Seven Ten Twelve

a1: Destroy This Night
a2: Sunday Comedown
a3: Young Shields
a4: Little Odessa
Label: Self Released
Purchase/Listen: Myspace

I think this is the first piece of music that I have listened to, and immediately made me want to go furniture shopping. This, being a sweet, one-sided slab of clear green vinyl has plenty of room for art on the other-side (which houses a giant drawing of… a barcelona chair). I have a serious artifact fetish happening here. It doesn’t help that the music is really nice to listen to. A real change of pace for me here at Seven Ten Twelve HQ: pretty, post-rock that reminds me of other post-rock bands, though there is absolutely nothing wrong with a band drawing inside the lines within a genre - The Barcelona Chair do this musical strata proud, and any fans of Jesu, Mogwai or Godspeed, or perhaps the lofiness of South Pacific - would take an instant liking to this record. That said, if you are resistant (or sick of) post-rock, this isn’t going to convert you. I really like the intimate recording nature of this recording - it was done in an apartment, and has that “can’t play too loud so we don’t disturb the neighbours” feel to it - something that I can relate to. This is a record you will want to listen to at night, because it sounds like the night - calm (up until the last act), desolate, and pretty.

I just saw that there is a second (or third? not sure…) pressing of SevenTenTwelve favourite Blank Dogs available from Sacred Bones. I am listening to Blank Dogs practically every day - everything just feels so original and effortless.

Also available for what (I assume) is a very short time today was the Mirrored Cassette, released by this guy. The Blank Dogs site has it listed as “Sold Out” - so I think that is that. I got lucky and managed to secure one for myself, which is pretty sweet, though he was pretty adamant that he “only had a few” (the majority being promised as part of the”Blank Box”).

I also understand that we are two weeks away from the release of the Troubleman Unlimited LP “On Both Sides” - from what I have heard of this LP (which is the stuff playing on his MySpace page) is the best Blank Dogs musics yet.

Also: this video for the song “Poison Ivy” (off the 7″ on Florida’s Dying)

1. “First Two Weeks” 12″ EP-Freedom School Records-Sold Out. Repress soon.

2. 7″-Hozac Records-1st Press Sold Out, 2nd Press still available (try Tic Tac Totally Mailorder)

3. 7″-Sweet Rot Records-1st Press Sold Out, 2nd Press soon available. (Try Black Mountain Distro)

4. “Diana (The Herald)” 12″ EP-Sacred Bones Records-Sold Out. Repress soon (Try Tic Tac Totally Mailorder)

5. 7″ EP-Florida’s Dying Records-Sold Out (Try Bistro-Distro)

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So there is this guy working under the name of Blank Dogs that was uber prolific last year, and I had managed to avoid hearing anything from him, or reading any thing about him, until he started popping up on all of these year end best-of lists. And by “all these” I am referring to one or two, though one top ten of 2007 included four of these releases. So by the time I catch the scent - it is too late, and all of these are sold out. This causes great concern for me (I’m slipping!), but I managed to track down all of these via various distro’s (linked where still available). It just takes a long time.

What someone who knows how to code or whatnot needs to do is set up some kind of Amazon-style website of “If you liked this, try this!”, but with links to all of these various boutique labels. Kind of like a dumping ground of links to various small scale labels (as opposed to another Insound or something). Or not. I’ve just spent so much time searching google for short run seven inches and the like, and keep thinking that there has to be a better way.

For example, this came to my attention today - HoZac records just released a new Blank Dogs 7″ (ltd to 200 green), which you can get that right from their MySpace page. Crazy, I am eager to hear this one (though it says US only, so maybe I am going to have to ask someone in the US to order it for me).

If you like Blank Dogs, keep your eyes peeled in 2008 as they are putting out 12 - yes 12 (!!) releases this year…

1. 7″ EP-Daggerman Records-Coming Soon

2. “Mirror Lights” Cassette-Coming Soon

3. Blank Box (all 2007 Releases+inserts+1&2 from 2008, SOLD OUT, Coming Soon)*

4. “On Two Sides” LP-Troubleman Records (February?), cassette version on Fuck it Tapes-Coming Soon

5. Ltd. 7″ on Troubleman

6. 7″ on 4:2:2 Records (Denmark)

7. Untitled LP/CD-In The Red Records

8. Singles Anthology Cassette on Heavy Tapes-Coming Soon

9. Singles Anthology CD on Sacred Bones-March(?)

10. 7″ on Woodsist

11. Cassette on Bum Tapes

12. 7″ on Slowboy (Germany)

a1: The Hollows
a2: By Torpedo Or Crohn’s (a remix by Dntel)
b1: Yoyo Bye Bye (a cover by Xiu Xiu)
b2: Pre-teen Apocalyptic Film Acting (Medley) (a cover by Half-handed Cloud)
Order directly from Anti-Con! (or get the UK version from TomLab)

Listen to “The Hollows” on some random blog!

