Seeing Soft Pink

Belfast trio Sea Pinks have always been an interesting band that has thus far failed to fully arrest – to provide that pivotal epiphany moment where time stops, even for the briefest breath of a moment, and everything aligns. Soft Days is almost that moment – it’s an album of sonic subterfuge, that stuns and muddies the water from the get-go. ‘(I Don’t Feel Like) Giving In’ starts with a slow, stark feedback-flecked drone, before opening into a jumped-up tempo 60s monochrome number, both Stones pop and Van Morrison-led Them snarl-lite. It must be noted that Neil Brogan used to be in Girls Names, if only to state that it’s interesting to see two Irish bands from the same gene pool growing in confidence, albeit in a different way. Both send parting glances to bands of yesteryear – but while Girls Names lathers themselves in Joy Division ennui, manicured style and substance excess, Soft Days is all about marrying Flying Nun guitar pop majesty with 70s power pop standard bearers, with the occasional Dando-Richman inflection slipping in the back door (such as in the excellent ‘Cold Reading’). People say it is strange that such buoyant fare should come from such a notoriously wet and “miserable” place – but two things stand in the face of this. Even if you think that opposites often emanate from the wellspring, it’s hard to dissuade me from the idea that such ebullient hooks transcend geography. There are moments of darker rock touches – ‘Down Dog’ and the slight fuzz fadeout of the closing title track – yet while I love noise, it’s just as warm staying in this golden bubble. The last few months have seen a strong push for jangle-centric pop records (Salad Boys, Pete Astor, Nap Eyes), and Soft Days puts Sea Pinks right up in the mix. The record is out through CF Records – get it here.

Hits From The Box #34 - Brother From Another Mother

So my sister got married on Friday. This is amazing, and Im still gutted to have been stranded on the other side of the world when these festivities took place. Regardless, I now have a good mate who is part of the (let's say Masala) family, so i have this special midweek Hits From The Box in his honour (he'll probably hate on all these bands, but he's my bro - I can't stay mad at him...)


Otro Mundo kick us off, and these Arizona haze merchants waste no time in destroying the ragged excuse for a soul you may have had clinging to the remnants of your consciousness. Jellied is their taped purging, which they released after a stellar show with ace acts The Men and Milk Music (seal of approval there!). A nihilistic slice of fuzzy dread, Jellied can be gleaned from the band for chump change here.

Otro Mundo - Midnight Oil Burner
Otro Mundo - Heart Thrush


Sea Pinks are a three piece from Belfast, formed by singer and guitarist Neil Brogan when he began to write and record songs as a side project from his other band Girls Names (in which he is the drummer). Live Brogan recruits the other two members of Girls Names, yet it is an entirely different beast. The release of this outpouring is Dead Seas, and it is damn tasty. The first song to be taken from the new album is 'Fountain Tesserae', a "not entirely serious but not entirely unserious" song about a girl who (quite possibly on acid) jumps into a fountain while mistaking a mosaic tile pattern for diamonds, and cracks her head open, is the jumping off point. Fair enough then...

Sea Pinks - Fountain Tesserae


Sneakpeek is a female fronted lo-fi/garage/grunge/psych band from Echo Park, California. Featuring former members of The Willowz, a more folk oriented band, Sneakpeek only have demos to show their wares, yet the band describes themselves thus: "our music has been described as a 'nostalgic ride through a sea of flannel' with "lazy, reverb-drenched bassy guitar riffs, perfectly juxtaposed with the sweet (but never sickly so) female vocal'". Heady times ahead... They are currently prepping a seven song EP that will hopefully see the light of day very soon. And if this track is any indication, it should be a growling rocker.

Sneakpeek - Walk All Over Me (Live)


Throwing Up is a London punk mess that consists of Ben Rayner, Clare James Clare and Camille Benett. We got in contact after I posted the killer track 'Teeth' by Fever Fever. Rather than tell you about them, I've left it up to Camille...

