Regolith A2E2: Sean Tracy Writes Songs Under The Gun

Sean Tracy likes to do it in the car... recording vocals, that is -- HEY-O! Welcome back to Regolith, Clicky Clicky's 30-day songwriting and recording challenge, wherein we con one woman or man of the indie rock persuasion to let us tag along and take an in-depth look at her or his creative process as they write and record new music from scratch. This is episode A2E2 -- that is "Artist Two, Episode Two" -- wherein Mr. Tracy gives us his mid-project update. You remember Sean, right? The guy who makes the bass noises for Boston anxiety-pop unit Chandeliers and New Hampshire/Boston shoegaze goliaths Bedroom Eyes? We covered all of that in A2E1, which, if you missed it, it's still online right here. There's some pretty interesting insights below. Perhaps our favorite is Tracy's assertion that the project is a lot like a quiz that you've written for yourself. "You know you're the one who made up the questions in the first place, but you still have to think about the answers." Something about that sentiment makes us think of a favorite Lilys lyric, but it also has a ring of truth for those of us who written a song or 10. Check out our full second interview with Sean below, which gives us some sense of what we might be hearing when Tracy turns over the proverbial tapes as his 30 days elapse (at which point we do one more blog post and offer the music via our Bandcamp page, remember? Also, Tracy turns back into a pumpkin). We invite you to dig in to the nitty and gritty below, and be certain to check back for the thrilling conclusion in the coming days. -- L. Tiburon Pacifico

Clicky Clicky: How has the project been going so far? Are you finding it easier or harder than you anticipated? Any particularly big challenges?

Sean Tracy: It's been a lot of fun! Definitely a positive experience so far, but I would say that I'm finding it a bit harder than I anticipated, mostly because I'm now at the point where I'm having to scale down what I wanted to do initially. I'd say that's the biggest challenge, having to sacrifice some tracking/production for the sake of finishing it. I've also had some basic technical issues... a broken microphone, broken headphones, etc.

CC: Tell us about your recording equipment setup. Are there specific reasons you use the equipment and software that you do?

ST: The primary things I've been using to record have been my MacBook and my new USB interface, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It acts as a preamp for a microphone as well as for the guitar, so I've been relying on that for almost everything. I have a microphone that I "liberated" from work that is apparently broken, so I'm most likely (really, really soon) going to borrow or buy another one.

For software, I've been using Logic to record/mix and Adobe Audition for more mixing. I use Logic mostly because I learned how to record with Garageband, which is basically Logic's baby brother, so when I wanted something better, it was sort of an easy transition.

CC: Describe techniques you employ (mic placement, mixing, effects, etc.). Would you use these same techniques if time were not a limiting factor? How did you learn to record this way?


ST: Well, currently the one microphone I have is not working, so I'm thinking of placing it in the trash. [Ba-da-dum~! -- Ed.]

When it did work, I would kinda dangle it over my amp (a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) to record the guitar because I don't have one of those little mic stands. The original game plan was to use the Focusrite to record one track of DI guitar, and one mic'ed track off my amp to give it a real amp tone with the DI mixed in. Because of the microphone situation, I'm going to probably just use only the DI tracks. This might change if I get the time to try out another microphone, but I'm not really sure yet.

For effects, I have a few pedals that I run my guitar through. Reverb, chorus, delay, echo, fuzz and distortion so far. I also use Logic to add in some digital reverb and compression to the whole mix.

If time weren't a factor, I would probably still do it this way. I think it works really well, especially as a way to dirty up some of the DI tracks. This is my first time recording this way, but I got the idea from Ryan Stack at Format Audio, our recording engineer for the new Chandeliers LP. This is more or less what he did for the bass tracks on the album, and I thought it sounded great, so I wanted to try it out for this project.

CC: Do you have any unusual tricks or rooms/spaces you record in that are exclusive to your home studio?

ST: I guess the one strange thing about me is that I like recording vocals in my car. I get much less background noise/hum that way, and I also don't have to worry about my neighbors thinking I'm a total weirdo/jerk for singing the same part over and over again.

CC: What instruments have you been using to this point? Do you foresee introducing other instruments?

ST: For guitars, I've been using a Fender Telecaster, and, in some places, an Epiphone SG. The Telecaster has been the main guitar, but I've used the SG in a couple places to get a kinda crunchier/hotter sound.

