in praise of: captured tracks

Though I am, at heart, an album guy, I don’t think I’ll ever lose my affection for the 7″ format. When I was cutting my teeth on ’90s indie rock, this was the perfect way to get introduced to a band, to get a feel for what they were and to decide if you wanted more.

That format still exists — more or less — in the form of the digital single, and some of my favorite digital singles have come from two places: Sacred Bones, which I’ve written about before, and Captured Tracks (special shout to Horizontal Action, in the hopes they’ll send us more soon).

Captured Tracks is right on the bead of one of my favorite aesthetics: junk-fi. Their recent spate of singles presents that sound in spades: Dignan Porch buries shout-along vocals underneath a snowbank of guitars; Hanoi Janes skews a bit more melodic — imagine music hour at a giddy kindergarten class — exuberant yelling, plinking xylophones and rudimentary guitar — and you’re getting close. Cosmetics skew darker — 8-bit synth wave with dead-eyed female vocals — while Veronica Falls applies that same fascination with the minor key to spindly indie-goth (that the A-Side is called “Found Love in a Graveyard” should give you a decent idea of what you’re in for). The label’s breakout act is Beach Fossils, who Alex talked about last week.

If you’re nearing the end of your month (and if you haven’t already grabbed our two new Selects bands), Captured Tracks is the stop for you.