Weekend have announced the release of their sophomore album.
It will be released through Slumberland Records on 7/23/2013. The first single
from the album, Mirror, can be heard over at Pitchfork.
You can preorder the Part Time Punks session that Whirr did on vinyl now over at Run For Cover Records. It will be on colored vinyl. It is only four tracks though. The original cassette has five tracks. The last of the five being a demo version of Color Change from the Grave Face Records charity series from last summer.
Here we go...
Indie Pop Lesson special set
This is a book from Twee Grrrls Club that came with a twelve
track compilation record (plus MP3 download of LP) and a cute mini tote bag. It
was released in Japan
only. I found out about the release from Kip Berman, The lead singer from The
Pains of Being Pure At Heart. He told me recently that they had contributed a
demo track called Sure to the compilation. He also told me that the song was a
bit faster than he wanted and that he wasn’t exactly happy with the drums. He
said that Violet and Claire had copies available and that they would ship and
price the special set outside of Japan. I contacted them via email
and found that they still had a special version left. They sent it out before I
was even able to pay for the set. I got the set in the mail even before I had
paid for it, it shipped that fast. I only cared about getting the track from
The Pains but after hearing the whole album I lost my mind. It is such a great
compilation. It is such a fun pop album. I which that there was a US version of
this because every one should hear this group of tunes! The compilation sort of
progresses from the happy female twee tracks to the second half of the record
with male indie pop tracks. This album is so much fun. It reminds me of
Heavenly songs through to the current fun pop stuff like The Pains and Veronica Falls.
The lead of track is called I Don’t Care by Summer Twins.
This track reminds me of the indie music fronted by girls in the mid 90s. Some
people would call this style bubble gum pop and it is that happy type of music
that inspires happiness whether you want it to or not. In moderation this is a
good thing. I can’t get enough of it at the moment.
The next track on the album that I really like is called
Disko Kitten by Ice Cream Shout. This track uses the bass line to hold the song
together. The electric guitar is only used in the chorus of the song. The j-pop
style is in your face in this track as they are a Japanese group. The noise in
the bass guitar on the verse sounds so cool. The vocals are perfection in my
opinion. I love hearing artists sing in a foreign language and the mix between
English and Japanese is fantastic here.
The next track, Open Arms by The Garlands, is a female vocal
driven speed punk track that has one of the catchiest choruses I have ever
heard from this style of music. I don’t like this track as much as others but
it is still a great song and fits well in this collection.
The track Night Starvation(Cleaners From Venus cover) by
Catwalk has something special about it. The chorus works very well but the
overall feel reminds me of The Velvet Underground track called Who Loves The
Sun from the album Loaded. It just has that feel of silky smoothness for me.
The reason that I got the set was because of the track Sure
by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, like I said earlier. The song is a fun mid
80s sounding track with the drum machine and heavy synth sounds. There is still
standard bass and guitar work but the early electronic sounds remind me more of
the mid 80s when I was still a kid with the sparkly synth sounds and the echo
synth sounds. It is a cool sound from the group that I would not have expected.
The following song in this collection called ButterflyKisses by Wallflower has a sound that I would have expected from The Pains, not
that I expect The Pains to write a song like this but that it sounds like
something they could write. The vocals are very similar to The Pains as well.
The guitar actually stands in front of the vocals during the verse section of
the song. It is fun poppy and beautiful.
The last song I like a lot from this album is called Dearest
Virginia by Pale Lights. The vocals are deeper than the rest of the album and
give another diminution than most of the rest of the album and kind of color
the last part of the album a bit. The song reminds me of songs that were put
out in the 70 by the likes of The Byrds. It is very good and I can get along
with it very well.
This is a great collection if you can get your hands on it.
I recommend it highly. The vinyl set is now out of print. You can still get the book if you are interested in that though. The book comes with a download of the songs on the record. I think it still comes with the small tote bag too.
This box set was finally released at the end of March, 2013.
I ordered it at the end of December of 2012 and have been waiting ever since.
There were a couple of complications with the manufacture of the pressing which
caused the set to be delayed from its original release date. Artists In
Residence (A+R) added a download of each of the albums because of this delay.
The box set was limited to 1500 units that were numbered and signed by the
band. The box also includes recordings that were never pressed on vinyl before.
Because some of these collections have never seen a vinyl pressing they had to
be remastered. The remastering was done by Roger Seibel at SAE.
