TOPS’ Week in Pop
Montreal & Canada’s own national pop treasure TOPS release their wildly anticipated third album Sugar at the Gate available June 2 from Arbutus Records & leader Jane Penny presents the following:
TOPS’ Week In Pop courtesy of Jane Penny:
Castration Squad, “A Date with Jack”
Castration Squad is a death rock band from LA. David and I watched this video after watching the decline of western civilization documentaries. The song is about going on a date with Jack Kennedy, even though he’s dead. There’s an interview at the end of the video and Mary Bat-Thing (one of the singers in Castration Squad) says “She means when she dies she’s going to um, have a date with him hehe” and she sounds really fucking cool when she says it, so we put it in the intro to “Dayglow Bimbo”. But when we tried to clear the sample it turned out that the rights to the TV show they appeared on had been acquired by NBC Universal, who had no interest in clearing the sample. So we had to take it out of the intro to the song which was a bummer, but now you can watch this video.
Lush, “Sweetness and Light”
The vocals on Dayglow have a three part harmony for the whole song. I tried to record one track, but it never made sense, I couldn’t commit to a single take. Then one night I went in to the studio in our house alone and started layering the parts and it came together finally. Lush have two amazing singers that are always singing together so they have nice harmonies most of the time. With really loud guitars.
Pale Saints “You Tear the World in Two”
This is a really good song that our drummer Riley showed me, the vocals and the guitar are similar to Dayglow, and the words are kind of cryptic and psychological as well. It’s also a really short song, 2:45
Tear the world in two
And choose a half
But look inside you
You are what you are
I’ve seen it through
And you will too
I can tell that you
Feel these things too
And teach yourself to walk
Into the hole
Exploding in your heart
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