Sorry for the erratic web updates lately but hey, it’s summer and we were slightly preoccupied with the World Cup. Now that it’s over we can focus on pop music again!
This week marks the official release of spectacular new EPs from popular Matinée artists Harper Lee and Lovejoy! We are offering simultaneous release dates—sort of a modern day Blur vs. Oasis battle although I don’t think these groups have many similarities with Oasis. Or Blur for that matter. (Unless you like Oasis and Blur in which case they sound EXACTLY LIKE THEM.) Here are release details so you can decide for yourself:
The magnificent new 5-track ‘He Holds A Flame’ EP (matinée 061) is the first release in nearly two years from revered English duo Harper Lee! The exquisite title track, presented here in two takes, contrasts trademark Harper Lee melancholy with an upbeat, keyboard-driven tune that recalls the more optimistic moments of lead singer Keris Howard’s former band Brighter. The song is now playing on the sounds page if you fancy a listen. Among the three other exclusive tracks, ‘I Could Be Wrong’ is a perfect slice of Go-Betweens-by-numbers acoustic pop, its jangling guitars the perfect complement to a curiously hopeful message. The moody and churning ‘William Blake’ is a sumptuous textured pop gem that best demonstrates the multi-layered instrumentation characteristic of the band’s acclaimed previous releases, while ‘Come Rest Your Weary Head,’ a chiming lullaby featuring hypnotic percussion and the most plaintive of vocals, ends the EP in sublime fashion. The bottom line is this one’s a gem, folks and it’s limited to 1000 copies in custom minijacket sleeve so get to the mailorder or your favorite shop soon!
The new ‘England Made Me’ EP (matinée 062) is Lovejoy‘s impressive follow-up to last year’s ‘Everybody Hates Lovejoy’ album (matcd035). Lead track ‘Brightness Falls’ is perhaps the finest Lovejoy song to date, mixing keyboards and jangling guitars in a twinkling pop hit with ace vocals from Lovejoy supremo Richard Preece. If we lived in a just universe this would be blasting from car stereos all summer long in place of the latest inane hip hop flavor-of-the-week, but we’ll settle for its current feature atop the Matinée sounds page instead so you can have a listen whenever you like. ‘Are You Analogue or Digital?’ sports a bit of the pesky electronica that first showed its face on the popular ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ set (matcd018) and also rather nicely recalls the sparkling pop of The Human League, while ‘In the Rain’ is a lusciously paced and mesmerizing cover of the mid-80s indie hit from The June Brides. ‘Made in England’ closes the EP in top form, layering guitars, strings and percussion alongside a rhythmic vocal track with angelic backing—a return of sorts to the chiming orchestral pop of Lovejoy’s debut album ‘Songs In The Key of Lovejoy’ (matcd008). Hurrah! This one is also limited to 1000 copies in our custom minijacket sleeve so get going if you want one!
