Channeling sold gold influences like The Pastels, Comet Gain, Orange Juice and The Aislers Set, The Umbrellas represent the fertile San Francisco Bay Area scene at its most pop-tastic. "Fairweather Friend" follows-up their surprise-hit 2021 debut in fine fashion, featuring sterling songwriting and arranging, bigger and more nuanced production, and terrific, assured vocals all around. The Umbrellas have swung for the fences with this new album and it's a bold, beautifully-executed success. Expected to ship on or before the January 26th release date. If you order this along with other items we'll ship your order when everything is in stock.

LP » $21.00 LP » $20.00 CD » $9.00

Oakland CA's Blue Ocean blend elements of shoegaze, pop, noise rock and electronics, striking a precarious balance between noise and melody that recalls forebears like Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis and Flying Saucer Attack. "Fertile State" shows the band at their noisy best. Reverberating guitars swirl around what is at it's heart a lovely pop song, erupting into peels of feedback a la early Jesus & Mary Chain. It's a bracing, intoxicatingly fresh take on noisy pop from a band to watch.

LP » $20.00 CD » $9.00

New Jersey's Lightheaded have conjured, through some mysterious alchemy, a distinctive flavor of pop that draws as much from 60s Brill Building, garage-pop and folk-pop as it does from the DIY indie explosion of the 80s/early 90s. Their debut EP "Good Good Great!" shows that band core Cynthia and Stephen are clearly students of pop in all its permutations, but they wear their influences lightly -- a typical Lightheaded song could have been released in 1966 or 1986, but in fact sounds just right in 2023! The sound has just right amount of elemental murk, drawing to mind a mythical collab between Phil Spector and Curt Boettcher's Sagittarius, working their way through the Goffin & King songbook.

The Laughing Chimes have, over the course of one album and several singles, breathed new life into classic jangle and paisley pop. Gathering up 3 future-classic tunes from their 2021 debut album and two subsequent singles onto one 7", Laurel Heights is a brilliant distillation of the bands' considerable charm -- a superb vinyl introduction and a compact "greatest hits" package.

7" » $8.50

"Perfect Worlds," the newest album by San Francisco's mysterious lo-fi pop legend Tony Jay, delivers an intimate record of thirteen dreamy, assured arrangements that further cements Tony Jay's status as a dejected crooner of the quotidian par excellence. Drawing inspiration from failed relationships, lack of sleep, a bicycle injury, and depression, Tony Jay (helmed by SF scene mainstay Michael Ramos) pairs catchy melodies and hushed vocals with ethereal instrumental tracks.

LP » $19.00 cassette » $7.00

Supremely well-executed pop that recalls a diverse swathe of indie history, from 60s folk-pop and girl-group tunes to 80s DIY pop to solid gold 90s touchstones like The Aislers Set, The Cat's Miaow and the post-Black Tambourine bands of Pam Berry. "Each Day" is moody jangler that delivers melodic and emotional heft that belies its brief 1:43 length. "What The Echoes Say" and "Tilt In Your Eye" are both strummy delights, showcasing Alicia Jeanine's lovely vocal harmonies to maximum effect.

7" » $9.00

Following up their very well-received 2021 self-titled debut album, Chime School are back with more perfect pop, this time on the most pop of formats, the 7" single. "Coming To Your Town" was recorded while sick with COVID and rather fittingly is a feverish attempt to describe the reactionary political moment that seemed to infect the Bay Area during the pandemic. Leave it to Chime School to pen a classic 12-string jangle pop tune about the breakdown of civil society. It's not all cats and motorbikes chez Chime School! On the flip side we have the band's lovely Brighter/Field Mice-esque take of Buzzcocks' "Love You More." Originally released on the Oakland Weekender Buzzcocks covers cassette, it's available on vinyl here for the first time.

7" » $8.50

The Reds, Pinks & Purples' new collection "The Town That Cursed Your Name" gathers together twelve perfectly-constructed pop gems, some previously unheard and some released for just a few days and then withdrawn, but all adhering to the absurdly high standards of song-craft that the band's Glenn Donaldson adheres to. Echoes of everything from The Go-Betweens to Felt to Magnetic Fields reverberate through his songs, informed by an extreme dedication to detail and no small amount of outright fandom.

LP » $20.00 CD » $9.00

After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Frankie Rose returns with a fresh form, aesthetic, and purpose embodied in her new album "Love As Projection." Celebrated by countless critical and cultural outlets over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, "Love As Projection" is a reintroduction of her iconic style through the new lens of contemporary electronic pop. Featuring beautiful, ethereal songs like lead-off single "Anything," "Sixteen Ways" and "Come Back," this album is more than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence – it's a culmination of influence and the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has delivered yet.

