Pens

Pens is a three piece punk band from England. They have released a split cassette (sold out) and a split 7" (buy it at Rough Trade if you're in the UK or can stomach paying $8 + shipping for a single). Pete did the best job of describing the trio on the Slumberland records blog.

The above band are called Pens. They’re three girls from London, making what can only be described as Shambolic Pop.
They used to be in the (better named, but worse musically) Look Look Dancing Boys. I haven’t seen Pens yet, but i have seen LLDB. they were, without a doubt, the most untogether band i had seen in years.

There was something refreshing about that. The lack of ego in their playing, the thrill of discovery, the getting to the end of a song as a major accomplishment. This is even more evident in Pens.

Freddie (yes, their myspace picture page confirms it’s about mr Kruger) is everything that a shambling band should be; constantly on the verge of falling apart, it’s held together by the sheer ‘i can’t believe we’re doing this’ forward motion of the song. The vocals are distorted. Everything’s distorted. They obviously just plugged everything into a pedal, thought it sounded punk, and went for it. Fantastic. There’s crosstalk, and stick clicks; it was obviously recorded live on some antiquated four track- not in a Toerag/Daptone posing way, but it’s genuinely all they had to work with.

Pens have an LP coming in February on De Stijl. Here is a zip file with the mp3s Slumberland posted along with the songs on Pens' MySpace.

Freddie mp3
High in the Cinema mp3
Download

I Was A King - Losing Something Good For Something Better

I first heard these guys on a free compilation from Eardrums which features their song "Norman Bleik." It instantly reminded me of JAMC so I searched around and found I Was A King had a CD out.

Losing Something Good is the band's first effort and though the album sounds more minimal and lo-fi than Norman Bleik it is still great. It only lasts for 17 minutes but that short time is filled with noisy pop songs mixed with lovably lo-fi, warm tracks that don't take more than a minute.

I Was A King have a self titled album coming out later this month in Norway, their home country. They also found a US label which will be releasing a 7" in late january and the s/t album sometime in April. You can find more info about the band and its upcoming releases on MySpace. Losing Something Good For Something Better can be purchased through CDBaby.

Best Wishes mp3
Break Away mp3
Download album

Box Elders - Hole In My Head 7"

I read about these guys on Jay Reatard's blog. Box Elders are from Omaha, Nebraska and formed in 2005 but so far only have this single to their name. I really like it, especially the A side tracks. For fans of Wavves and Reatards. Buy it from Grotto Records.



Hole in My Head mp3
One Foot in Front of the Other mp3
Download the 7"

Some random tracks from Wavves

Wavves is one guy making noisy pop songs that sound like The Circle Jerks and Jesus and Mary Chain crashed into each other while ripping up an empty backyard pool. Really catchy, really distorted. I ran across a folder of unreleased stuff on Soulseek. I don't know where these tracks originally came from. What I do know is So Bored, which I had heard earlier on Wavves' MySpace, is one of Nathan Williams' best songs.

Be sure to keep an eye on Woodsist for the upcoming CD release of Wavves' out of print first album.

Download here
or head over to Katie's blog and check out Wavves' self titled cassette

The Barbaras - Summertime Road 7"

I picked this up over the summer after hearing some clips on The Barbaras' MySpace page. These guys are from the garage scene in Tennessee and two of them were in Jay Reatard's band.

Once you get past the cheesy sleeve and listen to the music you'll find some catchy pop tunes that sound like they were recorded with a tape player. The fuzzy guitar and vocals on Summertime Road make you smile and wish it were a breezy summer day so you could lie by the creek and forget about everything. The two tracks on the b-side have cleaner production but still sound great. I especially like Flow.

Summertime Road is The Barbara's first and so far only release. As far as I know they are still together. I hope to hear more soon, and if I do you will hear about it here.

Individual tracks
Summertime Road
Day at the Shrine
Flow
or download the whole 7"

Buy it at Insound (use the coupon code "insound_rocks_07" to get 10% off. Yay!)

Extra: Five live recordings from Gonerfest (with Jay Reatard on drums!)