In the continuing tradition of Cactus Club bringing ya’ll the friggin best Bay View Bash after party we can muster we have teamed up with Trouble In Mind Records out of Chicago and a few other folks! This year is gonna be a doozy!
In bowling’s hallowed alleys, a strike is the minor miracle of all ten pins falling at once. Back-to-back strikes make a double. Do it a third time and you’ve got yourself a turkey.
History will decide which sports metaphor to apply to Mike Krol’s first two records, I Hate Jazz (2011) and Trust Fund (2013). But as needle meets groove on Turkey—Krol’s first record for Merge—there is no ambiguity. A shiny black ball tumbles past the suburban strip malls of a polyestered Wisconsin and veers precariously close to an East Coast gutter before gathering momentum in a physics-defying sprint for the Pacific. California is where the headpin falls—the right velocity, the perfect geometry, the bowler’s intent beautifully realized in a noisy moment of awesome destruction.
Mike Krol got his bike stolen and his heart broken. He bailed on graphic-design-as-career. He kept playing drums and guitars, and he kept writing songs about the stuff he hated and the stuff he loved. Leaving Milwaukee for Los Angeles, he took a few years’ worth of wrong turns. But when he showed up at a studio in Sacramento in March 2014, he had his affairs in order. Plug the vocal mic into a guitar amp. Plug the guitar into an overheating box of vacuum tubes. Put the computer in the closet. Roll the tape.
Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana has been nonchalantly crafting perfect pop songs in their homeland since 2014. Their debut "Songs From The Cave" was released on cassette and LP by Buddy Records / Nominal Records in April of 2017, garnering rave reviews and making fans of discerning reviewers like Dusted and Social & Fuckin' Record Reviews for their refreshing blend of nouveau French pop, C86 indie and foggy Flying Nun influenced jangle. Their new album "Lost and Found" hones in on that EPs strengths & shines the hooks 'til they shimmer.
FFO: The Chefs and The Shop Assistants, through Electrelane, the late and much loved Veronica Falls.
Ethers is Bo from Heavy Times and Mary from Outer Minds' new band! Debut 12" out in August!
