Red Pants - When We Were Dancing

 

One of our very favorite discoveries in the past couple of years is San Francisco label Paisley Shirt Records. Their taste in music matches ours quite closely, which  means that they have very good taste indeed. While many of their releases have been local bands via cassette (often with other labels releasing the record in other formats), they have expanded their distribution offerings lately in terms of artists and format. Today's utterly delicious release is When We Were Dancing by Madison, Wisconsin's Red Pants, available in digital and, of course, cassette formats. The project of Jason Lambeth, who himself runs the cassette label Painted Blonde Tapes. Jason's lo-fi guitar-focused creations are drawn with fuzz, distortion, and jangle, and with a solid core of pop smarts.

The music on this album sounds like the music that has long been in our favorites' rotation -- melodic, sturdy, and unpretentious. And we suggest that it may well hit your sweet spot if you are a regular reader of the blog. It is one of our favorite albums of the year so far, and the fact that one of us grew up in Wisconsin has nothing to do with it.

While Red Pants is Jason's solo project, for this album he partners with his regular collaborator Elss Nekola who provides vocals and drumming.

Website for Jason Lambeth

Bandcamp for album