Real Numbers - Frank Infatuation b/w Leave It Behind(Ltd. 7")

FFO C86, Television Personalities, Shop Assistants, Wedding Present! 300 copies only!

Another July release from Market Square Records that deserves to not slip through the net is this absolute belter from Real Numbers. The A-side reminds of those jaunty but sad songs from my own personal year zero when the likes of The Pastels, The Wedding Present and the like were constants on my turntable. Though it also sounds like, well you know, now!

The flip is a slower though no less satisfying track, a dreamy floaty melody over a two chord backing. Lo-fi and heartfelt. Apparently the band have been around making records in their hometown of Minneapolis for quite some years but I'd not been hipped to this groove until now. Another notch of credibility for Market Square. If the vinyl is sold out don't forget today is a digital world too. So suppost the label and have the music on your mobile, mp3 player or ipod docking station. Hell, you couldn't do that in 1986!

300 copies only, housed in Risograph fold-over sleeves.

Click here for Real Numbers on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Shifters - A Believer b/w Contrast Of Form (Ltd. 7")

Australian lo-fi punks' latest 7” on Market Square Records! 300 copies only!

2017 may still be a terrible year for politics but it's been an amazing year for new under-the-radar music. So much so that it's sometimes a struggle to keep up and write about it as much as I'd like. One of my favourite small labels keep coming up with the goods, outta Billinghurst of all places. This 'lil platter actually came out at the tail end of July and according to the label's website is sold out. But with a bit of luck and the aid of Discogs notifications you may be able to track down a copy. Or try the band direct via their Facebook page.

The Shifters are a a lo-fi punk band from Melbourne, Australia who make music that sounds somewhere between The Fall's lesser heard melodic moments and the Dunedin sound that came out of New Zealand back in the '80s. It's pretty cool. I like it and I think you will too. They also remind me of an American band called Phantom Buffalo who I think are from Portland Oregon. They put out a couple of albums that I really dug. I miss them. But hey this 7” is helping me get over it. Shame Melbourne is so far away as they sound like the kind of band who would be very enjoyable and accessible at a gig. Do check them out!

Click here for The Shifters on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Higher State – Your Casting Doubt (Ltd. 7”)

Latest single from Kent garage-heads! 300 copies only!

The Higher State's LP from last year, the misleadingly titled Volume 27 was a winner for those of us who like their music with a distincly '60s hue. The three man line-up that made the album are back with a new 7”, limited to only 300 copies.

A-side 'Your Casting Doubt' has the same musical DNA as Volume 27 – plenty of fuzz guitar, authentic trebly production, and that Yanks-copying-Brits-copying-Yanks vibe that was all the rage back in '66. Wait a minute, these are Brits-copying-Yanks-copying-Brits-copying-Yanks! Get your hear round that folks!!

Anyway let's not get bogged down in the ethnology, suffice to say that it sounds great. Flipside 'X-Ray Day' tells a worrying tale of a hospital visit/nuclear dread delivered with charmingly lazy, nasal vocals. Neat!

If you want a copy, 100 come in a folded over sleeve (available via the band's own Bandcamppage), with the other 200 regular copies available from Market SquareRecords. Get ordering doods!

Click here for The Higher State.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Creation Factory - Let Me Go / You Got It (Ltd. 7")

Limited edition 7” from LA's hottest underground psych band!

In a week where, on both sides of the Atlantic, the political shit heads towards its proverbial fan, it's reassuring to know that America still makes great music. And it's similarly reassuring that a small record label on our side of the pond is willing and able to press this music onto black vinyl. The Creation Factory are the latest Los Angeles band to have the kudos of a 7” release on Market Square Records, the small but perfectly formed bespoke label based in West Sussex.

