Spring is here again, trees are blooming and we have two new releases coming out this month.
I can’t be happier.
Tonight I’ll introduce you with ”No Need To Beg” by Phil Yates And The Affiliates. I’m waiting for a big box to officially release this but I’ve already painted sleeve number one so here’s a preview… a portrait of Lizzie Borden inspired by one of the songs in the album. It wasn’t easy to portrait Lizzie and I’ve had to ax the first attempt before I was happy with my drawing. Next one will feature a Pontiac station wagon. The LP is going to be a limited edition of 110 copies with handdrawn sleeves, all different – in the style of Almost Halloween Time Records. Phil Yates And The Affilities will bring you ear candy from Burlington, Vermont with their Indie power pop.
Phil Yates, not the Phil Yates of Midnight Guitar Moods fame, is a Burlington, Vermont based singer-songwriter who used to call Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbia, SC, and Springfield, IL home. When not performing, he teaches in the mathematics department at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, and sporadically DJ’s a show called ”Spork!” on the college’s radio station (WWPV 88.7 The Mike).
Describing his sound as ”too folky for the rockers and too rocky for the folkers,” Phil blends (at least what he thinks are) clever lyrics with melodies full of hooks. On his EP Tumble Stairs, digitally released on Revolution Road in May 2011 and physically released on his own in June 2011, Phil went into the studio with a band full of friends to build on his songs. Two of the tracks, ”Ninjas vs. Zombies (Let’s Keep Our Heads)” and ”The Bottom of an Urn”, appear in the movies Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires, respectively. ”The Gift of Love”, a song whose verses were written by his friends in the lo-fi legends of southern California cassette culture Wckr Spgt, also appeared on the compilation Smooth Sounds: Various Artists Play the Future Hits of Wckr Spgt. This compilation was in honor of the 20th anniversary of Shrimper Records and features bands like The Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, So Many Wizards, Jad Fair, Simon Joyner, Amps For Christ and Franklin Bruno covering Wckr Spgt songs. Wckr Spgt, in turn, covered the Phil Yates penned tune ”Honeycomb” for their Today I Saw Turtles EP that came out in April 2011. In May 2012, Phil went into the studio with The Affiliates and recorded the single ”Could You Be The One?” for the movie Ninjas vs. Monsters. The song was mixed and mastered by Matt Rogalsky (Memory Device, Kingston, Ontario), who worked on PS I Love You’s 2012 release, Death Dreams. In February 2013, Phil Yates & The Affiliates released Oh So Sour, the follow-up full-length album to the Tumble Stairs EP. Oh So Sour was played on various college radio stations around the U.S. and Canada, even reaching #20 on the charts for Radio1190 (Boulder/Denver, CO) in April 2013.
Over the years, Phil has had the opportunity to open for a variety of acts. He has played with The Mountain Goats, The Babies, The Dead Milkmen’s Joe Jack Talcum, Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, Franklin Bruno, Wckr Spgt, Ann Beretta, Mary Prankster, and The Push Stars. Phil has also shared a basket of chips and salsa with The Apples in Stereo’s Robert Schneider.
