Lorelei-The Bitter Air 7"

So when I was living in L.A. this month I had the farcical, but true, story of having a squirrel that would break into my place and eat my chocolates. I never actually saw the squirrel in my place, but I did see it poking into my window, the holes it left in the window screen, the gnawed bars of chocolate it left on the floor, and the piles of shit it left on my desk. So I feel pretty safe in assuming it was that fucking squirrel that was eating my chocolate. And I just thought the whole thing was a bit cute. Like this album. Don't worry, this one won't unload atop your papers or anything, but it will make you smile when those days seem longer than ever possible. This might be a little too cutesy for some but I don't care. When your insides are tar black, do you really need more of that coming in your ear holes?

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Rosemary Krust-S/T, The First Two Weeks, Slow Light

Let's take a break from the old timey things for a moment, M'kay? There's a duo out of Baltimore that's been making pretty brilliant fuzzed out droney bliss for the past couple of years, and I'm not talking about Beach House. There is a certain similarity between the two bands but this is more distorted and less dreamy. Yet it should get all the hype that B.H. as been getting from all the hipsters (oh, you silly kids). This post collects all there output, barring their latest 7" (available here). And it looks like they have a few tapes coming out somewhat soon. You should be excited about that too.

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Opal-Early Recordings

The Rainy Day post went over pretty well. I assume it's because I mentioned Beach House and people are really developing a crush on that shit lately. That being the case, I suppose this should be equally of interest since this is what Rainy Day became. It's still Kendra & Dave doing the whole dream pop thing, which became Mazzy Star, which influenced Beach House, etc. So there's the brief chronology. If anything of these names pique your interest, then this is one for you. SST was always one of my favorite labels, and there's certainly plenty of surprises in their catalog, but this one always seems extra anomalous to me.

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Rainy Day

Look, I can't shit on a band like Beach House. I really like their tunes. And if that shit can catch on an get popular, then fuck me, I'm all for it. But please, let's not think that whole sound is anything new. I'm not a music scholar, but it's pretty obvious that the whole sound is coming out of the Paisly Underground off shoots. And as far as I know (might be wrong though) this is Kendra (Dream Syndicate) with Dave (several things) before this shit was standard. I hate to be the old bastard always looking back, but shit, let's not forget where it all came from, right. You want some downer pop, look no further. People can ape the shit out of something, but it ain't necessarily better.

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Ellysgarden-Echoes

This is another French band that I know very little about. It's not as experimental or post-punkish like Trop Tard, but there's a strand of dark lyricism that runs through this as well. This is more jangley and dream popish. Moments have Smithsesque guitar playing. There's also an indebtedness to the whole shoegaze sound too. I wish I knew more about this, but I can only go by what I hear, since searches turn up little info. All I can say is that it merits a listen.

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