When British pop act the Zombies arrived at Abbey Road Studios in June of 1967, the Beatles had just finished wrapping up the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. When those reportedly agonizing hours of tape splicing and manual scissor edits adjourned, the Beatles left a number of instruments behind. Among them was a Mellotron, an early 1960s era keyboard that offered sample playback via magnetic audio tape. Read my piece at PopMatters.
Marking the 45th anniversary of the Stax Records release of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” writer Marc Myers at The Wall Street Journal compiles interviews with Booker T. Jones and more in order to present a compelling visual of the recording sessions.
The Boston Phoenix talks to Morrissey.
Shoegaze slow-jam enthusiast Tamaryn will issue a new LP via Mexican Summer in October. Listen to “I’m Gone” via YouTube. For Blurt magazine, I wrote about the languid swirls of pedal-looped guitars on 2010’s Waves. Official band site here.
The new Beachwood Sparks LP glistens. It’s the first album from the Los Angeles-based psych-country outfit in more than a decade — I don’t often reach for 2001’s Once We Were Trees, but their 2000 self-titled debut should sit on your shelf if you count yourself a piddling daydreamer, or just a fan of Buffalo Springfield’s Again. Tarnished Gold is cut from the same beaded cloth. Tranquil harmonies and pearly lap steel tones pair with double-tracked acoustics to find a bed under desert skies on this 13-tracker. Download/listen to “Forget the Song” here.
“I tried to tell Nick how much I liked his album. It was later that week, we were in the kitchen at John and Beverly’s, drinking tea, and there was silence everywhere. I mentioned a few songs, ‘Cello Song’ and ‘River Man’ and ‘Saturday Sun,’ and he nodded and stared at the table. After a few minutes, he started fumbling through his coat pockets. There was a smell of mint and tobacco, maybe cloves, and he was pulling out scraps of paper, guitar picks, rolling papers, and such. He looked up.
‘Do you like chocolate?’ he asked. He held an unopened bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate.”
“Things Behind the Sun,” Brian Cullman on Nick Drake, The Paris Review
In the June 2012 issue of The Brooklyn Rail, writer David Shirley discusses Billy Nicholls’ late-1960s pop psyche debut Would You Believe? and runs down how it came to fruition.
“Not So Misterioso,” Robert Christgau, Barnes and Noble Review (2009). The Concord remaster of Thelonious Monk’s Misterioso is available as of May 15th. Watch Monk live in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1966 at Open Culture (via @openculture).
Textura’s new issue is up — it’s always a pleasure to check out what they’re into over there. The reviews section throws some shine on some great new techno/electronic records out right now from bvdub, Claro Intelecto, Monolake, and more. At Textura’s easy-to-navigate, orderly site, there is discussion on the “Spotlight” page of the Bersarin Quartett. The act’s debut album has been repressed and is available through Denovali. Sit back and let that cover art wash over you, and sample some of the sprawling, film music-driven pieces from producer/musician Thomas Bücker. There are definitely worse ways to spend your time.
Echo Lake are doing a sort of noisy, dream pop thing that’s mostly frazzled, but heavenly vocals and spots of winding, pitched-down textures prevent this stuff from sounding too much like the work of the band’s less experimental peers. I like how “Even the Blind” comes together — it sounds like a blend of lo-fi drum machine beats at the onset before a live kit enters, with reverb-dressed vocals, keys, and glassy guitar leads. Their debut full-length is out on Slumberland/No Pain In Pop in June. I wrote about them last year for PopMatters.
