VARIOUS ARTISTS FOREVER SINGLES LP

Whether a testament to the enduring allure of vinyl or the quality of the artists on the roster, Suicide Squeeze continues to make 7”s. And in this era of renewed interest in vinyl, the label’s limited-run releases sell out quickly. Lucky collectors continue to enjoy the vinyl, and the dedicated fans always have the option to download the mp3s. But what’s the better plan for making these recordings endure for posterity? To add mp3s to the ever-expanding annals of the internet, or to create a new slab of wax capturing the best singles Suicide Squeeze has had to offer in recent years? Not content with limiting the songs to the former, the Seattle indie label is going for the latter, culling some of their finest tracks for the compilation album Suicide Squeeze Presents: Forever Singles.

The LP captures the rowdy garage rock of The Coathangers and Davilla 666, the scraggly dirt-ridden guitars of JEFF the Brotherhood and Heavy Cream, the nostalgic ‘60s girl-group melodies of Bleached and La Luz, the exuberant power pop of Audacity, King Tuff, Nobunny, and Meat Market, the hazy noir soundtrack of Dirty Beaches, the vitriolic basement-show noise-punk of Nu Sensae, the sinister post-punk of Wax Idols, and the West Texas-bred Twin Reverb rock of The Numerators. Bundled together onto one record, the collection perfectly captures the spirit of Suicide Squeeze in the current decade: rambunctious youthful urgency tempered with a hat tip to rock n’ roll’s gritty unsung heroes of the past.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/suicide-squeeze-records-presents-forever-singles

THE COATHANGERS SUCK MY SHIRT CD/LP

Suck My Shirt is the The Coathangers’ fourth full-length. The title refers to an incident involving the salvaging of spilled tequila during the recording session for the album. While the title implies that little has changed with regards to the band’s celebratory mission statement, even just a cursory listen of their latest album demonstrates that there have indeed been changes in The Coathangers’ camp. First off, the quartet was reduced to a trio for the latest record, with keyboardist Bebe Coathanger (Candice Jones) stepping down from her duties. But the absence of keyboards isn’t nearly as noticeable of a difference as the band’s refined songwriting approach. Refinement is an attribute we expect to see in any group that has a career spanning more than a couple of years, but the extent to which The Coathangers have honed their trade with each successive album dwarfs most bands’ maturation. This isn’t to say that The Coathangers have polished their sound; the group once again worked with Ed Rawls and Justin McNeight and The Living Room to attain the same production values of their Larceny & Old Lace album and their recent slew of split 7”s. Rather, the refinement can be heard in the quality of the songs themselves. While the band retains the alluring spontaneity and happy accidents of their early releases, the trio’s current work sounds far more deliberate and locked-in than anything they’ve done in the past.

“It’s a balance between overthinking and just going for it,” guitarist Crook Kid Coathanger (Julia Kugel) says of their songwriting strategy. It’s a duality immediately apparent with the album opener “Follow Me”. It’s a classic Coathangers tune with the raspy vocals of Rusty Coathanger (Stephanie Luke) belted out over the signature grimy rock laid down by Crook Kid and bassist Minnie Coathanger (Meredith Franco). But the chorus opens into one of the most accessible hooks in the band’s canon, just before segueing into the next verse with a squall of violent dissonant guitar. From there the band launches into “Shut Up”, a title that harkens back to the brash sass of their first record. The song still has its spikey guitar riffs and shouted chorus, but here The Coathangers sound less like a jubilant version of Huggy Bear and more like the art-pop of late-era Minutemen. Dedicated Coathangers fans will recognize the re-worked versions of “Merry Go Round”, “Smother”, “Adderall”, and “Derek’s Song” from their run of limited edition split 7”s, and hearing them in the context of the album shows that these tracks weren’t merely isolated examples of the band’s more sophisticated side, but were actually demonstrative of the group’s increasing capacity for nestling solid melodic hooks and rock heft into their repertoire. By the time the band wraps up the album with the humble pop perfection of “Drive”, it’s hard to believe this was the band that garnered their reputation with raucous bombasts like “Don’t Touch My Shit”.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://thecoathangers.bandcamp.com/album/suck-my-shirt

“FOLLOW ME” OFFICIAL VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfiBjK3K6tU

“DRIVE” OFFICIAL VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLkceNYoB7M

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS / GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH MAMA EP

Let’s be honest-split 7”s can sometimes be one-sided affairs where two mismatched artists’ juxtaposing sounds do little to compliment each other. But if there were ever two bands who were made to share a slab of wax, it’s Guantanamo Baywatch and Shannon and the Clams. The two bands are teaming up for a split single as part of Suicide Squeeze Records’ heralded singles series.