The band's sound harks back to an earlier period in the city's musical history, a time when fuzzy guitars, reedy organ, three chords and a whole lotta snotty attitude was the order of the day. The A-side is pure riot on Sunset Strip, the sound of US teens' take on Them & The Rolling Stones. (Who were themselves imitating US blues musicians! Hell what's the point in nativism and shoring up borders when internationalism sounds this good!) Shot through with that garage-punk vibe we all dig, the track culminates in a band freak-out complete with wailing police sirens. Get diggin' it!

The flip-side is an altogether different beast. A dancefloor instrumental containing funky drummer beats, organ and guitar solos. A surefire smash down your local garage club-night. Don't leave it too late to bag a copy of this 7”, it's limited to 300 copies only and I'm not having you coming round here a-cryin' on my shoulder if you miss out!

Click here for The Creation Factory's website.

Click here for The Creation Factory on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

Jessica & The Fletchers – Marble Fountain b/w Crystal Tears (Ltd. 7”)

Barcelona Indie-Pop outfit return with limited edition 7”!

Listening to Jessica & The Fletchers' latest 7” re-awakened something of my fading youth. Too young for punk or post-punk, and jaded by the time Brit-pop took over the charts, my own year zero was back in 1986. Or C86 if you prefer. A time when the likes of Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants and The Bodines were putting out great records, doing grass roots gigs and getting recognition in the weeklies. It was an all-too brief flowering but regained important ground from '80s perfectionists and pony-tailed professionals. More importantly it gave females an equal footing in making music, something which hadn't really happened since the very early days of punk (a move sadly hi-jacked by punk's second wave and the onset of Oi).

Jessica & The Fletchers describe themselves as a noise-pop quartet and that's pretty much on the mark; bittersweet lyrics are sweetly sung and backed up by fuzzy guitars. One part flowers, one part razorblades. With a sound that's deliberately amateurish, in the purest and best sense of the word, the lyrics are winsome with themes of young and innocent love, somehow apart from the modern world but also very much needed. The songs are short, with no needless solos, and all about the melody. Perfect fayre to be pressed onto their natural home of 7” plastic.

For fans of Sarah Records, Talulah Gosh, Jesus & Mary Chain and fans of spirited and catchy pure-pop in general. Limited to 300 copies, this 7” comes housed in a Risograph fold-over sleeve with a hand-numbered postcard fetauring the lyrics to both songs.

Click here for Jessica & The Fletchers on Twitter.

Click here for Jessica & The Fletchers on Facebook.

The Fallen Leaves - Out In A Forest b/w The Inside Of A Chair (Ltd. 7”)

South Londoners' latest 7”, very limited and very very good!

There's a lot of fuss currently about 1966, due in no small part to Jon Savage's book, 1966 The Year The Decade Exploded. Those of us in the garage world have always known that the year represented some sort of high water mark for guitar bands before fragmenting into either drug addled psych, overblown proto-metal, or back-to-the-country navel-gazing.

Which brings me to The Fallen Leaves, whose latest single on Market Square Records harks back to that classic and timeless '66 Beat Explosion, all taut riffs, snappy beats and guitar jangle. Neither overproduced or overblown, just great taut songwriting and playing which evokes every era of back-to-basic bands, from the '60s garage scene, through punk and onto the DIY ethos of '80s indie.

B-side 'The Inside Of A Chair' is a more aggressive affair, all instrumental apart from the spoken “Hello” and “Goodbye” that bookend its short sharp blast. All in all this 7” is a cracking double header, managing to bring together all the threads and strands of what a great four piece band is all about. Get it while it's hot!

Limited to 300 copies complete with a hand-numbered postcard.

Click here for The Fallen Leaves' website.

Click here for The Fallen Leaves on Facebook.

Click here for Market Square Records.

The Wrong Society – She Destroyed Me b/w Without You (Ltd. 7”)

A double pronged ode to love gone wrong from Hamburg's newest garage band.

