I got this tape in the mail the other day. I am actually a little surprised that I haven't already seen this tape plastered all over the internet. "Skylife" by The Parasails is another beachy, Jersey Shore influenced alias taken by Matt Mondanile of Ducktails and Real Estate. If you are a fan of either of those two bands than "Skylife" should pretty much be a no brainer. I like the fact that Mondanile and a majority of the Underwater Peoples seem to remain true to their overall aesthetic regardless of whatever alias is being used at the time. When buying records I have always appreciated this approach because it shows that more thought is being put into their releases farther than their sound. We are all familiar with groups who become dependent on this idea, using it as a gimmick but I think they set a good model by keeping it fairly vague and focusing mostly on the music over anything else.
With all that said, this tape fits nicely into the rest of what he has done but still differentiates enough to take another title. Throughout "Skylife" there seems to be about nine different tracks which change and progress at about the same pace as his earlier tape "Ducktails II". Even though this is a limited run tape it has a lot of variety, there seems to be a good balance between the different styles we have heard from him in the past. Although it might not seem like it but this would probably work as a pretty good introduction to all of the bands he has been involved in. If you listen closely you will even recognize what might have been a demo for the Real Estate's "Atlantic City".
This tape was released on a label called El Tule Tapes which I wasn't familiar with before. The tape looks and sounds great and the shipping was super quick so I will definitely be ordering form them again. If you do decide to order this tape, which you should, I would also recommend checking out their tape from Women In Tragedy. It was recently posted along with a few other releases on the No Not Fun Not No blog that can be found in our blogroll.
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