If We Ran The World: Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Edition

Venerable indie pop label Slumberland Records marks its 20th anniversary with special shows in Washington, D.C. Friday night and Brooklyn Saturday night. Full details and links to tickets can be accessed right here. We recall early on in the buzz for these events discussion of secret guests or special guests or some such, but looking at those line-ups, well we think it would be hard to do better than early Slumberland stalwarts The Ropers and Lorelei, who are already slated to play. The latter band, in particular, is near and dear for us, because we think Lorelei's Asleep EP is among the greatest EPs of the '90s (don't get us started). Even so, if we ran the world, and if the artists we are about to name could of course be bent to our will, here is what you'd see. Everything listed in the line-ups linked above, plus Plus PLUS (keep in mind this is all fantasy, it is not even conjecture, we are just totally making this shit up): Friday night would include Lilys performing their classic Slumberland/Spin-Art co-released In The Presence Of Nothing in its entirety; on Saturday night Rocketship would reform and deliver all of A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness plus the singles of that period. And that's what would happen this weekend if we ran the world. Earlier today Pop Tarts Suck Toasted posted a great interview with Slumberland ringmaster Mike Schulman; check it out here.

Lilys -- "Claire Hates Me" -- In The Presence Of Nothing
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[out of print / buy in-print Lilys records from MusicStack here]

Rocketship -- "I Love You Like The Way That I Used To" -- A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness
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[buy Rocketship records from MusicStack]

Review: Nosferatu D2 | We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise [MP3]

Here is England's greatest contemporary lyricist, Ben Parker, coupling his words and fairly singular guitar playing with the punishing drumming of his brother Adam to create perhaps the greatest unheard record of the decade. The contents of defunct duo Nosferatu D2's We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise -- recorded years ago but only now available in stores -- seethe and brood with startling intensity, as Mr. Parker's narrators botch relationships, asphyxiate under the weighty, numbing press of an increasingly homogenized consumer culture, and second-guess their way into oblivion. The songs are uncompromising and raw: drumming is foregrounded and everywhere; torrents of lyrics occasionally unhinge from verses; and there are barely any guitar effects to speak of, save for the distortion and feedback in the stunning track "We'll Play The Power Of Love By Frankie Goes To Hollywood A Thousand Times Tonight."

In the hierarchy of credible angst in post-punk music, there's Morrissey, there's Cobain, there's Ben Parker, and then there's everybody else. Parker spits devastatingly personal lyrics as if they burn his mouth ("at the time I think I just thought they were funny. I guess a lot of stuff happened in those two years," he remarks in the liner notes). Most songwriters are lucky to have one line in a song that hits home; Parker's lyrics and their desperate delivery are all stunning. We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise opens with the line "the only place I feel alone is in your arms," and the record gets increasingly harrowing from there, climaxing in the spine-tingling, final :29 seconds of the track "Springsteen." In those last moments Parker sputters over and over "It's all up here! Point to my head!" before boiling over with two terrifying screams. That the tune is followed by the beautiful, calm opening of "We'll Play The Power Of Love By Frankie Goes To Hollywood A Thousand Times Tonight" is just brilliant sequencing. The record's most immediately satisfying track, "A Footnote," conveys the disappointment of being an avid music fan in a way that could only have been written by an avid music fan: "and every song that makes me cry is embarrassing to talk about, and the worst album will always be the last one..."

We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise was never released during the two-year span (2005-2007) in which Nosferatu D2 was a going concern. And so we were very excited to learn that it was finally to be properly released by the new label Audio Antihero 16 Oct. The set had very nearly been released in 2007, according to Parker, and in fact was so close to being issued that the title was chosen and the art work contracted. Alas, Nosferatu D2's split indefinitely shelved We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise. For a long time the set was available for free download from Last.FM, although the title and art were not included. The title, incidentally, comes from the opening line of a never-completed Nosferatu D2 track, according to Parker. Parker previously fronted the trio Tempertwig and is the current proprietor of the newly dual-member Superman Revenge Squad.

