Golden Isles

“Can everyone live with the buzz?� asked Crystal Moustache singer Adam Feingold. He meant a mysterious and persistent hum in the sound system of upstairs punk den Saphir rather than the one growing around this band. Well, we could, because that was only the biggest of the glitches that should have torched the entire gig.
Should have but did not. And make no mistake: Altamont was better organized. The set-up featured the testing of a 300-watt eye-searing lightbulb under a white umbrella prop, and more cable-jiggling and head-scratching than if the thing had been run by monkeys. Didn’t help. The keyboardist gesturally begged the soundman for more volume all night – and he needed it, since half the time his keys couldn’t be heard. Mics fed back. Then a mic stand fell off the stage and was caught by a kid in the crowd. Another kid pointed to another mic facing the floor, thinking it might be the buzz-maker.
And yet throughout, the band showed a game and ballsy insistence on playing through no matter what. That’s not a left-handed compliment: a lesser band would have stormed off the “stage� and kicked the amps down the life-threateningly steep staircase. “I’ve been to a lotta bar mitzvahs, so I know how to MC ***,� said Feingold, laughing off the confusion, stepping into the crowd and singing the alt-soul-lounge songs that have gotten this band noticed. They deserved better, but that attitude will carry them through. Next gig eagerly awaited, boys.

– Mark Lepage - The Gazette

Night tripper
Golden Isles pop till they drop

CRYSTAL CLEAR: Golden Isles

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“Crystal Moustache,” says Golden Isles singer Adam Feingold, dismissing his band’s old moniker outright. “It did, for a while, signify the vibe that we were putting out when we were a new wave jam band singing about nothing. But Crystal Moustache is just stupid.”

“We couldn’t go on with that name,” adds bassist Kyle Salhany. “We had been advised by a few people in the biz to change it.”

With the proliferation of Crystal bands in recent years (see Crystal Castles, Clyffs, Antlers, Stilts and Skulls), a new name was necessary for the burgeoning band, all in their early twenties, and the added focus and motivation that came with it were welcome side effects.

But that’s not to say that they’ve been slacking. Feingold, Salhany and Richard Wenger, Jonny Knowles, Matthew Salaciak and Emmanuel Thibau have made impressive strides since the band’s inception two years ago, despite juggling school and work. They’ve recorded an album’s worth of unreleased material at Breakglass Studios, played Pop Montreal twice (once with each band name), as well as Toronto’s NXNE and Pitter Patter festivals, and opened for such bands as Vetiver, Ponytail, Cryptacize, Papercuts and fellow locals the Lovely Feathers, one of their few “band homies” in a scene they don’t feel well suited to.

With backgrounds playing everything from emo to electro, but little in the way of classical training and not one symphonic instrument or art school credit between them, Golden Isles aren’t your average local indie band.

“Often the best musicians make the worst rock music,” says Feingold.

“Too technical,” says Salhany.

“Too cerebral,” adds Feingold (making an exception for Dirty Projectors, a band he’s particularly digging these days). “Generally, when you think of real rock, you think of the Stooges or the Velvet Underground, their earthy and intuitive thing, and all the styles of music that we tend to play around with are very simplistic, like R&B.”

Despite citing punk/noise prototypes such as the Stooges and VU, Golden Isles identify themselves as a pop band, drawing more from the likes of the Beatles, with added groove and modern progressions, to be heard sometime in 2010 on a recording of brand new material (to be preceded by a seven-inch featuring three older songs).

In spectacle as well as sound, Golden Isles have followed in the Beatles’ footsteps, flirting with psychedelia at their recent Ex-Centris show, “The Elements” (featuring a fab video montage by Tyson Parks) and playing on a rooftop (of the Second Cup on St-Laurent on a Saturday night last summer), a stunt that garnered attention from fans, pedestrians and police.

“How it ended was with $144 tickets, each, which sucked,” says Feingold, “but as far as history goes, Golden Isles got kicked off a roof by the cops!”

- Montreal Mirror

We’ve been behind Montreal-based Golden Isles ever since they were known as Crystal Moustache, at the apex of the Crystal-is-the-new-Black-is-the-new-Bear tomfoolery. It’s not just because their baritone, echoey vocals and lo-fi-grit turned old-wave recently rocked NXNE. It’s because they’re Joy Division incarnate. Though if “Jane” is any indication, their soon to be released self-titled EP will be billowing with bar smoke, Jim Morrison circa '67 crooning, and velvet twang. “Can’t Take It” is our personal fave, but it’s well-worth appropriating all the excellent, exclusive mpfrees below.

- www.rcrdlbl.com

Credit on this one has to go to rcrdlbl and my co-worker Ike. I liked the the track, “You Look Good” as soon as I heard it on rcrdlbl, but it didn’t start listening to it over and over until Ike also confirmed that it was an excellent song. I know absolutely nothing about Golden Isles other than that they have a few very good tracks up on their myspace page and apparently play a lot of shows, but only in Canada. They’re a refreshing break from all the lo-fi nonsense of late, without sacrificng any nostalgic poppy pleasantness. Take a listen to the track “You Look Good” below. It’s one of those catchy songs that you want to put on when you’re getting ready to go out, having a few drinks with friends on a warm Friday evening. It’s over before you even get the hang of it, which makes for repeated listens. They’re fairly derivative of a lot of recent Brooklyn bands, but if they’re as young as they look in that picture above, they’ve got some good songwriting potential. Definitely keep your ears to the ground on these guys, and in the meantime, enjoy the track below.

- newyorkrockmarket.com