sic alps

trying to dig the new album on drag city for a while cuz people i know and like like this band but i can't get with it for some reason. maybe i should smoke up and listen. just reminds me of 90's lo-fi indie stuff like gbv that i never want to hear. so the one dude was in henry's dress right? i still need to hear THAT band. cuz i was/am an aislers set fan and i would probably dig that. this is one of those annoying cases where someone told me - years ago now - oh sic alps are great! so i buy the album with the vw microbus on the cover - i think it was a vw don't have the album anymore - and i don't like it and then the same person says OH NO you don't want that one you want this single and this EP and etc, etc, and i'm like jeez okay whatever nevermind just like kurdt used to sing. so anyway i tried okay?

i like henry's dress and the how a lot but i think sic alps are fairly lame. the slumberland 45 is ok but both albums are tune-free imo

maybe that's the intention? doesn't seem that way though

I think they're great. The "Long Way Around To A Shortcut" record rounds up the singles/eps and is great overview of the years between the vw bus album and the siltbreeze one. I haven't heard much of the upcoming one besides what's been played on WFMU, but that "First White Man To Touch California Soil" is pretty tops to me.

U.S. Ez and Long Way Round to a Shortcut are both amazing and far from "tuneless," I'm not really into their noisier stuff personally

Wish it was less lo-fi. They're fun live.

US EZ and Description of the Harbor are both pretty killer, imo. I don't know "the one with the VW bus."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNXt4BtUJuM

I mean yeah they're lo-fi but far from tuneless, their best ones are super catchy to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfyRKP8sLoE

I think the one with the VW bus is Pleasures and Treasures, which is less song-focused

U.S. Ez and Long Way Round to a Shortcut are both amazing and far from "tuneless," I'm not really into their noisier stuff personally

This about sums it up for me too - especially Long Way Round To A Shortcut.

i've heard bad things about the new one skot, but definitely check out us ez & pleasures

didn't know they had a new one out/coming out. they're a weird band in that i like quite a few tunes, mostly on singles and EPs ("l. mansion", "strawberry guillotine", "message from the law", etc.), but have mixed feelings on the whole. came in via pleasures & treasures, but wasn't impressed. a few decent ideas lost in a bog of hiss. stuff since has been better - hit or miss, but sometimes great. still haven't put out a solid, band-defining LP, imo.

saw em live this past spring and was similarly half impressed. ty segall was playing with them, sometimes drumming, sometimes playing guitar and singing. truth be told, when he was drumming, the drums were the best thing about them. and when he was singing, that was.

Yeah mansion is a fantastic single and both the US EZ + Long way... albums are ace. I wasn't aware they had a new LP out, good news. Maybe at some point they will release an "accelerator" type sort of break-thru album because they can at times be a shit hot garage band. Not that I would be bothered if they continued on in their own peculiar way.

because they can at times be a shit hot garage band.

this was my impression from seeing them live.

I like the new album a lot. I agree with She Got The Shakes upthread, I've still yet to hear an album by these guys that matches their killer intense live show, which seriously knocked me out a few years back, but hopefully one of these days they'll record in a proper studio.

But like I said, the new one is pretty damn good! Check out "Cement Surfboard."

Check out "Cement Surfboard."

Awesome -- everything I've heard off this new record I like so far.

because they can at times be a shit hot garage band.

this was my impression from seeing them live.

Here they are about three years ago: http://vimeo.com/16534990

man i was excited about a 22-song album of just sic alps pop songs, but the thing is all of their pop songs pretty much sound alike. some of them have some interesting details but essentially they all have the same rhythm, sound, singing, etc. maybe it'll help if i think of the whole album as one song.

TEH BEST Henry's Dress song just cuz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qk8fVEuzCQ

loooove the first HD disc

everyone should listen to napa asylum again this album is amazing

love how the whole thing is soooort of sloppy & feels casual, kind of hurriedly assembled, yet is obviously so carefully crafted and perfect. i think vocally he kills it and is a perfect match to the music, love how he sings high & is so unassuming, not at all like gbv awkward gross vocals--& the drumfills are soooooo good. my only complaints are some of the songs are too short & that it's only 45 mins but is still a double lp. best album of the year so far i think

still haven't put out a solid, band-defining LP, imo.

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Thursday, 4 November 2010 14:32 (5 months ago) Bookmark

this is it btw

that it's only 45 mins but is still a double lp.

this is such a pet peeve of mine and will probably keep me form hearing this album

But over 37 minutes on vinyl and it starts sounding like shit, and everyone would be complaining about that instead

I have not heard this album in the vinyl format as yet, but I can imagine that all these songs spread out over two records could be a very good thing.

don't let it keep you from hearing it! the pacing of this album is like the best part, n/a imagining the whole thing as one song is otm, songs end & begin arbitrarily & sometimes with tonnes of distance between

i know i should lighten up. the samples i heard sound good.

best album

If I can prove that I did indeed buy this Vedley 7" from Drag City, can someone please link me to an mp3 version, for Christ's sake?

