My selections for August 2019. Hear the full playlist at http://www.birp.fm

BIRP! August 2019

Pre-order now: https://smarturl.it/usedtoyesterday

Smokescreens began as a love letter to the Flying Nun scene of the 1980’s and it’s outlying bands. Chris Rosi and Corey Cunningham had become friends when the pair toured together in their bands Plateaus and Terry Malts in 2011. By 2015 both had moved to Los Angeles where they began the band in earnest with Rosi on guitar and Cunningham on bass. After getting their sea legs playing the bars and bowling alleys of Southern California, the duo recruited engineer/drummer Jon Greene to help them commit their shambolic paeans to kiwi pop onto tape. Recorded in a disused dairy factory and mixed in mono, their self-titled debut came out on Cunningham’s label Parked In Hell in February of 2017 and was reissued by Spain’s Meritorio Records later that summer.

After the passing of Jon Greene, the pair re-grouped with drummer Brice Bradley and bassist Jenny Moffett, a move that enabled Cunningham to switch to lead guitar and keyboards. The group worked tirelessly, nurturing their sound and writing batches of songs with steadfast dedication. They soon decamped to Primitive Ears, a small studio in North Hollywood, where they tracked the 10 songs that make up "Used To Yesterday." After a handful of quicksilver sessions, the group brought the tapes to producer Kyle Mullarky (The Allah-lahs) who created a final mix that really captures the band's rhythmic drive and melodic verve.

"Used To Yesterday" continues Smokescreen’s zeal for New Zealand pop but also incorporates influences from the more melodic side of Messthetics-era DIY pop and expands into classic indie pop territory, a natural fit for the group’s new label Slumberland Records. First single "The Lost Song" perfectly encapsulates where the band is coming from on this new record; literally a lost demo from the group's earliest days, it is here given a NZ-meets-Athens GA arrangement, galloping along at an urgent clip and packed with guitars that strum and jangle in magical unison.

Where Smokescreens really excel is in the quality of their songwriting and the ability to incorporate a disparate set of influences while still forging their own sound and identity. The song "Used To Yesterday" is classic power-pop, riding a chunky three chord riff and leavened by a bright, clanging lead. Elsewhere we find nods to The Velvet Underground ("Fool Me"), The Clean ("Someone New") and SF's beloved The Aislers Set ("Waiting For Summer"). Smokescreens are such skilled writers and keen students of sound that their cover of the über-obscure NZ band Wasp Factory's "Steel Blue Skies" fits in seamlessly. Album closer "Falling Down" could be a lost single from LA's paisley underground and definitely leaves the listener itching to hear where the band goes next.

Used To Yesterday

Smokescreens - Someone New

Something Green is the A-Side to New Me's debut 7", being released through Bleeding gold Records August 31st, 2018. It is available for preorder now -> https://bleedinggoldrecords.bigcartel.com/product/new-me-something-greaan-b-w-any-god-7

https://www.facebook.com/musicforanewme
https://www.instagram.com/newme4u/

New Me - Something Green - Bleeding Gold 7"

Always Tomorrow

"Ann's Jam" is the lead single from Chastity Belt's new self-titled album, out September 20th on Hardly Art records. Pre-order your copy today from smarturl.it/chastitybelt

Chastity Belt Website: http://www.chastitybeltmusic.com
Follow Chastity Belt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chast1tybelt
Follow Chastity Belt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chazzybelt/
Like Chastity Belt on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chastitybeltmusic/

Chastity Belt

Chastity Belt - "Ann's Jam"

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbIcCzrMYEI

Mount Sharp's first new release in 5 years. Hello.

lyrics:
Surely I’m not made of bone and blood 
Surely I’m something that’s never or always been 
Am I still earning your love? 
Do I remind you of someone you could dream of? 

Surely you know me (at least you have known) 
And in knowing can let me go 
Am I still earning your love? 
Do I remind you of someone you could dream of? 
You know I could almost thank you 
For growing my apostate crowd 

Surely they can see a change is gonna come 
And in seeing raise the flag and roll the drums 
Am I still earning your love? 
Do I remind you of someone who could ever be enough? 
You know I could almost thank you 
For growing my apostate crowd
credits
releases July 19, 2019 
Produced by Brian Sendrowitz 
Recorded and mixed at Miracle Flag in Bellmore, NY 
Mastered by Sarah Register 
Art by Jenna Breiter

Apostate

One of my all time favourite classic track from the 70's

Blue

All I Have To Do is Dream by The Everly Brothers (Cover)

......
She never caught my eye 
Stonefaced while she passed by 
When she asked, Julian come dance 
I said, not a chance 

Gee im such a fool 
Thought I was way too cool 
Didnt mind 
When she gave me signs 
I said stand in line 

But now 
She is all I want 
What I need 
Falling hard 
All day and night 
All my life 
Falling hard 

Now she don’t look my way 
Thinks im a big cliché 
When I ask 
Honey come dance 
She´ll say not a chance 

Gee im such a fool 
Thought I was way too cool 
She dont mind 
When I give her signs 
She´ll say stand in line 

But now 
She is all I want 
What I need 
Falling hard 
All day and night 
All my life 
Falling hard

All I Want

Anastasia

Mailorder Vinyl LP / Tape:
https://communityrecords.limitedrun.com/products/661093-nova-one-lovable-lp

Mailorder Vinyl / Tape

NOVA ONE - violet dreams

Our New Album 'Celebrated By Strangers' is available for pre-order now: https://C-A.lnk.to/CAS

https://www.catholicaction.co.uk/
https://instagram.com/catholicaction
https://www.facebook.com/catholicactionband/
https://twitter.com/_CatholicAction

Catholic Action - People Don't Protest Enough

From Fran's debut album out 11/15 on Fire Talk.

Pre Order / Pre Save: ffm.to/franaprivatepicture

The trick is to make a confession entertaining. A Private Picture, the debut album by Chicago’s Fran, delivers a collection of extremely personal experiences that have been distilled and abstracted to the point that you can see yourself in their imagery, find analogs to your own emotional history in their scenarios –when you hear them, it’s a conversation. It’s therapy, if therapy was allowed to turn you on and make you shake what you got. At its core, Fran’s music is about sharing a truth -–telling it, confessing it, yelling it—in the service of human connection. Or, as Jacobson puts it, “I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth. I want to challenge myself to get closer and closer to the core of an experience, an emotion- I want to say it, sing it, in a way that says exactly what it is. I cry when I write songs because I am constantly making discoveries, about myself, about the world, about the best way to convey and connect and get closer.”

A Private Picture

Fran - So Surreal

Debut EP out January 17th 2020 via Howlin' Banana.

Pop Crimes - Goes

https://spark.adobe.com/page/yfYlSUiRMJxJZ/

Talk Show - Banshee

Taken from the upcoming album, 'Atopia'.

Music produced and mixed by Thomas Savage with additional mixing by David Pye. Mastering by Eric James at Philosophers barn.

Apostate

Mount Sharp

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