Black Marble is Ty Kube and Chris Stewart, who produce somewhat minimalist synth music. With a synth drum beat, a synth melody, and deep, dark vocals, “Pretender” is a song that is one part Joy Division, one part Craft Spells, and one part its own thing.

The song can be found on the band’s new EP via Hardly Art. It’s called Weight Against The Door and it’s out digitally now and on vinyl Valentine’s Day.

Download: “Pretender” by Black Marble.

Gem Club has now released their debut LP, Breakers. On it is the song “Twins” and the band has given it video treatment. Featuring Eva Perrotta and Michael Pope, this music video is just as haunting as the minimalist music Gem Club creates.

If you’re unfamiliar with the band, members Christopher Barnes (vocals, piano), Kristen Drymala (cello) and Ieva Berberian (vocals) create ethereal, wistful songs that are as minimal as they are beautiful. Listening to them, you are conflicted: do I fall in love or do I cower in despair?

Perrotte and Pop twist together and embrace in this video, yet the two never actually touch. It’s a fantastic interpretive dance that conveys passion and singularity equally; love and loneliness equally. It will make you contemplate life, love, and loneliness.

Download: “Twins” by Gem Club

WARNING: This video contains nudity.

Gem Club – Twins from Gem Club on Vimeo.

I am a huge Carissa’s Wierd fan. If you are too, you know exactly what I’m talking about — the die-hard fan gets a little extra out of the music, hears a little bit more, and has a deeper, seemingly one-on-one experience with it. New music, for a band that parted ways several years past, is enough to bring tears to your eyes. “Tucson” b/w “Meredith & Iris” is such material and Hardly Art has made the latter from the single available for stream.

The same can be said for a performance. When Grand Archives (formed after the CW split and fronted by Mat Brooke) played their record release show for their debut LP, the event included an intimate performance by Brooke and Jenn Ghetto of “All Apologies & Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”. That performance did bring a tear to my eye. Carissa’s Wierd played a few reunion shows upon the reissuing of their catalog, and with the forthcoming release of a new single they’ll play Neumos in Seattle on September 24.

“Meredith & Iris” — the first new track we have heard by Seattle band Carissa’s Wierd in over seven years — is near perfect. For the long-time true fan, we’ve been waiting for this moment for nearly a decade. For you, no explanation is needed, no description, no further comment. Listen and enjoy.

Carissa’s Wierd – Meredith & Iris by hardlyartrecords

Hardly Art is carving a unique niche in the bands they choose to release. While each band has its own distinctive style, three primary types exist. A garage-y pop and punk sound, a folk one, and one most commonly likened to the bedroom. Gem Club fits the last, with beautiful, mystical piano pop. They are the latest to sign to Hardly Art.

“Breakers” is off their forthcoming LP, the follow up to their Acid and Everything EP. Featuring a heavily melodic and moody piano, and fronted by soft vocals (think a non-falsetto, pop-centric version of Bon Iver), Gem Club’s songs are minimalist and masterfully-crafted.

They feature only a hint of percussion — a soft clang here, a triangle there — and an emotive cello. “Breakers” is soft enough to put you to sleep, but it won’t. It will instead put you into a pleasant but emotional dreamlike trance.

Gem Club’s new LP is called Breakers and it is released September 27. Until then, grab the title track below and head over to Gem Club’s bandcamp page to stream Acid and Everything.

Download: “Breakers” by Gem Club

Get ready to dub Hardly Art label of the year. They’ve already given us plenty to enjoy, and the second half of 2011 promises to be just as stunning. Take their latest signing as an example. The band is Shimmering Stars, originally out of Vancouver B.C.

Filled with a dark, thick reverb and super catchy dream pop, Shimmering Stars’ first single “I’m Gonna Try” hints of the pop music of the early 60s, thrust forward to clash with the lo-fi pop of today. The song is a haunting one about love, which makes it even better.

Check out the video and grab the track below. Their debut LP, Violent Hearts, hits September 13, but it looks like Hardly Art will be giving this song 7″ treatment sometime before then. Keep an eye out for it!

Download: “I’m Gonna Try” by Shimmering Stars

Shimmering Stars – I’m Gonna Try from Salazar on Vimeo.

The name Grant Olsen may not ring a bell, but mention Arthur of Arthur & Yu, and that may turn on a light or two. If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering where that band went – after all, they were the honored first release from Hardly Art. The answer is I don’t know. But the good news is that we now have Gold Leaves, which is Olsen’s (aka Arthur’s) new project.