Included with this set is the original cassette-only demo collection
of You Can Play These Songs With Chords. The graphic is of the original
cassette cover. There is a CD version put out with eighteen tracks but what is
in the box set here is the original collection of eight songs from the cassette
never before pressed on vinyl.
Also not previously released on vinyl and contained within
this box set for the first time are both The Stability E.P. and The Death Cab
For Cutie Forbidden Love E.P. Both of these E.P.s are cut at 45 RPMs. I have
never heard anything from either of these two EPs and am very excited to give
them a listen.
Something About Airplanes is also in this collection but was
repressed a couple years back. Transatlanticism was also included in this
collection. This is its first repressing since its release in 2003. I talked
about Transatlanticism in Episode 30.
The last of the seven albums included in this set are We
Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes and The Photo Album. We Have The Facts has
a cool die cut cover so that some of the dots on the bottom of the graphic look
like they are in 3D. The Photo Album is the one in the collection that had a
misprint on the label. Some of them have the label for the Stability E.P. on
them.
This set is out of print but you can get them at some of the
online dealers like Amazon.com. I was, obviously, able to get my copy from A+R.
From what I have seen the online dealers are selling the set for ten or more
dollars above what A+R sold it for. Third party markup sucks.
This is the second full length album from Wax Idols. It was
released at the end of March, 2013. This was a unique vinyl pressing because it
was pressed with a black center and clear outer edge. I had never seen a record
pressed in this way. This was a big part of why I got the record. I had heard a
couple of tracks from the record on the Slumberland web page too and liked what
I heard. The record coloring was what tipped the scales for me to get the
record though.
The first, and only at the moment, single from the album is
called When It Happens. The song smacks of dark 80s music. The kind of stuff
that I wanted to like but radio stations just didn’t play enough of. My parents
probably didn’t want me to get into this type of music either when it was cool.
When I say dark I mean the likes of The Cure or The Smiths but in an all female
group setting. This may sound bad but I kind of get a little ‘Til Tuesday or
Pixies sound when Kim Deal is singing. The ultimate comparison I could give
would be The Runaways. I guess it is not a bad thing to resemble bands like
these when they did have big hits in their time. I know some bands don’t like
to be compared to bands from the past but I think it is a compliment especially
when they don’t mean to sound like anything but their own original sound. I
know that when I write something new there are times when I intend to sound
like a specific band and other times when I thy to create something totally
original. I think it is a compliment to me if someone says that I have created
a song that sounds similar to a band I really like weather I intend to sound
like them or not.
There is one other song that I really like from this album.
That song is called AD RE: IAN. I have no idea why it is spelled this way but I
guess it doesn’t matter. The song seems to follow the loud soft loud style. It
is excessively listenable as the loud parts are not that loud. The loud parts
are actually just adding more sound with echo and reverb pedals. It is a very
good song with good hooks to keep the listener happy.
It really is some great music that should not be over
looked. At the very least give it a listen to see for your self.
This is the second single released from the album Waiting
For Something To Happen. It was first released in the UK in January
of 2013. It was released in the US
in March 2013. The UK
graphic is different from the US
graphic but musical content is the same. They were pressed in black vinyl only,
no frills on this one folks. You French folks can download the single but if
you don’t live in France
then you will have to buy a 7” record. I personally don’t like the frizzy
haired girl on the cover of the UK
version and am happy that there was an alternate graphic for the US version.
The A side of the single is Teenage. The song is a fun one.
The song paints a picture, in my head, of a school student, who is able to
drive, taking a friend or significant other home. They take the long way home
so that the person who is not driving can listen to the music they want to
hear. It is kind of a joy ride where the two of them are enjoying each others
company. Then the driver drops them off at their home. It is really a cute and
innocent story. Musically, I like the
ending where the lead guitar bends a couple of notes out of tune. It works so
well for the song, a little dissidence there at the end like they start to not
get along just at the end of the trip.
The B side of the single is called Talk About You. This one
appears to be about a person’s significant other trying to find out more about
the person through their siblings. After they get this info they want to talk
to the person to verify that the information is correct. It is an odd way to
learn more about the person that you care about. If everyone was in the same
conversation I think it would be all right. To get this information behind
their back is a bit underhanded. It is cute but not quite right to do it in
this way. The music behind the lyrics is a bit slower than I would usually like
but it does pair with the A side of the record very well. I can over look the
slow problem because it matches with the first track so well.
That is all I have for now...
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