Garlic and Butter, Venus and Mars

Peel Dream Magazine “Lie in the Gutter”

Peel Dream Magazine would have fit in very well with the early to mid 00s Other Music zeitgeist, even beyond the degree a song like “Lie in the Gutter” is obviously indebted to both Stereolab and Yo La Tengo. You don’t name your band in tribute to John Peel if you’re not highly invested in the idea of having “good taste,” and their forthcoming record Rose Main Reading Room pulls together a lot of tasteful ideas culled from a well curated record collection. And of course, this is basically the same thing Stereolab and Yo La Tengo have done through their careers, so it’s all part of some broader lineage of crate-digging artistry.

“Lie in the Gutter” sounds like a song designed to lure me into a trap. The particular tone of the keyboard drones? The dazed “la la” background vocals? The firm, up-tempo beat that somehow signals “cozy and relaxed”? My favorite part is the slightly singsong melody sung by Olivia Bubaka Black, which is a bit spacey in tone but busy enough to keep my ear engaged. Strong lyrics too – overtly romantic and focused on sensuality, grounded in a broke reality, but yearning for something grand and transcendental.

Buy it from Bandcamp.