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26 Jun One of the greatest things about Laura and I merging our record collections is that all of a sudden I have a wealth of new music to listen to… and mostly stuff that I never really gave a chance at the time. White Town fits that category for me. I obviously know “Your Woman” and think I had a copy of “Women in Technology” at one point. Still I never bothered to buy any of the singles. So Laura played me “Hair Like Alain Delon” from the “Alain Delon” EP 7″ (Parasol, 1991) and it’s was shockingly good… even “P!O!P! classic” good reminding me of bands like East Village or The Desert Wolves. I would have never guessed this being a White Town song and now I feel a bit lame for missing it all these years. Anyway, she has pretty much all of Jyoti’s early singles so I’ll be checking out more. Listen to White Town - Hair Like Alain Delon
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23 Jun “Dream About Me” by The Depreciation Guild is easily one of the singles of the year! In fact we think it’s so good that it was originally slated for a Shelflife release, but in the end it made more sense for a larger label like Kanine Records to take it under their wing. Today Pitchfork debuted their new video for the song and it’s a classic!! Watch: The “Dream About Me” single is out July 7th on 7″ & digital formats. You can pre-order the 7″ from Kanine here and get the mp3s free through e-mail right now. The b-side is “Listless” (another one of our faves). The band is touring North America with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in September. Don’t miss it!
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19 Jun “Over 150 BPM” is a good description of my life lately. Hectic. So I’m craving this single from the Japanese pop band Citrus. They were definitely one of the most unique of the Trattoria catalogue blending neo-acoustic, post-punk and j-pop to create some rather insane yet very listenable recordings. Nowadays, I have trouble listening to a lot of that ’90s Shibuya-kei scene (still burned out on it I guess), but somehow Citrus still works for me. Listen to Citrus - Colo Colo Meets The Stripes Here’s a great interview with Citrus frontman, Emori Takeaki.
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10 Jun Hello. It’s been a while I know. This month I’m trying to finish our second Tears Run Rings album so I’m dedicating all my free time to the studio. That said I’m hoping to start posting on a regular basis again soon. Today let’s start with an old request by Gilberto for Black Fantastic. It’s hopefully a fitting thank you since I just received the copies of the “Menina Infinito” comic he sent us (Thanks Gilberto!). Black Fantastic was a short-lived collaboration between Matt from The Push Kings and Sterling from Madison Electric. They released the “Keep the Conversation Going” b/w “A Day’s Wait” 7″ on Saltwater Records (sw-001) in 1997. To my knowledge this was all they ever released. It’s actually been a while since I’ve played the single. It was one of my favorites of that period and happy to report still holds up well today. If you ask nicely I’ll post the B-side.
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9 Jun Download the new 2009 Shelflife Records MP3 sampler for free below… Tracklisting:
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7 Jun Thieves Like Us - Really Like To See You Again Good news! You don’t have to wait another two years for a new Thieves Like Us release. We’re pleased to announce a brand new 4 track EP “Really Like To See You Again” will be available on June 9th on limited 12″ vinyl and digital formats. You can grab a copy direct from us right now or from your favorite record shops on Tuesday. The title track, “Really Like To See You Again,” is a new recording done in their studio in Paris. To us it sounds like “Low-Life” (New Order) era rhythm mixed over “Key of Dreams” (Section 25) soul… the perfect amount of synth bass, vulnerability, electronic toms, and hope. Both Robert Smith and Peter Hook were unavailable to play that twangy romantic guitar, so the band did it themselves. Sounds authentic too. The second track, “American Skies,” is a politico-socio commentary about the current economic slump. It sounds like a night drive in Miami and one for the dance floor. “Desire,” originally released on “Play Music,” is reworked and remixed for this release and we can’t get it out of our heads. If you loved this track before, this version is even better. The final song “To Joy,” is an old demo and the inspiration of “Really Like To See You Again.” It may just be the most perfect track ever conceived by the band and holds a special place in our hearts. The song was unfortunately left off the last album, so we’re quite pleased it makes it’s proper debut on this release… and on vinyl which it so rightly deserves. Thieves Like Us US tour: Jun 12 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall, w/ Designer Drugs Listen to Thieves Like Us - Really Like To See You Again Order a copy here!
