Aeroplane 20 BEST TRACKS of The Month - January 2024 Turn Up The Volume
January 31, 2024
“These rockin’ amazons – Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz – have known each other since
the mid-90s, they played in different bands together and decided to give it a go again with some friends.
Enter Aeroplane, a piece from their rawk-ing EP Let It Be So.”
Aeroplane Pick of the Day Turn Up The Volume
January 6, 2024
“If you’re still celebrating New Year, you really should add this titillating track to your party playlist. Imagine 60s British glam rock legends T. Rex and American sassy duo Royal Trux jamming together. Aeroplane grooves and moves with pithy panache and steaming swagger. Add the saucy and sensual duet vocals, and we have ourselves a sonic winner. Party on, folks.”
Let It Be So EP premiere in It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine
November 9, 2023
“The recording personnel for the ‘Let It Be So’ EP is A-List all the way. Legendary producer Chris 'Frenchie’ Smith (who’s also a Sixteen Deluxe bandmate with Carrie) was at the production helm once again … Joey Shuffield on drums and Bobby Daniel on bass are also top notch pros … Like singer and guitarist Pam Peltz says, ‘We are at home in this, specifically with this incarnation of musicians. It feels very natural. It feels like it’s just in our DNA. We’re not even thinking about rocking. We just do it.’”
Let It Be So EP premiere in Spill Magazine
November 9, 2023
“Say hello to the new Let It Be So EP by The Living Pins. Singer and guitarist (and Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee) Carrie Clark, has this to say about the four new songs, “I think that we keep riding on that 70s FM radio vibe. We all grew up listening to FM radio, and we love the way that when you listen to everything from T. Rex to AC/DC to Slade to ELO and ABBA, there’s a fullness of sound and a wave that envelopes you and that can take you out of your present moment.”
Living Pins on Austin Music Minute/KUTX
“If Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz look familiar, it’s because you recognize the badasses in the house. Clark played guitar and provided vocals for Sixteen Deluxe, Peltz for Ursa Major, back in the mid ’90s. The proof is in the shreds that The Living Pins delivers. It started as a side project that almost faded away, but in the fall of 2020 the duo got into a studio with producer Jeff Copas and created their debut EP Freaky Little Monster Children (2021), hailed as “a trip, and it’s a journey” by Trebelzine, and “…impossibly cool” by AV Club. Multiple levels of cool, actually, mixing ’60s psych and ’90s alt.-rock riffs in raw, crunchy fashion. Big sound, big fun.
The band released the new singles “Aeroplane” (featured on today’s AMM) and “Scorpion” just ahead of their forthcoming EP Let It Be So, out next week.”
-Laurie Gallardo, Host of Austin Music Minute, 11/3/23
Living Pins – “Scorpion“
“Say hello to the new Let It Be So EP by The Living Pins. Singer and guitarist Carrie Clark, (and Austin Music Hall of Fame inductee) has this to say about the four new songs, ‘I think that we keep riding on that 70s FM radio vibe. We all grew up listening to FM radio. And we love the way that when you listen to everything from T. Rex to AC/DC to Slade to ELO and ABBA, there’s a fullness of sound and a wave that envelopes you and that can take you out of your present moment. On this EP, ‘Love Is 4’ and ‘Aeroplane’ are more on the AC/DC side, like if Marc Bolan and Rob Halford were hanging out. And then ‘Scorpion’ has some Paisley Underground, you know, Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade, woven into it … plus it’s a story-telling song. And those were really big on FM radio. So it’s like a 70s story song with these beautiful effected guitars that come from our own live music experience. And then ‘Starlight’ is just fun.’”
-Static Multimedia 10/19/23
Living Pins – “Aeroplane“
“‘Aeroplane,’ the kind of straightforward rock and roll track that is all too uncommon these days. The band hits with a stomping beat, big soaring guitars, and fierce vocals that find Carrie and Pam leaning into shifty vocal interplay and harmonies. The occasional slash of guitar shredding cuts through it all. Taken as a whole, these ingredients make for a truly rousing rock and roll anthem that could command an arena stage as much as it could a bar room.”