This is Yoni Wolf (cLOUDDEAD, Hymie’s Basement, Reaching Quiet) and his brother playing really dark indie-style music - and it really works nicely. Just really solid songwriting and sharp production.  There are two versions of this - the US version is the one I have, with all of the remixes being interesting enough (and the Xiu Xiu cover is worth a listen), but you are going to want this for “The Hollows,” which is worth tracking down both versions for.

The US version comes in Orange (1000 copies), and the UK  version is in Purple (500 copies).

 Available from Drag City

Perhaps this is stretching the limits of this blog, but this is good enough to warrant attention, and allows me to reference the “Wai Notes” CD that came out randomly today (also available in “limited quantities” from Drag City). Two amazing Wil Oldham releases in two weeks? Are you even kidding me?

“Ask Forgiveness” finds Oldham playing eight covers alongside the freakfolkies of Espers, and sounds wonderful. Not as sinister as other Bonnie “Prince” Releases (save for the cover of Danzig’s “Am I Demon”), but a highly enjoyable listen none-the-less. If you get this album for one thing alone, it should be for his cover of R-Kelly’s “The World’s Greatest,” which continues to blow my mind.

Out of nowhere this am, I come accross “Wai Notes,” a collection of what sound like ghetto-blaster demo’s from when Oldham and   Dawn McCarthy were putting together last year’s “The Letting Go.” I tend to fall in the camp of Oldham’s fans who think that “The Letting Go” was way over produced, and I found it really hard to get into. One morning of listening to “Wai Notes” and I am obsessed. Very, very good.  This CD is available from Drag City on a “first come, first served” basis, with a note that this is “very limited,” with each cover coming with “handmade photo things” on the back. Amazing. Good old Drag City, randomly releasing things in limited quantity without telling anyone until they are sold out.

Update:  Apparently the “very limited” is 10,000 copies worldwide.

a: Freak Out / Starry Eyes
b1: North American Scum (Onanistic Dub)
b2: Hippie Priest Bum-Out
Available at Scratch.

You know, sometimes being a completist can be really annoying, especially when the bands you love and actively “complete” are such dicks about doing over-seas only versions and then randomly repackaging them and re-marketing them. This is like a dare from the band - “we dare you to buy these same songs again.” I hate that shit.

James, let me get this straight: you are telling me that I can now purchase these tracks, which were previously available in the UK only (”Freak-Out” being the “All My Friends” 12″ b-side, and “Hippie Priest Burn-Out” was the b-side to the UK version of the “North American Scum” 7″) have been repackaged again (all three being available as well on the US version of the 45:33 CD that came out last month)? Especially since “Freak Out / Starry Eyes” is the only thing worth listening to on this, with “Hippie Priest Burn-Out” being such a snore-fest.

James Murphy I love you, but you’re bringing me down.

a1: Someone Great (Album version)
a2: Time to Get Away (Gucci Soundsystem Remix)
b: Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)
c: Sound of Silver (Carl Craig Remix)
d: Us V. Them (Any Colour You Like Remix by Windsurf)

Its telling that every time anyone talks about Sound of Silver, it is prefaced with “album of the year.” I like that. LCD Soundsystem, bringing the people together! Even the people who hate a thing because everyone else likes that thing give terribly weak reasons why LCD aren’t among the most entertaining, most interesting “working” band.

Yet. if I am being honest, it took me a couple of months to actually fully embrace the album as a whole. I just couldn’t, for whatever reason, get into it. It wasn’t until I got Sound of Silver on vinyl that I fully understood what I was missing.

Here we have the third single from the album (the first being “North American Scum” which is available in 12″ and 7″ versions; the second being “All My Friends”, which is available as one 12″ and two separate 7″ that had Franz Ferdinand and John Cale covering the songs). James Murphy is continuing his trend of “dance songs go on the 12 inch/rock songs go on the 7 inch”, and that is exactly what we have here - remixes oriented towards the “dance” side of the equation.

