Ray

New EP: The Gabys II The Gabys II

Beautiful, spare, slow-moving music from the U.K.

By / / Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

UK duo The Gabys return to the Fruits & Flowers label to deliver more feather-light, homespun recordings in the form of a four song EP. The Gabys create what has been characterized in the Bay Area as “fog pop”—beautiful, spare, slow-moving music, exemplified by the groups Cindy and April Magazine—and add an unexpected brevity to the formula. In addition to short run times, multiple songs feature fade-ins and -outs, suggesting the listener is hearing them in media res; overall, the music has a blink-and-you-miss-it effect, like you’re witnessing the fleeting moments of twilight on an autumn day.

In true fog pop fashion, the elements here are subdued: soft-spoken vocals, barely audible through tape hiss, and instrumentation that can only be described as austere. The melodies waft by, as if the singer is drifting in and out of consciousness. Fragmentary narratives, only occasionally heard, are punctuated by probing questions (“Is this a dream?” and “Do you feel the same?” on Cursed) that remind you to stay engaged, preventing you from fully entering a dream state. The Gabys may have a roundabout way of commanding your attention, but you won’t easily forget these songs once they have it.

The Gabys’ second self-titled EP is out now on Fruits & Flowers.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: New Starts || More Break-Up Songs

Darren Hayman wanted a band again, and that works out really well

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

New Starts is a new band formed by ex-Hefner frontman Darren Hayman plus members of Tigercats and Adults. The project has been touted by Hayman as a return to the group format, which he all but disowned after the dissolution of Hefner. The premise is simple: he writes the songs, the band arranges them. As a result, the songs zig in directions they may not otherwise if this were a strictly a Hayman solo affair. The prominent anti-guitar hero playing of Joely Smith provides a welcome occasional dissonance, jolting you awake after you’ve been lulled into a state of relaxation by Hayman’s dulcet melodies. The rhythm section of Giles Barrett and Will Connor is unobtrusive but sure-footed, allowing the disparate elements to congeal.

New Starts’ default mode is Doug Yule-era Velvet Underground, chugging and lilting along these 12 songs. Theoretically, the album is split into rockers and ballads, but there is little that separates the two in terms of tempo or approach. The songs, by and large, are of the tender kind, amiably yet portentously delivered. Hayman’s characters are hopeless romantics with caveats. On Pumpkins, he urges the object of his desire to “treat every night like the last/treat every kiss like the first,” before comparing their connection to a “crippled bird” on morphine, suggesting their relationship is in a sort of palliative care. A Little Stone tells the story of young, frenzied love, where our protagonist will do anything for his beloved, degrading himself as a “doormat, a satchel” despite misgivings.

The title More Break-Up Songs, in addition to being a direct rebuttal of this band’s name, is perhaps a nod to The Undertones’ More Songs About Chocolate and Girls: if everyone’s got you pegged, you may as well throw your hands up and give the people what they want. But if songs of this quality are the expectation of Darren Hayman at this point in his career, that’s a very good thing.


More Break-Up Songs is out today, digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Fika Recordings.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Quivers || Oyster Cuts

Quivers' fourth album and Merge Records debut is unmistakably the work of a group with its own identity

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

On their new album Oyster Cuts, Melbourne’s Quivers diverge further from the jangle pop pack, incorporating smooth synth textures, syrupy slide guitar, and Stonesian riffs. This time, though, the music never overtakes the words — thoughtful and considered as they are. The music itself occasionally feels vaporous as a consequence of this newfound approach, but the added emphasis on lyrics ultimately lends the album its heft. The result is a series of subtle details transmuted into a cohesive and significant work by a band hitting their songwriting stride.

While not musically derivative, Quivers’ primary language is nostalgia.The lyrics are marked by a yearning for past misadventures and expired relationships — both real and imagined. Images of ghosts, smoke, and faded radio signals pervade the album, suggesting our narrator is trapped in a sort of romantic subterfuge. In these ten songs, the object of affection is always just out of reach: “Will you turn into an apparition?” guitarist Sam Nicholson asks adversarially on Apparition, expecting the worst; elsewhere, drummer Holly Thomas has a “suspicion” her dream partner is someone she “dreamt up” on the title track.

