No Filler Music Podcast - Lava Lamps and Warhol Paintings: The Soundcarriers' Celeste

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

For peak enjoyment of The Soundcarriers, you must first acquire a lava lamp, a Warhol painting, some shag carpet (a rug will do), and put on your best 60s mod score from the thrift store down the street. Everything about this group (down to the font choice in the liner notes) is steeped in the effortlessly cool sound of 60s psychedelic folk. Today we dive into their 2010 record Celeste, where The Soundcarriers mix in 60s/70s library music and avant pop with their psychedelic sound to create an album best enjoyed by tuning in and dropping out. Tracklist The Soundcarriers - Last Broadcast The Soundcarriers - Step Outside The Soundcarriers - Morning Haze The Soundcarriers - There Only Once The Soundcarriers - Out of Place The Soundcarriers - Low Light This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. And welcome to No Filler. Music Podcasts dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Quentin. With me as always is my brother Travis. And today we are diving into the sound carriers album from 2010 Celeste. This one's a long time coming, Jeff.

I've been wanting to cover, do like a full-length episode on the sound carriers since we started this pod. Yeah, and I think they've probably appeared or been referenced at least. Dude. Once a year at least on this pod. probably once every other episode. Especially with Whatcha Hurts because like we, I like gravitate towards this kind of music. Yeah. Which is like a throwback to like, I don't know, 70s posh.

It's kind of hard. It's hard to describe their music even though it's so like recognizably tuned into a specific era, you know? Yeah. Well, what is, there's some interesting like subgenre labels that get through it on that get thrown onto this this type of sound like what what is the wikipedia say let's just let's just take a look well here's the funny thing true they don't have a wikipedia page all right what is the band camp page say sometimes band camp is the best source because that's what you know that's what either the band themselves refer to themselves as or the label oh interesting different album art for

yeah they have different album art for a lot of their stuff interesting a lot of the tunes experimental cinematic indie psych rock and then a says Nottingham. That's where they're from. Cinematic, I don't know. But like, I think I kind of get it. Let me pull up, let me pull up another band that we often reference when we talk about these groups.

On the Stereo Lab Wikipedia page, because I would put sound carriers in Stereo Lab and broadcast like in the same group, Avant Pop. I think that's a good one. That's, that's a good. Good one, yeah. Avon Pop. And then, let's see, let me pull up my favorite record of theirs. Dots and Loops. Lounge. There you go. Lounge. You think, you know, lava lamps, fuzzy fur carpets and stuff, you know, shag carpets. That's what I meant to say. Shag carpets. Go-go boots, fuzzy go-go boots. Here's what I think of, dude. I think of Austin Powers. Austin Powers, yeah, totally. Just that vibe. Smoke-filled lounges, you know what I mean?

Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Totally. And it's just, yeah, it's just like just effortlessly cool sounding, you know? It is. And yeah, there's really, those are the main three. I think if you're not in these bands, don't even try. Right.

Because they've done it and they've perfected it, especially sound carriers, man. There's just something about their sound. And, okay, here we go, dude. Offed spooky sound. Spooky. Early 70s, English folk library music, tropicalia, jazz, and lounge. Yep, there it is. That's a good, that's a good summary.

Library music. Now, cute. Before we dive in, I did want to talk to you about a very musical weekend that I had that I think the listening audience would be interested in hearing about. So, as I told you, I saw the Toadies this weekend, this past weekend, which, We've done an episode on them. They're like an iconic Texas post-rock, like grunge band that kind of had some success with a couple of singles. They did Possum Kingdom and they did Tyler.

Those are the two songs that they're most known for. So aside from that show being amazing, I wanted to talk about another band that we saw. So this was like, we went to a food festival in Addison, Texas. They do this thing called Taste Addison every year. And Addison is like, so you know Parks and Rec. you know, the city that's like Eagleton, right? That's like the rich city. Addison is basically like this tiny little, very wealthy city.

So, you know, they have this giant stage, the legitimate stage, you know, for this little food festival. It's kind of funny. Anyway, so they have a lot of big acts that show up. And this was like 90s aimed at like our demographic basically because it was Marcy Playground, which is the band that does sex and cancer. candy. So I heard that live, which was interesting. And then Vertical Horizon. Now you remember them? Oh, yeah. They had a few huge, huge, very successful hits, right?

