Thursday, May 15, 2014

WOOLEN MEN ARE IN.

Woolen Men
Woolen Men came onto my radar when Mike from Sleeping Giant Glossolalia (who's helped steer lots of awesome groups our way over the years) included their 7" split with Lame Drivers with a trade we were doing. I love that "Deaf Americans" song so damn much. Could've been a top 40 hit on a Tom Petty record if it were slower and recorded in a massive slick studio, or something. Theirs is the kind of music I'm a sucker for. Pop, punk. Important use of comma there. The stuff just has a melodic sense about it that seeps familiarity, and I love the recording aesthetic, which is shitty, but actually, all there, so to speak, and infinitely crankable.

Woolen Men 
And the damn thing just makes me think of tall cedars, rainy Northwest days, strong coffee, yard sales and basement shows. It's like Bob Pollard and Tobin Sprout, without the Ray Davies accent. The term low-fi, or I guess lo-fi gets overused to this day, and essentially just means that stuff wasn't recorded slickly, or super carefully. As an adjective, it's virtually meaningless because saying something's lo-fi is just saying what it isn't, vs. what it actually is. So, there won't be any talk of that around here. What they've got it chemistry and a great vibe. Woolen Men may need to be cotton men this August. Oh, and you can get their 2013 LP from Woodsist for $10 right now.

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