"Me and Ben were born in the same month, in 1985, good year for movies and maybe wine, he used to go out with a girl who lived next to my school but I never met him til we were older. He thinks I'm pretty gross, but that might just be something he thinks about all girls that aren't Lauren, his wife, or it might be because sometimes when I'm drunk I take my clothes off in public or lie in the street crying. At any rate, he's adopted me now for better or worse and I think I've given him my cold so at least on a microbial level we're related. Clare I think I’ve known since i was 19, but maybe before that I used to turn up at nights she worked at and demand to be let in free. She hated me for it until one day we just became best friends and moved in together. That was pretty tempestuous and we tried to kill each other so we moved apart, now we're older and wiser and spend just enough time together to uphold the fragile balance between psyched and psycho. She lives in this warehouse where we have a rehearsal space, it's decorated with paper skeletons and silk flowers and we share it with Mazes and Male Bonding. Our rehearsals usually just involve messing around and drinking beers and blue wkd, we have short attention spans and smoke too much and I'm always late. Sometimes I think it's a bit embarrassing but mostly I just write songs about boys and being mental with boys, or people who piss me off, they're kind of the same thing. I'm also really preoccupied with the idea of having nothing to say or saying meaningless things and being a fake or a liar. I feel like everyone's lying to everyone and themselves all the time. Maybe I'm paranoid."

Brilliant.

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best


Featuring Greg Fox (Liturgy, GDFX), Alex Drewchin Jr, Turner Williams Jr and a continuously rotating cast of guest performers, Guardian Alien follow the road to enlightenment previously trod by the likes of Hawkwind, Boredoms, and Sun City Girls. Their self titled debut LP, released by Swill Children, features a live set recorded at Brooklyn's Shea Stadium, and collaged soundscapes culled from live and studio recordings. Below is an excerpt of what to expect. It sounds bloody exciting in my opinion...

Guardian Alien - Guardian Alien (excerpt)


Finishing off, we have Minneapolis band The Chambermaids. The perfect mix of dream, noise and pop. 'China Blue' is the first cut off their next album, it swims in the waters of Slowdive and Rise, and is a fitting end to today's HFTB, methinks...

The Chambermaids - China Blue

Happy days!!!

Tough Love on Tough Love

I grabbed Tough Love Records' new Sampler Young & Research the other day to see what they are delving into for the latter months of 2010.

Some catchy tracks that gets the toes involuntarily tapping - CYMBALS, Dream Cop, - others have a bit more skill and nous in my opinion, yet aren't necessarily to my taste - Lazy Hurricane, Calories, Young Governor and Weird Dreams - but there were few bands that held any prolonged interest or intrigue. But then I got to the second, dark side of the sampler... There are some very fine acts here, as I knew Tough Love was capable of producing. So I thought that I would just give a one to two sentence review of the Sonic Masala seal-of-approval acts, and then you can go seem em play a venue near you!

Sauna Youth - Punk shoegazey garage outfit from Brighton - a hell of a lot of fun. Have released a cassette and 7", both still available; they smashed up Offset Festival last month; they play the Lamb and Lion on the 8th; remind me of The Bronx, only if Matt Caughthran fronted Shooting At Unarmed Men. Sauna Youth - My Gold's Bangla

Prize Pets - loud Nottingham boys who pillage Black Flag then put it through an incredibly erratic woodchipper. Its weird, loud, visceral, and very exciting - and, for once, they arent from East London. Next London gig - 30/10, Old Blue Last w/ Sex Beet, Cold Pumas, Weird Dreams. http://www.box.net/shared/rotzl8olv7

Girls Names - Belfast group obsessed with Twin Peaks, wined and dined by Captured Tracks, love their reverb, but also very good. Have only just discovered them, and am trying to grab their EP from earlier this year as we speak, as well as tape split with Heavy Hawaii. Play two gigs this month at The Drop, including one with previous postee and UTR kids Peepholes as well as Weird Dreams. Girls Names - Falling (Julee Cruise cover - live)

Sea Pinks - solo project of Girls Names' Neil. His single is a sped up and colourfast version of his day band, and involves horticultural references, making it ok to know your hyacinths from your hydrangeas. Sea Pinks - Bobby Beau

Bhurgeist - Yorkshiremen who warble their way into your heart underscored by some J Mascis noodling and slight scowls on their faces - probably because they still live at home and have to deal with Nick Clegg. Hey, Im feeling the rage too. Disgruntled kin to Spectrals.

Bhurgeist - Slobro

Yellow Ostrich - New Yawker Alex Schaaf (also fronts band The Chairs) goes on his own; fairly prolific; makes unique indie pop folk tunes that intrigue as much as they entice.

Yellow Ostrich - Mary Ann

Drew Price's Bermuda Triangle - weird drawn out psych tripped shimmer from American Drew Price, who in this track sounds like Damon Albarn, in a decidedly good way. Drifts along in a haze, leaves you with the munchies. Drew Price's Bermuda Triangle - Tiny And All Alone