Some genre signifiers remain from earlier work (like the arpeggiated leads of If Only and the tuneful harmonies of Pink Smoke), but Oyster Cuts is unmistakably the work of a group with its own identity. Choruses are frequently chanted in unison by the band, sometimes with only a solitary guitar accompanying them, evoking a hymn rather than a radio anthem. And despite the backward looking subject matter, the group never sounds less than grounded, never fully escaping into reverie. To quote Quivers, “nostalgia will kill you” if you let it; the key is to keep a foot in the present.

Oyster Cuts is out August 9th on Merge Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Merge

New single: Mighty Clouds || Anagram / Just Friends

Melodically twee but emotionally resonant rock by Fred Thomas and longtime collaborator Betty Marie Barnes

By / / Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

Michigan indie rock hero Fred Thomas and longtime collaborator Betty Marie Barnes have revived the Mighty Clouds moniker for an archival release and a new single on Antiquated Future Records. Melodically twee but emotionally resonant rock is the order du jour – spidery, tremolo-laden guitar heroics feature heavily on Anagram and Wall of Sound production helps add definition to the spare Just Friends.

Although Barnes’ weightless vocals and Thomas’ overall pop bent would typically indicate a more upbeat mood, feelings of paranoia and distrust permeate the recordings. Lyrical topics include social invisibility, the uncertainty of memory, and the erasure of identity: the subject of Anagram is a person who “want[s] to be someone no one could forget” but is instead a bland “anagram” of others they’ve met, while Barnes’ lover on Just Friends is someone she is “ashamed” to be involved with but whom she will disintegrate without. The best moments are when the honeyed melodies and the somber lyrics intersect, like the slight detour into dissonance on Anagram.

The Anagram / Just Friends single is now available on 7″ vinyl on Antiquated Future Records.


Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Redd Kross || Redd Kross

Redd Kross refortifies their legacy with expansive eighth album

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

On their eighth album in 45 years, Redd Kross offers more of the same (specifically, two LPs’ worth) to winning results. The eponymous title and ruby red cover serve as self-referential nods to their first EP as Red Cross, decisions that would typically signal a rebirth or a return to form. Instead, Redd Kross refortifies what brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald have been doing for decades: churning out wild and wily bubblegum rock.

Throughout the album, the McDonalds lean heavily on the ‘60s — both as a sonic identity and as a unifying concept for the long-form format they’ve chosen. This would not be a Redd Kross record without tongue-in-cheek cultural allusions, and here they pay tribute to the pseudo-psychedelia of yesteryear, from the Pictures of Matchstick Men-esque opener (and Paul Stanley jab?) Candy Coated Catastrophe, to the meta, Beatles-referencing Good Times Propaganda Band. Nonetheless, Redd Kross never completely embraces pastiche, keeping an arch detachment from their influences, while also squeezing in a few unironically heartfelt moments — like single and album highlight I’ll Take Your Word For It.

Ultimately, the gamble to release a late-career double album pays off; the band sounds nimble and fresh, and the expansive nature of the album gives each brother the opportunity to display their full writerly range. Even if Redd Kross doesn’t deviate much from established formula, the group have refined their strengths enough to produce perhaps their best album yet.

Redd Kross is out now on In The Red Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: Swiftumz || Simply the Best

By / / Indie Pop, Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

Making his debut here, we proudly welcome Ray Seraphin as a guest contributor to our site!

San Francisco legend Christopher McVicker makes a welcome return with his second album as Swiftumz, the suitably named Simply the Best. Boasting a 28 minute runtime, Simply the Best is succinct but stuffed with ideas: rootsy, Stoned & Dethroned-inspired cuts (the title track, Fall Apart), two chord drone (For Bucher), and baggy neo-psychedelia (Demoralized) are rendered with equal beauty. Perhaps McVicker’s most impressive trick is how he manages to sound so unhurried throughout the album’s brisk pace—his dulcet vocals peeking out from the clangor with a sigh and a coo before dissipating again. Elsewhere, guest Chris Guthridge’s demonstrative guitar work provides an unexpected contrast to McVicker’s downcast lyrics (sample line: “I can’t make you happy/And I don’t want to try”). Recorded over nearly a decade, Simply the Best proves the best things are worth waiting for—however ephemeral they may be.

Album out now on Empty Cellar Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

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