Suicide Squeeze Records’ latest Portland-based signees, Guantanamo Baywatch, continue their tradition of filtering AM radio rock n’ roll, surf, and rockabilly through a layer of punk sleaze into a ribald and hyper-sexualized ruckus with their country-fried two-step “Love Kin”. On the flipside, Oakland’s Shannon and the Clams invoke golden oldies like Del Shannon, ’60s girl-groups like The Shirelles, and the bawdy revisionism of John Waters’s ’50s throwback films with the prom-theme “Mama”. Together, Guantanamo Baywatch and Shannon and the Clams both summon different classic sounds of yesteryear, strip it of it’s youthful innocence, substitute Phil Spectors’ wall-of-sound production with DIY grit, and wind up re-contextualizing the early pop hit into a new brand of subversive, campy punk rock.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/mama-love-kin

VARIOUS ARTISTS FORT GEORGE EP

Astoria, Oregon’s Fort George Brewery began brewing limited-run seasonal beers in conjunction with some of their favorite Northwest businesses, craftsmen, and artists back in the spring of 2013. For spring 2014, Fort George is teaming up with Suicide Squeeze Records to offer up the Suicide Squeeze IPA. Available on draft or in tallboy cans designed by esteemed illustrator and graphic designer Jesse LeDoux, the IPA will be available throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho for the duration of the season. To celebrate this event, Suicide Squeeze is releasing the “Fort George” 7" – a collection of four classic tracks from the Suicide Squeeze catalog by some of the Northwest’s greatest artists. Featuring previously released singles, rarities, and out-of-print tracks by Modest Mouse, Black Mountain, Elliott Smith, and Minus the Bear, the Fort George compilation provides a prime overview of the eclectic and iconic Northwest indie rock fostered by Suicide Squeeze and commemorated through Fort George’s special microbrew. 

KEVIN MORBY MY NAME EP

The early years of a solo folk artist’s work typically yield their most deeply personal, intimate, and—as is often consequently the case—strongest work. The singer-songwriter brave enough to eschew a full-band scenario usually has a whole symphony’s worth of soul to channel through little more than a voice and a solitary instrument. Subsequent albums might expand to enlist string sections and session players to round out the songs, but on those first recordings, it’s acknowledged that the naked simplicity of a few well-chosen chords and a handful of resonant stanzas is enough to captivate the listener. Kevin Morby is still in the early stages of his solo venture, but his work carries that intensely personal power of the humble beginnings of many classic American folk and indie singers. Having established his musical foundation in the trippy roots rock of Woods and rough-hewn Brooklyn party pop of The Babies, Morby stepped out on his own to release his lauded debut album Harlem River in 2013. His next offering comes in the way of a two-song My Name 7” EP courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records. Both the title track and b-side “We Did It All Wrong” simultaneously conjure the haunting heartache of an Anthology of American Folk Music ballad and the reverb-and-smoke-drenched haze of his contemporary indie peers.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/my-name

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU ANOTHER LANGUAGE CD/LP

Since 2004, This Will Destroy You has been forging some of the world’s most brutal, dynamic, and precariously visceral instrumental rock. In addition to a vigorous tour schedule, their celebrated discography and critically renowned soundtrack work for feature films and documentaries have earned them a sizable and fervent international following. Another Language, TWDY’s fourth full length LP, marks their euphonious return from a prolonged vacuous dark period that threatened to break both the band and the members themselves. Rather than be stifled by their experience TWDY were atomized and subsequently made anew, emerging with a revived energy and reinforced sense of solidarity. As a result, Another Language captures the band at its most potent, honed, and utterly powerful form yet, displaying an edified unity and graduated sense of song-writing, tonal complexity, and studio prowess.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://thiswilldestroyyou.bandcamp.com/album/another-language

