Indie lo-fi guitar pop - you know the type - jangly chiming guitars with a touch of psychedelia thrown in for good measure.
Released 4-track tape cassette albums via fanzines in the early 90s before being asked to produce singles for the likes of Pillarbox Red records (UK) and most notably Sunday Records (USA).
Debuted with the Souls to the Devil 7" e.p for Sunday, which was quickly followed by the Kimberley Somebody single. The Pristines also appear on Sunday Records compilations and also featured on the Happy Sunday rare flexi with a cover version of labelmates They Go Boom! "She's Not My Friend".
The Pristines finest moment on Sunday was the album Teen-Fraud, Pop-Whore (part one), which still sounds as refreshing and pure today as it did when released in 1995.
Other mentions must go out to all the other labels that also put-out material be it as singles, cassette-singles or on compilations. Most notably Elefant (Spain), Meller Welle Produkte (Ger), A Turntable Friend (Ger) and Sofa (Japan).
The Pristines still release CD albums today, however, no longer for Sunday but purely self-produced. "Teen-Fraud" was followed up by the equally poppy Get Caught in Showtime (2000), and the much darker & challenging 3rd album Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? (2003). Before a whopping 17-track third album Coping: Not Coping (2005).
Recently MySpace has led to the band forming new alliances and further releases have occurred. November 2007 saw the release of a 3-track mini CDR single on the Miami based Cloudberry records, a popular & productive new label running very much in the old fanzine ethos really independent style (cloudberry 59).
Cloudberry also put a Pristines track on their 5 band e.p Nothing Matters When We're Dancing that was not available by general release but given as a handout at selective indie nights at clubs in London & Sweden.
More recent developments have seen The Pristines agree a deal with Series Two Records to release the album States of Mine in 2008.
This new album was completed in 2007 but has so far only been circulated in demo or promo format on the whole.
Like most bands thinking the right way, the Pristines are looking for labels willing to put out singles, albums, tracks on compilations. We have only ever been in it for the love of making music and not for the money, and collaborations with labels with the same attitude would be most welcome!
