"The Soundtrack to a Modern Day Re-make of The Breakfast Club:" Pink Skull Founder Justin Geller Enlists Pissed Jeans Drummer Sean McGuinness for Remote Places' Nights and Weekends EP (Box Theory Records)
"It's a song about someone who is tired of being taken advantage of by the free spirit they're in love with. They're trying to deal with the fact that they're not OK with being just a part-time lover. It sounds like Ultravox or a happier version of The Cure or any 80's band that [loved] string synthesizer sounds," Remote Places founding member Justin Geller revealed within a recent Tell All Your Friends press release. Geller, a long-time member of genre-eschewing two to five-man Philly-based group Pink Skull, has likened his upcoming Nights and Weekends EP to "the soundtrack to a modern day re-make of The Breakfast Club" and has already drawn comparisons to New Order, The Smiths, The National, Washed Out, and Wild Nothing. Geller and bandmate Julian Grefe released four sprawling full-length albums and countless EP's and 12-inches further blurring the lines between glitchy lo-fi House, Psychedelic/Krautrock Indie Dance, and finally, dark, primal Acid House-influenced production work as Pink Skull, as well as two ambient LP's attributed to their Clean Plate side project.
Esteemed Los Angeles area radio station KCRW premiered Remote Places' debut single, "Places You Go," last week on which Justin Geller is assisted by Grefe on guitar, Mikele Edwards on vocals-piano, Mike Hammel on bass, and Pissed Jeans percussionist Sean McGuinness manning the drumkit. Grefe, Edwards, Hammel, and McGuinness additionally appear throughout Remote Places' Nights and Weekends EP, which was co-produced and recorded by War On Drugs and Kurt Vile-affiliated engineer Jeff Zeigler. "Mark Robinson of Teen Beat Records and Unrest/Flin Flon was contacted to see if he could help establish a visual direction for [Nights and Weekends], and also signed on to produce the first video," which will likely be a Cure meets The National-esque accompaniment for "Places You Go." Justin Geller's debut "solo" project as Remote Places, Nights and Weekends EP, will see a release on Philly-based Box Theory Records this upcoming May 13th and stay tuned to this space for an upcoming interview exclusive to The Witzard, coinciding with the EP's imminent release.