The Past Tense - Take Three

Take Three is the debut album from Kingston/ Worcester Park Mod/Power Pop band The Past Tense.

If I had a box of nails, this album would hit every single one of them on the head!  I grew up loving bands like The Jam, The Chords, Prisoners, Milkshakes etc, and so to, quite clearly, did Andy, Ken and Nuts.
Opening track "Feeling Bad" wouldn't be out of place on The Jam's All Mod Cons album.  The song is about a bad relationship and the sigh of relief when it is over, delivered with all the energy and passion you would expect from Mr Weller himself.
One of the standout tracks, and there are many of these, on the  album is "Jimmy's Love Song" which as you may guess is a tribute to Quadrophenia and The Who.  This song and tribute is is executed with real flair and Ken's bass work is excellent, you could almost imagine that Mr Entwistle had stepped in for the session.....which obviously we knew he couldn't have!!

The Past Tense don't just revel in the late 70's and early 80's Mod revival Power Pop sound, there is clearly a love of 60's garage which you can hear on tracks like The Wolfman for which this excellent video was made.

Not by any means a young band,THE PAST TENSE offer a very welcome alternative to the dour state of current musical fads by offering an enthusiastic, energetic and exciting take on the Power pop/mod revival sound of the 80"s and a lively and fun nod to the Garage greats, Past and Present. 

All in all this is a really great debut album from the band, they clearly wear their influences openly and proudly on their sleeves....and rightly so!

"Take Three" is a limited pressing of just 200 albums and from the interest I have seen on this album, they will be sold out very quickly, so if you like what you see, hear and read, order yourself a copy without delay!

 The Past Tense are playing live Friday 8th of June at the "12 Bar" Denmark Street in London. The band are on at 11.00pm.  It is an ace venue, the smallest stage in London and the place is a sweat box when full, so if you are in the area then get down there and enjoy the party!

Order the album here:Detour Records

Befriend, contact, like and love The Past Tense here: Facebook

Official Website: The Past Tense

Los Imposibles - En Espiral

Another fantastic band coming from the Sunny Day Records, Los Imposibles mix the 60's jangly feel of beat with power pop, beat, garage and a touch of psychadelia and come up with some great songs with a real happy uptempo summery feel to them.  The majority of the 15 fantastic tracks on this album are sung in the bands native Spanish language, but you know what, it doesn't matter, I found myself singing along anyway and the extent of my Spanish is normally Jajajajaja!  Which would be very fitting for this band!

Raised in the world-famous Madrid rock and roll neighbourhood of Malasaña in the late 80s, these guys swam against the tide from the beginning. While everybody was into the garage revival, what they really liked was The Beatles, Los Brincos, The Byrds or The Animals... they were in love with beat, r&b and folk-rock, what could they do?

Later they experimented with psychedelia, created a delightful "poperetta" (one of the truly masterpieces of Spanish pop) and went back to roots dancing to black sounds until they decided to take a rest of 10 years! ... they came back in good shape in 2007 bringing a perfect powerpop record under their arms and found their natural home in Sunny Day Records.

Befriend, Contact, Like and Love Los Imposibles here: Facebook 

Listen to the album here: Bandcamp 

Buy the album on cd or vinyl here: Sunny Day Records 

 Small independent label from Spain devoted to high-quality vinyl. We love beat, powerpop, garage, soul, r&b, psychedelia, r'n'r, punk-rock, reggae..

Phenomenal Cat Live Date.

Tiger House - Acid Banshee......and more!

Portland Energetic Hook Slingers, Tiger House, release a Summer Love Tape on June 6th at Mississippi Studios.
Portland Geek Poppers, Tiger House, will self- release a 4 song cassette tape on June 6th at Mississippi Studios with Charts & Pheasant. This will be their first release under the format of a cassette tape. They released 'Doom Pop' EP last year.
"Acid Banshee//Camel Party" is not only a reflection of what it's like to love, but what it is like to love in Portland. "I wanna hold your hand in my hand, oh yeah" in 'Visuals' holds human emotion nimbly and reminds us that love is playful and sometimes hazy. 'New York Sleep' is an ode to caring. Singer/Lyricist, William Scharmann fell ill on his honeymoon to New York City and for a week he lay in bed with a fever, only to be taken care of by his new wife. "Being in a city I've always wanted to be in and not getting to see it because I was too sick to leave my hotel room isn't so bad when you have the one person you care about the most by your side". 'No Bees' talks of heartache and anxiety that comes with romance, and "Antique Physique" explores what happens to love after we die. Acid Banshee//Camel Party aims to be a lighthearted summer pop tape.

