Summer Singles, part # 3

Sic Alps – L. Mansion (Slumberland)

It’s an odd one to get a handle on, this Sic Alps thing. I kinda like them, I think I’m probably gonna go and see them at their London gig. If I see a record by them, I’ll buy it. Their music’s likeable, varied, fuzzy, rocking, vaguely tuneful and kinda interesting, but… I dunno, I mean, I doubt even their most vocal supporters could legitimately claim they were *brilliant* or, y’know, singularly extraordinary. Even in their very best stuff, there’s a certain… haziness, maybe… that makes them the perfect target for any preordained opponent of the new lo-fi hierarchy to jump on and cry WHERE’S THE BEEF?

As I say, I like ‘em, and listening to them makes me feel good, but at the same time they don’t seem like a band who under sane circumstances would necessitate instantly sold out singles or furtive online bidding wars, any more so than any other duo of dudes you might find working out some tunes on Californian beachfront one Friday night. And this particular single, redolent of the kind of pleasantly slapdash meandering that leads responsible adults to start referring to songs as “jams”, will likely prove more flagrantly offensive than ever to those out there who’d demand that the incoming generation should be taking names and blowing minds as a matter of routine.

Not to me though. I kinda like it. The two numbers herein find the Alps at their most melodic and overtly sixties-styled, with acoustic guitar and everything on the A-side, while the B's a bit more of a 'Mellow Yellow' pre-glam stomper. The idea of Sic Alps being hippies has never really clicked with me before (more like NZ-via-Ohio outsider rock warriors, surely?), but this is basically some nice hippie music right here, stripped of all the bullshit that makes hippies and their music so ghastly. It’s a bit like something a couple of the guys from Moby Grape could have banged out after a few beers when their management wasn’t looking. Only it isn’t, at all. There’s something intangible about these songs – and not just the recording or the guitar tone – that defines them as ‘modern’. This is music that couldn’t have happened before ‘punk’ became codified in the late 70s, maybe even before, urgh, ‘indie rock’ became codified in the early ‘90s. But it’s still essentially dumb, happy shit to sit out on the porch with.

A band like Sic Alps also raises some interesting quality vs. quantity issues; granted, there are only two short-ish songs here, but the heart of the underground rock fan is still warmed by the implicit knowledge that a group like Sic Alps will always have LOADS of songs like these kicking around, and by its very nature this knowledge raises the level at which the band can be valued/enjoyed. If you were to record just the songs on this disc and present them to the music world like some sort of achievement, you’d be lucky to raise even the smallest of collective shrugs. Record about a hundred of the things though, of comparable or lesser quality, and a lifelong cult following will surely be yours. It’s a funny old game.

http://www.sicalps.com/listen.html
http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/

The Specific Heats – Back Through Thyme EP (Total Gaylord/Hugpatch)

The Specific Heats were ridiculously, almost unbelievably, good when I saw them play in Nottingham back in July – the sort of band I was worried I might have accidentally dreamed into existence with all my basest impulses. Picture if you will a dancing virtuoso loon of a guitarist leading proceedings with a lovely Mosrite cranked up via a Fuzzrite stompbox, a rack-mounted Fender reverb unit and various other noise-making goodies, whilst three unfeasibly beautiful young ladies provide furious backing on echoed, descending bass-lines, clattering garage-punk drums and swirling, baroque/prog-infused organ respectively, birthing a veritable riot of explosive, expansive psychedelic surf punk pop bliss. Good grief, what a band.

For all their magnificent potential though, it seems that The ‘Heats have had tougher luck than they perhaps deserve translating themselves to record. A second album apparently still lays some time in the distant future, and their merch guy warned me against seeking out their debut (highly unrepresentative of what they do now, I’m informed), leaving just this 33-playing EP as a stop-gap to bring back the happy memories.

And this is scarcely an accurate reflection of the band’s current line-up either it turns out, with production, song-writing and just about all the instrumentation being handled by guitarist/main guy Mat Patalano, with the rest of the live band only represented by Keira Flynn-Carson on drums. As such it’s a far more mannered and restrained affair than the live set, revealing a careful and perfectionist approach to recording, as Mat and Keira lay down a groovy ‘60s-focused sound that leans heavily on Zombies-esque baroque pop, some Stereolab/Monade style retro-futurist grooves, a bit of a surf twang, with a touch of Electric Prunes-ish studio-bound garage-psyche mayhem creeping around the edges. The result is a great listen, no doubt, inevitably recalling the work of Apples in Stereo’s Robert Schneider in both theory and practice, and imbued with the same irresistible positivity and pure love of sound too. All the same though, I can’t wait to hear what’ll happen when the brains and expertise behind this EP apply themselves to capturing the chaos and fury and wild ensemble playing of the group’s live show – I think it's gonna be pretty nifty.

Some killer live tracks / demos currently on their myspace though – check ‘em out!

http://www.myspace.com/thespecificheats
http://www.totalgaylordrecords.com/shop.htm

Top Ten – Girls Understand b/w Don’t Talk About Us (Classic Bar Music)

Classic bar music indeed! Keep me close to a bar for long enough, and I guarantee that before closing time this will be EXACTLY the kind of crap I’d want to hear, so let’s join Erin McDermott (ex-Bobbyteens, Trashwomen) as she and Top Ten bust through some cacophonous hard rock assaults on the world of power-pop, executed with all the nuance and restraint you’d expect. Only about two minutes per side here, but for some reason the pressing on this thing is pretty ppor, with thin sound, missing high end and a rhythm guitar track that sounds like an ape moaning along in time. I know that’s a weird thing to say, but seriously, you should hear it! The A-side has a good title and is pretty pacy, but a somewhat unmemorable tune, the B is a slightly unhinged bludgeoning of the Someloves classic. It’s ok, and kudos to them for covering such a great and relatively little-known tune, but it ain’t exactly too dynamic, y’know? I’m sure you could plot a graph pitting the potential enjoyability of this record against the number of cheap beers downed. Sounds like they’d had a few when they recorded it. I’m sober at the time of writing, so it could sound better.

http://www.myspace.com/topten
Classic Bar Music

Labels: Sic Alps, singles reviews, The Specific Heats, Top Ten