Chunky handclaps, a marimba-like melody line, and some deep, deep kicks are what make this recent collaboration between Tiefschwarz and Seth Troxler really move. Though Troxler’s spoken vocals are a bit dubious, Tiefschwarz’s production skills are in top form, bringing much more funkiness to his grooves than in recent productions.
Weathering the ups and downs of 20 not-so-sleepy years in indie pop.
Oakland-by-way-of-Washington, DC indie-pop stable Slumberland is now 20 years into its life as a record label, and yet they remain both strikingly relevant and persistently trendsetting. Having made their name by releasing music from the noisier outskirts of pop, with artists like Velocity Girl, Stereolab, Hood, and The Aislers Set seeing the label through its early successes, Slumberland ran a bit of a victory lap last year with records from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Crystal Stilts, and Cause Co-Motion showing up on everyone’s radar. Here, label head Mike Schulman tells us about his two decades spent purveying fuzzy, buzzing indie pop.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Everything With You”
Why did you first start the label?
We started Slumberland as a way to document a little scene of bands that we had going at the time—Big Jesus Trash Can, Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine, Powderburns. It was pretty much the same six or eight people in all the bands, we’d all met at school at the University of Maryland, and had been inspired by punk rock, noise rock (Birthday Party, Big Black, Sonic Youth), DIY pop, and C86 stuff. After a few years of playing shows locally it seemed like a good idea to document what we were doing. And since the indie 7″ scene was really booming at the time, and I worked at a store (Vinyl Ink), it made sense to start a label and put out a single.
What other labels influenced you at the time?
Creation, Flying Nun, Bus Stop, Factory, Rough Trade, K, Postcard, Treehouse… the list goes on. Being a bunch of record collectors, we were all pretty aware of the labels that the records we liked were on, and so always paid attention. I have to admit, I didn’t have a great idea of what a record label actually did, but I did totally vibe on the ones I liked for their curatorial taste.
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – “C’mon”
Where does the name Slumberland come from?
An early 1900s comic called Little Nemo in Slumberland, written and drawn by Winsor McKay. Beautiful and surreal, we all really dug it.
Crystal Stilts – “Love is a Wave”
How have you chosen what records to release and what bands to work with?
It’s really just down to my personal taste. In the early years, I did give some thought to working with bands that I thought might have trouble finding a label over here. There weren’t many pop labels going in the U.S. back then. Now, of course, there’s loads of labels putting out all kinds of music, so I really just concentrate on those bands I really like, like working with, and who understand the label and our ethos—and who just give me that buzz.
There have been a number of hiatuses since the label has started.
There have definitely been a few lull periods where I either wasn’t hearing much I wanted to put out, or just had other stuff going on in my life that required me to scale back the amount of time spent on the label. I’ve always had full-time jobs in addition to the label, so if those jobs took more time, I’d have to give the label less. I think I’m finding a better balance now; while I still do all the everyday work, I’ve found press and radio people that I like to work with and trust and can take some of that load off me. I’m probably just getting better and more efficient at it all now—after 20 years I would hope so!
Cause Co-Motion! – “Who’s Gonna Care”
What other current labels are you excited about?
Captured Tracks, Siltbreeze, Mojuba, In the Red, Hyperdub, Soundway, Pressure Sounds, Soul Jazz. I still pick up pretty much everything on Sound Signature and KDJ/Mahogani. Even though the music business is in turmoil, it seems like there’s more great music out there than ever.
Liechtenstein‘s Survival Strategies in a Modern World is out now on Slumberland.
pictured The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
UK producer/DJ/disco-and-house enthusiast Jamie Jones has just announced a few select North American tour dates to coincide with the recent release of Don’t You Remember the Future. Check him out while you can, and watch his vid for “Galactic Space Bar” here.
Tour Dates
Sept 17, 2009 Cobra, Toronto, ON
Sept 18, 2009 Club 101, El Paso, Mexico
Sept 19, 2009 Convention 101 festival – live, Los Angeles, CA
Sept 20, 2009 Droog @ The Standard Rooftop, Los Angeles, CA
Sept 24, 2009 Cielo, New York, NY
Sept 26, 2009 La Panthere Noire, Montreal, PQ
Sept 27, 2009 Spy Bar, Chicago, IL
Our friends at FACT have just shared the scoop on some sketchy details from the new Wiley album, entitled The Elusive. Turns out that if their sleuthing is correct (basically the 24-song tracklist was culled from a screen grab from Wiley‘s iTunes), guests such as Chipmunk, P Money, and The Streets will be turning up on the record.
In the meanwhile, there’s a three-track teaser clip up on YouTube to whet your appetites.
Who:The xx
Where: London, U.K.
Something like a revamped incarnation of vintage U.K. group Young Marble Giants, The xx applies drum machines and subtle electronic flourishes to their minimal post-punk ballads. While post-punk has long been a crowded field, what distinguishes this quartet is its soulful boy/girl vocals, delivered in a near-constant duet and heavily indebted to modern R&B—a notion solidified by the band’s stellar covers of pop divas Aaliyah and Kyla. The xx’s self-titled debut album comes out in October on Young Turks/XL.