For bass, I've been using a Fender Bass VI, an instrument that tends to confuse a lot of people because it has 6 strings. It looks like a baritone guitar, which is what most people think it is, but it's tuned the same as a standard guitar and can be played like a bass or guitar (Robert Smith of the Cure was known to use one). I love how it sounds.

For the drums, I've been using Logic to program beats. I've been mostly trying to get the programmed drums to approximate the sound/feel of a natural drum kit/live drummer, but in some spots I wanted the beat to feel more like a drum machine.

The only other instrument that I may try to use is an old Casiotone keyboard that I have. I think it could be fun to somehow work keys into a couple places.

CC: Do you find that the time limitations change your approach to writing and/or recording?


ST: Yes. Well, somewhat. I usually record while I write but that's kind of what I need to do for this project. It's nice to come up with a mostly-structured song before I record it, but with the time limit, I've been finding myself myself just hitting "record" and experimenting until I find an idea I like, and then going from there.

CC: Do you feel that the songs are turning out differently than they otherwise would if you weren't restricted to 30 days? If so, what do you think would be different about them?

ST: Hard to say. I'd like to think that maybe they would be a little more developed, at least structurally, but I don't know if that would be a good thing or not. Were it not for the time limit, however, I don't think that some of these songs would ever have existed, because it's something that's forcing me to sit down and produce something, and hopefully that's caused me to create something a little different or interesting than I ordinarily would have.

CC: At this point, do you find the time restrictions to be a hindering your process? Or do you find them to be liberating in some way?

ST: I think of it as more liberating. I tend to work well under pressure... sometimes it's the only way I can actually finish anything. I tend to doubt myself a lot, and there's not really time for that. Knowing there's a deadline is kind of motivating me to be creative, but at the same time, there's not a minimum amount of songs that I have to turn over, so it's almost like taking a quiz that you've written for yourself. You know you're the one who made up the questions in the first place, but you still have to think about the answers.

Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Bedroom Eyes
Today's Hotness: Chandeliers
Review: Bedroom Eyes | What Are You Wrong With
Bedroom Eyes Record Release Show With Sneeze, Lube, Kal Marks And Big Mess
And Then Some Days We Get Awesome Mail 12
Clicky Clicky Music Presents... N O F U C K I N G W H E R E
Young Adults, BDRM Eyes, Chandeliers and The Living City | The Box Fort, Allston Rock City | Jan. 28
Today's Hotness: BDRM Eyes

Today's Hotness: Bully, Palberta, Bored Nothing

>> When it comes to rocking songs, how does one objectively define a blaster? A banger? A stomper? It's a deceptively interesting question to ponder, even while sober (maybe), but at the moment the easiest answer might be to direct answer-seekers to the electrifying "Milkman" by Nashville indie rockers Bully. The song comprises the top half of the threesome's new 7", which was released April 25 on Chicken Ranch Records with "Faceblind" gracing the flip. The up-tempo (a blaster's gotta be uptempo, right?) "Milkman" metes a master class in how to concoct an A-side, while proffering some of the most riotous guitar pop we've heard this year. Bully's new single follows three pressings of the act's self-titled EP [as we wrote here] with tracks that feature similar sonics but even more power and more purposeful production. This reviewer is not a rich man, but he'd wager a fiver that the two-minute "Milkman" blows up in the underground in the coming weeks. Fronter (and producer) Alicia Bognanno drives the song's propulsive tempo and tried-and-true chord changes with her affectingly raspy soprano, which is reminiscent of that of Juliana Hatfield. Ms. Boganno's would seem to be a voice destined for greatness -- it's equally effective at punk sneers, candy-coated hooks screamed down an ear, and precise self-harmonizing, a rare gift. Also worth mentioning: "Milkman" presents some of the most tasteful cowbell heard in recent memory! "Milkman" b/w "Faceblind" is available in a limited edition of 500 flat, circular vinyl discs. One-hundred-and-fifty of these were pressed to blue vinyl and only three of those remained as of a week ago; the balance of the pressing is on black media. We recommend pre-ordering the new single now via the Bandcamp embed below, as the band's need to continually repress old records should be ample evidence that more and more people are in on this great, perhaps not-so-secret, Tennessee secret [Tennessecret? -- Ed.]. -- Edward Charlton



