It’s Christmas time and SUPERSWEET’S sack is once again brimming with musical goodies to tell you about. This festive season’s hottest sound, weirdly enough, appears to be Sixties Psychedelia. Out this month is a split 7” from Dinosaur Feathers, who hail from the alternative music conveyor belt of Brooklyn, NY, and Atlanta’s ‘tropical flavoured’ Carnivores.
They’re pretty similar, which is presumably why they’ve been sandwiched together on this joint release. Dinosaur Feathers sound like an acoustic Crocodiles; vocals via the Beach Boys, acoustic guitar and a rhythm that sounds like it’s banged out on the dinner table. The meatier Carnivores (see what we did there?) add punk thrash to the sack. Best served with minced pies, before a roaring fire of unwanted gifts.
Picking up the exact same Sixties vibe, presumably via iPhone GPS, are not the staple two turtle doves but Margate’s (you know, the English seaside town?) Two Wounded Birds whose debut EP, Keep Dreaming Baby, is being released by none other than The Drum’s Jacob Graham on his ‘Holiday’ label. It sounds like the soundtrack to a David Lynch film and will take you smoothly through all the highs and lows of the usual seasonal mayhem.
Next down the chimney; more homegrown talent in the form of another one-man Chillwave band called Lonely Galaxy. Shoe-gazing Londoner Harry Granger-Howell yelps and shrieks as he drowns merrily in a whirlpool of serious reverberation: EP2 is best heard on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones whilst skating on thin ice.
Meanwhile, Monument Valley, another London-based solo artist masquerading as a band, releases the No Air EP. The title track is a minuscule 1:52 long (presumably he ran out of breath) and sounds like Lackthereof, while the second and third tracks sound more like Scotland’s Admiral Fallow. A promising debut best served on Christmas morning, nursing the hangover from Christmas Eve’s drunken debauchery.
Now, any time a member of Animal Collective so much as farts in the direction of a microphone the Indie blogosphere goes ballistic. A new single (‘Last Night At The Jetty’) from Panda Bear was enough to mobilise counter-terror organisations worldwide, but to be brutally honest, the results don’t exactly live up to the buzz. There’s an okay song in there somewhere, but it’s buried beneath a wash of fashionably tuneless vocals and messy production. This might be one to keep the receipt for.
Bleeding Heart Narrative’s intense new single ‘Perun’ meanwhile, does something weird to your heart beat. Named after the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, it’s best listened to on Boxing Day, when you need awakening from your food and alcohol induced coma. Download it free here.
Finally, a ‘proper’ Christmas single...kind of! ‘Home Sweet Home (...At Christmas) is the sound of a wannabe domestic goddess trying to cook Christmas dinner before descending into a incoherent, paranoid mess. No, it’s not your mother, it’s Slits guitarist Viv Albertine. Unless she is your mother of course. Download it from her website...if you dare.
Narrowly missing out on our Christmas number one slot is ‘Heart In Your Heart Ache’, the latest from the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, who seem to have grown a few dress sizes before the feasting has even begun. A simple, driving rhythm and slightly harder guitars than usual underpins the usual soft harmonies and lovelorn lyrics but everything seems well, bigger.
Our SUPERSWEET Christmas number one however, has to be Le Rev’s ‘Lucky You’. Sounding vaguely like the The Kills covering Gossip’s ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, it’s as intense as a ‘Rid Of Me’-era PJ Harvey and best played while trying to seduce that ‘hottie’ from Payroll at the staff Christmas party. Get it on!
Words: Isaac Howlett