Notes from Left of the Dial: May 9

Pre-order LP/CD: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/270
Pre-order from iTunes: http://smarturl.it/dalliance-itunes

Gold-Bears' second full-length, "Dalliance," is a record about regret. It reminds you of that time you lied to your friend when you said you were too busy to hang out, but instead went to the bar alone. Or when you sent that really shitty email to your brother about something that really has no bearing anymore, because you were too caught up in the moment to think clearly. It also reminds you of the time you got divorced... from whatever or whomever.

In the past two years since Gold-Bears released their debut album "Are You Falling in Love?," main Bear Jeremy Underwood gathered a new crop of friends to carry out his fuzz-filled visions. "Dalliance" is more focused and abrasive than that 2011 debut, combining their noise-pop influences from forebears like Boyracer and The Wedding Present with shades of the post-hardcore, emo and post-punk on which the band all cut their musical teeth. This is not to say that Gold-Bears gave up impossibly catchy song-writing, just that their signature indie punk anthems are now even sharper, the guitars even more slashing, and the songs even more harrowing and heartfelt than ever.

"Dalliance" opens with the anthemic "Yeah, Tonight," a proper pop song featuring a duet between Underwood and Emma Kupa (of the defunct London indiepop band Standard Fare) that sets the agenda right away — sharp melodies and even sharper guitars, all whizzing by in less than three minutes. “Chest” rushes in almost immediately after, barely two and a half minutes of punk energy and fizzing feedback.

The stomping "From Gainesville to Tallahassee" features a gnarly feedback guitar solo and backing vocals from Black Tambourine's Pam Berry. “Punk Song No. 15” is as described, a blazing flash that condenses the history of UK noisy pop into just over one minute. “I Hope They’re Right” and the lovely, jangling “Hey, Sophie” show how much the band have expand their range, slowing the pace, turning up the jangle and taking on the big subjects.

Gold-Bears cover a lot of territory, musical and lyrical, in "Dalliance"’s 32 minutes and by the time that we reach the miniature epic of closer “Fathers And Daughters” we realize that we’re watching a band and a song-writer hit their stride, turning in an album that’s exciting, thoughtful and infectious.


Gold-Bears - Yeah, Tonight

Artist: Young Widows
Title: The Money
Album: Easy Pain
Release Date: May 13, 2014

Buy on iTunes Here: itunes.apple.com/us/album/easy-pain/id847475914
Buy on Amazon MP3 Here: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Pain-Young-Widows/dp/B00JBBIBTQ/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_mus?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1399348643&sr=1-1&keywords=young+widows

YOUNG WIDOWS ON TOUR:
May 14—Subterranean—Chicago, Illinois
May 16—Loving Touch—Ferndale, Michigan
May 17—Hard Luck—Toronto, Ontario
May 18—St. Vitus—Brooklyn, New York
May 19—Great Scott—Boston, Massachusetts
May 20—Boot & Saddle—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 21—DC9—Washington, D.C.
May 22—Strange Matter—Richmond, Virginia
May 23—Kings—Raleigh, North Carolina
May 24—The Earl—Atlanta, Georgia
May 25—The Bottletree—Birmingham, Alabama
June 19—Czar Bar—Kansas City, Missouri
June 20—Moon Room—Denver, Colorado
June 21—Kilby Court—Salt Lake City, Utah
June 22—The Shredder—Boise, Idaho
June 24—Chop Suey—Seattle, Washington
June 25—Bunk Bar—Portland, Oregon
June 26—Witch Room—Sacramento, California
June 27—Thee Parkside—San Francisco, California
June 28—The Church On York—Los Angeles, California
June 29—Rhythm Room—Phoenix, Arizona
June 30—Plush—Tucson, Arizona
July 2—Holy Mountain—Austin, Texas
July 3—Club Dada—Dallas, Texas
July 4—Conservatory—Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
July 5—Firebird—St. Louis, Missouri

©2014 Temporary Residence Ltd.

