Drag City Imprint God? Releases White Fence, Scraper Reissues

The new Drag City imprint God? is new but already pretty awesome. Their second and third releases will be a reissue of Cali’s White Fence’s self-titled debut LP and S.F.’s Scraper’s debut 7”. White Fence aka Tim Presley is rad. His latest release Cyclops Reap is out now and is a nice and trim entry point for the psych-pop singer/songwriter, even if it’s a leftovers comp of sorts. For even more out-there bliss, check out all the rest of his albums, which ramble and sway in the wind in the best way possible. His first album is full of lo-fi delicious bon bons, 16 short songs that hide their hooks in reverb, and now you can have it July 16 from God? The same day, the label releases skate punks Scraper’s first release, a six-song EP with lo-fi, talky, grimy psych-punk with song titles like “Liquid Lips.” Yummy! Look for them both July 16.

 

Alela Diane Readies New LP ‘About Farewell’

Sometimes you need a good folk record, like eating really healthy food. Alela Diane’s About Farewell, out June 25 on her own label, Rusted Blue Records. I’m a sucker for the first song she’s released from it, called “The Way We Fall.” It’s really two great songs in one, starting with a looping, soulful ballad, painted with intriguing swaths of flute, acoustic guitar and sumptuous harmonies. Then it shifts for a less-orchestrated portion that could have come off as precious if the previous part hadn’t happened; in succession, it serves to peel back the layers and reveal Diane’s lovely lilt, which is soon accompanied by those flutes again. Try not to get the shivers. Diane lives in Portland, but she hails from Nevada City, Calif., so we’ll count her as one of us. Check out an interview Diane did with the Amoeblog a while back.

Warm Soda – “Busy Lizzy” video

Oakland’s Warm Soda have released a video for “Busy Lizzy,” from their excellent Someone for You, recently released on Castle Face. In the video, sexy librarian babe Busy Lizza walks around town and causes havok with her sheer babeness, all shot on VHS video. It’s like a great ’80s local commercial, set to one of the finest power-pop jams you’ll hear in this young year. They’re all over California in the coming days, check ’em out:

2/21 – San Diego – Soda Bar  w/Teenage Burritos, Shiva Trash

2/22 – Fullerton – Burger Records

2/23 – Oakland – Night Light w/Bad Vibez, Cocktails

2/28 – San Francisco – Noise Pop – Brick & Mortar w/Free Energy

3/1 – Pacifica – Winters Tavern

3/7 – Long Beach – Alex’s Bar w/Cigarette Bums, Feral Kizzy

 

Tera Melos – “Sunburn”

Sacramento’s Tera Melos have unveiled the second track from their buzzed-about forthcoming album X’ed Out. Buzz is the operative word here — glorious guitar buzz, manipulated and strangled into convoluted math-rock guitar lines that bleed into big choruses. There just aren’t a lot of bands exploring guitar textures this way any more, and Tera Melos definitely fill a void. X’ed Out is due April 16 on Sargent House.

San Francisco songstress Jessica Pratt is blowing up. She's on fire. She's on fire and blowing up. Since her debut album of lush, hand-picked folk melodies dropped a just few months ago demand for Jessica's debut, simply titled JP, has become as difficult to keep up with as the multitude of glowing reviews surfacing all over the interwebs lauding Ms. Pratt's ability to make everyone mistake her bewitching, home-brewed folkways for that of retro private press obscurities. If you think this isn't going to be yet another reverent review let me get right to the point: believe the hype.

Like so many jewels that cannot stay buried in the deep forever, Jessica Pratt has risen above the morass of the San Francisco music scene like a diamond atoll emerging from an ocean of acts drowning in their own in reverb, reciprocity, and relative "esoteric" influences. A momentous feat for any solo musician, let alone any woman, struggling just to tread water in the threadbare, barely-there music industry these days.

That Tim (White Fence) Presley launched his label Birth Records just to put Ms. Pratt's record out speaks to the immediacy of her music. It's a sound that cannot help but conjure familiar feelings upon first listen (for any vinyl junkie anyway), and the comparisons are flying. Presley himself has oft been quoted as saying she brings to mind  "Stevie Nicks singing over David Crosby demos" and others have pointed to the way in which her vocal stylings bait and switch Nicks, Joanna Newsom, and Karen Dalton among many others. While we're at it, I'd like suggest the inclusion of Dolly Parton to pinch hit in this approximation game as the fluttery trails Pratt punctuates her lyrical lines with in songs like "Hollywood" and "Half Twain the Jesse" resemble Dolly's vocal filigree.

I have to admit, however, I find all these comparisons tacky and terribly trapped-in-the-90's buzzbin in the sense that any woman that ever flaunted a decidedly "unique" voice back then was appraised by nineties alterna-trinity: Björk/Tori Amos/P.J. Harvey. For me, it's offensive to struggle to assay the impression of a fresh voice with those we already know and love because burdens the emerging artist with the luster, or shadow, of an others' work. While I cannot deny the correlation of Jessica Pratt's magic to that Newsom or any other would-be contemporary, it should be noted that as far as patently "unique" voices go s. Pratt's is just about as unequivocal as they come.

Kowloon Walled City – “Container Ships”

I can read about megastructures, proposed and existing, and other urban oddities for hours. Yemen’s Shibam, King Abdullah Economic City, the Burj Khalifa and the Ultima Tower have taken up significant amounts of my time. These San Franciscans go a step further by naming their band, album and its flagship song after such things — Kowloon Walled City has a long and fascinating history as a densely populated continuous cluster of buildings in Hong Kong evicted and demolished after years of lawlessness. It’s a perfect name for a post-rock-style outfit, coming from a genre that seems to relish in the wonders and horrors of real life, compared with say the fantastical nature of black metal. “Container Ships,” from their album of the same name, due Dec. 4 on Brutal Panda, creates a grounding out of croaking fuzz and seems to shoot out from the ground like said structures in bursts of ugly yet contained noise. It does sort of feel like driving down the 710 and failing to exit the freeway before arriving in the Los Angeles harbor and being surrounded by these alien and massive ships carrying loads of seemingly pointless cargo, like grotesque tumors of excess — but in musical form. Happy Thanksgiving!

Best Coast Covers Fleetwood Mac’s “Storms”
 
From Pitchfork, dad-rock loving duo Best Coast has covered a song by their beloved Fleetwood Mac, “Storms,” from their underrated 1979 album Tusk. For now, you have to track to about 58:10 in this edition of BBC Radio 6’s Radcliffe & Maconie show. 
 
Here’s the cool part: You can get the cover on a 7” that comes with The Only Place at independent record stores. Preorder your copy of The Only Place here at Amoeba and you’ll get a copy of the 7” with the moody and beautiful “Storms,” which shows off Bethany Cosentino’s growing confidence as a singer of uncommon power.
 
Ty Segall & White Fence – “Time”
 
I interviewed Ty Segall a while back about his collaboration with White Fence, called Hair, a match made in garage-pop heaven that was released this week — pick it up here. Here’s a fun psychedelic video of their song “Time” recorded for Room 205.