#the splinters

For this I hate you, Coward.

I would have given them everything I had, I would have passed through death with them, at their side...

Yes, I think I know this emotion now.

It is when you love someone, and someone else loves them too, but not enough.

And people like you, the gray ones tell me they can love me too. So I let myself feel it.

Only to find out that is likely untrue and even if it was, the one they are head over heels for will not give into their love. Will be IN love with them b- before they die... If Rem would only love them as they should be....

But they are too afraid.

So yes I am jealous.

And I am angry.

The Splinters- Cool

Oakland, CA four piece doing jangly garage pop that sounds like it would fit in nicely in between the K Records and Kill Rock Stars rosters. It's like if twee were the awkward, shy girl in class and she suddenly started showing up in a leather jacket and Raybans. Yeah, I'm still working on description writing.

On a side note, the footage from this video is from the film "She Devils On Wheels", which is an absolutely brilliant 60s movie about an all girl motorcycle gang, played by actual bikers (and very obviously, not actors, but it works so well).

By Mariana Timony

The desert has always held a natural attraction for people with holes in their hearts. Despite calling Oakland home, the Splinters make like true SoCal girls and heed the call of the Mojave on Carcass, their new 7" out now on Southpaw Records.

The band's still playing with the cheeky girl group persona and tough-as-nails punk edge that made debut LP Kick such a treat, but Carcass proves that even riot grrrls get the blues. The jangly garage-pop title track sees the Splinters fleeing a decaying relationship, seeking deliverance in the sun-bleached landscape beyond the suburbs and strip malls. Both it and the spunky b-side "Cactus" revolve around a central metaphor of isolation set to dusty guitar riffs, spare drumming, and unconventional harmonies, i.e. no harmonies. 

Matthew Melton of Bare Wires recorded Carcass, and he gives the Splinters a sound that's intimate in execution but slightly remote in tone, as if it were being broadcast through a transistor radio. Of course, it wouldn't matter if the songs weren't up to snuff, but the Splinters strike the perfect balance between sentiment and sass. Sadly, punk has always been more comfortable with angry girls than sad ones, hence the quickness with which such expressions of female emotions are labeled twee; there's nothing twee about "Carcass" when the song breaks down to a primitive beat and the words dissolve into a mournful howl, a coyote baying at the cold and distant moon.

Carcass is limited to 400 pressings, 100 of which are available on colored vinyl. Order it here.