>> No-wave noiseniks Palberta returned earlier this month with more economical, tweaked tunes on a cassette split titled Special Worship, which features music from the equally madcap New England Patriots on the back side. When we last wrote about the Annandale-on-Hudson, New York-based threesome here in December, the prankster surprises and spooky songwriting on its creaky/jerky/perky debut collection My Pal Berta had successfully loosened at least a few screws in this reviewer's brain. Across five tracks on the new collection, Palberta delivers succinct blasts of wiry, squirming guitar, minimal drum textures and grungy, lo-fi bass. The great groove of "Store" -- a tune that echoes the taut, dry weirdness of Brooklyn-based punk-funk luminaries Ava Luna -- is interrupted in its last ten seconds by serrated guitar strums and high, menacing yelps that suggest a young child's new-found ability to sing with reckless abandon. A delightfully skewed cover of "Hot Cross Buns" takes the tune somewhere it's certainly never gone before. Skittering atop the wonderfully concise compositions are dueling female vocals, which almost seem to play out the roles of Freud's Ego and Id, respectfully. One voice is calm and collected, often evoking the cool, speak-sing street moves of Kim Gordon, while the other trades in bubbly shrieks that imbue the trio's music with much of its chaotic swagger. Palberta continues to tap into something rare with its music, and we recommend you keep an ear on what they are doing. Stream Special Worship via the embed below, and maybe consider buying it at the hilarious and awesome $1,000 minimum. -- Edward Charlton



>> It's not boring, and it's not nothing: it's the latest bit of pleasing downer-pop from Melbourne, Australia DIY pop outfit Bored Nothing, the nom de indie rock of one Fergus Miller. Titled "Why Were You Dancing With All Those Guys?," Mr. Miller's new slow-burner is a beautiful, rainy strummer, flush with delicate electric jangle. High-string whammy bar action floats low in the mix and lends the ballad just the right amount of lovesick tension. Handclap accents on the snare hits and perfect, brief guitar and organ leads say just enough without getting in the way. Additionally, on this track Miller's voice reminds this reviewer of Elliot Smith, but in an alternate universe where the famed singer-songwriter attempted to audition for Slumberland Records after hearing The Aislers Set. "Why Were You Dancing With All Those Guys?" comes in a limited edition of 30 lathe-cut 7" records (housed in sleeves that bear the likeness of cartoon antihero Bobby Hill), which we imagine must be sold out by now. Bored Nothing's Facebook and Bandcamp pages don't state definitively that the packages are all gone (they do state there will be no repress, and the song will never be made available as a download), so who knows. Orders come packaged with a shirt, sticker and letter that are all related to the tune, making the $40 Australian price tag a bit more understandable. Stream "Why Were You Dancing With All Those Guys?" via the embed below, and click through if you feel like trying your luck at getting what may be the very last piece of vinyl. We previously wrote about Bored Nothing here last July. -- Edward Charlton

Premiere: Soccer Mom's Crushing LP Soccer Mom

We are exceedingly pleased to premiere today the self-titled, full-length debut from the mighty Boston shoegaze foursome Soccer Mom. More than four years ago, we decided this was an important band, and despite the protracted wait (which was honestly little surprise, given the premise of our first feature on them), here today the quartet resoundingly and at long last delivers on the promise of its clutch of early singles and the crushing 2011 EP You Are Not Going To Heaven. Certainly all that time seems to have been put to good use: Soccer Mom is a painstakingly crafted, likely career-defining collection that positions the act for national attention. The LP contains powerful and beautiful music explosively rendered from charred shadow and blinding light. But the biggest accomplishment of Soccer Mom may be the containment itself: Soccer Mom in effect cages the beast, tidily confining -- without stifling -- the visceral squall of the band's live sets in such a way as to reveal the elegant architecture and compelling emotion that comprise the bone and flesh of Soccer Mom's music.

