quality tune. bass and guitar prompt and provoke each other throughout. Got an echo and the bunnymen feel about it with a more goth rock vocal 

Rat Columns is the ever changing musical project of David West and friends. West is involved in other groups such as Rank/Xerox and Liberation, was a member of Total Control and Lace Curtain, and in recent years has released 2 eponymous solo LP's. Rat Columns emerged from the desert outpost of Perth, Western Australia in the late 2000s, influenced by largely anglocentric forms such as post-punk and jangle pop,  and has developed over time with an array of different friends from the USA and Australia, emitting a jet stream of 7”s, EPs and three full length albums along the way.

The third full length LP "Candle Power" was released in 2017, a mix of indie pop, post-punk and disco. The songs included on the "Sometimes We're Friends" EP were recorded at the same time as "Candle Power" in Guildford, Western Australia, in a back shed studio on a rambling riverside property. Beyond West, the Australian Rat Columns line-up of Perth underground luminaries, Amber Gempton, Louis Hooper and Chris Cobilis is featured, as well as musical wunderkind Cohen Bourgault guesting on violin. This recording sees Rat Columns dancing around classicist, German-influenced propulsive guitar pop on 'Sometimes We're Friends', an indie pop gossamer ballad involving an 'Astral Lover', and an unusual diversion into downer, vaguely Young-esque dirge rock on the cheery 'Waiting To Die'. This is the first Rat Columns release on the long-running, Bay Area-based Slumberland imprint.

Sometimes We're Friends

Rat Columns - Sometimes We're Friends

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.

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