I Smiled Yesterday podcast #3!!!

The third installment of the amazing "I Smiled Yesterday" podcast is now up for your listening pleasure – and it couldn't have come at a better time! With the thermometer hitting 95 in Annapolis today, there's nothing better than some expertly compiled summer jams! As with the previous podcasts, there's a little bit of everything here, but it's all perfect! Nice to see Skywave, Vivian Girls, AND SHIRLEY ELLIS' FUCKING "CLAPPING SONG"!!! Too good, Guys, way too good!

I suggest you listen immediately! Click here!

Here's the tracklist:
1) Shirley Ellis "The Clapping Song" ("The Complete Congress Recordings", Congress Records)
2) The Starlets "You Don't Love Me" ("Girls Go Zonk!!", RPM Records)
3) Antoine et Les Problemes "Si C'est La Nuit" ("Antoine Rencontre Les Problemes", Magic Records)
4) Sic Alps "Speeds" ("The Soft Tour in Rough Form", MtStMtn Records)
5) Let's Wrestle "I Won't Lie To You" ("In Loving Memory Of", Stolen Recordings)
6) Les Aspirateurs "On Y Go" (7", Felicite Records)
7) Baby Lemonade "Secret Goldfish (demo)" ("45 rpm", Egg Records)
8) South Ambulance "Die 5times times5" ("s/t", Labrador Records)
9) The Bodines "Paradise" ("Creation Soup", Creation Records)
10) Vivian Girls "Wild Eyes" (7", Plays With Dolls Records)
11) Skywave "It's In Your Eyes" ("Echodrone", Cherry Coated Records)
12) Cheap Time "Spoiled Brat" (7", Sweet Rot Records)
13) The Delmonas "I Feel Alright" ("Do The Uncle Willy", Get Hip Records)
14) Grow Up "Joanne" (7", Object Music)
15) The Lovettes "Little Miss Soul" ("Big In Wigan", Kent Records)
16) The Triumphs "I'm Coming To Your Rescue" ("Okeh, A Northern Soul Obsession", Kent Records)
17) Third Tuesday "Third Time Under" ("Girl Crazy", Goldmine Soul Supply)
18) Mr. Lucky and The Gamblers "I Told You Once Before" ("Northwest Battle Of The Bands Vol. 1", Big Beat Records)
19) Pussycat Trash "Mock Style Examinations" ("The Brat Years 1992-1995", Kill Rock Stars Records)
20) Forbidden Tigers "Forbidden Tigers" ("Magnetic Problem", Deadbeat Records)
21) So Cow "Government Complex" ("These Truly are End Times", Covert Bear Records)

In other Slumberland news, Searching For the Now 7"s #3 and #4 are now available for preorder. #3 features the Philly's amazing A Sunny Day In Glasgow and The Sunny Street. #4's got the always lovable and fuzzy Pobpahs and Australia's wonderful Summer Cats!!! You and I do not want to miss these!!!

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Could It Be The Good Old Days?

The new Lodger record, Life Is Sweet will be out soon on good old Slumberland Records! I've listened to it a couple times the past few sunny days here and I'm really in love with it, so I was tickled when I found out there's a new video for "The Good Old Days," the first single from the Life Is Sweet. Hi-five for the color orange?!? Yeah?! Alright!



In other Slumberland news, the second "I Smiled Yesterday" podcast is up now! I haven't listened yet, but the first one was awesome and I've got high hopes. Expect some northern soul, post-punk, some crash pop, and other good things!

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Updates!

Hey! I mentioned I would be getting busiert lately, with less time to devote to the blog and that's exactly what's been happening. It's been about a week, so I've got a bit of housekeeping to do. First up, there's a few new Cloudberry releases to get excited about – well, at least that I'm excited about... though you should be, too. I'm speaking of Cloudberry 79 and 80, of course, both available March 1st. 79 is a single from The Vermont Sugar House, featuring ex-Desert Wolves David and Martin. One of the b-sides on the single, "Braveheart," comes from a 7" the band released on Firestation in 1999 and is an impecable slice of pop. In short, that song alone is worth buying th whole single. 80 comes from The Flowerbeds, who are totally new to me. The preview track on the Cloudberry site, "You Mean To Me," is completely fantastic – I never would have guessed these guys were from Chicago though, that caught me off guard. Not that there's anything wrong with Chicago... I just have never associated the city with pop music. Secondly, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Parallelograms split is finally available to order from Atomic Beat Records! Even if you don't like splits – and how could you? – this is still going to be a awesome awesome awesome piece of vinyl. So go order yours!! oh and plus there's a lovingly cheesy blurb in the insert by yours truly! So thats neat! Thirdly – and lastly for now because I've gotta get back to screenprinting – I got Slumberland's Searching For The Now One and Two in the mail on Monday and I've been playing the crap out of them. I do prefer number two a bit more than one, but that's probably just because I love everything Archie Moore does... and Bye! is no exception. Also, I was never a big fan of The Happy Couple, but their side of the split has been getting just as many spins as Bye!'s... so it would seem I'm now in love! If you have yet to, you should definitely go order One and Two before they're gone!!

