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WARL Benefit Show & Remixes!
We have an exciting benefit show coming up on Feb 11 at the mansion at Strathmore in MD. Details below!
Friday Feb 11
Strathmore Mansion Presents: Screen Vinyl Image, Bellflur, Daddy Lion
8pm-11pm | $10 Advance, $12 at Door
Mansion at Strathmore
10701 Rockville Pike
North Bethesda, MD
(Metro: Grosvenor-Red Line)
Purchase Advanced Tickets:
http://www.strathmore.org/eventstickets/calendar/view.asp?id=6671
A Bit About WARL:
The Washington Animal Rescue League is known not only for its long history of compassionate care for animals, but for its innovative shelter, which is designed to promote the physical, emotional, and social healing of animals recovering from past traumas, and for the progressive programs that benefit animals and the community.
Also, we did some remixes in 2010 for Teenage SinTaste (who you might know from doing a remix of What You Need for us) and another remix for our friends The Hope Slide:
Vibrato Compilation
Our good friend Robert runs a cool blog (NWShoegazing) where he keeps his finger on the pulse of a lot of things gazey and psychedelic. He was kind enough to include us on his latest comp along with Stellarium, Dead Sea Colour, and Lux. You can also search around for his other comps which are quite good to download and discover new stuff.
The contributors are a mix of friends old and (I hope) new. I’ve known Jake (J. Sequential of Screen Vinyl Image) and Az (Stellarium) for years, but have only recently become acquainted with Dead Sea Colour and Lux. Cous, my unofficial (as in unpaid) talent-spotter, brought Dead Sea Colour to my attention several weeks ago, and Lux is one of those nuggets that turn up just often enough to keep me sifting through the mislabeled silt found in such abundance on the Bandcamp Shoegaze page.
Ice Station Reviewed on Oransje Blog
What's cooler than picking up the new 7-inch or 12-inch and pulling out
some deliciously colored vinyl? Well, if the current trend among indie
bands is one to covet - then it's a deliciously colored cassette.
Numerous bands on a variety of labels; Sub Pop is no exception - have
chosen to offer limited releases on cassette. So far, to the best of my
knowledge, these releases have consisted of live material, demo
material, b-sides, or remixes - this is no exception. Ice Station
inludes 2 new tracks, 4 live tracks, a demo, and 4 songs recorded
during studio sessions. What I wasn't prepared for was how incredible
this cassette was going to be. Every song is masterfully executed, and
this release outshines anything the band has done previously. It leaves
me coveting a new full length.
Screen Vinyl Image, for those unfamiliar with them are among the crop of
new shoegaze bands to emerge - carrying with them the best of elements
of the early-nineties darlings MBV, Lush, Slowdive, etc. and integrating
the soundscape with electronics, and JAMC Psychocandy-esque
noise. It's an exquisite visit - and though few can come close to the
perfection that A Place To Bury Strangers has mastered, there is enough
deviation and experimentation by their peers to provide fodder for those
seeking more. "All Places", the final track on this release is
so gentle in it's approach, you're barely coherant for the abrupt end.
Sort of like having the adrenaline syringe stabbed into your heart to
bring you back from places unknown and all too comfortable. "Siberian Eclipse (Demo)"
would serve well as the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey", or any
Kubrick film for that matter. As a whole - this release is amazing. It
is still available through their site, and you will get a download code
so you don't have to tear into your cellophane if you don't want to. I
haven't (yet). I hope to see them live this year. I don't think they've
been through my neck of the woods, but hopefully that will change.
Ice Station Makes When The Sun Hits 2010 List!
Ice Station made WTSH's Top 25 Ep's/7 Inches of 2010:
This list could be as long as the LP list (or possibly even longer), but we'll reign it in and limit it to 25 (updated from the previous 20). Once again, in NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
1. Wild Nothing. Evertide.
2. SPC ECO. Silver Clouds.
3. Robin Guthrie. Sunflower Stories.
4. Whirl. Distressor.
5. Velochrome. Velochrome.
6. Screen Vinyl Image. The Ice Station.
7. The Mary Onettes. The Night Before The Funeral 7 inch.
8. Spotlight Kid. Crystal Dreams.
9. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Say No To Love.
10. Between The Cities Are Stars. Between The Cities Are Stars.
11. Bliss City East/Vidulgi Ooyoo. Split.
12. Panda Riot. Far And Near.
13. The Depreciation Guild. Blue Lily 7 inch.
14. Seefeel. Faults.
15. Deerhunter. Revival 7 inch.
16. Love Culture. Aquamarine.
17. Autolux. Bouncing Wall/Census.
18. Glowfriends. Eyelash.
19. The Lost Rivers. My Beatific Vision.
20. Spell 336. Reverse.
21. The Radio Dept. Heaven's On Fire (single).
22. Pinkshinyultrablast. Happy Songs for Happy Zombies. (2009, it seems, but it deserves inclusion).
23. 800beloved. Tidal (single).
24. The Cult of Dom Keller. EP1.
25. SPC ECO. Out Of The Sky.
A Few End of Year Things
Washington City Paper put New Visions on a best local songs of 2010 list:
"Hopeful-sounding noise, harsh-light ambience in a goth-pop cast. The duo seems to be smoothing out its sound these days, but it's still the loudest band in the city."
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Also Mr Jack Rabid did a review of our Remixes record for the current issue of Big Takeover:
Reviews of SVI regularly mention Depeche Mode, and it’s true that Remixes, like Interceptors before it, reminds me of early ‘80s days hearing “People Are People” and “Everything Counts” coming out of my roommate’s room while I fled. But this D.C. duo of Jake and Kim Reid on guitars, bass, synths, samples, etc. are nowhere near that facile. If Dave Gahan and Martin Gore had joined Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst in The Cure back then, letting Smith’s treated guitars take as precedence over the electronic beats, than I would have liked it. And that’s what you get here, as dreampop guitars, shards of background feedback (“Cathode Ray”), and massively moody synths add layers of artistic reverberation to a post-New Order dance party and electroclash wave in the way that Curve used to. Listen while you shake.
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2011 Releases:
The Too Much Speed single is at the presses. The Ltd Edition 12" will be white vinyl with the songs Too Much Speed, Stay Asleep, and The Midnight Sun on the A side and a glossy black silkscreen on the B-side in a clear sleeve w/ download code.
The Screen Vinyl Image / Rude 66 split 7 inch will be next up featuring a song we have been playing live most of 2009 "Tomorrow Is Too Far" and Rude 66's "I Am God." More details will be soon following on this.
There's been a delay in the Siberian Eclipse 7 inch being released, but you can always grab a copy of Ice Station on cassette, don't worry it comes with a download code if your deck is busted. Release info will come soon.
And finally, we'll have some new t-shirts for sale in the new year, here's what it looks like:
Happy New Year!