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Win Tickets to Cass McCombs & Lightspeed Champion
Exclusive Advance Release An exclusive advance of the title track from Nite Jewel's new EP, Am I Real?, out digitally on July 20 (with vinyl to follow on August 16 -- the same night the band is playing an in-store record-release party at Other Music). Recorded with Cole M. Greif-Neill (who also collaborated on Good Evening) and guest players/co-writers Andrew and Daniel Aged from Teen Inc., here Ramona Gonzalez delivers a soulful, D-I-Y take on '80's new romantic grooves, a la Sade, Kajagoogoo and Spandau Ballet. The production is much crisper than on previous Nite Jewel releases, her yearning vocals sitting right up front in the mix, joined by some nice live slap bass, plus a great Paisely Park-sounding keytar solo! She just keeps getting better and better folks! We are offering this track in two formats: our standard, high-quality 320kbps mp3 or a studio-quality WAV file, for DJs and audiophiles. To purchase a WAV format, add the track to your shopping cart and then go to View Cart, where you can choose the WAV option. A 99 cent surcharge will be added, due to the large file size. -Duane Harriott This Week's Free Song Download Free song download of "The Hunt," from WOOM's debut full-length, Muu's Way, which drops this Tuesday, July 6th. The duo of Flying's Eben Portnoy and Sara Magenheimer (who also previously collaborated together as Fertile Crescent), WOOM's beguiling, infectious pop pulls from the minimalist tradition of Young Marble Giants and is filtered through the tropical, Technicolor sheen of contemporaries like Animal Collective and High Places. A great debut! Teen-Beat Label Spotlight Teen-Beat celebrates its 26th anniversary next week with a tour that will take many of the best bands from the label's influential roster across the East Coast. With none other than Unrest reuniting to headline the tour, plus appearances throughout the week from the Ropers, Versus, Bossanova, True Love Always, a newly reformed Rondelles and more, these are looking like the can't-miss shows of summer for any indie pop fan. Needless to say, we're very excited at Other Music and are commemorating the reunion and label anniversary with this special download sampler, which we co-curated with label/Unrest kingpin Mark Robinson, who also designed the artwork and assigned it an official Teen-Beat catalog number!! Twenty-two songs for the low price of $4.99 and available for one month only, don't miss it. Below are some of our favorite Teen-Beat releases from through the years, which have been marked down to $5.99 on Other Music Digital for the next two weeks, along with every full-length in the catalog. It's a perfect opportunity for old fans to fill in the holes in their collections and for newcomers to check out an essential pop label that was supremely influential on the still-thriving D.I.Y. scene, and which continues to release great music since relocating from its D.C origins to new headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Viva Teen-Beat!! -Gerald Hammill
Simply put, this special album is an essential cornerstone of what is now considered "indie" music, and is a blueprint for intelligent pop songcraft. This record, stuffed to the gills with hooks, beats, angles, dots, dashes, and heart, was one of the first and best albums of the contemporary underground to both acknowledge its influences, and to then take those influences, abstract them, and push them forward with a keen pop ear and a sassy punk attitude. The lineup of Unrest that recorded Imperial f.f.r.r. was one of those special bands that changed many lives and helped mend many broken hearts; the sentiments expressed on these songs still ring true, loud and clear, nearly 20 years later. If you've never heard Mark, Bridget, and Phil motor through "Cherry Cream On," float across the ether via "Imperial" or casually toss by dub-inflected Frisbees like "Champion Nines," you owe it to yourself to give this album a listen. The songs on Imperial f.f.r.r. have been mixtape fodder for many a generation of international pop underground dwellers, and though they called it quits after just one last incredible album, they gave it all they had with this one; it's the sound of three friends sharing all that they loved with anyone and everyone who came into earshot. This is the sort of album for which the phrase "Desert Island Disc" was created. -Mikey IQ Jones
