UPDATE – January 2015 Stream Pond’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again album and watch its four music videos. A second GUM record is in the works. Preview Tame Impala’s third LP, expected to be released by Spring 2015.
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What do Pond’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again, Mink Mussel Creek’s Mink Mussel Manticore, Shiny Joe Ryan’s The Cosmic Microwave Background, and GUM’s Delorean Highway have in common? They’re all albums made by musicians associated with Tame Impala set to be issued in the near future on Spinning Top Records. The Future Heart’s previewed these releases earlier this year. Read on for a summary of updates since that post.
On May 1st Tame Impala’s management Spinning Top Music announced Spinning Top Records, their new label in association with ADA. To launch the label they’re offering 5 free downloads, one each week throughout May. The first of these was “They Dated Steadily,” a 13-minute epic by Mink Mussel Creek (free download here). Before there was Tame Impala, before there was Pond, there was some dudes in Perth that liked playing music together that eventually started calling themselves Mink Mussel Creek. “Not much time had to pass before they got really good at it,” Mink Mussel Creek’s press bio explains, “so they decided to give themselves a name and start playing some shows. And then a few more shows, and then a crapload of shows. In fact, 2007 saw Mink Mussel Creek play over 100 shows, even smashing through 10 in one week. During this time, members had come and gone, but the end result was a ripper one with Nick Allbrook on vocals, Shiny Joe Ryan on guitar, Steve Summerlin on bass, Richard Ingham on synths and Kevin Parker on drums.”
Long story short: after failed attempts to record an album in the following years, the band morphed into Pond and the Mink Mussel material was scrapped for a couple of years until they regrouped for two weeks in January 2011 at the Norfolk Basement Fremantle. Although the results of these sessions were issued on a USB wristband, they never got a proper release – until now. Mink Mussel Manticore is finally coming to double vinyl in June (and was also released yesterday on Australian iTunes). Coolest of all is watching Kevin Parker drum in the promo live video below (followed by the tracklist):
1 They Dated Steadily 13:34
2 Meeting Waterboy 6:14
3 Cat Love Power 6:47
4 Promising Quintet Rise To Power (Macho Peachu) 4:04
5 Makeout Party Girls 4:57
6 Hands Off the Mannequin, Charlie 6:31
7 Doesn’t the Moon Look Good Tonight 7:30
GUM’s long-awaited Delorean Highway and Shiny Joe Ryan’s The Cosmic Microwave Background – both previewed here, with streams of their lead singles – are also set to be released on vinyl in June on Spinning Top Records (and May 30th digitally). GUM is the side project of Tame Impala and Pond’s Jay Watson, “better known to friends and loved ones as Gumby or Gum.” Download GUM’s cover of 1980’s Genesis hit “Misunderstanding” for free here, and check the tracklist below:
1 Delorean Highway (stream)
2 Growin’ Up (stream)
3 The Sky Opened Up
4 Misunderstanding (free download)
5 Summer Rain
6 21st Century Radiation
7 Pink Skies
8 Living And Dying
9 Day Of The Triffids
10 Can’t See Past My Eyes
Mink Mussel Creek and Pond’s Joe Ryan (also Tame Impala’s guitar tech) recorded a “10 track debut album alone in his grotty Berlin apartment. Later, he enlisted the help of some friends to fill it out a little,” according to the press release. Titled The Cosmic Microwave Background, the resulting album was mastered by Kevin Parker. Download “‘What Ever Happened To The Space Race?’ – featuring Nick Allbrook (Pond, Tame Impala) on drums – for free here.
1 Always Wanting More
2 Whatever Happened To The Space Race? (free download)
3 The Cosmic Microwave Background Pt1 (stream)
4 The Old Man And The Sea
5 Devonvare $amson
6 Feelings Returning
7 The Cosmic Microwave Background Pt2
8 Hold On For The Ride
9 The God Particle
10 Can We Ever Make It?
As for Pond’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again, since The Future Heart’s preview in January, Nick confirmed the band was “currently in the last throes of mixing and mastering” to Xpressmag and Jay added to The West Australian it will be released mid-2014: “It’s like Beard in that it’s like a mixtape. There’s a funk song; there’s Joe’s country song; me and Joe have these heartfelt power ballads; and then there’s space rock. It’s definitely the most pop thing we’ve done, by far.”
Pond’s latest release is “Colouring The Streets,” a track on the Spirit Of Askasha soundtrack streaming below:
The Future Heart 
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