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22 May BBC posted a fine review for “Play Music.” Read below… “As might be expected from a trio who collectively name themselves after a New Order song Thieves Like Us are keen to blend lyrically themes of love and alienation with pulsing synths and banging beats. A certain melancholy is evident straight away on Play Music when American vocalist Andy Grier repeats, ‘The light you give out”, with fierce intent like a post acid-house Ian Curtis amid bubbles of Kraftwerk synth supplied by Swede Bjorn Berglund. Drugs In My Body is a different beast. An exciting, more minimal take on the French house made by producers like Alan Braxe, and a terrific slab of 2009 disco. Fass is even better, as one would be expected from a tune that steals much of its melody and construction from Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough and, yes, New Order’s Blue Monday. At least it has a nicely poetic line in despair with lines like, ”This slack parade of days/This empty city space/I’m left paralysed”. From here on this debut album is of a high quality even if nothing really hits the heights of its brilliant opening trio. Lady is an epic, ominous whirl of sparse beats and synth doom that sounds like John Carpenter scoring Saturday Night Fever. Your Heart Feels is full of distorted M83 waves of sound and obsessive love demands’ ”See me after dark/show me all you scars/show me all your thoughts”, while Miss You is a smart mix of glam and dark, like Steve mason in his Black Affair guise collaborating with Miss Kittin. Thieves Like Us deserve credit for making such a consistently exciting album that’s arguably already a contender for electronic album of the year.”
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19 May Champagne Riot will be supporting Northern Portrait this month for their first US tour. Can’t wait to see Caspar perform on Saturday at the popfest! May 23 - San Francisco, CA at House of Shields (San Francisco Popfest) - 3PM May 25 - Sacramento, CA at Old Ironside - 8PM May 28 - Los Angeles, CA at The Knitting Factory AlterKnit Lounge - 8PM May 29 - Oxnard, CA at The Kenji Shack - 8PM May 30 - Santa Barbara, CA at Reds Tapas and Wine Bar - 5PM
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19 May The new 8 track EP “Tactical POP! for Coffee Cadets” is released on Shelflife today from ex-Action Painting Socialist Leisure Party! It’s a stunning release that we’re so proud to be part of. Limited to 300 copies in our 1000 series CD+7″ format. The art alone might be one of my favorites of the series so far. Here’s the tracklisting… Compact Disc Seven-Inch (+ free mp3s) Artwork by Andrew Holder.
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18 May Burning Hearts played their first US show last weekend at the NYC Popfest. Sadly we couldn’t be there, but if you also missed it, some YouTube videos are showing up. Here’s two I just found: “Various Lives” “Sea Birds” Also, if anyone has any pictures from this show, please send them our way. Thanks!
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18 May We’re just back from our ATP/Nice trip. We had a lovely time! Met some new friends, saw some great bands and maybe drank a bit too much. Nice, France was the highlight of the trip for me. We can’t wait to go back! I’m currently fighting jetlag, so I’m catching up with some things here. First I want to mention that there’s a new Brazilian comic book called Menina Infinito by Fabio Lyra that has an illustration of a record store featuring the Days “Downhill” EP (in her hand). It’s pretty incredible that our release is included here alongside The Jesus & Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Television, Primal Scream, Big Star, etc. Thanks to Gilberto for letting us know about it and for the scan above. www.submarino.com.br/produto/1/21393056/menina+infinito Tomorrow the Socialist Leisure Party release is out. More on that then!
