Sigh, Sigh, Sigh...

So... another Valentine's Day is coming to a close, and once again I find myself in love with a new pop song. This is not an unusual state for me to find myself in. In fact, I've recently come to the conclusion that when I look back on my life I will find that most of my significant relationships will have been with pop songs. But it's always nice to find a brand new love on Valentine's Day isn't it?

I've only listened to the mp3 of Strawberry Whiplash's "Who's in Your Dreams?" a few times so I have nothing too intelligent to offer about it. But as we all know intelligence and love so rarely go hand in hand. I only know that it's a perfect fuzzy pop song, with lot's of tambourine, and more ba da bas per capita than most perfect fuzzy pop songs that I've heard in recent memory. And I want to shirk all of my responsibilities and spend all of my spare time with it. Please download this song here, now.

Though I should warn you that downloading the song is only going to make you want more. Fortunately Strawberry Whiplash have a brand new EP that is available through the ever lovely Matinee Recordings! You can find it along with more information about the band here. Get ready to shirk all of your responsibilities too.

By the way, it should be noted here that when I paid a visit to Strawberry Whiplash's myspace page, I noticed that one of their top friends was a band by the name of Tesco Chainstore Mascara. Um, might that be the best band name ever? From what I've heard so far, they make nice music too. Expect a full post about them soon...

Pop Sale!

If you ended up resorting to I.O.U.s for Christmas, and your friends and family are really into the Lucksmiths (or could potentially be really into the Lucksmiths,) you are in luck! Matinee Recordings is having a nifty little holiday sale with most cds/eps/10 inches, a dollar or 2 less than they normally sell for. And most of the 7 inches are going for the unbelievable bargain price of dollar or a dollar fifty! Surely you and everyone else in your life needs another 7 inch or two to add to the collection. You can see the complete list of items available here. There are also some downloadable holiday themed goodies on the label's sounds page including our most major long distance crush Math & Physics Club's unreleased cover of "Marshmallow World," and my very favorite Razorcuts song, "Snowbound." It's also probably worth your time to pay a visit to your own favorite record label's website if you haven't done so in awhile. You never know what treats may be in store for you. Happy hunting!

Listening Too Long To One Song: Bubblegum Lemonade "That Thing You Do"

I recently received an email alerting me to the release of a compilation called "The Matinee Hit Parade" in celebration of the fact that Matinee Recordings turns 10 years old this month. The party that the label put on in celebration of this birthday remains one of my favorite live music events so far this year. You can click here to read my review of that show. So naturally an email from them announcing a "very special compilation," that features 13 Matinee artists providing "a new, 45-caliber A-side," made me jump up and down a little bit. It also made me feel a little guilty over the fact that I had not yet taken the time to become familiar with the myriad of exciting new Matinee signings including The Electric Pop Group and Bubblegum Lemonade. I immediately made my way to Matinee's Myspace page with the intention of using it as a spring board to get to the individual bands' pages. What I was greeted with, however, was a cover of a song that I love from a movie that I love, but not that many people seem to share my opinion of. Except the sweet, sixties style, pop that I adored in the original had been replaced with sweet, fuzzy, eighties style (but sixties influenced,) Scottish pop that I just might adore even more. Listening to the song repeatedly for the past few days hasn't helped me to make up my mind. I think that a viewing of "That Thing You Do" might be the only thing to resolve this. Although, Bubblegum Lemonade do get bonus points for being a band that actually exists, and for being Scottish.

You can listen to Bubblegum Lemonade's cover of the song "That Thing You Do"
here.

Once I'm finally past my current state of nostalgic bliss, I expect to dive fully into the Matinee Hit Parade compilation. The track list looks kind of amazing:

1. Math and Physics Club - A Little Romance
2. Would-Be-Goods - Temporary Best Friend
3. The Lucksmiths - Good Light
4. The Electric Pop Group - My Only Inspiration
5. Clay Hips - Failure
6. Bubblegum Lemonade - Tyler
7. The Hermit Crabs - Sophia
8. Harper Lee - Ilene
9. The Guild League - Call To Prayer
10. Strawberry Whiplash - Summershine
11. Slipslide - Let Things Fall Apart
12. The Pines - Train From Wycombe
13. Lovejoy - Astronauts

You can download TWO tracks from the compilation below. The first is Bubblegum Lemonade proving that they have so much more to offer than simply great covers. The second is The Electric Pop Group proving that they have so much to offer period.

Bubblegum Lemonade "Tyler"
The Electric Pop Group "My Only Inspiration"

You can pay a visit to the Matinee Recordings website to pick up your very own copy of this release:

Matinee Order

Check out the news on all of the aforementioned new signings, and long-time favorites as well:

Matinee News

And listen to songs from these artists by going here:

Matinee Sounds

Your new favorite band might just be waiting for you...