The wonderful and before introducedMountain Man are up to put out their first ever vinyl record. The five-track Sun Dog EP will be released by our dear New Jersey friends at Underwater Peoples, home to everything lo-fi yet visionary, and it comes as a strictly limited marbled translucent sea-foam vinyl edition. Now wrap your mind around that and preorder it exclusively here. Below are two reasons why you should.
I know this might be considered a lame cliché, but there is something about these Swedes that has to with an apparently genetic disposition to write almost absurdly infectious pop melodies. Stockholm's Dance and Forget are the latest example for this as yet unrefuted theory, a septett (that once started as a rather huge collective of different musicians) that builds classic indie pop euphoria around lush ukulele harmonies.
Though the band is a dynamic ensemble that's basically devoted to being a live act, Dance and Forget are nonetheless about to record an album next month, despite being unsigned to date.
Below, listen to sweet Maybe, a song that splendidly sums up the band's optimistic sound.
Apologies for that cheap header. I really tried hard to come up with something clever, subtle and insightful, but it didn't work.
Anyway, let's talk music. Lush Cola is Timothy Joseph Perry's bedroom side project that started a while before he and his band, Colorado's most delightful Weed Diamond, became one of this year's most exciting blog buzz phenomenons (read about them over at Transparent). Unlike Weed Diamond's euphoric space pop, Tim's brilliant sounds are all about gloomy melodies made up for dark summer dreams and sticky night loneliness.
Colorado's wonderful little tape label Patient Sounds has put out Lush Cola's self-titled, eight track debut cassette. And as the tape will be limited to only 100 items, the amiable folks have also made the whole thing available for free download. So make sure you head over to their site, and listen to two of the blissful tunes below.
Mondrian are a Parisian duo consisting of Roman Oswald and Morning Crash (no, really) that's devoted to lush and exuberant pop tunes with an incredible amount of d.i.y. attitude, little beauties reduced to the essence of a song that only intends to make you happy. This mindset is best shown in their shameless use of the English language, their accent making the lyrics almost impossible to understand while adding a whole lot of unique charme and sweetness with that very feature - naive in the best possible meaning of the word.
Nonetheless, the songs appear not to be complete without the amazing videos, and that's exactly where the terminus of "do it yourself" and the lo-fi aspect of Mondrian's music is situated: The videos are worth being called veritable shorts, neat stories put into the length of a song. Perfectly staged and shot by Spanish director Jesus Hernandez (NYSUfilms), the first two videos have already earned well deserved critical acclaim, and Last breakfast on Planet Surf is only a few days old. You shouldn't miss a single one of them. Below the first one, you can also download the wonderful Love, a Collision.
Thanks to Frankie from Eden Is Neon, I've just been introduced to another promising Captured Tracks outfit: The duo Girls Names calls Belfast home, but their music sounds as if it came directly from some surfing spot in SoCal. Whatever, their self-titled debut EP is out already, and the song Don't Let Me In is a real lo-fi pop treat.
I'm a little embarrassed. How could this happen? The baroque royal residence of Dresden is a mere two hour drive south of Berlin, but it took the efforts of our relentlessly revered Brooklyn label Captured Tracks to sign him and thereafter a warm reception by the folks at Pitchfork to put that certain Dresden citizen named Oliver Scharf on my radar. Hm.
Anyway, as Hanoi Janes, Scharf creates unashamedly blissful and optimistic lo-fi tunes that'll make your day wherever you are, on the beach, in the park, or in the office, and you'll sure see me dancing and whistling to this all summer long. Scharf's one-man artistic endeavour was recorded on an 8-track machine, ending up with songs that rarely exceed the two minute mark while heavily leaning on Phil Spector-infused fuzzy jangle brilliance. Frankly, this is seriously perfect pop music. Infectious.
This might be him, but actually we can't be sure.
Hanoi Janes' debut album Year of Panic has already been released by Captured Tracks, and it's a piece that you just won't wanna miss, believe me.
Even more bodacious, Hanoi Janes will support his label mate and our admired dream pop darling Jack Tatum aka Wild Nothing at his premiere Berlin show on August 9. The concert will be staged at Bang Bang Club and is once more presented by Let's kiss and make up, as usual when it comes to bringing perfect pop into town.
We guess it's him on the album cover though.
Below, listen to two of Year of Panic's tracks. Sag Sag Sag is the only one sung in German, I think, but it's more or less as audible as Dee Dee's murmuring in Dum Dum Girls' attempt Oh Mein M.
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