Real New Real Numbers

I'm writing by the numbers today (sorry...) Minneapolis band Real Numbers are about to release Wordless Wonder through Slumberland Records, and 'New Boy' is yet another example of the type of ramshackle yet hook-embedded scuzzball hits they deal out with strong regularity. There aren't many bands that can hold this tightrope walk like this (Terry Malts, Woollen Kits, and lately Salad Boys are ones that come to mind that hold down the fort in this matter) - it's hard to work out exactly how they manage to do this without it appearing lightweight, cliche or blase. But they do, which is a wordless wonder indeed (sorry again...).

Pre-order Wordless Wonder here.

Friday Cover Up - Crass Maltings

This week sees a resurgence in the "staples" here on Sonic Masala - whilst we have been fairly regular with Video Vacuum posts, there haven't been much in the way of the others. First up is a Friday Cover Up - and this is a doozy, Brazilian label Pug Records' brilliant single club Mutt Singles (which brought us one of the best songs EVER, Ciro Madd's 'You and Me') have put out this cover from Terry Malts guitarist Corey. The cover? Nothing other than anarcho-punks Crass' 'Do They Owe Us A Living'. Corey's take is decidedly Terry Maltsian - AKA poppy, bouncy, sunny. I'm not sure the English ruffians would approve... But it's making me smile regardless.


And just because I love it so much, here is 'You and Me'!

Terry Malts Is Everywhere

San Francisco's Terry Malts ripped out an unexpected highlight of 2012 with their debut record Killing Time. The trio set up a tightrope sound that wavered over the territories of ebullient guitar rock, nascent gutter punk and narcotic pop hooks and clung desperately to the wire. Sophomore effort Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere is a darker and yet more gleeful rendition of this dynamic. Skewing the title of Neil Young's excellent 1969 album, Terry Malts play their cards flagrantly from the outset. The band call themselves chainsaw pop, and the way the fuzzed-out guitars serrate the sweetest of harmonies, the most wholesome of melodies, so that the sweet and the sour intermingle like salt in an open wound suffered in a fair floss eating contest, makes true on that image of the lighter edges of devilishness. Its reckless, fast paced nihilism, but done with maniacal grins and hearts pinned garishly on their sleeves.

Buy Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere here, out through Slumberland Records.

Grinning Out On The Plateaus

 

The debut self-titled record from Southern Californian ne’er-do-wells Plateaus came out late last year on Art Fag, and is an interesting amalgam of doo-wop pop, sneering punk, and scuzzy garage rock, infused with a strangely sunny disposition. Only in California, right? The production is a little cleaned up after their Hozac release earlier in 2012, and it imbues these short spikes with some much wanted vigour. It’s true that some of these songs bleed into each other, but that isn’t an altogether bad thing – this is the kind of sunny party record that I want to chuck on. Its fun, unpretentious, precocious, and coy – but above all, it makes me smile. And that’s really the point. A good rock record that makes you smile is always going to win out.

 

You can get Plateaus (on white vinyl!) over this-a-way.

Plateaus – Jump Now
Plateaus – Do It For You
Plateaus – Jasmine

Yes, I'll Be Your Third Eye (Times Forever)

Out of all Vivian Girls offshoots and side-projects (and there are quite a few), Katy Goodman's La Sera is by far the best. And this track - holy shit. Hooked up to the eyeballs! I want to go to there. Seriously, it's so sweet, yet not sickly so, and Goodman's vocals are pitch perfect. I'm really looking forward to the new album, Sees The Light. Really, this track is soundtracking my way through this week - well, that and Terry Malts, I'm gonna OD on fuzzy sugar. But when it sounds so good, I'm gone.

La Sera - Please Be My Third Eye

And in case the aural pleasures aren't enough, try the visuals...

LA SERA "PLEASE BE MY THIRD EYE" DIR BY VICE COOLER from Vice Cooler on Vimeo.

I'm so in love... Sees The Light comes out on Hardly Art in March.

Watch Out Terry Malts! He's In The Mirror!

I haven't heard Killing Time yet. The debut release by San Franciscan garage-pop act Terry Malts has been generating a small amount of anticipation, in no small part because of solid smaller releases and their allegiance to Slumberland Records. And I wasn't all that fussed - until I heard 'Tumble Down'. Now I NEED to hear this record. It is lackadaisically verbose, inherently simple, and so hook-laden that you'll feel perforated afterwards. Then 'Nauseous' fuzzes the fuck up, without letting you go, and it's so effortless. Hells yeah!



Terry Malts - Tumble Down
Terry Malts - Nauseous