Tilly & The Wall "Woo! (Team Love Records)"
From Team Love Records:
Many labels start because a record needs to be released. No one is stepping up to the plate, everyone’s too busy chasing trend and getting boringly drunk at SXSW. This was certainly the case when it came to Omaha’s Tilly & The Wall and the label Team Love. It was viewed by Team Love as a crime against pop-art and all that is good in the world for the album Wild Like Children not to be given a shot: three singers, a tap-dancer, three songwriters and songs meant to be thrust into the sky with joyous punches. Recorded in a basement by Conor Oberst, the album’s danceability and “f*ck it up” chants, it’s sorrow and punk, dress up brawling and bottled call to friendship and grab-it-off-the-shelf folk was like nothing that had ever come before. It took indie pop and kissed it on the forehead leaving a glitter smear. It stomped on hate and refused to be part of any scene that wouldn’t let every single kid in the door.
A decade flew by. Everyone, it seemed, moved to Brooklyn and grew beards. The band toured the world, made three more albums, had a hit, and then called it a day. People don’t talk about Tilly & The Wall now the way they should. This Best Of hopes, very simply, to help correct that error.
Woo! is the preamble to all of that. It’s the pre-album, the not-demos packaged in a zip-lock and sold after the show. These songs show a band in its infancy, and to every Tilly fan, this is the final sequence in the mapping of the Tilly genome.
Fat Night "Live For Each Other (Acrophase)"
We Versus The Shark "Goodbye Guitar (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)"
From Ernest Jenning Record Company:
When We Versus the Shark formed in 2003, the group’s members were barely in their 20s and living in three different states. The math rock foursome converged on the music hub of Athens, Georgia as a homebase and promptly set about storming the town’s gates. Starting with their debut album Ruin Everything!, the group kicked up a screwy racket of Dischord-ant guitars, noisy synths, and electro-shock rhythms. Foot soldiers in the DIY basement army, they dutifully toured their asses off, squirming and spasming over small stages at home and abroad. Seven years, an EP, a darkly aggressive follow-up (Dirty Versions) and a cover album later, the group called it a day in 2009 and scattered to the four winds once more.
With WVTS in the rear-view, the group followed their own paths. Guitarist/vocalist Samantha Paulsen explored the cosmos with surf-scientists Man… Or Astroman? while getting her nursing degree. Guitarist/vocalist Luke Fields went on to pursue thrills both onstage (in Nintendo-rock outfit Bit Brigade as well as positive guitar-worship group Double Ferrari) and off (as an avid rollercoaster enthusiast). Bassist/vocalist Jeff Tobias plays saxophone in New York psych-jazz quartet Sunwatchers and London-based indie-folk ensemble Modern Nature, among many other projects. Drummer Scott Smith relocated to Amsterdam to work as an economist, and releases material under the name President of the Drums.
In 2015, upon revisiting archival demos, Fields determined: there was plenty of gold left to be spun and plenty of notes (trust us, plenty) yet to be played. Putting the long-awaited final touches on some unfinished bangers and uncorking some new gems, the group quietly converged in the Classic City a handful of times over the next few years to make Goodbye Guitar. Recorded with the band’s longtime studio collaborator Mike Albanese (Maserati/Cinemechanica) and mastered by Joel Hatstat (Cinemechanica), the ten-song firecracker LP is at once an energetic return to form and a rediscovered wellspring of joy. With their youthful anxieties (mostly) left in the past, Goodbye Guitar is the sound of four people having the time of their lives playing together. It’s hyper-melodic and unapologetically maximalist, bursting with acrobatic slashes of guitar and unexpected humor. As the world spins fully out of control, the reunited We Versus the Shark hope to offer an opportunity for guitar-shredding elation. Say hello to Goodbye Guitar.
Rose City Band "Summerlong (Thrill Jockey)"
From Thrill Jockey:
Rose City Band started purely as a recording project, with Johnson’s role mostly obscured for the self-titled debut album. Released with no promotion, in the style of private press records, it was a liberating act, a focus on music without any expectations. Explaining it with a chuckle, Johnson elaborates, “I always would threaten to my friends that I’m gonna start a country rock band so I can retire and just play down at the pub every Thursday night during happy hour. I love being able to tour and travel, but I also like the idea of having a local band … more of a social music experience.” Freedom from expectation and obligation gave Johnson the space to experiment with new instrumentation and arrangements. The introduction of lap steel, mandolin, and jaw harp enhance Johnson’s lean guitar work with radiant overtones, placing Summerlong more overtly within the country tradition than its predecessor. Work on the album began at Johnson’s home studio in Portland during the summer, but, interrupted by touring, it would not be finished until the winter season. The dark isolation of winter and the pining for summer’s easier days can be felt in the album’s few quieter moments. Summerlong was mixed by John McEntire (Stereolab, Broken Social Scene, Tortoise) at his newly minted Portland Soma Studios and mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering, also based in Portland.