Tabs Out

Antiquated Future Records – The First Seven Years

11.6.19 by Ryan Masteller

Tell me you guys aren’t into it, I dare you. The first thing you’re hearing on this tape is a rock band called Little Angry & the Sweets playing some jangly power pop, and guitar is the calling card. This isn’t some outsider bullshit, this is Antiquated Future, the revered (REVERED) PDX tape label known mostly for how you can’t pin em down. Oddly, I always think “folk” when I think of AF, but that may only be because of the “Antiquated” in the name. (And also actual folk stuff like David Thomas Broughton, but it’s all OK in the end.) Then I get hit with Midwife and the The Washboard Abs, and I’m like, oh yeah, folk what? 

Point is, over the past seven years, Antiquated Future has released a lot of cool stuff, and this new collection celebrates those releases by throwing a bunch of their artists together on a compilation. There’s the ethereal roots jangle of Flying Circles and Guidon Bear, the ruminative indie rock of If It Ain’t Breakfast Don’t Fix It and Upside Drown, the horn-aided wistfulness of Advrb, the dreamgaze of Reignbeau and Midwife, Tucker Theodore’s instrumental Neil Young worship, the perfect electro pop of old faves the Washboard Abs, the shocked gospel of Indira Valey, and so many others. I feel like I’ve shortchanged like a million people by not naming everyone on here.

It’s basically almost a million people though, because nineteen (see? That’s a lot) of the greatest the label has to offer are featured here. The songs are cherrypicked for an ebb and a flow, and “The First Seven Years” comes off as the gold standard for the type of mixtape I would’ve made in college to get my friends into the deeper reaches of independent tunage. They’d all be listening to, like, Third Eye Blind, and I’d be like, “That’s stupid. You’re stupid.” Then I’d play this and they’d be all wide-eyed and “Oh, what is this?” and “I love it, this is so much better than Barenaked Ladies!” (I went to college at a weird time.)  And they’d be absolutely right about all of that and would finally burn those awful CDs they were listening to until the acrid, poisonous smoke choked the night.

And we’d only be listening to Antiquated Future music, because it’s perfect for night fires and hanging out.

Then life would go on, and we’d grow old listening to “The Last Seven Years,” because it’s not only a great starting point but also a great companion over the long haul. Find it, today, before it’s too late (edition of 100) from, duh, Antiquated Future.

CARL – Solid Bottom

11.5.19 by Ryan Masteller

My exercise routine gives me a solid bottom also, but I don’t think any of us are clicking on any Tabs Out ads to come here and read about my physical condition. (And if you are, I’ve been diligently working out all my muscles. Consider yourselves updated.) CARL (not this one), on the other hand, have been digging around a thesaurus and not using “bottom” in the same way that I am. Instead, the trio of Damon Smith, Andrew Durham, and Danny Kamins are interested in the “bottom” of the sound spectrum, the low end, as it were, the one populated by all that bass, the foundation of all great music. Solid bottom indeed!

As you might expect from an Astral Spirits release, the trio has gathered to improvise, utilizing such far-out frequency generators as double bass, electric bass, baritone saxophone, and radio manipulation and effects. The result is a rumbling maelstrom, like heavy seas charged with atmospheric disturbance. The sounds swirl together and wash through the speakers as a whole, a heaving mass of sonic commotion. Only when you tune your ear to the individual performances does “Solid Bottom” start to open itself up to you. 

While Smith and Durham frequently occupy that low end, they allow Kamins to surface and swirl like a waterspout on his sax. And even though the emergence is attention-grabbing, it should do nothing to detract from the constant submarine churn. This is all about the “Solid Bottom,” after all, so stay on your toes and be ready to dodge the tsunami headed your way! (Note that I am always ready for peak physical activity.)

Purchase forthrightly from the lovely folx at Astral Spirits.