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6 May We’re taking a much needed break this month, heading to two weekends of ATP concerts in Minehead, UK and a quick trip to Nice, France in between. I’ll be back with regular posts the week of May 18th. Loads of good stuff happening on the label when we return including a 1000 series release by Socialist Leisure Party (ex Action Painting!) out May 19th, a new 4 track 12″ by Thieves Like Us on June 9th and a 1000 series release by Horse Shoes following in the summer. Until then…
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4 May I’ve been wanting to do a Friends of the Family blog post for a while now. I usually don’t like to put anything up until I have all my facts straight, but unfortunately there’s not much I can go on. Info on this band is seriously hard to come by (next to none in fanzines or online). So if you know anything about them, please feel free to comment below. Friends of the Family were from Yorkshire (I believe) and seemed to be together from 1986-88. They released two singles on Ediesta Records: “Rotten To The Core” 7″/12″ (CALC 017) and “Three Fat Men (On a Bicycle)” 12″ (CALC 039). Apparently Matthew Eaton was in the band, who was the original bass player in Delta, and later in Pram. They played some shows with The Sea Urchins in 1988 (I found a great post here about that). I recently saw on Facebook that Stephen from the Please Rain Fall blog is also planning on writing a post about them and I surely hope he can fill in the blanks. Listen to “Rotten To The Core” below which is my favorite track. It’s quite fantastic! It always reminded me a bit of “Talulah Gosh” by Talulah Gosh, which is never a bad thing in my book.
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28 Apr Here’s some highlights from April. Another busy month of new purchases (and here I was supposed to save money for our UK/France trip in… 9 days? Yow!). The Bridal Shop - In Fragments cdep - Plastilina Records Maribel - Taste The Trash 7″ - Oslo Grammofon Wake The President - Miss Tierney 7″ - Electric Honey/Lucky Number Nine Je Suis Animal - Fortune Map 7″ - Electric Honey/Lucky Number Nine Sea Lions - Let’s Groove 7″ - YAY! Records The Mayfair Set - Already Warm 7″ - Captured Tracks Wake The President - You Can’t Change That Boy cd - Magic Marker/Electric Honey Jamie Long - The Never Years cd - Platiqmusiq (promo) Arthur & Martha - Navigation cd - Happy Robots Brilliant Colors - Highly Evolved 7″ - Captured Tracks
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23 Apr This first KG 7″ single “Candy Loves Me So” is so good I own three copies of it. It’s what noise pop should be — short songs, great vocals and NOISE. It has the pop sensibilities of Rocketship and noise making skills of The Swirlies. All five tracks are pretty much perfect in my opinion. There was a compilation cd planned gathering all the early stuff (I think on Slumberland), but it never happened. So you’ll have to try and find the original vinyl copies. I recommend the first three singles: “Candy Loves Me So” 7″ on lo-fi (1993) There was also a 10″ released in 1997 called “Baraka,” but I was never able to find a copy (any one have it - should I be looking for it?). After these singles (from 1999-2002) KG went into a completely different spectrum… more experimental, noise (like “Merzbow” noise) and mostly unlistenable. I remember there was a cd with all the tracks named S.P.E.C.T.R.E 1-68. I’d be curious to hear this stuff nowadays, but back then I was not much of a fan. KG reappeared in 2004 remixing a song for Gooom labelmates M83 on the “Run Into Flowers” 12″. Anyway, back to this single, here’s their best song “Candy Loves Me So” and one of my other favorites “Jukebox Rider.” Enjoy! Listen to Candy Loves Me So Listen to Jukebox Rider
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21 Apr I can’t believe I’m posting this, but here goes… The Diplomat Haircuts was my early recording project/band before (and during) the early stages of The Autocollants (1994-1998). It started off with just me and then became a proper group (basically all The Autocollants members and my friend Rodney). We played a handful of shows (one supporting the Swirlies), but only released one track and one remix — “Outside” for the “Something Cool” compilation on Cher Doll and “Send Me Back” (The Autocollants) for the “Epithalamia” compilation on Clairecords. We actually have a 7″ EP slated on Clairerecords (you can still find it listed in their discography as: fern007 - Diplomat Haircuts - s/t 7″/CDep), which is a running joke at this point. I guess you can say the Diplomat Haircuts have now morphed into what Tears Run Rings is today. Those familiar with TRR may hear some similarities in guitar noise (listen close - ha), although the years have taught me some self-control. TRR songs “Mind The Wires” and “Send Me Back” were even taken