***Outside country killers Loose Koozies are back with a new album from Tall Texan. The Detroit band shirks the cosmic strain that many of their peers have embraced in favor of a grittier vision of Alt-Country, shot through the exhaust fumes of Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, and Son Volt, though they aren't afraid to show more diverse inspiration such as disco-era Sparks. Passing Through You comes barreling out of the speakers soaked in twang and turpentine, ridding a fuzz-rusted riff under the graveled vocals of E.M. Allen. As usual the denim-busted woes of Loose Koozies feel just right.
LP $28.85
03/07/2025
***It’s only fitting that Pittsburgh—a metropolis known for its gloomy neo-Gothic architecture and Rust Belt hardiness—is home to a band like The Sewerheads. This plucky four-piece of scene regulars makes minor-key, violin-laden rock that, much like their hometown, resides at the crossroads of torment and bliss. Each menacing guitar stab and sultry croon evokes a city at once lamenting the fall of its past industrial glory and reveling in its underappreciated beauty and grit. The band’s haunting debut album, Despair Is a Heaven, conjures the Steel City’s sticky summer nights and its churches’ pointed arches, but it’s also an unabashed ode to Americana, inspired by the cowboy tales of Ernest Tubb, the dirty realism of John Fante, and the amorphous morality of John Cassavetes’ films, as well as the somber Australian balladry of Rowland S. Howard.
LP $28.85
01/17/2025
***Glenn Donaldson of The Reds, Pinks & Purples / Skygreen Leopards, pairs with Carly Putnam of The Mantles in a sun-washed, melancholy vision of jangle-pop dubbed Helpful People, yoked with a heavy-heart and a liberal dose of soft-focus fuzz. Limited to 300 copies worldwide.
LP $20.50
09/22/2023
***Turtle Rock is the debut release from Sharp Pins, the solo project from Kai Slater of Lifeguard (Matador). Rather than mining the same noise rock territory as Lifeguard, Sharp Pins is homespun power/indie pop of the highest order which calls to mind familiar touchpoints like Guided By Voices, Dwight Twilley, and Big Star, as well the underground sounds of the past from labels like Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club and March Records. Originally released on limited cassette in March 2023 on Hallogallo. Limited to 300 copies worldwide.
LP $20.50
09/22/2023
***First time vinyl reissue of this 2008 jangle pop gem that was verging on "lost classic" status. In essence, a slightly reshuffled lineup of New Zealand legends The Bats, minus Robert Scott. Minisnap sees Kaye Woodward step up as the main vocalist and songwriter. Limited to 200 copies worldwide.
LP $25.50
08/25/2023
***Born out of the burnout of post-everything, Alien Eyelid assembled the quietest who’s who of the Houston music scene. Their debut album is a testament to music that sounds like it could come from anytime, but squarely in what’s needed now. Features members of Lower Dens and Balaclavas. "Houston’s Alien Eyelid skirt away from the garage/noise connotations of their moniker for an album that’s more in line with their southern rock surroundings. The first single from the band’s Tall Texan debut, Bronze Star, is a slow strummer kicking dirt off of it’s scuffed sneakers. The song’s steeped in an air of alt-country—not quite as rough roped as newcomers like Country Westerns or Loose Koozies, but splitting the difference between those two and something more plaintive like Bonny Doon. '4736 Jefferson' is a loner’s lament, winding down a few beers deep to wax nostalgic. The tune settles into a rumpled acceptance right up through the two-minute mark when the guitars begin to tear apart the peace the first half is trying to maintain. The song’s scars are fresh and fragrant."—Raven Sings The Blues.
LP $21.95
06/23/2023
***Michigan pop group Idle Ray slowly focalized from several different cloudy ideas. Right around the end of 2019, songwriter/producer Fred Thomas was transitioning from several years of touring solo, working on new songs that dug into four track roots that had been the foundation of Saturday Looks Good To Me, Failed Flowers, and so many of his bands over the years. At the same time, he and Frances Ma (one of the driving forces of fuzzed-out Detroit dreampop band Don't) had been workshopping song ideas and playing scattered gigs as Frankie & Fred. Over the course of a few weird years, the two projects folded into one another, and expanded into a trio with the addition of bassist Devon Clausen. Though the self-titled Idle Ray album that came out in 2021 had been scrapped together from Fred's solo four-track experiments, "Corridors of Summer" is the first output from the full band, and also the first Idle Ray song with Frankie on lead vocals. "Corridors" was first shared online in early 2022, but the 7" features a different, expanded mix. The song's images of smiling faces bleared by the hot summer sun barely conceals its underlying disgust. It's a deceptively dreamy song about taking one look at the crowded beach, the line in front of the overhyped brunch spot, or even the costumery at the DIY space and turning around immediately. B-side "Unremarkable Things" is an outlier in the Idle Ray catalog, more in line with slow moving shoegaze than the...
7" $12.25
05/12/2023