Though The Mantles may still be slumming around in the same dingy SF clubs and bars that they were born out of, Michael Olivares and Co. have certainly travelled a long way.
When the band first arrived in 2007, their particular brand of dirty garage rock fit right in with the booming Bay Area scene, which at the time still included the likes of Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall (who was then developing his sound as a USF student). But with each successive Mantles release—most recently last year’s shimmering Long Enough to Leave—the band has very convincingly worked themselves out of the garage and into a higher epsilon of indie-pop. And despite this, they still won’t quit their day jobs.
This week, the blue-collar rockers announced a new 7” single called “Memory,” out December 2 on Slumberland Records. It’s quintessential Mantles, complete with a Peter Buck–inspired jangly guitar line, Dan Treacy–esque mumbly vocal melodies, and a precise yet unrefined guitar solo from Justin Loney—the Luther Perkins to Michael O.’s Johnny Cash.
When you hear it, “Memory” feels like the perfect breezy summer tune released just a few months behind schedule. Yet for a band as idiosyncratic as The Mantles, that placement kind of makes sense. After all, the closest thing San Francisco has to a summer usually does show up sometime in October.
