Cassette Review: Aunt Sis "9 Tracks" (Bleeding Gold Records)

[$6 // Edition of 250 // https://bleedinggoldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bg082-9-tracks]

Right away I can tell you that having the name Aunt Sis can only make me think of the cartoon show "Uncle Grandpa".  Have you seen that show?   It's a show I find to be fairly stupid, yet I can't stop watching it.   The other day my wife put the news on and left the room.   There wasn't anything else on, so I watched "Uncle Grandpa" because I just don't care about what passes for news these days.

Luckily, Aunt Sis is not something that is stupid but I like it anyway as I like it because it's good.   If you're wondering why this is called "9 Tracks" it's because it contains nine songs and Side B of it is an EP that was never released on cassette before so in that way i guess you could consider Side A to be its own EP as well and that makes this a double EP which for some reason does not an LP make.

The first sounds coming out of this cassette are of a rocking band with distinct vocals.   There is some pop and it sounds to me like something between The Stereo and Beck.   As I'm scrambling in my mind to decide on other bands this might sound like, hoping not to have to think about artists on the radio or labels like Merge, it takes a trip into the singer/songwriter as the acoustic side comes out.

Through the acoustic parts it can have the always obvious reference of EFS, but it's slightly more between that of The Lyndsay Diaries and Langhorne Slim.    That sort of country sound buried underneath the folk helps to give this its own distinction and edge, as it's not quite straight up folk or whatever you might think of that probably sounds like Mountain Goats.

As this starts with a bang, bright lights and the whole show, it slows down a bit, strips down even and really begins to show its heart.   I'm not sure how the idea came about to put these two pieces together for Side A and Side B, but they just somehow seem to work and this is one of those cassettes that when you press play you might think to yourself that you've heard this one before but by the end you'll know you really haven't.