Shake!
Records is an independently run record and tape label out of Victoria, British
Columbia. Their mission statement: “to
make rock n roll fun again”. This I
believe they are accomplishing with each release they put out into the world and as of late they are putting a lot whole lotta fun! The wonderful thing about this label is that they doesn’t stick to one “sound “or “scene”.
Whatever strikes their fancy they release. Anything from punk, power pop, dream pop, new
wave, shoe gaze, and much more that simply defies petty genre tags. A lot of these releases were put out for the annual festival they run called Shake/Arama.
They’re all limited releases so if you read about something you like,
act fast! www.experienceshake.com
Short,
simple reverb soaked tunes pop out of your speakers when sliding this tape into
your deck (which is on a limited triple color splatter cassette I may
add). The first song “TV Avenue” is kind
of an upbeat little ditty but that’s as far as that goes. As we go further down the tunnel the light
quickly fades and gives way to darker songs filled with anxiety and despair. The song “Gravel” is probably the darkest
corner of this album, chronicling a tale of a person that’s been knocked down a
few rungs on the ladder of life and who then directly contributes to the
breaking of a 40oz! If there’s ever been
a more exuberant tale chronicling the lowest points of the human condition and needless
demise of a good 40 ouncer, then present it to me now or forever hold your
peace! - J Castro
The Backhomes – Tidalwave Cassette
(Shake!)
This
Victoria by way of Montreal duo made up of Kees Dekker and visual
artist/animator Aimée van Drimmelen play ultra-melodic reverb dipped, sun
kissed rock tunes with a melancholy pose.
Reminds me a bit of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s slower numbers, The
Raveonettes or Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Kill Surf City” era material. The songs range from straight hitters to
melodies with a more atmospheric aura swooning around them. Production on the record is spot on, it is
clear enough to let the band’s talent shine through yet set back enough to keep
in the mystique. From what I understand van
Drimmelen’s art work is used to create a unique atmosphere at their gigs. Visual spectacles or no, the band’s records
are worth picking up and these two are most definitely worth checking out
live. - J Castro
Terra – Couldn’t Save This Cassette EP (Shake!)
Killer
moody, mid-tempo, seething tunes from this Medicine Hat, Alberta band. Terra construct songs that rely heavily on a
sinister, infectious bass riffs and all the other instruments play off of
it. That gives this EP a Joy Division
feel to it but the singer isn’t quite as droll as Ian Curtis. So they must sound like Interpol then you may
think. Well no, not exactly. Terra come off leaner and more melodic like
in the last song on here called “Incurable Condition”. The vocals are dead pan and the rhythm
section is firing away in a drone like fashion, but it’s faster moving. Terra don’t dwell in the night for too long, eventually
the sun does rise, which is good because painting yourself in a dark corner can
be ones creative demise. - J Castro
Boats! – Best Boats! Collection Cassette (Shake!)
To
be honest with you, I have never heard Boats! before. I have certainly heard and read their name in
many circles and have been interested in checking them out because from what I
hear, they play the kind of music that makes me all tingly inside. So what better way to start my listening
adventure is there than with a Boats! hits collection! This compilation was put together just for
Shakearama II and comes on a killer turquoise cassette. As for what I thought of the music you
ask? Great! Snotty, nail driving upbeat punk rock that is
well executed and with a sense of humor.
Like a less intense Sharp Objects with a Stan Lee/Leonard Phillips
stance.
Maximum
internal tingles achieved! - J Castro
Twin Crystals – Child Life Cassette (Shake!)
Vancouver’s
own Twin Crystals music slithers violently on the floor like a snake that’s
been cut in half by a shovel. These
aren’t pretty, melodic tunes that are meant for easing you into your comfy afternoon
flip flops or setting as background music at your next patio party. No, these guys play loud, fractured, noisy
songs that at times remind me of Mission of Burma or early Sonic Youth at their
most disenfranchised. The production
puts the vocals right there, front and center and in your face. The rest of the band is left to kill off what
ever gets past him, which I imagine can’t be too much. The band uses the tags “No Core and Hard
Wave” on their Bandcamp page to describe themselves. I’ve never heard either of these terms before
but they certainly suit Twin Crystals well!
