Handbag Memoirs

Pas/Cal | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 3, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Le Grand Magistery
• ASIN: B000071WXN
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,965 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Bronze Beached Boys (Come On Let's Go)

2. I'd Bet My Life That You Bet Your Life

3. I Wanna Take You Out In Your Holiday Sweater

4. Grown Men Go Go

5. Marion/Mariam

6. This Ain't For Everyone

Editorial Reviews

The most exciting pop group to ever come out of Detroit. Recommended if you like pre-Ziggy Bowie The Left Banke Belle & Sebastian The Beach Boys Donovan The King of Luxembourg. It seems like Pas/Cal has almost materialized out of nowhere like some kind of band of sugar-pop prophets that rose straight out of the pastel squares of the Candy Land board in the closet. The group's falsetto hooks & up-tempo guitar-driven melodies are compact explosions of felicity short enough in length to

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These Boys Know What's Goin' On!, November 23, 2003

By 

suede bellbottoms (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handbag Memoirs (Audio CD)

PAS/CAL is amazing, simply and beautifully joyous to the ears. I go to all their concerts that I am physically able to, which limits me to the Detroit area, their and my hometown. As for the EP, it's beautiful. At their latest show at a record store in Dearborn, lead singer and guitarist Casimer Pascal explained their technique for naming albums. The first EP, called 'The Handbag Memoirs' does not have the song "The Hadbag Memoirs" on it. That's on the next EP...'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous' which (surprise surprise) doesn't have the song titled "Oh hony, We're Ridiculous." That's on the next one. The explaination? "Because we're clever like that!"

This album is wonderful. So are they. If you catch them at a show, bassist Nathaniel Burgundy will give you a felt heart to show your love for the band:

Lead Vocals/Guitar: Casimer Pascal
Lead Guitar: Gene Corduroy
Bass:Nathaniel Burgundy
Guitar: Trevor Mott
Drums: LTD (Little Tommy Daniels)
Keyboards: Richard Panic

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Junkmedia Review- Almost perfect / almost famous, February 18, 2003

By 

junkmedia (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handbag Memoirs (Audio CD)

I must warn the sassy boys in Detroit's Pas/Cal to beware the allure of the perfect pop song. They're getting awful close with this, their debut EP, and it might just be their undoing. On the other hand, they could become something incredible.

Allow me to clarify by going into more detail. The first three songs on this six-song CD represent a yin to the second set of three songs' yang. The first half finds the band reaching for an ideal of what could only be described as "the most shimmeringly perfect pop song EVER." Singer and all-around main guy Casimer Pascal has one of those glassy, smooth voices that are built to make smarmy pop songs; custom made for crystal-shattering high notes, but most often comfortably and clearly settled into the register that would send most male singers' voices through their noses. Poor Dan Bejar of Destroyer would probably kill to be able to sing his wonderful melodies through a voice like Mr. Pascal's, instead of straining and having what must be his least favorite adjective, "adenoidal," constantly heaped upon him. But then again, maybe Bejar would want none of it, and maybe Pascal and Pas/Cal would do better with some rough edges. But this all comes back to the two very distinct halves of the EP.

As I was saying, the first half can only be described as "shimmering." Echoes of Beach Boys harmonies here and there, heaps of Belle and Sebastian's foppishness (and look at that cover art!). These first three numbers are jaunty, and the production is so tight, I can't imagine that there's a single wavelength of sound out of place. The songs are growers, to be sure. The irresistible "go-hoah-ho!" at the end of the chorus of the opener, "The Bronze Beached Boys Of Summer (Come on Let's Go)," is impossible to not sing along to, and only a soulless boor wouldn't eventually warm up to the the bounce of "I Wanna Take You Out In Your Holiday Sweater."

But the problem sometimes is that all this is so meticulously put together that it almost loses any heart. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think that things necessarily need to be sloppy to show heart. Life by The Cardigans (which would make a good "RIYL" for this CD) might be the most exactingly arranged CD I've ever heard, but it's oozing with love and sweetness that feels so real. It takes a little more to drag the heart out of the first three tracks of this CD. I want to feel like Pascal is smiling as he's singing, but I suspect he's got the smug look of someone who's finally made the songs sound exactly right. I could be wrong though. Anyway, lets move on to the second half, because though the first half is good, the real meat of the matter is in tracks four and six (sorry five, I'll explain you in a second).

The closing track of the EP, "This Ain't For Everyone," might not even be by the same band that did the first three tracks, it's so loose and heartfelt. The vocals definitely share the Stuart Murdoch/old, old, old Bowie vibe that the whole CD has, but the wide-open production of acoustic guitars and assorted other instruments floating around in space. If the first three tracks are a flawless and precisely tailored suit, these tracks are the comfy t-shirt you wear after the cocktail party. "Marion/Mariam," the instrumental track five, is the head-scratcher for me; A neat little instrumental that pretty much goes nowhere, but not even in a nice, meditative "going nowhere" way. It just goes nowhere. But what it does do is give you a moment to recover from the prize of this CD, which I've saved for last, because it deserves it.

"Grown Men Go Go" rages through exactly 61 seconds of what might be the best song I've heard in months. Six verses, no chorus, two-second Farfisa freakout, another two-to-three second multiple-trumpet solo and a positively burning rhythm section all crammed into a hair over a minute, yet it doesn't feel crowded or rushed or anything. The way that "Gold Star For Robot Boy" by Guided By Voices could not possibly be any longer than it is, "Grown Men Go Go" is a brilliant one-minute song that feels like three. It's as if Pas/Cal became a band so that, if nothing else, they could give this song to the world. So my advice to Pas/Cal: ease up, guys. You clearly have the chops to make some of the most perfect pop music ever, so instead of fretting about and polishing it to a shine, just rock it out and let it perfect itself.

Martin Pavlinic
February 6, 2003
Junkmedia Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shimmering pop music, April 5, 2004

By 

Mister Ken "Certified Web Curmudgeon" (Walnut Creek, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handbag Memoirs (Audio CD)

I am so embarassed that a Saturn commercial brought my attention to this remarkable band. 'The Blonde Beached Boys' caught my ears during a commerical break and I immediately went on the web to find out who it was (www.whatsthatcalled.com is a great site).

This debut EP showscases a band that knows exactly who they are and what they are good at. They make the difficult process of creating smart pop music seem simple and obvious. The production is so effortless you cannot imagine the songs recorded any other way. And the entire thing is done by the band.

Just when I thought pop music was dead, I found Pas/Cal.