January 25, 2013

Today's Hotness: Screaming Maldini, Bored Spies

Screaming Maldini -- Screaming Maldini

>> Sheffield, England-based pop savants Screaming Maldini have at long last announced a release date for its long-awaited, hotly anticipated debut long-player. The sextet's self-titled set will be issued Feb. 4 by its French label HipHipHip. The 12-song collection will be released on CD, digital and white 180g vinyl. Art on the physical products is in 3D, so 3D glasses are provided. The vinyl issue is a limited edition of 500 pieces that also carries a download card. Screaming Maldini collects choice numbers from the band's repertoire, although we expect all the tracks are newly recorded. Meaning it could be fairly interesting for detail-nerdy fans to compare the LP versions of "The Extraordinary" and "Secret Sounds" to the free downloads the band emailed 'round way back in 2009. But of even greater interest will be the four new songs on the record, "The Awakening," "The Dreamer," "Stutter" and "Four Hours From Now," none of which the heads at Clicky Clicky HQ recall having heard in the past. Screaming Maldini launch a three-week tour Feb. 8 that wraps with what we can only imagine will be an amazing homecoming show March 2. The band recently shot a video for a forthcoming single from the album, which we think may be "The Awakening," but don't hold us to that. You can stream four songs from the collection, all of which we've written about previously at Clicky Clicky if memory serves, via the Bandcamp embed below. Get your pre-order on right here.



>> Seam was a crucial band for us back in the day: when the band's LP The Problem With Me came out we listened to it about 6,000 times. We lost track of what the band and founder Soo Young Park did after about 1998 or so, but if our spidey sense and Google Translate is correct, Mr. Park has just resurfaced as part of the new, transnational three-piece Bored Spies. The act is fronted by Singaporean singer and guitarist Cherie Ko, and also includes ex-Bitch Magnet dude Orestes Morfin and someone credited as Panther Lau, formerly of Seam. According to OtherSounds.sg, Ms. Ko used to play with acts Obedient Wives Club and Pastel Power. If you run Bored Spies' Korean-language web site through Google Translate, Mr. Lau is revealed to be "Sang-Youn Park." We don't think it is too big a leap to assume that is Seam's Mr. Park. All of which is just a distraction from the beautiful, spacey and emotive guitar music that Bored Spies create. The band's debut single "Summer 720" b/w "沙鼠E" was recorded last summer, released today, and is now available for sale via Bandcamp. There is apparently a physical single available somewhere, but we can't turn up the information for it. Grab the stream of both tracks below, and then if you can assure yourself that $2.22 in Singaporean dollars isn't going to break you, we suggest you buy that stuff right up. Bored Spies play two gigs in Barcelona at the end of May, including one as part of the highly touted Primavera Sound festival, and are expected to tour the U.S. in August. Pre-production for a full-length record is reportedly already underway.



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