Intrigued by the name and slightly repelled by the music connection, RD's drummer was a member of Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah. Lindsay Baker does the majority of singing and shares guitar duties with Chris Diken. Her singing style is reminiscent of Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney, a forceful blend of declaratory shouts and plaintive warbled vocals. Diken's voice is weak so the Baker sung songs are more effective. The band has no bassist but it isn't much of a drawback, the guitars weave notes with equal parts chorus, delay, and distortion to add gravity to the sound. Their guitar riffs crib liberally from Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, and Built To Spill. It's pretty standard indie fare, but you could do worse things to your ears.
Buy this record if you're home watching Ultraman with the kids
Bob Pollard, the former schoolteacher turned indie-rock godfather, lifted off from Dayton, OH, charting a course for the ears of a generation of music fans who, to this day, are still trying to resolve the impact that his band Guided By Voices has had on the collective consciousness. Bob is a prodigious songwriter, and punk wordstock troubadour, who has always straddled a line between a Beatles pop sound and The Who's bombast. Bug House is a "sampler" of live and radio performances put together by Robert Gray, a GBV fan who has taken on the task of assembling many of Bob's radio performances and live sessions into a cohesive compilation. Interspersed with radio interview snippets are some wonderful versions of GBV songs: "Watch Me Jumpstart", "Hot Freaks", and "Tractor Rape Chain" from the 1-2 punch of Bee Thousand & Alien Lanes, a stripped-down version of "Bulldog Skin" from Mag Earwhig!, "Atom Eyes" and "Burning Flag Birthday Suit" from Under The Bushes, Under The Stars. Two tracks from the Do The Collapse record, "Surgical Focus" and "Dragons Awake", receive paradoxical treatment here. On the Rick Ocasek produced record, "Surgical Focus" is a busy, rousing anthem but is presented on Bug House as a delicate acoustic number with Pollard singing in a plaintive alto/falsetto voice. Conversely, "Dragons Awake" is a restrained acoustic number on the proper album, yet receives the full bombastic GBV treatment on this collection. Both Bug House versions are superior to the album versions, leading me to believe that Ocasek did a haphazard job of producing Collapse (which also happened to be GBV's greatest attempt at producing a radio-friendly record), failing to understand the dynamics behind Pollard's songwriting. Their are some rarities on here and the short radio interview segments are entertaining, and enlightening. Guided By Voices fans will be ecstatic to add this to their collections.
Buy this record if you're looking for treasure in the attic and grandma says it's ok to keep whatever you find.
A midwesterners version of a McCarren Park kickball game between Animal Collective and Yeasayer. It's a tough sell modeling your band after artists who left no lasting impression on the music culture. Kind of like cribbing your sound from a Nickelodeon jingle. Lots of reverb and delay, cathedral style vocals, pretty much a cacophony of echoes bouncing between your ears. The band name gives you a good idea of what to expect.
Home recordings from Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox. This was the first of four volumes that were "released" on his blog. It's a fairly sedate affair with acoustic guitars, harmonica riffs, pulsing rhythmic fills, flittering synth tracks with programmed drums, an instrumental cover of Kurt Vile's "Freak Train", as well as a spirited version of the Bob Dylan/Band penned tune "This Wheel's On Fire", which appeared on The Basement Tapes and The Band's Music From Big Pink record. I may be going out on a limb here but the Bedroom Databank series stands up with any of the other recorded material that Cox has released, and is essential listening for Deerhunter/Atlas Sound fans.
Buy this record for a rainy afternoon of TV soap operas and grilled cheese sandwiches.
The new Malkmus record is much more similar to a Pavement record than his recent solo records. There are no extended jams on this, no proggy asides or hard rock guitar solos. This may have something to do with the production of Beck Hansen, who seems to have brought out the nostalgic side of Malkmus. I found it interesting that Janet Weiss, Jicks drummer and former member of Sleater-Kinney, stated in a NY Times article that Beck wanted to explore some tracks that Malkmus had considered throwaways, leading Weiss to say that the band wasn't sure what they were playing exactly, or more precisely, that they weren't sure of the direction that the songs were taking. This turned out to be beneficial because, although there is a mellow vibe to several tracks, there is also an exuberance to a lot of the music that seemed to be missing from some of Malkmus's solo work. It may just be that I've always wanted to hear a new Pavement record and this comes pretty close.
Buy this record if you plan on meeting up with an old friend again.
Back in 2008, while singer/songwriter Christopher Owens was still playing in Ariel Pink's band Holy Fuck, his new project Girls took root, jump-starting a portion of the Bay Area music scene that was recreating a 50's style of rock, combining elements of doo-wop, surf, and rockabilly. Partially because they were one of the first and mostly because they did it best, the guitars had pitch perfect tremolo and Owens nasally, but evocative, voice had just the right amount of reverb added to it, Girls were the poster child of the scene. Many bands, whose sound is so inherently tied to genre imitation and nostalgia, have trouble discovering their own sound, something that Girls seem to be striving for on their new release. The production is much more polished on Father, Son, Holy Ghost and the band is now taking forays into extended jams, with some fiery guitar solos. They also throw more pastoral musical interludes with acoustic finger picking into the mix. However, the strongest part of Girls sound, Owen's voice, is buried in the mix on several songs. The opening track, "Honey Bunny", allows listeners a safe place to settle in, with an extension of the Buddy Holly type ditties offered up on the debut record Album. Then Owens and his writing mate, Chet White, hit you with their new sound. "Alex" is standard head-bobbing indie fare, verses punctuated by well-trod electric guitar fills with an acoustic bridge breakdown followed by a triumphant guitar burst. "Die" resembles any number of stoner rock dirges, Black Mountain especially comes to mind. "Myma" bears an eerie resemblance to the Cat Power song "The Greatest". The most rewarding track on the record, "How Can I Say I Love You", a winking nod to The Everly Brothers that was written a couple years back but just now received proper recording treatment, is an earnest mid-tempo ballad, a jangle of three chords and start-stops with an irresistible guitar solo. The album succeeds when Owens mines territory explored on their previous release, while the more roots oriented, organ-tinged songs seem to lack the cohesion and personal intensity of Album. I'm pretty confident, however, that the new direction will open up Girls appeal to a more mainstream audience. It won't help the purists who hung their hats on Girls, but it'll probably suit Owens and his crew just fine.
