Slimy Quagmire

Summer of Blood

ocala wick

sorry Charlie

All Is Illusory

Sonreo

Heatwave

Dim The Lights

Burden Piece

Boundaries

Overnight

Lush

Animal

Party Talk

All Day, Every Day, All Night

Koolwink

The Rose Gardener

Rosebush

The Bend in the Break

Loose Cigarettes

Harm

Not Man

Gingerlys

Turtledoves

Do You Dream? Mixtape

Daydreaming

The Vision

Set The Dogs

Sans

Football

Electric Soul Unity

Good Morning TV

Advice For A Lonesome Body

the way i don't understand anything anymore

no big deal

Verse

Eulita Terrace

All Our False Starts

Husk

To Infinity

Your Bed

Inns - "Party Talk" from AnimalThis f'real might be one of my favorite songs we've ever released. 
This whole record is truly wonderful. I am not a lyrics person. James 
writes lyrics that make me buck that trend entirely and this is one of 
the few records I know every word too. "Party Talk" arrives at this 
awesome mid-way point of the album where the end of "Morning" eases 
through to the opening lyric of "Above":
"I know it might not be a normal opinion, but I think life moves too slow".
It's a roller coaster I'll never grow tired of riding. I can't recommend this whole album enough!!Infinity Girl - "Not Man" from HarmI had a very hard time picking just one song to represent this, but I 
ultimately think "Not Man" best showcases what the band were up to on 
this album (with the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Ay3R7Ut4I">youthful nostalgia overdrive</a>
 of "Firehead" in a near tie). This is one of those albums you receive 
as a demo and instantly know "we have to make this happen".DANGERS - "Loose Cigarettes" from The Bend in the Break Al's vocals are essential to what DANGERS does, and vocals don't even 
kick in on this until just about two minutes in. And the song is already
 absolutely immense by then already. Insane. And DANGERS doesn't even sound like this song, how are they so good at this song?!Pswingset - "Husk" from All Our False StartsFirst heard Pswingset via the 3-4 songs they had on their Myspace 
profile. Pretty sure they were all demo versions of songs from this 
album? Including this one? Memory's a little foggy. Mighta made that up.
 This is a sleeper emo album on the label. It occupies the same 
headspace for me as Crash of Rhinos in that it executes what it's trying
 to do so well (although definitely being different). "Husk"—and 
honestly the whole rest of the album—sounds like it was recorded in the 
90's and put in a time capsule so we could release it instead of 
Caulfield.The Velvet Teen - "Sonreo" from All Is IllusoryA nice segue here is that I first got into The Velvet Teen from, 
actually, every member of Pswingset independently prodding me to go see 
them. Later, to really get me hooked, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://cloakroom.bandcamp.com/">Cloakroom</a> / <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://topshelfrecords.limitedrun.com/roster/native">Native<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://topshelfrecords.limitedrun.com/roster/native"></a></a>'s
 Bobby Markos. Tell your friends about music you think they might like 
btw!!!!! Anyway, they all thought I was gonna be into them and they were
 1000% correct. At the time, the newest material the band had out was 
their No Star EP and so naturally I watched the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS77ciZeL58">absolutely bonkers video</a> for the EP's title track (warning: lots of plaid) and was a) completely floored by how individually talented every person in this band is and b) *squinting* "Is that Casey from <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://americas.bandcamp.com/">americas</a>
 who I booked a show for in Amherst, MA with Yak Snot, Rooftops, and 
Sleep Bellum Sonno in 2010 that like 12 people came to? I feel like yes 
it is!". Again, share music with your friends. And again again, it 
cannot be reiterated enough how good everyone in this band is, however I
 simply must separately qualify this statement: Casey Deitz is an 
incredible, phenomenal drummer and one the most innovative and fun to 
watch performers I've ever witnessed—that's on full display here on 
"Sonreo". This band is so ridiculously locked in.Wild Ones - "Dim the Lights" from HeatwaveYou should actually just be watching <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-plAGCxBMo">the video.</a> I regularly get upset that this song didn't get absolutely huge.Happy Diving - "Electric Soul Unity" from Electric Soul UnityHave you ever heard a fucking guitar?????? What the heck such a fun band.YEYEY - "Set the Dogs" from The VisionIf you like M83 and/or MGMT you simply gotta spend some time with this. I
 can't even believe how good this album is lol. I spent a whole summer 
just listening to this on repeat and running around San Diego.CLIQUE - "Boundaries" from Burden PieceThe members of CLIQUE have collectively played in a lot of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://halfthought.bandcamp.com/album/survival-clause">good</a><a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://enroutephl.bandcamp.com/releases"></a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://enroutephl.bandcamp.com/releases">bands</a> over the years, but this one has always been my favorite. I sing the opening line to this song aloud all of the dang time.Del Paxton - "Koolwink" from All Day, Every Day, All NightIt is summer and I have errands to run, baby!!! I get in my car and put a
 cassette into my tape deck. Which cassette? The same one that has been 
there for like, the last eight weeks. This song begins to play. The 
volume cannot go higher. Every window is open. I am going to fucking, 
get ice cream or something. I am driving moderately above the speed 
limit while intensely air drumming (upon re-reading,&nbsp;whoops I am that insurance company chaos guy my bad).Eerie Summer - "Weird Around You" from The Way I Don't Understand Anything AnymoreGood bands break up :/. I wish I had this band in high school. Also, can we talk about this completely prescient album title??(T_T)b - "Summer of Blood" from Slimy QuagmireShort: Idk, like if The Blue Album was an EP and was chiptune. 
Long: some of my earliest experiences with DIY and music involve Jeff 
Rosenstock and ASOB or BTMI back in the early 2000s. Let that simmer 
with a healthy dose of playing Pokemon and Mother 2 as a kid, and having
 a lone mp3 of "The Sweater Song" that probably took a whole afternoon 
to download on my family's Gateway PC in 1998, and you have a recipe for
 me loving this band. This EP rules.Good Morning TV - "Advice for a Lonesome Boy" from S/TLet it just be known: you become a more interesting and attractive 
person while listening to the four minute and thirty-one second duration
 of this song.Heat - "Lush" from OvernightSome people (read: musical cowards) can't do Susil Sharma's vocals, but I
 think they're p e r f e c t l y paired with Heat's overall sound. This 
is one of my favorite releases on the label. Also, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="http://modern-vinyl.com/2017/02/17/degrees-of-difference-heats-overnight/">James Cassar loves it.</a>
 This album, made by a bunch of Canadians, sounds like driving through 
the desert at dusk, which I have done, while listening to this, and can 
confirm.Really From - "Eulita Terrace"

