We love San Francisco trio the Sandwitches and their yearning, stunning lo-fi folk-pop, so we’re excited about their new 7”, The Pearl, and its hauntingly beautiful a-side. As with the best tracks on their 2011 release Mrs. Jones’ Cookies, “The Pearl” is gorgeous, sunlit Americana, here complete with harmonica and Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper’s interlocked fingerpicked guitar and vocals, but you always get the feeling something dark’s brewing underneath – it’s in Roxanne Brodeur’s thundery drum rolls, the whole thing’s subtly gathering intensity, the growing shortness of Cooper and Alexander’s patience. “He’s a pearl / he’s my pearl,” they sing, then: “Don’t turn me, my treasure / you’ve been wrong to me, my treasure.” It’s breathtaking, gorgeous stuff – listen to this one with the lights off.