Listen: “Basic Space”
Listen: “Basic Space (Sampha Remix)”
Watch: “Basic Space”
Watch: “Crystalised”
Another taste from Vitalic‘s latest album, the upcoming Flashmob—from which we shared a minimix preview of earlier this month,—”See the Sea (Red)” is distorted, melodic French electro served straight up. If this track is any indication, the seasoned French producer hasn’t lost his knack for rave-appropriate soundscapes that never forget the importance of the almighty beat.
Peter Kersten’s output has never been filled with sunshine; in fact, one could argue that his oeuvre is downright melancholy, filled with minor-key melodies and sentimental chord progressions. For his latest full-length under his Lawrence moniker, Kersten continues the trend, delivering an album that is more cloudy Sunday than clubby Saturday. Tracks like “Grey Light” and “The Dream” channel Angelo Badalamenti, and “Todenhausen Blues” recalls European seaside towns awash in drizzle. There are beat-oriented moments, of course, like the hazy synth shuffle of “Jill” and the organic house stylings of “In Your Eyes,” but overall, Until Then, Goodbye, is a gorgeous and moody trek through sonic textures that invoke intense emotions; if there was ever a perfect example of ‘teardrop house,’ Lawrence’s latest would be it.
The recently-relocated-to-Cincinnati band Why? has announced that they’ve taken on a new manager, Blake Maxwell, after singer Yoni Wolf did some extensive Craigslist searching for a new man to take the reins and bring the band to the next level. Below they’ve posted a clip of their preliminary meetings with Maxwell. Why? is set to release Eskimo Snow next Tuesday on Anticon, and the band’s upcoming tour dates follow.
Tour Dates
9.24 Cincinnati, OH @ Northside Tavern
9.26 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
10.1 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10.2 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
10.3 Pittburgh, PA @ Assembly Room
10.4 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
10.5 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
10.6 Madison, WI @ UW Madison Terrace
10.7 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
10.9 Denver, CO @ Bluebird
10.10 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
10.13 Anacortes, WA @ Department Of Safety
10.14 Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
10.15 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
10.17 San Francisco @ Great American Music Hall
10.20 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
10.23 Phoenix, AZ @ Modified
10.24 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
10.26 Denton, TX @ Hailey’s
10.28 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree
10.29 Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
10.30 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
10.31 Atlanta, GA @ Lenny’s
11.2 Orlando, FL @ The Social
11.3 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds
11.4 Tallahassee, FL @ Club Down
11.6 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
11.7 Houston, TX @ Walter’s
11.8 Austin, TX @ FunFunFun Fest
11.10 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
11.11 St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
11.13 Bloomington, IN @ Rhino’s Youth Center
More drugged-out, electronic syrup will creep our way when Berlin’s Jeremy Shaw and the Circlesquare mother ship dock for a tour down our beautiful west coast with the Junior Boys in October. Recently crowned by Playboy as “one of the bands to watch in 2009,” Shaw’s Circlesquare project will also hit South America this week before cruising up Atlantic waters to join Four Tet for a pair of dates in Mexico. Then it’s back to Europe for more dates with The Field. C’mon now, Circlesquare, Four Tet, Junior Boys, and The Field—need we say more?
Sept 17: La Sala — Bogota, Columbia
Sept 18: Teatro Fru Fru (Mutek) — Mexico City, Mexico
Sept 19: Teatro Estudio Cavaret — Guadalajara, Mexico
Oct 8: Venue — Vancouver, BC
Oct 9: Sugar — Victoria, BC
Oct 10: Chop Suey — Seattle, WA
Oct 11: Doug Fir Lounge — Portland, OR
Oct 13: Mezzanine — San Francisco, CA
Oct 14: El Rey Theatre — Los Angeles, CA
Oct 17: Plush — Tucson, AZ
Oct 19: The Mohawk — Austin, TX
Oct 20: Walter’s on Washington — Houston, TX
Nov 15: Tiki — Athens, Greece
Nov 21: Rotte Sonne — Munich, Germany
Nov 22: Nachtleben — Frankfurt, Germany
Nov 24: Gebaude 9 — Cologne, Germany
Nov 25: Sweat — Leipzig, Germany
Nov 26: Lido — Berlin, Germany
Nov 27: Uebel & Gefahrlich — Hamburg, Germany
Here at XLR8R, we’ve had our ears blown away by the recent skweee sounds coming from Scandinavia, evidenced by our feature on the genre in issue 127. A new compilation from one of the genre’s flagship labels features this monster, a squeaky, anthemic take on dubstep rhythms featuring frenetic synth modulations and acidy flourishes. Watch out for future Sprutbass releases, as his diversity of influences and textures is quickly making him one of the stars of the Oslo scene.
