This week we celebrate the work of Marshmallow Coast with three tracks from the Kindercore years--that Athens label which has since gone under, putting many great albums out of print. Marshmallow Coast is Andy Gonzales, who has played with The Music Tapes and was a longtime member of Of Montreal (who, in turn, paid tribute to him by invoking the name of his band on "The Hopeless Opus" and by covering one of his songs, "In the Army Kid," on The Horse and Elephant Eatery).

After the long-delayed release of Andy's first album, Timesquare (which you can download in its entirety at the Marshmallow Coast website), he signed with Kindercore, which released two of his albums, Seniors and Juniors, sort of a concept album about childhood, and Marshmallow Coasting, in which his backing band was Of Montreal. Before the demise of Kindercore he crossed over to Misra Records, which released what might be his finest record, Ride the Lightning, as well as 2003's Antistar, which featured the addition of his wife, Sara Kirkpatrick, to the band. 2006 will see the launch of the second phase of his career, as Marshmallow Coast becomes M Coast, and this time the singing/songwriting duties are divided democratically among the new members of his band, Derek Almstead and Derek's wife Emily Growden. (A more appropriate name for the band might be Husbands & Wives.) M Coast's first release, Say it in Slang, will be released on Happy Happy Birthday to Me in the fall, with an instrumental-only album, Bizarre Classical, to follow shortly thereafter. Andy has also indicated that his out-of-print albums will be reprinted by HHBTM, possibly with bonus tracks.

For this Tuesday, we'd like to introduce you to Marshmallow Coast with three tracks from his period with Kindercore Records. "Shimmering in a Bulb of Glass" is from Marshmallow Coasting, and lets you hear his sound complemented by Of Montreal backing him up. "David and the Giant Crabs" is from the Of Montreal/Marshmallow Coast split single, Archibald of the Balding Sparrows, from 2000. Finally, "Dead Iguana" is a lovely little tune from Kindercore Fifty, a standout comp celebrating Kindercore's anniversary, and which also featured tracks by The Apples in Stereo, Dressy Bessy, The Sunshine Fix, Of Montreal, The Essex Green, and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out the new M Coast tunes, up at their MySpace site. M Coast will be playing some shows in the summer, including the Athens Popfest, before heading out for a fall tour with Elf Power.

Shimmering in a Bulb of Glass

David and the Giant Crabs

Dead Iguana

Check out our interview with Andy Gonzales here.
Derek Almstead talks about M Coast in this Optical Atlas interview.
Tour dates for M Coast are posted here.