A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

adults - for everything, always [12"]

Artist: adults
Title: for everything, always
Format: 12” pink vinyl album & digital
Cat#: Fika093LP
Release date: 14th October 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

Combining elements of indie-pop, punk, emo and just a little bit of 2009 vintage math-rock for good measure, adults are four pals trying to find their way in a disintegrating world. for everything, always reflects on how we look after ourselves, one another and people in our community; it’s a riotous collision reminiscent of Johnny Foreigner, The Beths or Trust Fund, bursting with crunching guitars, speedy drums and yelping dual vocals.

The first single all we’ve got // all we need is a song about individual torments: “having a breakdown on the Megabus to Bristol", and about collective support: “mutual aid, building strong networks of community resistance to the hostile environment, to food insecurity, to the homophobia and transphobia by the state and about trying to look after one another”.

the secret song to end side one deals with loss, guilt, rejection and anxiety, exploring the travails of a messy breakup and the masculine urge to bury everything deep down despite the fact that that only hurts people more.

tfl has a lot to answer for is a “reflection of drinking way too much in yr mid 20s, staying up too late, burning yrself out and how it impacts on yr relationships and mental health”.

Recorded and produced by Rich Mandell (Happy Accidents, ME REX) over a couple of weekends in the summer of 2021, for everything, always is the constantly naive, but optimistic, outlook: always striving for a better future in the face of modern society’s bullshit.

adults are a noisy pop band desperately clinging on to the ghosts of 2009. 
Their songs are a silly, joyful, and occasionally sad, look back at the tail end of their 20s, a way to grapple with breakups, parties, alcohol and loneliness, and looking hopefully into the future.
They’ve released singles with Art Is Hard and For The Sakes Of Tapes, and self released an EP (The Weekend Was Always Almost Over), which was subsequently released on vinyl by Caballito records. adults are based in south London.

Faster, messier and sillier than they have any right to be, adults are hopeful and joyous, fighting through the existential angst of youth to try and find their place in a world on the brink, as grown ups, as adults. Like the octopus on the artwork says: “we're all we've got, we're all we need”.

adults are
carl (he/they) - bass
joe (he/him) - drums
joely (she/they) - guitar and singing
tom (he/him) - guitar, synth, singing

https://linktr.ee/sclubadults

* * *

the sad and sorry state of a band in the last throes of their twenties.

no one told us at fourteen that playing music would be like this. the late night load ins, scheduling annual leave to squeeze out fourteen songs spread out over fourteen days.

the news had only just reached us. dancing and laughing with the ppl we love remains everything even when we knew it was time to pick up our shoes and leave. i can still see yr smile coming and feel mine forming. and the weekend was always almost over. 
and its funny. and its all so reductive. and none of this counts until the boredom is tangible.
either way 
find comfort in that
there is always a better way to do this
the list will complete you first

for everything, always

p.s. i had a little snooze and now i will probably never arrive at yr house.

adults xoxox

“Propelled by their trademark jangling melodies and buoyant scuzzy energy, ‘things we achieve‘ reflects on the pressures of living in a Capitalist society as honey-sweet vocals interweave between whirring hooks. Showcasing adults’ ability to juxtapose poignant subject matter with an irresistibly blissful, catchy musicality, this latest single offers a slice of gloriously fizzing indie-pop that’ll both uplift and inspire” Get In Her Ears

“Clocking in at barely two minutes, the track is a belt-along blast even by Adults’ high standards, yet like so many of the best seemingly chaotic bops, beneath the clatter, there’s plenty to say. Joely and Tom share vocal duties, yelping out their frustrations at both a lack of progress and having to exist in a world that constantly demands it” For The Rabbits

“A little roll in, a nice shouted sample, then the band rushes off, running full spring through this spirited burst of pop rock. You’ve settled into the joyous nature, then the 1:37 marker hits and the song turns, hitting even more furiously as it chases down that finish line, though still keeping that melody bobbing” Austin Town Hall

“Short, sharp and spiky, there’s a touch of Johnny Foreigner in the rapid-fire vocal delivery while the jangle-pop sound is reminiscent of the underground legends Bearsuit or the much-missed Spook School at their sweetest” Spectral Nights

“their jangle rock being punctuated by a sense of leftfield, that emanates from an incessant noise-pop energy and unrelenting vocal delivery, as they race through a world of issues” Jangle Pop Hub

adults - tfl has a lot to answer for [Digital]

Artist: adults
Title: tfl has a lot to answer for
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika093SG3
Release date: 22nd September 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

South London DIY punk outfit adults today release the final single single “tfl has a lot to answer for” form their forthcoming debut album “for everything, always”, coming out on October 14th on Fika Recordings.

