Reviewed:: The Capstan Shafts - Revelation Skirts

When we started our Last.fm account a year or so ago one of the first things we did was enter some of our favorite artists into our library. It will come as little surprise to those of you who know us or read these pages with any regularity, those artist are of the lo-fi variety. Well with each entry Last.fm makes recommendation of like minded or at least like sounding artists. A band by the name of The Capstan Shafts kept appearing and before long I gave said band a listen and about 30 seconds in I was pretty much hooked. Dean Wells started releasing music under The Capstan Shafts moniker around 1999, first on home made CDR's out of Lydonville,Vermont and more recently with Manhattan's Rainbow Quartz label.

Revelation Skirts is the brand new long player from Wells's The Capstan Shafts and from the first track you notice right away that this is a more polished affair, not that it ever exceeds the mid-fi territory. But the guitar riffs are up front and the vocals are crisp, clear, and the anthems are catchy as hell. There are some obvious touchstones like that band a former school teacher fronted, you might refer to them by their three letter acronym. The Capstan Shafts make the most of those influences without ever sounding like a rehash. In fact's on tracks like Your Wasted Talent Here and Little Burst of Sunshine, Wells' embraces jangle pop with choruses that will bounce around your head for days on end. However The Capstan Shafts are at their best to our ears with guitars wailing and drums pounded, as on pop anthems like Class War Tease.

Some records can hook in on first listen and others seem to get better and better with each subsequent listen, somehow Revelation Skirts manages to do both. We just feel a little silly that it took a British website to introduce us to our new favorite American band.

Revelation Skirts is so completely in our wheel house it almost seems unfair to review it, but records this good don't come along very often. Someone recently asked us why don't we just cover bands that have more mass appeal to attract more readers? What fun would that be to cover music we have absolutely no affinity for. Plus that would leave less time devoted to under the radar bands so completely deserving of our time and attention like The Capstan Shafts.

Order Revelation Skirts from Rainbow Quartz

[MP3/Steam] The Capstan Shafts - Quiet Wars

This Weeks Short Bursts ::
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yelstin, Sharks, & The Capstan Shafts

Springfield, MO's popsmiths Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin drop their new full length in a matter of days. Let it Sway will be released on Tuesday August 17th via Polyvinyl Records. The new LP was recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, WI with Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) and Beau Sorrenson (Sparklehorse) and combines the bands early bedroom recording aesthetic with fully produced power pop. The record's been garnering some glowing reviews on the internets, check out The Music OMH. SSYBY have teamed up with Telekinesis for a fall tour that will have them playing TT The Bears on September 7th. Currently the band are raising funds through kickstarter to finance a new tour van. Donate here

Pre-order SSLYBY's - Let It Sway at Polyvinyl

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Sink/Let it Sway

Rising U.K. post-punks, Sharks have signed on with London's Best Before Records (Danananaykroyd/Johnny Foreigner) to release the bands new EP, Show of Hands. Over the past couple of years Best Before have been responsible for some of our favorite records and look to keep the streak going with new signees,Sharks. Admittedly we don't know much about this band other than they hail from Royal Leamington Spa or the "Leam" in Warwickshire, U.K. and have our full attention with one foot in 1977 and the other in 2010. Sharks will support The Gaslight Anthem on the New Jersey bands upcoming fall tour throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

[Video] Sharks - Fallen on Deaf Ears


The Capstan Shafts is the brain child of former Lydonville, VT resident and current West Virginian Dean Wells. On August 24th The Capstan Shafts will release Revelation Skirts their 3rd full length for Rainbow Quartz and if my math is correct 23rd release over all, with 20 of those being self released CD-R's that Wells recorded between 1999-2007. The one time one man band has assembled a solid crew of backing musicians and recorded in a proper studio with the tracks found on the new record committed to tape at Strange Weather Studios in Brooklyn with producer/drummer/P4k writer Matt Lemay. The two tracks available at Rainbow Quarts are mid-fi classic pop and lookey, lookey here we've linked them for your listening and fist pumping pleasure.

Pre-order Revelation Skirts

[MP3/Stream] The Capstan Shafts - Heart Your Eat Out

[MP3/Stream] The Capstan Shafts - Quiet Wars