"Pop Filter is a new Australian band whose members stretch between cities and who’s shared history binds them together. With the number one goal being that of nurturing their friendship and continuing to make music together at an age when children, work, and distance can easily hamper this."
So states the descriptor in on the right of their Bandcamp page. The members have been playing music together since 2009, initially as The Ocean Party. They all have different projects (in fact, Liam Halliwell - Snowy - has a new album, "Age Difference"), but they always come back together, now as Pop Filter (Melbourne).
I blew it. When "CONO" came out I waited too long to nab the LP. I'm not making that mistake again, especially after hearing "Fragile". This might be one of the loudest Pop Filter/Ocean Party songs I've ever heard.
I'm also listening to the new Nap Eyes right now (it will probably be tomorrow's post). I guess I never realized how much Pop Filter/Ocean Party and Nap Eyes languid songs complement each other.
Pop Filter's "Ray and Lorraine's" is released by Bobo Integral and Osbourne Again.
When I think of Spanish pop on Spanish labels, I think of Elefant Records or one of the newer labels (Bobo Integral, Meritorio, or Pretty Olivia). I’d never heard of Jabalina Musica based in Madrid, Spain.
Jabalina is reissuing Klaus & Kinski “Tierra, trágalos” (10th Anniversary) on 2 LP edition of 500. Klaus & Kinski must have been there at the beginning of the surge of Spanish pop/indie pop. This has elements of Belle & Sebastian mixed with Stereolab - just listen to the one-two punch of the first couple of songs. Marina Gomez Carruthers’ vocals are sweet like Isobel Campbell.
“Tierra, trágalos“ will be released in early March 2021.
Fixtures is Brooklyn, NY band. I heard “Five Ft One, Six Ft Ten” a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t until I heard “The Great Tequila Flood of 200-2018″ which is an epic indie rock journey (described on Bandcamp as “Sun Ra meets JJ Cale“) that I realized this isn’t only post-worthy, it’s yagada worthy.
The Bandcamp release page cannot be improved upon:
Throw a beer soaked dart at a Venn diagram with circles for The Velvet Underground, Dinosaur Jr., Patti Smith, Archers of Loaf, Alice Coltrane, The Books, Reigning Sound & New Order and you'll hit a Fixtures song on there somewhere.
This is released on cassette on Bobo Integral (Spain). This label has quickly earned its stripes as a truly international label.
Ducks Unlimited (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) had me with the first chime of the guitar on “Get Bleak”. This 4 song 7″ EP is slated for release in late November. Bobo Integral (Madrid, Spain) is handling this, so shipping will set you back. But based on this one song, and the two on Soundcloud, “Get Bleak” looks like it will be a slice of pure pop perfection.
On my first listen to “Get Bleak” I immediately thought of Let’s Active, The Go-Betweens and The Chills. “It’s Easy” (on Soundcloud) reminds me instrumentally of The Verlaines, And Ducks Unlimited shares some of the sounds of their label mate Lachlan Denton.
I'm not going to lie - it's been a slow summer all around. But I've really been enjoying working for the post - really listening to tons of music to find the one-a-day vitamins that end up here.
But, starting today, the next few posts come courtesy of gift-wrapped email announcements. Massage "Daffy Duck" is the lead single from their upcoming "Coaster" which is a co-release between Mt. St. Mtn. and Bobo Integral.
Massage (Los Angeles, California) have a special place in my heart because their song, "I'm Going in a Field" is one of my favorite songs...period. Seriously, it's one of those songs that when it comes on, I drop what I'm doing and just listen.
The write up for the new album names drops The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Oasis, Big Star and David Kilgour.
Colored Lights is the work of Norway's Frode Strømstad. Frode is kind of a big deal - I Was A King, The No Ones - as well as producing for other bands. He's worked with Norman Blake...frankly, he's the shit, and I predisposed to like anything he's a part of. And while "I Used to Cook" is the only song currently available from this album due in August, it's what I expected. It definitely has a Teenage Fanclub/Lightships feel to it.
The Bandcamp page states that Colored Lights brings to mind music "From the melodic craftsmanship of Guided By Voices and The Beach Boys to the experimental genius of Brian Eno and the heartfelt sincerity of Emitt Rhodes and Palace Brothers".
Spanish label Bobo Integral is handling this release. The Bandcamp page usually has good shipping prices as I believe Bobo Integral has a relationship with Jigsaw Records.
Tough Age are a Vancouver, B.C. band that play the kind of music that checks every box for me. Jangle strum, sweet melodies, driving beat.
They fit the indie pop moniker so well that Bobo Integral (Spain) is co-releasing this with Canadian label We Are Time.
Songs here sound like the perfect mashup between Guided By Voices and The Clean. And really, I would add Corey Cunningham (Terry Malts, Smokescreens, Business of Dreams) to the list of musicians who are plying music with a similar feel.
On his full-length debut as Field School, Charles Bert, the former frontman of Washington’s Math and Physics Club, seems to be doing everything he can to avoid attention. There’s the drab band name consisting of two already well-claimed words in indie pop (I’m thinking of The Field Mice, Field Music and Film School, in particular, but there are others). There’s the generic-looking cover art that is the painting equivalent of a stock photo, a perfectly cute but otherwise unremarkable bird sitting in a tree. And then there are Bert’s own words: “If you see me around just act like you didn’t,” he requests on the track of the same name. Or on the infectious “Jennifer Valentine,” with its pop-perfect sound pitched somewhere between The Ladybug Transistor and The Dentists, where he questions his own memorableness: “I wrote your name a thousand times / I wonder if you remember mine.”
And therein lies the strength of When Summer Comes — the way Bert charmingly pairs poetic turns of phrases about love, relationships and their incapacitating side effects with nostalgia-soaked melodies sure to replace whatever tune was previously lodged in your head. The first song that got its hooks (pun subconsciously intended) into me was the title track, and it’s a perfect example of what Bert does so well across this album. Like the other eleven songs, “When Summer Comes” is built around a few sturdy if slightly quivering layers of guitar, a simple snare-forward backbeat and Bert’s stately baritone. “Oh summers come and go like fair-weather friends / but I still want to feel that sting again,” he sings when the chorus hits, his voice sliding from its stubborn usual inflection to a cathartic croon that sends shivers. A rippling, insistent guitar line emerges alongside his vocal, helping to heave it up, and then, like waves meeting the hull of a boat, disappears below, melding into the twangy backdrop. For just under four minutes, Bert captures that emptying yet strangely warm feeling of wanting back a person, a place, and a time even though you know it wouldn’t be good for you, and maybe never was.
When Summer Comes is all janglers, but the guitars have unexpected teeth in places, helping to shake things up moodwise. Standout “Moon Jellies” and the song that follows it, “Is This Our Love Song?,” both carry a layer of fuzz with them throughout, while, somewhat surprisingly, also containing a couple of the album’s most aching melodies. The scratchy opening chords of “Loving You Was Never Gonna Work Out,” meanwhile, seem to signal a downer garage anthem, but quickly turn Magnetic Fields-ward. Beck’s voice, like that group’s Stephin Merritt’s though not nearly as rich, has a distinct stiffness to it, refusing to be hurried no matter how hard the wind’s blowing. In this particular song, Beck also shares a little of Merritt’s sense of melody, his nursery rhyme-like approach to songwriting, and the Droopy dog sentiment that tends to characterize it: There are things you can count on accompanying each season of the year, “Loving You Was Never Gonna Work Out” reckons, but the relationship on its mind was never going to be one of them. You, the listener's relationship with this record could be a different story, though. Take this reviewer’s advice, and Bert’s on track seven, and don’t let it pass you by.