Back in the early '90s, we didn't have the whole sweeping sense of stardom bestowed on some of today's indie acts. The feeling that groups like Galaxie 500 and Unrest generated was somehow more special, precious without being fey or cloying, and ultimately became the soundtrack to a disaffected generation trying to come to grips with the groundswell of energy that was the '90s itself. Unrest had already released three albums and a handful of singles of fun, if a bit jarring and anachronistic before Mark Robinson decided to tighten the screws on the whole operation. Imperial f.f.r.r. was the record that invited this sea change, and the material on B.P.M. supports this rebranding effort with gleeful, glowing aplomb. With one foot planted firmly in Factory Records worship (only the obscure side, from Durutti Column to Crispy Ambulance to Miaow, covered here), another in a proficient and mistake-free propulsive pop a la their mates Stereolab, one hand in gorgeous, Sarah Records strum, and the other hand grasping '60s pre-British Invasion stereo somnambulance. With a game of Twister like that, nothing left to do but put your face in the mat and sing. Which is pretty much what Unrest did. Contains tracks from their 7"s on Hemiola and Sub Pop, plus a number of outtakes from the Imperial sessions. Eminently worth it if you care at all about pop music. -Doug Mosurock The Rondelles' second album, The Fox, is a tight, wild little ball of candy-coated spitfire. They sprouted from the same New Mexico scene that spawned the Shins, but they were almost too much of too many things to make the impact they deserved. They were too fast, too loud, too smart, too sweet, and most of all, too young at the time to even be able to play many of the venues that hosted them! The Fox picks up where their debut left off, with the lean, smart punk efficiency of bands like the Buzzcocks making way toward garage and new wave flavorings, with drummer/keyboardist Oakley Munson's playing adding a triple trheat to the riffage that his bandmates contribute in full force. These tunes are outrageously catchy, and while there may not be much in the way of stylistic variety here, it's hard to fault the group when they do what they do so damned well. Give one listen to "Tuesday Rock City" for a good idea at what I'm talking about here -- these kids kick it raw. The band has reunited to play a few dates on the Teen-Beat tour, including the Friday, July 9th show at the Bell House in Brooklyn. -Mikey IQ Jones The giddy, intoxicating cuteness overload of Tuscadero was immediately recognized as an original of the '90s, the band graduating from Teen-Beat to major label Elektra in no time flat. It's not hard to see why this band had such an appeal across indie pop and alt-rock circles. There's a surprising toughness behind tracks like "Holidays 'R Hell" and "Given Up," which the band wisely placed against mixtape-ready teenluv anthems like "Angel in a Half Shirt." They're opening the July 5th Unrest show at the Bell House, so get ready to have fun all over again! -Doug Mosurock
Have you ever seen Beyond the Valley Of The Dolls? The late-60s film about a young all-girl rock group who encounter the pitfalls of the rock lifestyle and vanish into relative obscurity was actually a true story. The Feminine Complex were a group of Nashville teens who recorded this, their only album, in 1969, and vanished. There have been rumors for years that this was a studio concoction, but you know what? So were the Monkees in the early days, and their albums kick ass, too. The Feminine Complex ably balanced girl-group swagger, sunshine pop, and a kickin' rock and roll attitude, and it's a damn shame this record never got bigger than the local hit parade, as it's a fantastic slice of girl garage pop that paves the way for future bands like the Runaways all the way to the Vivian Girls. If you've enjoyed compilations like Girls With Guitars or Destroy That Boy! (which includes the Feminine Complex), you need to hear this! Also available, To Be in Love, which features rare studio outtakes and live cuts. -Mikey IQ Jones
Though it was one of hundreds of guitar rock records that leaped out of the underground and into the (indie) mainstream in the early 90s, The Stars Are Insane holds up incredibly well and better than most of its college rock radio contemporaries. Chalk it up to the Baluyut brothers, Richard and Ed, and their slow-burn, wistfully melodic, Galaxie 500-meets-Dinosaur Jr. brand of electric guitar pop -- less manic than Pavement, but insistent and earnestly engaging (and sometimes awesomely, fuzzy rocking). Or sing the praises of Fontaine Toups, who models her voice after Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier circa Switched On. Stars was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Versus and Teen-Beat, and it stands as a great, unsung guitar record from the 90s. -Michael Stasiak