I haven't thought about them in a while. Me neither. But here's the thing, dude. I'm going to go out on record as saying, I think they might be the best cover band of all time. Because they played four covers. One of them was Love Song by The Cure. Oh, that one was probably fun. purple rain and then listen to this this is where my my socks were across the field

you know this is like an outdoor show that's how they were blown so far off they did a mix up like mashup medley that combined

how soon is now by the cure Sunday Bloody Sunday by you two and bulls on parade by rage against the machine whoa exactly dude

And like I could hear it coming because I'm so familiar with like the Sunday Bloody Sunday has a very distinct drumbeat. Like it's instantly recognizable. So I heard it coming. I was like, oh, they're about to transition to Sunday Bloody Sunday. This is dope. And then just imagine Sunday bloody Sunday transitioning to rage against the machine, right? But I heard the guitar part coming. So I kind of anticipated it happening.

I was like, I was just sitting there like, no fucking way. Are they about to do this? And Kara was like, what are you talking about? and then sure enough dude but so he didn't like try to rap he didn't try to do uh the verse you know but he just sure they basically just did the very well-known bulls-on parade guitar riff and then he yelled bulls-on parade and then they transitioned to back into the cure song it was incredible dude amazing fun you know what dude when you're a band that's been doing doing your thing for that long like have some fun at your shows do some do some covers i was thinking the same thing because

the TOTES did two covers as well. One of them was since you've been gone by Kelly Clarkson, which was hilarious. But they did a good job. Basically, they were approached by like the Texas Wildlife Foundation or something like that to do. Basically, they went to a bunch of Texas artists and said, hey, can you do a cover of another Texas artist? And so, like, they didn't know what to do. And his wife was like, why don't you do Texas? Yeah, apparently she's from Texas.

Anyway, so it was an interesting, interesting musical experience to you. and I would say you might not think you know I'm going to go see the vertical horizon show but I would highly encourage you to do that cue if they ever come to your neck of the woods now they're the ones that dude he's everything you want yeah he's everything you need

the way I sing it just now it sounded like a boy band spot on dude spot on but I mean that's a thing that's a great song though man it is a great song super catchy they also did you're a god that's probably one you might recognize If you listen to it, you'd probably recognize it. And then they had another one. Best I ever had. There you go.

Grace Sky Morning. Anyway, they had an album called everything you want that had three massive, massive singles on it. And that's what everybody was dear to hear, right? Anyway, all right. So let's get back to sound carriers. I just wanted to, you know, I don't, ironically enough, I don't see shows nearly as much as I should. You got no excuse, man. I have no excuse.

You're a dink. No excuse. Yeah. I would have seen at least two other acts this year, but both of them lined up with vacation. I was taking. I was going to go see real estate, but they were here in Dallas. I know, dude. They were here in Dallas when I was in Hawaii. And then I swear there's a band coming while we're in Phoenix next week. So. This first world problems right there. I know, man. I am going to go see Incubus in September. Nice. All right. Let's get back to the regular programming here. Yeah, that was a sidetrack if I've ever heard one. Okay, I'm just going to name off the roster because, you know, that's what you do.

And I honestly, I don't know who does what because there's not a lot out there. They don't have a Wikipedia page where, you know, it'll list the roster and who does what. But we've got Adam Ken, Dorian Conway, Leonor Wheatley, and Paul Isherwood. I think it's been this quartet since the beginning. And I want to try very hard, Travis, if we can, to not just come back with each song and go, man, you know, that really does sound like 70s, posh music or whatever.

I mean, we can just, you know, we can just talk about, we can just talk about the, you know, what we appreciate about the music itself, yeah. Just talk about what we liked of it. And that's the thing about this group. It's very hard not to really just focus in on that. But, like, their compositions and the way that they approach their songs, I think, is really cool. And I think it's what makes them stand out.

I think it's what makes them, in my mind, better than broadcast in Sterelyab. As far as, like, I don't know, repeatability is in being able to go back and enjoy these albums, like, on the regular. The replay factor. That's right. Yeah. And so I was thinking about covering multiple albums, Celeste and and Tropicalia. Those are my two favorites. But Celeste just is the winner for me as far as just, I mean, favorite album hands down from theirs.

