#meritorio

[dustedmagazine]

Laughing — Because It’s True (Celluloid Lunch/Meritorio)

“Will She Ever Be a Friend of Mine” jangles like a long-lost Byrds tune, or maybe an out-of-print single by the Jayhawks. The Sadies, at their least bluegrassy, could sometimes pull off a similar trick, putting a psychedelic shimmer on exuberant country rock, and they’re certainly not alone. Big Star, certain iterations of R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus Five all come to mind as Laughing’s first LP spins. Still, to my mind, the touchstone above all others is Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend, the most effortless and heartbreaking of the genre, full of yearning harmonies and indelible hooks and some mighty fine guitar work from one Richard Lloyd. Like Sweet more than a generation ago, Laughing nails power pop’s ease and inevitability, and that’s impressive. It’s one of music’s most difficult forms, not least because it should never look like you’re trying.

This is the first album from Montreal-based Laughing though its members are mostly veterans of other bands. Notably Josh Salter, one of three guitar/bass/singers, plays bass in Nap Eyes. Cole Woods led Winnipeg’s Human Music. Laura Jeffery, the drummer, was in Fountain. André Charles Thériault, the lone exception, hadn’t been in a band for over a decade when he joined.  What brought the four together was power pop and nailing its sweet but rowdy jangle-i-ness.

Well, mission achieved. Consider, for example, the single “Bruised,” with its yearning vocals (“When you said you didn’t care/I felt something inside me tear”), its rough slashes of guitar, its battering drum line, its seething harmonies, its spiraling licks. The song is nearly perfect in its roughed-up, cowlick-sticking-straight-up messiness. Barbs of dissonance jut out from its breezy choruses, like rusty wires in cotton candy; not too sweet, not too rough.

“Secret” is slower and more vulnerable—and it’ll give you a powerful jolt of Sweet-ish-ness, “You Don’t Love Me,” maybe or “Nothing Lasts.” The guitar rings like bells, the bass buzzes underneath, the drums shimmer and pulse. “Won’t you tell me something/no one else knows/let’s get as close as we can and put on one another’s clothes,” the singer intimates, echoing Girlfriend’s exuberant, “You can wear my clothes.”

That’s the final song, a silky comedown from bangers like “Easier Said�� and “Sour Note.” It’s a nice ending to a near perfect summer album, which rocks and jangles and keens, balancing on a knife edge of hard and soft, joy and sadness, as all summer albums should.

Jennifer Kelly

[bandcampsnoop]

8/18/24.

Jim Nothing (James Sullivan, Auckland, New Zealand) is a former member of Salad Boys and X-Ray Charles. He's had a couple of releases before including a cool cassette split with Wurld Series (on Christchurch label Melted Ice Cream).

"Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn" is being co-released by Meritorio Records and the aforementioned Melted Ice Cream. This is great indie rock/pop that fits in nicely with both old and new New Zealand music. I love that the Bandcamp write up embraces the Flying Nun comparison by mentioning The Clean, Snapper and Look Blue Go Purple. Saying that a New Zealand band embraces their amazing musical history isn't a knock of sameness - it's a recognition of history and excellent musical taste.

[verytinysongs]

10 Songs I Hate About You by Dancer

Band Name: Dancer Label: Meritorio Records Location: Glasgow, Scotland Release Date: March 15, 2024 Tags: alternative, indie rock, post punk Recommended Tune: Bluetooth Hell

[capricorn-season]

[esuemmanuel]

Una sonrisa pequeña, casi imperceptible, llena de timidez y candor, de ligera esperanza y cariño. Una sonrisa dibujada en el rostro de un recién nacido o la de aquel anciano caminante que se encuentra contigo en la acera del porvenir. Una sonrisa breve en los labios pequeños de una mujer enamorada del amor, esa que baila y canta al roce de la vida y la luz del sol; hermosa y carismática, entregada al verso meritorio de la plenitud. Una mujer dada a la poesía, a las voces perennes del alma despierta, al fuego y al agua que arde y bulle en su centro; ahí, entre el sacro y el plexo. Una sonrisa animada, abierta al viento, entregada a la algarabía de la alegría que es existir, esa nacida de la boca de un hombre entregado a las experiencias de la carne, a las verdades de su oficio, a la complejidad de sus reflexiones y de sus acciones apegadas al corazón de su prosa. Una sonrisa, una sola, caminando por las calles de una ciudad en penumbras, iluminando cada rincón de sus calles, cada recoveco de sus callejones, de esos espacios vacíos y lúgubres que nadie se atreve a pisar y, no obstante, están llenos de seres humanos perdidos en el temor de ser alguien. Una sonrisa como luz del cielo, como la caricia de una nube, como el recordatorio que obliga a nuestras almas a continuar en este camino que hemos elegido para madurar como el espíritu colectivo del Universo.