Gold Leaves has signed to Hardly Art, and the band’s debut LP The Ornament hits stores mid August. They’ve given us the title track to enjoy in the meantime.

So how does “The Ornament” stack up to the greats off Arthur & Yu’s In Camera? I say quite nicely. Sure, Olsen doesn’t have Sonya Westcott (aka Yu) at his side, but he still produces a solid psychedelic folk, majestic in its mere presence.

“The Ornament” does stand out. Olsen has matured significantly in the past four years; he’s experienced the good and the bad, and has taken certain natural steps the majority of us will eventually make. He pumps these into his music in a way perfect for the folk heritage within. The psychedelic traits pull from his prior project as well as the inclusion of producer Jason Quever (Papercuts).

I quite like “The Ornament”, and while those harmony male/female vocals may not exist here I don’t miss them. Olsen easily stands on his own, and he does it with accompaniment from good friends and great musicians.

Download: “The Ornament” by Gold Leaves

Seapony is fronted by Jen Weidl on vocals with songs written by guitarist Danny Rowland and rhythm split between bassist Ian Brewer and an Alesis HR-16 vintage synth for the drum beat. Together, they have created Go With Me, featuring highly lovable songs, most under three minutes.

Backed by a fuzzed-out guitar and a jangly high-pitched bass, Seapony’s debut LP is stark in its simplicity, wonderful in its lo-fi heritage, and as moody as you’d expect from a modern indie pop trio.

Unlike many fuzzed-out pop bands, Seapony’s music is subtle and has a clarity to it that counters the very nature of fuzz. This makes it unique, and it can be attributed to the jangle-centric bass being at the forefront of the instrumentation while the distorted guitar takes a back seat. Jen’s vocals complement this sound. Playful and dreamy, they too feature a little fuzz.

Like their music, the result, too, is simple: Seapony has done a mighty fine job creating Go With Me.

Go With Me is released May 31 courtesy Hardly Art Records.

Download: “Dreaming” by Seapony

Download: “Blue Star” by Seapony

Hardly Art [CD, 2011]

1. Dreaming
2. I Never Would
3. Blue Star
4. Into The Sea
5. I Really Do
6. Go Away
7. Always
8. So Low
9. What You See
10. Nobody Knows
11. Where We Go
12. With You

Hunx And His Punx clashes the 50s style girl group doo-wop pop with punk rock in the first song off their recent LP, Too Young To Be In Love. “Lovers Lane” is definitely influenced by classic teenage tragedy songs like Jan And Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” and Wayne Cochran’s “Last Kiss” and even The Shangri-Las “Leader Of The Pack”.

Hunx and his accompanying ladies gives it a modern punk twist with slightly more blatant sexual innuendo, raw guitar riffs, and tight leather pants. We’ve heard a few sounds like this of late, including Bass Drum Of Death from earlier this year, but I think Hunx And His Punx top them all with their unique take on the genre.

Too Young To Be In Love is out now on Hardly Art.

Download: “Lovers Lane” by Hunx And His Punx

In the first few moments of Fergus & Geronimo‘s “Where The Walls Are Made Of Grass”, we’re treated to a jazzy percussion and a cool, laid back upright bass line. This is the basis for the music Fergus & Geronimo create, blending genres in a most unique way. Rounding out the sound are odd vocal harmonies, folk-pop guitar hooks, and traces of an alto saxophone. Combined, they make up one of the most refreshing sounds we’ve heard in quite a while.

Other songs favor doo-wop, garage pop, and lo-fi soulful folk — and most include off-kilter lyrics. All in all, it’s unexpected. But, to pull a line from Paste Magazine, Fergus & Geronimo is definitely the “best of what’s next.” You can see it in their multimedia video for “Where The Walls Are Made Of Grass” and you can hear it in every single song off their debut LP, Unlearn. Seriously, it’s just about the best thing ever.

Download: “Powerful Lovin’” by Fergus & Geronimo

Download: “Baby Don’t You Cry” by Fergus & Geronimo

Just in time for Halloween comes La Sera‘s video for “Never Come Around.” The song finds Katy Goodman (formerly of Vivian Girls) enacting a massacre Dexter style, but without the vigilante-ism and with an eerie complacency. The video comes from the mind of Brady Hall, who also directed two for Vivian Girls — “When I’m Gone” and “Moped Girls.” This terrifying display of gruesomeness begs the question: why don’t more horror movies have pop soundtracks? If they did, the result would be much creepier and horrific than most of today’s ridiculous cinematic blood-baths.