And there's just so many good songs on this album that we just had to stick with just the one album tonight. So again, this one came out in 2010. This is their second full-length album after Harman. ammonium, which came out back in 2007. So here we go. All right. We're going to jump to track two. All right.

This song is called Step Outside. Shout out to the floutest, you know. I don't know who does what, man. So like what, I feel like I may have heard like multiple like wind instruments there, but definitely a flute. Yeah. But, you know, it sounds like they, I'm guessing all of the equipment they use,

they try to stay to that era, right? Because everything about it, even the quality of the recording and stuff like that sounds out of that era. You know what I mean? And I wish we had more definitive answers on that, if that really is the case, but yeah, sure seems like it. You know, I think we can make a pretty safe assumption

that's the gaze, you know. Because it just, why wouldn't you? You know what I mean? Why would you try to like artificially do that in the studio, you know, when you could just utilize vintage equipment, you know, to get that sound? Yeah. So like here's what I, here's what I appreciate about this group.

And like maybe this sound, like this style of music. is that I'll, you know, I always remember this. I'm not going to quote it exactly, but I just know the gist of what the guy said, the boys of Kings of Convenience, how like they, they wanted to make music that sounded like, you know, the kind of 60s era harmonizing vocals and stuff like that because nobody else was making it. So they just wanted to, they just wanted to hear more music like that. So they just said, let's just make, let's just make. let's just make music like that because we love this music so much and nobody makes new music

like this so let's just do it right yeah and i mean that sounds obvious like every band would probably say that but i go i totally get what you're saying but i mean some people are like i want to make i want to make music that nobody's ever heard before you know what i mean which is not this this is this is yeah this is like that you know late 60s early 70s pop sound reimagined Yeah, completely remand. Or just can, you know, picking up the baton exactly where it was dropped, you know, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, man, it is, it's, it is funny that they, they cannot escape being compared to, you can't, to, to, to, to serial lab and broadcast.

Right, right, yeah, sure. I understand why they're compared to them, but like, I don't think it's, it's fair to, to really put them in the same building, you know, maybe the same building, but not the same floor. How about that? There we go. I like that. And you know what? I get it. It is very cinematic.

You could hear this sounds almost like a, I guess soundtrack. You know, it is, it's, it's, would you say it would be a soundtrack to like a, I don't know, 60s, 70s film? I guess so. Sometimes I think of like, you know what I think of? It's like a heist movie sometimes. I mean, not necessarily for this particular song, but like this lounge style, like, you know, you think Ocean's 11 or something like that. They had music like this. The soundtrack for Ocean's 11.

kind of sounded 60s, you know. David Holmes, I think, was the composer. Or like a very specific era of James Bond films. Very specific. You would say maybe the 60s era. Yeah. I know the very first thing you said was like, you know, maybe we can just talk about the music and not.

Dude. But it's just you can't. It's hard. It's hard not to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I would say 60s era James Bond. Yeah.

It's hard to kind of narrow down the era, but probably 60s. That's where I'm landing on. All right. We're just going to jump to the next track. This is up there for me, one of my favorites on the record. Yeah, this one's great, dude. And this is another one that just like the transitions. Just, yeah.

And the instrumentations, man, just everything about this band, dude. I just, I can't get enough of this band. Here we go. This song is called Morning Haze. They know how to take you on a journey queue, you know. And that's a, that's a kind of a cliche thing to say. I know. But it's true.

I think it applies more. I mean, I don't say that about, I feel like I don't use that too often. So, I mean, I do reserve that for like a song that really has a good, it just, if it takes you places you're not expecting. I feel like that's kind of what I like to think of what I think of like. A song that takes you on a journey, you know? True. That is something that you rarely pull out of your back pocket. It's there, but you don't pull it out often.

Sometimes I might reach for it and I'd be like, you know what? Maybe right there, because it's not worthy. Yeah. Yeah, that song just like, I don't know, it like breathes in and out. Like when they were repeating morning haze over and over, like it almost is like it's unulating. I don't know. Like the way they harmonize with each other's is just beautiful, man. Yeah.

