soul-shaker is what’s going on in the packed, sweaty basement.

Obits: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter | SubPop

4. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs/ Condo Fucks, Fuckbook (Matador)

For a band with a 20+ year history, it is more than a little amazing that Yo La Tengo have a clunker rate that is near zero. All the while absorbing styles and continuing to evolve and express those elements in great songs in a way that is distinctly theirs. They’re like a one-band record collection.

On Popular Songs, elements of soul and just classic sounding well-arranged 70’s “records” (when that really meant something) influences have led to gems like “Hard To Fall” and “If It’s True”, both with their classic string arrangements (by a classic string arranger!), stomping single “Periodically Double or Triple,” and the just perfect “All Your Secrets.” The latter having some of the better “do-do’s” you’re likely to have heard in a while.

Of course, there’s certain elements of their sound and style that they have continued to keep fresh after all this time – I’m talking here about how Popular Songs closes out with not one, not two, but three guitar epics in a row clocking in at 10 minutes, 11 minutes, and 15 minutes, respectively. Each, though, has totally different palettes and tones and they all draw you in in a different way. “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” mesmerizes with a droning repetitive vocal line over e-bowed guitars, while “The Fireside” relies on sparsely strummed acoustic guitars and sound effects, and “And The Glitter Is Gone” is just an all out heavy bass and guitar orgy. I’m all in.

Meanwhile, under the guise of long lost “legendary New London, CT trio” the Condo Fucks, the members of Yo La Tengo also displayed their impeccable taste with a bootleg-quality collection of covers of the likes of Small Faces, The Kinks, and Slade. Just plain fun.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Yo La Tengo coverage

Yo La Tengo: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter
Condo Fucks: Matador | Documentary

5. Reigning Sound, Love and Curses (In The Red)

I’m admittedly late to the party, but Reigning Sound hit me hard this year and have me scurrying to catch up – I can’t believe I've lived this long without them! Led by longtime Memphis rocker Greg Cartwright, late of the greasy Sun Studios-inspired garage punks, The Oblivians (and occasionally still of – the Oblivians did a European tour with the Gories this year), Reigning Sound still have that Sun influence, but are tempered by more prominent soul influences (the Stax side of Memphis?). Still garage rock and primal swagger, but with the sneer making room for a knowing weariness, Love and Curses, their fourth album of original material has a warmer, lusher guitar sound than the biting attack of it’s immediate predecessor, 2004’s Too Much Guitar, and it is pure garage rock comfort food.

Reigning Sound: MySpace | Facebook

6. Wye Oak, The Knot (Merge)

Just when I was starting to think the guitar and drum duo line up was just too limiting to really allow a band any breathing room, along comes Wye Oak to prove me stupid. Jenn Wasner’s honey-sweet voice and nimble guitar riffiing are more than well-supported by Andy Stack’s... well, everything else. It is a sight to behold: some songs have him keeping the beat with one hand (and his feet) while playing bass lines with the other all while supplying harmonies. Hooky stomper “Take It In” leads the way, but gives over to the shoe-gazers like “Talk About Money” and “Tattoo” and the lurching “That I Do.” The Knot is one of those exciting albums where a band tops their road-tested first record with an even better set of songs.

Wye Oak: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook

7. The Bats, The Guilty Office (Hidden Agenda)

I may just be a sucker for the well-crafted strummy guitar pop that New Zealanders seem so to be so good at, but The Guilty Office is really is one of those deals where we what have is just good, solid songs. The Bats have again returned with another batch that makes me ask, what more do you need?

The Bats: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

8. Varsity Drag, Night Owls

Long-time Boston rock underdog Ben Deily, the under-credited co-founder of the Lemonheads and arguably the creative force of that band’s formative years is back with Night Owls, the latest from his band Varsity Drag (and the first with the latest lineup with his Mrs., Lisa on bass and Josh Pickering – the bass player in 90’s-era Deily project Pods – on drums).

Looking at the credits, it seems that it would be a back-to-basics affair, with the production handled by Tom Hamilton – no, not that one, the other one, who produced those aforementioned early Lemonheads records back in the day. In some ways it is – Deily’s got a distinct style – but there’s more going on here, and Night Owls takes chances: “Morning” is practically a self-contained rock opera, and “Post Script” is as naked a piano ballad as any, all the more poignant coming from a classic punk-rocker.

Deily hasn’t been as prolific over the years as us greedy fans would like. To have a new full-length just 3 years the Drag’s debut EP (albeit years in the making), For Crying Out Loud, is a happy occasion indeed.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Varsity Drag coverage.

Varsity Drag: Intertubes | MySpace | Ben Deily | Twitter

9. Megafaun, Gather, Form & Fly (Hometapes)

Had Megafaun not been one of those serendipitous SXSW stumble-upons - had they been just sort of explained to me - there's a chance I would have dismissed them as another bunch of hippy rednecks making with the wanky jam-band antics. As I said above of guitar-drum duos, I'd be proved stupid. They have a warm, soulful sound and feel that has a way of making you as intrigued by the sound collage of "Darkest Hour," as you are hooked into the sunny three-part harmony pop sound of "The Fade," and the lyrical direction of both add even more depth.

Gather, Form & Fly is a thrilling exploration of the marriage of traditional folk instruments - guitars and banjos and percussion - and sound manipulation both analog and digital. One of the best things about it is wondering where it will lead Megafaun next.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Megafaun coverage.

Megafaun: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

10. Mean Creek, The Sky (Or the Underground) (Old Flame)

Why is it that when a band like Mean Creek so eagerly reaches for the sky, it is so surprising and refreshing? In a world of bedroom pop, it helps when good bands with good songs turn up now and then to remind us about ROCK. Look, I'm not going to lie to you: there's plenty of big rock touchstones here - there's some Zeppelin, some Pink Floyd, and - so help me - does "Beg & Plead" ever so much remind me of mid-90's Boston rockers Smackmelon (I guess you'll have to trust me on that one, kids), but the songwriting is solid, the arrangements tight, and the vibe inspirational.

Mean Creek: Intertubes | MySpace

BONUS LIST! Top 5 Songs not on any of those albums that I just couldn't not mention:
1. Wilco, "One Wing" from Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)
2. The Clean "In The Dream Life U Need A Rubber Soul" from Mister Pop (Merge)
3. Superchunk "Crossed Wires" from the Crossed Wires 7" (Merge)
4. Bare Wires “I Lie Awake” from Artificial Clouds (Tic Tac Totally)
5. Noise Addict “Big Ups” from it was never about the audience (self-released)

-Michael Piantigini

Check out Jay Breitling's Top Songs of 2009, and watch for his Top Albums of 2009 next week!