Pink Mountaintops — Get Back (2014)

 

          Pink Mountaintops — Get Back
♦♦   Black Mountain man’s other band go A&E motorik to the moooon. Hear it here!
♦♦  ONCE HIDDEN KOSMISCHE KNOWLEDGE, the metronomic “endless straight” beat refined by the late Klaus Dinger in Neu! is now so accepted after use by Toy, The Horrors and more that it barely warrants comment. But it’s always worth hearing a spirited example of it, which is where this advance selection from Stephen McBean’s Pink Mountaintops comes in.
♦♦  An atypical track from new LP Get Back, which mainly immerses in ’80s alt-rock, Ambulance City is a pulsating powerdrive that slashes and burns its way upwards and beyond, with the hanging threat of hospitalisation. The below clip, which looks like it was filmed econo in someone’s basement, features Black Mountain man McBean and his sometimes-masked band of various members of Dead Meadow and Delta 72 playing to a rotating red light and mild strobing, with the letters ‘PMT’ taped on the bass skin. Watch for splinters of McBean in a Genesis P. Orridge-style nurse outfit, possibly drinking spirits.
Formed: 2003 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ~ Los Angeles, CA
Album release: April 28, 2014
Record Label: Jagjaguwar
Duration:     41:38
Tracks:
01 Ambulance City     5:02
02 The Second Summer of Love     3:56
03 Through All The Worry     3:22
04 Wheels     3:26
05 Sell Your Soul     3:48
06 North Hollywood Microwaves     5:02
07 Sixteen     2:44
08 New Teenage Mutilation     3:19
09 Shakedown     3:19
10 The Last Dance      7:41
℗ 2014 Jagjaguwar
Members:
♦Θ♦   Stephen McBean
♦Θ♦   Gregg Foreman
♦Θ♦   Steve Kille
♦Θ♦   Will Scott

By LIBBY WEBSTER, Posted on March 6, 2014
▼   An urgent, electric opening that brings to mind both the soundtrack behind a frantic boss battle in a video game and the ‘80s is how experimental rockers, Pink Mountaintops, kick off their latest track, “Ambulance City.” Pink Mountaintops are reckless, displaying a total disregard for the confines of a singular genre or aesthetic; a thoughtful, sleepy guitar plucking is laid over the high-energy opening, creating a fleeting moment of calm that’s quickly smashed to pieces by the introduction Stephen McBean’s grungy, ‘90s scream/sing vocals.
▼   Also, impressively, they somehow seamlessly incorporated a freakin’ tambourine into all of this. Pink Mountaintops don’t really give the listener a chance to catch their breath in the psychedelic and cacophonic 5:03 that is “Ambulance City,” but, to be honest, they don’t need to. Pink Mountaintops’ energy is so intoxicating that you’ll want to be along for the ride anyway — but I recommend you get your seatbelt fastened in time for their new release, Get Back, out April 29th, because it’s going to be out of control. Fortaken: http://digboston.com/
_______________________________________________________________ 
▼   It’s doubtful that Stephen McBean set out to make The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Primer when he started conjuring the songs that would come to be Pink Mountaintops‘ Get Back.
▼   The record’s beginnings were reasonably straightforward: McBean had moved to Los Angeles, taken a long hiatus from Black Mountain and an even longer one from Pink Mountaintops when he met producer Joe Cardamone, lead singer of Icarus Line at Valley Recording Company in Burbank, CA. The two bonded quickly over Flying Nun bands, Television Personalities, Roxy Music, Johnny Thunders, and Born Against. Joe was excited to meet someone he actually liked. Stephen was excited to work with someone who said “Sing it like you would’ve sung it when you were 21.”
▼   But ask him to set the scene and you’ll hear about a motorcycle shop owned by Michael Barragan, former member of Los Angeles noise rock band Plexi. You’ll hear about an endless supply of rock ‘n’ roll video documentation for last minute inspiration or deevolution in the living room. Ask who’s on the record and you’ll get a constellation of greats: J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr & Witch), Rob Barbato (Darker My Love, The Fall & Cass McCombs), Steve Kille (Dead Meadow), Daniel Allaire (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Cass McCombs & Darker My Love), Annie Hardy (Giant Drag), Jon Wahl (Clawhammer), and Gregg Foreman (Cat Power & Delta 72). Randal Dunn (SunnO))), Earth, Sun City Girls, Boris) mixed Get Back at Avast! Studios (Bikini Kill, Mudhoney, Christ On A Crutch, Soundgarden) in Seattle. Howie Weinburg (Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Danzig, Ramones, Slayer) mastered it in Laurel Canyon.
▼   Ask about the record itself and McBean will tell you about “Alleys, curbs, walls, and cigarette stained gig flyers. An island on the Pacific coast. Fake British towns. Slayer posters. The beauty of youth. It’s about listening to Driver’s Seat and ‘Guns of Brixton’ and hotboxing The Duster.” And suddenly it becomes clear: when the aliens do touch down and they don’t know rock ‘n’ roll, you can play them Get Back start to finish, and that’ll be all they need.
▼   Get Back comes out swinging with “Ambulance City,” a head-trip of a song with a chugging, insistent, oddly timeless guitar riff sitting front and center. “The Second Summer of Love” needs almost no explanation; it dives into 80s VHS saturation and never comes up for air. “Sell Your Soul” is a deep sigh and a motorcycle ride, a roll in the grass lamenting summertime blues with a little grit and a little harmony. And “North Hollywood Microwaves” is downright obscene. But what better way to start Side B than this? You can listen at hushed volumes so your parents don’t hear, you can crank it in a dorm room, you can smirk to yourself from the safety of rock ‘n’ roll’s old age. You start to wonder — why don’t all Side Bs start with a song like this one…
▼   The number of platitudes in music hit critical mass years ago, and among those tropes is that annoying, inescapable mantra: rock ‘n’ roll is undefinable. And yeah, sure, that’s true. It’s different things to different people. It starts with guitars, maybe, and ends with a stage-dive, or spit, or feedback. Rock ‘n’ roll is drugs, is rebellion, is youth, is sex, is cosmic. It’s wanting more than you have. Rock ‘n’ roll is butts and cigarette butts. And Pink Mountaintops might not be the best-known band ever to make rock ‘n’ roll, but in Get Back they just might have written its scripture — an exploration and celebration of what, exactly, rock ‘n’ roll can be.
Albums:
▼   Pink Mountaintops (Jagjaguwar, 2004)
▼   Axis of Evol (Jagjaguwar, 2006)
▼   Outside Love (Jagjaguwar, 2009)
▼   Get Back (Jagjaguwar, 2014)
Singles:
▼   The Ones I Love/ Erected (Jagjaguwar, 2005)
▼   Single Life/ My Best Friend (Jagjaguwar, 2007)
Website: http://www.pinkmountaintops.com/
MySpace: https://myspace.com/pinkmountaintops
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/login?redirect_to=%2Fblog%2Fpinkmtps
Label: http://www.jagjaguwar.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pinkmtps
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pink-Mountaintops/115659901826505
Press:  // http://www.thesnipenews.com/music/concert-reviews/pink-mountaintops-vancouver/
Agent: USA http://billions.com/pinkmountaintops Europe ▼   http://www.belmontbookings.nl/artist/pink-mountaintops/l
_______________________________________________________________ 

Pink Mountaintops — Get Back (2014)

---

 

NEWS

archiv

ALBUM COVERS X.