
Polyvinyl Usually when an interesting press release shows up in my inbox, the contents show up ad nauseum in my RSS, Twitter, Facebook, whatever over the next few hours - such is the nature of the press cycle in the digital age. But one of the best pieces of news over the last few days, at least for me, hasn't yet found its way into the internet echo chamber, and that's the anouncement of the return of Saturday Looks Good To Me . Not that I'm entirely surprised; the Ann Arbor, Michigan [...]

I'm a few months late to this party, but apparently Fred Thomas—the creative mind behind the excellent Saturday Looks Good To Me —released a record with singer Betty Marie Barnes as the Mighty Clouds . The duo's self-titled LP is out now on Polyvinyl and contains Thomas's unabashedly poppy approach to songwriting along with an assortment of 60s-tinged vocal melodies, which Barnes fills out beautifully with her bright tone. If Thomas's songs are the mashed potatoes, Barnes' voice is the gravy on top that enriches everything below. Grab the album digitally via Bandcamp or on vinyl [...]

Prolific musician, with a hefty back-catalogue of collaborative and solo releases, teams up with silky throated female singer to produce an album of lovelorn tracks where retro and modern collide. Sound like a familiar story? One attached to a certain band containing Deschanel and Ward? Well, that kind of story isn't exclusive to them. She and Him might be an obvious reference point for people when first listening to Mighty Clouds – the collaboration between Fred Thomas and Betty Marie Barnes – due to the make-up of the band and the vintage pop leanings, but the truth is the bands [...]

MP3: Mighty Clouds - Stay Single Fred Thomas returns with one of his greatest collaborators, Betty Marie Barnes, to form Mighty Clouds . Their self titled LP (which you can get a copy of the original press from here or here ) will see a repress from Thomas' own Lifelike Records (who also did the first round of copies) with nation wide distribution from Polyvinyl on Record Store Day. It's a good album: for me, Fred Thomas is an incredibly talented songwriter who flourishes greatly with [...]

Mighty Clouds' 2010 self-titled debut, which one again teamed Saturday Looks Good To Me's Fred Thomas and Betty Marie Barnes, continues to rise unbidden to the top of my iPod. It's an utterly lovable collection of mid-fi pop crafted by one of the genre's most underrated teams. If you missed it last year, the band will be repressing the vinyl for Record Store Day on April 16 - and in even better news, a number of rare/out-of-print Thomas-related albums have just been made available digitally . I suggest starting with Thomas' solo set Everything is Pretty Much Totally [...]
In the five years or so I've been doing this, I can't remember a better year for songs. I actually spent most of Saturday ordering a top 100, went a little crazy and decided nobody needed me to rank seven hours of tracks. So here's a top 50. Every single one of these tracks is incredible, and yes, even Ke$ha. For the record, I allowed two songs per band in a few special cases because not including both Sally Seltmann jams would be a lie (though I did cut two Best Coast songs). Also, No. 51 is Lady Gaga ("Telephone") [...]

For a number of late '90s/early '00s years, Fred Thomas, Betty Marie Barnes and a rotating cast of twee-pop players were Saturday Looks Good To Me, one of Michigan's finest bands. Thomas has gone on to a number of left-field projects, including the tape-noise experiments of City Center and garage-pop act Swimsuit (more on them later), but amid all that, he and Betty reconnected and made a record: It, and their band, is called Mighty Clouds , it's out now, and it is as quirky and charming as Saturday Looks Good To Me's legacy would imply. [...]

an saturday looks good to me werden sich einige erinnern. ein glanzvolles großprojekt, das einige schillernde popalben auf den markt warf. bis zu zwölf mitarbeiter wies manches der auf u.a. polyvinyl, redder oder k records veröffentlichten releases auf. das letzte erschien in 2007. danach gab es lediglich eine 7", ein jahr später auf ernest jenning. doch fred thomas, man muss ihn wohl den mann hinter saturday looks good to me nennen, war stets lebendig und hellwach. und er äußerte sich auf seinem blog zum sukzessiven sterben der band und zog mehr oder weniger einen schlussstrich. schade, aber nicht zu ändern. [...]

Hoe zou het toch zijn met Saturday Looks Good To Me , vroeg ik me laatst af. Tja, met dat soort vragen komen wel 'ns bij mij op. Fill Up The Room, het meest recente album van de band, is alweer drie jaar oud. Fred Thomas, de man achter SLGTM, houdt ook een weblog bij en daar lees ik dat de band min of meer uit elkaar is. Jammer. Thomas is een man die niet stil kan zitten en hij bracht sinds 2007 een aardige hoeveelheid materiaal uit, waaronder wat solowerk. Onlangs bracht hij samen met [...]

mighty clouds spell it out 2010 (française version) 1. mighty clouds. betty marie barnes, fred thomas. 2. un homme, une femme chabada bada il écrit, elle chante chabada bada neuf chansons et une chouette reprise mamazanpapazesque des smiths chabada bada cha...rmant. (englikhtonian version) 1. mighty clouds. betty marie barnes, fred thomas. 2. a man, a woman, chabada bada he songs, she sings chabada bada nine [...]