"a fine-tuned ballet where our arms move and flail..."
Hearing "These Days" by Portland psych indie rock band The Minders and it felt sort of like love at first sight. It could of been Martyn Leaper's vocal push that made me think of an amalgam of Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) and Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) or the jangle pop driving cadence (free of robotic quantization) or the sort of Mama & Papas folk polished harmonies or amazing 90's college rock persona built from a free form DIY aesthetic, garden rock on high, busker punk spun from the seeds of 60's psychedelia or maybe, it was all of that.
But, yeah, instantly smitten. There was a side of indie in the 90's that spun out of that 60's Americana psych pop sound / Brit pop and 70's proto punk, a fertile movement that seemed to repeat around 2009 all across the country and for me in So Cal as outfits like Burger Records and Loli-Pop records pushed shows in parking lots, at warehouses, all over. In 1995, The Minders formed as a lo-fi recording project by Martyn Leaper and Apples In Stereo and Elephant Six visionary Robert Schneider. The Minders went on to sign with the celebrated indie Spin Art Records, releasing a series of collectible EPs, singles, and albums, and toured with Of Montreal, Elliott Smith, Mates of State, and The Apples In Stereo.
In 2016, The Minders released an album with Martyn and session players, but the Minders' 2015 touring band featured a lineup that would become their longest-lasting stable of musicians. Then and since, The Minders are comprised of Martyn Leaper (guitar, vocals), Jeff Lehman (guitar), Karen Page (vocals, piano), Alex Arrowsmith (bass) and Mike Wyant (drums).
Martyn shares:
"I wrote the song 'These Days', after feeling isolated and hemmed in by the pandemic, and the political/social upheaval that has consumed society for the last several years. I think I was channeling a younger me. I thought about how I used to go dancing with my friends during my teens. We would dress up, spike our hair and go dance for hours at the local 3.2 bar (Colorado Springs, Co) to the B52’s, Thompson Twins, and whatever the college hits were. All our angst was exorcised - sweated out. The act of dancing with a sweetheart or a friend was so magical. I miss this feeling being swept away in the moment by something so carefree. I guess this song is a projection, a wish to be transported to another place in time. A better time, any time but these days."
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/themindersmusic
https://www.instagram.com/the_minders/
https://twitter.com/the_minders
https://theminders.bandcamp.com/
The 1990s were a halcyon era for homespun indie pop with a 1960s flair. The decade’s finest artists earned an association with the Elephant Six Collective, a swirl of bands who shared an affinity for psychedelia, Brit Invasion pop-rock, and charmingly scuzzy bedroom productions.
One of the gems of this inspired retro-pop DIY movement were The Minders. The band initially formed as a lo-fi recording project by Martyn Leaper and Apples In Stereo and Elephant Six visionary Robert Schneider in 1995. The Minders went on to sign with venerated indie Spin Art Records, release a series of collectible EPs, singles, and albums, and tour with Of Montreal, Elliott Smith, Mates of State, and The Apples In Stereo.
Now, the Portland, Oregon-based quintet is releasing some of its strongest strains of scruffy psych-pop. Its latest album, Psychedelic Blacktop, out early next year on the band’s own Space Cassette Records imprint, is an artistic high watermark of garage-rock A-sides.
“This is the first time I enjoyed making a record, and it’s a real honest record,” Martyn shares. “It was a lot of fun to make, but you can hear us struggling with the production medium—tracking to 8-track half-inch tape —this thing came into the world kicking and screaming.”
Psychedelic Blacktop marks an epoch of renewed creativity for Martyn after a transformative 2015 tour with The Minders and Neutral Milk Hotel. “The experience of being on the road again made me question what I was doing with my life. I knew that I needed to immerse my mind into writing once more,” Martyn shares. “I dearly wanted to rediscover what it was that had originally made me so excited about writing and playing pop music.”
The Minders released an album in 2016 featuring Martyn and session players, but the band’s tour in 2015 featured a lineup that would become The Minders longest-lasting stable of musicians. During the tour, and over the past 6 years, the project has coalesced into a band. The Minders are Martyn, Karen Page, Alex Arrowsmith, Jeff Lehman, and Mike Wyant.
The single, These Days, is pure West Coast folk-rock replete with golden harmony vocals. The song has that sad-but-pretty feel of Beach Boys, and, aptly, it just wasn’t made for these times. “These Days” yearns for simple moments of feeling human, like dancing or technology-free human interaction. “It is a reaction to how I feel today in our changed world. I had already started to feel isolated by the ever-encroaching hyper connectivity of our modern world, and the pandemic has cemented my thorough dissociation with society,” Martyn shares. “I want to relive the simple joy of dancing to music. I want to forget the noise of everyday life for a moment.”
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