Veteran three-piece The Campbell Apartment comprise a deeply melodic indie rock vibe around the rather impressive slate of work.  With their upcoming release Curmudgeon (out August 28th via Mint400 Records), the band have created a series of tracks that are thematically darker than their previous effort, yet still provide an appealing, toe-tapping experience.  Today, The Campbell Apartment have released the first single “VP of Snails.” 

Here’s Ari Vais on the track: “‘VP of Snails’, written title-first like so much of this album, is a spit in the face of corporate ‘life,’ and its corrosive effects on human happiness.  People check-in, and don’t check out till they are ready to die, and life is spent being a shill to a bunch of nameless, faceless, greedy executives, and when you are old they give you a watch and retire you.  You missed love, family, nature, you missed life.  It’s tragic and evil and yet it’s virtually all there is, once you are born you have to prepare yourself for this ‘future’ unless you are happy to be effectively off the grid the rest of your life with the financial struggles.  It’s a travesty and a tragedy, like cancer, and a song needed to be written about it.  I led with ‘weird’ while keeping a very close eye on ‘catchy’ and feel I’ve accomplished both.  It’s a weird first single, but it’s still obviously a single.”

Written primarily by Vais in his old house on Potrero Avenue in the Mission District of San Francisco (Kevin Frank wrote “Burning Bridges”), Curmudgeon was recorded at George S. Rosenthal’s San Francisco studio “The Complex”. Then, mysteriously, the tracks sat unreleased for several years. “This record has passed through many talented hands and ears over the years, each one fussily editing and tweaking the thing until its final version here now” explains Vais. “I’m so proud of how many various and very talented people really took a crack at making this record great.  We were signed by Mint400 Records on the condition that the album get remixed in-house for a rawer treatment, which turned out to make Curmudgeon sound the way we sound live – though obviously better. It’s a record.”

In addition to Vais, Frank, and Hand, the record features a guest appearance by Jesse Cobb on guitar.  It was produced by Rosenthal and Dave Dayneko. Jerry Lardieri (The Brixton Riot), lovingly re-mixed the record over the last two years. “We are a hyper melodic pop band that wanted to make a f&*ked-up record to reflect a f&*ked-up time” says Vais. Emotionally rich, emotionally charged, and undeniably catchy, Curmudgeon is an album either full of damaged singles, or esoteric, curmudgeonly deep cuts (depending on whose side you’re on.)