Download: “Never Come Around” by La Sera

La Sera – Never Come Around from Brady Hall on Vimeo.

Earlier this week I received some Hardly Art love. Yes, the 3 LP reissues by Carissa’s Wierd finally arrived via the USPS. So when they dropped me a note about one of their latest bands, La Sera, I jumped at the chance to show them some love back. La Sera, the new project of Katy Goodman (Vivian Girls, All Saints Day), creates dreamy pop in the vein of Katy’s other groups. That means it’s dreamy, but full of a garage/basement pop marriage. The heavy, brooding guitar riffs are also playful and at times even joyous. The nondescript vocals are light and filled with an the swirl of cloudy thoughts. Music, to me, has always been a drug, and La Sera is the among sweetest of highs.

“Never Come Around” is off the band’s debut 7″, out this November on Hardly Art and available now for preorder from the label. A full LP is due early next year.

Download: “Never Come Around” by La Sera

If you spent any extended period alone in personal confinement during the early days of the century, and you had a predilection toward mopey, soft pop, you may have let the hours wane away dwelling on the heartbreaking bedroom-ish pop of Carissa’s Wierd. If you didn’t, you should have as it is some of the best music created both during and post 90s. Little known, and with even littler quantities of albums produced, many long-time fans cheered quietly when Hardly Art announced a cherished set of reissues.

Since that date, they’ve dropped a best of compilation of sorts titled They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003 pulling some of the better tunes from the band’s repertoire of sound.

And for those who obsessed over highly-sought after records either picked up casually during the band’s original heyday, or snagged quickly in a record store dive after their demise; well, there’s still something for you. All three albums will be available via Hardly Art on vinyl. I’m with you. Hands shaking with excitement, I just preordered the entire batch.

To celebrate the occasion, Hardly Art and Carissa’s Wierd are making available new old tracks for free public consumption. They’ll take you back, these three. For me, they take me back to days in my college dorm, pining over a girl, of walks to the local pub for the inevitable Thursday night jazz group, of the relaxation spurned by driving casually through the Palouse.

Download: “Fluorescent Lights” by Carissa’s Wierd off Ugly But Honest

Download: “The Ghost Of A Dead Hummingbird Flying Around The Room” by Carissa’s Wierd off You Should Be At Home Here

Download: “Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone” by Carissa’s Wierd off Songs About Leaving

Oh the classic sound of Seattle’s Moondoggies. Hints of Neil Young shine through in their new track “It’s A Shame, It’s A Pity”. Their style of rustic folk rock has always flirted with this mold, but never has it been so vibrant of that 70s era, so reminiscent of their brethren from another life. “It’s A Shame, It’s A Pity” is upbeat and mature, ripe with the feel-good elements of pop and the disenchantment with a bad situation as the band repeats It’s a shame and Just a lie over and over. This is easily the best thing I’ve heard from these guys yet, and that’s an impressive feat.

“It’s A Shame, It’s A Pity” is off the band’s new LP, Tidelands, out October 12 on Hardly Art.

Download: “It’s A Shame, It’s A Pity” by Moondoggies

Why hello there Hardly Art, I hear you have a few new signings, one being La Sera (new project of Vivan Girls’ Katy Goodman), the other being the glorious bubbly lo-fi pop group Fergus & Geronimo. Calling their home New York City and Denton TX seems fitting for a band that plays delightfully soulful, super catchy lo-fi garage-ish pop. It should be no surprise that this band has released before on Woodsist Records — they have that sound. But they find a welcome home on Hardly Art aside greats like Golden Triangle and Seattle locals Unnatural Helpers.

Up first is a new single by the band on a limited press (only 500!) of opaque half white and half blue vinyl. Here you’ll find “Never Satisfied” and the fittingly titled “Turning Blue”, both of which can be streamed below. Get ready for more great things from Hardly Art, courtesy Fergus & Geronimo!

Fergus & Geronimo – “Never Satisfied” b/w “Turning Blue” by hardlyartrecords

In moments we hear them: soft and simmering voices leaking in through an open window singing us goodbye songs for things we’ve needed to be released from for a long time. The latest single from The Moondoggie’s, “Fly Mama Fly”, captures for us a willowy breeze of quiet assurance. There’s no reason to hurry as lilting voices carry us through energetic guitar builds met with a hazy and dreamy sixties-esque progression. A song to bring us home, to encourage us to look around ourselves and make sure we like what we see. Clean and melancholy, “Fly Mama Fly” puts us next to a campfire under the stars capturing the all too familiar feelings of both disappointment and hope.

