The Umbrellas album sampler

Joining a long line of SF bay area indie bands, The Umbrellas are sure to dazzle with their new self-titled debut album. Classic indiepop influences abound, from The Byrds to Orange Juice, The Pastels, Comet Gain and Belle & Sebastian, along with a noticeable garage-pop/Paisley Underground flavor that is a hallmark of San Francisco's best bands. Lead-off single "She Buys Herself Flowers" introduces us to a band that's both intimately conversant with indiepop history but also unburdened by it, a group with the song-crafting chops and spirit to take familiar elements and create for themselves a fresh new sound. The album goes from strength to strength, studded with pop gems like "Near You," "Lonely" and "Pictures" -- tunes that sound like classics from the first listen, as timeless and elemental as all great pop.

The Umbrellas

The Umbrellas - Pictures

The Umbrellas - She Buys Herself Flowers

Taken from their ace self-titled debut album, "Near You" might be The Umbrellas' purest jangle-pop moment. It's a lovely mid-tempo tune that recalls ace female-fronted indiepop classics from groups like Heavenly and Camera Obscura, full of sing-song melodies, deft tambourine accents and perfectly infectious, timeless guitar jangle. At a mere two minutes in length "Near You" is over far too soon, leaving you the only option of hitting the back button and letting Morgan's honeyed vocals wash over you all over again. Achingly good.

The Umbrellas - Near You

Junkyard Jazz

Twist It, Shake It. Rock & Roll

Drifter

Above Water

Sweet Pill - "Where the Heart Is"

Antarctica

Lonely

🎧 Listen / Stream
https://song.link/sakkaris-hold-it-against-you

Hold It Against You

Sakkaris - Hold It Against You

Ian Ruhala, better known as HALA, has been writing and recording music for several years now and at the
young age of 19, he is already a singer/songwriter veteran.

With several releases already under his belt, even before graduating high school, Ruhala has created some
buzz with his solo, at-home/DIY recording style that relates well with music from artists like M. Ward,
Mac DeMarco and Travis Bretzer.

After attending college at Central Michigan University for a semester, Ruhala’s mind was more on lyrics than
on school-work. Writing over sixty songs during this time period, Ian decided to fully immerse himself into his passion to manufacture his first proper debut, Spoonfed.

The meaning behind Spoonfed, as Ruhala explains, is about dealing with the things and ideas that people feed you when you are young, and trying to do your best to not repeat the norm. Songs like “Phone Calls,” and
“Not Your Modern Man” discuss topics like marrying young, and society’s fear of face-to-face interaction
with each other, with lyrics that you will be surprised to find out, came from an 18 year old kid from Michigan.

Every song on this album tells a story; heart-break is talked about in the ironically upbeat song “Reruns,” and the track “Just Because,” shows HALA’s appreciation for the simple things in life, with the line, “Sunday morning, Dad’s at home, watches football and paints his toes, will I ever be?” One thing is for sure, it is extremely refreshing to see someone so young be able to produce something of this magnitude; Ruhala’s future is bright.

Get your bowls, and a spoon, because this Indie singer/songwriter says, "breakfast is served."

©Balaclava Records. All rights reserved.

Feelings Locked Up Tight

track 4 off of the sophomore record No Hitter! 

https://petiteleague.bandcamp.com/album/no-hitter
https://www.facebook.com/PetiteLeague 

No Hitter

TYLENOL

Clash the Truth

Crashed Out

Beach Fossils

The Horse

Off the new Petite League record 'RIPS ONE INTO THE NIGHT' out now!

petiteleague.bandcamp.com/ - Digital download / Vinyl purchase
facebook.com/PetiteLeague/
twitter.com/PetiteLeague/
instagram.com/lorenzogilliscook/

album art by Lorenzo Cook

DEVIL'S BOY

Slumberland began operations in 1989, inspired by such musical happenings as C-86, early Creation, Sarah, Postcard, and the UK post-punk indie label scene. Since then we've covered a lot of territory, from punk to lofi noise to shoegaze and of course pop, releasing records from bands like The Aislers Set, Boyracer, Stereolab, Rocketship, Lorelei, The Ropers, The Saturday People and Black Tambourine.

By the mid 2000s we were starting to see 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.

2018 is our twenty-ninth year we are still going strong, ploughing our own furrow and bringing you unique, genre-defining (and genre-defying!) releases from bands like Smokescreens, Tony Molina, Papercuts, Business of Dreams, Peel Dream Magazine, D.A. Stern, The Spook School, Frankie Rose, Young Guv, Terry Malts and many, many more. As always, we operate entirely outside of the echo chamber of trends, fashion and phoney hipness. Slumberland bands are independent in the best way possible -- making music devoid of bullshit and true to their own voices, regardless of current popular taste.

The Umbrellas - Near You

Slumberland Records

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