Shows on Mar. 27th at The Rickshaw Stop in SF and Mar. 28th at The Echo / Part Time Punks in LA to include Henry’s Dress, The How, Go Sailor, Boyracer, Brown Recluse, Summer Cats, Pants Yell!, Devon Williams, Neverever and Brilliant Colors!

Last November, Slumberland Records celebrated twenty years of releasing amazing records with a pair of sold-out shows in DC and Brooklyn that combined the current Slumberland roster with selected bands from the label’s storied past. These nights were such a roaring success that the label immediately set to planning shows for the fans on the west coast. Now we’re very pleased to announce two shows for the last weekend of March that combine some of our current favorite bands from the roster with incredible, amazingly unexpected reunion sets from Boyracer, The How, Go Sailor and Henry’s Dress. These shows will mark the first live appearances from Henry’s Dress in 13 years and from Go Sailor in 14 years!!!!

March 27
San Francisco
The Rickshaw Stop

Henry’s Dress
The How
Go Sailor
Brown Recluse
Summer Cats
Pants Yell!
Devon Williams
Neverever
Brilliant Colors
Boyracer

March 28
Los Angeles
The Echo / Part Time Punks

Henry’s Dress
The How
Go Sailor
Brown Recluse
Summer Cats
Pants Yell!
Devon Williams
Neverever
Boyracer

A Brief History of Slumberland Records:

Indie record labels aren’t always noted for longevity, and in this as well as many other things Slumberland Records stands apart. Started in 1988/1989 as a collective effort on behalf of members of DC-area bands Velocity Girl, Big Jesus Trash Can/Whorl, Black Tambourine and Powderburns, Slumberland was inspired by such musical happenings as C-86, early Creation, Flying Nun, Postcard Records, K Records, Bus Stop, lower East Side noise, and the renegade art aesthetics of people like Cage, Burroughs and Duchamp. Slumberland’s first release, the What Kind of Heaven Do You Want? seven inch compilation from December 1989, staked out a unique place in the indie underground, marking the label as being equally concerned with noise and pop melodies.

Over the next 18 months, the first fifteen or so seven inch releases spooled out in quick succession, introducing the world to the core DC-area Slumberland posse as well as sonic confederates from the UK and New England such as Jane Pow, Small Factory, HoneyBunch and Swirlies. Adding to the growing roster a series of influential releases by bands like Velocity Girl, Lilys and Black Tambourine, Slumberland was up and running.

Early 1992 saw the move of label principal Mike Schulman to Berkeley, CA and the label with him. Slumberland’s first full-length albums from Lilys, Sleepyhead and Jane Pow quickly followed. During the mid-to-late-1990s Slumberland went from strength-to-strength, with well-received albums from Stereolab, Rocketship, The Ropers, Boyracer, Hood, Lorelei and Henry’s Dress coming to define a crucial segment of the US indie underground. Slumberland wasn’t easily categorized as indie-rock, noise-pop, post-rock or indie-pop; all of these sounds were represented and then some. The watchword was quality, and the reputation of so many Slumberland records from that era as classics is based on the label’s “music first” policy.

As the ’90s turned into the ’00s, Slumberland continued to release classic records from bands like The Aislers Set, The Saturday People and Nord Express, but the dissolution of the core Slumberland bands and the grind of ten years of hard work took their toll and the release schedule slowed. While the label relaxed its pace, the indie world gradually caught up with the Slumberland aesthetic. Throughout the mid-00s bands claimed the Slumberland legacy as inspiration, and in 2006 the label was ready for another run. The last three years has seen an amazing spate of activity, with albums from bands like The Lodger, Sarandon, Bricolage and Liechtenstein leading up to the label’s recent successes with Crystal Stilts, Cause Co-Motion! and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Slumberland is more active than ever, and its knack for nurturing the very finest bands continues to both please old fans and charm a new generation of indie kids.

WWW.SLUMBERLANDRECORDS.COM

VIDEO: “Viskra”

VIDEO: “Vinterbarn”

Fredrik started out in late 2006 as the songwriter/sound artist duo of Fredrik and Lindefelt. The idea was to attempt narrative structures in music through the combination of electroacoustic composition and folk-infused musical form. Before the release of their critically acclaimed debut, Na Na Ni, the lineup was expanded to a 6-piece.

