Tuesday, February 15, 2011

-valis Pick of the Week



"Better late than never" is the mantra I've repeated daily, several times a day, since I first heard our new Pick of the Week. (Quite a lot of mumbling and self-flagellation, too, for being so slow to get to them.) Anyway, it's Seattle's own The Purrs! Brilliant band, brilliantly rendered tracks, and fully realized albums. All of 'em.



Their latest, the above-pictured Tearing Down Paisley Garden, from 2010 is hard to move on from, meaning: once you start it's hard to move on to something else. Same goes for the 2009 release, Amused, Confused & More Bad News!

Here's the Blurt review of Tearing Down Paisley Garden:

" Seattle's Purrs well remember the Paisley Underground, not to mention the British psychedelic pop explosion. If that makes the band sound like it's stuck in the ‘80s underground, well, so what? Tearing Down Paisley Garden makes it clear the quartet has a thorough and loving understanding of acid guitar pop, not to mention the chops to pull it off. Between smart covers of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's "Only Dreaming" and Lee Hazelwood's "I Move Around" and stylish originals like "Always Something in My Way" and "Just a Little More," the Purrs handily demonstrate that they know just what to do with a dreamy melody, a languid tempo and a psilocybin haze. Tearing Down Paisley Garden isn't so much retro as timeless. "

(Mmmm, "psilocybin haze" has me caught in a feedback loop.)



You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday,on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

1 comment:

Cliff. said...

Miaow, they sound purrfect, the cat's whiskers so to speak. OK I'll stop now and go check em out.