Snail Mail

idk if they're emo per se but i wouldn't bat my eyes at them being included in a rolling thread that also includes cayetana and etc.

Anyways, her peculiar voice and melancholic songwriting makes me thing of Galaxie 500 and slowcore bands

i think this band is just all right, the songs uniformly have a really sleepy pulse and the drummer being not very good is extremely distracting

a lot of potential regardless, i'll be listening to the album

slowcore is a good analogue, "static buzz" gives me an early rhp vibe

Red hot chilli peppers lol?
I hear ya but I think the unprofessional instrument playing is part of their charm

Red house painters i see..

I hear ya but I think the unprofessional instrument playing is part of their charm

people tell me this all the time, i'm unconvinced

as a not-very-good drummer myself i'm perhaps distracted bc i'm recognizing my own limitations

dang, they just opened for Girlpool but I went late because two opening acts is one too many

they were great opening for Priests. way better than on record.

Snail Mail rules. Happy to see this thread - my friend said the intro of "Thinning" reminded him of Cranberries, which I can kinda see..

Saw them a month ago. She's a great guitarist, though at the show it was pretty much all chordal/rhythm playing. I haven't listened to the EP (or don't remember), but I was kind of disappointed with the show. I didn't hear the songs. Maybe this type of songwriting scratches an itch I just don't have because everyone else was enraptured. It was so cool - sold out club show opening for Frankie Cosmos (boring) - a lot of people were there to see Snail Mail and LJ seemed very humbled and energized by the whole thing. She jumped off her amp. It was great. Keep in mind she was born in 2000. I look forward to their next record.

a nice interview by Jenn Pelly from March: http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/10027-snail-mails-lindsey-jordan-is-the-wisest-teenage-indie-rocker-we-know/

http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/05/mary-timony-helium-dc-rock-guide

Sail Mail are in this with the details on Timony teaching her.

I agree with the below from Br-dNelson--
i think this band is just all right, the songs uniformly have a really sleepy pulse and the drummer being not very good is extremely distracting

a lot of potential regardless, i'll be listening to the album

Oh, Pitchfork article has the Timony stuff too.

i think they improved their playing skills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaOTtf3Lk4w

yeah idk Brad they're all great players. the session above sounds great

New song. New LP. Yessss..
I like them more when they do slowcore but that's fine too.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/pristine/

excellent song!

yeah this is great

dang, so much maturation in a short period of time. i **cking LOVE this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d91Qn8QUks&app=desktop

Letter published in Washington Post newspaper after recent big Snail Mail article

The April 22 Arts & Style article “Snail Mail is on the fast track” was about 18-year-old rock musician Lindsey Jordan. Ms. Jordan was being interviewed at her parents’ home, where she lives. The article said, “Lindsey Jordan is still sleeping off last night’s party somewhere when her interview with this newspaper is scheduled to begin.” When she finally arrives home, it is around noon, and she is wearing the same clothes she had had on for five days and nights. The reason she is late for the interview is that she drank a bunch of shots and got in to Baltimore super-late and crashed at a friend’s that night.

I guess the fact that she is some sort of rock star allows her to drink underage. Her parents should be concerned, but nothing in the article said that. All part of being a musician. Most of the article was about Ms. Jordan’s music. There was no need to include Ms. Jordan’s irresponsible lifestyle lest it encourage other young women to emulate her.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/focus-on-the-music-not-the-underage-drinking/2018/04/24/13436b1c-473c-11e8-8082-105a446d19b8_story.html?utm_term=.07ce3bbd0f10

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/high-schools-done-now-comes-indie-rock-stardom-for-snail-mail/2018/04/18/ff6e2bd0-3814-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html?utm_term=.9e96f85e9f66

...“She’s definitely a perfectionist,” Brown said. “Not that she necessarily values what other people think a lot — [like] the label and the industry — but I think that did play into it. The experience of, ‘Oh, a lot of people are waiting for this.’ There’s a lot more weight on her shoulders.”

