Gold Needles - Mood Elevator - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2016 . Michael Shackelford first wrote down the words “future” and “elevators” a few years ago on a rough instrumental demo. The music never grew into a finished song, but that simple, surprisingly evocative phrase stuck. It's an apt phrase for one of Birmingham's most original musical acts. Shackelford-the group's founder, mainstay, and guiding creative force-is something of a pop confectioner who thinks up impossible sounds and makes them a reality. His self-titled debut as Future Elevators expertly mixes whimsy and gravity, the fantastical with the everyday. Even as he grounds his lyrics in real-world issues, he fills his songs with new and improbable combinations of familiar sounds the jagged pastoral folk of ‘Alabama Song’, the Rube Goldberg blues riffs of ‘Machine Maker’, the retro-futuristic R&B of ‘Modern World’, the warm drone of the ten-minute instrumental closer ‘Aphrodite’. Shackelford spent a year piecing his debut album together. Recording with him was Lynn Bridges (Devendra Banhart/Dexateens) and the album was mixed by Darrell Thorp (Radiohead/Beck). Album Tracks 1. Rome on a Saturday 2. Modern World 3. Losing Sleep 4. Just Another Day 5. Alabama Song 6. Machine Maker 7. It Is What It Is 8. Everything Everywhere 9. Narcosis 10. Aphrodite

Album Tracks 1. Arena 2. Tiger in a Tower 3. Wicked Elm 4. All Over the School 5. Rancor 6. Sweet Sweet 69 7. Tired 8. Sister Brewerton 9. Centipedes 10. Free Burritos 11. Pa Mac

2015 EP from the native Angeleno four-piece. Scuzzy, slanted guitar interplay, a little grrrlish swagger, flashes of raw emotion and a cement chip of punk attitude propel these songs directly to your dome and down the brain stem. Kinetic, omnivorous, and easy to get stuck in the noggin, Feels has charm and grit to spare and is pushed deeper into the red, weird wilds by Ty Segall’s home-cooked production. Album Tracks 1. Close My Eyes 2. Slippin 3. Play It Cool 4. Today 5. Tell Me 6. Unicorn 7. Bird's Eye 8. Small Talk 9. Running's Fun