BOSTON SPACESHIPS - 'ZERO TO 99'

Formats

• GBVI7CD - CD

  655035080727

• GBVI7 - LP

  655035080710

Details

Boston Spaceships' Zero to 99 is quintessential Pollard, a record that holds its own alongside widely acknowledged classics like Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Under the Bushes Under the Stars. One gets the sense that Pollard is having the most fun he's had in decades, before he was pulled reluctantly from obscurity and thrust into the limelight with GBV in those heady, post-Nirvana mid-1990s. The Boston Spaceships have not only landed; they're conquering the goddamn planet. "Is everybody happy now?" Pollard defiantly screams on the opening track, as if he knows this is this record that longtime fans have been waiting for. So it's perhaps ironic that he confirms these suspicions with track two, "How Wrong You Are," an anthemic Pollard insta-classic that proves quite quickly just how right listeners are to get excited. From the moment the first chorus begins, Pollard digs his hooks in deep and never lets go, culminating in a raucous sing-along reminiscent of the "You are forgiven" refrain in The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away." Zero to 99 barrels like a freight train from there, delivering track after track of vintage Pollard pop rock, with a band more than up to the task of helping to fuel the engine. From the Buzzcocks-esque guitars on "Found Obstruction Rock 'n' Rolls," to the Keith Moon-ish, Tommy-era drums of "Question Girls All Right," to the McCartney-like bass riffs on "Trashed Aircraft Baby" that would fit right in on Abbey Road, Zero to 99 is a 37-minute feast for fans of classic pop / punk rock.

Tracks

1. Pluto the Skate
2. How Wrong You Are
3. Radical Amazement
4. Found Obstruction Rock ?n? Rolls (We?re
the Ones Who Believe in Love)
5. Question Girl All Right
6. Let It Rest for a Little While
7. Trashed Aircraft Baby
8. Psycho Is a Bad Boy 9. Godless
10. Meddle
11. Go Inside
12. Mr. Ghost Town
13. Return to Your Ship
14. Exploding Anthills
15. The Comedian
16. A Good Circuitry Soldier

Press

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Audio & Video

THE BRUNETTES - 'PAPER DOLLS'

Formats

• LCR025 - CD

  600197888827

Details

The Brunettes have a meticulous craft in the studio. Writing pop songs, that most fickle of forms, requires a precision that comes naturally to the band, and their records ring perfection in every note. Their sense of fun firmly intact, The Brunettes inject their new batch of songs with a sense of modernity on Paper Dolls. Opener "In Colours" and closer "Thank You" are the entrance and exit into this world, as both sit comfortably with previous efforts; in between, however, principal songwriter Jonathan Bree augments his pop leanings with drum machines and an intimidatingly wide array of synths to fantastic effect. Lyrically, the album combines clever call-and-response levity, an undercurrent of smoldering romance, and a penchant for idiosyncratic storytelling. All are on display on lead single "Red Rollerskates," which finds Bree and co-lead vocalist / instrumentalist Heather Mansfield solving a relatively ordinary problem (Bree walks too fast for his asthmatic girlfriend) with an unusual solution (buying her a pair of red rollerskates and pulling her around with a rope). On "The Crime Machine," Mansfield longs to live as a 1920s kingpin, while "Bedroom Disco" lives up to its title as a stay-at-home party song. The album's title track combines surreal lyrics about a stationery fetish with Bondmovie string arrangements and guitar tremolo. A concise 35 minutes, Paper Dolls reaffirms the glory of a simple melody. "Thank you for the time," Mansfield sings to close out the record. So polite, those New Zealanders.

Tracks

1. In Colours
2. Red Rollerskates
3. The Crime Machine
4. Bedroom Disco
5. Paper Dolls
6. Connection
7. It?s Only Natural
8. Magic (No Bunny)
9. If I
10. Thank You

Press

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Audio & Video

TROPA MACACA - 'SENSACAO DO PRINCIPIO'

Formats

• SB112 - LP

  N/A

Details

Sensa??o Do Princ?pio is the third release proper from Tropa Macaca and their first with an American label. Their previous efforts on Ruby Red and Qbico were magnificent (though hard to find) efforts of blotted, aural sci-fi codifications somewhere between Anar Band and Blues Control. The two-track full-length continues their foray into postpsychedelic instrumental morphine, where Moolah's LP and Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" function as templates for the greater good. In other words, you gotta hear if for yourself. "[Marfim is] three long tracks of cyclical minimal percussion stampede from a Portuguese experimental duo taking a somewhat purist approach to ambient noise. All three offerings are based around the same type of sounds, and adjust accordingly to suit pulse patterns and overall attack. If you filed off all the sibilance from Esplendor Geometrico and filtered it through the liquid, abstract psychedelic vibes outgassed from Black Dice's last few efforts, you'd get something approaching the sputter and cavernous tracks presented here. "Tronco Nu" takes up a full side and has the longest build, but its eventual "melodic" denouement plays off as striking and somewhat emotional. "Zona do Bicho" steps up the aggression and comes closest to full-bore noise, but never lets go of the beat it's anchored to. "Po?o da Morte" ends this satisfying debut by taking a tattoo gun to Can and Blue Cheer records from across the street, building in intensity along the way." -Doug Mosurak, Dusted Magazine

Tracks

1. Canos Serrados
2. Semba De Fevereiro

Press

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