This issue is 76 pages and includes interviews with Panda Riot, Chickfactor zine, The Fireworks, Sodastream, Brad San Martin, Lisa Bouvier, Rocketship, Lilith, and A Certain Smile. Plus: Show reviews and interviews with indie radio DJs.
Purchase also includes a download of the March, April & May Mix #2 digital EP with tracks from Lilith, Lisa Bouvier, Panda Riot, The Fireworks, A Certain Smile and Rocketship. Tracks are all previously unreleased — either new songs or live or acoustic versions.
The zine is 68 pages and includes interviews with Phil Wilson, Elizabeth Morris, Young Romance, Peaness, Knut from Eardrums Pop and Featherfin, Strange Passage, Kevin Alvir, Postal Blue, Emma Kupa and Ray Neal of Miracle Legion.
The zine also includes a download of the March, April & May Mix #1 digital EP with tracks from Postal Blue, Jason Bourgeois, Strange Passage, The June Brides, The Hairs, Emma Kupa and Featherfin. Tracks are all previously unreleased — either new songs, covers or live or acoustic versions.
February Records is proud to announce its latest release: The “Clever” EP, the debut release fromPunctuation Club.
Brooklynite Liam Joseph Carroll is the sole continual member of the band and he says Punctuation Club is your creepy sister’s new favorite indiepop group. We think he’s probably right. He’s been sitting on these five tunes about art school, revenge, relationships and lapsed Catholicism for years, letting them stew in his psyche until they finally spilled out into the “Clever” EP.
Liam has been writing songs and playing guitar and drums in bands since his teenage years. He has released music under the name Volcano Divers and was active in the Philadelphia underground experimental/noise community, fronting a drone act called Dead Pines, and briefly playing in the noise-rock group Clothes.
Now, as Punctuation Club, Liam gets to the heart of independent pop music, presenting five stripped-down, tongue-in-cheek tunes inspired by the likes of Yo La Tengo, Pants Yell!, Beat Happening, Black Tambourine and My Teenage Stride.
The five-song download includes a PDF booklet with an exclusive interview with Liam.
February Records has a couple projects in the works that will be coming out very, very soon. Keep your eyes peeled.
Clever by Punctuation Club — Punctuation Club is Brooklynite Liam Joseph Carroll. Liam says Punctuation Club is your creepy sister’s new favorite indiepop group and we think he’s probably right. He’s been sitting on these five tunes about art school, revenge, relationships and lapsed Catholicism for years, letting them stew in his psyche until they finally spilled out into the Clever EP. Clever will be available as a digital download on Friday, Jan. 27. Check out the single, Art School Confidential, on the Punctuation Club bandcamp.
March, April & May No. 3 — In late winter or very early spring, we will be releasing the third issue of our zine. We have some great contributors lined up and interviews with Phil Wilson, Peaness, Mercury Girls, Knut Eardrums, Young Romance, The Hairs and more. This issue will also come with a digital download with unreleased tracks from some of the bands featured in the zine. More information coming soon.
Also! — Copies of Constant and True — A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg are still available. We are very close to breaking even, which will then allow us to donate any and all proceeds to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, a charity that is near and dear to Rose Melberg’s heart.
This is not a best-of list. This is not a top-10 list.
Lately, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with year-end “best-of” lists. I love to read them and, usually, hate the results. Boiling down a year’s worth of music into ten (or 25 or 50 or 100) ranked bands or songs or albums just doesn’t really do the trick anymore. And let’s not even talk about number ratings.
Below, is a mostly-random, un-ranked, un-quantified list of LPs, EPs, tracks and live shows that I enjoyed this year. Some of these I listened to almost non-stop for long periods of time. Some of them I only listened to a few times, but they seriously made an impression. The list is not comprehensive. There’s a lot I left out and a lot I didn’t get a chance to hear. I also included February Records releases because, let’s face it, I like them and I listened to them a lot.
[LP] Flowers – “Everybody’s Dying to Meet You” (Kanine) — I love this band. Flowers’ first LP was my favorite album of 2014 and “Everybody’s Dying to Meet You” might be my favorite album of 2016, though I won’t commit to that. Check out track 4, “All At Once.”