The key selling point of this is the Carl Craig remix of the song “Sound of Silver,” and you have to give it up to the man - he does the most interesting remix on this single. Everything else does a serviceable job, but present the problem I generally have with remixes - growing up as part of the punk scene, I never really got the need for the dance remix if you weren’t using them to dance to. Give me the original any day. I suppose this is how I feel about this single; I like most of the tracks here, but, given the choice of listening to this or the LP, I am going to chose the LP every time.

1. Get Hurt 12″ (Upset the Rythm) (Ebay Store in North America)

a1. Everybody’s Down
a2. Switches
a3. Get Hurt
b1. Neck Escapah
b2. Great Faces
b3. I Wanna Sleep

2. Sick People Are Safe 12″ (Deleted Art)

a1. Boy Void
a2. Sick People Are Safe
b1. Vacation Pay
b2. Semi-sorted

3. Dead Plane 12″ (Teenage Teardrops - SOLD OUT)

a1: Dead Plane
a2: Goat Hurt
b1: Never Not Beaten
b2: You is My Hot Rabbit

4. Youth Attack 7″ (Youth Attack Records - Sold Out)

a1: Neck Escaper
a2: My Life’s Alright Without You
b1: Escarpment

5. Post Present Medium 7″ (PPM)

a: Every Artist Needs a Tragedy
b: Loosen This Job

5 singles put out by five labels in one month (March 2007) from three different countries (USA, UK, Sweden). When you collect all 5, they spell “NO AGE.” Limited edition coloured vinyl (i.e. I got one of the 100 “beige swirl” copies of the “Dead Plane” ep). You don’t even need to know anything about the music before you are ready to spend the next week tracking down one of each - this is a record collector’s wet dream.

As a strategy for getting a relatively unknown band from LA some action, this is a perfect way to do it. I remember pulling my hair out the day I heard about this series, trying to figure out where to find all of these. The band didn’t even have a proper website (only myspace) and all it said was “five eps out on five labels!” I had to HUNT.

In the age of eBay, with its saved search functionality, the hunt is mechanized for me. I don’t have to do any work - I just have to be patient. Honestly, this has killed some of my passion for record collecting, as it is just too easy. When something like this series comes along, it go my heart racing (would I get one of the coloured vinyl editions, or would I be too late?!!?). I had fun searching for clues, working my contacts… amazing.

The music is another story - NO AGE are one of my primo musical discoveries of 2007. So fresh sounding, so inventive; the recordings are all messy and lofi enough to suit my taste (I love lofi). I just haven’t heard anything by them that I dislike - it really just doesn’t get any better than this.

#3 and #4 are both sold out, but they don’t say “out of print” which is promising. If you want these, just try emailing the respective labels. This has worked for me (even if they point you towards a distro or record store that might have copies).

Listen to the Shocking Pinks Singles Series Player

Blue: (Rough Trade Shops)
a:This Aching Deal (think The Bats meets My Bloody Valentine)
b: August 3rd (Arkitype remix)

Green: (Rough Trade Shop)
a: Victims (”it’s like a garage band raised on a diet of just Sebadoh or a classic Flying Nun band that you heard on John Peel once”)
b: April May

Red: (Rough Trade Shop)
a: The Narrator
b: Dressed to Please

Pink (7″) (Norman records)
a: End of the World
b: Go to Sleep

Pink (12″) (Norman records)
a1: End of the World
a2: Go to Sleep (Deerhunter Remix)
b1: Go to Sleep
b2: Go to Sleep (Eluvium Remix)

(set on my own shocking pink kitchen table)

I will let the music here speak for itself: kind of like like My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Hood, The Clean, Liquid Liquid, Pavement (also: every free thinking band known to man). Layered, atmospheric, otherworldly, manic pop hooks, wistful psychedelics, frantic basement percussion & breathless energy. Any of these singles in isolation would make my year end list, but the combination is just value added, double plus good. Kind of like Voltron or something.

This series was supposed to ramp up to the LP (out on DFA in September), but I only got the End of the World singles on Friday. Each of these puppies is limited to 500 copies, and from what I can tell, they are only available overseas (I put links to the webstores that these are still available at, as they are already sold out in other places).

This is the song/video (End of the World) that started my obsession with this band: