It is surprising to hear Railcars stripped down, without the terrifying noise and Aria Jalali’s Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) like shrieks. Said Sister covers a different side of Jalali’s basement noise pop outfit, featuring two early tracks each with a different female vocalist.

“B’s Skeleton” is a chill, near electro-psychedelic track with a laid-back cool drum beat and highly melodic, haunting keys. And it’s fronted by equally ethereal vocals. Not at all what you’d expect from a band that gave us Cathedral With No Eyes.

On the B-side track “Saints Are Waiting”, we hear a little of the Railcars we know today, if only in the percussive style. The song is still entirely withdrawn from the noise subgenre Railcars now fits, but the emphasis on drums is all too familiar.

Both songs on Said Sister are a unique brand of experimental noise pop that aren’t all that noisy, and it makes for some very interesting and original stuff. Furthermore, the single’s exclusivity should not be ignored — Gold Robot Records pressed a mere 250 of these gems!

Grab one before it’s gone!

Download: “Saints Are Waiting” by Railcars

Gold Robot Records [7" Single, 2011]

1. B’s Skeleton
2. Saints Are Waiting

A quick read-up on Ned Oldham will tell you he creates mystical Americana folk songs. A listen to his music will support those words. You could even consider questioning his namesake — could it be the less backwoods kin of Will Oldham? Indeed he is. Here he steps out from behind his more well known brother, and away from The Anomoanon of which he fronts, for a wondrous three-song single on Gold Robot Records. On a translucent blue vinyl disc housed within among the best album cover art of the year (courtesy Kevin Earl Taylor), his songs are pure folk heaven.

Accompanied by harmonic acoustic melodies, Ned’s words are bold and beautiful. “The One Light” opens softly with guitar before Ned’s voice takes over. By the end, you’ve realized that Americana music has somehow heightened in greatness and acquired a dulcet tone, and you wonder how Oldham did it. It’s so smooth and comfortable — and so seemingly easy — that it all seems natural. And it is. “Black Dick Pierce” and “If Tomorrow Comes Again” both follow suit perfectly.

Let’s Go Out Tonight is stripped down and personal, raw and good-natured, somewhat pure. Yet, in being so it reveals its own lack of innocence. With life, with experience, there’s a trade-off. Innocence is lost, but wisdom is gained; it is that which Oldham spouts out in verse and chorus. There’s knowledge here, and knowledge can often taste oh so much sweeter than innocence. Or, at least, feel and sound better.

Download: “The One Light” by Ned Oldham

Gold Robot Records [7" Single, 2010]

1. The One Light
2. Black Dick Pierce
3. If Tomorrow Comes Again

From the drummer that accompanies, in my humble opinion, two of the greatest current bands in existence today, Papercuts and Beach House, comes Roman Ruins whose 7″ single Pastor/Al is now out on Gold Robot Records. Like the two greats, Roman Ruins creates surreal pop music with a dreamy edge that is inherently cool.

Pastor/Al is actually the collaboration of Graham Hill, who provides the musical aspects on the album, and Hunter Mack, who created the art. And art it is — Mack lends an abstract eye to the project, incorporating various textures and a brilliant palate to the visual piece. To further enhance its beauty, the music itself is branded onto an opaque orange disc seven inches in diameter. Pristine!

The A-Side track is “Why Party?”, a hip melodic piece that is a smooth as it is masterful. “The Comeback” is the flip-side track and while it doesn’t quite match its predecessor, it holds plenty of weight on its own. Mine came with a digital download that included two remixes of “Why Party?” Both matched the original.

As a treat, this Beach House track was released yesterday in support of the single — check it out then head over to Gold Robot Records and grab one of the hottest pieces of wax you’ll find this year.

Download: “The Comedown” by Roman Ruins

Download: “Lover Of Mine (Roman Ruins Remix)” by Beach House

Gold Robot Records [CD, 2010]

1. Why Party?
2. The Comedown

Björn Kleinhenz creates pleasant folk-pop with a romantic edge. Like a Swedish version of something by Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, “The Mountain Pt. 2″ features a soft acoustic guitar, finger-plucked to a calming bliss and accompanied by beautiful vocals. Kleinhenz coos: I am a mountain now, I am the sea and sky, I am a puff of smoke coming through your window in the chorus. Musical and vocal, “The Mountain Pt. 2″ hits all the right notes.

I like this: “The Mountain Pt. 2″ is off an EP titled after a short-lived separatist political party in Sweden that, in 1982, received 2 votes — one by the founding member and the other by his wife. The EP is called Dackes Drabanter and it’s available now from Gold Robot Records.

Download: “The Mountain Pt. 2″ by Björn Kleinhenz

From the beach to the mountains, Seamonster‘s Two Birds echoes utmost pleasantries through the audible channel of lo-fi psychedelic folk-pop. Its pop charm is masked by the static white noise of immense distortion, mixed down to a satisfactory non-overpowering level, and warped with the sounds of summertime. “Oh Appalachia” is a beachgoers ode to the mountains. “The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol” will paint a pop-culture picture on the back of your eyelids while you lay, back on grass, facing a clear blue sky.

A rudimentary psychedelic core, Seamonster blends in the perfect amount of experimentation, from noise in “Bearsuit” to the fuzz in the opening instrumental “New England”. There are undeniable pop sensibilities as well; “Annalee” has plenty of vocal pattern hooks that are damn near twee. The EP concludes with the lazy, folk-pop swagger of “These Bones” (a bonus digital-only track), emphasizing the consistent, heavy guitar strum with the fuzzed-out vocals. Backing the song is electronic noise, some of which carries melody, some of which remains chaotic.