[EP] Strange Passage – “Shine and Scatter” (self-released) — This Boston quartet channels late-’80s/early-’90s UK post punk. The four-track EP is the kind of thing you’ll listen to over and over. Check out track 3, “Shine and Scatter.”
[LP] Bent Shapes – “Wolves of Want” (Slumberland) — Literate indiepop with a touch of college-rock. From Boston. Check out track 5, “Realization Hits.”
[EP] half sour – “Charm School” (Disposable America/Too Far Gone) — Bratty, punchy “slacker-pop” from Boston. Check out track 1, “Ten Year Tenure.”
[LP] The Very Most – “Syntherely Yours” (February Records) — OK, just a little bit of bias here, but not much. This is a great record. We’d been talking with Jeremy for a long time about teaming up for a TVM release on February and we finally got around to it this year. Jeremy reworked nine TVM tunes into synth-pop songs with guest vocalists. Adriano do Couto of Postal Blue, Colin Clary of the The Smittens, Charles Bert of Math and Physics Club, Lisle Mitnik of Tiny Fireflies and more were featured. The album is still available to download. Check out track 1, “Good Fight Fighting” (featuring Adriano do Couto).
[track] The Monkees – “Me and Magdalena” (Rhino) — That Monkees album (“Good Times!”) that came out this year is actually pretty good. This song is pretty great even if it is written by Ben Gibbard. Gibbard should forget about Deathcab for Cutie and just write songs for Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz to sing.
[EP] The Beths – “Warm Blood” (self-released) — Fun, upbeat New Zealand guitar pop. Check out track 3, “Idea/Intent.”
[LP] Math & Physics Club – “In This Together” (Fika Recordings) — Get some of the band’s best EP tracks, B-sides, rarities and unreleased songs all in one place. Check out track 16, “Weekends Away.”
[track] Dexys – “Both Sides Now” (100% Records / Rhino) — This cover from the album “Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul” has been a constant on my YouTube playlist. I want to live inside this video.
[track] The Pretenders – “Holy Commotion” (BMG/Clouds Hill) — I don’t even want to hear the rest of the album that this track is on — the Chrissie Hynde/Dan Auerbach (Black Keys) team-up that is “Alone.” I enjoy this song, though.
[LP] V/A – “Constant and True: A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg” (February Records) — Here’s another little bit of horn-tooting. Jeremy Jensen of The Very Most curated this amazing tribute compilation to Rose Melberg and we got the honor of getting to promote it. In all honesty, this album has been consistently playing in my car or in my headphones since it came out. Every one of these 21 tracks is a winner, with covers by The Hermit Crabs, Rocketship, Boyracer, Emma Kupa, Marc Elston, John Girgus, Seapony and more. Copies are still available. Check out track 21, “My Broken Heart,” covered by Rocketship.
“Constant and True” is available to purchase as a CD and digital download. Any surplus from the sale of this album will be donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, a charity that is near and dear to Rose Melberg’s heart.
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February Records is proud to announce its latest release: “Constant and True — A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg.” This extremely ambitious project was conceived of and brought to fruition by Jeremy Jensen — leader of the Boise, Idaho, pop group The Very Most — out of his appreciation of Melberg’s prolific output.
Rose Melberg is indiepop royalty. As primary songwriter for one of the very first American indiepop bands, Tiger Trap, she played an indispensable part in furthering
the indiepop movement in the U.S. She went on to release music both as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Go Sailor, The Softies, Gaze, Brave Irene, Tally Ho!, PUPS, Imaginary Pants and Knife Pleats, with sounds ranging from fragile, wistful folkto giddy, fizzy cuddlecore to sophisticated, almost jazzy, pop. Her music as been released on such labels as K Records, Double Agent, Kingfisher Bluez, Kill Rock Stars, Slumberland Records, Where It’s At Is Where You Are and Lost Sounds Tapes, just to name a few.