A small, almost imperceptible smile, full of shyness and candor, of light hope and affection. A smile drawn on the face of a newborn or that of that old walker who meets you on the sidewalk of the future. A brief smile on the small lips of a woman in love with love, that one who dances and sings to the touch of life and sunlight; beautiful and charismatic, given to the meritorious verse of fullness. A woman given to poetry, to the perennial voices of the awakened soul, to the fire and water that burns and bubbles in her center; there, between the sacrum and the plexus. A lively smile, open to the wind, given to the joy that is to exist, born from the mouth of a man devoted to the experiences of the flesh, to the truths of his craft, to the complexity of his reflections and his actions attached to the heart of his prose. A smile, a single one, walking through the streets of a city in twilight, illuminating every corner of its streets, every nook and cranny of its alleys, those empty and gloomy spaces that no one dares to step on and yet are full of human beings lost in the fear of being someone. A smile like light from the sky, like the caress of a cloud, like the reminder that forces our souls to continue on this path we have chosen to mature as the collective spirit of the Universe.

[2as2gs]

Poema de noche nueva

Hoy quería que el estruendo de medianoche me pillara escribiendo un poema.

No sé cuantos poemas se escriben la medianoche del comienzo de año nuevo, supongo que no muchos, espero tener compañía selecta.

Dediqué todo el día a ese poema, busqué dentro de mi, busqué fuera.

Rememoré las nuevas noches de mesas macizas circulares y juegos de mesa; de comedia televisada, empanadillas quemadas y confeti.

Recordé las nuevas malas noches de pacharán y borracheras, de arrastrarte a casa bebida, de abrazarte bajo sábanas vomitadas.

Evoqué las nuevas noches huésped de melancolías emigrantes, bailes de tacón marcando tarimas de madera, y brindis en veinte idiomas.

Recordé las nuevas noches de exótico invitado, blancura de nieve polaca y vidrioso vodka endulzado.

Añoré las cercanas noches nuevas de esperanza, vividas a través de la risa e ilusión de mis hijos.

Esperaba tener algo meritorio que escribir, pero estoy triste y solo, tengo ausencias pesadas y a la vez demasiado ruido e imposibilitante silencio.

Ya ves, escribí un poema a duras penas, para ser olvidado junto a todas mis nuevas noches pasadas.

[daggerzine]

Jim Nothing- Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn (Meritorio)

I got hip to the world of Jim Nothing sometime within the last year, but judging by how good this new LP is, I really need to do a deeper dive into the earlier stuff to see where the band began. The band is the work of the Auckland, New Zealand folks James Sullivan and Brian Feary. I’m not sure how long these two have been playing together, but what they’ve done on Grey Eyes,... is pretty damn great.

Sometimes the sound can be hard to pin down, but the first couple of cuts are some definitely gorgeous sonic experiments with hooks all over the place. It's a great trifecta, the first song "Hourglass," which leads right into "First Bite," and then into the equally as stunning “Wildflowers” (I hear a little Kilgour/The Clean on that song).

The title track is definitely more low-key, but just as potent as is the minute-long popper “Can’t Find It Now." Also, stay until the end or you’ll miss the moody masterpiece that is "The Pass."

From top to bottom, Grey Eyes… delivers on all fronts. Sullivan and Feary seem to have had a vision and executed it perfectly. As we like today, good on ya’!

www.jimnothing.bandcamp.com

[coochiequeens]

This guy is in the news again........

By Eva Kurilova. December 21, 2023

Canadian women are expressing outrage after a trans-identified male who campaigned to defund a rape crisis shelter was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada. Morgane Oger, a trans activist from Vancouver, was honored at a ceremony in Ottawa last week.

On December 16, Oger took to X (formerly Twitter) to boast of his receipt of the award, claiming he had been selected because of his work with “2SLGBTQ+ persons” and trans rights.

“Feeling so grateful, recieving [sic] the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General of Canada Mary Simon last week for supporting 2SLGBTQ+ persons and furthering the legal protections of Transgender Canadians.”