On stage the sextet could be seen playing banjo, clarinet, cello, wind up music boxes and hand made instruments along side bass, guitars and drums. The band ventured stateside for a buzz worthy 3-week winter tour, starting with a live national television appearance on election night, from the Embassy of Sweden, to a string of packed shows along the northeast.

The following 6 months saw Fredrik back in Malmö recording new material in the form of an EP-trilogy. Each one was surreptitiously self-released on highly limited 3″ CDs in hand made origami packaging. Having finished a short film collaboration with Dutch film maker Iris Piers and several music videos, Fredrik and Kora present the release of the EP’s as a proper full length entitled Trilogi.

This second outing is more consistently inward-looking and takes on themes like social realities and subconscious geography. The melodies are more serpentine and the textures decidedly darker. However, Fredrik’s warm, sensitive lead voice and operatic choir work still lends the material the same comforting elegance as on the debut. The three EP’s bear the titles “Holm“, “Ava” and “Ner“, all fictional names roughly signifying “Frozen Forest Island”, “Water Through Sound” and “The Inside Underground”. Together they represent a trilogy of contemporized viewpoints of the Lovecraftian dream passage - orientation at great cost and understanding at the risk of sanity.

FREDRIK

02/13 - Washington, DC Crab’s Claw
02/14 - New York, NY Mercury Lounge
02/15 - New York, NY Pianos
02/18 - Brooklyn, NY Union Hall
02/19 - New York, NY Permanent Records In-Store
02/10 - Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
02/21 - Harrisburg, PA Midtown Bookstore
02/22 - Washington, DC Black Cat
02/23 - Philadelphia, The M Room

Fredrik
Trilogi
(The Kora Records)
Street date: Jan. 26, 2010

01 vinterbarn
02 milo
03 holm
04 den sista fabriken
05 vanmyren
06 ava
07 flax
08 under vattenverket
09 ner
10 tretusen violer
11 viskra
12 locked in the basement
13 omberg

FREDRIK LINKS:

Label Page - thekorarecords.com/

MySpace - myspace.com/fredriktheband

MP3: “Shout It Out” (Fol Chen Remix)
VIDEO - “Calypso Gold”

Bio:

Los Angeles-based Princeton released its debut record, Cocoon of Love, September 29th on Kanine Records. Growing up on Princeton Street in Santa Monica, the group now lives in an aging green house on a hillside in the Eagle Rock district of LA where their album was recorded.

Among the many detrimental effects that love has on the mind, one of the more subtle is the way it litters the memory with a batch of misplaced associations - places, figures, products and (especially) music that, through chance, become invested with deep personal significance. This detritus of love is scattered all over Princeton’s Cocoon of Love, right down to its title, taken from a chance line on a long-ago-cancelled children’s show. Stacks of herbal tea, a glow-in-the-dark monument, paperback writers, the Wall Street Journal, a departing Mercedes, The Metamorphosis, a series of Cambridge-commissioned paintings, video arcades, graffiti, and a cyclist on the Autobahn all figure prominently into Princeton’s musical sketches.

Princeton is twin brothers Jesse & Matt Kivel, Ben Usen and David Kitz.

PRINCETON

Feb 1: Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA %
Feb 3: Doug Fir, Portland, OR
Feb 5: Showbox at the Market Seattle, WA *
Feb 6: Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC *
Feb 8: Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA #
Feb 9: House of Blues San Diego, CA *&
Feb 15: Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA $
Feb 22: Live on KCRW / Morning Becomes Eclectic
Feb 22: Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA +
Feb 24: Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA @ (Noise Pop)
Mar 17 - 20 SXSW Austin, TX

* = w/ Editors
& = w/ The Antlers
@ = w/ Rogue Wave
% = w/ Active Child, 60 Watt Kid, TS and The Past Haunts
# = w/ Rafter, Casxio, Jubilee Singers
$ = w/ Wade Ryff & Friends, Le Switch, Adam Stern
+ = w/ LANME, Castledoor