—Glide Magazine 9/26/23
KUTX Our Favorite Songs of 2022 Living Pins – “Oh Yeah“
Last year, this duo, featuring veterans from Austin 90’s outfits Sixteen Deluxe and Ursa Major, scored with their Freaky Little Monster Children EP. This year it’s a double A-side single (which received international airplay). With fun, smart lyrics set to psychedelic garage rock dabbed with a touch of T. Rex, “Oh Yeah” jumped out of the radio with authority and a wink.
—Jody Denberg, Host, Dec 5,2022
“Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz are revered Austin music scene veterans, and as Living Pins, they channel classic pop rock sounds brimming with assuredness and melodic hooks… the song rocks back and forth with this swaggering bravado, with little hints of 90s pop rock ringing true.”
— Nathan Lankford, Chateau video premiere on Austin Town Hall, October 20,2022
“...it’s just full of joy, the joy of making music. And I applaud it for that. I really do. It’s a great track.”
“It’s just brilliant! Absolutely brilliant.”
”very fun lyric. I’m really happy to play it. It’s great.”
—Simon Le Bon, WHOOOSH! on Sirius XM, August 24, 2022
12 August 2022
The Living Pins | “Oh Yeah”
“The kind of aggro flowing psych that makes me very, very happy… Hearing the bright harmonies and the solid sway of the breaks puts me in a good place and I want to hear more ASAP.”
-Ned Raggett, Some Weekly Music Thoughts #47
8 August 2022
Austin, TX band The Living Pins premiere a new single today via The Big Takeover. The song, “Oh Yeah” is part of a new EP of perfect summertime tunes. This one features a constant buzzing groove and cheery vocals akin to the British Invasion meets Britpop. As the band explains to Big Takeover:
“The two songs that The Living Pins are releasing this summer are like two different people. ‘Oh Yeah’ is the naughty rebel rock ’n’ roller and ‘Chateau’ is the sparkly FM radio song that even your mom could listen to. It’s The Stones versus The Beatles. Or Oasis versus Blur.”
June 1, 2022
“The Living Pins is the union of the lead singers from these two groups–Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz–who came together for the pure fun of jamming and have recently reconvened to present two new singles, “Chateau” and “Oh Yeah’, the former of which Rock & Roll Globe is proud to premiere this morning on the site. songs were recorded at The Bubble Studios with Sixteen Deluxe alum Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith, who helped the duo attain the AOR-cum-SST maneuvers Pam and Carrie create in their present form…”
Austin Chronicle, April 9, 2021
Texas Monthly, 5/25/21
The Onion/AV Club, April 9, 2021
Northern Transmissions
“Downtown” video premiere
May 28, 2021
“... we were just trying to capture that rock & roll summer kind of feeling—when you’re wandering around in the city heat with the sunlight on the pavement and you don’t have any money in your pocket, but still, anything is possible. That's 100% Austin, Texas.”
Motif Magazine
EP review
May 5, 2021
“Freaky Little Monster Children is like a basket of shiny psych-rock nuggets...My favorite track is “Raven” because the background effects sound like a jungle with searing guitars and the mystery and menace of singer/guitarists Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark’s vocals floating through the moonlight.”
The Big Takeover
EP review
Issue 88, Volume XLII, No. 1, May 2021
“As these four songs attest, this is a new beginning and one that deserves all ears; it’s good, solid rock ’n’ roll with a little bit of T. Rex and a dash of ZZ Top weaving in and out of the proceeds. Keep it up, folks!”
(This review is not online and is available only in the printed magazine, as far as we know.)
Spill Magazine
“Jaguar” song premiere
April 5, 2021
Artist quote: “Matt Devine’s guitar contribution on this song is kind of amazing — plus our collaboration with him makes a great L.A./Austin connection since Matt lives out there and he’s part of the Medicine story. Plus there’s so much mid-90s reflection going on in the music world right now, the combo of Carrie plus our producer Jeff from Sixteen Deluxe, along with Matt — it seems timely in a retro sort of way.”