In Canada, the Governor General is the federal representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III. According to the website for the Governor General of Canada, the Meritorious Service Medal is a civil award that recognizes “great Canadians for exceptional deeds” such as tackling poverty or improving educational opportunities for children.

In the list of recipients for the awards that were distributed on December 7, Oger is described as a “champion of diversity who has changed perceptions around 2SLGBTQI+ rights and has worked tirelessly to see those rights enshrined in law.”

Continuing, the office of the Governor General states that Oger has “forged alliances across party lines that propelled changes to provincial and federal legislation protecting individuals against discrimination based on gender identity or expression.” The short biography concludes by lauding Oger for his “courage, vision and perseverance have helped redefine the fundamental issue of equality and have advanced inclusiveness for gender-diverse Canadians.”

But the news of Oger’s top-level commendation did not sit well with Canadian women’s rights advocates, who noted that Oger has a long and disturbing history of actively fighting against women’s rights.

Canadian journalist and Feminist Current founder Meghan Murphy called out the Governor General, writing that Oger had once stalked her through her neighborhood in apparent retaliation for her views on gender ideology.

“Morgane Oger, whose career has involved harassing and vilifying feminists who defend women-only spaces, including fighting to defund Canada’s longest-standing rape crisis centre and transition house, @VanRapeRelief, stalked me around my neighborhood one day. Just one more reason I left Vancouver,” Murphy wrote. “Are these the ‘exceptional deeds’ bringing honor to Canada, @GGCanada? Making women feel unsafe and ensuring that when they are targeted by male violence they have nowhere safe to go?”

Murphy, like many others, was calling attention to an incident in 2019 where Oger successfully campaigned to strip Canada’s oldest rape crisis center, Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter, of its city funding due to its female-only policy. In comments made before the city committee meeting, Oger called the shelter “non-compliant with Canadian law.

Prior to losing its city funding, Vancouver Rape Relief had been through a 12-year legal battle where its policies of only serving females and only allowing female peer rape counselors had been tested and held up in court. The Supreme Court of British Columbia and the British Columbia Court of Appeal both ruled that the facility was allowed to maintain a female-only space.

But despite the legal precedent, the City of Vancouver agreed with Oger and pulled the funding it had previously provided the shelter for its educational outreach programs despite the fact that the outreach programs were accessible to all, even transgender people.

While in the throes of defending its funding, Vancouver Rape Relief was targeted by a sickening harassment campaign from trans activists. Dead rats were nailed to the door and messages like “KILL TERFS” and “trans women are women” were written on the windows of its charity storefront.

Oger dismissed the abuse the rape shelter was receiving in a blasé statement he gave to press at the time.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, when Vancouver Rape Relief’s policies hit mainstream media and when their discriminatory conduct hits the light of day some people overreact,” he said of the vandalism and threats.

But just prior to the incident with the shelter, Oger had already attracted the ire of Canadian women’s rights advocates for his initial support of vexatious litigant Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.

Yaniv, a trans-identified male, made international headlines after filing a series of complaints with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against female aestheticians who refused to perform waxing services on his male genitals. During a lengthy proceeding, it was alleged that Yaniv had deliberately targeted salon workers who were Sikh or Muslim in an effort to force women with religious restrictions on male-female contact to serve him.

On X (then known as Twitter) Oger referred to the women’s refusal to touch genitals on demand as “prohibited discrimination” and said that there was “no entitlement in Canada to refuse the performing of a service” on the basis of gender identity.

“Estheticians should take this up with their training providers. It wasn’t that long ago some service providers ‘weren’t trained’ to work on Black women or serve foreigners, either,” he said. “The law’s changed. Move on, get the training you need.”

When asked directly about his personal involvement with Yaniv, Oger was non-committal in his comments but admitted that he had spoken to Yaniv on the phone and that he had previously encouraged “trans women” to “complain to their human rights tribunal about prohibited discrimination.”

Eventually, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled that estheticians were, in fact, able to refuse services that they were not trained to perform, such as waxing a scrotum.

This is not the first time Oger has received a Meritorious Service Medal. In 2018, he was given the award by then-Governor General Julie Payette for, according to City News, “her [sic] work advocating for LGBTQ rights.”

Speaking to Reduxx, journalist Meghan Murphy condemned the Governor General for providing Oger one of the most respected civilian awards in the country.

“Morgane Oger’s legacy is fighting against women’s rights, safety, and free speech,” she said. “Anyone who focuses so much effort on defunding one of the few rape crisis lines and transition houses in Canada is not someone who deserves to be celebrated.”

