The Topshelf Records 2021-2022 Label Sampler! Free or PWYW with all proceeds going to National Network of Abortion funds.
This is the culmination of a year’s worth of work with and for artists that we’re so fortunate, excited, and thankful to be affiliated with. It’s been the most surreal of years, but has also been one of the strongest in terms of musical output that our label has ever had. Ty for supporting independent music!
released July 29th, 2022
Thank you to: Cool Original, Mal Devisa, supernowhere, Gulfer, Olivia Kaplan, Weatherday, Zenizen, Sweet Pill, Thanya Iyer, Bellows, Really From, Lunarette, Ratboys, Record Setter, Gregory Uhlmann, Elephant Gym, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, & Mid-Air Thief
Greta Kline has spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation.
Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they’d continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created “Inner World Peace”, a collection of Greta’s songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline’s musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she’d loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite “droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality,” as well as “‘70s folk and pop” as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their “ambient” or “psych” album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline’s penchant for concise pop, “Inner World Peace” finds its balance.
Instant centerpiece “One Year Stand” is a small snowglobe of intimacy recalling the softest moments of Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Lifted by Martin’s drones on Hammond organ and synthesizer, it could be played on repeat in a loop.
I like to think it’s obvious how Greta’s vocals were recorded: late at night as we all sat by in low light, transfixed as she sings “I’m not worried about the / rest of my life / because you are here today / I go back in time / I’m a cast iron.” The voices of Kline and Martin, who have sung together since middle school, blend seamlessly.
The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studios was to project giant colourful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC’s aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for “Magnetic Personality” has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with “K.O.” in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says “Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files.” On tracks like “F.O.O.F.” (Freak Out On Friday), “Fragments” and “Aftershook,” the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on “Inner World Peace” they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own.
Throughout the album there are plays on the notion of feeling seen or invisible, as in “Magnetic Personality” when Kline sings “ask me how I am and I won’t really say,” or in “One Year Stand” when she says “maybe I’m asking myself.” Kline emphasizes that this was her first group of songs in years that weren’t written while on tour, but rather with ample time on her hands. She reflects on past selves in “Abigail”
(“that version of myself I don’t want back”) and “Wayne” (“Like in first grade / I went by Wayne / I always had / another name”). If we’re alone, what becomes of the things we see? As in “Fruit Stand,” Kline asks “If it’s raining and I can’t feel it, is it raining?”
“Inner World Peace” excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering “Empty Head” Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline’s point of view.
Says Greta, “To me, the album is about perception. It’s about the question of “who am I?” and whether or not the answer matters. It’s about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don’t leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?”
On “Nowhere LA” – LA as in Louisiana not Los Angeles, Why Bonnie‘s lead singer Blair Howerton uses a broken down car on an isolated road to describe a stalled relationship: “I know I walk fast, but my heart moves so slow.”
Blair offers: “Inspired by a true story of breaking down in the middle of nowhere Louisiana with an ex, this song is about looking at a relationship in the rear view mirror. Once you’re further away from a place, you can see it all more clearly and with a bit more understanding.”
“Why Bonnie: 90 In November” Though they’ve been rehearsing for this moment for some time, releasing EPs that skew towards indie pop since 2018, Why Bonnie appear fully formed on their debut album “90 in November“. Out via Austin-based Keeled Scales, their warm, twangy brand of indie rock feels right at home with that of their label-mates Sun June, Good Looks and Katy Kirby. The label’s recent, glorious run has seen them uplifting a unique rock scene that captures the simultaneously grounded, yet majestic nature of their home state—“90 in November” is just the latest entry. Why Bonnie’s named influences are acts like Sheryl Crow, The Replacements and Townes Van Zandt. With inspiration taken from all sides of rock music, it’s easy to see how they seamlessly straddle the lines between several genres themselves. They make indie rock, sure, but there’s an undeniable current of country music in there, as well as some nods to pop songwriting in their hooky, melodic execution. These disparate influences also bolster their music with a sense of familiarity.
“Nowhere, LA” is the final single before the August 19th album release and follows “Sailor Mouth,” “HotCar,“90 in November,” and “Galveston.”
The Kinks have announced a sprawling box set celebrating the 50th anniversaries of 1971’s “Muswell Hillbillies” and 1972’s “Everybody’s in Show-Biz – Everybody’s a Star”.
The deluxe box set – which will arrive on September 9th features newly remastered versions of both albums on both vinyl and CD, as well as 11 new remixes courtesy of co-founder Ray Davies. An accompanying Blu-ray features a previously unseen, digitally restored 1971 home movie. Further bonus material includes a 52-page deluxe hardcover book, a Kinks metal badge, glossy photo prints of the band and a “London Roots” map highlighting historical Kinks-related locations.