The album sits in a strange place: it sounds like a lot of things -- Soccer Mom typically draws references to Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Swirlies -- but very few things in the contemporary soundscape within and without its native Boston sounds like its synthesis of shoegaze, post-hardcore and post-rock. While not overtly mathematic or emo, Soccer Mom wields its very considerable charms not just through raw power but also via big dynamic shifts and face-stinging emotions. One feels it as the towering walls of textural guitar crumble into slowly picked melodies in "Orejas," or while the chords of "It's Probably Not Your Fault" stutter, grind and wantonly feedback in the song's final thrilling minute. It's in drummer Justin Kehoe's clever consolidation of new wave and hardcore playing, which skitters like mechanical mice in "Sundown Syndrome," and routinely spurs jarring transitions. And it's in Danielle Deveau's bass playing, which serves as the still point of turning that anchors the record.

The album's emotional impact is firmly indexed to those big dynamics, a key factor in making the music so engaging, even as it comes in a variety of flavors. There's the cool, clinical reportage of co-fronter and guitarist Will Scales' "Hideaway Sands," or his troubling final understatement ("you don't seem like yourself") in the buzzing and grinding "Open Heart Surgery." Co-fronter and guitarist Dan Parlin's desperate, declaratory vocal in opener "It's Probably Not Your Fault" (a title that feels equally sarcastic and sad, but knowing this band it probably is a sound bite from a reality TV show) is just as affecting as his poignant, introspective query "what's a boy to do, but hang around with you?" in the aforementioned "Sundown Syndrome." Many of the songs on Soccer Mom are burnished by the subtly applied vocal contributions of Deborah Warfield, who has in the past served time with the aforementioned Swirlies and collaborated with former Autochrome fronter Jeff Bartell. Notably, instead of weighing the mix down with yet another element to manage, Ms. Warfield's voice, while often barely there, provides a sense of lightness, that, were this a different kind of album, we might even consider uplifting. We extend kudos to recording engineer Shaun Curran of Somerville, Mass.'s Napoleon Complex for executing a very precise mix that, as we stated stated supra, reveals and even illuminates Soccer Mom's music. The band writes terrific melodies worthy of its oft-cited shoegazing progenitors, and now you know.

Soccer Mom will be released Thursday via the New York-based 100m Records as a vinyl 12", compact disc or digital download. The release is being feted May 3 with a live show at Boston's Great Scott rock club; dream-pop titans Infinity Girl, shoegaze behemoth Bedroom Eyes and indie rock upstarts Palehound also perform, making the evening one of the most rewarding you will likely see in a small Boston club this year. Here's the Facebook event page for the show. We are given to understand Soccer Mom will have merch on-hand, including some fetching shirts, so start saving up your shoe-shine tips now. We'll see you Saturday.

Soccer Mom: Facebook | Tumblahhh | Twonger

Selected Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Soccer Mom
Clicky Clicky Presents A Benefit Show For Community Servings Featuring Soccer Mom | 3 Nov. | TT The Bear's
Footage: Soccer Mom's Devastating "A Canoe Shy"
A N D I F O R G O T A L O N G T I M E A G O H O W Y O U F E E L
Midriff Residency Night X: Home for Little Wanders Benefit With Soccer Mom
Clicky Clicky Music Presents... N O F U C K I N G W H E R E
That Was The Show That Was: Soccer Mom Record Release Show | TT The Bear's Place | Sept. 23
Be Prepared: Soccermom | You Are Not Going To Heaven EP | 3 October
The New Sound Of Slack: Soccer Mom Surfaces Slowly

Fear Of Men, with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Ablebody | Brighton Music Hall, Boston | 24 May

Pop fiends, here's your warning: UK-based dream-pop trio Fear Of Men slide into town tomorrow night and bring along an arresting, aqueous sound that has found favor with folks at Clicky Clicky HQ. The jangly and light Brighton, England combo forms the creamy middle of a formidable bill cookie-sandwiched by Brooklyn indie pop heroes The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Ablebody, the primary musical vehicle of The Pains' on again/off sideman Christoph Hochheim.

Fear Of Men, touring their expansive and freshly released Kanine Records debut LP Loom (by our reckoning 2013's Early Fragments compilation doesn't qualify as such), provide companionship to The Pains on the second leg of the Brooklyn act's North American trek ahead of the May 13 release of Days Of Abandon, its forthcoming third LP. Fear Of Men formed in 2011 and garnered raves early on with a smattering of demos and 7" singles released on a variety of UK labels including Clicky Clicky faves Italian Beach Babes and Too Pure. The aforementioned Early Fragments collected much of this early work, and was Fear Of Men's first release on Kanine. For its part, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are touring with a revamped lineup, with only earnest frontman Kip Berman remaining from among the personnel that recorded 2011's life-affirming LP Belong for the very highly esteemed Slumberland label. Word in the digital underground [oh how I like to funk thee -- Ed.] is that Days Of Abandon marks a sea change for the band, so tomorrow's show presents your chance to gain an advance look at The Pains Mach II.