Murphy continued by noting that Oger had made her feel “unsafe” in her own home, prompting her to file a police report on him in 2020.

“This is a man who has gone out of his way to ensure that women don’t have safe places to go when escaping male violence. That the Canadian government has supported and celebrated him in these efforts is horrendous and shameful.”

[jungleindierock]

Red Pants - On a Wire

On a Wire is taken from the album Not Quite There Yet, which was released in October 2023 on Meritorio Records. Red Pants is the solo project of Jason Lambeth: curator and owner behind Painted Blonde Tapes, avid 4-track cassette user, father (the subjects in most of his music videos are his two daughters), and all-around supporter of independent & DIY music-makers. Jason is joined by longtime collaborator Elsa Nekola on drums and vocals to complete their most spacious sounding album yet.

[noloveforned]

we're wrapping up the week with four hours of no love for ned on wlur from 8pm until midnight tonight. if you can't join live, catch up with last week's show on mixcloud on your walk this weekend!

no love for ned on wlur – february 16th, 2024 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label hootie and the blowfish // only wanna be with you // cracked rear view // atlantic dumb things // self help // self help digital single // coolin' by sound the bv's // i can't stand the rain // taking pictures of taking pictures // shelflife savage mansion // total columbia // the shakes // lost map la la delivery // lax-a-daisy freaks // (bandcamp mp3) // (unreleased) omni // pg // souvenir // sub pop brittany howard // power to undo // what now // island split system // the wheel // volume two // goner wussy // new american standard // split 7" w/ the paranoid style // bar/none lower plenty // land lovers // no poets // bedroom suck david nance featuring pearl lovejoy boyd // tumbleweed // david nance and mowed sound // third man katy kirby // cubic zirconia // blue raspberry // anti- the american analog set // too tired to shine i // new drifters // numero group grandaddy // you're going to be fine and i'm going to hell // blu wav // dangerbird el perro del mar // between you and me nothing // big anonymous // city slang yirinda // dhangalim (fly) // yirinda // chapter music joel ross // nublues // nublues // blue note cassie kinoshi and seed ensemble featuring xana // afronaut // driftglass // jazz re:freshed elza soares // vejam só // sambas e mais sambas // odeon ed crook // that's alright // eccentric northern soul compilation // numero group david porter // thirty days // into a real thing // stax crimeapple and preservation // quanto te quiero // el león // rrc music co. they hate change featuring charlie // biscuits // wish you were here... cassette // Jagjaguwar angélica garcia // juanita //gemelo // partisan beyoncé // texas hold 'em // cowboy carter // parkwood entertainment crushed // respawn // extra life ep // funeral party aka jk // olive juice // olive juice cassingle // teenbeat the infinites // the ghost // archetypes // meritorio

[dustedmagazine]

The Infinites — Archetypes (Meritorio)

A month or so ago, we caught up with Jared Leibowich’s solo record, Secret Spells, an impressive piece of home-recorded anthemry of which I wrote, “Jared Leibowich’s songs sound much larger than bedroom pop, with their massed vocals and clanging, chiming guitars. [His] expansive, ebullient solo album merit[s] comparisons to the Papercuts, White Fence and Peel Dream Magazine.”

“But have you heard the Infinites?” came one or two responses, a nice change from the dead silence that typically follows a record review. And no, not then, but soon after, this second album from Leibowich’s collaborative project with Dan Levine arrived, and indeed it was very good.

This is a storytelling project, not a confessional one. The debut album featured 13 brief fictional narratives, each about a separate character, over the dreamy clarity of Levine’s guitar loops. Album two is similarly outward facing, this time taking as inspiration 12 archetypes, that is typical examples of a genre of person, a queen, a bureaucrat, a secret agent, a ghost, etc. And yet while this might seem like an approach that would lead to generalities, in fact, each song is specific and engrossing. “The Bureaucrat,” for instance, filling out paperwork is not too busy to long for romance. “The Night Cleaner” toils alone and self-sufficient, after everyone else is gone.

All this unfolds over shimmering layers of guitar and other rock instruments, a trebly romantic onrush that recalls, again, The Papercuts, Wiretree and, in certain lights, post-new wave bands like Tears for Fears. The Infinites have expanded since the debut to include a full band line-up of Ian Rundle on guitar with Levine, Miles Kelley on bass and Sam Jordan on drums. The sound is full and urgent, but also soft enough to encourage dreamy staring out of windows.   