Released in November 1971, “Muswell Hillbillies” was the band’s first album with their new label, RCA Records. The LP was heavily influenced by Ray and Dave Davies’ London upbringing, with the brothers delving into various facets of working-class life for inspiration.
Though “Muswell Hillbillies” was a commercial failure upon release, its place among Kinks fans has continued to grow over the years. In retrospect, many regard it as a turning point for the group, leading them to more ambitious and personal material.
“Muswell Hillbillies” is one of my favourite and collectable Kink’s albums,” Dave Davies noted in a press release. “It’s a bit of a backstory to the Davies family and the characters involved.”
“Now with a new record company and a new image, I could bring some of the old wild western spirit into my music,” recalled Ray Davies. “These albums capture the the re-emergence of the Kinks as a touring band.”
“Everybody’s in Show-Biz” was part studio album, part live record. The studio material examined Hollywood and the American obsession with fame. Meanwhile, the live material, captured during two nights at New York’s Carnegie Hall, featured the Kinks performing many of their “Muswell Hillbillies” songs in concert, along with several favourites.
The Muswell Hillbillies/Everybody’s In Show-Biz deluxe box set can be pre-ordered now, with several variations available. 6LP – Packaged inside a newly designed two-part box, this deluxe set includes re-mastered audio from the original Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody’s In Show-Biz sources. Pressed on 6 colour vinyl and 4 CDs. A bonus heavy weight black vinyl of 11 new Ray Davies Remixes. A Blu-Ray video of ‘Ray Davies 1971 Home Movie’. Also included in the release is a ‘London Roots Map’ of all the Kinks landmarks, x6 glossy photos, a Kinks Pin-Badge and 52pp hardback book including rare and unseen band photos and quotes.
The Kinks ‘Muswell Hillbillies’ & ‘Everybody’s In Show-Biz’ 50th anniversary release is available as a deluxe, expanded, remastered re-issues box set, LPs, CDs and digital.
Melbourne-based psych outfit The Baudelaires are set to release their sophomore album “TiLT” on Friday, September 2nd, 2022. Recorded in Venice, Italy and in their hometown of Melbourne, “TiLT” is set to be released through Cheersquad in Australia/New Zealand, Kozmik Artifactz in Europe and LittleCloud Records in the US.
Following on from their acclaimed debut album “Musk Hill” (which followed the EP “Be a Baudelaire”), the band, which takes its name from the decadent 19th century poet Charles Baudelaire, embarked on two European tours sharing the stage with psych rock heavyweights Dungen, Wand, Frankie and the Witch Fingers and The Zombies on festival bills such as GetMad! Festival in Madrid and Mayday Mumbo Festival in Barcelona.
Before the world shut down, The Baudelaires were invited to both Sydney and Melbourne Psych Festivals and toured the east coast of Australia with Italian legends New Candys, as well as playing two very special regional Victoria shows with New York’s Mystery Lights.
The Baudelaires hypnotic contact high psych-rock sounds combine rich analogue fuzz and reverb drenched licks with an occasional single-minded motorik drive.
The group has been compared to other modern-day dandies like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks, The Black Angels and Thee Oh Sees as well as earlier custodians like Spaceman 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain, and originators like Texan psych pioneers The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Red Crayola and the trance-inducing whips and furs clamour of Plastic Exploding Inevitable-era Velvet Underground and like-minded ‘60s New York radical minimalists The Godz.
With their debut album, Texas-to-New-York transplants Why Bonnie offer a dreamy, thoughtfully composed work filled with picturesque moments of a life in motion. The shared singles take us all over, from “Galveston” to “Nowhere, LA,” in which lead singer Blair Howerton croons about a relationship that’s stalled like a car on the Louisiana pavement.While the album may be called “90 In November”, this summer-soaked set will provide plenty of apt listening time in August.
“90 in November”, the first full-length LP from Texas quintet Why Bonnie, crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. It’s a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by songwriter Blair Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs.
As much a product of songwriter Howerton’s love for the intimate song writing of fellow Texans Townes Van Zandt and Blaze Foley as it is her affection for the alt-rock of the Lemonheads and the Replacements, the eccentric pop of Sparklehorse, and “definitely Sheryl Crow, “90 in November” is a meditation on the pains and pleasures of nostalgia and a lesson in learning how to look back at the people, places, and experiences that have shaped us, with room for both unvarnished honesty and rose-tinted melancholy. “90 in November” is about “coming to terms with your past to accept all of the sweet and all of the bitter,” says Howerton.
Already in the midst of a major life change, Howerton’s feeling of being between worlds was compounded when quarantine hit and she found herself, like so many others, stuck in her apartment—about as far away from the wide-open spaces of Texas as one can possibly get. It was in this environment that she began to write songs parsing out the complicated, mixed emotions associated with building a new home while attempting to make sense of the one she had left behind.
