Covers of every song from Pete Astor's 'Songbox' album (Second Language, 2012).  CD now deleted but available on all good digital platforms.  For more info on 'Songbox' go here : http://www.secondlanguagemusic.com/SL012.html

Pete Astor 'Songbox' covers

comet gain

acty

Rock pop 15

Classic pop. Such a loaded term, conjuring visions of jangling 12-string guitars, angelic harmonies and timeless arrangements. Ask ten people to name a classic tune and you'll get ten different answers, all of them equally valid. And yet there are standards that all can agree on: The Beach Boys, The Byrds, early REM, The Zombies, The Kinks. The list could go on...

DC's The Saturday People know, understand and revere classic pop. And, of course, they also make it. Featuring an impeccable pedigree with members of Velocity Girl, The Ropers, Tree Fort Angst and The Castaway Stones, the People effortlessly combine 60s folk-pop and soft-rock with power-pop and 80s jangle-pop. That's a lot of references right there, but fans of such groups as Biff Bang Pow, Orange Juice, The Grass Roots and The Weather Prophets should feel right at home with the People's sweet sounds. The guitars clang and strum, the drums pop along and the stellar tunes put you in orbit. The song-writing is a particular high-point, fuelled by the complementary styles of co-front men Greg and Terry. The arrangements are full and effective, supplementing the standard band line-up with added percussion and piano. Bassist Archie's production talents are in full evidence - this record sounds magnificent. And, wrapped in a snazzy sleeve designed by Daisuke from Beigoku Ongaku, it looks pretty sharp too.

It's an all around triumph, really, and further proof that quality tunes are always in style and bands need not kow-tow to the latest trends to make relevant music. Eventually it all comes down to classic tunes, great playing and infectious enthusiasm, and The Saturday People have all of that in spades.

The Saturday People - The Man Without Qualities, Part I

Our seventh release and definitely one of the early ones that got us some notice outside of DC. Lilys were a local band that played with a lot of SLR bands and eventually included some members of Velocity Girl and Lorelei, so working with them seemed like a natural fit. I remember pretty vividly the first time I heard the master tape - it perfectly captured how explosive the band was live and how sharp the song-writing was. A stone cold classic.
 - Papa Slumber

Lilys - February Fourteenth

Following on from their great EP on Woodsist and a summer of packed shows and increasing anticipation, we are very proud to bring you "Alight of Night," an album that more than delivers on the promise of their early singles. So what's it like, you ask? There is a definite flavor of Velvet Underground to be had, but Crystal Stilts' spectral avant-garage also takes in such far-flung references as: the spooked 60s Texas psych of 13th Floor Elevators and Red Crayola, the gothic blues/punk howl of Gun Club, the dark, experimental DIYism of early Flying Nun/Xpressway groups Pin Group and Plagal Grind, and a post-punk minimalism that brings to mind early Rough Trade and Factory releases. There is definitely a strong pop element as well, with the buzzsaw bubblegum of early Mary Chain b-sides and Meat Whiplash coming to mind.

These are all just rough points of reference, though -- "Alight of Night" is far more than just the sum of the bands influences. From the twang 'n' echo of "Crystal Stilts" to the primal pop stomp of "Prismatic Room" and the lovely jangle of "Shattered Shine," the band always adds something extra and unique to the mix, whether it's a fleeting dash of harmonica, a hypnotic organ line or just an amazing guitar sound. There is a unity of purpose at work here, a special mood conjured by the sounds, production and sequence of songs that lifts this album into the realm of the classics, and reveals new twists and turns on each listen.

Like all great albums, every piece just sits in exactly the right place, each song builds on the last and by the end you couldn't imagine changing anything about it at all. Eerily familiar but totally now, "Alight of Night" is a brilliantly haunting slice of rock primitivism.

Crystal Stilts - Departure

Brian Eno live. The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch

Every now and then there's a band that pops up whose sheer enthusiasm in making music, that joy in finding the RIGHT songs and playing them the RIGHT way is so obvious that it's just contagious. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart is one of those bands. Since forming in early 2007, the Pains have released a handful of EPs and compilation tracks on classy labels like Slumberland, Atomic Beat and Cloudberry, each one issued to greater anticipation and even wilder reception. The band's breathless noise-pop sound has garnered them critical acclaim from such quarters as Stereogum, Big Takeover, Skatterbrain, Indie Pages, Drowned In Sound, Indie-MP3, Clash Magazine and uncountable others.
And now we have their brand new single in hand, and we think you'll agree that it's the most infectious blast of pop perfection you will hear all year. Taken from their forthcoming debut album (due in January 2009), "Everything With You" is a tidy distillation of all the great noise-pop precedents - early MBV, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship - but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song. There is simply no such thing as a rote moment or lazily-delivered tune in their repertoire. Every song is delivered with pure conviction and unstoppable verve, the excitement of youth just rushing forth and sweeping the listener along.
This autumn is looking to be a mighty busy one for the Pains, with a tour of Sweden in September and December jaunt around the British Isles accompanying The Wedding Present. "Everything With You" and its anthemic b-side "The Pains of Being Pure At Heart" will be the sounds that you'll hear all fall, rocking the discos and blasting from iPods. The Pains are crafting noise pop gems that are timeless but completely NOW, and these two examples are all the proof you need that this is definitely a band to cherish.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Everything With You

