So full disclosure I run a record label and I’ve come to an agreement with Blood Makes Noise to let me promote releases every week. The idea is every week I will present a playlist with some new Mint 400 Records music and what I think inspired our songwriters. Today is a big mix of styles and sounds from across the country from Sonofdov’s NJ Indie-folk to the avant Garde synth jazz of Boston’s Clamb and everything in between. We also check in with Baltimore indie veteran’s Underlined Passages, Chicago’s Yellow Pills and NY State’s A Carousel Moon!
First up Sonofdov aka Dennis King of Northern New Jersey is becoming one of the state’s best folk acts. Sonofdov has been getting national radio attention for his past two epic releases “Towers” and “Battle Lines”. His new track “Reviver” is his first post pandemic track and it’s more of a full band feel but still retains the Elliott Smith and Nick Drake-ish qualities that fans have come to love about his music. The track is dark but a little more upbeat tempo wise than previous tracks. It almost gives the song a mid-2000’s indie feel in the vein of Nada Surf or something similar. Hence the comparison on our playlist but, and I say this often, I feel like this is more of a small influence and not exactly what the track sounds like in it’s final form.
Yellow Pills is a new release from our sub-label Raining Music which focuses mostly on instrumental music and the album “Space Age Inferno” is exactly why we created the sub-label. It’s a chance for Ryan Miera of the band The Limbos to show off his more eclectic tastes with a host of different flavors. My favorite track on the album “J’s Little Jam” has a similar aesthetic to something like The Budos Band but with a more indie spin. It’s definitely a fun listen.
Baltimore’s Underlined Passages offer up some previously unavailable tracks that were only available on vinyl on “Hidden Tracks From Our Past”. On the track “interregnum” the band gives a more sparse arrangement than usual. I compared it to an early 2000’s band Elliott because it feels to me like that era of indie emo-ish music. The track starts with a drum sample but by mid song resembles the more jangly tones we are used to from this group. These 2 songs are a small offering to fans as the band is preparing their next studio album due out later this year.
Avant Garde synth indie jazz band from Boston, Clamb is interesting musically and as well are very interesting in their online personas on their “Clambgram” instagram account. This band is yet another reason we started the sub-label Raining Music, to get interesting well seasoned musicians a forum to release records that have no boundaries. The band’s songs take such weird turns and twists and something I liken it to is back a few years ago there was a Radiohead session of leaked tapes from their studio where there were bits and pieces of everything they were working on and one tape had a bunch of samples of music the band liked from weird 60’s soundtracks that had jazz and instrumental elements. In a weird way a band like Clamb is exactly that kind of band that I could see being a huge influence on other bands and also being part of some interesting soundtracks.
Finally A Carousel Moon comes from Mike & Eric of the Mint 400 Records band The Racer and is the second side project from The Racer following No Great Pretender a more sparse piano based project. This project sounds a little closer to The Racer but minus some of the indie rock edge. It feels like a more delicate project in line with something like Sigur Ros and for fans who are waiting for a new Racer album or EP this should suffice as something you can sink your teeth into.
- Neil Sabatino