Limbs and Treasure

The Mashtis  might be the next best thing to come out of this era.  Not just saying that because CityBeat announced it during their "Great Demo Issue of 2010."   Prior to the demo  issue coming out, I had the album in my hand.  They were "pick of the weekend" many times for this blog.  Now it is time for my review of their self title album to be released!  


If you think their name looks familiar, it may be due to the fact that they were named after LA's famous Mashti Malone's Ice Cream shop located at La Brea Ave.  Only a year together and The Mashtis have been sprinkling their fairy dust into everyones ear for something new and creative on the scene.  This is not your hard heavy rock band.  Not a pop-rock-clap-your-hands and tap your feet band.  Not something that you would hear out of the ordinary.  It is best described as a dreamy jangly almost Pixie style band.  Influences such as Pavement and Sonic Youth are very much heard in their music. 


From the moment you press play on your cd player, your automatically hooked.  Their catchy dreamy tunes could be called rockn' roll hymns.  If there truly existed a church of rockn' roll, you would see "Limbs and Treasure," " Harmony Circles," and "Sympathetic Pearl" some where in the one million page book of hymns.  It may also have to do with intertwining male-female harmonies and evocative, almost cryptic lyrics.  The Mashtis, it's music for all occasions. 

The formation of this stellar three piece band started four years ago when lead vocalist and guitarist Itai Faireman posted a simple craigslist ad looking for people for a drummer to experiment with.  Neal was the only one to respond.  They played a hand full of gigs together before Itai moved back to the east coast.  A year ago Itai moved back to San Diego with a brand new solo album entitled The Sunbed Tapes.  With a quick jingle and jangle of the phone; Neal was invited to the cd release party.  Erica was an addition to the band.  Itai met Erica through a mutual friend and together they formed what is now The Mashtis.  


The recording of this album was done at Chaos Recorders with Christopher Hoffee, master engineer and producer (Truckee Brothers, Robin Henkel, Transfer, White Buffalo, and more). With Hoffee recording the album was both challenging and comfortable in this creative situation.  Due to time restraints the album was recorded in 3 days (15 hours per day mind you).  "I'm very happy with how it came out. We recorded the album live..a snapshot of The Mashtis moment." Itai mentioned when asked about the recording process.  "I'm real pleased."


The CD release is April 10th at the Ruby Room with Black Hondo, Cozy Corners and Joey Harris and the Mentals.  Make sure when your there to grab one of their albums.