Princeton
Cocoon of Love
(Kanine)
Street Date: Sept. 29, 2009

1. Sadie and Andy (feat. Meredith Metcalf)
2. Show Some Love, When Your Man Gets Home
3. Calypso Gold
4. Korean War Memorial
5. Stunner Shades in Heaven
6. Martina and Clive Krantz
7. Shout it Out
8. Sylvie
9. I Left My Love in Nagasaki
10. Worried Head
11. The Wild

Princeton
Shout it Out (Digital Only Single)
(Kanine)
Street Date: Dec. 8, 2009

1. Shout it Out (album version)
2. Moonbeams
3. Shout it Out (Fol Chen Remix)

Princeton
Calypso Gold 7″ Single
(Jodie & Victor)
Street Date: Jan. 18, 2010

PRINCETON LINKS:

Press Materials

Label Page - kaninerecords.com

MySpace - myspace.com/princetonmusic

MP3: “For Ex-Lovers Only”

Though they only released a handful of songs their two-year lifetime, Black Tambourine has been hugely influential in the world of indie music. Conceived of as an explicitly pop band at a time when such bands were pretty rare in America, Black Tambourine wore their influences on their sleeves: The Jesus & Mary Chain, of course, but also folks like Phil Spector, Smokey Robinson, Love, The Ramones, Shop Assistants, The Pastels, 14 Iced Bears, Orange Juice and the list goes on… The band’s dark, dreamy sound was consonant with the shoegaze sounds of the day, but the classic 60s-influenced songwriting gives their tunes a timeless appeal. Formed in 1989 as a side project by members of Whorl and Velocity Girl, they soon recruited their mate Pam Berry as vocalist and released their first song, quixotically an instrumental, on Slumberland’s very first release. Two singles followed, along with a pair of compilation contributions. Alas, other obligations became more pressing and the band called it a day in 1991.

Though their recorded output was quite limited, the music has continued to inspire indie, punk and indie-pop bands down the years. As the band’s twentieth anniversary arrives, just about any review of or article about a noisy pop band drops their name, and their influence on bands as diverse as Vivian Girls, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Wavves and countless others is continuing proof of Black Tambourine’s
legendary status in indie music. Interestingly, it would appear that 2010 is the year for Black Tambourine!

Black Tambourine gathers up all of the songs released by Black Tambourine, and handily trumps 1999’s Complete Recordings reissue by including six previously unreleased tunes. Songs like “Black Car,” “We Can’t Be Friends” and “Throw Aggi Off The Bridge” are foundation documents of indie-pop and sound as fresh today as when they were recorded twenty years ago. And while classics like “Pack You Up” and “Drown” can stand on their own just fine, the band has taken the rather unexpected step of reuniting to record four new songs exclusively for this compilation. Consisting of two originals and two covers (of songs by Buddy Holly and Suicide), these recordings include all of the original members and are quite true to the Black Tambourine spirit. The songs themselves are tunes that the band played back in the day and never got to record, so these added tracks truly round out the Black Tambourine picture and make this a very special release indeed.

The words “essential” and “seminal” are thrown around a lot when talking about reissues, but this is one case where those adjectives are truly earned. Presented in a deluxe remastered edition, expanded to include four new songs and two early demos, and on 12″ vinyl for the first time, Black Tambourine looks slated to be one of the crucial releases of 2010.

“If there’s any justice, Black Tambourine will see their name inserted into revisionist histories of American independent rock.” - Pitchfork

Black Tambourine
Black Tambourine
(Slumberland)
Street Date: March 30, 2010

1. For Ex-Lovers Only
2. Black Car
3. Pack You Up
4. Can’t Explain
5. I Was Wrong
6. Throw Aggi Off The Bridge
7. Drown
8. We Can’t Be Friends
9. By Tomorrow
10. Pam’s Tan
11. For Ex-Lovers Only
(First Demo)
12. Throw Aggi Off The Bridge
(First Demo)
13. Heartbeat
14. Lazy Heart
15. Tears of Joy
16. Dream Baby Dream

BLACK TAMBOURINE LINKS:
MySpace - myspace.com/btambourine

Label Page - slumberlandrecords.com