 

 Tiger House has been together since 2008 and have played 200+ high energy shows in that time. Tiger House recently returned from a SXSW tour where they played Portland's first SXSW showcase in Austin, Texas, with local favorites Radiation City, Ramona Falls, and Typhoon. The extended play was recorded in the Winter of 2011 at Revolver Studios in Portland, Oregon, and in their SE Portland basement. It was mixed by Alex Arrowsmith (Shaky Hands, Spookies) and engineered by Nalin Silva (Owner of Revolver, worked with Dandy Warhols & OPB). Tiger House members include: Dustin Mills- Drums, Carl Simpson- Guitar/Keys, William Scharmann- Lead Vocals/Guitar, and Ethan Homan on Bass/Backup Vocals.

Tiger House currently has multiple shows lined up after their Mississippi Studio's release, including vintage clothing stores, fashion shows, houses, and local dive bars. The cassette tape with feature a download link and a flower petal.

 Until the Cassette is released you can, you can download Tiger House's other albums completely FREE on their bandcamp page!

Tiger House: BANDCAMP

Befriend, contact, like and love Tiger House: FACEBOOK

The Electric Mess - Falling Off The Face Of The Earth

The Electric Mess - Falling Off The Face Of The Earth, OUT NOW on Groovie Records!

Hitting my inbox sometime late last night was this gorgeous gem of an album and listening to this and seeing the cool clobber these guys are sporting, it only seems right to share them with you as soon as possible!!!!!

This is really cool sixties styled garage pop punk, crunching guitars, some fantastic organ workings, driving drum beats, pulsating bass and some powerful vocals........you wanna dance?  Can you keep up?  The Electric Mess will have you dancing in some way shape or form all night long!

Since forming in 2007, The Electric Mess have developed into an exciting and tight rock n' roll band, led by an androgynous and dynamic  lead singer, Chip Fontaine (aka Esther Crow).

The band recently released their second album, entitled "Falling Off the Face of the Earth".  It features 13 songs and still shows a wide range of influences, again with an emphasis on strong songwriting and catchy melodies, and dynamic musicianship.  Like their debut album, it was recorded at The Church in Brooklyn, engineered and mixed by David Horowitz, and mastered by punk legend Ivan Julian (Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Matthew Sweet). 
The album is now out on CD and will be released on vinyl some time in June.  The CD and Vinyl are available on Groovie Records and iTunes download, etc.

Here are a couple of videos from the bands debut album:

The band have a really great web page, where you can listen to 7 out of the 13 rocking tracks on the latest album, watch all the videos, order the records, find gig dates, all in one place!

This is one hell of an album and will make a few "Album of the year" spots at the end of the year, go take a listen NOW!

Official Web Site: THE ELECTRIC MESS 

Befriend, Contact, Like and Love the band here: FACEBOOK

 

Literature - Arab Spring

22 minutes of fresh and breezy jangly indie pop with some C86-ness to it, this album is a breath of fresh air for a sunny day!  This album powers along from opening track "14 Seconds" through to album closer, "I am Right Here." 

Other than the fact that this 4 piece hail from Austin, Texas, although I believe they are moving to Philidelphia soon, I don't know an awful lot about them, except that this is their debut album and it is 10 tracks of foot moving tunes, some great hooks, machine gun drums and infectious melodies. 

Literature are: Kevin Adickes, Nathaniel Cardaci, Seth Whaland and Mike Yaklin

Arab Spring is available here as a "Name Your Price" album: BANDCAMP

Contact, Befriend, Like and Love Literature here: Facebook

The Right Nows - The Right Nows

Another fantastic band from the Sunny Day Records camp who pump out enough energy in their sound to power a small country, The Right Nows take their inspiration from the psychadelic garage bands of the sixties, mix it up with some garage punk and power pop, slice in a few choice riffs and serve up some catchy timeless melodies.

The Right Nows come from Cedeira, a small town in the northwest of Spain, a region with a fruitful tradition of wild rock’n’roll & garage bands, formed in 2007.

Befriend, follow, like and love The Right Nows here: Facebook

Listen to the self titled album here: Bandcamp

Buy the album on 10" Vinyl here: Sunny Day Records