Berkeley’s The Splinters ready their debut LP, get set to tour the West Coast & Texas
WATCH: “Mysterious” video via The Fader
TONIGHT March, 4th @ Amnesia San Francisco, CA (record release party) with Hunx and His Punkettes and Magic Bullets
March, 17th @ Red 7 Austin, TX (Terrorbird/Forcefield SXSW day party) w/ Neon Indian, Matias Aguayo, Real Estate, Oh No Ono, and more.
March, 18th @ TBA Austin, TX (SXSW)
March, 19th @ Club 1808 Austin, TX (SXSW)
March, 20th @ Domy Books Austin, TX (KVRX SXSW day party)
March, 23rd @ Hideaway Lounge El Paso, TX *^
March, 25th @ Trunkspace Phoenix, AX *
March, 26th @ Origami Records in-store Echo Park, CA
March, 26th @ The Smell Los Angeles, CA *#
March, 27th @ Beauty Bar Las Vegas, CA *#
March, 28th @ Bar Pink San Diego, CA *#
March, 30th @ Biko House Santa Barbara, CA *#
*w/ Jeff The Brotherhood
^ w/ The Coathangers
# w/ Ty Segall
The Splinters present Kick
Out March 9th, 2010 on Double Negative Records
“The Splinters mix silliness, sincerity, and sarcasm so much that it can be hard to tell them apart.” – SF Weekly
“Girl-group sounds-meets-90s punk attitude.” – Gorilla Vs. Bear
“They perfectly channel the devil-may-care, DIY, girls-in-the-garage sense.” – The FADER
“Playing a Raincoats-esque brand of shambling post-punk, the four ladies from Oakland rocked a pretty bass-heavy sound that was interspersed with lots of cutely loud yelping.” – Portland Mercury
The Splinters may have only been a band since 2008, but the girls actually began palling around four years earlier as freshmen at UC Berkeley. In the waning months of their college careers, Ashley Thomas (guitar), Lauren Stern (tambourine), and Caroline Partamian (guitar) began messing around with music and cranked out a few silly, lo-fi garage-pop songs. Quickly realizing that a few of the songs were actually pretty good, they recruited their friend Courtney Gray (whom had previously played with Ashley in a short-lived Misfits cover band called The Skullfuckers) to round out the group on drums.
Within a few months, The Splinters found themselves playing a bevy of shows and writing one insanely catchy song after another, their ramshackle rock n’ roll sound and multipart vocal harmonies earning them comparisons to ’60s girl groups like the Shangri-Las, artsy post-punk outfits like the Raincoats and the lo-fi grrl-pop stylings of early ’90s K Records bands. The band tossed together a limited-edition, hand-decorated CD-R release, which quickly disappeared, and eventually followed that up with the Splintered Bridges 7″ on Double Negative. Splinters tracks are also set to appear on upcoming compilations from UK label Germs of Youth (alongside Frankie Rose, Cold Cave, and Veronica Falls) and the hotly tipped YETI magazine.
In the meantime, the girls have worked hard honing their craft-writing new songs, turning heads at SXSW, and playing shows with the likes of Mika Miko, The Mae Shi, The Coathangers, Explode Into Colors, Ty Segall, Nodzzz, Brilliant Colors, The Fresh & Onlys, The Strange Boys, Yellow Fever, Sleepy Sun, and countless others.
Now Double Negative is dropping the The Splinters’ first full-length, Kick, a 12-track collection of delectable indie-pop tunes recorded and mixed by Maus Haus frontman Jason Kick. Set for release in March, Kick is one of those infectious albums destined to be played again and again.