Hot on the heels of their critically-lauded singles compilation, "It's Time!," Cause Co-Motion! hit the studio to bring you their, as it turned out, final installment of earnest DIY pop, this time in the form of this fab six song 12" EP entitled "Because Because Because." Over the last few years Cause Co-Motion! have made quite a name for themselves as purveyors of crash-pop of the finest quality, blending 60s garage-pop impulses with Messthetic-inflected post-punk and the scrappy end of the 80s indie scene, as exemplified by groups like Television Personalities, Beat Happening and The Pastels.

"Because Because Because" begins a new chapter in the Cause Co-Motion! story. Committed to tape in the course of a day spent with Gary Olson of the Ladybug Transistor at his Marlborough Farms studio, this EP balances the band's frenetic attack with a more open approach to arrangements and space. The songs are all top-drawer too, and we fully expect the driving "Leave It All" and the Buddy Holly-esque "You Lose" to take their places in the Cause Co-Motion! pantheon of future classics.

Fired by a love of classic pop and a punkish devotion to short songs, eager tempos and enthusiasm-over-technique, Cause Co-Motion! have busted out of their native Brooklyn to garner a world-wide fanbase and critical acclaim from such respected organs of music opinion as Pitchfork, Under The Radar, Spin, Skyscraper, Exclaim and of course countless blogs. Because Because Because is further proof of their mastery of exuberant, hooky garage pop, a ten minute blast of racket, reverb and energy that's as timeless as it is perfectly of-the-moment.

Cause Co-Motion! - You Lose

COMET GAIN return with their seventh album “Paperback Ghosts” on July 7th, their first since 2011’s critically acclaimed “Howl of The Lonely Crowd”. Recorded at Soup Studios with producer Simon Trought at the helm, and inspired by the psycho-geography of walks in North London woods and in the forgotten grey hinterland of the city’s back streets, “Paperback Ghosts” comes soaked in autumn melancholy. Tender-hearted but not miserable, defiant but not angry, it maintains the delicate balance that has always been Comet Gain’s strength.

"Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown" captures a moment in time, old friends together on one of those magic nights that sweep into morning, everyone afraid to leave the dancing and the drinking... all nights merging into this one special romantic night that has to be held onto with sad determination because Heaven is a lie... joyous glorious ghosts seen in the half light, still holding on to each other long after they have died.

Comet Gain - Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown

Taken from the album Paperback Ghosts, Comet Gain’s new single “'Sad Love' and Other Short Stories” is a classic upbeat indiepop tune, brimming with melody and slathered in chiming Byrdsian guitars. Over yearning harmonies and keening strings songwriter David Feck muses on a love left behind and what might have been, on a life haunted by memories of unrequited romance.

Comet Gain - "Sad Love" And Other Short Stories

COMET GAIN
Fingerprint Ritual EP
6 April 2015- Fortuna POP! – FPOP170 - Red vinyl 12”

Fresh from the success of their seventh album “Paperback Ghosts”, COMET GAIN return with a four song EP of tracks recorded at Soup Studios with producer Simon Trought at the same time as the LP, but owing more to more musically to psychedelia/garage/kosmiche punk side of the band than the melancholic-hearted autumnal Rickenbacker sound of the album.

TO THE CITY'S CORE - Inept white boys n girls attempt to play Bo Diddleys 'Black Gladiator' LP with a 'Slates'-era Fall sneer and end up somewhere else - includes Comet Gain's first funky(ish) break beat and a farfisa organ played thru a mangled fuzz pedal. Words involve Buckminster Fullers utopian architectural dreams gone wrong - the city as a virus, its life cycle like that of humans in mid-life crisis seen thru the psychic warfare in its core and the anger of the neglected suburbs aiming at it, the history of city war as the target thru history seen thru the lens of the time like Paris from communard uprisings to today's atrocities.

04 Comet Gain - Four Letter Word

Second Language Music