Washed Out: "Wicked Game"

I thought about using this Chris Isaak nod to inaugurate the site's Killer Covers theme, but it's not decidedly superior, just different.  This was recorded for a Sirius session, but I don't have satellite radio so I just stole it off 40 other blogs instead.

We Are Trees: "Teenage Heartbreak"

We Are Trees are finally following up last year's debut EP Boyfriend with the appropriately book-ending Girlfriend. Not much info about this band floating around - Bandcamp and Facebook list totally different members - but suffice to say they are a band of indeterminate membership playing lush but lo fi indie pop from Virginia Beach ("Beast Coast" in the band's own nomenclature). Other than that, for right now the music will just have to speak for itself.

1990: "Log", Tall Dwarfs

Chris Knox' Tall Dwarfs (sic) were pioneers of the lo fi movement but still retained the pop enthusiasm that characterized their Flying Nun label mates. Many of their songs eschew percussion in favor of "found" sounds and non-traditional instrumentation, as "Log" epitomizes. 1990's Weeville was the first proper Tall Dwarfs album but, again, like many other Flying Nun bands they had released a wealth of singles throughout the prior decade.

1990: "Diamond Shine", The Clean

The Clean were the second band to record for NZ's Flying Nun (the first being the otherwise undistinguished Pin Group) and the label's first breakout hit, "Tally Ho" reaching #19 on the NZ pop charts in 1981. By 1990 the Clean had been around long enough to have broken up for several years, and Vehicle would be their first reunion album (the band have continued unabated ever since). Primarily a singles group in their early years, the Clean - even more so than most of their label mates - would remain an obscurity outside of New Zealand until prominent indie rock bands of the 90s (Pavement, Yo La Tengo, etc) began acknowledging them as an influence.