Nosferatu D2 -- "We'll Play The Power Of Love By Frankie Goes To Hollywood A Thousand Times Tonight" -- We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise
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[buy the record from Audio Antihero right here]

Nosferatu D2: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube |Flickr

Previous Ben Parker Coverage:
Be Prepared: Nosferatu D2 | We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise | 16. Oct
Out: Superman Revenge Squad's "We're Here For Duration... We Hope!"
A Dish Best Served Cold: The Clicky Clicky Interview With Ben Parker
Logorrhea, Pathos and Superman Revenge Squad
Today's Hotness: Tempertwig, Naxos, Joy Division
Every Band I've Ever Loved Has Let Me Down Eventually

Ringo Deathstarr Will Storm Japan, U.K., Issue "You Don't Listen" Single

We didn't know -- or learned and forgot in record time -- that Austin, Texas-based shoegaze goliath Ringo Deathstarr released a brand-new single Oct. 29. "You Don't Listen" b/w "Every Time I Leave You," was released by Custom Made Music, and the A-side will be on a planned full-length set issued by the band in 2010 (WOOT!) while the B-side is exclusive to the release. The Custom Made web site indicates the release is pending, but only by going to the Custom Made MySpace wigwam can one learn that the single can be purchased via PayPal right now. You can stream "You Don't Listen" at the band's MySpace drive-thru, which we recommend doing, because the track is killer. A little more sheen than the music from the band's excellent eponymous EP and the early demos we've been lucky enough to collect.

It's been a relatively busy fall for the quartet, which Sept. 14 released via UK label Spoilt Victorian Child Records the scorching single "Summer Time" b/w "In Love" (buy! buy! buy!). And the band is about to make what we believe is its maiden voyage to Japan, where it will stomp Yokohama, Osaka and Tokyo like Godzilla, before embarking on a thorough tour of the U.K. We're posting the full tour dates below. Ringo Deathstarr's self-titled EP was among our 10 favorite records of 2007, as you can see here. Readers may recall the EP was reissued on hot pink vinyl by Fan Death Records earlier this year. We don't have a copy of the new single yet and MySpazzz doesn't allow embeds, so we can't post the new single. But here is a stream of "Summertime," the B-side to September's SVC Records single.



11.20 -- Dragon Club -- Yokohama
11.21 -- Kitahorie Club Vijon -- Osaka
11.22 -- Kouenji High -- Tokyo
11.26 -- The Bodega Social Club -- Nottingham
11.27 -- Old Blue Last -- Hoxton, London
11.28 -- Reverence @ ICA -- London
11.30 -- Jericho Tavern -- Oxford
12.01 -- Korova -- Liverpool
12.02 -- Fibbers -- York
12.03 -- Sneaky Pete's -- Edinburgh
12.04 -- Captain’s Rest -- Glasgow
12.05 -- Academy 2 -- Birmingham
12.06 -- Joiners Arms -- Southampton
12.07 -- Brixton Windmill -- London
12.08 -- White Heat @ Madame Jojos -- London

The Elevators Drops | One Night Only | Middle East Rock Club | Dec. 18

After allegedly reforming in 2006 only to stealth release a fourth record (if you include the odds 'n' sods collection Epidose 1) more than a year later and disappear back into the ether, storied Boston psych-pop trio The Elevator Drops are reforming for a single show Friday, Dec. 18 at Cambridge, Mass.'s Middle East Rock Club. One odd Tuesday or Wednesday night this band pulled an 18-wheeler on to the lawn of the prominent anti-frat at our undergraduate institution and played one of the most bizarre and amazing sets of music we've ever seen. Allow us to recycle a paragraph from our Nov. 2006 item:

During our senior year in college we were pulled to a show on campus for a band we knew nothing about. The show was in the middle of the week or on a very beat Friday night, and as far as we can recollect there were no opening acts and the show was minimally attended. Which was too goddamned bad because we saw one of the most exciting and bizarre shows of our then 22 or so years. Yes, it was The Elevator Drops, and if we are recalling this correctly the trio showed up to the residence hall hosting the show in a giant, gleaming white 18-wheeled truck. Or at least that is what they pulled away in after the show as we stood with our mouth agape at the wonders we had just witness. You see, when The Elevator Drops took the stage they did so in make-up and in-character as evil clown robots strung out on heroin. Their movements were rigid and pop music glorious and weird. We have always had a hard time explaining the spectacle of the band that night.

All of The Elevator Drops' records appear to be out of print. We're posting a track from Epidose 1 below, which is not really representative of the band's recorded output, but it is a beautiful ambient track that shows how much range the trio had, and just how amazing of a band this really is. Uhh, "was."

