What do a cucumber and cassette have in common?

They're both cool in a crisis! Yeow! I'll be here all week.


























Really though, Cool in a Crisis is a great start-up cassette label hell-bent on spreading lo-fi, cuddly, pop goodness. Their first release will be a split between California's Sweater Girls, and the UK's The History of Apple Pie (who I've written about before), that's due out on November 14th!

You know The Softies? Of course you do. Now double them. And add one. You know what you've got now? Sweater Girls. It's like Rose Melberg got stuck in LA and tried to start a jangle-pop band. All four Sweater Girls tracks on this split are totally cute, about pretty smiles and picnics in the rain.

Sweater Weather .mp3


I was also happy to see that The History of Apple Pie are still around, and still making their lovely kind-of-fuzzy-but-not-really pop songs. I'll forgo the stupid analogy this time and just get to the point; The History of Apple Pie have 3 solid popsongs on this tape and each and every one of them have that perfect blend of fuzz, reverb, and harmonized girly vocals.

You're So Cool .mp3

Big Wave Riders

They're from Finland. They also play some great surf-inspired, new-wave influenced, 90's-throwback tunes. Now you're probably thinking, "Surf music from Finland?" but here's a fun fact for the day: Finland has over 600 miles of coastline, and from the surfers I know, where there's water, there's someone with a board. Anyways, you don't need to surf to drench your guitar in reverb. Think Devo backed by Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet, and, well I don't know, pick a guitar based pop band. I'm terrible with the whole comparison thing, but that amalgamation is Big Wave Riders. Summer Cats actually come to mind when the keys kick in on "Republic of the Average." Yeah, let's go with Summer Cats. So if that sounds like it might tickle your fancy, listen to or download "Republic of the Average" and "Big Sound" here. If it doesn't, well, give it a go anyways.