The new single is “a reflection of drinking way too much in yr mid 20s, staying up too late, burning yrself out and how it impacts on yr relationships and mental health”. It’s two and a half minutes of delightfully scrappy, catchy DIY pop that’s sure to appeal to fans of Los Campesinos, Martha and Johnny Foreigner.

adults are a noisy pop band desperately clinging on to the ghosts of 2009.

Their songs are a silly, joyful, and occasionally sad, look back at the tail end of their 20s, a way to grapple with breakups, parties, alcohol and loneliness, and looking hopefully into the future.

They’ve released singles with Art Is Hard and For The Sakes Of Tapes, and self released an EP (The Weekend Was Always Almost Over), which was subsequently released on vinyl by Caballito records. They’re based in south London.

adults are
carl (he/they) - bass
joe (he/him) - drums
joely (she/they) - guitar and singing
tom (he/him) - guitar, synth, singing

“Smart, fun, and relevant” The Revue

“This one is all about the opening guitar work, fighting chords working over each other for stardom, building the tension and rushing into action. It’s here the vocals unite, offering a bit of melodic call and response before settling into the calm of the chorus” Austin Town Hall

Mindies [in Spanish]

Let's Whisper - The In-Between Times [12"]

Artist: Let’s Whisper
Title: The In-Between Times
Format: 12" album on black vinyl
Cat#: Fika092LP
Release date: 26th August 2022
Bandcamp

The name “Let’s Whisper” implies secrets—the sorts of things you’d tell friends in a night’s waning hours, as the sun is about to peek over the horizon. Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan have been friends and musical collaborators for years, and the openhearted, detail-rich indiepop they craft together reflects their rich creative relationship and trust in each other. On The In-Between Times, the second Let’s Whisper full-length—the band’s first release in eight years, and first as a five-piece—the Burlington-based band digs deeper into their day-to-day worlds while confronting their individual and collective futures.    

“This is a record about love and loss and change and possibilities,” Colin and Dana say about The In-Between Times, which comes out on Fika Recordings in August 2022. Indeed, the prevailing mood of this album is a sense of grounding, of not letting the big questions of life—“what gets you through the night?”, “will I see you around the town?”, “have you done the thing that defines you yet?”—completely obfuscate the minutiae that makes it beautiful.  

Musically and lyrically detailed, The In-Between Times is the work of a band that uses the catchy melodies and jangling guitars of indiepop to peel off into exciting, and at times unexpected, musical and lyrical directions. “The Thing That Defines You” is crisp and questioning, with squiggles of guitar at its melody’s fringes implying the strands of identity that a friend is trying to see in order to get a full, unencumbered-by-narrative picture of someone they love. “Sing!” swells from a gentle jangle into a triumphant trans anthem that charmingly flips the bird to societal norms. “40 Ways To Love You” pairs its pointillistic detailing of a loved one’s best qualities with a weepy guitar countermelody that makes the romance all the more poignant.        

Let’s Whisper started as a home-recording project between Colin and Dana, also in the beloved “open-hearted indiepop revolutionaries” The Smittens, in the mid-2000s. Writing and recording music at home resulted in more tightly knit songwriting process, which the pair referred to as “Whispering.” After releasing a pair of EPs, 2008’s Make Me Smile and 2010’s Keep a Secret, Let’s Whisper brought on drummer Brad Searles (Eef, The Also-Rans), expanding and adding a fulcrum to their sound. Since Brad joined, Let’s Whisper has released one album, 2011’s The Shortest Days, and a 10-inch, 2014’s As Close As We Are. The latter was called “short and sweet, by turns deadpan in its delivery and sentimental in its subject matter” by the Vermont weekly Seven Days, and it was Let’s Whisper’s last release until now.

