Weed Diamond – Sweater Kids

The first release off of Weed Diamond’s grocery list of projects is Sweater Kids, an eight-song cassette now available for preorder from Mirror Universe Tapes. Like their release of Washed Out’s High Times, Sweater Kids is a limited edition release, in this case, of 100 tapes, sold at $5 a pop. Well worth it.

I’ll go in to more detail later in some sort of dedicated updates post, but keep an eye out for more information on a, also limited edition, Weed Diamonds CD on Royal Rhino later this year or early next.

Toodles,

Dwight

Girls – Album

I was really slow to jump onboard with San Francisco’s Girls, but with a couple days of listening to nothing else under my belt, I feel justified in saying that they’re one of the best bands in America and they’ve produced one of the best albums of the year. Pitchfork gave the album a 9.1 and a “best new music” badge describing the album as “simple and forthright,” and this is true; as a “sunny Beach Boys pastiche,” and this is true; and “great,” and this is absolutely true. It’s surprising to realize that the band does in fact have a musical affinity with the Beach Boys, primarily because I can’t stand to listen to the Beach Boys for more than five minutes. They’re just not my cup of tea. Girls though, in terms of sound and musicianship, precisely is. Album is full of tension and restraint; a musical contrapposto in which longing coexists with joy and lo-fi happily walks between chaos and power pop. Suffice to say, this is amazing music and the band deserves every bit of attention they get.

Beyond that, they’re on groovy record label True Panther Sounds, which happens to have some copies of the limited edition Girls 10″ Hellhole Ratrace still available – get one.

Here’s track one from Album (it and a few other songs are available via the True Panther website) with a fun video for the title track of off their 10″:

Girls – Lust For Life

Cheers,

Dwight

The Beets on CD

The Beets, of Jackson Heights, New York, released their debut 12″ Spit In The Face of People Who Don’t Want To Be Cool earlier this Spring on Captured Tracks, but it’s taken until now for it to get a CD treatment. Like so many bands participating in the avalanche of new releases from Captured Tracks, The Beets defend lo-fi’s good name, giving it an outrageously catchy dancehall, Link Wray treatment. There’s nothing not to love.

The CD version of The Beets’ debut is $13, like the 12″, and can be got via the Captured Tracks Releases page. Definitely worthwhile.

Dwight

Weed Diamond

Weed Diamond is the recording moniker of Tim Perry, a Denver resident and one of the most talented lo-fi musicians in recent memory. Earlier this month, he garnered a whole lot of affection online and has had a constantly expanding release schedule ever since: cassettes on Mirror Universe and Leftist Nautical Antiques, a 7″ on Transparent, a tune in the Friendship Bracelet Club, and a potential split 7″ on Half Machine Records. Although anyone with the inclination to cover “Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man,” one of my favorite songs and the only one the Bee Gees wrote that I can stomach, immediately gets points in my book, he does one better and improves the song. His original material is at least as good, defying most, if not all, preconceived notions of what lo-fi recordings of the type made by Weed Diamond must be.

Here again is Weed Diamond’s myspace page and here’s Friendship Bracelet’s original coverage, including a download link from Perry to some early demo material.

Farval,

Dwight

Royal Rhino War Paint

Jacob Bradley listens to Royal Rhino Flying’s records, shouldn’t you?

McSweeney’s 32

From the store page for McSweeney’s 32:

“Because it seemed important to know in advance, we’ve dedicated Issue 32 to an investigation of the world to come—near-future stories written by the likes of Anthony Doerr, Heidi Julavits, Wells Tower, Chris Adrian, and Salvador Plascencia, each of ’em unearthing a different corner of life in the year 2024. This will be, we are sure, way more entertaining than waiting fifteen years for the real thing.”

I don’t know to what extent speculative fiction will be a departure for most of these authors, but it should suit Chris Adrian well enough – his second novel, The Children’s Hospital, was a mammoth revisiting of Noah and the Ark, flash-forwarded a few thousand years with a children’s hospital as an ark. McSweeney’s 32 should be a good one, particularly given it’s bulky 2lbs.

Dwight

The Hidden Cameras – Origin:Orphan

Origin:Orphan, the new album The Hidden Cameras, will be out this Tuesday on Arts & Crafts. The Hidden Cameras introduced me to quality indie-pop nearly five years ago with their album Mississauga Goddam, while I was still a teenage high school bakery dingbat and listened to shit on a CD player (that, like my iPod, could somehow fit in my pocket… I can’t remember the physics though). I learned everything I care to know about the genre from that album, so I’m looking forward to a new album from (what Eye Weekly properly dubbed) “Toronto’s favourite gay church-folk collective.”

You can snag a pre-order from Insound or Gallery AC. I recommend the latter if you’re in Canada – they’re running a nice little package deal.

If you weren’t already convinced, here’s a pretty outstanding video the band recorded for “In The NA,” track 3 off of the new album:

Washed Out – Feel It All Around

I neglected to mention in my last post that Washed Out also has a 7″ – “Feel It All Around” – on Transparent, now available for pre-order from their UK distributor Pure Groove. For those of us in the US, we’ll have to wait a few days for Transparent’s new US distributor Leftist Nautical Antiques to make copies available. Although the a-side is already available via Washed Out’s 12″ on Mexican Summer, the b-side is a fun remix that might make doubling up worthwhile.

Cheerios,

Dwight

Washed Out – High Times

I’d mentioned a week or so ago that Washed Out would be doing a cassette album on Mirror Universe Tapes, a bit before it became clear how many waves Greene’s recordings would be sending out. High Times quickly sold out of a pre-order and the first pressing sold out within hours of being made available. The cassette’s second pressing seems to still beavailable. Mirror Universe says there won’t be a digital release of the album, so either the tape’ll be the only easy way to get these songs or another label is planning a CD/Vinyl/Digital release for later. Either way, the cassette’s an attractive purchase.

Farval,

Dwight

Fulton Lights – Healing Waters

The new Fulton Lights’ album Healing Waters was released a couple weeks ago by Catbird Records and is already in its second pressing. Right now the CD is selling for $6 and mp3s for $3.

The third Fulton Lights CD-LP out on Catbird, this is definitely my favorite. More folk-tinged and less depressing than its predecessors, Healing Waters complements moods more than creates them. Here’s a link to the title track, via Catbird; definitely the highlight of the album and a darn fine tune:

Fulton Lights – Healing Waters

Cheers,

Dwight