Friday, May 09, 2014

Friday feelings: Vienna Ditto, Bastard Mountain, Gold-Bears

Vienna Ditto - Feeling Good

This shouldn't have worked on us. The press release claims they're set aside from "pretentious shoegaze, indy-pop smush", which is basically all we post these days, and then compares the duo to Portishead, The Knife and Jack Nitzche, all of which are far wide of the mark. In fairness we did actually write about Vienna Ditto just over a year ago commending their merging of rockabilly twang, rumbling electronics and insistent percussion, and this new single out 9th June... well, much the same description applies in a track that has something of the dirty garage voodoo about it. Bet they're a great live band. Oddly it also reminds us of this forgotten near-hit from 1999, if not so big beat or novelty (or male, or Del tha Funkee Homosapien-referencing. What a strange time 1999 was)




Bastard Mountain - Swam Like Sharks

Another song from the forthcoming Song, By Toad all-stars collaborative album Farewell, Bastard Mountain, out 12th May. This is written by Jill O'Sullivan of Sparrow And The Workshop with lead vocals by Neil Pennycook of Meursault, so of course we're interested, especially in something that sneaks twanging country guitars into an oppressive slowcore background and pained acoustic lament upfront.




Gold-Bears - Yeah, Tonight

Atlanta's Jeremy Underwood is the mainstay of Gold-Bears, irrepressibly hooky power-punk-pop that uses Superchunk and the Wedding Present as touchstones. New guest vocalist to the stars Emma Kupa pops up on the opening track from Dalliance (see, Weddoes in effect), their new album for Slumberland Records, a rushing, sharp pop song with teeth filed into fangs.

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