But Let’s Whisper has kept creatively busy in those ensuing years. In addition to the three members pursuing their own projects individually and together, Let’s Whisper toured the US and the UK, rounding out its lineup with bassist-guitarist Jeff Baron (Essex Green, Ladybug Transistor) in the States and bassist-vocalist Emma Kupa (Standard Fare, Mammoth Penguins) in Great Britain. For the recording of The In-Between Times, both Jeff and Emma joined Colin, Dana, and Brad during sessions at Marlborough Farms in Brooklyn—although they did so a year apart, with Emma recording her parts (including banjo on the chiming “Simple Times” and vocals and banjo on the plainspoken “Long Run”) with the core three in 2017 and Jeff adding guitar and keyboards in 2018, when the finishing touches were put on the album by studio owner and engineer Gary Olson.  

With The In-Between Times, Let’s Whisper have created an album that, even in its more pensive and mournful moments, celebrates the array of what life has to offer—the elation of watching hot-air balloons lift off at sunset, the triumph that comes with living honestly, the joy that comes when an open heart is mirrored by a friend, or a fan, or a loved one. Lean in and listen closely. 

Let’s Whisper are
Colin Clary - guitar, vocals
Dana Kaplan - guitar, vocals
Brad Searles - drums
Emma Kupa - bass, vocals,
Jeff Baron - guitar, keys

LET’S WHISPER started as a home-recording project between the Burlington, Vermont-based duo of Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan (The Smittens) in the mid-2000s. Their home-recording process, which they refer to as “Whispering,” conjures up intimate, heartfelt songs that build off the framework of tweepop and incorporate bits of psychedelia and Americana while staying openhearted and questioning. On their first release in eight years, The In-Between Times, Let’s Whisper—now a five-piece rounded out by drummer Brad Searles, bassist-vocalist Emma Kupa, and guitarist-keyboardist Jeff Baron—expand their sound while detailing the realities of their world in pointillistic lyrics. 

“The In-Between Times offers the type of sentimental, nostalgic music that would be at home in a quirky, early aughts rom-com soundtrack with bands like the Magnetic Fields, the Microphones, Seabear and the Weakerthans” Seven Days

“every bit as good as it should be with such a line up and drifts through an eclectic mix of twee / jangly indie-pop… consumamate cool of Scottish indie-pop acts such as the BMX Bandits, U.S. Highball and Bubblegum Lemonade” Janglepop

“Disarming and comforting” Sydsvenskan [4/5]

“The songs of "The In-Between Times" are truly timeless” (album of the week) Music Won’t Save You [in Italian]

Just Another Pop Song [Italian]

adults - things we achieve [Digital]

Artist: adults
Title: things we achieve
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika093SG2
Release date: 18th August 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

South London DIY punk outfit adults today release their latest single “things we achieve” and announce their debut album “for everything, always”, coming out in October on Fika Recordings.

The new single things we achieve is about “how capitalism makes us  forget what matters, how to be kind to people and to enjoy living”, it’s two and a half minutes of delightfully scrappy, catchy DIY pop that’s sure to appeal to fans of Los Campesinos, Martha and Johnny Foreigner.

adults are a noisy pop band desperately clinging on to the ghosts of 2009. 

Their songs are a silly, joyful, and occasionally sad, look back at the tail end of their 20s, a way to grapple with breakups, parties, alcohol and loneliness, and looking hopefully into the future.

They’ve released singles with Art Is Hard and For The Sakes Of Tapes, and self released an EP (The Weekend Was Always Almost Over), which was subsequently released on vinyl by Caballito records. They’re based in south London.

adults are
carl (he/they) - bass
joe (he/him) - drums
joely (she/they) - guitar and singing
tom (he/him) - guitar, synth, singing

“Propelled by their trademark jangling melodies and buoyant scuzzy energy, ‘things we achieve‘ reflects on the pressures of living in a Capitalist society as honey-sweet vocals interweave between whirring hooks. Showcasing adults’ ability to juxtapose poignant subject matter with an irresistibly blissful, catchy musicality, this latest single offers a slice of gloriously fizzing indie-pop that’ll both uplift and inspire” Get In Her Ears

“Clocking in at barely two minutes, the track is a belt-along blast even by Adults’ high standards, yet like so many of the best seemingly chaotic bops, beneath the clatter, there’s plenty to say. Joely and Tom share vocal duties, yelping out their frustrations at both a lack of progress and having to exist in a world that constantly demands it” For The Rabbits

“A little roll in, a nice shouted sample, then the band rushes off, running full spring through this spirited burst of pop rock. You’ve settled into the joyous nature, then the 1:37 marker hits and the song turns, hitting even more furiously as it chases down that finish line, though still keeping that melody bobbing” Austin Town Hall

