Dig ‘in: The Sundae Painters, Barbara Manning, Guided By Voices
Check out what the No Wristbands team is listening to and what’s in our show calendars this month on our latest Dig ‘in.
INCOMING
The Sundae Painters - S/T (Leather Jacket Records LP)
The music community centered around Flying Nun Records in the ’80s/’90s was notably tight, with band members regularly pitching in to support each other’s projects. So it came about naturally when Paul Keen (Toy Love, The Bats), Kaye Woodward (The Bats), Alec Bathgate (Toy Love, Tall Dwarfs) and Hamish Kilgour (The Clean, Mad Scene) got together between 2019 and 2021 to rehearse and record as The Sundae Painters. Following Kilgour’s death in December of 2022, Kean gathered his recordings of the band to assemble this release of eight tracks. The record reflects the camaraderie of a group of tight friends intuitively playing off each other with nothing particular to prove. Parts psychedelic, drone and folk, there’s an endearing ramshackle approach in which one might imagine that songs were hatched over the course of communal conversations and casual drinks. With a couple of instrumentals thrown in, it’s clear that part of the pleasure was just the joy of performing together—unspoken or otherwise. The vocals tracks are split between Kilgour’s mystical-sounding forays and Woodward’s soothing ballads. As his last recorded output, it’s comforting to know that Hamish was among treasured friends doing what brought him a great deal of joy. -Bruce Novak
Barbara Manning - Charm of Yesterday…Convenience of Tomorrow (Ba Da Bing! Compilation)
The blend of pop tunefulness and acerbic wit that Barbara Manning showcased on her initial solo releases, Lately I Keep Scissors (1988) and One Perfect Green Blanket (1991), could serve as a template for the path Liz Phair took with Exile in Guyville. After being cut free from Matador Records following 1997’s 1212, Manning entered a period of economic challenge and self-doubt. Posting her music to Bandcamp offered her an opportunity to get back in the game.
With the assistance from some local musician friends, Manning cobbled together a dozen songs for a 2016 digital self-release titled Chico Daze. Three quarters of those numbers turn up on the Ba Da Bing! compilation, highlighted by the scathing “Reverse Disguise,” a driving “Tape You To A Star,” and wistful “Wishes Don’t Tie You Down.” There’s also a handful of acoustic covers that Manning dubbed The Porch Series due to the backyard setting that served as a recording base during the pandemic. They reflect the discerning taste and eclecticism that she is know for, ranging from Elliot Smith and Galaxie 500 to Edgar Winter and The Handsome Family. The most recent recordings emanate from 2021 with her outfit The Go-Luckys and include “A Mountain,” a song about overcoming life’s struggles and featuring a brief guitar blast as big as its title. A recent East Coast tour with Codeine has solidified Manning’s desire for a comeback, including additional recording and plans for a new record. -Bruce Novak
Guided By Voices - Nowhere To Go But Up (Guided By Voices Inc. LP)
To label a band as indie forty years into their tenure seems misguided, but the description remains apt for Guided By Voices. After being vetted by a couple of industry heavy hitters (Matador & TVT), GBV has spent the last twenty five years pumping out product on their own imprint, a collective umbrella that also supports Robert Pollard’s solo endeavors and side projects. Over half of their catalog has come about in the last ten years, most of them created by the current lineup that’s been in place since 2016.
