7-Inch Vinyl Releases
Times New Viking
Stay Awake
Matador
originally published November 5, 2008
Stay Awake, Times New Viking's new 7" EP, is the band's third release since Matador made 'em into big-time indie-rock bidness. Thankfully, and kinda surprisingly, the group's well-publicized sonic edges remain as rough as ever. TNV still buries its blissfully infectious organ-and-guitar-based pop songs under layers of grime and white noise. Stay Awake, like all of the band's music, sounds like Clean songs recorded in a jet engine. This record's a bit top-heavy with disgustingly great and hook-filled hits "Call & Respond" and "Pagan Eyes," two songs that rank alongside the best stuff on the last LP. Side two drags the mood down at first, with the sluggish and inert "No Sympathy," but a triumphant footing is quickly regained with the anthemic "Sick and Tyred," the record's final and best song. A lot of folks might struggle to make it through the (carefully cultivated) apparent lack of production value, but anybody who can handle a bit of fuzz (and especially fans of older Guided by Voices) should be ecstatic.
Wounded Lion
Carol Cloud
S-S
originally published November 5, 2008
Um, here's some more Clean reverence, but less noisy than Times New Viking and maybe even better (?!?). I don't know, but these L.A. dudes make an almost perfect impression on this here debut single. I say "almost perfect" because the title track, while still a damn fine rock song, is noticeably inferior to the endlessly enjoyable b-side "Pony People." A tuneful chunk of jaunty pop with just the right mixture of amateurism and proficiency, "Pony People" is an instant classic. It immediately sounds like something I've loved for years, but without too closely resembling any other specific song. "Pony People" reminds me of the first time I heard Pavement or Nothing Painted Blue's "Swivel Chair" or (um, again) Times New Viking; it's an immediate entry into the personal canon of songs that I love. As good as "Carol Cloud" is, it just can't compete. Let's hope Wounded Lion has some more where this one came from.
Cause Co-Motion
I Lie Awake 7"
Slumberland
originally published November 5, 2008
This band prefers to spell its name "caUSE co-MOTION!"; you know it's got to be pretty good to make up for something so idiotically precious. I wouldn't go overboard with the Cause Co-Motion praise, but these men do make some of the better C86-inspired shambolic indie-pop around today. This latest single, on the revitalized Slumberland label, is a pretty standard call from the Co-Motion playbook. The a-side, "I Lie Awake," is the first of three slivers of thoroughly catchy, neoclassicist garage-pop, each one genial and well written enough to make up for the general lack of uniqueness. "Cry for Attention" varies it up slightly, slowing things down and ramping up the drama. This record sounds like the Television Personalities rerecorded Nuggets, or, in other words, a late-oughts band channeling mid-'80s interpretations of popular music from the '60s. But that's pretty much all rock and roll is anymore anyway, right?
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