from old Diplomat Haircut demos. Anyway, I found this early tape of demo/test recordings from 1994 I think. It’s freaking hilarious to me. Hopefully you’ll find it funny too (and not too painful)! It’s back from my “noise/experimental” phase — screeching guitars, distorted bass, haphazard drums and my lovely out-of-tune vocals. You can tell I listened to a lot of Hood, FSA, Beatnik Filmstars and Henry’s Dress. Oh and I remember I had a crappy three string (I couldn’t manage to play the other 3 strings so I took them off) thrift store guitar that wouldn’t stay in tune. There are obviously some distortion pedals and reverb involved (I don’t remember what I had at the time — nothing fancy) and I wish I could make some of those feedback tones again. It was all recorded on my Tascam 4-track, which I obviously was just learning by the levels present (wow bass!). So, I posted one song below and if you can make it all the way through download the EP. Warning: one track is an early version of “Tennis Racket” (later nicely recorded by The Autocollants). This version sounds like Mercury Rev and Hood got drunk together and then got sick. That’s all I’m saying. Um, enjoy! Listen to The Diplomat Haircuts - I See Things >> Download EP (13.94 MB) p.s. Check out this bad ass Diplomat Haircuts website (thanks web.archive.org)
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17 Apr The Almanacs were a band from Derby featuring Ian Turner on guitar and vocals, Paul Stewart on vocals and guitars, and Rob Fleay on bass, vocals and solo guitars. Ian and Paul started the band as a bedroom recording project originally called The Hairgods. Later Rob joined and they recorded a number of demos, many which appear on now rare indie pop compilation cassettes. Their first (and I believe only) 7″ single was released in 1994 on Fabian Garcia’s Anorak Records (anorak 001, and the same Anorak still releasing records today). The first song on the A-side “Living On Another World” is maybe the “hit” of the single, but I also love the last song on the B-side “I Sure Do!” Have a listen below. The band has a bunch more songs on their myspace which I believe are all unreleased. The Almanacs called it quits in the mid-90s as members left to go to different universities. Other projects emerged in the late 90s (mainly from Ian and Rob) such as Motorcade, Evil Jukebox, SBD Project, Frankie Machine (brilliant!), and Everyone. Ian Turner is now doing some solo stuff and film soundtracks (as of 2007). Listen to The Almanacs - I Sure Do! Watch the video for “Living On Another World” Discography: “No Difference” - on v/a Teeny Poppers cassette - Anorak Records - 1992 www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomthealmanacs Read the Cloudberry interview with Fabian of Anorak Records
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15 Apr Hushpad were an acoustic pop group from Illinois featuring Matthew and Angela (and later just Matthew). They released two 7″s, the first “From Here To There” features my favorite song “Saturday”. There were rumors of an album and another single recorded to be released on Saltwater Records in the late 90s, but it sadly never came to be. Matthew if you’re reading this, let’s hear it! Listen to Hushpad - Saturday Discography: Oh and for those who missed getting these singles back in the day, Laura and I have listed our dupe copies on eBay ending in a few days.
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8 Apr Shelflife is keeping me busier and busier these days and I just don’t have time to post about all the great new records I’ve been getting. So I decided I would start a new blog feature simply called “New Arrivals” to showcase items in my own new arrival bin (in this case the shelf and floor next to my stereo). Don’t worry I still plan to do my usual posts, but this will serve as a catch up when I fall behind. Hope you like the format okay. CFCF - You Hear Colours 7″ - Acéphale JJ - jj no° 1 7″ - Sincerely Yours Joel Alme - The Queen’s Corner 7″ - Sincerely Yours Lansing-Dreiden - The Dividing Island cd - Kemado The Artisans 3″ cd-r - Cloudberry Classics Cats On Fire - Our Temperance Movement cd - Johanna Kustannus Testbild - Aquatint cd - Friendly Noise Jackpot - Uno Dos Tres 12″ - Service Dum Dum Girls - Yours Alone” 12″ - Captured Tracks
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4 Apr Today I’ve been listing more 7″s up on eBay. I happen to have multiple copies of this Poastal / #Poundsign# split single, so I thought I would offer up a copy. The Poastal side is especially excellent! This single is also important to me as it’s one of the first SF Bay area indie pop singles I purchased. Members from both these bands went on to form The Aislers Set, Skypark, Wussom Pow, and numerous others. Listen to Poastal - Dizzy By request for Gilberto, #Poundsign# - Disaster
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