pacificnature.jpgHead’s up to all that Pacific Nature Recording has released a split CD featuring three artists, Flatsound, iamb, and Kingsauce, which you can purchase now for $7 via the label’s MySpace page.  Each artist contributes four tracks to the comp.  Flatsound makes music recorded inside a bathroom somewhere in California, or so I’m told, but the young singer/songwriter behind the mic makes lovely fragile little tunes on the themes of break-ups and get-togethers.  Iamb is along similar lines, so lo-fi it crackles, and they’re strongest on “Summer in a Sleeping Bag,” whose melody evokes the title quite perfectly.  But if you’re reading Optical Atlas you’re most familiar with Kingsauce, the New Jersey-based novelty pop of Richie Chodes (also with Vince Mole & His Calcium Orchestra).  His tracks are older, dating back to the first Happy Happy Birthday to Me singles club as well as an excellent split with Plastic Mastery.  It’s nice to have them on CD–firstly because the vinyl originals had gone out of print, but also because the songs rank among his most fun.  “Ode to Lobo,” “I Ate a Box of Twinkies,” and “My Treehouse,” from the singles club entry, are just as low-fi as the other contributions to this compilation, but are more Randy Newman or Ray Davies than Elliot Smith.  “Wendy” has a Paul McCartneyesque simplicity, although the sardonic lyrics undercut the melody’s sentimentality.  If you’re new to Kingsauce, this Pacific Nature sampler is a fine introduction.

And you can hear one of those tracks, “My Treehouse,” in the Optical Atlas streaming jukebox, now updated with this and 9 other tracks, including rarities from Casper & the Cookies, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t, and The Ladybug Transistor’s Gary Olson.  Put on your headphones and click here.