Sisters of the Moon b/w Fire and Brimstone

Sisters of the Moon

One Kiss

Night Surfer

Take Me Down

How to Be a Confidante

Closer to

Buy For Less

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

A Season In Hell

Inland Ocean

Though they only released a handful of songs during their two-year lifetime, Black Tambourine has been hugely influential in the world of indie music. Conceived of as an explicitly pop band at a time when such bands were pretty rare in America, Black Tambourine wore their influences on their sleeves: The Jesus & Mary Chain, of course, but also folks like Phil Spector, Smokey Robinson, Love, The Ramones, Shop Assistants, The Pastels, 14 Iced Bears, Orange Juice and the list goes on… The band's dark, dreamy sound was consonant with the shoegaze sounds of the day, but the classic 60s-influenced songwriting gives their tunes a timeless appeal. Formed in 1989 as a side project by members of Whorl and Velocity Girl, they soon recruited their mate Pam Berry as vocalist and released their first song, quixotically an instrumental, on Slumberland's very first release. Two singles followed, along with a pair of compilation contributions. Alas, other obligations became more pressing and the band called it a day in 1991.

Though their recorded output was quite limited, the music has continued to inspire indie, punk and indie-pop bands down the years. As the band's twentieth anniversary arrives, just about any review of or article about a noisy pop band drops their name, and their influence on bands as diverse as Vivian Girls, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Wavves and Dum Dum Girls is continuing proof of Black Tambourine's legendary status in indie music. Interestingly, it would appear that 2010 is the year for Black Tambourine!

"Black Tambourine" gathers up all of the songs released by Black Tambourine, and handily trumps 1999's Complete Recordings reissue by including six previously unreleased tunes. Songs like "Black Car," "We Can't Be Friends" and "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge" are foundation documents of indie-pop and sound as fresh today as when they were recorded twenty years ago. And while classics like "Pack You Up" and "Drown" can stand on their own just fine, the band has taken the rather unexpected step of reuniting to record four new songs exclusively for this compilation. Consisting of two originals and two covers (of songs by Buddy Holly and Suicide), these recordings include all of the original members and are quite true to the Black Tambourine spirit. The songs themselves are tunes that the band played back in the day and never got to record, so these added tracks truly round out the Black Tambourine picture and make this a very special release indeed.

The words "essential" and "seminal" are thrown around a lot when talking about reissues, but this is one case where those adjectives are truly earned. Presented in a deluxe remastered edition, expanded to include four new songs and two early demos, and on 12" vinyl for the first time, "Black Tambourine" looks slated to be one of the crucial releases of 2010.

Black Tambourine - Drown

Slumberland began operations in 1989 as a collective effort consisting of members of DC area bands Velocity Girl, Big Jesus Trash Can/Whorl, Black Tambourine and Powderburns. We were inspired by such musical happenings as C86, early Creation, Postcard, K, Bus Stop, lower East Side noise, and also the renegade art aesthetics & methods of people like Cage, Burroughs and Duchamp. The explosion of punk had left behind a thriving network of 'zines, labels and distributors and we felt that there was room for our noise-loving, pop-obsessed aesthetic. While there were loads of US indie labels releasing a steady stream of 7"s, there wasn't much pop going on. Notable exceptions included Bus Stop, K and Picture Book, and we hoped to join that group and help chisel out some space for melodies amongst the noise.

Early releases from Velocity Girl, Whorl and Black Tambourine struck a note, and we found like-minded popsters getting in touch from all over the world. As we expanded the label roster and our own horizons, the goal was always to share great songs and interesting sounds from a range of styles. Our first burst of activity through the 1990s and early 2000s brought seminal records by legendary bands like Stereolab, Rocketship, The Ropers, Lorelei, The Aislers Set, Hood and Boyracer.

By the mid 2000s we were seeing a resurgence of interest in guitar pop and the start of the ongoing vinyl revival: the perfect environment for Slumberland! We launched into our latest phase of activity with as string of classic releases from The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose, Veronica Falls, Allo Darlin', Joanna Gruesome and so many more.

2025 is our thirty-sixth (!) year we are still at it, ploughing our own furrow and bringing you unique, genre-defining (and genre-defying!) releases from bands like The Laughing Chimes, Humdrum, The Cords, Autocamper, Jeanines, The Umbrellas, Neutrals, Artsick, Kids On A Crime Spree, Papercuts, Lightheaded, Tony Jay, Chime School, Lunchbox and many, many more. Indie fashions come and go but we're still thrilled by great songs and the new ways that pop can be rejuvenated to fit the times.

Black Tambourine - Drown

Slumberland Records

Related tracks