One of the garage scene's default lyrical themes, (hell one of life's themes I guess!) is love gone wrong, being mystreated by a lover who you'd put all hope and faith in. With this in mind it could be a case of treading (dirty) water for German garage band The Wrong Society whose second single, and first for Paul Messis' Market Square Records, has this staple subject at its core.

Through sheer spirit and conviction however this is not the case. She Destroyed Me is a four chord stormer charting the love-gone-wrong aftermath. It's bolstered by high-in-the-mix tambourine and a Vox Super Continental keyboard solo. The Hamburg based quartet have a more measured, reflective take on the situation on the flipside Without You, where the protagonist's feelings turn from anger to sadness. A nice addition to any deejay's 7" box.

On 7” black vinyl, limited to 300 copies complete with a hand-numbered postcard.

Check out The Wrong Society at one of their upcoming German gigs -

September 22^nd - Molotow Skybar, Hamburg

October 1^st - Feinstaub, Frankfurt

October 2^nd - Goldgrube Kassel

October 3^rd - Sonic Ballroom, Cologne

October 16^th - Roadrunner's Paradise, Berlin

Click here for The Wrong Society on Facebook.

Worthless – Children Of The Grave b/w Softest (Ltd. 7”)

Brooklyn acid-heads trip out into poppy psych and blissful soul on their latest single.

Market Square Records, the rapidly blossoming garage rock label, have diversified somewhat with their latest batch of releases which includes this limited 7” single by New York acid heads Worthless. It's the sound of '60s pop going psychedelic. The track's simplistic melody nicely draped in swirly atmospherics, echo and disorientating reverb.

Softest features a blissfully stoned circular groove, and comes across like an out-take from Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson. The sound of innocence getting experienced. Loping bass and drums that sound like they could fall apart into fits of giggles at any point. Midway through this mutates into a solid psychedelic soul groove worthy of Isaac Hayes, or The (Norman Whitfield produced) Temptations.

Limited to 300 copies only, this platter comes in a hand-numbered fold over sleeve, the inner side featuring a collage by Worthless' Curtis Godino, plus a free postcard. Get one now or regret it later!

Click here for Worthless on Facebook.

Talbot Adams - Green Girl b/w I Love You So (Ltd Edition 7")

Echoes of The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, The Jesus And Mary Chain on the third solo single from Mississippi based singer-songwriter.

The sixth single from Market Square Records is something of a departure from the dissatisfaction-laden garage rock and anti-authoritarian punk released so far. Indeed it could even be said that the overriding emotion and sentiment of this latest 7” is one of happiness and contentment. While a frost covers the ground as I write this, a distinctly summery vibe runs through the grooves, perhaps due to the warm Mississippi climate experienced by the artist, one Mr. Talbot Adams.

A member of several garage rock band, Adams has produced a record in praise of summer crushes, one that's laid-back and minimalist. Guided by simple melodies over a repeated I/IV chord progression, the A-side Green Girl is full of haze and shimmer, and echoes the work of The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, The Jesus And Mary Chain, '60s girl groups, and '80s dream-pop. It's complimented nicely by B-side I Love You So, which has a similar summery feel topped off with sha-la-la-las for backing vocals. A fine release and new stylistic direction for the blossoming label.

Limited edition (300) black vinyl 7” in picture sleeve.

Click here for more on Market Square Records.

The Suburban Homes - The Suburban Homes EP

It's 2014 and there's still plenty of pricks to kick against. Dissatisfaction, anger, and ennui provide the inspiration for The Suburban Homes' debut EP.

Home to garage rock wunderkid Paul Messis, Market Square Records branch out of the garage into punkier, spikier territory with this debut release from The Suburban Homes. It's a 7” single infused with the spirit of first wave punk, when punk rock was all about having something to say and a reason to say it, when punk was a true rebellion and not commodity or nostalgia cash cow.

Refreshingly lo-fi, the three track EP favours substance over style. Over the self-titled lead track's three chord clatter conformity comes in for a kicking; Shopping, work, weekend drink binges and the opiate of TV and social networks are all in firing line. Apple can release as many new products as they like but modern life will always be rubbish according to the Suburban Homes.