from VerseIf you like this label, and have never listened to this album in full, I dunno what to tell you. Really From embodies everything we're about.Gingerlys - "Turtledoves" from S/TThis honestly is maybe the best dream pop / shoegaze song, ever. lololol sorry, but kind of for real actually!!!Thanya Iyer - "Daydreaming" from Do You Dream? MixtapeThanya and her band enter into a straight up ZONE of unified 
improvisation on this that is a masterclass in layered experimentation 
all while remaining accessible. This band is on one.gobbinjr - "sorry Charlie"

from ocala wickTo this point, an un-breached topic concerning the music featured in 
this piece: why it is that it might not have achieved the success we 
were hoping for or thought possible. In many of these instances, it's 
just your standard fare: bands break up prematurely, the cards don't 
fall right, life... happens. With ocala wick, it's different. Everything that could go wrong on our end pretty much did and I specifically
 didn't do a great job in trying to keep the wheels from falling off 
during a very tumultuous and transitional period for the label and 
myself. The success of this album was hampered severely by that and it's
 something I'm super regretful of. Pretty much worst nightmare stuff 
when you think about how you want an album's release to go. Despite 
this, Emma is a uniquely talented, witty and, infinitely thoughtful 
human deserving of your support and this remains an album I'm super 
proud to have helped put out into the world. "Those who acknowledge the world is wrong, might find some solace in a song."Another Michael - "Football" from SansAnother Michael will take over the world.Bellows - "Rosebush" from The Rose GardenerOliver writes uplifting songs with brilliant, textured flourishes and 
soaring hooks and then buries absolutely crushing lyrics in them about 
life—all of it—the mundane, the dark, the unknowable. The resulting 
juxtaposition cuts in a way I haven't felt since first getting into 
Elliott Smith and Phil Elverum.Special Explosion - "Your Bed"

from To InfinityIt's my hope that one day like a decade from now, To Infinity will have slowly amassed a huge cult following of listeners that just know.
 This album took like (absolutely no joke here) six (SIX!!) years to 
come together. Numerous times it nearly didn't. As much as I love them 
(sweethearts, the whole lot), Special Explosion is a band that seemingly
 goes out of their way to get in their own way. I sat in on what I, at 
the time in 2014, thought was one of the last recording sessions for 
this album at Modest Mouse's Ice Cream Party studio (fun fact: the 
cymbal mutes at the end of "Fire" were my suggestion~), and even then, 
it still wasn't out nearly three years after that. There were f'real 
whole years where I just assumed this would never come out lol. This 
album is a masterpiece of PNW emo / indie, but <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/calculizer/status/934134516888801281">don't take my word for it.</a><a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/calculizer/status/934134516888801281"> </a>

We combed our catalog and came up with these 21 tracks we think didn't get enough shine when they came out initially. I wrote some words for each.

topshelfrecords

second look