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The Lodger: "The Conversation"

The Looooooooooooodger

Hello! HELLO! I apologize for the lack of consistant posting around these parts as of late, but this semester has turned out to be far busier than anyone could have ever imagined. Six hours of painting a week anyone? Yes, well, I plan to do my best to keep up with the indiepop Joneses over here, but do remember to send out search parties if I disappear for more than a week. Aaaaaaaahhhhhh, onward.

So, it seems The Lodger never stop writing, writing, writing, and recording, recording, recording... After releasing one of my favorite records of last year, they're already putting out another LP in May – May 19th to be exact. The new record, Life Is Sweet, will easily be just as great – if not possibly better than – last year's Grown-Ups if this new song is any kind of indicator. "The Conversation" is just another slice of perfect jangling guitar pop, and yet again, The Lodger somehow manage to make it sound like a time-worn classic.

[MP3]: The Lodger :: The Conversation (GET IT, YEAH!)

Slumberland will be bearing the Lodger's second full-length child here in the States, and Bad Sneakers Records will have the rest of the world covered. May 19th!!!

The Lodger on MySpace

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Searching For The Now #1 and #2 out soon!

Slumberland's new split 7" series Searching For The Now is almost underway! Singles #1 and #2 will be out on February 18th, but you can preorder them now and get the pair for just $7 PPD in the US!!! Mikey stacks em deep and sells em cheap!

The first 7" is all Glasgow – featuring Roy Moller and The Company (featuring B&S boy Stevie Jackson) and the very very excellent Hermit Crabs. The second single features the Maryland indiepop stylings of Archie Moore's new project Bye!, with the ever elegant Happy Couple on the flipside. Make very very sure you don't miss these!!

More info HERE.

Have a nice day folks!

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Bye!

Bye! (exclamation mark included) is the new musical thing from Archie Moore formerly of Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine, The Saturday People, Heartworms, and Lilys – basically all of the best bands to ever be within the same state as me, and almost half of Slumberland's back catalog, heh. It's only fitting then that Mike chose to include Archie's Bye! in the upcoming Slumberland split 7" series, Searching For The Now. Bye! will be on 7" #2 in the series, sharing a record with the fantastic Happy Couple. Bye now you should probably be under the assumption that Bye! is awesome – and you would be right – as long as the tracks streaming on Bye!'s MySpace right now are any indication. Make sure you listen to "Everything Is Okay" and "Oh No Baby Don't", they're my favs. "Everything Is Okay" recalls the noisy shoegaze of Archie's previous band The Lilys, while "Oh No Baby Don't" is a more 60s pop influenced, even SLGTM-esque song. For what it's worth, I Listened to "Oh No Baby Don't" at least 15 times on repeat the first time I heard it. OH YEAH, and Pam Berry on backups. Archie has most definitely NOT lost his touch.

Listen to Bye! on MySpace

Future installments of the Searching For The Now series will include: A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Public Record, Summer Cats, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Brown Recluse Sings, Liechtenstein, Boyracer, The Faintest Ideas, Sunny Street, Pipas, In Interview, Strange Idols, Mytty Archer and many, many more.

HOT DAMN, GO SLUMBERLAND!

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Sarandon: Joe's Record

I've had Sarandon's new 7" single on the record player for more than a few weeks now, but I consistently forgotten to mention it here. Better late than never, I say. Joe's Record is three excellent tracks of erratic, jangling post-punk no doubt inspired by roughly half of that one tape some magazine released back in 1986. Not surprising though, as the band's fronted by xQPwRtz's Crayola and now they've even got Alan Brown of bIG fLAME playing bass. The Joe's Record 7" is out now on Slumberland Records. It's on bright pink vinyl and limited to just 600 copies, just in case you needed another reason as to why you should own it immediately. Here's another reason:

[MP3]: Sarandon :: The Linguist (Highly Rec'd!)