“Lush,” which will be released on June 8, was “really emotional,” she says, tougher than “Habit,” even with all the added benefits of working with a bigger label. (Jordan anticipates some backlash to Snail Mail’s slicker sound. “Everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Sellouts! Making this hi-fi Sony record.’ I never wanted to make a low-fi record. It’s so cool to be in a nice studio with a great producer.”)

By her own admission, Jordan is “so uptight in the studio, very controlling,” and despite the bucolic setting — on a farm in Upstate New York, all crackling campfire vibes — she was stressed out the whole time. There were arguments with her bandmates, songs were scrapped and restarted, and she and producer Jake Aron performed “open-heart surgery” on songs she had spent years writing.

The process was “really heartbreaking, even though I know we bettered” the music, she says. “I’ve never felt worse in my life.”

The new single is kinda meh imo

Sounds somewhat generic. Don' t really like the new direction

another song that went in one ear and out the other for me. trying my best but seems like this just isn't my thing. it does sound generic to me, too.

Habit was excellent . Dissapointing.

I like "Pristine" a lot but haven't warmed to the latest one yet.

wow, I really like this new song. very Elliott Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhpFgHhj1H4

guitars & brushed drums remind me of the second side of Insignificance by Jim O'Rourke. by far my favorite thing I've heard from her.

It's nice but they will probably never create a great song like Static Buzz again.

“Everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Sellouts! Making this hi-fi Sony record.’

Exactly what she said

Idk about that, I don’t hear that much of a difference production or songwriting wise between these tracks and the Habit EP. I saw them last year & wasn’t into any of the songs but it was obvious that she was a great guitarist & singer & honestly this is the song I’ve been waiting for. She’s also only 18 - I can only imagine what she’ll be doing when she’s 25. The sky is the limit for her imo, especially after reading recent interviews & learning how much of a perfectionist/studio rat she is. Kinda bummed now that I skipped their club show here in March, that was definitely the last opportunity I had to see them in a ~450 cap room. But there was a big snowstorm that day and I didn’t feel like walking in that shit again lol.

Congrats to whoever does this band's PR. They're everywhere. I think I've inadvertently come across more profiles/articles about Snail Mail than any other band who has released an album so far this year (just saw another one in NY Times that mostly reads like a label press release). Songs are OK, but don't really seem to justify the attention.

Yeah she’s everywhere the past few weeks.

Woo hoo, we're a cutting edge, hip media source, we cover young white female rockers

huh?

yes, The New York Times, hip and cutting edge

Snail mail rules

sarcasm

Although I do wish that Nigerian woman star Afropop singer Yemi Alade could have gotten 1 big interview when she toured the US last year.

Snail mail is tight

The EP is solid, evokes those late 90s golden days

Alex G vibes

Leaked. Indifferent.

So we're calling releases leaks now?

Nothing new.
And it's out today officially regardless

opening for Interpol at Madison Square Garden in February

poor woman is 18 (19?) and already has msg boarders saying "not bad but she'll never make another song as good as this other one". cool world.

You are right.
She is a genius and everything she does (and will do) is perfect.
No other opinion is allowed because we don't wanna hurt that innocent soul who chose to be in the public eye.

yes, that's exactly what I said

i mean, i'm sorry if you took that as a personal insult, nostormo, but the truth is i accurately represented what you said.

and i think it's a bummer to declare that she has already written and recorded her best song at age 18 based off a track or two from her new album...

if that's who you wanna be, tho, go for it.

https://www.subpop.com/news/2018/06/06/rolling_blackouts_coastal_fever_share_the_hammer_and_announce_us_tour_dates_hope_downs_out_next_week_on_sub_pop

So good and unpretentious.
The hooks,the melody,the guitars. Perfect.

The album and EPs are so good but all the live performances on YT are absolutely brutal, seems like she struggles to keep her voice healthy.

I saw her live. she was absolute garbage

pristine could just fade out at 3:30 but gets 10x awesomer

late to the party here, but wow this album is amazing

i just found out that these guys are opening for Parquet Courts here in the Los Angeles area in about 20 days. how did i miss this gig until now?

