Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Sunday Cleaning – Volume 55

Camp Radio / Camp Radio (Kelp)

I think I said once the best way to get me to listen to something cold was to send me it on a lovely slab of vinyl – Ottawa’s Camp Radio got the message, loud and clear! I got their self-titled debut on a nice and thick 180g pressing, packaged in a gorgeous full-colour, matte-finish gatefold sleeve… whew. Easily some of the nicest packaging of anything I’ve gotten my hands on lately. But, of course, not even the prettiest dress can help the homely girls so it’s lucky that Camp Radio – a trio of veterans of the Ottawa indie scene – have filled the album with sharp, tight and hooky guitar pop that would still be every bit as melodic and terrific if you dressed it up in a paper bag and scotch-taped banana peels and peanut shells to it. Muchos recommended. And if you buy the vinyl (which you should) it comes with a CD version of the album as well. You can’t beat that with a stick.

MP3: Camp Radio – “Cons At The New Moon”
MP3: Camp Radio – “At The Landing Strip”
MySpace: Camp Radio

Tralala / Is That The Tralala (Audika)

I get the feeling that Brooklyn’s Tralala prefer to have their band name spelled with all caps. I refuse to indulge them this. On their second full-length, out Tuesday, the seven-piece girl-group/power-pop fusion experiment boasts four lead singers who opt to sing in unison, chorus-style, rather than swap moments in the spotlight (much of the time, anyway). This wall of voices, coupled with the simple and punkish musical accompaniment, makes for an exhilarating sugar-rush, if one that risks a serious come-down before the 39-minute running length of the album is over. Tailor-made for indie-night DJ mixes, Tralala are best prescribed in short doses but definitely good fun. And I would love to see them in a knife fight with Tilly & The Wall.

MP3: Tralala – “Take Me As I Am”
MP3: Tralala – “All Fired Up”
MySpace: Tralala
By : Frank Yang at 10:22 am
Category: Uncategorized
RSS Feed for this post3 Responses.

  1. 11/12/06 9:30 pm

     John says:

    Please don’t stop the Sunday Cleaning posts. I know it would make things simpler for you if you took some of the better releases and used them for full posts, but I think I’ve discovered more things I like from the Sunday Cleaning posts than all the regular posts combined. The regular posts seem more focused on established artists, while the Sundays are more given to new/emerging talent, and it’s a nice counterpoint. Just one man’s opinion.

  2. 11/12/06 11:38 pm

     Thierry says:

    I have the first Tralala album, and my feelings about it are similar to those expressed in your review of the second one – this band is a dream for mixtape makers or DJs. 35 or 40 minutes of candy may be too sweet for anyone but the most hardcore j-pop fan or notlame completist, but, taken individually, some of Tralala’s songs are as good, uplifting and danceable as the best Go-Go’s singles, and bring to mind a perfect marriage between the Pipettes and the Ramones.

    One question though: With a sound so sugary-sweet and taylor-made for the spring or summer, why would anyone release this record in November and not in May or June?

  3. 11/13/06 12:41 am

     Frank says:

    John – odds are, I will be continuing the Sunday Cleaning for general reviews, it’s actually easier to have them on a regular rotation than trying to scatter them through the week. if I stopped setting aside a day to plow through my piles of promo stuff, they’d just continue to grow and quite probably become sentient, organize and devour me in my sleep. And no one wants that.

    So yeah, unless something untowards happens or I come up with a better idea, I’ll keep the random reviews for Sunday or the weekend.

→
←