Celestial Shore/Shopping Spree split LP (2012)

Prison Art Records has done a remarkable job of straddling what I assumed was a sharp line between cutesy and noisy in its year or so of existence. Their first release was the stutter-stop noise garage of Sarongs, which was belied by the Unicorns-esque cutesy pop of Each Other's 2012 EP. Now, Celestial Shore and Shopping Spree offer you nine tracks of quirky, free form pop just in time for Christmas, Channukah, and Kwanzaa.

Implicit in the name Celestial Shores (heavenly, breezy, sea-related, vaguely blue) is the four tracks of sedate, off-kilter pop found herein. I'm guessing these guys used to be real into Hella, but at some point started smoking weed and taking Xanax and chilled the fuck out. "Tick Tock" has a rumbling, mean-spirited spazz out bridge, but Celestial Shores mostly does a brisk business in songs that are the closest I'll come this year to lullabies. The singer on "Growing Old" gently purr-sings sweet nothings around the slightly contorted rhythm section; for a moment around 1.07, it sounds like it's gonna dissolve into abrasive violence, but then the light-as-air vocals return and your valium cocoon closes in again.

Shopping Spree goes in for a mixture of children's toys, delightfully blissed out, faded singsong voices, and hushed drum work. Suffice to say, this is not my forte. Instead of embarrassing myself by making outrageous claims either way about Shopping Spree's work, I corralled some girl with big Buddy Holly glasses at the cafe I'm sitting in, and asked her to give me her opinion regarding Shopping Spree. Her response upon hearing "Eye Bridges" and "Prayer Chiefs" was: "Yeah this is pretty cool. I mean, it's been raining the last four days [ed.'s note: I'm in Portland, Oregon at the moment] so like you could throw this on and spend the rest of the day smoking weed, y'know? But like I'd wanna start playing along with a Casio keyboard. So yeah, they're cool." The youth of Portland have spoken: Shopping Spree is an accetable soundtrack for blowing the winter blues away via found objects and drugs.

You can listen to the split, then BUY IT, here. Celestial Shore is on tour this January-check out the dates here. I'm gonna go try and find that girl and see if she wants to drink Ouzo and listen to THIS. Peace.

The Miami-Ring Shouts EP (2012)

If you're looking for something suitably autumnal to help you through November, The Miami's latest may just be that. The cover art is a famous Matthew Brady picture of casualties from Antietam (for non-American readers: a September, 1862 battle in the American Civil War, the single bloodiest day in U.S. history), and the song selections are suitably Old Timey: the EP includes what seems to be a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cover, an English folk song, and a Paul Robeson/Mahalia Jackson cover.

"Will the Circle be Unbroken" sets the tone: hushed acoustic guitar chords and a voice that owes everything to Will Oldham. What keeps the tune interesting, and saves it from mere wanna-be status, is the jarring, howling guitar/synthesizer distortion that kicks in around 1:24. It never drowns out the singer, but it provides a bracing accompaniment that, along with the handclaps around 2:00,  keeps you coming back to it.

 If the dood behind the Miami didn't first hear "Barbed Wire" on Chumbawumba's English Rebel Songs LP, I'll eat my hat (but I don't wear hats! Ha!). The deadpan tone the singer takes gives the song a completely different ambience than Chumba's version. Chumba definitely nailed it as far as versions that weren't recorded in the World War I trenches go, but still, The Miami's version is pretty good; in fact, most people will probably prefer this version to 'Wumba's.

"Motherless Child"'s first three minutes are composed of freeform ambient shivers, quakes, and hovering, glancing apparitions comin' atcha outta the mist. Eventually it turns into an a capella take on the old Paul Robeson hymn. There's all sorts of problems involved in adopting a Paul Robeson song to fit onto an indie EP, which I'll let the reader/listener sort out for his/herself. It's audacious, I'll give The Miami that. "Kneebone" would be great party music if it was 1830: handclaps and tambourines introduce a call-and-response song with minimal guitar to keep a rhythm. It works in a very idiosyncratic sorta way.

That's my verdict on the album as a whole: some of it works, some of it doesn't, but The Miami is defiantly doing its own thing on this EP, which I respect. There's enough historical allusions packed into it to keep history geeks like myself busy for quite awhile; buy it for that reason a lone, after listening to it, here. Brought to you c/o Prison Art Rex.

Each Other-Taking Trips EP (2012)

Montreal's Each Other, like their clear predecessors Women, defy easy categorization, and it took me a few listens to navigate my way around this, Prison Art's re-release of their debut cassette. My overwhelming impression is that this is the result of weathering savage Montreal winters by creating something as idiosyncratically sunny as possible.

Clanging, ramshackle drums; off-note after off-note; off-kilter, slightly high-pitched vocals; and tinny, discretionary guitar: these are the main ingredients in Each Other's sound. The opening chords of "Looking Lapsed" set you up for some sort of folky misery, but lazy-day-at-the-beach pop is where the EP goes.

"Freak Heat" is the best track on "Taking Trips:" mewled vocals, chimey maraccas [sic?], and a boppy guitar riff yield to crunching sheet metal[?] beats and the result is sorta like the goofy grin and warm feeling you get after dropping a Klonopin or two.

I mentioned Women above, but the main influence I hear is the Unicorns, especially their first album, "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?" The same free-form approach to post-punk is evident all over "Taking Trips," along with the intentionally ramshackle song construction. A lot of this EP is too cutesy for my tastes, but that's a matter of preference. For young lovers everywhere.

Download it here. Buy the real deal HERE.