SLUMBERLAND 20TH ANNIVERSARY

seems like shows in LA and SF in december. brilliant colors's myspace says HENRY'S DRESS and boyracer will play! wahhhhh gotta go!

awesome! maybe this is time for me to finish mixing my song "slumberland" that we recorded a few years ago in honor of them.

Arghhhhhh maybe they'll reissue boyracer?

tonight! at the Black Cat in DC:

Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Party w/
CRYSTAL STILTS
BROWN RECLUSE
PANTS YELL!
FRANKIE ROSE & THE OUTS
THE ROPERS
NORD EXPRESS
LORELEI

if velocity girl or black tambourine play an impromptu set i will be happy for you and mad for myself

can anyone recommend any classic slumberland albums? im a big fan of the pains of being pure at heart, how do they compare to the rest of that label's catalogue?

essential:
black tambourine - complete recordings
the ropers - all the time
lilys - in the presence of nothing
velocity girl - 6 song ep
rocketship - a certain smile a certain sadness
aislers set - terrible things happen + the last match

recommended:
lorelei - everyone must touch the stove
hood - cabled linear traction

the closest things in the catalogue to pains are probably the black tambourine and velocity girl records..

I have to work tomorrow otherwise I would have tried to make the show in Brooklyn tomorrow. The Ropers was the only band I really wanted to see, the rest were just bonuses.

And electricsound is completely right with the recommendations.

royalty I think The Ropers and the Rocketship albums recommended to you above would be your closest two to Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. I'd start with those. Though the rest are classic as well.

yeah i was about to come back and suggest that pains are probably closest to rocketship in many ways

awesome, thanks guys

one of my best friends plays in crystal stilts now </suzy>, but i can't see them tomorrow in ny. they were great on halloween.

that band has had more line-ups than...The Byrds? I dunno. I saw them a few years ago as a 3 piece. Was thinking of going saturday night, a chance to hear a bunch of hip young bands I haven't heard/seen, as well as support a classy label like Slumberland, but I'll probably stay home and catch up on TV....because that's the kind of guy I am.

so did anyone go? if so how were ropers + lorelei

Washington Post review of DC show

By Mark Jenkins

Slumberland Records, which celebrated its 20th birthday Friday at the Black Cat, was founded in Maryland and is now based in California. But its musical inspirations have always been primarily British, as was demonstrated by the seven Slumberland acts that performed at the anniversary show. The evening included bands new, old and in-between, but all showed debts to strummy, noisy U.K. indie-pop.

When the label began, major influences included such distortion-heavy trance-rock groups as Stereolab (who released an early-singles collection on Slumberland) and My Bloody Valentine. Not all the bands who performed Friday are in that tradition: D.C.'s Ropers (playing for the first time in 10 years) dialed back the distortion on their sleek folk-rock; and Philadelphia's Brown Recluse, with its clean, light sound and trumpet solos, was closer to Belle and Sebastian, a later-vintage Brit cult act. But the gig still featured plenty of feedback, sustain and reverb, from Frankie and the Outs's massively echoed vocals to Crystal Stilts's room-filling organ.

Both those bands hail from Brooklyn, a contemporary alt-pop hub and home of other current Slumberland acts. But the highlight was one of the label's original mainstays, D.C.'s Lorelei, which reunited in 2006 after a long layoff. Frantic strumming was only part of the band's music, which also made deft use of rhythmic shifts and open space.

The low-key gala, which also featured Boston's jangly Pants Yell! and Baltimore's droney Nord Express, concluded with a few remarks by label owner Mike Shulman, who was clearly overwhelmed by the occasion. He had made his point more articulately hours earlier, slapping a tambourine with Brown Recluse.

this fine individual has posted lots of videos from the 20th anniv shows

http://www.youtube.com/user/popsongromance

Spectacular! Quite a bit of the SF show is documented there.

new lorelei album out on slumberland later this year innit

Oh shit! Excited.