The Middle Ones – It is the rehearsal that will make this
I was in Cardiff last Sunday. I got to see the final show on the Ace Bushy Striptease and The Middle Ones tour. It was obviously a happy/sad time for the bands as they had enjoyed the tour so much and were sad that it was the last night of the tour. I can see why. I love both bands. I really do. And I picked up The Middle Ones debut album from the band. And I am playing it now and it’s making me feel all funny. It’s beautiful. It’s fragile. It sounds simple but it isn’t. Anna and Grace have made a record that really gets underneath your skin. In a good way I might add. Delicate arrangements and soaring vocals, with delightful harmonies lingering on and on. This is going to be one of the records I play most this year. I love it.
Apparently there will be another full length album out this year too. I am not impatient and I can wait for it because I will treasure these lovely recordings first. I suggest you do the same.
Links: Stitch Stitch Records | Discount Horse Records | The Middle Ones
This début record came out in September 2009 on Siltbreeze. I only heard it this week. More fool me, I say. The Mantles are a four piece from San Francisco. This record is a real gem. It’s a powerful mix of full on guitar pop with nods at garage rock and a hint of Neil Young at his most belligerent on the guitars that scrape and scream when songs go into overload – especially the set closer ‘The Reminder’. The are plenty of modern comparisons – the soon to be hip Harlem spring to mind as do the little known garage combo The Shrugs (from New Zealand) and possibly a more controlled take on the garage stomps fired off by Box Elders too. I have to say after just 5 or 6 listens I am wondering why I haven’t picked up on The Mantles before as their mix of pop music, rawkus guitars and nods to the 60s is just about perfect for me.
are good. Past Time is possibly their 2nd LP. It’s out now on Kill Rock Stars. I first heard the band a while back via the excellent ‘To Where’ song. They’ve had previous records released on Make A Mess and Captured Tracks.
e things in this world that just makes sense. Ramones are one them: in the mid 1970′s 4 leather clad punk kids kicking out 2 minute blast of pop punk was about as close to perfection as you’d ever get. The idea to get a whole host of contemporary indiepop types doing covers of their songs is another of those, der, why hasn’t anyone done this before kinda moments.
The Specific Heats are something of a hidden treasure. They’ve picked up a core of followers from successive summers crossing the Atlantic to thrill the crowds at Indietracks and associated warm up shows.
‘Constellations’ is the latest album from Antartica Takes It! and it is released on How Does It Feel To Be Loved? And as you’d expect from the HDIF stable this is delicate indiepop – that nods at Belle and Sebastian, Motown and Chamber Pop. It’s also the follow up to 2008′s The Penguin League (also released on HDIF). Confession time: I really didn’t get along with that LP and I found it a real mish mash of lo-fi sounds without having anything to draw me in.
Dance Magic Dance have put on some fine bands in London over the past 18 months or so. They have now released their first (I think) compilation cassette. And what a great noisy thing it is. This is a lo-fi fuzz fest of guitar goodness that ranges from the sub New York sound of La LA Vasquez to the punk rock racket of the, er The Racket. Elsewhere are my recent garage rock discoveries Sex Beet and always wonderful French Kissing pop up. And that’s just side one. Flip the cassette over and we get the London surf mob One Fathom Down and doomy punkrock sounds of Bo Ningen, to name just two. Like I said, it’s all awesome stuff, really. And this little cassette is just £3. Bargain.
Kid Canaveral have been away, for what seems the longest time. But they’ve not been idly wasting time over the past 12 months the band have been recording their debut LP ‘Shouting At Wildlife’.