“Short, sharp and spiky, there’s a touch of Johnny Foreigner in the rapid-fire vocal delivery while the jangle-pop sound is reminiscent of the underground legends Bearsuit or the much-missed Spook School at their sweetest” Spectral Nights

“their jangle rock being punctuated by a sense of leftfield, that emanates from an incessant noise-pop energy and unrelenting vocal delivery, as they race through a world of issues” Jangle Pop Hub

Let's Whisper - Long Run [Digital]

Artist: Let’s Whisper
Title: Long Run
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika092SG3
Release date: 4th August 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

Let’s Whisper return with their first new music since 2014, having grown from a three piece to enlist the talents of The Essex Green’s Jeff Baron and Mammoth Penguins’ Emma Kupa, today previewing another track from their forthcoming album.

Following on from recent singles The Thing That Defines You and The Year Of Getting High (the first new music from Let’s Whisper since 2014), Long Run showcases another angle to Let’s Whisper’s evolution.

Written by Emma Kupa, Long Run is the first Let’s Whisper track not penned by the founding duo of Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan, and leads us through her tender reflections on relationship regrets - a thread familiar to those who fell in love with her critically acclaimed solo album of 2020.

“This song is about finding peace and closure and seeing a more positive side to a situation that for a long time may have only seemed negative.”

Let’s Whisper started in the early 2000s in Burlington, Vermont, as a home recording project for Dana Kaplan and Colin Clary, both of The Smittens, for their softer, more intimate compositions. Brad Searles joined soon after on drums, as the sounded evolved from acoustic duets to embrace a wider dynamic. They released a pair of EPs and two full length record on the much missed London based microlabel WeePOP! from 2008 to 2014.

Since then, Let’s Whisper started playing more shows, in the US enlisting Jeff Baron (The Essex Green, Ladybug Transistor) on guitar or bass, and in the UK bringing in Emma Kupa (Mammoth Penguins, Standard Fare) on bass.

On the forthcoming record The In-Between Times, their first for Fika Recordings, they recorded with Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor) in Brooklyn, NY. It’s the first Let’s Whisper record with Dana Kaplan post-testosterone, and sees Emma Kupa fill in on the high harmonies vacated by Dana’s new vocal range. The addition of Jeff Baron and Emma Kupa has brought flourishes of both The Essex Green’s textural complexity and Standard Fare’s polyphony arrangements to the Let’s Whisper catalogue.

LET’S WHISPER started as a home-recording project between the Burlington, Vermont-based duo of Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan (The Smittens) in the mid-2000s. Their home-recording process, which they refer to as “Whispering,” conjures up intimate, heartfelt songs that build off the framework of tweepop and incorporate bits of psychedelia and Americana while staying openhearted and questioning. On their first release in eight years, The In-Between Times, Let’s Whisper—now a five-piece rounded out by drummer Brad Searles, bassist-vocalist Emma Kupa, and guitarist-keyboardist Jeff Baron—expand their sound while detailing the realities of their world in pointillistic lyrics. 

Let’s Whisper live:
15 Sep: O Brien’s, Boston MA - with Quivers and Yours Are The Only Ears

“It’s a mellow ballad, but this time Emma seems to be finding solace in letting things go, allowing yourself to find some closure. The instrumentation is really special, from little horn accents to an understated banjo working beneath Emma’s voice” Austin Town Hall

Let's Whisper - The Year Of Getting High [Digital]

Artist: Let’s Whisper
Title: The Year Of Getting High
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika092SG2
Release date: 12th July 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

The name “Let’s Whisper” implies secrets—the sorts of things you’d tell friends in a night’s waning hours, as the sun is about to peek over the horizon. Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan have been friends and musical collaborators for years, and the openhearted, detail-rich indiepop they craft together reflects their rich creative relationship and trust in each other. On The In-Between Times, the second Let’s Whisper full-length—the band’s first release in eight years, and first as a five-piece—the Burlington-based band digs deeper into their day-to-day worlds while confronting their individual and collective futures.  

Following on from recent single The Thing That Defines You (the first new music from Let’s Whisper since 2014), The Year Of Getting High is the second track taken from the forthcoming album The In-Between Times (out August 2022), this time showcasing the songwriting nous of Dana Kaplan:

“As a kid (and actually into my early adult years) I was always really only able to cry when I was by myself, my head in my pillow, shielded from the world. How and with whom and where do we show our true selves? This one is about the safety measures and defense mechanisms we use to guard ourselves against being with ourselves and our truths.”