“The Ghost” is, perhaps, the best of these tunes, an agglomeration of limpid, yearning guitars, wistful melody and a churning, propulsive bass. If Leibowich’s solo album filled out the contours of bedroom pop into something large and stirring, this work with the Infinites does a nice job of balancing wispy threads of vulnerability with the muscular energy of rock. Listen to how Leibowich’s near falsetto flutters fragilely, at the end of verses, while the band powers in behind him. Delicate beauty and resounding rock crescendo live in uneasy accord. The same thing happens in the following “My Best Friend,” where a plaintive “It’s time to fall again” drifts off into contemplation as the full weight of guitar sound pushes towards resolution.  

Archetypes views romantic longing through a variety of lenses. Its characters have different jobs and circumstances but all wish, in their own ways, for love and connection.  The music supports this narrative with luminous romantic pop made of glistening guitar tones and pulsing tendons of bass and drums. It’s an embodiment of a certain kind of indie guitar rock, an archetype if you will, and a good one.

Jennifer Kelly

[bandcampsnoop]

9/21/24.

Slack Times are a Birmingham, Alabama band that sound like they could have been a mid-1980s British band (think Felt crossed with any number of C86 bands).

But, really, the jangle immediately reminded me of the solo work of Phil Sutton - Pale Lights and/or Love, Burns. "Carried Away" was released in 2022 on Meritorio Records (it is available domestically at Jigsaw Records). There is a new single that is heralding the arrival of a cassette EP in late October (also on Meritorio).

Speaking of Love, Burns (Queens, New York), don't forget they have released a new album - we posted about it on 9/3/24.

[bocadosdefilosofia]

«SÓCRATES: Y el arte de la mayéutica, ¿no nos está diciendo que todo esto ha nacido como algo vano y que no vale la pena nuestro cuidado?

TEETETO: Sí, sin duda.

SÓCRATES: Pues bien, Teeteto, si después de esto intentas quedar encinto de otras cosas, si logras hacerlo, estarás lleno de cosas mejores gracias al examen que hemos llevado a cabo ahora; si quedas estéril, serás menos pesado y más amable para los que se relacionan contigo, pues con sensatez no creerás saber lo que no sabes. Tanto —y nada más— es lo único que mi arte puede hacer, y no sé nada de lo que los demás —cuantos son y han sido hombres grandes y admirables— saben. Pero este arte de dar a luz lo recibimos en suerte mi madre y yo de un dios; ella lo pone en práctica entre las mujeres; yo, en cambio, entre los  jóvenes que revelan nobleza y son meritorios. Y bien, ahora debo comparecer ante el Pórtico del Rey para hacer frente a la acusación que Meleto ha presentado contra mí. Sin embargo, mañana temprano, Teodoro, regresaremos de nuevo aquí».

Platón: Teeteto. Editorial Losada, pág. 247. Buenos Aires, 2006.

TGO

@bocadosdefilosofia

@dias-de-la-ira-1

[soficierva1734]

Qué meritorio golpear a tus hijos para que aprendan el respeto que vos no sabés enseñar.

[esuemmanuel]

Me atrajo la inocente insinuación de sus palabras y ese dejo de seriedad que graba en cada una de ellas, porque ella no habla por hablar... En verdad, su boca sólo pronuncia lo que su alma sabe es meritorio pronunciar.

I was attracted by the innocent insinuation of her words and that hint of seriousness that she engraves in each one of them, because she does not speak for the sake of speaking... In truth, her mouth only pronounces what her soul knows it is worthy of pronouncing.

[daggerzine]

Slack Times- Gone Things EP (Meritorio)

I reviewed their single a few weeks back and here is the whole 4-song EP and it's a lovely little piece of plastic. 

Any band that claims influence from Flying Nun and K Records is more than OK in my book. It looks like the duo of Abby and Stuart added Chris to make Slack Times a proper trio. This was recorded, at least in part, by Les Nuby (I've reviewed his stuff before). and the Alabama trio's songs are on point. 

The opening cut, "Gone Things," is solid, but the next one, "Hatchback," slays and the previously-mentioned single, "In the Way," is another soaring pop favorite. They end it with the loping, off-kilter "Coattails" with some cool, dreamy backing vocals and a slightly haunting feel. 

I guess this will be the Meritorio label's first cassette release so huzzah to that!

www.slacktimes.bandcamp.com

https://meritoriorec.bandcamp.com/