Nowhere To Go But Up represent their third effort of 2023—a pace in stark contrast with other bands of their longevity who are content to rest on past achievements when their creative juice starts to trickle. While its undeniable that listener fatigue was inevitable with the sheer volume of output, GBV continue to exist because they’re compelled to for creative reasons and their fanbase is rewarded by their tenacity to remain relevant by not sounding like a broken record. As with most any of their releases, you could do a random needle drop on Nowhere To Go But Up and become smitten with the glorious song craft that’s embedded in Pollard’s DNA. If you choose to start from the beginning, “The Race Is On, The King Is Dead” is a prime table setter; bolstered by Pollard’s detached, but cutting observations and an ascending/descending pattern that creates a pleasing pathway. “Puncher’s Parade” and “Stabbing at Fractions” trade on his penchant for intriguing wordplay and catch phrases that continue to playback in your mind. The back half of the record is where the band flexes its muscles to a greater degree. “Jack of Legs” melds metallic riffs with prog stutter steps before cutting loose into symphonic overdrive. “For the Home” breaks into a gallop and steadies the reins for a blissful ride. If you’ve fallen off the GBV bandwagon in recent years, Nowhere To Go But Up presents a compelling case to come back on board. -Bruce Novak
UPCOMING
Torres
Where: Lincoln Hall / Directions
When: January 18, 7:00 PM
With her sixth album, What an enormous room, set to drop later this month on Merge Records, its enlightening to trace the arc of Mackenzie Scott’s growth over the past decade. Her self-titled debut in 2013 revealed her inner strength and defiance while reconciling her adoptive non-secular upbringing in Georgia with her developing queer identity. Each successive record has seen her expand her musical and expressive boundaries. By the time her fifth release, Thirstier, arrived in 2021, guarded observations had given way to a palatable sense of joy and carnality born out of the life affirming relationship with her partner Jenna Gribbon. An early preview of three advance tracks from What an enormous room holds the promise of continued diversification and what should prove out as a celebratory live performance. -Bruce Novak
Sharp Pins
Where: Schuba’s Tavern / Directions
When: January 20, 7:00 PM
Kai Slater has emerged as one of the leading forces of the Chicago indie teen scene. His DIY inclinations helped spearhead the formation of the pop-psych outfit Dwaal Troupe, which later garnered him an invitation to join Asher Case and Isaac Lowenstein in Lifeguard, who were inked by Matador last year. Sharp Pins is Slater’s solo home recording endeavor under which he assembled thirteen tracks for a cassette release titled Turtle Rock last spring. The recording was part of Slater’s Hallogallo collective, which also encompasses his fanzine of the same name, going strong with the recent surfacing of its tenth issue. Turtle Rock is reminiscent of the lo-fi pop flavorings of Robert Pollard and Tony Molina—filled with ephemeral earworms that benefit from their brevity. This appearance as part of the Tomorrow Never Knows fest is a prime opportunity to catch Slater in Sharp Pins mode before he moves on to his next compelling adventure. -Bruce Novak
Lowertown
Where: Schuba’s Tavern / Directions
When: January 20, 7:00 PM
Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg of Lowertown take an unscripted approach to making and performing music. When they met up as high schoolers in Atlanta, Weinberg was a trained classical pianist and multi-instrumentalist and Osby was immersed in poetry. Exploring local indie shows inspired them to create something of their own being, and Osby took up guitar while pushing back against a sexist, mainly male-centric band scene. Their bedroom pop origins have grown more idiosyncratic over time with their 2022 third album, I Love To Lie, taking a more adventurous turn with Osby’s punkish vocal ramblings and Weinberg’s varied musical accompaniment. Their Skin of My Teeth EP from last year steered to a more electronic and experimental direction. In a live setting, the pair bring some theatricality to their set with Osby’s face makeup blurring her identity and a penchant for improvisation that will keep the audience guessing on what comes next. -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
Acetone - I’m Still Waiting (New West box set compilation)
Much like the nearby Pacific Ocean, California residents Acetone combined transcendent moments of stillness and overwhelming moments of power and release. Coming of age in the mid ’80s and forming in 1992 after releasing one record as Spinout, they re-configured as a trio and early recordings brought on a bidding war which found them signed for $400K to Vernon Yard, a subsidiary of Virgin. Their debut album Cindy (1993) encapsulates a soft-hard dynamic that became popular throughout the ’90s, and which they continued to mine and refine until their last record York Blvd. (2000). In 2001 lead singer and bassist Richie Lee took his own life and thus, Acetone was done. In 2017 author Sam Sweet chronicled the Acetone story in his superlative book Hadley, Lee, Lightcap (All Night Menu), and a fuller picture of the band and their journey emerged; one marked by critical acclaim, small audiences, and an ongoing heroin problem within the band. Despite the fact that they offered a distinct and unique take on the history and many hidden corners of rock music and more exotic fair, they never reached popularity afforded many lesser bands of the time. The alternative rock and grunge heavy airplay of the time crowded out a band as singular as Acetone, and only in death did Acetone receive any national press.