Maybe It's Reno is the nom de plume of former Unrest bassist Bridget Cross (later of Air Miami and an early member of Velocity Girl), who was joined by onetime bandmates Mark Robinson and drummer Phil Krauth on the first seven tracks of this 2008-released album. I'd be blowing smoke if I tried to paint this record as a proper reunion of sorts, but damn, there are so many moments that could easily be mistaken as Unrest outtakes. Album opener "Baby's Lost in Tracks" could easily sound at home on the B.P.M. collection (and even an early Factory Records release), Cross' crystalline vocals carried by the spacious counter-play between her circular bass melodies and Krauth's breezy, double-time ride cymbal and finally dissolving into a hypnotic, minute-and-a-half wash of Robinson's chiming guitars. Like Unrest, much of the Maybe It's Reno album is rooted in pop minimalism, only here additional instrumentation like electric piano and synthesizer accent and intersect Robinson's layered guitars in songs like "Gravestones and Christmas Trees" and "Sugarloaf Mountain," the latter track slowly fading out with the inclusion of a drum machine. And while the atmosphere of these songs sound wonderfully familiar and comfortable, Cross makes plenty of stylistic divergences, reminding us that this is her project, after all. Joined by Basin Street's George Kuhar and Jordan Strudel for the remaining three tracks, there's no holding back in songs like "Lonestar" and the punked-up "Drunk Pilot," while the lovely "December" finds Cross accompanied by the skeletal chords of a piano. Tacked on at the end are bonus versions and reprises of "Sugarloaf Mountain" and "Days Like Cups." -Gerald Hammill
Tel Aviv were a particularly obscure presence in the Teen-Beat roster. Debuting with a self-titled album of unassuming, stunning instrumental meditations based around guitar and synth, they often sounded like a modern continuation of the forms and themes the Durutti Column broke ground on. However, the group used this bedrock of meditative, chiming guitar work in service of more pop ambient ambition than Vini Reilly ever dabbled in, at times sounding like Unrest at their most elegiac and breathtaking. While the debut is a worthwhile study in this approach, The Shape of Fiction brought the project to fuller realization, adding vocals to the mix on some tracks and ratcheting up the songwriting acumen with more compact songs and memorable hooks. The original cinematic scope of vision is never compromised though. Sweeping synths and rudimentary drum programming weave themselves into the mix at points, recalling Another Green World-era Eno, or Warp's early days of Artificial Intelligence. Listening to this album now, it's clear that these guys were ahead of the curve, making references to stock that wouldn't fully mature for another decade. -Jon Treneff Longing, earnest guitar pop of the jangly guitar variety, longtime favorites the Ropers captured the cloudy side of teenage anxiety up there with the best of them. The DC-area pop group jumped from Slumberland to Teen-Beat for this seven-song EP, their final release. Their languorous melodies and heart-on-sleeve vocals were built to stoke the fire inside of your heart. The band reactivated for the Slumberland anniversary shows last year, and are back supporting Unrest at the Maxwell's gig on July 7th. -Doug Mosurock We recognize the Teen-Beat label for its aesthetic, an all-over affair modeled in the spirit of an artist-run Factory Records. That said, Flin Flon may be the most "designed" project in the history of the catalog. Look at the album titles: A-OK, Boo boo, Chicoutimi, Dixie, and Et Cetera. They go in chronological and alphabetical order. It's Mark Robinson on guitar, Nattles (ex-Cold Cold Hearts) on bass, and Matt Datesman (True Love Always) on drums, playing steely, precise, very defined post-punk, likely with the aid of a computer. Juxtaposing a bracing, clean instrumental presence against Robinson's velvety, perfectly-pronounced vocals, they're like the most meticulously arranged New Order tribute ever conceived, meets a level of satire that actually punished customers for buying the physical releases. A-OK features long gaps in between the songs, there's a maddening amount of versions for several of the songs, and the vinyl version of Boo-boo ended each track with a silent locked groove, making it impossible to listen to the whole thing without manual intervention. The digital distribution era relieves us of such tomfoolery, and the tense, wonderful music of this project remains in its stead. Start wherever, but this singles collection, Chicoutimi, the song "Mistaken Point" from Boo-boo, and the first half of the latest, Et Cetera, are thoroughly stunning for this era or any other. -Doug Mosurock With only an EP and a smattering of appearances on samplers, 2006's Hey, Sugar is Bossanova's most complete statement of purpose in the 13 years that they've been writing and recording music for Teen-Beat. Principal songwriter Chris Storrow employs a charming Stephen Merritt/Jens Lekman croon to great effect on this collection of big, gorgeous pop songs. As prominent as any guitar on the record are playful synthesizers and Wurlitzers, big New Pornographers drum fills, and triumphant hooks galore. You can catch the group on the second half of the Teen-Beat tour, beginning with