DASHER SOVIET EP

Music blogs are always desperate for an angle when it comes to covering a new artist. Is there a compelling back story to the recording? Does the artist have an outlandish manifesto? What idiosyncrasies can we fixate on in lieu of talking about the actual music? Taken from this perspective, Atlanta trio Dasher’s origins and mission statement are relatively simple-Kylee Kimbrough wrote a handful of songs on bass, switched over to drums and vocals, enlisted friends Ian Deaton and Jon Allinson to round out the lineup, and documented the humble beginnings with a debut cassette, Yeah I Know. While that premise is simple enough, describing Dasher’s sound is a more complicated affair. Kimbrough cites Patti Smith as a major inspiration. Spin Magazine heard elements of Killing Joke and Wire. Band interviews mention the importance of local hardcore bands Manic and Ralph. Somehow all of these reference points work, yet none of them quite do the band justice. Granted, Kimbrough’s commanding vocal delivery would make Patti proud. The primitive urgency of punk pioneers certainly pulses throughout Dasher’s catalog. And the deliberate squall of basement hardcore permeates throughout their latest offering, a two-song 7” courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records. Recorded by Jason Kingsland, “Soviet” b/w “Teeth” captures the no-frills energy of Atlanta’s most propulsive post-punk band without tagging on any of the unnecessary conceptual or historical talking points lazy music writers rely on.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/soviet

THE AISLERS SET HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE BACKWARDS CD/LP (reissue)

The Aislers Set occupy an enviable place in the pop pantheon. Brimming with drunken romanticism, sharp pop sensibilities, and timeless melodies, The Aislers Set reveled in the history of great pop, spiking their classicist 60s-tinged tunes with pure post-punk energy and originality of bands like the Fire Engines and The June Brides. Every song is a meticulously constructed sound world, where the arrangement and instrumentation sublimely and uncannily bring each tune to completeness. Although they stopped playing and recording together by 2004 due to life commitments, their reputation has only grown; sporadic reunion shows and mini-tours have been met with rapturous response. Alas, Suicide Squeeze is proud to present the 2014 reissue of the seminal album How I Learned To Write Backwards remastered by John Greenham at Infrasonic Sound in Los Angeles, and on vinyl LP again for the first time in over a decade.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/how-i-learned-to-write-backwards-reissue

CHERRY GLAZERR HAD TEN DOLLAZ EP

Any discussion of Cherry Glazerr is going to have a few obvious bullet points. First and foremost, the band is astonishingly young, with frontwoman/guitarist Clementine Creevy and drummer Hannah Uribe still not old enough to vote and bassist Sean Redman just barely above the drinking age. And then there’s the fact that the band’s debut cassette was released by California’s current kings of DIY power pop and garage rock, Burger Records. So even if you know nothing else about the LA trio, you know that they’re young and that they’re a part of the thriving underground community of stripped-down jubilant rock n’ roll. But if you’re envisioning a bunch of awkward, hyperactive kids bouncing around in their parent’s basement, consider the fact that the band has been championed and photographed by French fashion designer Hedi Slimane of Saint Laurent Paris. Slimane even commissioned the band to score his fall/winter 2014 Paris show. The result was “Had Ten Dollaz”, a song that captures Cherry Glazerr’s knack for dualities: sultry and virulent, sophisticated and casual, laid back and bombastic, playful and deliberate. Suicide Squeeze Records is pairing up “Had Ten Dollaz” with the equally intoxicating b-side “Nurse Ratched” as a limited edition 7”.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/had-ten-dollaz

MINUS THE BEAR PLANET OF ICE LP (reissue)

Following the success of Highly Refined Pirates’ forward-thinking guitar gymnastics and Menos El Oso’s groundbreaking glitch rock, Seattle’s premier pop revisionists Minus the Bear dug into some of rock music’s most ostentatious years for inspiration for their 2007 album, Planet of Ice. While their earlier material found the band absorbing and repurposing the virtuosic dexterity of math rock, the airtight sonic manipulations of turn-of-the-century IDM, the drum and bass groove of contemporary R&B, and the cerebral pop foundations of Television and The Police, the band prepped for their third full-length by immersing themselves in prog legends, jazz rock mavericks, and other audiophile heroes of the ’70s. The title alone conjures images of Yes’s ‘Relayer’ album art, and the influence of the elder statesmen’s symphonic scope can be felt throughout Planet of Ice’s lush and intricate arrangements. You can also hear the band channel the ominous instrumental interplay of Lamb-era Genesis on “Dr. L’Ling”, the deceptively savvy musicianship and pristine production of Steely Dan on “White Mystery”, and the tightrope walk between ethereal space and pre-metal riffage of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” on “Lotus”. Not that Minus the Bear completely abandoned their earlier style-elements of Menos El Oso’s sample-driven technique can be heard on the lead single “Knights”. But the heart of the song ultimately belongs to the haunting Fripp-esque guitar lines spliced between verses. After being out of print on record since 2010, Suicide Squeeze is proud to reintroduce Planet of Ice’s creative marriage of classic motifs and modern musical wizardry with a vinyl remaster courtesy of Bernie Grundman.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://minusthebear.bandcamp.com/album/planet-of-ice-deluxe-edition