Ditto Dylan Carlson's cassette release, Edward Kelley's Blues?

Grrrrrr

Drag City's thing of no-codes-with-vinyl is such a bummer. I can't figure out if they have any thinking behind it, but it kind of dicks over fans... I'm sure they would see that as entitled, but that practice is kind of par for the course these days.

why don't you just download it illegally. i mean, like, you've already bought it

Not on slsk

Why didn't you just buy it on itunes to begin with if you don't have a turntable?

advice after the fact concerning what one should instead have done before the fact is seldom helpful

can't find the vedley single anywhere tho

I have a turntable. Just wanted to listen to it on an upcoming flight.

Not gonna buy it twice.

you need a soundburger for the flight
http://brandnewretro.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/iwalkman.jpg

Ah, yes. The solution to all my woes!

Didn't John Lennon or somebody have a record player in their car?

new track on the Drag City home page. it's kinda different, has strings on it and shit. jury's still out

album not out until September apparently

even allowing for tech problems, that was an incredibly limp show

they can do a good stones impression tho

New record is great.

Can't believe there isn't more talk about this record here. So good! Can't stop listening. Someone talk about it with me!

I'm with you, personally. Some other Sic Alps fans aren't.
I am still digesting it, really. I feel like it's got a little bit of everything they've ever done.

haven't heard the new record but felt i should mention that they crashed on my floor once and were super-nice guys.

New record is really good. I really haven't cared for anything they've done since U.S. EZ, but this might actually be my favorite so far.

I like it alot so far but need to give it some more spins. I've been listening to Glyphs since it appeared on the DC website last month and love that track.

think they're still a dope band but the new album is weak sauce imo & i hope they won't keep in this direction. drums are way too tight & makes it sound way overwrought where their previous stuff sounded like it was being made up on the spot, no noisy interludes (they are good at writing pop songs but these were always dope imo & contributed well to the flow of the album i guess stuff like the end of "drink up" comes closest), riffs & strong structures are all straightforward & often remind me of other things, like, not that the band were every perfectly sui generis but like for example i always start singing say a word for jimmy brown, ain't got nuthin at all in my head at the beginning of "thylacine man," & just a lot of other moments feel not necessarily lifted but maybe just feel like archetypal 60's rock moves? the last song is so boring, too

Why are some other fans hating on it? What's not to like? It's such a nice culmination of what they do. I saw them live very early on - I think they were just releasing their first album or maybe their second - and I was blown away, left the gig thinking "this is my new favorite band." But none of the records since that gig really captured, for me, the essence of that gig (though I've enjoyed them all). This one comes closest.

I like how non-generous the pop elements are. Like, the melodies never really go where you think they should go, or want them to go. Then, by the third, fourth, fifth listen, your brain starts filling in those places. There's so much restraint here - like how a few songs just seem to end mid-verse. It's such a beguiling and utterly strange record, and though it's become rock crit cliche to say it 'rewards repeat listens,' this one really, really does. I'm drawn to it in a way that I haven't been to a lotta other records this year. It's just a really compelling record, I think. I also love it for its brevity. More records need to be this short.

Hah, flopson, guess you answered my second question, at least. I don't find "See You On The Slopes" boring at all! Then, I listened to it for the first time in my car, and when that weird buzz comes in about halfway through, I thought I'd left my cell phone on the dashboard on vibrate! Pretty stoney record-listening moment for me. Spooked me good.

ha "it's such a nice culmination of what they do" i agree that it's a culmination of what they do in that they have stopped doing a lot of the things that i liked about them

have you heard napa asylum? way more restraint, more abrupt endings, more "utterly strange"

Yes, I like that one - but it seems to go on forever, and doesn't stick with me the way this one does. I enjoy it when it's playing, but when it's over, I feel little need to return to it. I may prefer US EZ to that one.

us ez is the shit

really digging their latest. don't really know this band otherwise, though -- what should i listen to next?

US EZ and then a long way around to a shortcut

still haven't heard the new one but want to

yeah, it's got the lo-fi stoner vibe down, but with actually good songwriting to go along with it.

"US EZ and then a long way around to a shortcut"

This. The Description of the Harbor ep on the comp is one of my favorite Sic Alps releases.

RIP

:(

Blimey, I timed that well then, saw them live for the first time 2 weeks ago.

Mike Donovan has put out his own album called Wot and it is quite ace .

http://www.stereogum.com/1814275/qa-sic-alps-mike-donovan-on-his-new-band-peacers-laze-it-video-stereogum-premiere/franchises/interview/

The video does work, it just doesn't have audio for the first 30 seconds or so.