There’s no question about it, Two Birds is by far the best single I’ve acquired in quite some time.

Download: “Oh Appalachia” by Seamonster

Gold Robot Records / Royal Rhino Flying Records [7" EP, 2010]

1. New England
2. Oh Appalachia
3. Bearsuit
4. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
5. Annalee
6. These Bones (Digital Bonus Track)

San Francisco garage-noise-pop outfit Railcars dropped their new record yesterday, a mystical collective of ferocious bouts of electro noise dubbed Cathedral With No Eyes. You may remember Railcards from our debut/premiere of “Passion Of St. Edmund (Rebirth)”, or maybe even our premature review of Cathedral With No Eyes from a month and a half ago. Frontman Aria Jalali takes noise and throws it through a lollipop dreamboat; its almost unbelievably upbeat pop nature is something that simply must be heard.

And it can. Railcars is in the middle of an extensive fall tour. Check the tunes and the dates below, but first a tad bit more about the album. You can pick it up on glorious vinyl from Stumparumper. Or, if you’re the digital sort, you can grab it in that format from Gold Robot.

Railcars: Cathedral With No Eyes [mp3]

Railcars: Passion Of Saint Edmund (Rebirth) [mp3]

RAILCARS ON TOUR IN THE NORTHWEST

11/10: The Shed in Vancouver, BC
11/11: Logan’s in Victoria, BC
11/12: Dreamstation64 in Seattle, WA w/ Universal Studios Florida
11/13: Le Voyeur in Olympia, WA
11/14: The Artistry in Portland, OR
11/17: North Bay Art/Film Collective in Santa Rosa, CA
11/18: Fungarden in Sacramento, CA
11/19: Thee Parkside in San Francisco, CA
11/20: Flux 53 Gallery in Oakland, CA
11/23: Synchronicity Space in Los Angeles, CA
11/24: Acrobatics Everyday in Irvine, CA

Fingerprints are an interesting thing. They’re a hard thing to lose, and even harder to identify without the proper know-how. In a way, they’re symbolic of the influences that inspire musicians, and Railcars is no different. Their latest, Cathedral With No Eyes has the undeniable fingerprints of Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart in both the eccentric noise instrumentation and the vocal shouts.

A while back I posted an exclusive off this album, an unmastered version of “Passion of St. Edmumd (Rebirth)”. It’s easy to hear the progress the mastering brought forth — it’s still highly saturated with heavy static and occasional indecipherable vocals and notes alike. But there’s a clean quality to the overproduced static that’s as infectious as the swine flu. And hit track “Castles” is no different; in fact, it may even be more so.

Cathedral With No Eyes is a rarity — it’s an album that would be ideal from start to finish in a live setting. In a way, this is an EP, chiming in at just under 20 minutes. On the other hand, it’s a glorified single with three feature tracks: “Castles”, “Passion Of St. Edmunds (Rebirth)” and the title track, “Cathedral With No Eyes”. The rest is highly sophisticated noise filler, songs that act as brilliant transitions without which this album would not be whole.

Railcars chooses an unlikely format for an album ripe with religion; St. Edmund is mostly known (based on a limited amount of research) as a martyr through the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But, as religion goes, it’s certainly not for everyone and neither is Cathedral With No Eyes. But for those who can tolerate — or better yet enjoy — noise pop, it’s an absolute masterpiece.

Railcars: Castles [mp3]

Stumparumper Records / Gold Robot Records [CDEP, 2009]

1. Life Of St. Edmund (Ponds)
2. Castles
3. Passion Of St. Edmund (Rebirth)
4. Passion Of St. Edmund (Miracles)
5. Cathedral With No Eyes
6. Martyrdom Of St. Edmund (End)

I love stumbling across great acts by mistake. Recently, elsewhere, I posted a brief rant on the Joy Division film about Ian Curtis called Control. In the post, I noted that my true introduction to Joy Division’s music stemmed from a cover of “Celebration” Xiu Xiu included on Chapel Of The Chimes. Well, when I saw a post by Railcars titled Xiu Xiu fans rejoice… I had to check them out.

The post noted that Railcars’ upcoming album was recorded and produced by Xiu Xiu front-man Jamie Stewart… recorded, in fact, in Stewart’s kitchen. And, upon listening to a few songs by the band, it was obvious he had his hand in the recordings. The vocals are filled with static-filled fuzz and the instrumentation blends various dark electronic elements in with lo-fi guitars and percussion.

“Bohemia Is Without Sea” opens with distortion rampant guitars, and the vocal pattern is actually quite reminiscent to that of Joy Division’s “Ceremony”. In some ways the lo-fi qualities that make Railcars’ music distinct are what make artists like Times New Viking shine—Railcars definitely create catchy tunes with indistinct lyrics spurted out in memorably moody vocal hooks.

“Saints Are Waiting At My Door” follows suit but concludes with a key-heavy instrumental rant. “Concrete Buildings”, too, matches the aforementioned tunes with indecipherable lyrics; while the loud-soft nature of Stewart’s music isn’t necessarily present, you can hear traces of his influence in front man Aria Jalali’s scream-ish vocals.

“There Is Ice; It Is Blue” concludes the songs from Railcars EP, Cities Vs. Submarines, available around August as a 7” on Gold Robot Records. While, according to Jalali, a few still need some minor mastering work done, they sound terrific. I for one am looking forward to checking the album out.

This review was originally published July 3, 2008 on the old version of FensePost. Cities Vs. Submarines has since been released and is available for purchase here.

Railcars: There Is Ice; It is Blue [mp3]