- J Castro
Fist City – Greatest Splits Cassette (Shake!)
The
first thing I noticed about Fist City was the vocals. For one, they’re very good and they’re very
honest in their passion. It’s not
overboard angry, screechy, or cutesy peppy.
I hear genuine urgency and truth in that voice. The rest of the band forms an impenetrable 50
foot high wall of Husker Du type melodic noise that backs up those vocals at every play. As the title suggest, this is a collection of
various tracks compiled from split releases plus some new songs too! All of this plus there’s a song called “Iggy
Pup” which should have been a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character about a scrappy,
unruly yet adorable mutt that enjoys rolling around in peanut butter! Talk about a missed opportunity, he could
have been better than Yogi Bear! - J Castro
The Pink Lincolns – The Best of... Cassette (Shake!)
Major
subdued Lou Reed vibes radiating from just the first 5 seconds of the first
song, not a bad thing mind you, not bad at all. This is not to be confused with
those Florida ruffians with the same name, oh no! This is a compilation showcasing the works of
songwriter and composer Daniel Colussi from Vancouver. The rest of this album goes on to reveal
Colussi does in fact have his own voice and not just worshipping exclusively at
the Lou Reed altar. The songs here have
undeniable hooks and melodies that stick to memory. Some of the songs do have a Reed/Velvets vibe
but they’re not as pretentious or artsy as the aforementioned could be at
times. Colussi writes songs that are
much more playful and accessible.
They’re songs you can put on and enjoy at any time and not have to strap
on your shiny boots of leather. - J Castro
Mosfett – Roswell Cassette (Shake!)
Slow
to quick tempo sludgy tunes of anger, pain, loss, and pretty much any other
negative aspect the human condition can offer up. Listening to the Vancouver trio, you can
almost see them writhing in their own agony that wraps around them like a
constricting python. It’s like watching
a giant crocodile eat in a muddy swamp.
As its powerful jaws clamp down on its prey; at times it just lays there
in the muck just savoring it’s catch of the day. At other times, without expecting it, the
croc violently turns and flails around to try and get a better grip. That pretty much sums up what I’m feeling as
I listen to Mosfrett. All except for the
last song titled “Matthew Perry/Central Perk.
I don’t even intend to offer up an opinion of that one, I just climbed
in and let it take me to wherever it’s going. -
J Castro
Hexagrams – Analog Cassette (Shake!)
Hexagrams
play haunting, slow flowing shoe gaze and atmospheric dream pop that fills the
room like dry ice smoke. Not from
Vancouver or from the Pacific Northwest, but from my mother land; Mexico! Oh yes, from the beautiful city of Leon,
located in the state of Guanajuato which is located pretty much smack dab in
the middle of the country. The album
starts off with a very melancholy mood but as it gets going it starts to pick
up some bulk. The songs never get too
airy or transparent, they still have some drive and substance to them (check
out the song “China Doll” and the closer “Soft Drugs”). As if you need any more incentives to check
out Hexagrams, Shake! put this out on retina bursting hand splattered blue and
pink on flat black tapes!
- J Castro
Sh-Shakes – S/T Cassette EP (Shake!)
Back
to Vancouver for some garage dance floor stompers, courtesy of Sh-Shakes! I can almost see the heels of black Beatle
Boots stomping and grinding puddles of sweat into the wooden dance floor. Sh-Shakes have got some serious soul in their
rock n’ roll repertoire! They call
themselves psyche-rock n’ roll, I guess as much as you can call The Zombies or
The Animals “psyche”. To me, this is
just grade “A” 1960’s inspired garage rock n’ roll. This is just a small taste mind you, the A Side
is a couple of older tunes and the B Side represents what the band is doing as
of late. Maybe some of their other music
has a more psychedelic flavor to it.
Once again, Shake! offers this tape as part of their “Splatter” series. This one: green and orange splatter on a flat
black tape! - J Castro
Lab Coast – Wilding Cassette (Shake!)