I somehow missed PC playing with a symphony orchestra here a couple months ago

Golden Dream has the strangest effect on me, taking me back like ten years to a lovely place.

keep meaning to dig in to this one, only heard the single but I watched her Pitchfork Over/Under the other day and she's such a delightful dork.

The album and EPs are so good but all the live performances on YT are absolutely brutal, seems like she struggles to keep her voice healthy.

There's a video of "Pristine" from a Pitchfork festival. Not sure what's going on there, but it's an exceptionally uncomfortable performance. Great song though...

anything under the horizon? New album for example..

Apparently a new album called Valentine was due out on 11/5 and started to get teased, but all the references to it got pulled. I don't know if vinyl delays or what, but most refences to it disappeared. There was a thread about it on reddit just yesterday, with a link to a (now deleted) product listing with the cover:

https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/pkzsgw/snail_mail_teases_new_album_valentine/

Thanks

Wayback machine caught it during the brief time it was up on the band's site, but it's gone now. Probably someone jumped the gun, so maybe an announcement is imminent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210909132117/https://www.snailmail.band/home

Someone wrote they went for a more pop direction on reddit. :(

Saw that comment but since nothing has been released at all yet I'm not sure that's based on anything more than maybe extrapolating from an interview or something, I'm not going to get too concerned about one comment like that.

the album... does exist in finished form...

Officially announced today! Video for title track is out, though I'll have to wait until tonight to check it out.

01 Valentine
02 Ben Franklin
03 Headlock
04 Light Blue
05 Forever (Sailing)
06 Madonna
07 c. et. al.
08 Glory
09 Automate
10 Mia

dynamics!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxarOZ0JBcc

Lol not sure I want to sign in to verify my age while I'm at work, guessing that's one I'll have to wait on.

it's bloody and a bit violent yeah

Well, it's ok. Pretty generic imo

This is the worst single they've released, probably?

It's like "Heat Wave" stripped of the catchiness.

weird this is much catchier to me

it feels more linear to me so i can see why ppl might find it less interesting than the previous record. that said i kinda love this, chorus really works for me

First record sorta limped to the finish after being frontloaded, so if this is more linear/consistent and much of it's in the vein of "Valentine" I'm buying.

the only thing i really liked on the debut was "heat wave" & this is unfortunately not as good as that

"heat wave" always felt super familiar too, i could never figure out if it was actually ripping something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUU9xxIb91g

i like this. i'm pro-snail mail 2.0

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/snail-mail-valentine-interview/

Thought this was kinda interesting

"It's nice but they will probably never create a great song like Static Buzz again."

That was a good prediction, originally based on intuition.

this album rules

i just really love the way "ben franklin" is written, very chewy song

a lot of these songs remind me vaguely of something i can't quite pin down... closest i've gotten is thinking that many of these tracks are indie rock attempts at the next "crush" by jennifer paige (and thank god)

lot of sophistipop touches too, cf. "forever (sailing)"

tim f to album/thread

moved on, but nothing feels true
sometimes i hate her just for not being you

i know they get made fun of in the same breath bc of their band names but this album is having a very similar effect on me as the last soccer mommy

that's funny, I came here to say I've heard nothing but great things about the new album but that they're one of those bands I've avoided because of their name, like soccer mommy.

Soccer Mommy is a great name IMO

i love this album

I think I need to see how this one grows for me, lyrically I love this, and her voice is even more wonderful here, but it's a little more laidback than I'd hope. I like her voice with more fuzz and guitars.

pleasantly surprised by this now that i'm getting around to it, was not expecting those delightful sophisti-pop touches!

it's so good

actually what "forever (sailing)" really does remind me of is hikaru utada

"Glory" rules my world today. It goes to places I've been close to before but had not reached yet. I cannot stop listening to it again and again though I fear I am going to wear it out if I continue. She reminds me a little of Conor Oberst. She must have been 16 when she did "Static Buzz", that is pretty stunning.

I'm late to the party but I'm absolutely loving Valentine.

I've gone back to LJ's earlier work and it's not doing as much for me. Lush has some great tunes but seems pretty patchy. Worth another few listens as it may be a slow burner. Habit benefits from some lovely guitar work but the whiny slowcore emo vibes aren't doing it for me.