skygreen leopards: family crimes

The Skygreen Leopards’ latest outing continues the group’s tradition of skewed sunshine pop with lyrics focused on the bummer side of the eternal rock ’n’ roll summer. Donovan Quinn (New Bums) and Glenn Donaldson sing and strum tales of real and imaginary companions, delivering impressionistic rants about losing love, getting high or feeling uncomfortable. They record and mix straight off a nice tape machine run by Jason Quever of Papercuts (who also plays in the band sometimes, along with Jasmyn Wong and Nick Marcantonio) and resist the temptation to use digital erasers, preferring to leave in the mistakes and rough edges. For those who have followed Skygreen Leopards since the psych CDR boom, came on board after their gnarled country opus Disciples of California, or are a newcomers to the Skygreen’s jangling world, Family Crimes is the perfect expression of their patented brand of blemished pop.