An Eternal Summer Requires Correct Behavio(u)r

Eternal Summers are preparing to launch the follow-up to the excellent debut LP Silver with Correct Behavior (that's their American misspelling, not mine!) and they have handed out some tasty morsels to get your teeth into. The Virginia trio (the duo have added a bassist) aren't so much a scrap pop band in the same realm as compatriots Reading Rainbow as they are treading a new line that wavers between the Sundays ('Millions') and the Breeders ('Able To' - although a track not on the album). I'm really looking forward to see how this sucker works out.


Correct Behavior is out July 24 through Kanine Records.

Eternal Summers - Millions
Eternal Summers - Able To

X-Ray Eyeballs Look Squalid And Oh So Splendid

XRay Eyeballs are ready to foul up your living room and put out cigarettes on your cheeks once more. These blacker-than-thou noir-pop-punks have rejigged the lineup and are readying to tear down the foundations with Splendor Squalor, which 'X' is gleaned from. There is something decidedly glorious about this track, with enough glam, New Wave and Blondie references to poke a stick at before it's scuffed up with a Germs-monogrammed safety pin and set on fire.


Splendor Squalor is out soon on Kanine.



Xray Eyeballs - Die Little Love

Strangely Transfixed By Royal Baths (Updated)

I'm still not wholeheartedly convinced that I like Royal Baths. I mean, the Brooklyn-via-San Francisco band tick the right boxes - dark, brooding, garage based tendencies, drone tinged rock, a love of Spacemen 3... Yet I can't quite get them. Whether it's because I think/thought they're style over substance, or that they are/were a little over-hyped, I'm not sure. I wasn't enamoured with their debut Litanies (on Woodsist), but I listened to it quite a bit anyway. Weird.

I'm equally flummoxed by how much I'm enjoying them right now. I find their songs to be fairly insidious in how they squirrel under my skin without my notice or permission. It kinda hurts my head, because I can't put my finger on it, yet there it is, on repeat, making me happy and maudlin at the same time. Their new album, Better Luck Next Life, is coming out through Kanine next week, and it will be interesting if there is a similar sensation to the first. Likewise, I'll keep you posted as to whether it bewitches me the way the first one did, or if I genuinely dig it (or genuinely loathe it - nothing is off the table here...).

UPDATE - Royal Baths will be playing in Brisbane! Yep, they have lined up Woodland for Thursday March 29. I think it's time I settled my love/hate stance once and for all...

Royal Baths - Black Sheep
Royal Baths - Darling Divine

Rolling The Young Black Prisms

There have been announcements of all kinds of interesting releases in the past couple weeks, and I thought I'd focus on a couple more that are piquing my interest.


Seems that Black Dice are primed to drop Mr Impossible, their sixth official LP since their inception some fifteen plus years previously. Easily one of the most influential experimental rock bands to ever walk the dirty corridors of this earth, the NY trio never approach music the same way, offering instead a distilled focus on creating something insular, unique, and unequivocally Black Dice. THAT is why my skin is tingling at the thought of this release. Mr Impossible comes out April 9 on Ribbon Music.

Black Dice - Pigs


Whilst not at the heady heights of excitement, this one is still up there. An early highlight of 2011, San Francisco band Young Prisms' album Friends For Now married the shoegaze aesthetics that has attracted so many bands of late with an earthier, more playful style that nevertheless was a little too throwaway. Now they are prepping to hit us with some clearer, fresher dream pop madness courtesy of sophomore effort In Between on Kanine Records. I enjoyed the first album, but there were chinks in the armour, so I'm eagerly awaiting the drop of this LP to see if they come back stronger. The first taste is below. I'm not entirely won over to be honest, but the crisp production could play in their favour if there is enough deviation in their sound. The premise - the band has based the record on the loss of a dear friend and an unexpected stranding in London's Heathrow Airport - certainly alludes that this may be the case. Time will tell...

Young Prisms - Floating In Blue

Predicting Another Bloody Success In The Surf

West Beach, Florida's Surfer Blood had a stellar 2010, what with their massive debut LP Astro Coast making them the new Weezer (IE when Weezer was good) and side projects such as the Jesus Lizard-heavy Weird Wives kicked some serious arse. Well they are hitting back out into new territory this month on their new EP Tarot Classics (on Kanine Records) In some ways its more of the same, esp[especially on the catchy opener 'I'm Not Ready'. However 'Miranda' is a catchy Elvis Costello meets - you guessed it - Weezer blast, whilst end-track 'Drinking Problem' is a fantastic sidestep, a bit of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza styled airiness pervading throughout. They are great songwriters, and vocalist John Paul Pitts' voice is as clear and enervating as ever. Ive been bagged out by my interest in this band in the past, but seriously, there is something about Surfer Blood which is like drinking an ice cold beer after spending an hour mowing the lawn in summer's mid-afternoon haze. A truly enjoyable yet refreshing experience.

Surfer Blood have picked up the support slot for the run of Stateside Pixies shows - very nice! If you can, make sure you get tickets for that. For the rest of you, bide your time - rumours afoot that the touring bug continues to bite...

Surfer Blood - Voyager Reprise
Surfer Blood - Miranda