Flowertown - Further Listening Playlist
To go alongside their future classic debut record (out this week on Mt.St.Mtn) we asked Flowertown to make us a Further Listening playlist, and they've put together a real beaut, focussing on their friends in and around the great Paisley Shirt label.
We were instantly smitten when introduced to Cindy by Stephen at Tough Love, with nods to the best bits of all the best bands. Flowertown - which is Cindy's Karina, with Mike from Tony Jay - continue in that same vein. Glenn Donaldson from Freeform Freakout/The Reds, Pinks & Purples puts it best:
“…Flowertown is indebted to the great works of post-Velvets indie: Galaxie 500’s trilogy, Cannanes A Love Affair with Nature, Low’s I Could Live in Hope, ’90-’93 Yo La Tengo, but thankfully they didn’t forget to write songs and find their own voices and charm inside that sound. If you wander the outer avenues out to Land’s End with this in your headphones, you may float away into oblivion. This feels like a band that is about to write a timeless album, and I am more than ready with my PayPal login info.”
Hello from Flowertown! Thank you for inviting us to put together some songs as companion listening to the Flowertown LP.
Flowertown has a kind of geography — both literal and imaginative. There are nooks of the city of San Francisco that figure into our songs — mostly because we enjoy them. RCP stands for Rich Cat Pocket, which is what we call a little nest of streets where many feral cats like to hang out. Icehouse 1375 is a building in Mike’s neighborhood, and it stands only feet from Garbage Hill.
Flowertown is also a geography of connection. We are lucky to be part of a community of people who make and record music. This playlist reflects a small number of those connections — April Magazine played a show in a town nicknamed Flowertown and Karina stole the name; Matt of The Umbrellas mastered the songs on the LP; Kati of Mister Baby played bass for Flowertown’s first live performance; Kevin of Sad Eyed Beatniks runs Paisley Shirt Records which releases much of the music on the list; people we’ve played with; local friends we admire.
And The Vince Guaraldi Trio? It seems that whenever Karina goes over to Mike’s to work on music, the same record is on the record player, no matter what the season — A Charlie Brown Christmas. June, September, whatever. So, you could say it’s a soundtrack. And, Vince Guaraldi is buried in a nearby town — a part of the geography himself.
Thanks so much for having Flowertown record of the week at South Records. We’re honored and hope someday to be able to visit the shop.
Sincerely,
Karina and Mike
1. Cold Beat “62 Moons”
2. Mister Baby “Cake Shop”
3. Blue Ocean “Dwell”
4. David Castillo “Health Care Suite”
5. Sad Eyed Beatniks “West Of Twin Peaks”
6. The Lice “Stagefright”
7. Vince Guaraldi Trio “Skating”
8. April Magazine “If The Ceiling Were A Kite”
9. Adam Healton “Worms”
10. Hectorine “Another Life”
11. Hits “Climbing Up”
12. The Snogs “Man Thinks Woman”
13. RE Seraphin “Streetlight”
14. Burner Herzog “Prayer Candles”
15. The Umbrellas “City Song”
BUY: Cindy - Free Advice
PRE-ORDER: Cindy - 1:2