Tastemaker

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

They Love You

The radio's playin' a classic tune
and you swear nothing sounds quite as good as it used to sound
back when
you were younger
The years fly by like classic cars
as fast and bright as a shooting star
I'm left behind
on the sidewalk

It's rainin' so hard I can barely see
but "if its good for the grass, then its good for me"
I tell myself
bitterly
I'm a vine tangled up in a thousand weeds
I'll spend a lifetime lookin' for that golden tree
I know it's there
waiting for me

Makin' money only to survive
And I know you'll get your's before I get mine
get mine

In the weeds

Decorating Time in the Sun

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

Over the course of a decade playing together and making records as Jeanines, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, docking at ports of call as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine/soft pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and of course indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album "How Long Can It Last" finds Jeanines grappling with serious themes of personal and professional upheaval, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With lyrics that look deeply at time and its reverberations, connections and ruptures, songs like "Coaxed A Storm," "What's Done Is Done" and "On and On" combine richly melodic tunes and crisp arrangements to stellar effect. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs and giving each the feeling of a lost classic.

How Long Can It Last

Jeanines - On And On

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

Loaded Painted Red

trade

Ben Cook Aka Young Guv (Fucked Up, Marvelous Darlings, The Bitters) and Marvelous Mark Fosco (Marvelous Darlings) lived together as flat mates for 4 years. Mark came home from his deli job one day with an illicit substance he traded a customer for a deli sandwich. The first session "Back to the Sun/Girlfriend Swap" cannot be remembered by either Roommate but nevertheless ended up on a run of 66 cassettes by now defunct label from the Arctic, Scotch Tapes. "Back To The Sun" is a smashing, soaring bit of power-pop that would sound right at home on a Power Pearls comp, complete with soaring harmonies and mod-ish drum fills. "Girlfriend Swap" is even more tumultuous, exploding in a blur of pop-art guitar flash.

The next session ("Kelly, I'm Not A Creep"/"1st Floor Blues") was of a similar nature, and also ended up as a tape series by Scotch Tapes. "Kelly, I'm Not A Creep" is just an amazing ballad, radio-ready in some weird parallel universe where The Raspberries are on Midnight Special every week, Bram Tchaikovsky is still in The Records and American Bandstand still has skinny tie power-pop bands on every Saturday morning.

The Roommates played 5 shows in a small cafe in the east end of Toronto called "One Stop Sandwich & Coffee". They were all matinees. The cafe was next to the Don Jail, and was mainly a place for family members visiting inmates to get a cup of joe and a donut. Although originally meant to be a band of extremely limited and rare pressings that no one would ever really hear, the songs are now smartly compiled on 7" by Slumberland. Too catchy to be so secret. Too packed with mod/power-pop goodness to miss. Enjoy! 


Roommates - Back to the Sun/Girlfriend Swap

Buy on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/sideways-sometimes/id499191635

Taken from the record, Sideways, Sometimes, released on 23rd April.



iTunes

CYMBALS - Candy Bar

Download this from http://chaptermusic.bandcamp.com/album/beaches-she-beats

From second album She Beats, out on Chapter Music 3 May 2013.

www.facebook.com/beachesband
www.twitter.com/beachesband
www.chaptermusic.com.au
Itunes Link: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/distance/id610715433?i=610715933&uo=4

Beaches - Distance

from Free Time's upcoming "S/T" LP (2013, Underwater Peoples)

Out 5.28.13

Pre-Order Here: http://underwaterpeoples.com/2013/03/12/pre-orderfree-time-free-time-lpuplp023/

Free Time - Nothin But Nice

The Baptist Generals / Sub Pop  http://www.subpop.com/artists/the_baptist_generals
"Dog That Bit You" from the 5/21/13 album Jackleg Devotional to the Heart
 http://www.subpop.com/releases/the_baptist_generals/full_lengths/jackleg_devotional_to_the_heart

Order the album
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jackleg-devotional-to-heart/id623536062
Amazon http://amzn.com/B00C3JU4KM
Sub Pop http://www.subpop.com/releases/the_baptist_generals/full_lengths/jackleg_devotional_to_the_heart

The Baptist Generals Website http://www.baptistgenerals.com/
Follow The Baptist Generals on Twitter https://twitter.com/generalogy
Like The Baptist Generals on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/baptistgenerals
The Baptist Generals on Tour http://www.subpop.com/tours/the_baptist_generals

Sub Pop Records  http://www.subpop.com
Follow Sub Pop on Twitter  https://twitter.com/subpop
Like Sub Pop on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/subpoprecords
Follow Sub Pop on SoundCloud  http://soundcloud.com/subpop

Jackleg Devotional to the Heart

Dog That Bit You

The Baptist Generals - Dog That Bit You

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.

Roommates - Back to the Sun/Girlfriend Swap

Slumberland Records

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