By all accounts, Kai Slater has had a hell of a year. Though it was originally self-released in 2024, Sharp Pins’ Radio DDR reached a wider audience via its re-release back in March. In her Dusted review, Jennifer Kelly praised the album for “conjuring the bittersweet baroque pop magic of icons like the Hollies, the Byrds and Tom Petty,” plus it was one of my two picks for the Dusted Mid-Year Exchange. Slater’s noise-rock trio Lifeguard also put out the vivid, punishing Ripped and Torn on Matador back in June. So, to get another Sharp Pins album so soon, especially one this good, is a welcome surprise.
The main touchpoints I hear in Balloon Balloon Balloon are pre-psychedelic, mop-top Beatles, with their upbeat guitar sounds, sophisticated passing chords, and catchy vocal melodies. Shadowing this bright side is the prolific lo-fi songcraft of Tobin Sprout–era Guided By Voices, where the fidelity of the recording see-saws wildly to keep the listener on their toes. At one end of the spectrum there’s the magnificently tuneful opener “Popafangout,” which crams a ridiculous number of hooks into its three-minute runtime, with new changes even arriving during the song’s fade-out. At the other end of the spectrum are the noisy, experimental “Balloon” interludes, and the astonishingly muddy drum sounds on songs such as “(I Wanna) Be Your Girl.”
Among the album’s 21 tracks are plenty of songs that immediately stand out for their personality and charm. Aside from its startlingly GBV-esque title, “Queen of Globes and Mirrors” could well have come straight off Bee Thousand, with its melancholy-yet-hopeful vocal refrains and guitars that sound like sitars. “Talking in Your Sleep” is a pristine slice of mop-topped jangle-pop, with big Ringo vibes on the drums. The droning, lysergic malevolence and serpentine, whistling feedback of “Stop to Say Hello” brings to mind The Brian Jonestown Massacre. And “All the Shop and Stores Are Closing Now” distills all the wistful whimsy of The Kinks into a pristine 70-second miniature.
Slater has found a way of collating a raft of familiar guitar tropes and injecting them with fresh energy. He seems to have ideas simply pouring out of him, plus enough of a quality-control filter to stack up an album’s worth of songs that fizz with inspiration.
As the Yippies prepared for the 1968 Democratic National Convention, one of their members suggested lacing Chicago's drinking water with LSD. The Yippies didn't do it, but there must be something good in Chicago's water right now because they are churning out so many great young bands: Lifeguard, Horsegirl, Sharp Pins...just Kai Slater all by himself. And now we're adding Uniflora - really? Uniflora is yet another band of teenagers who are still in high school.
I read an interview with the band and they mentioned the following bands as influences: Fugazi, Big Star, Liquid Liquid, The Shivvers and Teenage Fanclub. The interviewer mentioned bands like Wire and FACS as other touchstones.
This is being co-released by Chicago based record store/label Shuga Records and Charm Co-Op.
We covered Sharp Pins (Chicago, Illinois) in 2023. The band, one of the many projects of Kai Slater, originally released their debut cassette through HALLOGALLO Tapes (Kai's zine and tape label), but later released a vinyl version on Tall Texan Records.
"Radio DDR" has been out digitally (and on HALLOGALLO tape) for a while, but now is getting a vinyl release via Olympia label Perennial (so many great releases here).
Bandcamp starts you at the third song "You Don't Live Here Anymore" and my immediate thoughts were The Kinks and The Teeth. Listening to the whole album brought to mind so many bands - Brendan Benson, The Lemon Twigs, Game Theory, Mo Troper, and Guided By Voices.
For those of you in the Bay Area, Sharp Pins will be playing at the Kilowatt Club with Chime School on 1/10/25.
Sharp Pins "Turtle Rock" is recommended by none other than Brian Kelly of So Cow. Safely ensconced in Tuam (near Galway, Ireland) he recently mentioned he'd been listening to The Tubs and Sharp Pins (among a few other bands).
Sharp Pins definitely have a sharper edge and feel than The Tubs but come from the same indie-rock/guitar-centric tree. Sharp Pins can sound like The Clientele one moment and Jay Reatard the next.
Sharp Pins is the vehicle for the music of Kai Slater. He's a major part of the burgeoning Chicago scene. He's also a member of Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe.