Bands and artists from the United States, Scotland, England, Spain, Norway, France, Australia and Dominican Republic have provided tracks for this compilation. Two bands (Boyracer and Transmittens) even came out of retirement just to contribute a track! Their interpretations of Rose’s music run the gamut from pop-punk to epic, symphonic walls of sound. The album has 21 tracks in total and features The Hermit Crabs, The Prams, Featherfin, Bodyheat, Emma Kupa, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Marc Elston, Ashley and Eli of LAKE, Fireflies, The Smittens, John Girgus and The Legendary House Cats, The Royal Landscaping Society, Gabardine, Boyracer, Band á Part, Seapony, The Very Most, Tomiji, Tangible Excitement, Transmittens and Rocketship.
“Constant and True — A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg” will be released as a CD and a digital download, with artwork by Marta Tortajada.
The second issue of the February Records zine, “March, April & May,” is now officially available to order through our Bandcamp page. Inside are band interviews, essays and even a little bit of humor. Interviews include: Duglas T Stewart of BMX Bandits, The Arctic Flow, Tiny Fireflies, Jigsaw Records, Lost Tapes, Big Quiet, The Very Most and Cozy Catastrophes.
The zine is limited to 50 copies and is only $2. Order here.
Good Fight Fighting (Featuring Adriano do Couto of Postal Blue)
Things Too Obvious to Sing (Featuring Geoff Crestwell of Pellow)
This is Where I Should Be (Featuring Sam Counsil of Central City Music Company)
Jonathan Richman (Featuring Colin Clary of The Smittens and Colin and the Clarys)
Polygraph (Featuring Charles Bert of Math and Physics Club)
Today it is Even Better (Featuring Laz McCluskey Strawberry Whiplash and Bubblegum Lemonade)
Sweater (Featuring Thomas Guilcher of Tomiji and Pale Spectres)
You’re in Love With the Sun (Featuring Lisle Mitnik of Fireflies and Tiny Fireflies)
Multnomah Now! (Featuring Adam Sanders of Adam and Darcie)
Pre-order the album from Feb. 15-Feb. 22 and immediately receive two tracks for download, “Sweater” featuring Thomas Guilcher, and “Multnomah Now!” featuring Adam Sanders. “Syntherely Yours” will be available for purchase on Feb. 23.
The Very Most was started in Boise, Idaho, by Jeremy Jensen in either 2002 or 2003 (he honestly can’t remember). Since that time, the band has released three full-length albums, seven EPs, and a bunch of miscellaneous tracks. Recorded entirely in Jeremy’s backyard studio (made from a converted shed), the music exists in a pretty little spot on the Venn diagram where The Beach Boys, Camera Obscura, New Order, Teenage Fanclub, and The Wedding Present meet. It makes heavy use of male/female harmony, vocal call-and-answer, and lushly layered instruments, both conventional and not-so-conventional. It’s all pop, and it’s all melodic, but it finds a lot of different ways of being melodic pop.
Jeremy Jensen and co … are just perfecting their craftsmanship, each new song seems to be more enduring and rich. Can’t wait for the rest! — Bloodbuzzed
February Records has been pretty quiet lately, but that’s about the change. We have three projects on the horizon for early 2016 that have been keeping us pretty busy and that we’re really excited about.
March, April & May No. 2 — At some point this winter, we will be releasing the second issue of our zine. We’ve rounded up some great contributors, so expect more interviews and more news. More information will be coming soon!
Constant and True: A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg — In late Spring, we will be releasing Constant and True, a compilation CD of indiepop artists paying tribute to one our favorite artists of the last 25 years — Rose Melberg. Rose’s bands (Tiger Trap, The Softies, Brave Irene, Go Sailor, Knife Pleats) have been important to indiepop nearly since its inception. Rose has also made several gorgeous, mostly acoustic solo albums for labels like K and the late, great Double Agent records. Constant and True will feature such bands as Rocketship,The Smittens,Band a Part,LAKE,Seapony,Transmittens,The Very Most (featuring Sarah Lowenbot), Marc Elston, and many others covering Rose’s songs.
I wasn’t planning on writing a year end list this year until Danny convinced me to. Being an adult took over this year – I changed jobs, I bought a house, and then proceeded to spend the last 6 months fixing up said house. Suffice to say, I didn’t listen to a lot of new music. There is definitely some overlap between Danny’s list and this one, but I feel that’s to be expected.