“Fly Mama Fly” is off The Moondoggies’ recent EP, You’ll Find No Answers Here, out now on Hardly Art.

Download: “Fly Mama Fly” by The Moondoggies

“Die” ultimately picked up where Songs About Leaving left off, and it adequately summed up where the band was heading — the inevitable hiatus. Carissa’s Wierd is borderline historic — their members have gone on to great things, from personal projects like S. (Jenn Ghetto) and Sera Cahoone, to full-fledged bands like Band of Horses and Grand Archives. So, there was a second inevitable in here somewhere… the reunion-slash-reissue.

Most of the band’s library of material has been out of print for quite some time, and as a die-hard fan I have done my best to accumulate what they put out. “Die” was on the band’s last release, I Before E, a collection of live tracks and two previously unreleased originals that came out posthumous, so to say. It had all the classic elements of a Carissa’s Wierd tune — dire, urgently emotive vocals by Ghetto, an emphasis on piano and strings, and an overall brooding, depressive nature with the ability to steal your breath away.

We recently noted that the band would be reissuing their full-lengths on Hardly Art. The feat also includes a compilation of their best tunes and a single for “Die” that includes b-side “Sharin’ A Hole” off the band’s super hard to find tour EP Scrap Book. (I found that one new at a record shop in Seattle for a mere $10!)

Head over to Hardly Art and preorder the comp — the first 50 get the “Die” single for free! I grabbed my copy last night. Hopefully it’s not too late…

Download: “Die” by Carissa’s Wierd

Fronted by Dean Whitmore, Unnatural Helpers‘ percussionist and lead vocalist, the band released their LP Cracked Love & Other Drugs this week on Hardly Art. This band of musical misfits have a pretty impressive past and present, having performed in local Seattle acts as Idle Times (Brian Standeford), Charles Leo Gebhardt IV and Catheters (Leo Gebhardt), Intelligence (Whitmore himself), and Hardly Arts very own The Dutchess & The Duke (Kimberly Morrison). Collectively, they go by Unnatural Helpers, and frankly, they rock!

Aside from various releases here and there, Unnatural Helpers dished out two notable singles within the last year — one on Hardly Art about a month ago for their stellar track “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” and an infamous Sub Pop Singles Club release dubbed Dirty, Dumb & Comical. The Singles Club was rough around the edges and good in the underground lo-fi sense, packed with hefty guitars and plenty of powerful indie-rock hooks.

Cracked Love & Other Drugs follows suit, but rather than the lo-fi-ish element of the Singles Club, it has a greater element of production which fleshes out the tunes consequently. The LP opens with the edgy and noisy “I Don’t Belong To You” before launching into the single “Sunshine / Pretty Girls”, taking it up a notch. Cohesive and ripe with hooks, the song stands out among the others on the album, not because the others aren’t worthy, but because the others have a bit more grit to them. Grit that maintains the edginess of the opener. “Brave Dumb Face” has a constant bass-hook that matches the percussion perfectly, while the guitar acts almost singularly at times, freaking out on its own accord.

From the get-go, Cracked Love & Other Drugs impresses greatly, and it’s when those guitar freak-outs ring steadily (“Wayward Eve”) or between hook-y vocal phrases (“Claim It Mine”), the band is at their best. Yet the same can be said about the moments when the guitar develops an epic, strummed chord progression between the chaos (“She Was Your Girlfriend”) or the bass-line swings wild (“Head Collector”), or the percussion has that extra fill. It’s one-hundred percent, in your face awesome; and that’s a quote you can attribute to the entire album. After a few listens to Cracked Love & Other Drugs, the conclusion is simple: these guys have a pretty bright future as well. Seriously.

Download: “Girl In The Window” by Unnatural Helpers

Download: “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” by Unnatural Helpers

Hardly Art [CD, 2010]

1. I Don’t Belong To You
2. Sunshine / Pretty Girls
3. Brave Dumb Face
4. Brainstroke
5. Girl In The Window
6. Our Most Entitled
7. Claim It Mine
8. She Was Your Girlfriend
9. Head Collector
10. Vox Humana
11. Useful Things
12. Wayward Eve
13. The Truth About You
14. Tell Me That You Wanna
15. Every Record Straight Tonight

Unnatural Helpers slipped onto my radar screen last year when Sub Pop gave them a hefty bow by including them in the third round of their much-cherished Singles Club. Dirty, Dumb And Comical included four brief, loud songs. The first single off their upcoming LP, Cracked Love & Other Drugs (brilliant title, by the way), is “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” and it stacks up nicely next to the other four — and it maintains their under-two-minutes brevity as well.