Pseudo-intellectuals provide a similar target on the appropriately titled Pseudo-Intellectuals. It's not all negativity though, on D.I.Y the band sing the praises of the DIY ethic. An admirable stance and an admirable EP, and more in tune with what makes good punk rock than Green Day or Blink 182 will ever be.

Limited edition (300) black vinyl 7” with photocopied sleeve and inserts.

Click here for more on Market Square Records. 

The Space Agency - Bombay Potatoes 7"

East meets west, surf meets spice, everyone has a groovy time.

Currently a household favourite round at mine is this limited 7” by Hove-based trio The Space Agency. The A-side is a surfy, twelve bar instrumental made all the more interesting and fun by the sitar lines that sit on top. You could easily imagine it being used in a '60s American teensploitation movie. I guess you could almost call it a novelty record (and that's a compliment by the way, novelty records are a very misunderstood and neglected genre I reckon).

Of course it was in the '60s when a lot of western musicians flirted with the mysterious drone and twang of the sitar, not least George Harrison. This 7” has more in common with the work of Ananda Shankar and Lord Sitar (aka top session man Big Jim Sullivan) than the full on immersion of Beatle George, mixing beat music with raga scales to make music that's kind of familiar yet takes you some place new too. It's beat music with added exotic spice.

The singles' other track 'Purple Power' is a more of a dramatic, energetic surf instrumental that pushes all the right retro buttons. It'll have even the most land-locked among us wanting to wax down our boards. Twang on brothers and sisters!

'Bombay Potatoes' is out now on Market Square Records. (Limited to 300 copies in a hand-numbered picture sleeve).

www.marketsquarerecordings.blogspot.co.uk

www.marketsquarerecordings.bandcamp.com/music

The Young Sinclairs - Engineer Man 7"

Virginian Anglophiles' jangle pop classic gets a 7” release courtesy of Market Square Records.

Though the track has been around for some time now, dating back to Feel Bad, their self-released debut LP from 2007, the glorious powerpop classic that is 'Engineer Man' is now available on a 7” single thanks to garage aficionado Paul Messis, the man behind Market Square Records. With a nod to Pete Townshend's third person songwriting, The Byrds' fok-rock jangle and a whole host of latter day Paisley Underground bands, lead Sinclair Samuel J Lunsford has crafted a mini pop-opera perfectly suited to the 7” format. Like an out-take from The Who Sells Out, the A-side brims with spirited energy, melodic twists and turns and exquisite harmonies. Flip it over and you'll be no less disappointed, B-side 'Problems' takes a more personal, melancholic stance. Less immediate maybe but after a couple of listens its heartfelt lyrics will carry a deep resonance for anyone who's ever taken time to do a little soul searching. It's those Who comparisons that stand out most, right down to the Keith Moon-like fills. In a fairer world this would right now be giving Daft Punk serious competition for that smash summer single crown, as it is we can keep it as our secret.

'Engineer Man' is out now on Market Square Records. (Limited to 300 copies).

The Market Squares - Afternoon Tide 7"

Paul Messis has been a busy chap of late. As well as his own string of solo releases, and bass-playing duties for The Higher State (see post below), he's also found time to record this debut single by ad-hoc band, The Market Squares, for his own Market Square Records imprint.

Due for release on February 4th, this limited 7" (300 copies) features Paul alongside Calvin Laporte and Evan Smith, both members of Nashville psych-poppers The Sufis. "Afternoon Tide" and its B-side "Inside My Mind" are both Messis originals and were recorded in Nashville over a weekend last August. Both tracks have a charming spontaneous feel, with UK '60s beat era melding with US garage-punk. Head over to Paul's website for more info and details of how to order, or check out the A-side below.

www.paulmessis.moonfruit.com