As a result, “90 in November” is a trip through Howerton’s inner world, but it’s also a road trip through Texas. Often it is both at once. The songs are full of poetic, cinematic lyrics that flash like colourful scenes glimpsed from the window of a car as it barrels along an interstate highway cutting through the Lone Star State, each one a road stop revealing a different facet of Howerton’s experience.
New single out now from Why Bonnie’s debut album “90 in November” – out 8/19 on Keeled Scales Recordings.
Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour tour (and the feminist indie-rock multiverse of madness it featured) may be coming to an end, but angsty pop-punk lives on. Pale Waves, the British quartet that counts Avril Lavigne as one of their main inspirations, returns with their third studio album, “Unwanted”. The project’s lead single “Lies” dropped on May 9th; they’ve also shared two additional tracks since then, “Jealousy” and “The Hard Way.” As an album-promo opening statement, “Lies” is all middle fingers and crunchy guitars, with singer Heather Baron-Gracie coming to collect responsibility from the former paramour who ripped out her heart.
“Fortunately for me that person is no longer in my life,” singer Heather Baron-Gracie said of the biting track’s inspiration. “Once you do me wrong you’re gone!” Nothing spawns creativity like clean-cut betrayal.
We are excited to share our sophomore album “Emotional Creature” is out now!!!
“Emotional Creature” is, at its centre, an album about allowing oneself to feel the full spectrum of human emotions, to let go of the shame associated with having big feelings, and to be more kind to yourself. We are all humans enduring a lifetime of experiences – I wanted this album to be authentically vulnerable and not only cover topics that cause big emotions to arise but to address the shame that many, including myself, carry with respect to what we choose to express as acceptable emotions and what emotions are deemed inappropriate. It can be quite suffocating for me to not allow myself to process and feel and this album in a way gave me permission to feel everything I was suppressing for a long time.
At her first-ever show in London, Lili Trifilio played what might be her favourite song from “EmotionalCreature”, her record with Beach Bunny. Since it hadn’t been released at the time, she led the audience through a practice run of the ending bridge on “Weeds,” an irresistible chant: “You keep taking another piece of me / Not your problem / Not my problem.” But the crowd at Camden Assembly that night didn’t need much encouragement: “The song stopped, but the audience kept singing that line really, really loud almost screaming it with no music behind them,” she recalls a month later over Zoom. “I’m excited for the moment where people know the song well enough that I don’t even have to teach them; we’re all just screaming it together and having that letting-go moment.”
It’s that kind of spontaneous outpouring that makes up the very DNA of “Emotional Creature“. From its dealings with zero-G euphoria to its run-ins with shame and anxiety, the record finds the Chicago-based singer/songwriter wrestling with the futility of running from her feelings, going beyond even the heart-on-sleeve pop rock of her 2020 debut LP, “Honeymoon“. “I’ve come to peace with a lot of stuff from the past few years, and I’ve realized that I shouldn’t be shameful of being a sensitive, emotional person,” says Trifilio. “I feel things in a big way, and it gives really good fuel for song writing, so I just gotta embrace it.”
Beach Bunny’s New Album ‘Emotional Creature’ Out Now
Leipzig psych/krautrock group Flying Moon In Space are today releasing their second album, ‘Zwei’ You can stream/download the album and buy the vinyl (out July 15th)
Arriving following their 2020 self-titled debut and this year’s remix 12″, Flying Moon In Space said of the new album: “Zwei” has a more structured, poppy side compared to our debut, even though sound-wise we opened up to more experimental layers – using synthesisers for the first time, loops and field recordings. The process behind this LP was manifold – testing out personal and aesthetic borders, and carrying on our idea of what Flying Moon In Space can be sonically.”
On their previous album, Flying Moon In Space honed in an improv-driven approach to their art that, when committed to wax, resulted in a maximalist, shape-shifting melting pot of psych-pop, krautrock, techno and math-rock. This approach, however, was an extension of their live shows: huge, improvised performances that were known to last hours at a time. As they began work on the album’s follow-up whilst the world shut down around them, it’s of little surprise that the resulting ‘Zwei’ LP sees FlyingMoon In Space change course (but get no less creative with it.)
The latest album from the six-piece will arrive off the back of their highly-praised and sold-out self-titled debut album and a recent remix 12″ that featured reworkings of tracks from the S/T album courtesy of kindred spirits Xiu Xiu, Suuns, A Place To Bury Strangers, Minami Deutsch, Camera and Warm Graves.
The band are currently out on a UK/EU tour in support of the new LP,
The Fat Angel Sings 