Jess Matthews, Justin Moyer, Kristina Buddenhagen and Sammy Ponzar of America Hearts
Did you order out for singles from your favorite record labels? Did you spend Saturday afternoon rifling through vinyl for Record Store Day? America Hearts has your number. The local indie-folk quartet’s batch of nine new songs is enough to fill up an LP, but instead, the group will pay tribute to the singles clubs of yore and release the tracks in the form of three EPs over three months with accompanying shows at the Black Cat. Anyone who comes through the door will get a free download code for the EP. In preparation for tonight’s release show for the first EP, Angsty (also available online), we asked the members of America Hearts (as well as Rick Taylor of the “We Fought the Big One” DJ sets at Marx Cafe) to tell us about the singles that impacted them as youngsters.
Jess Matthews (America Hearts singer, guitarist and writer of succinct, punchy lyrics): The first single I can remember loving is “Mahna Mahna” from The Muppet Show. My brother and I played it on a Fisher Price record player with a lever controlling the speed that went from turtle to rabbit. We would start singing along, “Mahna Mahna” and then gradually speed up the record and begin jumping up and down and shouting, “MAHNA MAHNA! [Do doo be-do-do.] MAHNA MAHNA!”
I loved the repetition, conviction, and meaninglessness. Come to think of it, it is not dissimilar from, “You Don’t Fit In.”
Justin Moyer (America Hearts guitarist, former drummer and former bassist): I was always fond of the Ray Parker Jr. single “Ghostbusters,” from the movie of the same name. I had this single in 1984, around the time that the ubiquitous video was released on MTV.
Sammy Ponzar (America Hearts’ current drummer): In high school I was suicidal for about a year and somehow listening to the Pixies, “No. 13 Baby” off of Doolittle got me through it. There is something about the combination of Joey Santiago’s lead, the straightforward David Lovering drums and the interplay of dual guitars at the end of the song that still puts me in a trancelike state even now. I must have listened to that track 100 times in a row.
Rick Taylor (“We Fought the Big One” DJ, anglophile and otherwise the most enthusiastic music fan in D.C.): My favorite Velocity Girl recording is a little-known, two-song medley (“Warm/Crawl”) that was part of Sub Pop’s Singles of the month club back in 1992. “Warm” features a My Bloody Valentine-inspired hypnotic guitar line that rises and curls like a threatening wave, while “Crawl” is a short burst of bruising noise pop that borders on punk. Great stuff, and you could only hear it at the time if you were a singles-of-the-month club member.
The America Hearts Singles Club begins tonight at the Black Cat with America Hearts and Foul Swoops. $8, 8 p.m. See what bassist Kristina Buddenhagen’s seven-year-old niece has to say about the Singles Club, below.
