Lunchbox's legendary lost album "Evolver" is a masterful blend of fuzzy bubblegum pop and analog abstraction, and the title song illustrates this in fine fashion. It's free-wheeling psychedelic pop at its best, echoing contemporaries like The Apples In Stereo and The Boo Radleys, while nailing down the jangly pop template that's been Lunchbox's bedrock since. The songs dissolves into a chaotic tape-edited outro, a perfect way to begin this unique and adventurous album.

Evolver

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Lunchbox - Evolver

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

Party Time

Wells Fargo

photography by: jessica gibbs
artwork by: melanie sarria
recorded by: airhockey
mixed & mastered by: sebastian hidalgo

little friday

little dog

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!

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Lightheaded - Same Drop

"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

Attention,
Give me attention
I want this in my mind
Attention,
Give me attention
I want this in my mind
Slowly,
Talk to me slowly
I want you in my mind
Slowly,
Talk to me slowly
I want you in my mind

Coming so close like I've never been before
Holding me tight and I feel like I'll implode
Do I want you? Or am I just a selfish bitch
I don't need anyone, not even myself

You're a fucked-up dictator
You do things against my nature
Philosophical atrocity
Sexual monstrosity
You're educated and delicate
And I am such a dread
Yet you still fucked me on my bed
Cause you so badly needed that

My eyes were empty
Motionless
But you'd still say I'm the worst

Disrespectful, give no affection
And always misbehaving
Call my mother once again
And ask her 'bout the weather then

You're a fucking hypocrite
Praising all the knowledge

Philosophers, lectures and books you've read
And you're still thinking with your dick

released April 4, 2025
Authors:
• Agnieszka Trawczyńska
• Aleksander Kaczmarek
• Simon Velázquez
Producer:
• Aleksander Kaczmarek 
Mixing Engineer:
• Aleksander Kaczmarek
Mastering Engineer:
• Krzysztof Kessler

attention

Rockhounds

Next To Die

Loaded Painted Red

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.

Lunchbox - Evolver

Slumberland Records

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