Actually, “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” is a bit more connected and refined than the tracks found on Dirty, Dumb. It shows that Unnatural Helpers are on the right path. The core elements remain — grungy vocals and loud, distorted guitars — and it has the right levels of production and mixing that allow the song to stand out. “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” has power, and it totally works.

Cracked Love & Other Drugs will be released by Hardly Art soon, and the label will also be providing fans with their first 7″ — a limited pressing of 500 by Unnatural Helpers called Baby’s First. The single also features “Sunshine / Pretty Girls”.

Download: “Sunshine / Pretty Girls” by Unnatural Helpers

As one of the few individuals to own a copy of Ugly But Honest, You Should Be At Home Here and Songs About Leaving by Carissa’s Wierd (sic), let alone ALL THREE, including their super-duper rare tour album, Scrap Book, it’s only with a hint of sadness that I relay to you the news that Hardly Art will reissue all three of the band’s proper albums. But the probable decline in value of rarities is far below the excitement I have for all the world who has yet to experience what, in my opinion, is one of the most under-appreciated, well-deserved bands ever to have existed.

To culminate the happening, Hardly Art will be releasing a best-of album titled They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996 – 2003, the tracklist of which you can find below. The album is scheduled for a July 13 release.

This excitement is real, people. Seriously. When, during the Grand Archives debut LP release party at Triple Door, Mat Brooke joined S.’s Jenn Ghetto on stage to “cover” their old band by performing “All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”, tears literally began to well up. The band will be, yes, REUNITING briefly this July for a performance on or around the release date in Seattle. For long-time fans and new fans alike, I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping they add a few other dates to the schedule.

Above photo of Mat Brooke at the 2008 KEXP Yule Benefit by joshc.

Here’s the tracklist for They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996 – 2003:

1. Low Budget Slow Motion Soundtrack Song For the Leaving Scene
2. Die
3. The Color That Your Eyes Changed With the Color of Your Hair
4. One Night Stand
5. You Should Be Hated Here
6. Drunk with the Only Saints I Know
7. Phantom Fireworks
8. So You Wanna Be A Superhero
9. Brooke Daniels’ Tiny Broken Fingers
10. Ignorant Piece of Shit
11. Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone
12. Blue Champagne Glass
13. September Come Take This Heart Away
14. All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine
15. Sympathy Bush
16. They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave

Clash art punk with the resurgence of a somewhat Grrrl Rock sound and you’ll begin to get the picture Golden Triangle paints. Double Jointer is the band’s debut full length, following a self-titled EP from last year. Golden Triangle’s sound is based around noise. Everything is loud, in your face, and over the top. Exotic and slightly erotic, “Blood And Arrow” and “Eyes To See” bring forth a bit of crazy. That crazy is a common theme throughout Double Jointer, and it’s just as present (if not more so) than it was on their debut.

The consistent use of tambourine to accompany the percussion and the overpowering dual and triage of female vocal shouts work together miraculously. Add to that the echoing reverb of jangly punk guitar riffs cranked up to infinity and Golden Triangle has developed a sound that is truly all-encompassing. Despite epic volume, this six-some produces music that is catchy and fun and ear-piercingly good. It isn’t hard to fall in love with “Cinco de Mayo”, “Rollercoaster”, and “The Melting Wall”, and the same can be said for practically everything off Double Jointer.

Erotic things are wanton fodder for those with weak-willed when it comes to lust and obsession, and Golden Triangle uses this to their advantage in Double Jointer. These sounds will get inside your head, your loins, and give you an itch you can’t scratch — one that feels oh-so-good. Prepare to fall for this band, and prepare to fall hard.

Golden Triangle: Jinx [mp3]

Golden Triangle: Neon Noose [mp3]

Hardly Art [CD, 2010]

1. Cinco de Mayo
2. Blood And Arrow
3. Neon Noose
4. I Want To Know
5. Jellyroll
6. Death To Fame
7. Rollercoaster
8. Eyes To See
9. The Melting Wall
10. Jinx
11. Arson Wells