New & featured releases, updated March 13th, 2024

Lightheaded "Good Good Great!"

[cassette » $7.00] [more info]
Good Good Great!

Lightheaded Good Good Great! cassette

New Jersey's Lightheaded have conjured, through some mysterious alchemy, a distinctive flavor of pop that draws as much from 60s Brill Building, garage-pop and folk-pop as it does from the DIY indie explosion of the 80s/early 90s. Their debut EP "Good Good Great!" shows that band core Cynthia and Stephen are clearly students of pop in all its permutations, but they wear their influences lightly -- a typical Lightheaded song could have been released in 1966 or 1986, but in fact sounds just right in 2023! The sound has just right amount of elemental murk, drawing to mind a mythical collab between Phil Spector and Curt Boettcher's Sagittarius, working their way through the Goffin & King songbook.


East Village "Hotrod Hotel"

[LP » $22.00] [more info]
Hotrod Hotel

East Village Hotrod Hotel LP

East Village are one of the great lost bands. From their mid-80s roots as Episode Four to their late-80s heyday with a string of now highly sought-after singles and EPs on labels like Sub Aqua, Heavenly and Summershine, East Village forged a brilliant, classic sound that resonated with contemporaries like the Flying Nun and Creation label bands, but also hearkened back to 60s influences like The Byrds, Dylan and Velvet Underground. Hotrod Hotel is a selection from the band's remarkable singles and is presented here for the first time on vinyl, packaged in a heavy, 60s-style album jacket with a 4-page insert featuring rare band pics and liner notes by Jon Dale.


Blue Ocean "Fertile State"

[LP » $20.00] [CD » $9.00] [more info]
Fertile State

Blue Ocean Fertile State LP/CD

Oakland CA's Blue Ocean blend elements of shoegaze, pop, noise rock and electronics, striking a precarious balance between noise and melody that recalls forebears like Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis and Flying Saucer Attack. "Fertile State" shows the band at their noisy best. Reverberating guitars swirl around what is at it's heart a lovely pop song, erupting into peels of feedback a la early Jesus & Mary Chain. It's a bracing, intoxicatingly fresh take on noisy pop from a band to watch.


Tony Jay "Perfect Worlds"

[LP » $19.00] [cassette » $7.00] [more info]
Perfect Worlds

Tony Jay Perfect Worlds LP/cassette

"Perfect Worlds," the newest album by San Francisco's mysterious lo-fi pop legend Tony Jay, delivers an intimate record of thirteen dreamy, assured arrangements that further cements Tony Jay's status as a dejected crooner of the quotidian par excellence. Drawing inspiration from failed relationships, lack of sleep, a bicycle injury, and depression, Tony Jay (helmed by SF scene mainstay Michael Ramos) pairs catchy melodies and hushed vocals with ethereal instrumental tracks.


The Laughing Chimes "Laurel Heights"

[7" » $8.50] [more info]
Laurel Heights

The Laughing Chimes Laurel Heights 7"

The Laughing Chimes have, over the course of one album and several singles, breathed new life into classic jangle and paisley pop. Gathering up 3 future-classic tunes from their 2021 debut album and two subsequent singles onto one 7", Laurel Heights is a brilliant distillation of the bands' considerable charm -- a superb vinyl introduction and a compact "greatest hits" package.


The Laughing Chimes "Zoo Avenue EP"

[cassette » $7.00] [more info]
Zoo Avenue EP

The Laughing Chimes Zoo Avenue EP cassette

The Laughing Chimes is a musical project formed by teenage brothers Evan and Quinn Seurkamp. The band draws inspiration from American and British jangle pop from the 80s and 90s, creating timeless songs that could just as easily have originated in Athens, GA or Dunedin, NZ as eastern Ohio. The "Zoo Avenue EP" is terrifically assured follow-up to their 2020 debut album, one that sharpens their sound and broadens their musical palette while retaining all of the considerable charm of their debut.


The Reds, Pinks and Purples "The Town That Cursed Your Name"

[LP w/bonus 7" » $24.00] [LP » $20.00] [CD » $9.00] [more info]
The Town That Cursed Your Name

The Reds, Pinks and Purples The Town That Cursed Your Name LP w/bonus 7"/LP/CD

The Reds, Pinks & Purples' new collection "The Town That Cursed Your Name" gathers together twelve perfectly-constructed pop gems, some previously unheard and some released for just a few days and then withdrawn, but all adhering to the absurdly high standards of song-craft that the band's Glenn Donaldson adheres to. Echoes of everything from The Go-Betweens to Felt to Magnetic Fields reverberate through his songs, informed by an extreme dedication to detail and no small amount of outright fandom.


The Reds, Pinks and Purples "They Only Wanted Your Soul"

[LP » $19.00] [more info]
They Only Wanted Your Soul

The Reds, Pinks and Purples They Only Wanted Your Soul LP

Limited edition reissue of a very scarce 4 song EP, now expanded to mini-LP length with the addition of six bonus songs. Recorded around the same time as the songs that went on to comprise the beloved "Uncommon Weather" album, "They Only Wanted Your Soul" contains some of the best examples of Glenn Donaldson's melancholy but wry take on indie pop. It has songs about record shopping, religion, worker's rights, dysfunctional holidays, and of course heartbreak, sung over a maze of shimmering fuzzy guitars and drum machine beats -- an essential chapter of the Reds, Pinks & Purples story.


 

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