SHAKEDOWN

Zak Mering from Greatest Hits and The Sweethearts has a new solo LP, Shakedown, out early 2011 on Japanese label Sixteen Tambourine under his Raw Thrills moniker. Been on Raw Thrills since January and heard a couple more jams on his Myspace in October.

The 14 new tracks are more falsetto croons over soft-muffle guitars, drum machine thud and outer space synthesizers, often dipping into 50s doo-wop loverboy mode. There's the luxurious tones of "Making Love on a Piano." There's the tropical bounce of "Coconuts." There's "Sonia," something bleak and cold, something that might normally have a super deep-voiced guy gutting like Silk Flowers. Instead, Zak floats in higher registers, layering voices to create this choir effect which, when coupled with vibraphone sounds (or something), gets real deep on some Church of X-Files business.

Buy this vinyl when it drops. I think Zak said something about a few hundred copies being TEAL and the rest being black. Or the other way around. We'll remind you eventually when you can buy it.





Raw Thrills - Making Love on a Piano

Raw Thrills - Sonia

Raw Thrills - Coconuts