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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

“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 …

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!

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.

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 …

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 …