From Boston, the three acts head westwards and back; they wrap the tour in a few weeks at New York's delightful Bowery Ballroom, and the full remaining tour itinerary is posted at the foot of this piece. Details of Thursday's Brighton Music Hall show can be inspected right here, and Fear Of Men's Loom can be purchased directly from the band right here (a two-color vinyl version was on offer from Kanine for Record Store Day, so if you are lucky/particularly motivated you may be able to track one down). A single from Loom titled "Luna," was issued April 7 by another Clicky Clicky favorite label, Art Is Hard, and we've posted an embed of the tune below for your listening pleasure. If you've got the scratch to purchase the single as an import, it is pressed to a 5" flexi-disc (!) and packaged with a 20-page 'zine and, well, that's awesome -- buy it here. Below that stream is another for the tune "Alta/Waterfall," whose mesmerizing hooks and beautiful vocals make the song among the most fetching of the year to date. Kanine Records released Loom yesterday. Below the Fear cuts is the absolutely snappy and '80s-tastic recent single from The Pains, "Simple And Sure;" a slightly darker second single "Eurydice" was released to the wilds of the Internerds more recently, but we're not posting it as the Soundcloud stream seems borked. Finally, we also present for your edification Ablebody's eery and sparkling forthcoming A-side "After Hours," which will be released May 20. -- Dillon Riley









04.24 -- Brighton Music Hall -- Allston, MA
04.25 -- Le Belmont -- Montreal, PQ
04.26 -- Horseshoe Tavern -- Toronto, ON
04.28 -- Empty Bottle -- Chicago, IL
04.29 -- Triple Rock -- Minneapolis, MN
05.02 -- Fortune Sound Club -- Vancouver, BC
05.03 -- The Vera Project -- Seattle, WA
05.04 -- Holocene -- Portland, OR
05.06 -- The Independent -- San Francisco, CA
05.07 -- Troubadour -- Los Angeles, CA
05.09 -- The Casbah -- San Diego, CA
05.10 -- The Crescent Ballroom -- Phoenix, AZ
05.11 -- Sister -- Albuquerque, NM
05.13 -- Larimer Lounge -- Denver, CO
05.15 -- The Record Bar -- Kansas City, MO
05.16 -- Zanzabar -- Louisville, KY
05.17 -- Rumba Café -- Columbus, OH
05.18 -- Club Café -- Pittsburgh, PA
05.19 -- Johnny Brenda's -- Philadelphia, PA
05.21 -- Rock 'n' Roll Hotel -- Washington, DC
05.22 -- Bowery Ballroom -- New York, NY

Mean Creek Local Losers Release Show With Pile, Ovlov, Heliotropes, The Young Leaves | Middle East | 25 April

We admit that we've always been a bit uneasy about the unabashed sincerity of local indie rock luminaries Mean Creek's music. It's really our own hang-up, and one not worth dwelling on here, and the eight-year-old act's hook-heavy new set Local Losers -- a collection of scruffy tunes whose swell and sweep subsumes years of FM ministrations of Bruce Springsteen, The Monkees and The 'Mats -- provides all the incentive anyone should need to enlist in the Creek Army. Local Losers arrives and departs with the economy of a major carrier's passenger jet, touching down with the fist-pumping, feedback-spangled howler "Cool Town," catching a smoke in the pilot's lounge along with "My Madeline" (whose woozy, bending guitar leads and invigorating harmonies make the tune an album highlight), flipping through magazines over a jumbo vodka tonic while some guy shouts in your ear about the Massachusetts border, and then going wheels up again with the dreamy, yearning closer "Teenage Feeling." That final tune finds fronter Chris Keene sounding particularly vulnerable, maybe even a little scared that the FAA might breech the cockpit and ask him to blow a breathalyzer. The album proceedings are thrillingly brisk (no song goes past the crucial three-minute mark, a calculus once tied to analog jukeboxes and full-flavor cigarettes, a metric that would seem to have outlasted both), richly melodic and persistently rewarding, and the cats over at Old Flame, who released Local Losers April 8, are likely feeling pretty smart right now. Mean Creek's set was issued in a limited edition of 300 LPs pressed to 45RPM 12" flat circles of vinyl [get it], as well as CD [boink] and digital download.

