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. This week we have four new releases for you to check out.
Up first from Toronto, Canada is new indie darlings SWiiMS. I don’t know anyone who has heard this latest release and hasn’t commented to me on how much they love it. SWiiMS has this great mix of old indie stuff and new indie stuff. The songs I put next to SWiiMS on this playlist are for different reasons. For instance I don’t think they sound exactly like Diet Cig but I think if you like Diet Cig you will enjoy SWiiMS. Next I chose Silversun Pickups because I feel like there is a tonal quality or some element that feels similar. Finally I chose The Stone Roses “Waterfall” because I think SWiiMS has an element of 80’s brit rock too it and the guitars definitely have a tone and feel that is similar.
Next up from Minneapolis is LC Flowers who I had a lot harder of a time nailing down what his influences are. It definitely has that homemade lo-fi indie quality that lots of stuff has these days, but it’s an original mix of everything from dancey indie stuff to things like 90’s Pavement or Wilco. It has this overall mellow quality though so I chose to compare it to early Pavement in the playlist. I think it’s more also because the vocals are not concerned with being pretty but are more about the emotion behind the song. Although Stephen Malkmus’s emotion is mostly sarcasm, so I’m not comparing the emotion on these songs.
One of Mint 400’s most prolific artists Gabe Chiarello and Sink Tapes are back with another 2 song single. I know Gabe listens to a lot of stuff and I often have a hard time pinning down exactly what his influences are. I know he’ll tell you Velvet Underground and stuff like that but I also hear a hint of a lot of other garage rock stuff so I chose this song from The Seeds because I feel like it has a little bit of the feel that Sink Tapes sometimes has. I think at it’s core Sink Tapes holds true to that 60’s sound. I chose to also compare them to Bright Eyes because I feel like that’s another band influenced by some of the same stuff and the results are similar sometimes.
Finally the in your face punk rock vibe is brought by The Components. The Components have this mix of 70’s punk rock with some of newer punk tropes like breakdowns and modern production. It’s hard again to put my finger on an exact thing and say this is what The Components are influenced by. I know from covers they done that The Distillers, Misfits, Dead Boys, Nirvana are all part of that puzzle. The Components will be releasing a single every few weeks until in October we bundle them all up as their new LP. So look for lots more from them.