As If PS I Love You Wasn't Sentimental Enough - How About The Dishes?

If you missed how much I dug Ontario's favourite dishevelled noise popsters PS I Love You's debut LP Meet Me At The Muster Station last year, A) you were under a rock of Ayers Rock/Uluru stature, and (B) I dug it massively (don't believe me? Check it here and here). It had all the things I love to listen to when I want to part-A. I really wish these guys had existed in 1999...

Good news punters, as the duo have wasted no time in getting a sophomore releases up and ready. Death Dreams is its name (also out through Paper Bag Records),and below are the first two cuts from it. It's still wall-of-noise crazy in a small, compact parcel - like a deep-fried barbiturate - but somewhat darker in tone. Apparently one of the due Paul Saulnier started having recurring dreams about his mortality whilst touring. Talk about a bummer, dude! Well, Ill be honest - these two tracks aren't as immediate as some were on Muster..., but then again they aren't meant to be. Im actually still as excited to hear how this album turns out as I was before hearing these tracks - and that is always a good thing.

Cheer up dudes!

PS I Love You - Sentimental Dishes
PS I Love You - Princess Towers

Friday Cover Up Triptych - Burying Bodies Of Horses At The Party

I mentioned these two bands earlier in the week as unknowns whose albums really float my boat - Reno's Fa Fa Fa and Cincinnati's Swear Jar - and by the end of the week nothing's changed. But what is also special about these bands is that they have put killer covers on their debut albums. The more bizarre of the two surprisingly goes to Fa Fa Fa - or maybe unsurprisingly seeing as their penchant for Gothic 80s tinged glam pop. They tackle "Goodbye Horses", the Q Lazzarus song that was made infamous by the Academy Award winning scarefest The Silence Of The Lambs as the song playing whilst Buffalo Bill "transforms" himself - yeah, THAT one. It also reminds me of this weird dungeon of a bar I stumbled across in Vienna that only played stuff like this combined with The Birthday Party and Tom Waits, and had a drunk Irish bartender who insisted I put on a tab then got so plastered she couldnt add the final tally up so put it "on the house" - good times... Fa Fa Fa - Goodbye Horses (Q Lazzarus cover) Now Swear Jar's track is a killer one, but a little harder to come up with its genesis. Just labelled as a traditional track, Swear Jar's version is anything but, crawling along with enough buzzsaw brutality to get my blood boiling... And, because Im feeling generous, I thought Id once again share the love with PS I Love You. Seriously, Im loving their album Meet Me At The Muster Station, if you hadn't already guessed. Now they have put out a lovely cover of none other than Madonna - 'Where's The Party?' A fitting song for the duo, and a fitting song to finish off the week I reckon! PS I Love You - Where's The Party? (Madonna cover) Now, go get orn ah!

PS I Love You, But Ill Get Over You

I talked about my love of Ontario duo PS I Love You's album Meet Me At The Muster Station, an LP that embraces noise pop, the revelations and ruminations of youth and young manhood, and fun. Well they now have a cracking video for the track 'Get Over'.

Ice hockey on the TV? Check.
Copious amounts of marijuana and booze? Check.
Table tennis and pool? Check.
Karaoke? Check.
Hot girls? Check.
Vomiting and drunken injuries? Check.
Drawing cocks on passed out patrons? Check.
A greasy fry up the morning after whilst nursing heads and regaling each other about the night that was? Check.

A normal night out then...

Meet Me At The Muster Station is out now (or April 11th for UK punters)on Paper Bag Records - pick it up here.

PS I Love You - Get Over
PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station
PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station Pt 2

PS I Love You...Rock!

It is a well known fact that the name that a band chooses will make an indelible mark on the success of said band in many respects. Often the name of the band mirrors the sound that they convey. There are exceptions of course - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are not the bludgeoning speed metal act that might first come to mind - but these exceptions generally prove the rule.

Kingston, Ontario’s quick-rising duo, PS I Love You, also fit this role - and it is why its taken me a while to getting around to listening to their brilliant debut album. Meet Me At The Muster Station (is this a play on Murder City Devils' 'Midnight At The Mutter Museum"? God, I hope so...) is a relentless listen that grips and pulls the listener through just under thirty-minutes of squalling Marshall feedback, searing solos, soaring melodies and rock-steady beats. I was struck by the fertile ground these boys get their sound from - think early Wolf Parade or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! The vast majority of these ten tracks are mini-rock anthems - the titular track is a luscious take on Big Audio Dynamite covering 'Born In The USA'; 'Breadends' is tightly coiled a la Japandroids with Paul Saulnier's broken wails wringing every drop of emotion out of maelstrom created by the incessant guitar lines and thundering rhythms. These tracks are incredibly good - forceful yet playful, the hooks well and truly in place to pierce your eardrums and pull you crying and screaming up into their beckoning arms. For all the noise and bluster though, PS I Love You - like the aforementioned Japandroids - have their pop sensibilities well in check, best evidenced on tracks like 'CBEZ' or 'Facelove'. But for all my namedropping here, this duo are very much their own beast. I love this album, and the music on second thought does fit the name. You are hit with all the scuzzy fury of a garage grunge duo, but its the heartfelt infectious songcraft here that lingers. This is a very solid release, one that deserve much more lip service than they have currently garnered, I can tell you!

Meet Me At The Muster Station on April 26th, 2011 on Paper Bag Records (although it came out last year in the US, this is still technically a 2011 release). The band are touring the UK in May, hitting the Lexington on the 5th, whilst also playing The Great Escape festival in Brighton. Make sure you catch them - they are a new shining light.

Listen to the bookends of the album below - believe me, this is just a taster...

PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station
PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station (pt 2)