This
Calgary duo play short, melodic, quirky tunes with some heavy fuzz balls and
distortion covering the whole thing. So
much distortion in fact that a couple of times I mistook the vocals for a kazoo
playing in the background, especially on the song called “See You
Tonight”. They’re not all like that
though, the production varies depending on the ambience the band wants to
portray on each tune. The next song is
almost a straight up indie pop ditties called “Happy Go Lucky”, well as close as
Lab Coast gets to “pop” that is. A lot
of these songs have a good folksy/earthy foundation to them and remind me of Sebadoh’s
Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock or if
Wilco had taken the experimentalism they were starting to dabble with in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot further than they actually
did. -
J Castro
Nervous Talk – S/T Cassette (Shake!)
This
is the cassette version of the LP that P-Trash Records and Hosehead Records put
out earlier this year only this time it’s on a screaming yellow cassette
tape! If you have never heard this band,
by all means you simply must. I did an
interview with Joel and Todd way back in January of 2014 when they had only
been playing together as Nervous Talk for a couple of years then and just had a
couple of EP’s out and I was already impressed enough that I wanted to shout
their name from roof tops. Plus they
revealed that they were once in bands called Timecopz, The Moby Dicks and a
Brian Eno Halloween tribute band called HallowEno! What more do you want! Seriously though, this Vancouver band only
got better with age and this here LP stands as hard evidence to that
statement. - J Castro
Crystal Eyes – No Man is an Island Cassette (Shake!)
The
guitars and bass are wound up tight and the riffs they emit are robust,
probably the most coherent aspect of this tape that help gel the songs together
and keep them moving. The drums sticks are held loosey goosey as they barley
strike the snare drum, and Erin Jenkins vocals float in and out of reality like
a lighthouse that comes in and out of view with heavy fog on Crystal Eye’s
debut EP. My favorite tunes on this
release is the third song in called “Here She Comes”: a mixture of Velvet
Underground ambience with soaring guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place on
Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas with
a My Bloody Valentine type zest. The
other one is the last one called “Keep the Faith” which is as close as the band
gets to a straight up guitar rocker. - J
Castro
Mandates – In The Back of Your Heart Cassette (Shake!)
For
some reason I always think of Mandates as being Nervous Talk’s older,
delinquent brother. You know. the older
brother that sometimes doesn’t come home at night and when he does he eats all
the good left overs, is in and out of jail a lot and wears the same torn up
blue jeans for days on end. Mandates are
long hair, black leather jacketed rock n roll warriors. The illegitimate and unclaimed children of
Suzi Quatro and Joey Ramone. Yeah
they’re all rough and tumble on the outside, but they can write some of the
catchiest guitar riffs you’ll ever hear and they got a soft spot for the ladies
too, just like you and me. This is the
record The Riverdales were hoping to make after their first LP, but the rock n
roll gods don’t just give gonads away, you gotta go out and earn them yourself. - J Castro
Painted Fruits – Fruit City Cassette (Shake!)
The
Music of Noah Varley’s band Painted Fruits has a vagabond, bohemian artist
charm to it; like Rufus Wainwright or Andrew Bird only scrappier and not as
baroque. Some of the tracks on the Fruit City cassette also recalls the
delicate songwriting and structures of Jens Lekman or even Sondre Lerche to me
at times. The songs are as a whole quirky, likeable, a tad flamboyant and
intelligent without seeming snobby or too highbrow for the common 9 to 5 folk to
enjoy and not get left out of the artsy kid’s fun and amusement. Sure they artsy kids stuck together in high
school, eating lunch in their studios not acknowledging anyone on the outside’s
existence. And when they did you never
knew the music or movies they referenced because all you knew was The Ramones
and Star Wars. But now the artsy kids
are finally letting us in! - J Castro
Catholic Girls – Psychic Woman Cassette (Shake!)
The initial feeling I got from this Calgary band as I
listened to the first song on this EP called “The Room” was pure anxiety. The band’s music rides hard on waves of
lushly coated synthesizers. The second
and third songs here titled “Whore” and “Tokyo” slows things down a bit to a
lurking, shadowy Siouxsie and The
Banshees Nocturne era new wave club sound
with ever so slightly mechanical whirrs in the background. The last song “Berlin” sounds like a demo track
from Sisters of Mercy’s album Floodland without
Andrew Eldritch’s cartoon-y bad guy voice and the over the top production. Catholic Girls deliver an impressive effort
here; the songs are put together tightly and the production helps hold
everything where it should be. -
J Castro
