Melted Toys — Come On

Rarely does one hear guitars so happy to be playing with each other. Melted Toys may have left their Legos out in the sun, but they must feed and water their guitars more than the average band to get such sweet sounds out of them. Or maybe it’s just San Francisco.

earsofthebeholder:

Chocolate Bobka and Altered Zones premiered this track today from Melted Toys, but I will stand in as unofficial local blog premierer, because we can’t have New York stealing all our good bands from SF (no offense NY). “Come On” is a light, jangly-guitar pop tune with the softest vocals delicately layered on top. A big change from their their original jams “Lost Connection” and “Saturday Night Kids” which have more of a night-cruising psych vibe to them. The amazing Underwater Peoples is releasing the band’s debut EP on February 22nd.  Pre-order a 12” now.

Generifus — I Know (2011)

I came across two nice tracks from K Records today…here’s the first. Guitars that sound like they just got out of the rain, an odd little rhythmic hook and drumming that’s simple in the best possible way. I don’t know if it’s Calvin Johnson’s touch (I’m guessing it is) but I love the bare bones recording on this.

If I can reminisce about K Records for a second, I remember seeing Calvin Johnson play the Troubadour in LA in ‘97 or ‘98 with Dub Narcotic Sound System and it was quite a riot. But the band I really fell in love with that night was the opening band — IQU.

krecs:

Generifus will be featured in this week’s edition of the K Singles Zip-Pak.

“I Know” was one of five songs recorded in the Fall of 2010 with Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic Studio, and features the musical skills of Spencer Sult (guitar, vocals), Gordon Baker (bass), and Spencer Carrow (drums).

The Tony Castles — Untitled

live on WFMU, 11/25/10

The Tony Castles busted out an as-yet-untitled new tune in their performance at WFMU a few weeks back. It still needs some work, especially on the vocals, but get a load of this guitar. I love how those sweet 11th or 13th chords on the guitar are rattling the snares in the snare drum. (An aside: I never knew what those little metal things in the snare drum were called until I wanted to say they rattled…file that in the painfully obvious category) These guys make a lot of noise for a three piece. And I love how this isn’t cleaned up at all — you just get to sit in for band practice. Nice.

In the interview following the session, The Tony Castles talked about their collectively huge hard-on for Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, confirming once again that Tusk is in the throes of a huge renaissance these days among a certain crowd. The lead singer said they “went through a Fleetwood Mac kick on a recent tour.” Someone else in the band put it more succinctly: “Band’s good…they’re cool.”

Jump right to the Fleetwood Mac adoration portion of the interview here.

Download the whole set of music at the Free Music Archive.

NYC folks this is concert season. See The Tony Castles open for Bear Hands, with Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, next Friday 12/17 at the Bowery.