railcars

"fucking rad live set" - Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade

The best band i've ever worked with whose name rhymed with Snailstars. - Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu

"unique voice in the Bay Area's experimental electronic / art pop music scene" - iheartcomix music blog

Railcars is Aria Jalali and his music is heavily influences by that of Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. Stewart, in fact, mixed Jalali’s debut single, Cities Vs. Submarines, a fact we noted in the FensePost feature of Railcars. Railcars’ latest release appears to continue in a similar vein with noise-ridden instrumentation and wild, piercing yelps.

Even as unmastered versions, “Passion Of St. Edmund (Rebirth)” and “Castles” show true progression for Railcars and Jalali. The songs are seemingly more cohesive and filled with additional hooks then were found on Cities Vs. Submarines. Moreover, these would be great songs to experience no matter what the setting — through headphones or in a live venue. Not that the prior release wasn’t, mind you, as there was plenty of greatness there as well.

Both these tracks will appear on Railcars’ upcoming release Cathedral With No Eyes. And we here at FensePost are pretty excited to have the exclusive debut of “Passion Of St. Edmund (Rebirth)”. Keep an eye on this guy; Aria Jalali is sure to continue making waves as Cathedral approaches its release date…

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I love stumbling across great acts by mistake. Recently, in my personal blog, I posted a brief rant on Joy Division and the recent film about Ian Curtis called Control. In the post, I noted that my introduction to Joy Division’s music stemmed from a cover of “Celebration” Xiu Xiu included on Chapel Of The Chimes. Well, when I saw a post by Railcars titled Xiu Xiu fans rejoice… I had to check them out.

The post noted that Railcars’ upcoming album was recorded and produced by Xiu Xiu front-man Jamie Stewart… recorded, in fact, in Stewart’s kitchen. And, upon listening to a few songs Railcars posted on their MySpace page, his hand in the recordings is obvious. The vocals are filled with static-y fuzz and the instrumentation blends various dark electronic elements in with lo-fi guitars and percussion.

The distortion rampant in guitars opens “Bohemia Is Without Sea” and the vocal pattern is actually quite reminiscent to that of Joy Division’s “Ceremony”. In some ways the lo-fi qualities that make Railcars’ music distinct are what make artists like Times New Viking shine—Railcars definitely create catchy tunes with indistinct lyrics spurted out in memorable moody vocal hooks.

“Saints Are Waiting At My Door” follows suit but concludes with a key-heavy instrumental rant. “Concrete Buildings”, too, matches the previously mentioned tunes with indecipherable lyrics; while the loud-soft nature of Stewart’s music isn’t necessarily present, you can hear traces of his influence in frontman Aria Jalali’s scream-ish vocals.

“There Is Ice It Is Blue” concludes the songs from Railcars upcoming EP, Cities Vs. Submarines, available around August as a 7” on Gold Robot Records. While, according to Jalali, a few still need some minor mastering work done, they sound terrific. I for one am looking forward to checking the album out. Also, for those of you festival junkies, Railcars will be playing Athens Pop Fest this year. Check ‘em out! - fensepost.com

"really loved the live set. very clever noise pop tracks" - rusty santos, producer of animal collective's sung tongs and panda bear's person pitch

Wrestling swarms of dirty demons. Underwater. - popsense.com

Thanks to his rolling bandmates, and now the producing wizardry of Jamie Stewart (front man of Xiu Xiu), the "Art Rock" work of Railcars is starting to expand beyond the capacity of our cerebral cortex.. - spinearth.tv

Last Friday night I heard about an opportunity to see one of my favorite underground-noise-pop-experimental-synth (and whatever else us indie hipster kids skloff our pants about) bands, Railcars, and promptly found myself with three companions, lost on the campus of UC Irvine, with only the cryptic clue “Social Science Portable 103″ to guide our expedition. Upon inquiring with a small band of natives, my group learned that “there are a lot of social science portables” followed by sudden pointing in various directions. We were able to interpret this as a traditional gesture of welcome among the natives of UCI but understood that they could not help us. Eventually, with the grace of god and the power of our ears, we entered a small classroom/trailer and spent the first minutes of the first night of spring break sitting at desks. White Leopards was an interesting drone/spoken word performance, if a bit tedious. Italic Indians was off-beat, abrasive, and generally un-musical. Then Railcars started class. Everyone got up from their seats and music filled the room.


Bay area musician Aria C Jalali has been recording and fermenting musical ideas under various monikers including Aria C Jalali, ARIACJALALI, and most recently, and under which his music is most fully formed, Railcars. Jalali screamed into his microphone (by way of a megaphone) and furiously played guitar while two other bandmates manned the keys and various electronic beats and synths. Railcars live was much louder and noisier than on record, though it represents his most recent releases well. Jalali has shook off earlier comparisons to Handsome Furs by carving himself a unique musical territory to explore. His guitar squeals above fuzz and harsh, clappy beats. The jangly, almost poppy sound of his earlier Postmodernism! EP, released as ARIA C JALALI, has been almost fully abandoned in favor of a sound more akin to bands like Wavves and, especially on the track “Saints Are Waiting For Me (Outside My Door), even My Bloody Valentine, than Belle and Sebastian. Like the influential Spencer Krug, Jalali reworks his songs to fit his current musical direction, and it’s exciting to watch where he goes with each new release. - thetapeisnotsticky.com blog

With harsh synthesizers, emotive vocals, and a vaguely threatening atmosphere, one could be forgiven for confusing Railcars' buzzy art-rock with the early work of similarly-minded experimentalists Xiu Xiu. That's not a far stretch, though: Xiu Xiu's leader, Jamie Stewart, produced Railcars' debut EP in his kitchen. Journey to the center of primary member Aria C. Jalali's tunes, however, and you'll discover the big, skuzzy power-pop heart that shitgazers Times New Viking might have if they were machines instead of men (and women). The thumping, dirty electro beats might even inspire you to dance -- once you stop feeling so nervous, that is. - spin magazine

In a bright and exciting future parallel, certain desolate images frighten the eye at first glimpse. USB cables with clothes hung on them to dry in the great wireless wind. Data blows like sand and rain, piled up in corners and dripping out of clogged eaves into troughs made by the heavy, constant dripping. You wipe your car clean every morning, the purple pixels sticking under your fingernails and caking in your hair and under your eyelids. JPEGs hurl like loose panes of glass, great spinning pictures at resolutions unimagined in present day. Images so clear they've surpassed sight, and can only be perceived, and by that right enjoyed by theoretical calculation. A bit frightening, yes, but still Earth, you understand. Still rapt conception of new ideas and white-knuckle, turnbuckle love. Still those who seek Truth and those who graze the valleys of others' experience. Still friends, still law, still breath. You'll see. The foundation is there. It's exploding, but it's there
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Running slipping slick down all-night subway steps. Solar-powered scientific calculator bear attack. Squinting, plugging other ear, trying to hear unintelligible voicemail while swarmed by guitar-hornets. Licking a back-hand stamp to pass it, press it, to a friend. - saidthegramophone.com