A Feast of Beast

Dylan Shearer - Afterwhile

So take the label responsible for many of the releases from The Sandwitches, add sophomore release from Dylan Shearer, aka San Francisco’s elusive pop wizard, and some glowing praise from Tim of the Fresh & Onlys,and you’ve got a slam dunk record.  This track ^^^ has got me mesmerized, on repeat and hooked.  A little haunty & sad sounding, yet somehow dripping of pop and it never fails to make me smile.  Cannot wait for this fantastic LP to drop.

Tim Cohen:

“There is a new specter among us. Dylan Shearer’s throaty baritone seems to have been borne on the slow-moving winds off some far-away coast. Plaintive and honest, his voice recalls Syd Barrett, Bill Fay, Skip Spence, and others whose words and melodies never seemed in a rush to get anywhere, yet always arrived fully formed in the listener’s ear nonetheless. Porchpuddles, Shearer’s second full length and first for San Francisco’s hodge-podge Empty Cellar records, is rare in its perfect timelessness. Sounds are heard and understood perfectly, yet the combination of these sounds is beyond a simple pop understanding. Songs of longing and songs of seeming indifference are bedded together seamlessly. Perhaps, questions about the record’s origin and its mysterious creator will abound, for taken at face value, Porchpuddles has little to no recognizable counterpart in today’s one-hit warehouse. Indeed, there is a new specter among us; let us all welcome in the ghost of the present.”

EMP014: Dylan Shearer - Porchpuddles LP Ltd to 500 copies in a classic uncoated tip-on sleeve. Keeping with the times, all LPs include a high quality download of the full album plus seven bonus tracks! Available from Empty Cellar Records here.  Ships June 12th.

The Sandwitches – Heaviest Head in the West

Love me Sandwitches  Never enough.

The Sandwitches - Benny’s Memory Palace

More Sandwitches! Delightful animated sing along from their new Hardly Art 7″ single, The Pearl. Created/directed by Sophia McInerney.  I just got my 7” this week and its freakin’ awesome.

The Sandwitches - In The Garden

Taken from the album “Mrs. Jones’ Cookies” on Empty Cellar Records here

Directed by Ryan Browne

Choreography by Luciano

Very Special Thanks to Esta Noche

The Sandwitches - The Pearl

New 7” on the way long time favorite from The Sandwitches out via Hardly Art November 8th. Woot woot.

The Sandwitches - The Pearl 7” pre-order here

The Sandwitches - Sirens & Bells

New haunty single from The Sandwitches.  Featured on the Ltd vinyl compilation City Limits Presents: San Francisco.  Apparently it was a kickstarter project that successfully funded back in April, and now you can pre-order the vinyl.  New Label City Limits self described this project as a, “collectable time capsules that highlight the best of local music scenes,” this one featuring artists from the San Francisco area.  I definitely love anything involving The Sandwiches, with a baker’s dozen other artists including some of my highlights: Young Prisms, The Soft Moon, and Kites Sail High.   The only thing a little lame and poor in taste is not having the whole affair streaming on Bandcamp beyond the one track from The Sandwitches.  Yes, yes we all know The Sandwitches are amazingly talented, its a great new track, but what about the other bands?

The Ltd vinyl will be on orange virgin vinyl, with matching hand silk screened jackets.  The vinyl is Ltd to only 40 copies, I’m guessing its a run of about 150, seeing as 70 vinyls were promised out to Kickstarter supporters. 

Grab the City Limits Presents: San Francisco vinyl comp from Bandcamp here.

The Sandwitches - Over The Moon

Some albums leak so early, while others manage to stay under wraps far closer to release.  The followup LP by The Sandwitches, Mrs. Jones’ Cookies appeared on what this weekend, with the official release scheduled for next week, and vinyl pre-orders shipping March 22nd.  I’m still digesting, but I like what I hear.  Their debut LP How to Make Ambient Sadcake was one of my favorite releases of 2009, even if it took about a year for it to catch on elsewhere.  You can order the vinyl from Turn it Up Records here, only $14 bones.      

The Sandwitches - My Heart Does Swell

Another new track heard here first from The Sandwitches.

xo

The Sandwitches - Back to the Sea

The Sandwitches -  Lightfoot

Another stellar track from the follow up LP.

The Sandwitches - Joe Says

I have long awaited a proper followup release from The Sandwitches, since their How to Make Ambient Sadcake LP was one of my favorite releases of 2009.  Come March 22nd I’ll get it, when Mrs. Jones’ Cookies LP is released from Endless Nest.  Their music could easily come from a different era, simpler times, where powerful & beautiful vocals prevailed alongside a well played guitar line.  Not that I don’t love me some crazy electro beats to freak out on, but this music speaks for itself.  Grab their first LP on the deluxe colored vinyl repress (marble pink I believe) here.

Pre-order the Mrs. Jones’ Cookies LP on vinyl here for only $14 clams.  It’ll be worth every penny.  

The Sandwitches - Back to the Sea

Another top new band choice of this year, The Sandwitches (technically I guess November last year I snatched with debut 7”, LP in December…)  Anyways 6 months later these girls started to take off and now all they’re rage via pitchfork aholes and music sites abound.  But oh so talented and deserving they certainly are! Has a twangy olde timey sound at times, but definitely up beat & danceable.  Grab both the debut LP How to Make Ambient Sadcake & their darker Duck, Duck, Goose! EP from Turn It Up Records here.  Lucky vinyl listeners get two bonus vinyl exclusive tracks, and on preemo heavy weight colored vinyl, white w/ pink splatter last copy I saw.  My poor first press is just dull black :(

The Sandwitches - Kiss Your Feet

Fantastic dark & twisted video….<3<3<3 

The Sandwitches - My Teddy

This is b-side of their new Summer of Love 7” available in from 1-2-3-4 Go! Records in pretty green vinyl with only 100 copies here, and 400 more on plain ol’ black here.  With their rising popularity in the last couple months, I’m sure these’ll be gone quick as lightning. So act fast. Ships 11/30  

Oh dear, one of my favorite new bands in the last year.  In fact I first came upon The Sandwitches last November according to my itunes when I bought their long out of print Back to the Sea 7” and their How to Make Ambient Sadcake LP from Turn It Up Records.  I then received a personal email from the band thanking me for buying the vinyl, and asking me where I’d heard about them.  What service!  The original How to Make Ambient Sadcake was a 500 press and long out of print, but you can now get the repress on fancy colored vinyl here.  For you non-vinyl listeners; The Revisionist & Strangers Shadow tracks only exist on the vinyl, and are probably two of the best gems from the album.

I quite like this apt description from Kelley Stoltz:

“Imagine a 60’s Girl-group is on tour and their van breaks down near a gothic castle high on the hill, Dario Argento invites them in to perform a concert for his tweaked actors in a big dark red room inside and, if the dream is right, it’s the Sandwitches - they’d fit right in with those misfits and speak the same language. I’d like to be there to dance. Close your eyes and you’ll see what I mean. These are fab, haunting tunes wrapped in tender weird pop. That’s what we got here. A heavy party you want to hang out at.”