Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Golden Birthday – Exposed from Infinite Leagues

Golden Birthday are first of all, a pop band. Going further in depth, they’re one concocted from equal parts Beach House and My Bloody Valentine. Now what does that tell you right off the bat? That they took the perfectionist’s complexity away from shoegaze’s pristine arrangements? That they stripped down, packaged, and re-marketed dream pop, ready for mass consumption? You’ll have no part of that, surely. Who would? I mean, what kind of self-satisfied schmuck would willingly support the bastardization of these two distinct artforms?

I am. Their Whartscape ’09 set was a double-underlined, circled, paged-folded, and sticky-noted highlight. I was found among the fluid mass of festival-goers, all of us flailing limb over limb in reaction (not to be confused with cooperation) to the sound waves, as if the music was just as involved with our movement as muscles and bones were. The brand of bass driven funk-pop they displayed live however, does not appear on their debut album, Infinite Leagues. Rather, it’s been mysteriously replaced with the dream-gaze that I spoke of previously.

What Golden Birthday have made is an album that begs to be felt. Even though few of the lyrics break away from their all-encompassing progressions, you always know what they’re trying to express. Example: “Exposed.” All words aside, I know it has something to do with love, and it’s not a cheerful anecdote either. The track shows what these Chicagoans do best, the mindless repetition of simple pop melodies, unintelligent fuzz bordering every edge. Heartfelt textures and the uncanny ability to evoke empathy. Is it good? Well, I’m 12 full listens through and I’ve never once wanted to turn this record off.

Walking into the MICA North Ave. parking lot was like stepping into an alternate universe to me. Accustomed to the outstandingly complete normalcy of Carroll County living, everything involved at Saturday’s Whartscape was akin to alien scenery in my eyes. If anyone attending knew who I was or what I looked like–and you probably didn’t, you crazy ass MICA kids, I apologize for probably having stared just a tad too much.

Read the rest…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Matmos – Orban from Supreme Balloon (2008)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Dan Higgs – Untitled 1 from Plays The Mirror Of The Apocalypse (2005)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Jana Hunter – Valkyries

One of our city’s finest record stores (run by two of its nicest guys) is in abit of a financial rough patch.  To this, you probably respond: “Who isn’t?!”

But consider that the True Vine is one of a quickly vanishing breed: the highly-curated brick and mortar record store.  Jason Willett and Stewart Mostofsky run a timeless institution in a refreshingly old-school manner.  Walking through their doors feels like walking into a knowledgeable friend’s house, and that’s a rare thing these days (especially in retail).  For better or worse, Spin Magazine recognized True Vine as one of its top 15 indie record stores in America.

Help them pay off some of the lingering bills so they can get back to the business of finding and providing lovingly hand-picked music to your ears, worry-free.  They’ve gathered what has already been declared an unfuckwithable bill of veritable local superstars: Matmos, CEX, Dan Higgs, Jana Hunter, Coo Coo Rockin Time, Bill Mace, Golden Birthday and Jefrey Brown.

More goodies from our vaults:

Matmos interview here

One time, CEX wrote some haikus for us

Jana Hunter, CEX and Matmos gabbed with us prior to Whartscape 2008

The benefit show kicks off at tonight at 9PM sharp, Floristree in the H&H Building. Tickets are $10, and True Vine will also be selling hand-picked and burned mix CD-Rs for $7 (which are great) and apparel for prices unknown.  Buy it all, and show Jason & Stew your love for the True Vine by making sure it weathers this financial shit-storm.