Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Coming Soon to a 3-Way Singles Club Near You!
Featuring Indiana's Jet Lag Superstar alongside Lansing stalwarts Frank And Earnest and post hardcore relative newcomers New Venice, 3- Way Singles Club Volume 5 will drop into the world this Tuesday, September 20th. About that: When we sallied forth in May of this year, we had the element of surprise on our sides. Also, the element of preparation, the element of all kinds of things. One thing that makes It Takes A Village To Make Records what it is is that we work with real bands -- the kind with day jobs. The kind who draw their inspiration from the ragged interface between real life (those day jobs again) and an acute need to make music. It's raw, it's real, and it's about as far from trust funds and collector's item guitars as you can get.
What this means to you, the listener/reader, is this: One guy organizes this thing. That guy is me. I also hold down a full-time job and a freelance job -- this is post-industrial Michigan, after all. While this isn't meant to be an excuse, it is meant to be a caveat. Independent music is not beholden to schedules... not even my schedule, which was to release a single on the first of every month. That ended with Volume 3, when the 3 bands were all about to embark on tours or release 7-inches recorded with Jim Diamond. By necessity, we reconfigured our release schedule, and every release since then has been an attempt to arrest that entropic pattern while still giving the preceding single adequate breathing room to take root and really dig in to your ears. Reality does not bend to idealistic scheduling. On the up side, thus far the singles have been without exception, fucking glorious.
Volume 5 continues both patterns -- the jaw-dropping songwriting as well as the gradual torquing of the series back to some semblance of monthly regularity. This time out, the cap is ripped off by Jet Lag Superstar, the nom de guerre of Indiana songsmith Phil Avalos, who has been making music with bands like The Quiet Lanes, Sometimes Seven, The Distortion Letters, and Dead Scene Radio for the past decade. Phil's latest project is more homespun and lo-fi, but with the production and songwriting experience of a seasoned vet, and we are extremely proud to debut the acoustic/electric lo-fi/hi-fi 90s-indie-meets-50s-rockabilly "Apology Sweater," which rips open Volume 5 in a way that is both jagged and entirely lovable.
The following song, Frank And Earnest's "Paul 4," is the unassumingly titled 4th songwriting offering from bassist/singer Paul Wittmann, an infectious mid-tempo power-pop slice that insinuates its memorable chorus as it glides by in the shortest 5 minutes you'll ever experience.
The monolithic exclamation point to Volume 5 is the post-punk thunderstorm "Breathers" by Lansing's new guitar-bending vocal-cord-shredding New Venice. In another series first, this track is the first previously released track we've curated in this series -- New Venice has been steadily releasing 2-song singles ("movements" they call them) over the course of 2011, and Movements 5 & 6 scoop the 3-Way Singles Club by about a week. The song was just too damn good, though, so we overlooked this "rule" of the club. There will be no download discounts with Volume 5, but if you really want a freebie (5 other freebies, in fact), visit New Venice's bandcamp for some guitar-bending, crunching catharsis.
And, on the subject of discounts and freebies, the "moodring" discount code is still good for 3-Way Singles Club Volume 4 until September 30. That's for all you coupon-clippers. Enjoy!
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