Thursday, October 24, 2013

Vol. 4 Episode 45



I am shooting to have a special Halloween episode filled with music from The Marshmallow Ghosts. This is a special band that Graveface Records has that is dedicated to Halloween. There are not many releases but they are pretty cool.

This means I am going to do a normal post, a Halloween post and My Bloody Valentine are going to be in concert that Friday so there will also be a review of that concert up during the weekend too!

Veronica Falls are putting out a new tour 7" for the up coming Japan and Australia tour. It will be released in the beginning of December and is limited to 300 pressings.

Here we go...



This is a new album put out by Slumberland Records. The limited version was put out on double white vinyl. The three core members of the group are Mark Van Hoen (known for SeeFeel), Neil Halstead (known for Slowdive and Mojave 3), and Nicholas Holton. The album has been labeled as brilliant space-rock/shoegaze/post-everything album. The album really is a little bit of everything that I like in music right now. The problem is that this makes it hard to listen to. There may be a single clip of music that lasts a whole ten seconds that I will never hear again on the album. It is almost like they had so many ideas and they crammed them all on the album. It makes for a great album but this could have been spread across many great albums. Not that I am complaining about a great album mind you, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing (It's still one of the best albums I have heard all year).

There have been two singles digitally released from the album so far. The first single is called (I Don’t Mean To) Wonder. The track is a hard core shoegaze song. It starts off with a cool bubbly sound and goes straight into a massive guitar wash. It is beautiful to say the least. After the intro dies off it leaves room for the echo laden vocals. The vocals are nearly unable to be understood as there is so much echo. There is a short chorus and then back into the guitar wash. The group manages the fuzz on the guitar so well it is just incredible.

The second single from the album is called This Is How ItFeels. This track is a bit more subdued than the first single with keyboards that lead the way for the most part. This track reminds me of something that The Flaming Lips might have put together. It is sweet and soft and very dreamy. There is still a lot of echo on the vocals but a different vocalist from the first single. The song also has that 60s pop song mixed into the wash of synth keys adding to the sweetness of the song.

I think there is going to be a third single from the album called My Baby Just Sailed Away. This song starts off with a sub bass line and nearly 8-bit sounds over the top of that bass. Again the vocals are laden with echo but not as heavy as the previous two singles. It reminds me of the dark new wave of the mid 80s. It is very stylized but super cool.

I do have to say that the opening track, Stars Are Out Home, is super cool. It is like a free sonic trek into space with out leaving the planet. It is with out a doubt one of the best tracks on the album. It reminds me of something from Clinic on the album Walking With Thee. This is mainly because of the accordion that is used in the song but it is still cool.


This is a limited edition cassette single released on Treetop Sorbet Records. They are a small record company focusing on cassettes. This single was released as part of a three part series. I haven’t seen one of these cassingles since the mid 90s. I think the last one I saw was a single for the Batman & Robin movie. I can’t remember what the single was though. Anyway, this is from a limited run of 100 units created, housed in clear a purple cassette. When I listened to the two tracks I thought that it was funny that it sounded like they recorded one of the cassettes. There is a digital hiss in the dead parts of the songs. When I record cassettes this same type of noise happens. The cassette came with a download code. I also thought that it was cute but still made sense because having a analog to digital recorder is still not very common for most people. It also came with an additional download code for another band called Honey Radar. I haven’t listened to those tracks yet but free music is good right?

The A side is the song Ascend and the B side is the song Deep Moves. Both of these tracks are not anything spectacular but are at the same time totally White Laces. They have a sound that I like and I am happy to have some new music from them. I will say that the vocals on these two tracks are a bit more dull than they have done in the past sonically speaking. I feel that the lyrics are just as in depth though. If you like White Laces then this is one that you may not want to pass up on, unless they are already sold out.

This is an EP released for Record Store Day 2010. It is a 10” record with 500 pressings. The CD version of the release was originally released in 2007. I have been looking at getting this release for quite a while. When Sea Wolf did the Kickstarter I decided to get the release. The copy that I got is in perfect shape.

The EP was released to support the single You’re A Wolf. This is the first track on the record. I reviewed the album that this song comes from in Vol. 3 Episode 42. I had this to say about the song, “The first single from the album is called You’re A Wolf. I loved the simplistic sounds on this song and the lyrics work so well too. The lyrics as they are sung are very easy to understand and are very interesting. It could be about a wild wolf or a werewolf or a man searching for his girlfriend. The story is not specific but is still very intriguing.” Every time I listen to it I want to do a cover of the song myself. Maybe someday I will get around to it.

The rest of the EP has a completely different sound to it. It is more earthy, or lower to the ground. There really isn’t one track that stands out for me. The tracks aren’t sub par they just have a different feel.
Wikipedia made note of these songs being in movies and TV, “The song The Garden You Planted was featured in the movie Spread and the television series Californication.The track You're a Wolf has been featured numerous times on television, including The CW's Gossip Girl, 90210, and The Vampire Diaries. It also plays during the end credits of the movie Remember the Daze and during a scene in Zombieland.The song I Made A Resolution was featured in Friday Night Lights (TV series).”

That is all I have for now...

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