The Sproutts
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Hailing from Wellington - musically by way of Dunedin
- is a four-piece jangle-pop micro-orchestra: the Sproutts. Their
new album "Flying Out of the Washing Machine" presents 18 brief melodic
gems that reflect on universal themes - the elusive attractiveness of
bicycle-riding girls, life in an igloo and the despair of the bargain-hunter
just too late to stake her claim over a second-hand picnic accessory.
The disc is full to brimming with the kinds of melodies and vocal harmonies
that were abundant in pop music's golden days of the 1960s, and sounds
as if it were recorded by elves using a museum's-worth of second-hand
musical equipment. Their instrumental line-up may be slightly unconventional,
but what the Sproutts lack in bass guitars, turn-tables and other such
trendy ephemera, they make up for in organs, backwards guitars and electric
violins. Yes, electric violins, but don't utter the name 'Vanessa Mae'
in their presence... where she is all candy-floss - appealingly fluffy,
yet sickly in anything but tiny doses - the music of the Sproutts
is more akin to cheap bladder wine - inexpensive to produce, deceptively
easy to consume, and packing the unexpected kick of a spastic mule. The
Sproutts? Their name is a tribute to Tobin Sprout, the eponymous
former guitarist of US lo-fi rockers Guided By Voices. Their songs
too owe something to the 'less is more' doctrine followed by those disheveled
pop icons, but without ever descending to quite the same appalling depths
in recording quality. The Sproutts tend to err on the side of a
chorus too few rather than letting a song outstay its welcome, but pack
each short number with more than the maximum melody quota achieved by
your average band. RIYL: The Brunettes, Guided By Voices, Chris Knox,
The Muttonbirds, Pavement, Weezer...
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The Sproutts will
be playing support on the Wellington leg of the upcoming Bill
Direen / Otis Mace Tour. They
play Mighty Mighty on Wednesday 28th November.
Tour Dates listed on the gigs Page For a larger version of the tour poster and Press Release , click on the poster. |
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PT078: Various Artists - Bulletholes 3: The Best Is Yet To Come (Compilation Album) 2008 10.Sproutts - I Want To Be A Sproutt |
US: $13.95 NZ: 20.00 |
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SPRCD06: Sproutts - Plutons (Album) 2006 1.Draw your cartoons 2.Creature of habit 3.Anybody else 4.Space 5.Dreams of instability 6.Plutons 7.Hidden costs 8.ConvAIRCAR 9.I don't think she knows 10.Kicking around 11.Mental health issues in Newtown 12.When our petrol runs out 13.The best thing in the world |
US: $13.95 NZ: $20.00 |
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KW016: Kaleidoscope World Series #15. Saturday 7th May 2005 at the Valve, Wellington, New Zealand. |
US: $7.95 NZ: $10.00 |
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SPRCD05: Sproutts - Flying Out of the Washing Machine (Album) 2005 1.Ogre song 2.Careful not to smother 3.Eskimo 4.Fantasnippet 5.If I were a mothman 6.When we went to sea 7.Darkness 8.Shake my baby 9.Remember to breathe 10.Tin whistle shake 11.She is fantastic 12.Accidental rage 13.Teacher of elves 14.Yesterday when I saw you 15.Telephone number 16.Picnic bitch 17.While Im alive and you're alive 18.Chatterbox |
US: $13.95 NZ: $20.00 |
REVIEWS AND ARTICLES
| RIP IT UP: Named after the former Guided By Voices guitarist, the Sproutts are a quirky four-piece with a penchant for the unusual, including some screeching electric violin pieces. The music ranges from melodic pop tracks like Careful Not To Smother to the gypsy-styled Teacher Of Elves, complete with its Misirlou-styled double-picked guitar and frenetic fiddling. The recording is definitely in the lo-fi section of the indie genre, which helps to add to its charm, although ultimately I found that I tired of the music. On the first listen I thought that it was great, but each additional listen became a little harder as the novelty value wore off. Lyndon Walker, Rip It Up, October/November 2005 |
| REAL GROOVE: Wellington quartet The Sproutts are named after Tobin Sprout, the guitarist and part-time songsmith for prolific lo-fi leansters Guided By Voices. Which is a good indication of the direction of The Sproutts, who now have available the Flying Out Of The Washing Machine (self-released, distributed by Powertool) album. The album is packed with songs, and the quality of the writing and constructive instinct on "If I Were A Mothman" point to a strong understanding of their genre and status. There's plenty of backup too: "Careful Not To Smother", "She Is Fantastic", "While I'm Alive And You're Alive" and the gentler "Yesterday When I Saw You" far outweigh the troughs that lie too frequently between them. And there are plenty of those too, generally one-minute ditties that threaten to become mutinous - it's a setback that could've been easily avoided with due thought or a quiet word from an associate. Still, an album with much to cheer about though. Adrian Osman, Real Groove, October 2005 |