Well, I think I often conjure up scenes of nature when I listen to folksy kind of 60s, you know, Greenwich Village artists, right? Like all the leaves are brown, Jeff, and the sky is gray. California dreaming. Pretty much, yeah. But like, I don't know what it is about. There's some folk music in general, I think. And, you know, sound carriers are.

feel like are sort of like a psychedelic rock blended with some like 60s folk in the harmonizing and stuff like that. I mean, you just said, I mean, I think mom's and poppas is actually a good reference in terms of like a good comparison. Yeah. I didn't even really do that on purpose. But like, you know what? Who else comes to mind? Jefferson Airplane. Yeah. All right. So let's just jump into the next one, dude. These next two are I think my favorites, like maybe just hands down. Sound carriers' faves, not just off this record. And they're back to back, too. So here we go.

This one, I know you've heard multiple times, Jeff. I know you've listened to this album before, but this one I'm pretty sure I've brought at least once to this pod. So depending on how long you've been listening to us, Babylon, about music. You've probably heard this one too. Here we go. This is track seven off the record. There only once.

I love the keyboard sound, man. I love it. And yeah, and the really like soft guitar line that goes right along with it. And the organ? The organ sound, yeah. This whole song is just a freaking, it's just. It's a perfect song. Yeah, it's perfect.

It really is. I had to play the whole song too because I love the way they finish it off with the bouncing back and forth vocals. I just feel like I'm inside Andy Warhol's studio, you know. Dude, you know what, let's just turn this episode into as many pop culture references from the 60s and 70s that we can spin up. No, that was perfect, dude. I mean, that's it. You're right. How do I mean, not think of Andy Warhol?

Or you know what, dude? Nico. Well, that's, I mean, she's there. She's in the room. She's there. She's there. You know what, let's just throw the Velvet Underground in there, too. All these, all these bands.

Why haven't you named him yet? Well, because they don't really sound like this, but... I know. But I'm saying, like, you're missing a key, a key player of the Velvet Underground cue. He's also in the studio with us right now, in Andy Warhol studio, listening to his music with us right now. That's right.

I'm talking about Lou Reed. Oh. I don't know what. I missed out on what you were talking about that. I was just like, yep. Yeah, dude, totally. You were trying to get a game. Oh, yeah.

He's there. He's there. He's there. All right. Have I ever said Lava Lamp yet? Because I'm floating right now. Yeah, yeah. I love that song.

Yeah, it's a great song. I think, like, if you want it, like, this is the song, perhaps that you would recommend to somebody if you wanted them to, if you wanted to just distill the sound carriers down into one song. Like, this could be a good intro to the band. This is the one that I, yeah, dude, this is the one that I play. If I'm, you know, if I'm trying to send some recommendations to someone for music, like, it's a good starter. If you're into this style of music, this is the band to listen to. Yeah, I think so.

All right, man, so right next in line on the album, this one, and it's funny that the name of this song is perfect for the sound compared to the rest of the album. Because you know what? It's out of place. here we go. This is the one that's the most out of left field, I think. Here we go. Out of place. Out of place about that song.

Nothing out of place. I feel like the voice is a, yeah, her voice is a little bit different too. I think she's singing slightly differently. And the harmonizing is still there too. Yeah, but I mean, I feel like she's, what I like about that song is like she's the only one singing. Yeah. But she's harmonizing with herself, which is kind of. Right.

Yeah. And it's, it's eerie, dude. It's eerie. Is it haunting, Q? Because we haven't talked

about that, you know? I don't know about haunting. Let's think about 60s Scooby-Doo. Oh.

I'm seeing some Velma and some, what was the other one's the name? The Redhead? Louise? No,

wait, that's Thelman, Louise. Dude, I don't know, man. Daphne? Daphne.

That sounds right? dude That sounds right Yeah Daphne was the redhead Daphne Or Velma was the The bookworm

Fred was the The blonde dude Shaggy of course And We know We all know Scooby We know scoby

We know scoves Yeah dude Scooby do Maybe a little Adam's family You know Maybe a little Adam's family No but

Man That song brought in some strings. There was some violin in there. And you checked on the, I guess, maybe it was legit liner notes on. On discogs. They did not list out the actual instruments played. Who does what? But it's just these four people, right? That's listed. Right. Yeah. So I'm looking at amazing, man. I mean, I hate to keep talking about this, Q, but like even the, the liner notes, just the fonts that they use everything about it

is just what is it pitch perfect to the 60s you know that's crazy it's just it's wacky you know

let's see you know this is what happens when we're doing live on on the fly research yeah I'm not seeing any listening so yeah

we don't know who played what but we know that those four any instrument you hear on this record was performed by one of the four members because there's nobody else listed as a performer on the record. So it's not like they pulled in, you know, a floutist or a, you know, violinist or anything like that. Like, it's all them. Yeah, it's awesome, dude. And if you want to pick this up on vinyl, it's going to be a cool $107. Poo. Poo. It'll be, dude, it'll be waiting for me at Josie Records next time I go. That I don't know for sure. Please give that to me.

