Bleached - "Dead In Your Head"

The Clavin sisters first three releases as Los Angeles pop-punk group Bleached were all 7"s, each with its own washed-out ("bleached") monochromatic cover art and pairing of songs each more fiercely melodic and devilishly addictive than the last. If "Dazed" recalled an afternoon in the garage picking melodies out of the dusty sunlit air, "Think of You" was The Misfits as sung by a sweet lovestruck kid, and "Searching Through The Past" a rumbling punk number with an impossibly sharp pop structure. On Ride Your Heart, the Clavin sisters deliver another related yet entirely new feeling set of wheels: sure, there's another aptly bleached album cover (this time with a turquoise hue) and another set of songs about boys, but this time the Clavins have the pop dial cranked to 10. On "Dead In Your Head," the record's second single, there's less Glenn Danzig and more straight-for-the-jugular injections of unadulterated new-wave-tinged pop: a bubbly mood-setting bass riff and a giant resonating chorus and vocal line that slices and dices through the sister's wonderful back catalogue like a knife through warm butter.

Pre-order Ride Your Heart.

Bleached - "Dead In Your Head"

Mixtape #24: Tintin In Strong Acid

Side A

Jill Read - "Maybe"

Richard Swift - "Lady Luck"

The Troggs - "With A Girl Like You"

Foxygen - "San Francisco"

John Cale - "Cleo"

Beach Fossils - "Careless"

Ruby Andrews - "You Made A Believer Out Of Me"

The Liverpool Echo - "Sally Works Nights"

Bleached - "Dazed"

Side B

Terry Huff & Special Delivery - "Just Not Enough Love"

Black Marble - "A Great Design"

The Fentones - "Until The Dawn"

Kurt Vile - "Amplifier"

Garland Jeffreys - "Wild In The Streets"

Phosphorescent - "Song For Zula"

The Stone Roses - "Sally Cinnamon"

Holy Shit - "Written All Over Your Face"

Broadcast - "The Gallops"

Download:

Tintin In Strong Acid.zip

or

Stream on 8 Tracks

Bleached - "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World"

"Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World," arguably one of The Ramones' greatest cuts and the closer on the band's 1976 eponymous debut, recently got the cover treatment via Los Angeles outfit Bleached. Recorded at Daytrotter's Studio Paradiso outpost, the Clavin sisters barely break the two-minute mark hammering out Dee Dee Ramone's narrative about a Nazi youth. The song seems to be a touchstone of sorts for contemporary garage rock outfits. La Sera's Katy Goodman sports a shoulder tattoo of the track's title wrapped around a drawing of the world. Jennifer Clavin also played it while guesting on Aquarium Drunkard's sattellite radio show, the entirety of which you can download here. Head to Daytrotter for the rest of the session.

Bleached - "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World" (The Ramones)

Best of 2011: The Songs

50. Yelle - "Safari Disco Club"
49. Body Language - "Social Studies"
48. Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"
47. Craft Spells - "After The Moment"
46. Future Islands - "Crish (Javelin Remixxx)"

45. Nurses - "Trying To Reach You"
44. Cheerleader - "Dreamer"
43. Radiation City - "The Color of Industry"
42. Lower Dens - "Deer Knives"

41. Ganglians - "Sleep"
40. Cut Copy - "Alisa"

39. Blouse - "Shadow"

38. FIDLAR - "Wake Bake Skate"
37. Eleanor Friedberger - "My Mistakes"
36. St. Vincent - "Cruel"

Best of 2011: Vinyl Singles & EPs

Denney & The Jets :: "Killin' Machine" 7"
For some reason the good folks at Infinity Cat pressed the two sides of this 7" at two different speeds: 45 and 33 1/3 RPM. I'm guessing it was an issue of space and track time, but for the vinyl debut of Denney & The Jets' scuzzy country and blues songs, it's a rather appropriately fitting blemish.
Denney & The Jets - "Pain Pills" 

Bare Wires :: "Wanna Fight" 7"
Castleface Records' fun Group Flex compilation features an abundance of treasures—from the colored flexi disc pressings to the inspired artwork of William Keihn—but no track quites hits like the snappy glam-punk number "Wanna Fight" by Oakland's Bare Wires.
Bare Wire - "Wanna Fight"



Earth Girl Helen Brown :: Story of An Earth Girl EP
One of the more inspired and silly leftovers from Sonny Smith's 100 Recods project, Earth Girl Helen Brown features Smith and The Sandwitches' Heidi Alexander riffing on everything from dating martians, having hoses for noses, and giving birth to "50 space twerps." Forest Family pressed this EP onto 10" vinyl.
Earth Girl Helen Brown - "Hit After Hit"