In other release news, the brand new ‘6 Billion People’ album (matcd040) from Tender Trap is causing quite a stir these days with good reviews popping up in trusted magazines like Magnet, Uncut, Venus, Q and Rivet. Some of our favorite press quotes include Tasty calling it “one of the best pop albums you’ll hear this year,” I’d Rather Be Fat Than Be Confused suggesting “opening track 6 Billion People is about 6 billion times better than anything any band has released so far this year—a modern day ‘My Girl’ all full of ba-ba-ba-ba’s, clever lyrics and an impossible to forget killer of a tune,” Kisschase writing “the new Tender Trap record feeds in to the recent, very welcome tradition of albums that are actually solid all the way through,” and, alluding to lead singer Amelia Fletcher’s impressive back catalog in Talulah Gosh, Heavenly and Marine Research, Plan B Magazine calling the new album “as refreshingly infectious and as downright fab as anything she’s done in the past.” Read more about the album and check out the latest reviews on the updated catalog page, where you can also listen to four tracks from the album! Tender Trap played a handful of UK dates to launch the album last month and we hope to see them on American soil sometime soon so buy lots of records and we’ll see what we can do. They’re ace live you know…
Just finishing up in the Matinée art department (translation: trying to decide among three different sleeve options) is the fantastic new 20-track compilation ‘Out To Sea’ (matcd041) from Brighter! As we mentioned last month, and probably the one before that, the album includes all eight songs from the 1991 Sarah Records mini-lp ‘Laurel’ plus five songs from the ‘Next Summer’ and ‘A Winter’s Tale’ flexis, a contribution to the rare ‘Beckett House’ compilation LP, and six previously unreleased tracks, all remastered in glorious stereo sound! The full tracklisting is: 1. Christmas, 2. Frostbite, 3. Summer Becomes Winter, 4. Something To Call My Own, 5. Ocean Sky, 6. Out to Sea, 7. Maybe, 8. Journey’s End, 9. If I Could See, 10. Wallflower, 11. Airhead, 12. Don’t Remember, 13. Next Summer, 14. Looks Like Rain, 15. Falling, 16. There Is Nothing We Can Do?, 17. Nothing At All, 18. Hope to God, 19. Amy Never Knew, 20. Still. The CD is going to the pressing plant imminently which puts us on course for a September release. In the meantime have a listen to the brilliant unreleased track ‘Wallflower’ on the sounds page. Trust us this will be well worth the wait.
Also coming soon is the highly anticipated debut album from our good pals Math and Physics Club! If the demos are anything to go by, this album is going to be a smash. Among your future favorite songs are ones entitled ‘April Showers,’ ‘In This Together,’ ‘Last Dance,’ ‘Cold As Minnesota,’ ‘Darling Please Come Home,’ ‘Look At Us Now,’ ‘Holidays and Saturdays,’ and my personal favorite ‘I Know What I Want.’ The album should contain 10 previously unreleased songs and to say we’re eagerly awaiting it would be a massive understatement. We’re shooting for an early autumn release so start saving your pennies now. The band will play a handful of album launch shows including their first along the American East Coast so stay tuned here or check the MAPC website for details.
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We released four solid EPs over the past few months which the smarties amongst you already have but for those of you looking to catch up, we’re talking about the ‘A Hiccup In Your Happiness’ EP (matinée 060) from The Lucksmiths, ‘Language Lessons’ EP (matinée 058) from Tender Trap, ‘Sleepydust’ EP (matinée 053) from The Snowdrops, and ‘Movie Ending Romance’ EP (matinée 059) from Math and Physics Club. They all contain ace exclusive tracks you can’t find anywhere else so you know you need them. Check the catalog pages for reviews and the sounds page for full-length soundclips. These are perfect additions to your Tender Trap, Lovejoy and Harper Lee new release orders, don’t you think?
In upcoming European live action, Pipas are set to play Sweden’s Emmaboda Festival on August 12th; Airport Girl, The Lucksmiths, and Would-Be-Goods all help Fortuna POP! Records celebrate 10 years of love, ineptitude and independence at the August 30th F-POP! Fest in London; and The Lucksmiths take in a dozen European cities in early September, including dates in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Germany, Spain and Italy. For more details see the Pipas, Fortuna POP, and Lucksmiths websites.
Continuing now with our back catalog spotlight feature, this month we showcase classic releases from Would-Be-Goods, The Liberty Ship and Harper Lee! Each release is specially priced for the next month to persuade you to continue building your Matinée collection. Here are several reasons why you should:
This month’s spotlight album is the luxurious 2004 full length ‘The Morning After’ (matcd032) from Would-Be-Goods! Their third release for Matinée following the triumphant ‘Emmanuelle Béart’ EP (matinée 030) in 2001 and ‘Brief Lives’ (matcd017) album the following year, we happen to think it’s the best Would-Be-Goods release to date. In reviewing the album, All Music Guide suggested “you would be hard pressed to find a better indie pop record this year,” calling it “a miniature gem that indie pop fans should add to their collection right away.” Tasty concurred, writing “easily the best WBG album so far, and their most accessible… pop at its most righteous.” The album has some bona fide modern classics on it, including the title track, ‘Pantomime Devil,’ ‘Miss La-Di-Dah,’ ‘Big Cat Act,’ ‘What Adam and Eve Did Next’… check out soundclips on the sounds page and take advantage of the bargain price all this month at the mailorder! You’ll be glad you did because Would-Be-Goods rule, okay?