Let’s Whisper are:
Colin Clary - guitar, vocals
Dana Kaplan - guitar, vocals
Brad Searles - drums
Emma Kupa - bass, vocals
Jeff Baron - guitar, keys

LET’S WHISPER started as a home-recording project between the Burlington, Vermont-based duo of Colin Clary and Dana Kaplan (The Smittens) in the mid-2000s. Their home-recording process, which they refer to as “Whispering,” conjures up intimate, heartfelt songs that build off the framework of tweepop and incorporate bits of psychedelia and Americana while staying openhearted and questioning. On their first release in eight years, The In-Between Times, Let’s Whisper—now a five-piece rounded out by drummer Brad Searles, bassist-vocalist Emma Kupa, and guitarist-keyboardist Jeff Baron—expand their sound while detailing the realities of their world in pointillistic lyrics. 

Let’s Whisper live:
15 Sep: O Brien’s, Boston MA - with Quivers and Yours Are The Only Ears

“On their latest single, the band churn out something that equally as grand, though its blossoming in a completely different fashion, more organic in a sense. The percussion works as the song’s backbone, with guitar lines bending about, stretching themselves out on the lawn and soaking up the little arrangement details that offer a sunny disposition to the listener” Austin Town Hall

Stanley Brinks & Freschard - Lion Heart [12"]

Artist: Freschard & Stanley Brinks
Title: Lion Heart
Format: 12" album on yellow vinyl
Cat#: Fika091LP
Release date: 8th July 2022
Bandcamp

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions  later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.  

Freschard grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”.

adults - all we've got // all we need [Digital]

Artist: adults
Title: all we’ve got // all we need
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika093SG1
Release date: 5th July 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

“all we’ve got // all we need” is the first single from adults for Fika Recordings, taken from their soon to be announced debut album, due out in the autumn. Scrappy, catchy DIY pop that’s sure to appeal to fans of Los Campesinos, Martha and Johnny Foreigner.

“It’s a song about having a breakdown on the megabus to bristol. About mutual aid, building strong networks of community resistance to the hostile environment, to food insecurity, to the homophobia and transphobia by the state and about trying to look after one another.”

adults are a noisy pop band desperately clinging on to the ghosts of 2009. 

Their songs are a silly, joyful, and occasionally sad, look back at the tail end of their 20s, a way to grapple with breakups, parties, alcohol and loneliness, and looking hopefully into the future.

They’ve released singles with Art Is Hard and For The Sakes Of Tapes, and self released an EP (The Weekend Was Always Almost Over), which was subsequently released on vinyl by Caballito records. They’re based in south London.

adults are
carl (he/they) - bass
joe (he/him) - drums
joely (she/they) - guitar and singing
tom (he/him) - guitar, synth, singing

https://linktr.ee/sclubadults

adults dates:

July 8th - Sebright Arms, London UK - Charmpit album launch w adults and Bitch Hunt
July 21st - Port Mahon, Oxford UK - ME REX, adults, spank hair, jeff
July 22nd - The Victoria, London UK - adults, Spank Hair, DreamPhone
July 23rd - The Exchange, Bristol UK - adults, Spank Hair, Bad Brenda
July 27th - The Amersham Arms, London UK - Cheerbleederz album launch w adults and ME REX (solo)
September 28th - The Victoria, London, UK - Caleb Nichols, Schande, adults

“It’s a song that says yes, it can feel like we’re under a constant barrage from the powers-that-be, but we’ve got the tools to make it better, “let’s pick up all the pieces that they left us, atomised by work and rent and sleep, tell each other when we’re hurt or stressed or broken, protect all of our communities”. They set that message to a cacophony of clattering drums and belt-it-out choruses Los Campesinos! or Martha would be proud of evidence that Adults seem to have stumbled into something rather marvellous” For The Rabbits

“There’s an ample buoyancy from the vocal work, and the guitars are crunchy, though I like how they’re a bit tempered here; think of Martha having to play at your local library…hooks, but just a little more subdued” Austin Town Hall

“Simultaneously oozing a sense of joyous unity whilst shades of despair at the state of the world remain evident, ‘all we’ve got // all we need’ glistens with all the dreamy, indie-pop feels and honey-sweet heartfelt emotion I could ever desire.” Get In Her Ears

Polaroid [Italian]