I mean, I consider it. You can do it. You know, it's fine. Let's do whatever you want. It's fine. I don't need it. I would. If I saw that, I'm sorry, man.

I would have to keep it for myself. I'm sorry. Hey, you know what? That's fine. I think you understand. As somebody who understands the thrill of the crate digging, as some people say. This is a holy grill. This is a holy grill record from me.

Any record from them. any record from them. Super hard to find on vinyl. All right, you know what, dude, I wasn't going to play a song from another one of their records, but I want to, for the last track for tonight,

I just got to play the opening track off of Entropicalia, which came out four years later, because this one gets me every time, and this might be my favorite sound carrier's song. I mean, I will just go and hit play on this record just to hear the opening track.

Some might say that all I'm doing is really just playing that one song. Because I rarely go to the next track. All right, this is off of Entropicalia. Again, this came out four years later. This song is called Low Light. Just right from the rip, man. It just envelopes you in warmth.

I'm ready to get ripped. Yeah, I feel like that was more psychedelic than the Celeste stuff. I feel like Celeste was more lounge leaning, and this felt more like a more psychedelic kind of fuzzy guitar sound. Organ? There was some like a fuzzy organ in there too. Yeah, it just felt more, that felt more like a rock song. Goose bump loose, dude. Every time.

Love that track. I mean, you may want to turn your thermostat up if you're getting goosebumps over there. No, man. it's from the sound carriers. Oh, okay. No adjusting of the dial is going to take those away, dude. The dial, you know, on the thermostat. Oh, I get it.

Oh. I'm with you on that, thank you. Okay. All right. All right, man, so that's it. That's all I got for tonight. If you haven't listened to a sound carrier's record from start to finish, you got to give it a spend.

And you need to do it in a proper, pair of headphones or a decent stereo system because it's really worth you know just sitting down with and giving it a proper listen yeah and you know this is this is a record you spend some time with you know get comfy if you have a lava lamp turn it on you know you got you got to get loungy maybe eat some campbell's tomato soup while you're doing it just to kind of Camel's tomato soup. This is another Andy Warholer. Oh, I need you to keep up with me.

Travis, Travis. I need you to be on my level. And go ahead and just eat a banana while you're at it. Banana. Tomato soup. Marilyn Monroe. Yeah. We're getting wacky here, dude.

This is a wacky episode. This is a wacky one, Jeff. But that's all I got. You know, and usually we try to do at least an hour. And we got seven minutes to spare. So we got to get wacky. Well, we're good. I think we're good.

Yeah, you got to get back to your horror movie. Yeah, I was watching a horror movie dude, and I totally forgot that we were supposed to record tonight. And it was just, it just started to. The movie just started. And I said, Travis, I ain't going to let this fly, brother. Come record this episode with me. He pretty much forced me to do it. So here I am.

I did. I did. Here I am, Q. I was about to watch a VHS, too, if you're curious. A VHS? Well, that's the name of the movie. It's a foul footage series of films called VHS. So, you know, I might just get back to it.

All right, so that was our take on the sound carriers. And as always, you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network. That is the podcast network for music lovers. You can find lots of other great music-centered podcasts in the network. You can find us at Pantheon Podcasts. Give us a shout on Instagram. That's the easiest place to get in touch with us. At No Filler Podcast is the handle.

And yeah, next time we come at you, we'll be bringing our monthly mixtape, our What You Heard tunes for the month of June. Until then, thank you as always for listening. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis. You all take care. The night before the gathering and all through the house, the host wrapped a cozy cashmere throw from Home Sense for their spouse.

Kids toys for $6.99 under the tree. And crystal glasses for just $14.99 for their brother Lee. A baking dish made in Portugal for Tom and Sue. And a nice $5.99 candle. Perfectly priced just for you. Happy holidays to all. And to all a good price. Home Sense.

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