#jangle pop

I really like what I've heard by this UK bunch full of some folks in other bands (including Rachel Love formerly of the Dolly Mixture plus Peter and Ian from Heavenly and the horn played by Allison Thomson (Trashcan Sinatras). Quite a combo, eh?

...and man, this song is simply spectacular! At least to my ears. You'll definitely hear a Stereolab-ish chug with the dreamy vocals and the horns blend right in. Simply hypnotic and one of my songs of the year so far!

The album Two Steps At A Time is out September 18th.

www.railcardband.bandcamp.com

www.slumberlandrecs.bandcamp.com

www.skepwax.bandcamp.com

I have to admit, I haven't paid any attention to Pete Yorn for, well, 20-plus years.

Circa 2001–2003, I had a girlfriend who was really into him. She knew every word to every song and put them on a few mixtapes for me right at the end of the mixtape era. We even caught him at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom on a bill with The Hives and Jimmy Eat World.

When  that relationship went sideways real fast shortly after, I associated Pete Yorn with her and never checked out his stuff again. Not a single note.

The other day, I was listening to the new Trashcan Sinatras album (R.I.P. John Douglas), and when it came to a close, a song came on via autoplay. A couple of verses in, it had won me over. Pulling my phone out of my pocket and looking at the display, I saw it was Pete Yorn with the title track off his new album, All the Beauty.

"Trains" features mandolin. I’m usually not a fan of the instrument.  think the overplaying on R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” all but murdered it for me, but it actually works here. The song carries a Teenage Fanclub-esque chorus, as does “The Same Lie” a couple of tracks down, which adds a great guitar solo to the mix. With "Out of My Head" following suit, All the Beauty should definitely be sought out by any fan of the Scottish group.

A couple of songs on All the Beauty, like “Estate,” bring to mind what I used to call the “bringing back the rock” bands I loved from the early to mid-aughts, like The Stills or Longwave, that so many have forgotten about.

“Everything,” a nice, simple song showcasing some classic Beach Boys-inspired harmonies, brings the album to a close.

I’d say right now All the Beauty, along with that Trashcan Sinatras album, which may get a review of its own, has climbed high up on my list of favorite albums of the year.

Now excuse me, I have 20-plus years of Pete Yorn music to catch up on. (review by Josh Greenbaum)

www.peteyorn.bandcamp.com

www.peteyorn.com

Atlanta, GA songwriter who's released a bunch stuff on his Bandcamp page but this is the first I've heard of him. And it's an homage to one of his favorite albums of all time, Yo la Tengo's Fakebook (1990)! One of my fave YLT records. 

He covers 62.5% of the record which as he mentions consists of mostly covers.

"All songs recorded live to Iphone in the 21st century," and aside from some backing vocals by a few friends, it's all Scott. 

Give this a listen....if you dig the album you'll dig this. The only downside is it doesn't include versions of "Griselda" or "Yellow Sarong" (two of my faves from the record).

I like it when artists take a stab at doing a whole (or mostly all) of a record and put their own spin/personality on it. This one deserves to be heard.

I always liked Chicago  (ok, Orland, Park, IL ....close enough) Non-Stop Banter and have a handful of issues from those roaring 1980's. 

It was run by the Novak folks: Debbie, Bruce and Tom who always put together a nice looking mag that always had a boatload of reviews and had a real pro look to it (not quite Matter but not quite Dagger either,.,.much closer to the former....a compliment).

They always had a bunch of talented folks writing for them as well. A few names that may jog  your memory include Tim Adams, Fred Mills, Jon Ginoli, Peter Margasak and the late Carol Scutzbank to name but a few.

On this cool "back to school" issue you've got Gibby with a sneaker on his head plus plenty of other faves listed right there on the cover (Angry Red Planet! Killdozer! Eleventh Dream Day!).  And in the Fresh Produce column they've always review some mighty fine zines. 

Not sure when this one ended but always a fine read and glad I kept my copies.

The quartet of the Moore Gerety brothers of Finn and Carrick along with bassist Matt Fishbeck and drummer David Benjamin formed in Cambridge, MA (Harvard dudes) and released a few singles before releasing this terrific debut on Eric Masunaga's (Dambuilders) Sealed Fate label. 

The band had the songwriting down pat. Check out the first three songs: "Nine Straight Lines," "Pop Phenomenon" and "Florida" which all drop the pop perfection most heavily (all tunes in the McCartney/Wings vein with a touch of Squeeze). 

And don't stop there or you'll miss snappy pop tunes like "Mrs McKean," "Stay With Her" and "Number Ones" to name but a few. They mix up the tempos and arrangements pretty darn nicely. 

The band was embraced by the indie pop/rock community on this debut, but did not find the audience it should have as I thought they were gonna be huge. 

Anyway, this record isn't talked about nearly enough and it should be. Like I always say, If you missed it in the 90's then discover it now. 

This Scottish band (Edinburgh) formed in 1985, apparently stoked by a Television Personalities gig (and nearly signed to Dan Treacy's label but alas...that didn't happen) and were off and running....for a few years anyway.

Apparently the band recorded a bunch of tunes that were recently unearthed by the Slumberland label and if the rest of the tunes are as good as "I've Got A Friend" tune then we'll all wonder why this wasn't released 40 year prior!

"I've Got A Friend" is a terrific, snappy tune that demands repeated listens. Oh and it was mixed by Archie Moore (Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine, etc) so yet another reason to pre-order this!

Galashiels will be out on Slumberland on 9/25/26. 

I was totally late to Matter. Part of it is that I was a punk rock knucklehead during the years of 1984-1986 so it wasn't until a year or so later that I became interested in some of these bands. 

This was the first issue I saw of it. A friend of mine, Neko, had come out to NJ to visit during the summer of 1985 and brought this issue with her for me and my music loving pals to check out (akso Neko had a huge crush on Thurston Moore and talked about him incessantly!).

Matter had started in Chicago by Elizabeth Phillip and then at some point in there she moved to Hoboken and that is where the mag remained until it wound down. 

Aside from being a great looking mag (glossy which a lot of zines were not back then) she also had a great staff of writers contributing every issue. Just in this issue alone she has Steve Albini, Byron Coley, Gerard Cosloy, Ira Kaplan (who was chief copy editor), Jim Derogatis, Jimmy Johnson, Jim Testa, Howard Wuelfing and many others That's a lineup of heavies if ever I saw one!

Anywho, as you can see on the cover it's got Sonic Yoof, Redd, Kross, Great Plains, Killdozer, Game Theory, the Hoboken scene and plenty more, 

I've got about 6 or 7 issues of Matter floating around here and I always enjoy randomly picking them up and paging through them. Another great one!