ideal soul mart profile picture

ideal soul mart

About Me

The original Ideal Soul Mart is a convenience store on the east side of Austin that sells the usual assortment of alcohol, soda, and snacks – but unfortunately, not a shot at better living, or a fresher start, like the name might imply. The hunger for a more ideal something is what drove multi-instrumentalists Clay Fain and Adam Luikart out from behind the wreckage of previous bands (they've played together in at least three) and back onto the stage, booking shows before songs were written and working it out in front of the crowd.

With this reckless, literally DIY approach, the pair take the classic elements of the pop they adore, boil them down to their most basic essences of rhythm, melody, and texture, and then reconstruct them in a bare-bones melange: a pounding two-drum beat here, a pulse of electric piano there. Skittering, scraping electric guitars and handclaps. Hushed harmonies and soaring melodies. Dissonance and drone.

As they record their debut EP, Ideal Soul Mart will keep the promise of that name firmly in mind and continue to strive for a sense of perfection and economy in pop music.


[More videos on YouTube ]

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 16/07/2007
Band Website: http://www.idealsoulmart.com
Band Members: we play / we've played in:
crawling with kings
emily sparks
the drawing board
household names
the ashes
friends of lizzy

Sounds Like:
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

Homestretch (Free Album Download)

This is what they call the "homestretch". Bottom of the 9th, up 10 to 6.   Just have to hold on to our lead. In band-terms this means that unless Al-Qaeda targets Affordable Sound in the next two days...
Posted by on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:21:00 GMT

Over The Top: A Tale of Indie Rock Arm Wrestling

I decided (technically, I was asked) last night to arm-wrestle a friend of mine at a bar. It was a bitter match to the end against an equally "built" musician-type who really didn't want to do it eith...
Posted by on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:11:00 GMT

The new software requires that you restart your life now.

Let's see where were we...oh, waiting on our album to get mastered. Still there. Moving on,I'm almost fully engaged in the world of Twitter. I'm nervously teetering on the edge of near-constant com...
Posted by on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:18:00 GMT

playing tonight @ the belmont

this just in: we're playing tonight at the belmont around 9pm (maybe closer to 9:45 if your sxsw schedule is tight).it's a free show with an open bar, no wristbands required. i believe we'll be sandwi...
Posted by on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:05:00 GMT

First-timers again

Adam & I did our thing at Mohawk last night & I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's been about 6 months since our last show & we've vowed not to take such long breaks in the future. Felt a tad rusty...
Posted by on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:36:00 GMT

playing: thursday: mohawk: 11pm

we are emerging from our cave to play a show this thursday at the mohawk.now featuring: more guitar amplifiers!now featuring: more drum kit components!now featuring: prewritten words for every single ...
Posted by on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:32:00 GMT

Not joking this time

For real now, we're in the studio again.  (This story is getting old, I know) But this time we're putting it all to tape & this is the supposed point-of-no-return.  Then we ship this thing up to dr de...
Posted by on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:55:00 GMT

spot check!

i am really making good on this "blog about it" promise.we are sitting in lars's studio, turning down the vocals. and balancing the EQs. and i think we're demuxing the compressors, i don't know. it is...
Posted by on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:27:00 GMT

new clothes

well, we are awful close to finishing this record. i kept promising clay i'd blog a blog about it the whole time we were in the studio, but it never happened. so instead we have a new looking myspa...
Posted by on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:39:00 GMT

Studio Report - Day ?

Holy moly, I just recorded my vocals on a KM54. Lars says that's a big deal, so I'm passing on the exciting news. It does sounds pretty good though, so I'll take his word on how bad-ass and rare it ...
Posted by on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:22:00 GMT