The A-side opens with ‘Don’t Be a Slave to That Grind’, chugging guitar rattling around behind Howard’s lyrics declaring a world-view that we can really get behind here at WTD, “Waste your life with 9-5, live your life in 9-5s, don’t be a slave to that grind”. ‘Vila 838’ is more indie pop, all fuzzed-out strum and perky percussion, but with the same lyrical sentiment (“some people like to work for the man, but I don’t have a plan, but I’d rather not subscribe to the bullshit, cos it makes me so sick”), and ‘White Heron Dance’is short and sweet, with a swaying carefree nature.

The B-side has just two tracks, ‘Ted the Radical Westy’ is a slice of twee lo-fi pop about a “party dude” from Aberdeen, while ‘American Ninja Delivery Girl’ is honeyed and jangly, a love story about an American delivery girl who don’t care what they do or what they say and a Canadian slacker who’s in a band and not very good at it. Howard has also made some endearingly lo-fi videos for some of the tracks. Check out the video for ‘Ted the Radical Westy’!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSQ10svT6qI&feature=youtu.be

It’s a great little release, all the more charming for the fact it was recorded by one man the Tascam four track tape machine he bought for £50 at a Cash Converters in Salisbury.

You can get Wasting Your Life From 9 – 5 on cassette or name-your-price download via Havana Tapes.

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Well, Amber Sweet, a two song tape, is the latest release from yet another project, a solo venture under the moniker Pet Cemetery. The title track kicks things off, a brisk song which falls between Brit guitar music and shoegaze, the lyrics occupying that strange space where sleep won’t come yet full lucidity is lost.

“stop
do you wanna talk about
all the things left in last year
you pain pictures in my skull
so I can’t get to sleep

let’s listen to william &
list our insecurities
your back came undone
i’ll sew until my fingers
bleed”

In the recent premiere of the track’s video over at Noisey, Watkins had this to has about it: “Amber Sweet was written 2 years ago and is the first song I wrote for Pet Cemetery, kinda to test the water. It’s about someone I didn’t get to know too well and don’t know anymore. It’s also about my favourite band William, Black Hole by Charles Burns, and how sometimes you can’t sleep because your brain has like a million thoughts and you’re so tired but you can’t turn your thoughts off.”

The second track on the release, ‘My Track ’92’, is what happens when punky kids write sad songs, slow and sad in a romantic way, reminiscent of the Washboard Abs album we reviewed a while back. The style leans more towards the bedroom pop end of the spectrum, with a wash of tape hiss ever present.

“we walk by the riverside
and we talk about our
futures and the things
we put in our hair
we walk by the riverside
and we talk
just to say

these small buildings
that house al of our
concerns
let the light in
like fireflies chasing birds
we spent our summer
sleeping outside
saying nothing ’til green
eyes fell tired

i don’t ever want to know”

You can buy Amber Sweet now from the Havana Records Bandcamp page, and be sure to check out the Pet Cemetery back-catalogue too.

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