Sarandon on MySpace

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Sleepyhead: "Different Colored Letters"

I'm not sure how it took me this long to hear Sleepyhead's Punk Rock City USA LP, but it's everything I wanted it to be. Anyone out there who hasn't heard it, please listen to the following song. It makes me wish I was six years and falling in love, and I've always been under the assumptiont hat that's the best thing a song can do. I'd suggest reading a long with the lyrics.

[MP3]: Sleepyhead :: Different Colored Letters (Highly Recommended!!)

I meet you here at the end of the day after school and drive you home
But I think that we'd be better off if we went somewhere alone
I still think you're beautiful and I think it all the time
I don't care what your brother said, just tell him that you're mine

And know that I'm not the coolest guy in school
And all of those other guys would be so cool
But I promise to treat you the best I know how
If you promise to kiss me on the lips right now

Maybe I'm too young for you and maybe you're too young for me
But just think when you're turning ninety-one, I'll be turning ninety-three
And maybe we'll just say these things we want, I guess they don't know what we're thinking of
And anyone that says this is boring, I guess they ain't never been in love

And you know how much I hate it when you have to go away
And how much I hate it when you get off the phone
How much I mean it when I say I was true
And I would do anything to put me near you

How could I say "yes" when I shoulda said "no"?
There's one way to get there, there's one way to go
Why couldn't we always leave it on?
Why couldn't we always...
Leave it for when the time was better?
Replace you when I had to?
Wait until I really have to go
And ask, and I would not know what to say
And for the first few weeks you'd get a different colored letter
Everyday each was my favorite
Well I just don't know 'cause they're all so great

How could I say "no" when I shoulda said "yes"?
How did something so simple get to be such a mess?
It's like something so right ever be wrong?

Put your arms around me, baby
And tell me you love me and you miss me
We'll always remember how we made it so far
We'll never forget what it feels like to have a broken heart

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The Lodger

The Lodger

The release of The Lodger's LP Grown-Ups not only marks the full-lenth debut from the Leeds-based indiepoppers, but it's also the first full-length record Slumberland has put out since the Aislers' How I Learned To Write Backwards back in 2003 -- almost four years ago! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited on both accounts!

Grown-Ups is a super-solid record from start to finish, every track oozing with that great 80s-inspired jangle pop they've been perfecting for the past couple years. Now, Vocalist/Guitarist Ben may be no David Gedge, and The Lodger may be Wedding Present, but they've got that rare gift of being immediately catchy without even trying and you really can't ask for from a pop band. It took me a while to decide my favorite moment from Grown-Ups, but I'd have to say that at the moment I'm pretty in love with "Watching". Give it a listen.

[MP3]: The Lodger :: Watching (Very Highly Recommended!!)

Grown-Ups is out now on Slumberland Records in the U.S. and on Angular in the UK, but you can only get the vinyl from Slumberland. If you're like me you'll want this on vinyl, so go do it!
Be The Lodger's friend on MySpace!

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Surefire Broadcast

(L to R:) Rodney, Dan, and Lisa of New Jersey's Surefire Broadcast.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Surefire Broadcast here before, but I think it was probably pretty brief. Well I've been listening to them a lot recently so I thought it might be a good idea to mention them again, and a little less briefly this time.

Surefire Broadcast play mostly noisy indiepop, in the vein of, well, all of my favorite bands. Had they been a little bit older back around the early nineties then it wouldn't be hard to imagine them on good ole Slumberland Records right alongside bands like Henry's Dress, The Swirlies, and The Aislers Set. When I saw them in Philly earlier this year they even played a Henry's Dress cover (though I can't remember which song it was now... perhaps if someone from the band sees this they could remind me), which was pretty awesome. Basically though, they're just really really good and there's just not enough bands out there still making this kind of pop. OH, and another interesting thing to note is that Rodney and Lisa happen to play two of the sexiest Rickenbacker's ever (see photo above), which just makes them even cooler in my book. They've released one exceptionally good five song EP titled Live From The A.M., which is actually sold out, but here's two of my favorite songs from the EP for your listening pleasure. If you like them go to their MySpace and be their friend and tell them how much you like them!

[MP3]: Surefire Broadcast :: Hey Baby! (Highly Recommended!)
[MP3]: Surefire Broadcast :: Through A Red Door (Highly Recommended!)

Surefire Broadcast on MySpace

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