LP » $20.00 CD » $9.00

The Laughing Chimes is a musical project formed by teenage brothers Evan and Quinn Seurkamp. The band draws inspiration from American and British jangle pop from the 80s and 90s, creating timeless songs that could just as easily have originated in Athens, GA or Dunedin, NZ as eastern Ohio. The "Zoo Avenue EP" is terrifically assured follow-up to their 2020 debut album, one that sharpens their sound and broadens their musical palette while retaining all of the considerable charm of their debut.

cassette » $7.00

Limited edition reissue of a very scarce 4 song EP, now expanded to mini-LP length with the addition of six bonus songs. Recorded around the same time as the songs that went on to comprise the beloved "Uncommon Weather" album, "They Only Wanted Your Soul" contains some of the best examples of Glenn Donaldson's melancholy but wry take on indie pop. It has songs about record shopping, religion, worker's rights, dysfunctional holidays, and of course heartbreak, sung over a maze of shimmering fuzzy guitars and drum machine beats -- an essential chapter of the Reds, Pinks & Purples story.

LP » $19.00

Joe Stevens' Peel Dream Magazine project has dazzled savvy listeners for the last several years with its tuneful yet hypnotic synthesis of post-punk, shoegaze, 60s pop and motorik kosmische grooves. Now Stevens is back with "Pad," a new, conceptual album which draws on influences from baroque pop to Bossa Nova, folk and mid-century orchestral, from Burt Bacharach-era 60s pop to first wave homemade post-punk. First single "Pad" is a perfect introduction to what the album is all about, all finger-snapping cool, groovy flute and sumptuous harmonies; a whispering sigh of a love song. Like the album it lends its name to, "Pad" is conceptually playful and sensuously subterranean, blurring the line between blithe escapism and pointed subversion. The limited edition mail order-only edition includes a bonus 4-song 7" EP.

Ltd Edition LP » $24.00 LP » $20.00 CD » $9.00

Bursting out of the SF Bay Area's fertile indie scene, The Umbrellas come correct with a sound that fits snugly into a long line of classic pop, from Orange Juice and The Pastels to Comet Gain, Veronica Falls and Belle & Sebastian. Following up their super well-received 2021 debut album The Umbrellas are back with "Write It In The Sky," an instant-classic that simply demanded to be pressed onto a 7" single. Clocking in at just under 3 minutes, "Write It In The Sky" is a thrilling pop rush full of fuzz, melody and excitement that will sit easily next to singles by the likes of Talulah Gosh, Shop Assistants, The Field Mice and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. It's really that good - a sure thing to enter the canon of perennial indiepop floor-fillers.

Jeanines' 2019 self-titled debut was an indiepop tour-de-force that drew from a deep set of DIY pop influences, garnering attention from well beyond the international pop underground. Now they're back with "Don't Wait For A Sign," and it's a real gem. With the band now divided geographically and touched by the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic, Jeanines' new album is deeper and a bit darker than their debut. The folk influences feel more pronounced, at times recalling early Fairport Convention or Vashti Bunyan as much as indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora, The Aislers Set, and the many bands of Pam Berry. Second albums can be tricky, but with "Don't Wait For A Sign” Jeanines ably manage to build on their terrific debut with well-honed songwriting, singular melodies, and unerringly sympathetic production.

LP » $17.00 CD » $9.00

Jason Quever has been releasing timeless dream pop as Papercuts since 2004; his new album "Past Life Regression" is a journey into the dreamier reaches of psychedelic folk-pop that digs deep into influences as wide-ranging as The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Spiritualized, Echo & The Bunnymen, Leonard Cohen and late 60s pop of various flavors. Jason's songcraft, arranging and production are immaculate as always, reflecting his broad experience and enlivened by his move back home to the San Francisco Bay Area. It's remarkable that after more than 15 years he's writing his best songs and in "Past Life Regression" has made his finest record. Gorgeous, perfectly constructed chamber pop for the very unusual times we're living through.

LP » $17.00 CD » $9.00

"Summer at Land's End" is the 4th LP from The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Glenn Donaldson's solo kitchen pop "band." Since 2019 The Reds, Pinks & Purples has built an obsessive, ever-growing following by combining a vinyl-oriented release schedule with regular drops of new songs on Bandcamp. 2021's "Uncommon Weather" was something of a breakthrough and now Donaldson is back with the brilliantly ambitious "Summer At Land's End." Like the blossoming flower-themed sleeve might imply, it's bursting with heart-ripped-open vocals, ringing guitars, and warm reverberations. As before, "Land's End" contains plenty of concise indie-pop songs, but it also expands into hazier acoustic sounds and some extended mood pieces. You might hear '80s and '90s influences in the echoing guitars, but more so you might hear melodies and words that resonate deep down in some mysterious, transcendent space.

2xLP » $25.00 LP » $19.00 CD » $9.00

Artsick was formed in June 2018 when Christina Riley (of NorCal band Burnt Palms) teamed up with Mario Hernandez (Kids On A Crime Spree, Ciao Bella) on drums and Donna McKean (Lunchbox, Hard Left) on bass. Following up their terrific 2018 7" single they are now back with their debut album "Fingers Crossed," a thrilling, compelling and downright fun record that surveys a vast swathe of indie and indiepop history, from DIY progenitors like Dolly Mixture through the punkier side of C86 (think Talulah Gosh, Fat Tulips) to the 90s K Records-centered International Pop Underground and straight through more recent exemplars like Vivian Girls and Colleen Green. Christina says that she was "always been drawn to fuzzy guitars, melodies with emotion and songs with urgency" and that is readily apparent on every moment of this excellent album.

LP » $17.00 CD » $9.00 cassette » $6.00