MINUS THE BEAR THEY MAKE BEER COMMERCIALS LIKE THIS LP (reissue)

“Pop” is a tag that’s been assigned to Minus the Bear throughout their career. It’s been used to set a distinction between the unique brand of complex indie rock they introduced on their first EP and the more angular and aggravated sounds of their previous bands Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. It’s also a tag that was thrown around frequently in the wake of their streamlined fourth album, OMNI. And it’s a descriptor that immediately comes to mind within the first few seconds of their classic second formal EP, They Make Beer Commercials Like This. Now celebrating its 10-year anniversary and first time in print since 2011, Beer Commercials is the evolutionary step between Minus the Bear’s first two landmark albums, Highly Refined Pirates and Menos El Oso. Opening track “Fine + 2 Points” remains one of the band’s strongest opening tracks in their discography, charging out of the gates with a syncopated stomp that comes across as a more agitated take on Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Outta My Head”. If Minus the Bear were looking to make pop music without any of its major-scale bubblegum trappings, they nailed it here. The band follows it with “Let’s Play Clowns” and “Dog Park”-nods to Highly Refined Pirates’ formula of frenetic clean guitar work, bombastic choruses, and Jake Snider’s lyrics of detached romantic nostalgia. These tracks may represent Minus the Bear’s original trademark version of pop, but on songs like “I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien” the band eschews it’s restless energy for atmosphere and dynamics, creating a sound that’s inspired more than a handful of contemporary melodic post-rock bands. By the time the band belts out “Pony Up!” the listener has watched the three-year sonic transition between Minus the Bear’s first two full-lengths transpire within under half-an-hour, with the their earlier math rock predilections yielding to the tightly wound club-banging pedalboard trickery that defined their sophomore album. Even if Beer Commercials doesn’t fit within your definition of pop music, the unorthodox energetic charm of this relatively low-profile release serves as an exciting reminder of why Minus the Bear became one of the most important and influential indie rock bands of the new century.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://minusthebear.bandcamp.com/album/they-make-beer-commercials-like-this

AUDACITY COUNTING THE DAYS EP

If you’ve lived anywhere near Fullerton, California over the last decade, or if you’ve paid any attention to the recent flux of sun-baked, surf-soaked power pop proliferating along the Western coastline of the U.S. in recent years, chances are high you’ve taken notice of Orange County’s rambunctious guitar pop mavens Audacity. And if you’ve taken in Fullerton’s pride-and-joy both in a sweaty, dingy live environment and on your turntable, you’re undoubtedly aware that there is a certain unbridled quality to the band that can’t quite be replicated on record. While last year’s Butter Knife LP came pretty damn close to capturing Audacity in all their wild and ecstatic splendor, they’ve finally captured the triumphant bedlam of their live show with their latest 7”, “Counting the Days” b/w “Mind Your Own Business.” The A-side is Audacity in all their ragged glory—righteous guitar leads, buoyant choruses, and unhinged energy. For the flipside, the OC boys pay tribute to British post-punkers Delta 5 with an explosive cover of their debut single from 1979.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://suicidesqueeze.bandcamp.com/album/counting-the-days

THE COATHANGERS / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES SEX BEAT EP

Back in 2009, Suicide Squeeze Records labelmates These Arms Are Snakes and The Coathangers teamed up for a series of tour dates on the East Coast. It was a perfect pairing: The Coathangers’ jagged catabolic garage rock and These Arms Are Snakes bleary and blighted artcore made for an evening of celebratory chaos. But These Arms Are Snakes’ seven-year run came to an abrupt end a few months later, leaving a final unfinished recording—a cover of Lost Sounds’ “Energy Drink & The Long Walk Home”—gathering dust in the vaults. In the five years since the Snakes’ dissolution, The Coathangers have toured relentlessly on their three albums for Suicide Squeeze; releasing a slew of split 7”s with various road comrades along the way. Though These Arms Are Snakes remain broken up, the finishing touches on “Energy Drink” were finally wrapped up in 2014, and it seemed only appropriate to pair the song with a track from their old tourmates. The Coathangers are still hard at work touring on their highly lauded album from earlier this year, Suck My Shirt, but they found the time to counterbalance the Snakes’ Lost Sounds cover with their take on The Gun Club’s “Sex Beat”.

FULL ALBUM STREAM – http://thecoathangers.bandcamp.com/album/sex-beat-energy-drink-and-the-long-walk-home