The Elevator Drops -- "If You Were Invisible" -- Epidose 1
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[buy Elevator Drops records from MusicStack right here]

The Elevator Drops: InterWeb | MySpace | Flickr | YouTube

Footage: Pants Yell!'s "Someone Loves You"

We, of course, think smoking is something that one should not do. But when was the last time you saw a smoker smoking in as cool a fashion as Pants Yell! drummer Casey Keenan? Seriously. But anyway, this is a hot track from the Cambridge, Mass.-based trio's forthcoming long-player Received Pronunciation. The record, Pants Yell!'s fourth, will be issued by the mighty Slumberland Records next week. You can already pre-order that shizz right here.

Review: The Swimmers | People Are Soft [MP3]

The title to Philadelphia-based The Swimmers' ambitious sophomore set is not a put-down, it's a poignant acknowledgment of human flaws. Or at least that is the impression we get after listening to People Are Soft, which is starkly different from the band's excellent 2008 debut Fighting Trees. The latter album was a scritchy, upbeat collection of jangly, rootsy indie rockers that sounded like the earliest Wilco records. By contrast People Are Soft is awash in icy, futuristic synths (as in the New Order-y "Anything Together"), electronically augmented rhythm tracks and imaginative production.

The remarkable difference -- production-wise -- can in part be attributed to the fact that between the recording of the two records The Swimmers built their own home studio. And if it wasn't for a freshly realized, pronounced darkness that hangs over People Are Soft we'd chalk up the startlingly dissimilar sonic palette purely to the band's newfound freedom to experiment in the studio without having to worry about paying for all the hours. Album closer "Try To Settle In" certainly takes an everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach while recreating a sound -- one melodically akin toThe Clash's "Hitsville UK" -- that wouldn't be out of place on The Magnetic Fields' recent Distortion. The second track of People Are Soft, "A Hundred Hearts," stomps along with a slight hint of roller disco funk that recalls Lilys' recent dance floor filler "A Diana's Diana" (for that matter, the closing seconds of album opener "Shelter" sound very similar to the closing seconds of Lilys' wonderful "Black Carpet Magic"). The lazery clean, glossy production of the new Swimmers record not only contrasts with the moodier outlook in the new songs, but also places them in the same sort of sonic area as another Philly band that drastically retooled (along with a name change and personnel pruning) from a rootsy sound to a spacey, glossy and studio-influenced one: Sun Airway.

As we alluded to above, even more jarring is the darker vibe of the new record, whose songs in sum suggest a loss of innocence. Where Fighting Trees included wide-eyed and infectious anthems like "Heaven," "Pocket Full Of Gold" and "It's Time They Knew," People Are Soft's post-lapsarian sound is more troubled and reflective. The overdriven rocker (and album highlight) "Drug Party" includes the lines "when they cut me open they'll see why I didn't fit" and "I'm always outside getting sick." These sentiments, that loss of innocence, could easily be a result of the band -- led by Steve Yutzy-Burkey and whose principals met at a small Bible college -- moving to the big city and confronting new, more complicated lives. But if we had to venture a guess we'd say that the new record carries a certain resignation and weariness that manifests itself among 20-somethings when youth and idealism become increasingly distant memories. People Are Soft is released by Mad Dragon Records today. Fighting Trees was named one of our top 10 records of 2008 right here, and we reviewed it here. The band will tour briefly to support the new collection, and Boston-area fans should make a special note about the Dec. 12 date at PA's Lounge.

The Swimmers -- "A Hundred Hearts" -- People Are Soft
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[buy Swimmers records from Newbury Comics right here]

The Swimmers: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

11.06 -- Kung Fu Necktie -- Philadelphia, PA
11.07 -- Main Street Music -- Philadelphia, PA
11.07 -- Pianos -- New York, NY
11.13 -- Progressive Galleries -- Lancaster, PA
11.14 -- The Bog -- Scranton, PA
12.11 -- DC-9 -- Washington, DC
12.12 -- PA’s Lounge -- Boston, MA

And Then This Happened: Future of the Left, The Beatings

Future of the Left with the Beatings at TT the Bear's, November 1, 2009;
-Photos by Michael Piantigini

Future of the Left f'n delivered. As you can see from the photos, they take no shortcuts, spare no piece of equipment, and are always willing to risk injury in their endeavor to entertain. What you can't see is their sense of humor - Too many bands that are this loud, this unrelenting, and this menacing take themselves way too seriously, and Future of the Left's refusal to do so is part of what makes them such great fun to see.

I am a believer in the Beatings too. It pains me to admit that this was my first time seeing them; it certainly won't be my last.

-Michael Piantigini

Future of the Left: Interwebs| MySpace | Falco's blog
The Beatings: Interwebs | MySpace