Oh, right, that flyer up there... yeah, Mean Creek is having this totally epic release show Friday night in Cambridge, with a ridiculously stacked bill the very sight of which should induce queasiness and/or hyperventilation. When was the last time you saw heavyweights Pile, Ovlov and The Young Leaves all on one bill? We're looking forward to hearing new music from the lot of them, and particularly The Young Leaves, whose 2010 LP Life Underneath -- now available as a free download -- has recently gone back into heavy rotation at Clicky Clicky HQ. And Heliotropes, too? The Brooklyn-based fuzz docents are the wild card act for us, as we have no more than a passing familiarity with them, but, we mean, seriously: just look at that bill. Just look at it. Here's the Facebook event page -- how about we leave you with some streams and we circle back up Friday night at the Middle East? It's the right thing to do and the tasty way to do it.

Five: Projekt A-ko's Yoyodyne

There has been a 57:32-sized gap in the 21st century Internet for years, and it has been a source of regular disappointment, not being able to easily recommend to the attention of friends one of our very favorite records, Glaswegian noise-pop act Projekt A-ko's titanic 2009 full-length Yoyodyne. The album was released five years ago yesterday, and while we have very happy personal associations that go along with the record, Yoyodyne is remarkable for a number of reasons any indie rock fan can grasp: amazing hooks, massive guitars, visionary songcraft, engaging dynamics and mind-boggling lyrics. We named it our second-favorite record of 2009 here, and band fronter Fergus Lawrie kindly wrote a track-by-track guide to the record for Clicky Clicky readers here back in the day.

While the album has a purposely glacial opening fade-in that may stymy impatient listeners (an homage to bygone Boston chimp rock heroes Drop Nineteens and the title track to that band's watermark 1990 LP Delaware), Yoyodyne presents an embarrassment of hits, all in a row, straight across the record. Commencing with the alternately skittering, dreamy and thunderous "Hey Palooka!" and closing with the uncharacteristically spare, powerfully poignant and horribly resigned ballad "Don't Listen To This Song," it's impossible for us to pick favorite tracks from the album. But we've certainly got favorite moments, moments we carry around with us every day. There's the break-down at the beginning of the second verse of "Palooka!," when Mr. Lawrie sings "and all the stars are out, they kiss you on the mouth, they kiss you on the...." There's the repeated observation "every day you fail" in "Nothing Works Twice;" the barreling beginning of "Supertriste Duxelle;" and the repeated exclamation "Dear God" in "Here Comes New Challenger!" (the second of two songs on the album whose title contains an exclamation point, from an album on which every song title could just be piles of exclamation points). The album does not let up.

Maybe you've noticed: we unreservedly love Yoyodyne. Sure, it reminds us of spring, it makes us think of the birth of our daughter, but most important of all it is fucking awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we asked Lawrie personally if we could post the record to YouTube for a while so people could have a listen and then buy it. It's excellent, and people need to hear it, and we are thrilled to have received his consent in time to post the record for this anniversary. While a follow-up was mentioned as soon as Yoyodyne was released, and in the intervening years has apparently been started and stopped numerous times and as recently as two years ago, and there is a fairly active rumor mill regarding new music from the trio, there has not yet been any formal successive release from Projekt A-ko. Mr. Lawrie's interests have led him deep into both documentary work and Glasgow's improvised noise scene, and besides a thrilling cover of Drop Nineteens' "Winona" that was emailed to certain fans years ago, the wait for new music from the act has been, well, a wait. But we'll always have Yoyodyne, and we continue to be hopeful that we have not yet heard the last from Projekt A-ko.

Buy Yoyodyne here.

Projekt A-ko: Facebook | Last.FM | MySpace

Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Fergus Lawrie On Album Of The Year Contender Yoyodyne
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Projekt A-ko Is Awesome And This Is A Post About Them

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