| CRITIC MAGAZINE: The Sproutts Posted: 2005-10-03 13:42:12 Flying Out of the Washing Machine [Self-released] There’s an unrefined charm to this homemade album. Adorned with childhood photos of the band, this is a simple, cute little release from the one-time Dunedinites (now big grown up Wellingtonians). So we’ve got a four-piece outfit playing generally unfussy tunes, messing around with a range of instruments – organs and violins feature quite a bit – without ever really getting away from the fact that these are songs written on top of basic guitar lines. The lyrics are from the same naive part of the world as The Brunettes or Apples in Stereo. Sometimes stories are told directly but coyly – 'Careful Not to Smother' describes an extramarital affair: “And they will make arrangements, being careful not to smother / For two weeks they’ll call it something other than hoping to sleep with each other / and I’ll follow them around / writing everything down” – but at other points things get silly. “I’m glad I’m not an Eskimo”, goes 'Eskimo', “I’m glad I’m not out in the snow”. Being a lo-fi affair recorded onto either four or eight-tracks, there’s not a lot of room for technical wizardry. The usual tricks of people messing around with tapes are there - voices recorded through guitar pedals, things recorded then reversed in the final mix, unexpected cutting and looping giving the impression of a scratched LP – but don’t overwhelm the main point, which is that The Sproutts write catchy pop within something of a normal band set-up and don’t take it at all seriously as they throw unexpected sounds and instruments into the mix, using little tricks to keep it interesting while the songs work through simple chord progressions. There are catchy songs, and the homemade approach always throws up something you won’t hear in too many other places. Over eighteen songs the Sproutts give the impression of bored, experimental semi-hippies trying to keep a campfire sing-along interesting. Sometimes they do very well – 'Shake My Baby' would -stand easily alongside some of Bressa Creeting Cake’s work in the National Hall of Unassuming, Semi-Comic Lo-Fi Fame, for example, and 'If I Were a Mothman' is a good quick throwaway. Beyond its eccentricities this is an amiable album with some nice moments, but which is still somehow forgettable in the end. I guess that all the crazy frills a few people crowded around a four-track can add to ultimately simplistic tunes aren’t enough to disguise them all. There are some fine highlights, but this is not one to listen to too often. 7 / 10 Reviewed by Max Johns |
NZ MUSICIAN REVIEW:The Sproutts are not as bland as their name (a reference to Guided By Voices member Tobin Sprout - which many may see as a good sign) suggests. For the most part, the four-piece deliver a set of witty alt-pop songs reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian (Careful Not To Smother) of the Muttonbirds (She Is Fantastic). Elsewhere, the Sproutts' electric violin player does a good impersonation of David Mitchell from the 3Ds on tracks that wail rather than jangle. As they describe it, 'from Wellington - musically by way of Dunedin'. Throughout the 18-song album some nice synthesiser riffs give the music a lively edge. Overall this is an enjoyable, if patchy, effort. Gareth Shute, New Zealand Musician, August / September 2005
THREAD REVIEW: www.thread.co.nz.Dunedin band The Sproutts Grows on Us The Sproutts: Flying out of the Washing Machine Once upon a time there lived a Dunedin boy who fancied a girl. In his spare time he'd write folk tunes on his acoustic guitar about his dream lady, about things he thought she'd like, what she might like to do for fun and the sorts of things he'd tell her if she got to know him. Dunedin being the small town it is, he eventually met dream girl, and she was like, totally lovely and beautiful and wonderful in real life too, and the two became an item. But, the more they got on like two peas in a pod, the more he started freaking out about the fact that he'd made up love songs about her before he'd even met her. He figured it was like, totally weird and obsessive and that she was bound to find out and she'd probably freak out, then leave him and forever think he was a freaky-weirdo. Turned out she thought the songs were totally adorable, kinda unnerving, but the fact he was freaking out about it kinda cute, thereby overruling the weird-stalker factor. They combined forces, started making music together (not the dirty kind of music, the actual type of music), and The Sproutts were born. First time I saw The Sproutts, it was in a crusty derelict shithole in Dunedin's red light district where crappy punk bands would play. The pair were totally adorable, and their acoustic / guitar / violin and keyboard pop / folk tunes hypnotising. Now it's been my experience that the only things remotely exciting about Dunedin are the fantastic op shops and the likelihood of shagging your flatmates when it's too cold to watch the telly. But in this case it bred a totally adorable pop affair. But this isn't about the love story. I'm supposed to be reviewing their album. Now based in Wellington, The Sproutts have upgraded to a four piece, and their new album, 'Flying out of the Washing Machine' is an 18 track blissful low-fi pop experience that sends the listener into sweet dreams about romantic wistfulness. Imagine Die!Die!Die!'s front man has taken a sedative, picked up an acoustic and has fallen in love with a doe-eyed carnie-girl. Imagine Ms Heather Brunette getting serenaded in a small town bar by a weedie indie boy and you'd be about on track as to the feel of The Sproutts' sound. They've got distorted violin solos, organ overdubs, whistles and catchy melody lines in cute pop songs that work. After a few listens, you start to go a little doe eyed yourself and start fantasising about a mystery girl you'd like to write songs about. Plus, the one-fingered keyboard solos make the album worthwhile alone. The bizarre juxtaposition of cutsie lines like: 'I plan my washing two weeks in advance, just so I can wear the best clothes when I see you' with ones about 'picnic-basket stealing b*tches' will have you waltzing around your living room and singing Sproutts jingles in the shower. 'Flying out of the Washing Machine' is perfect music for making-out and getting that dream woman to think you're sensitive. Cutsie-eclectic pop at its best. Get your hands on a copy. By Rachel Service