Buy on iTunes

Young Widows - The Money (Digital Bonus Track)

"Future Husbands Past Lives" off of the new album 'In Cold Blood' out on 5/19 via SONGS/Crush Music in the US + CA, and Inertia on 5/23 in AU + NZ. Pre-order on iTunes for $7.99 and get an instant download of "They Don't Know" & "Prague" smarturl.it/incoldblood

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Future Husbands Past Lives

Familiars

Hotel

The Antlers - Hotel

From Shabazz Palaces' forthcoming full-length 'Lese Majesty', out July 29th on Sub Pop Records.

Pre-order: 
https://www.subpop.com/artists/shabazz_palaces

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Lese Majesty

They Come in  Gold

Shabazz Palaces - They Come In Gold

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

Lunchbox's legendary lost album "Evolver" is lost no more! Sparklingly remastered for the album’s twentieth (and a few!) anniversary and available on CD, cassette and (for the first time) vinyl, this psychedelic masterpiece fills a crucial hole in the band's discography. Recorded in the couple's 1990s Oakland basement between stays in Berlin, tour dates in London, and dreamy sojourns up the rugged Mendocino coastline, "Evolver" fuses jangle and jungle, ambient and dub into a striking pop statement.

Marrying refined songcraft to the serendipitous magic hidden in half-broken reel-to-reel tape decks and vintage synthesizers, the "Evolver" plants its pop flag on the terrain of magic and mystery. Dreamy jangle pop gems emerge seamlessly out of a sea of loops, drones, and dubbed-out horn fanfares, cascades of tape echo feedback and whispers from outer space providing a trance-inducing backdrop to the pop sensibility for which Lunchbox is well-known. Hook-filled and hypnotic, "Evolver" is a sublime slice of post-pop psychedelia that you won't want to miss.

For this special and long-overdue reissue we've raided the bands vaults for three previously unreleased tunes that add extra dimensions to the album's uniquely trippy flow. And for the vinyl heads we're pressing this as a double LP for maximum fidelity and playability, including a *vinyl-only* fourth side of beats, loops, interludes and puzzling aural ephemera, all taken directly from the original master tapes. Super cool!

Lunchbox - Letter From Overend

butterfly girl

Fading

over/under

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

With buckets of melancholic charm and an unerring ear for a great tune, Autocamper are the perfect pop tonic to our Age of Anxiety. “What Do You Do All Day?” is their debut album and their wide-eyed reflections on unrequited romances, bedroom tiffs and hungover misdemeanors effortlessly retrofit the jangle pop sounds of the '80s without any trace of C86 revisionism.

Boisterous, lovable songs like “Again,” “Foxes” and "Proper" hearken back to the DIY roots of the early Flying Nun and Postcard label bands, groups who were as inspired by punk and post-punk as by 60s jangle and 70s AM radio pop. Fresh and utterly timeless -- not twee, not anorak, not lucky, just pop. It’s these truths that distinguish them from their peers, the hollow strains of Instagram Indie and the corporate pop that forces us to be joyful.


What Do You Do All Day?

Autocamper - Again

You wanna speak your mind
It’s all just mighty fine
The time you take to compromise
I try to turn the tides

Nothing feels just right
Right there in my palms
To hold your words and see your eyes

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise
It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise

Your keeping up on time
Growing up and showing up to work
Loading up high
Practicing that smile

I translate all the time
My love for you
And so you do
I hope you realise

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise
It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise

I see blue skies
I see the light
I see blue skies
I see the light
It’s hard to release
It’s hard to memorise

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memories
You wanna speak your mind
It’s all just mighty fine
The time you take to compromise
I try to turn the tides

Nothing feels just right
Right there in my palms
To hold your words and see your eyes

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise
It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise

Your keeping up on time
Growing up and showing up to work
Loading up high
Practicing that smile

I translate all the time
My love for you
And so you do
I hope you realise

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise
It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise

I see blue skies
I see the light
I see blue skies
I see the light
It’s hard to release
It’s hard to memorise

It’s hard to realise
It’s hard to memorise

Hard To Memorise

Running Through the Airport

Running Through the Airport (feat. Flaural & Spirit Award)

COLOR PALETTE - NIGHTS ALONE

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.

Gold-Bears - Yeah, Tonight

Slumberland Records

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