US / THEM: "Impossibly cool" (AV Club): The Living Pins (w/Sixteen Deluxe's Carrie Clark) share "Raven" video and funny interview

“A raw, bluesy track dripping with dark psychedelia, with a strut reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa To Bring You My Love or The Kills’ first couple records.” -- Treble

"A lively union of post-grunge guitar psychedelia and Stonesy chug." -- Austin Chronicle

Austin, TX band The Living Pins share the first video from their critically-lauded Freaky Little Monster Children EP -- their first release since their single debut in 1996 -- today alongside a humorous interview with It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Watch/share "Raven" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

The Onion AV Club recently picked the EP in their 5 New Releases We Love feature, calling it, "equal parts sinister and sunny...both accessible and impossibly cool."

Austin Chronicle recently chatted with the band HERE. Treble recently hosted the lead single "Raven" HERE. Glide Magazine recently hosted "Downtown" HERE The Spill Magazine shared "Jaguar" HERE.

Brian knew his time had come. With clubs shuttered and parties postponed, this most recent iteration of The Living Pins — guitarists/vocalists Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark, joined by Brian the Drum Machine — groove through these crazy times with a full tilt swagger from the back room of an Austin house.

Carrie is an inductee into the Austin Music Hall of Fame as the frontwoman for Sixteen Deluxe (Trance Syndicate, Warner Bros. Records). Pam is a published photographer and the producer of two Daniel Johnston songs, “Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me” and “Casper” on Daniel’s Continued Story album.

The Living Pins originally formed in 1996 during the heyday of iconic Austin clubs such as Liberty Lunch, Electric Lounge, and The Hole In The Wall. Pam and Carrie met as co-workers at Wheatsville Food Co-op and continued in the tradition of employee bands including the likes of Ed Hall, Cherubs, Sixteen Deluxe, Pong, Palaxy Tracks, and Cotton Mather. The original Living Pins line-up included Kathy Ziegler (Morningwood) and Leslie Petit (Bunny Stockhausen) and this incarnation of the Pins appeared on the 1998 Wheatsville band compilation The Wheat Album, with their cover of the T. Rex song, “Spaceball Ricochet”, produced by John Croslin (Spoon, Guided by Voices).

Now, the Living Pins are back as a two-piece with Freaky Little Monster Children -- their new fledgling baby bird EP of glam-psych-guitar explosions. Primordial 1990s Austin, meets 2000s oversaturated festival hangover, meets 2020 lockdown mind-melt champagne fountain.

“We’ve never been to the Rites of Pan Festival at Jajouka, but something like that goes on in the back of our heads all the time.” —The Living Pins

Freaky Little Monster Children was mostly recorded late on Friday and Saturday nights during the lockdown of Fall of 2020, in the empty lobby of Splinter Group, an East Austin artisan collective. “Fingers crossed the power tools stay silent during the next guitar overdub,” was the mantra. Facemasks and headphones were the main accessories. Jeff Copas (Sixteen Deluxe, Mule Ear Productions) engineered and produced the EP plus added some sweet keyboard and percussion details. And special guest, Matt Devine (Medicine, Permanent Green Light, Possum Dixon), played his Mick Taylor-esque endless guitar solo on “Jaguar” from a different time zone out in L.A.

EP personnel:

Carrie Clark: vocals, guitars, tambourine

Pam Peltz: vocals, guitars, bass

Brian, the Drum Machine: beats

Jeff Copas: production, keyboards, percussion

Matt Devine: lead & rhythm guitars on “Jaguar”

Freaky Little Monster Children will be available for download on April 9th, 2021. Pre-orders are available HERE.