Birds of California!

Ramshackle jangle-pop. Fuzzy shoegaze. Surfy horns. Boys racing for their lunchboxes. A useless stream of consciousness to try to summarize Birds of California. Actually, they're a six piece that's comprised of Tim Brown and Donna McKean of Lunchbox, Stewart from Boyracer, and Ron Mckean, Amr Toppozada, and Jeremy Goody, who all just happen to be awesome. And they actually do mix the aforementioned elements to make some fantastic indie-pop. The genre bending single Great Expectations is available as a free download from Tweefort-cum-February Records just in time to keep you cool during the terrible transition to summer. I suppose I should also elaborate about Tweefort's evolution to a record label. Danny and the gang are going to be focusing more on putting out ace music such as this, and the Fictional West single I mentioned a while ago, than booking.

Magic Marker 10 Year Anniversary

Word on the street is it was a blast. To commemorate the occasion, the boys over at Magic Marker put out a 5x 7" set of Magic Marker bands covering Magic Marker bands. It was available at the show, with all the left-overs being put up on their webstore. From what I heard, they didn't make very many (somewhere around 50 copies, I think), so I would head over to the Magic Marker site ASAP to get your hands on a set. I sadly don't have any mp3s, but here's the track-list:

7" #1
The Owls "Springtime Fall" (Dear Nora)
Walker Kong "Bells" (The Bats)

7" #2
The Manhattan Love Suicides "Superboy & Supergirl" (Tullycraft)
Dear Nora "Air" (The Owls)

7" #3
BOAT "Nosebleeders on the Track" (The Faintest Ideas)
Galactic Heroes "Former Hero" (Heikki)

7"#4
Tullycraft "Welcome to the Big Ten Conference" (Vehicle Flips)
Birds of California (Lunchbox) "Kick It back" (The Manhattan Love Suicides)

7"" #5
The Gazetteers "Ordinary Day" (Lunchbox)
Kissing Book "Any Kind of Pain" (The Best Friends Group)

It's been so long

So how about a massive update?
The Felt Tips have a new 3" CDR out on WeePOP! It's every bit as wonderful as their releases on Cloudberry, so I recommend heading over there and ordering yourself a copy! I'd also snag the weePOP-up compilation, seeing as it's pretty ace and a pop-up!

The One Who Got Away .mp3


Speaking of compilations, Matt finally finished up the Skatterbrain comp. Between the cover art and track-list it looks fantastic!

The new Pains album is available for pre-order over at Slumberland. You don't even know how great it is! This is the opening track...

Contender .mp3

And while I'm on the topic of pre-orders and noise, the new Asobi Seksu album is also available for pre-order over at Polyvinyl! Amazing.

Me & Mary .mp3

Something's awry at tweenet...

There's oodles of popfests now! Here's to you London and San Francisco! And while you're globe-trotting, Magic Marker Records turned 10! They're having a little shindig in Portland to celebrate. Dear Nora anyone?

I think that's it.

Oh! Minisnap!

I'm not sure how I forgot to post this, but Minisnap have their spiffy new album out on Magic Marker Records. With a title like "Bounce Around" you know it's going to be some good stuff. But oh my! Is it good stuff! If you're not hopping and bopping within the first couple seconds, you're dead inside. This is the sound of bliss. I'm actually suprised there's enough room in my head to have so man things stuck in it. Kaye's vocals are beautiful and she can write with the best of them. And then there's those guitars! Hot dang! Those guitars! And everything else! Go pick it up from Magic Marker right now! Why is New Zealand so awesome?

If there's even a trace of doubt about the awesomeness, listen to this!

Crooked Mile .mp3
Leave It To You .mp3

And check out Minisnap's Myspace for some more goodies.

In case you were sleeping

Burnt Out Landscapes by The Manhattan Love Suicides is out right now! 27 tracks of crashing, swirling, fuzzy, pop. Some of the songs are from earlier singles, some from their first LP, some are live recordings, and some are brand new! Wow. You can order it from Magic Marker, here, for a measly $10. UPDATE: Squirrel Records has sold out of their version of Burnt Out Landscapes.

Suzy Jones .mp3


And while I'm on the topic of fuzzy pop, how about some early 90's MTV? Slowdive folks...