The back catalog CD single of the month is the March 2003 ‘Northern Angel’ EP (matinée 046) from The Liberty Ship, the Nottingham, England four-piece led by former Bulldozer Crash frontman Marc Elston. The title track is one of those should-have-been hits with perfectly shimmering guitars, harmonica, tambourine, great harmonies and one of the catchiest choruses we’ve heard in a long while. Seriously… go to the sounds page for a listen because it’s really worth hearing. The EP was a favorite at All Music Guide, which wrote “all four songs have a chiming, Byrds-influenced, classic indie pop sound… Northern Angel has lovely minor chords, a soaring chorus, and is reminiscent of late-’80s bands like the great East Village.” Meanwhile, Careless Talk Costs Lives said “guitars shimmer, tambourine shakes, harmonies harmonize… business as usual from Nottingham, then,” while Wide Open Road called it “a strong EP all round, especially if you like heartfelt guitar pop from the Postcard school.” See the catalog page for more reviews. Three of the EP’s four tracks did not appear on the subsequent Liberty Ship album ‘Tide’ (matcd029) so it’s well worth the money especially at the sale price this month. See the mailorder page to secure your copy.
Our featured 7″ this month is the October 2000 ‘Bug’ 45 (matinée 019) from Harper Lee! The second single from Brighton, England duo featuring Keris Howard (Brighter, Hal, Trembling Blue Stars) on vocals and guitar, and Laura Bridge (Hood, Kicker) on guitar, keyboards, and drums, this double A-side showcased idyllic, earnest pop with beautifully layered keyboards and guitars. In reviewing the single, In Love With These Times called it “two songs of impossible beauty” and we couldn’t agree more. The title track will always be a highlight of the Matinée catalog… I could write a page about it easily but sounds speak louder than words so just listen for yourself over at the sounds page and you’ll soon decide this is essential listening. The exclusive b-side ‘You Kill Me’ is just as good and perhaps most famous as a Pipas cover version on the Matinée 50 compilation (deservedly one of Matinée’s top sellers) which means more people own the Pipas version of this song than the original Harper Lee version and that’s just not right is it? If we sell roughly 100 copies of the ‘Bug’ single this month they’ll be on equal footing so get going because 7″ singles are ace, especially when they’re just $2!
Those of you who are not fans of Real Player may be happy to know that sometime over the next few weeks you will be able to sample virtually every song released on Matinée via iTunes! Yes, we’ve given in to the digital revolution and are currently in the process of uploading releases to iTunes for download… hurrah! Of course we’ll still maintain stock of the physical releases too so either way we’ll keep your stereos and iPods happy. The process takes awhile but hopefully everything will be up by mid-August. We plan to provide direct links from the website to make it easy so check back here if you are interested.
We’ll end this missive as always with our hit parade of the top sellers from the past month. This one is a special combined May/June chart which sees Tender Trap just barely edging out a Harper Lee debut to remain at the top:
10. The Lucksmiths – San Francisco CDEP
9. Pale Sunday – Summertime CD
8. Lovejoy – England Made Me CDEP
7. The Lucksmiths – Warmer Corners CD
6. The Snowdrops – Sleepydust CDEP
5. The Lucksmiths – A Hiccup In Your Happiness CDEP
4. Math and Physics Club – Movie Ending Romance CDEP
3. Tender Trap – Language Lessons CDEP
2. Harper Lee – He Holds A Flame CDEP
1. Tender Trap – 6 Billion People CD
Stay cool!
Jimmy
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