Thus, it is amazing that New West has collected the entirety of their output and released a deluxe 11 vinyl box set: all four LPs, two EPs, and a disc of rarities, demos, and live cuts. The large format booklet contains photos, an appreciation by admirer and friend Jason Pierce (Spiritualized, Spaceman 3) and an extensive album by album consideration by Drew Daniel (Matmos, The Soft Pink Truth). As of this writing, the first edition of 750 is sold out on the New West website.
Superficially lumped in with the ‘slowcore’ movement, Acetone were heavier not only in their quiet moments, but able to bring the rock and roll in classic power trio style, with Richie Lee’s Rickenbacker bass rumbling through an 8x10" speaker cabinet, whilst Hadley’s cymbal wash flow and jazz stylings on drums provided the perfect bedrock for guitarist Lightcap’s nimble and frequently wicked and astonishing fretwork (imho a case can be made that he was one of the elite guitarists of his generation and indie rock overall). After a four song self-titled EP, Acetone released their debut album Cindy (1993) later the same year and toured in the coming years with Oasis (then unknown in the U.S.), Verve, Mazzy Star, Garbage, and Spiritualized. A covers EP followed titled I Guess I Would (1994), which leaned into Americana and country, recorded amongst difficult circumstances in Nashville, out of which the next full-length also emerged, If You Only Knew (1995). Despite positive notices, the dark and idiosyncratic moodiness of the record saw them dropped from Vernon Yard. Back home in Ca. and in debt, they all found part-time work and new sobriety for Richie and Steve, out of which came the excellent Acetone (1997) on Neil Young’s Vapor Records. In the liner notes Daniel sees this as “outpacing everything” that had come before. York Blvd. (2000) would become Acetone’s swan song, utilizing the studio and expanded production to realize what may be their definitive recording; deeply soulful, crunchy, with the band never sounding or playing better. All of their influences from a lifetime of close listening coalesce here; unfortunately, it broke the band, with drummer Hadley leaving. Though Acetone toured to support YB with radar brother Steve Goodfriend filling in on drums, another end was coming, of the most tragic and unfortunate kind.
I saw Acetone on four occasions—the last of which was on May 9, 2001 at Schubas. After the show, I spoke with Richie, and he told me that they “played the shit out of” the cassette I had made for them on their previous visit—Eno’s Another Green World and Before and After Science. As it happens, I recorded that 2001 set onto minidisc, which subsequently made it to Mark Lightcap after Richie’s passing. I heard back later it was the second to last show they ever played.
So, what are we to take from the Acetone story and how is it different from say, other artists who have been overlooked in their time? Perhaps there is nothing different, but maybe the common thread of ‘missing’ has to do with individual consciousness and the speed and comprehension we afford to listening and perceiving music and art in general. For example, consider the nature of vinyl itself; in my musical awakening the act of hearing a record involved the time and space to listen, intentionally, and largely, uninterrupted. This is no longer the case in our digital and streaming age, and in fact, there is research to suggest that consciousness itself has been altered. The upside? The history of music recording and sound is accessible at a second’s impulse. Thus, there is no small irony in the fact that I was mistaken in understanding that I’m Still Waiting would include digital streaming. Nope. I reached out to New West, and they said they “do not have the licensing clearances.” How queer that a band so little heard in their lifetime gets an absolute peach of a career box set and, still, their complete discography is scattered about in the digital universe. Nevertheless, the records remain and at least Acetone and York Blvd., along with the Light in the Attic compilation Acetone: 1992-2001 are readily streamed. -Wade Iverson
We recommend listening along over at our Spotify page. Here’s this week’s content: