Sugar Stems “Sweet Sounds of the…”

sfilzen — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 20:54:04 +0000

Sugar Stems “Sweet Sounds of the…” 2010. Bubbly upbeat power pop out of our town, Milwaukee, and, a bit oddly, this copy (their first full-length) is an import on Bachelor Records from Austria; other releases are on the Milwaukee-based Dusty Medical Records. Later releases by Sugar Stems are on Dusty Medical as well as another now-Wisconsin-previously-Portland-based Dirtnap Records. Anyway! It’s super-catchy, hooky and bright, nods to the 60′s girl-group pop sound and with two women in the band (lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Betsy Heibler and bassist Stephanie Conard, both previous members of The Flips) and that sound, comparisons to the Go-Go’s are inescapable. The two men in the band are Drew Fredrichsen (Jetty Boys) on lead guitar and Jon Heibler (Teenage Rejects, Catholic Boys, others) on drums. My top tracks are “I Don’t Wanna Be Around You Anymore,” “Wake Up” and “I Gotta Know.” I was just now going to write that I didn’t think I had ever seen Sugar Stems play live but as I was digging around on YouTube I found this video of them playing “I Gotta Know” in 2009 at the Pumpkin Pavilion event, something that we attend every year because it’s in the park less than 2 blocks from our house. So I probably did see them and also my memory clearly sucks.

The post Sugar Stems “Sweet Sounds of the…” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Mutts “Stuck Together”

sfilzen — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 20:22:31 +0000

Mutts “Stuck Together” 2019. Romanus Records, “Tin Foil Hat” variant, very limited edition (45 copies). From Chicago (though singer/frontman/keyboardist Mike Maimone just moved to Nashville a month or so ago), Mutts are one of my favorite Midwest bands: at times all-out rocking and others bluesy, jazzy and soulful – all with gravely Tom Waits-ish vocals – Mutts also put on a hell of a show (we last caught them at Appleton’s Mile of Music this past August after a tremendous rainstorm).

Stuck Together is Mutts’ 7th or so release in the past 10 years (including EP’s). My top tracks are (not surprisingly) the rockers like “Better Believe It” (check out the insane Mad Max-inspired video they shot for this – it’s also funny because it’s as if Mad Max had an 80′s era band van and because the characters Mutts inhabit are really nothing like how they are in real life: from my interactions with them, they are really really nice guys), “Treason,” “Tin Foil Hat” (another hilarious video, this one shot a few years ago) and “Let’s Go.” “Let’s Go” is so damn good – they re-recorded or remixed it for Stuck Together; it has previously appeared on their 2017 Stick Together EP (so did “Tin Foil Hat” and the opening track on this LP “I’ll Be Around;” the 2017 EP also marks the addition of current drummer Ian Tsan who replaced ) as well as their 2019 retrospective LP Hey, We Are All Mutts. It deserves to be on all three releases because this song is fantastic – in my top 10 for this past year. I also really dig the heavy beat hypnotic (sort-of) title track “Stick Together” which closes out the album.

The post Mutts “Stuck Together” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

midwest rock Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Sugar Stems “Sweet Sounds of the…”

Mutts “Stuck Together”