Eternal Summers :: Prisoner 12" EP
Another gem from the folks at Forest Family, the 12" EP Prisoner showcases Roanoke, Virginia's Eternal Summers at their infectious best, laying down vigorously pounding rhythms with quick slices of guitar and vocal melodies you just can't shake. This EP has a little bit of everything, from the steaming pop-punk title-track to the slower Luna-recalling dream-pop standout "Pure Affection."
Eternal Summers - "Prisoner" 

Mixtape #18: Headrush Thunderdome

Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"

Bleached might just be 2011's best new band. Sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin have already released two burning hot 7"s this year— the Francis EP on Ooga Booga and Carter on Art Fag—and now have a third en route via Seattle's exquisistely tasteful Suicide Squeeze. If you thought "Think of You" and "You Take Time" sounded like instant classics, you ain't heard nothing yet, as brand new jam "Searching Through The Past" is pure fucking gold. In fact, the Clavin's might have sold their souls to the devil in exchange for a set of songwriting chops, as "Searching Through The Past" sounds like it was stolen right out of the history books: a head-banging sing-along with enough groove and attitude to burn all through the night.

Pre-order the 7" from Suicide Squeeze.

Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"

Bleached - "Think of You" 
Bleached - "Dazed"

Mixtape:
Bleached's DJ Set On Aquarium Drunkard's Sirius XMU

Bleached DJ Set on Aquarium Drunkard's Sirius XMU Show

You know writer's block? I consider listening to music a creative endeavor and, yes, sometimes I get stopped up: stuck in the same overplayed playlists, the same favorite artists, the same stacks of vinyl. Sometimes I need a spark to inspire my listening. Jennifer Clavin of Los Angeles band Bleached—who I've raved about here and here—packed fistfuls of dynamite into my eardrums during the second half of Justin Gage's always classy Aquarium Drunkard show on Sirius XMU Friday with hard-hitting cuts by some of my all-time favorites: The Exploding Hearts, The Misfits, Johnny Thunders. Clavin also introduced me to a few new gems, like the all kinds of perfect punk number "Bikeage" by Descendents, the experimental pop of "Godstar" by Psychic TV, and "Give Me Some Time," a lesser known track from power-pop purveyors The Nerves. Clavin's playlist acted as a musical laxative of sorts, expunging all the self-conscious lo-fi music I've been listening to lately down into the netherworld and replacing it with foot-stomping classics. Now it's time for you to expunge your demons: download a taste* of the set below.

Mixtape #17: Snacking On The 7-inch

The latest installment of our mixtape series highlights the 7" vinyl single—a format that was introduced in 1949 by RCA and is still alive and thriving today. The tracklist below features 21 different 7"s put out by some of our favorite artists and labels.*

Bleached - "You Take Time"

Bleached, comprised of sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin, has quickly become one of my favorite bands this summer, thanks to snappy and hook-laden garage-punk jams like "Dazed" and "No Friend of Mine." Earlier this month we posted the A-side to their forthcoming Art Fag single, the Misfits-channeling headbanger "Think of You." Now the B-side, "You Take Time," is making it's way around the interweb—and I might dig it even more. Over a gain-heavy chord progression, the Clavins' harmonize the chorus with a "Fox On The Run" recalling-melody that sticks to your ears like a chewed piece of bubblegum on a public park bench. And by that I mean, this is one hell of a catchy track.

Buy the Carter 7"

Bleached - "You Take Time" (from Carter 7")

Bleached - "Think of You" (from Carter 7")

Mixtape #16: Everybody Tastes Like Summer

Bleached - "Think of You"

As Bleached, sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin deliver snappy, classically constructed, easy-on-the-ears punk music. The group already has one 7" under their belts—the Francis EP, out now via Ooga Booga—with a second, the Carter 7", due out July 19th on Art Fag. Carter features two new tracks, "Think of You" and "You Take Time." "Think of You," the A-side, is a bouncy three-chord wonder of strummy punk with a sharp bass line and ear-catching vocal melodies: a lo-fi, female vision of the Ramones equipped with head-banging rhythms and sing-along choruses. In short, I can't stop listening to it.

Buy the Francis EP / Buy the Carter 7"

Bleached - "Think of You" (from Carter7")
Bleached - "Dazed" (from Francis EP)