Glide Magazine
“Downtown” song premiere
March 2, 2021
“…Laid back, groovy and psychedelic – three descriptors that at one point in time described many Austin bands – the song rambles along with shoegaze vocals and a sly guitar that weaves in and out of the track in a way that almost feels improvised. Though The Living Pins came long before Austin acts like The Black Angels, you can hear a similar, slowly percolating psych-rock sound happening. This is perhaps not surprising, as both acts seem to draw from Austin’s legacy as the birth place of that acid-soaked genre. Sadly, Austin is going the way of yuppies and tech millionaires – and has been for awhile now – but it is refreshing to hear that groups like The Living Pins are keeping the city’s creative spirit alive in their own way.”
Treblezine
“Raven” song premiere
February 28, 2021
THE LIVING PINS TAKE A PSYCHEDELIC GARAGE-ROCK JOURNEY ON “RAVEN”
“…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. Its guitars are sharp and scuzzy, with lots of clattering percussion that seems to mimic railroad tracks and Clark and Peltz’s mellifluous vocal harmonies. The band paints a portrait of a reckless vagabond lifestyle, invoking the EP title in a call-out to “freaky little monster children,” and it’s hard not to get caught up in a sense of wanderlust with music that moves like this. Over the course of its five minutes, however, the group layers more elements over one another, and what begins as a stripped-down garage rock jam becomes a swirling and intoxicating blend of sounds. It’s a trip, and it’s a journey—dirty, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll at its best.”
New York Music Daily
EP review
May 8, 2021
“No slick production or cheesy synthesizers here, just the two guitars, bass, vocals, Brian the Drum Machine, and maybe a four-track.
They open with Raven, a slinky anthem assembled around a brooding minor-key blues riff: the way they mess with a famous Doors quote is spot-on. The second track, Downtown is a vampy 2-chord vintage Velvets jam with some appropriately haphazard lead guitar in places.”
Jersey Beat
EP review
April 9, 2021
“‘Raven’ is 70s rock and roll with a hint of funkiness, while ‘Downtown’ is mildly psychedelic pop music.”
Austin 360 | Austin American-Statesman
EP review
April 9, 2021
“...these four songs manage to feel like old Austin while still sounding in-step with the 21st century.”
The Music Korner
EP review
April 9, 2021
“... the slow, psychedelic garage rock groove of “Raven”, a song that virtually lulls you into a trance with it’s droning, yet infectious hooks, and “Downtown” which musically throws in a bit of a Lou Reed / Velvet Underground vibe ...”
“After last week’s Amps/Foo Fighters show, the Living Pins were surprised to see both Kim Deal and Dave Grohl show up at the Hole in the Wall for their show (actually, they were as surprised as anyone who’d spent most of the show trying to invite them to Hole could be). After Deal came up and joined the Pins for the song “Pacer”, Pam Peltz said that “I think I said ‘That was so cool.’ about 100 times and I think Carrie Clark probably said it more times.” Next time you see Carrie, you might also want to ask her about the note she tried to pass to Oasis.”
— The Austin Chronicle, April 26, 1996
“Welcome to Austin, Mr. Grohl: After the Jawbreaker, Amps, Foo Fighters triple bill last Wednesday, many of the band members made it over to the Hole in the Wall to see one of Austin’s newest folk-rock bands, the Living Pins, featuring Sixteen Deluxe’s Carrie Clark… Soon after Grohl left the Hole, and the Living Pins started their set, former Pixie and Breeders front woman Kim Deal and her current band, the Amps, walked in, surprised that they couldn’t find the head Foo Fighter. Deal stayed though, swaying in her chair as the Living Pins played Syd Barrett’s “Dark Globe”. Later, the Pins invited Deal to the stage to sing a tender version of the Amps song, “Pacer”. Deal sang her angelic harmonies, while Clark belted out the melody as earnestly as if she’d written the song.”
— Austin American-Statesman, April 25,1996
“Look for a new acoustic duet act from Pam Peltz and Sixteen Deluxe’s Carrie Clark called the Living Pins. Peltz says the name comes from a dream she had ‘where I was backstage somewhere sitting on a smelly coach talking to a very congenial Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips). He was going on and on about a totally cool band he’d seen with a totally cool name—the Living Pins’...”
— The Austin Chronicle, February 23, 1996