the July 9th show at Brooklyn's Bell House. -Michael Stasiak Formed in Charlottesville, VA while its members were still in college, True Love Always shares in the neatly-composed pop of later Unrest, though with a melodic shift away from the profound to the contemporary. Their twee hearts are beset by big, memorable melodies and a sort of mannered, longing delivery mirrored by Ben Folds, and aped by Death Cab for Cutie. The Spring Collection compiles the group's singles and compilation tracks and is a perfect introduction, but they’ve also got four proper albums worth exploring. -Doug Mosurock Wow! This album really takes me back. It was the summer of '92 in Lincoln, Nebraska and my friend Clint loaned me this cassette because he knew that I was really into Unrest and he figured I 'd really like Eggs. He was right! This DC-based trio was led by noted scribe and musician Andrew Beujon, and their underrated debut, Bruiser, was one of the best rock records of the year for me -- in a year that had nothing but landmark records. Produced by NYC post-punk stalwart Wharton Tiers, Bruiser successfully balances the muscular minimalist noise-rock of East Coast peers like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. with shambly jangle-pop. The album kicks off with the buzzing, slow-burn goodness of "Spaceman," a largely instrumental work that's built around open-ended, psychedelic/post-punk guitar interplay. The second tune, "John's Bar Mitzvah," borrows some bossa nova riffs as Beujon's emotive, lazy vocals sings of boredom and joblessness in a post-Reagan recession ("looking forward to my next check/looking forward to paying the rent...looking forward to not looking around"). There's a strain of irreverence that pervades throughout all of the songs, especially during my personal fave, "Ocelot (Party Mix)," which sounds a bit like a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the acoustic interludes of King Crimson and Yes. Eggs would go on to release the killer Teenbeat 96 Exploder but Bruiser stands as one of my all time favorites on this stellar label. -Duane Harriott Much of Mark Robinson's post-Unrest work remains woefully overlooked. In retrospect, this was probably due as much to the sheer volume of Robinson-related output as it was to the shifting musical climate of indie rock. In all fairness, there was never a discernible drop in quality, but between Air Miami, Flin Flon, Grenadine, and the grip of records released under his given name, even the most devout fan could have been forgiven for losing track during the mid-late 90s. The Olympic Death Squad record fell at the front of this creative deluge, and is essentially a Robinson solo record in all but name. While it lacks the stylistic cohesion of some of his other projects, it excels in showcasing the full scope of Robinson's artistic vision. Listening back, it's easy to hear him pulling pages from every corner of the musical library he inhabited. Blue is definitely the scruffiest, least manicured release from this period, but its charms lie in the way it balances the immediacy of sneak-attack post-punk rave-ups like "This Is Riot Gear" with the subtle pop insinuation of simple, repetitive tracks ("Sometimes I Can Breathe," "Ski Jump"). Like most of his (and Teen-Beat's) catalog from this period, it's aged surprisingly well, sounding especially prescient in light of the ascendence of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound and the new wave of literate dream pop. While you're at it, don't forget Robinson's solo joint Canada's Green Highways -- stately, elegant slow-burners for morning rides through the Swiss Alps. -Jon Treneff We'll close out this Teen-Beat feature with one more solo release from the label founder. Taste finds Mark Robinson taking a detour from his pop tendencies and creating an excellent EP's worth of experimental pieces composed entirely from cut-up sine waves and human voices. There was always a hint of this sort of activity as far back as the brief interludes on Unrest albums, like Perfect Teeth's "Food and Drink Synthesizer," but here we see Robinson working in a style more akin to a pop take on the Raster-Noton catalog, with sharp clicks and cuts set up in rhythmic and tonal patterns that still hint at melodies and beats. The best cuts successfully integrate Mark's vocalese into the sine wave surf, and while it's not necessarily your average Teen-Beat release, it definitely accentuates a very important part of Mark's aesthetic that perhaps gets downplayed in favor of the hook-o-rama of his more guitar-centric work. I'd personally love to see him flesh these concepts out fully into the pop style -- for now, we're left with this great postcard from a "what if?" roadside stop on the discography. -Mikey IQ Jones |
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Other Music is giving away a pair of tickets to this great double bill featuring 
