On their spellbinding sophomore album, "Whispers in the Speech Machine," the young Ohio siblings from The Laughing Chimes fully embrace their Southern Gothic influences, cannily balancing the light of their infectious pop with the shadow of their rust belt environs. While attending an afterschool music program at their local opera house, Evan and his brother Quinn began recording The Laughing Chimes' debut album "In This Town," released in 2020. A string of well-received digital singles and a cassette EP for Slumberland followed, dazzling savvy pop fans with their Paisley Underground-inflected jangle that owes as much to the Flying Nun sound as it does to 80s Athens, GA.

The eight assured songs of "Whispers in the Speech Machine" prove The Laughing Chimes deserve the attention and accolades, while their approaches to songwriting and sonic aesthetics continue to evolve. "Southeast Ohio is the foothills of Appalachia, so it has this indescribable mood and atmosphere to it," guitarist/vocalist Evan Seurkamp told The Big Takeover. "Sometimes there's a haunting weight of decay you want to escape, but at the same time there is some sort of strange romanticism surrounding ghost towns. We've tried to channel those moods to add more regional flavor into our sound."

Whispers In The Speech Machine

The Laughing Chimes - High Beams

Lunchbox's legendary lost album "Evolver" is lost no more! Sparklingly remastered for the album’s twentieth (and a few!) anniversary and available on CD, cassette and (for the first time) vinyl, this psychedelic masterpiece fills a crucial hole in the band's discography. Recorded in the couple's 1990s Oakland basement between stays in Berlin, tour dates in London, and dreamy sojourns up the rugged Mendocino coastline, "Evolver" fuses jangle and jungle, ambient and dub into a striking pop statement.

Marrying refined songcraft to the serendipitous magic hidden in half-broken reel-to-reel tape decks and vintage synthesizers, the "Evolver" plants its pop flag on the terrain of magic and mystery. Dreamy jangle pop gems emerge seamlessly out of a sea of loops, drones, and dubbed-out horn fanfares, cascades of tape echo feedback and whispers from outer space providing a trance-inducing backdrop to the pop sensibility for which Lunchbox is well-known. Hook-filled and hypnotic, "Evolver" is a sublime slice of post-pop psychedelia that you won't want to miss.

For this special and long-overdue reissue we've raided the bands vaults for three previously unreleased tunes that add extra dimensions to the album's uniquely trippy flow. And for the vinyl heads we're pressing this as a double LP for maximum fidelity and playability, including a *vinyl-only* fourth side of beats, loops, interludes and puzzling aural ephemera, all taken directly from the original master tapes. Super cool!

Lunchbox - Tone Poem

Carrying on the long tradition of sentimental jangle pop songwriters, Lightheaded distill decades of lovelorn tunes into sounds for modern softies. They have the sunshine sparkle of The Left Banke and Margo Guryan, the C86 charm of Dolly Mixture and Would-Be-Goods, and the cinematic swell of Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura.

"Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!" is their most collaborative and earnest release to date, and marks their first collaborative release with Slumberland and the UK's Skep Wax label. From Laurel Canyon folky jangle to elegant chamber pop to lovesick girl-group ballads, Lightheaded's tunes nod to the ‘60s without feeling antiquated and this new EP is their most perfectly bittersweet and fully-realized recording yet.

Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!

pre-order

Lightheaded - Same Drop

Over the course of a decade playing together and making records as Jeanines, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, docking at ports of call as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine/soft pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and of course indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album "How Long Can It Last" finds Jeanines grappling with serious themes of personal and professional upheaval, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With lyrics that look deeply at time and its reverberations, connections and ruptures, songs like "Coaxed A Storm," "What's Done Is Done" and "On and On" combine richly melodic tunes and crisp arrangements to stellar effect. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs and giving each the feeling of a lost classic.

How Long Can It Last

Jeanines - On And On

With buckets of melancholic charm and an unerring ear for a great tune, Autocamper are the perfect pop tonic to our Age of Anxiety. “What Do You Do All Day?” is their debut album and their wide-eyed reflections on unrequited romances, bedroom tiffs and hungover misdemeanors effortlessly retrofit the jangle pop sounds of the '80s without any trace of C86 revisionism.

Boisterous, lovable songs like “Again,” “Foxes” and "Proper" hearken back to the DIY roots of the early Flying Nun and Postcard label bands, groups who were as inspired by punk and post-punk as by 60s jangle and 70s AM radio pop. Fresh and utterly timeless -- not twee, not anorak, not lucky, just pop. It’s these truths that distinguish them from their peers, the hollow strains of Instagram Indie and the corporate pop that forces us to be joyful.


What Do You Do All Day?

Autocamper - Again

"Tricky Questions" is the first new music from Allo Darlin' since 2014's "We Come From The Same Place" and it shows the Anglo-Australian indiepop quartet in fine form indeed. It's a jaunty bit of country-inflected folk that centers songwriter Elizabeth Morris Innset's warm vocals and highlights some nifty organ from drummer Mike Collins. The vibe is at once contemplative and joyous, reflecting a band that has lived a lot since they last made music together and has some great new stories to tell.

Allo Darlin' - Tricky Questions

On their first new album in a decade, Anglo-Australian indiepop quartet Allo Darlin’ return with "Bright Nights" -- marking the return of their smart, beautiful pop music. "My Love Will Bring You Home" is a gorgeous country-tinged song that ably exhibits songwriter and vocalist Elizabeth Morris Innset's melodic flair and lyrical gifts. It's a joyous and infectiously uplifting tune that, like the rest of "Bright Nights," wraps you in a warm and comforting musical embrace.

Bright Nights

Allo Darlin' - My Love Will Bring You Home

"Amiss" by waterbaby, out now on Sub Pop Records.
Order & Listen Now: https://music.subpop.com/waterbaby_amiss

waterbaby: 
Bandcamp: https://waterbabyonline.bandcamp.com
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Amiss

waterbaby - Amiss

Written and performed by Nick Byrne & Tom Symmonds.

Produced and engineered by Jake Robbins at Egypt Lane Studios, Buckinghamshire.

Bass guitar performed by Alex Baker. Drums and tambourine performed by Andrew Lane.

Strings arranged by Nick Byrne, with additional arrangements by Sophia Bartlett and James Bloom.

Violin performed by Sophia Bartlett, recorded at Ctrl P Studio, Bermondsey, London.

Cover photograph of Cerro La Virgen, Peñaflor, Chile, taken by Nick Byrne in April 2014. 

Jigsaw

Fervours