Buy this record if you're looking for something new but find the old to be true.
She looks like a female version of Marilyn Manson, her album cover resembles Marilyn Manson, and youtube videos present her as standard issue coffee-house singer/songwriter material, but this sophomore release from the NorCal native belies all of those assumptions. It's got some dirgy metal moments, "Pale On Pale", there a healthy dose of Sonic Youth's tribal floor tom meets dirty guitar distortion on "Demons", "Mer" employs vintage '90s guitar riffs a la Polvo, and there's a great cinematic slow build on "Tracks (Tall Bodies)". All of it punctuated by ghostly backing yelps and howls. Her vocals are clipped and arching, yet strong, sort of a goth take on Annie Clark of St. Vincent's voice, and a there is a definite resemblance to PJ Harvey going on. There are no burners on this record, it generally plods and floats along on an other-worldly vibe, but the song cycle should fulfill fans of various genres. Chelsea Wolfe is someone to watch, for sure.
Buy this record when you wanna tear the wallpaper down, burn the bedroom to the ground, and start all over again.
With Cheers, the Berkshires, and Ben & Matt, what's not to love? Naming your record Massachusetts is a sure way to engender good vibes. Naming your album Nebraska, however, might have a much different effect. Oh wait, Springsteen already did that. Well, Santos is the bassist for the Syracuse, NY based band Ra Ra Riot, a prime example of the current music industry's hype machine in that they were playing large festivals shortly after being "discovered". Ra Ra Riot's drummer accidentally drowned in a Massachusetts bay in 2007 so the title may be an homage to him. Knowing such, there is an eeriness to the seagull and maritime sounds that buffer the title track, a track that borrows derivative African vocal and melody patterns, similar to those found in Paul Simon and Vampire Weekend songs. Santos vocal effects also resemble the echo/reverb effects used by Animal Collective, a layered chorus in an empty cathedral sound. "Wait To Get Up" sounds like the synth exercise for a Police song. The album's charm lies in it's lo-fi pop aesthetic and fans of Animal Collective will be especially appreciative of it.
Buy this record if you're stuck in Rhode Island with a broken fuel pump and no windshield wiper fluid.
Wayward Fire is the work of Kamtin Mohager, a San Jose, CA native who bounced around from Hawaii to Denver, and now resides in Los Angeles. His songs are evocative of 80's synth dance music, but also bear signs of more forceful electronic dance tunes. It's not understated in any way, even the ballad "Teenagers" has rousing keyboard flourishes and anthemic drums. Mohager's singing reminds me a little of Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, without the overt aggressiveness of Reznor's vocals. Extra props for the Fleetwood Mac sample on the album opener "Stop", a song about cultural vices with a Beck guitar line that doesn't particularly gel with the rest of the record's vibe. The record's centerpiece, the 8 minute "Hold On", wouldn't seem out of place on a Cut Copy record. Lots of over the top hand clapping drum tracks and arena-style melodies prove that subtlety is not his strong suit, but he may get you to shake your ass a little.
Buy this record if your car's stuck in a snowdrift and you have to ration the M&Ms.
Kurt Vile was an original member of this band and I'm having trouble noticing his absence. I mean, it sounds like he's still in the band. The vocal inflections on the opening track "Brothers" are exactly the same as Vile's, a "Jay Mascis meets Tom Petty at a Bob Dylan tribute show" vocal phrasing that feels like disaffected singing. Even the jangly guitar is the same. Then "I Was There" hits you and you start to think that maybe The War On Drugs are trying to pull one over on Vile by aping his sound. Don't get me wrong, it's a good sound, it's just that the similarities are eerie. Or maybe it's Vile that has been aping The War On Drugs this entire time? Finkel is Einhorn, Einhorn IS Finkel! I'm from Philly so I should go get to the bottom of this rock mystery.
Buy this record if you think the war on drugs has been a failure but they sure go well with music.
2009 live recording of classic Polvo track from their 1993 record Today's Active Lifestyles.
Polvo were indie stalwarts from Chapel Hill, NC who flew the noise rock flag while grunge was dominating the music scene of the early 90's. They specialized in angular, guitar-driven instrumentals that bridged the gap between indie and math-rock. Although they never received much acclaim during their heyday they are nonetheless heralded as an influence on a lot of later bands. After a successful reunion in 2009, including a new record, In Prism, and tour, Polvo have entered the studio with legendary indie musician/producer Mitch Easter to record a new record, releasing this taster 7 inch in advance of it. Age and Easter's slick production have softened Polvo's hard edges, vocals are now prominent, which is not a good thing because vocals were always the weakest part of the Polvo's repertoire. However, Easter nurtures the band's muscular melodies, infusing the songs with his trademark Southern rock sound. It's a mixed bag, but knowing that Polvo is alive and kicking again is reward enough.
Buy this record if you like your eggs sunny side up but don't mind a plate of scrambled.
I'm not an expert on Sweden but I can tell you that the country has never been known for its cultural edge. Same goes for its music, a pop landscape dotted with innocuous acts such as ABBA, Jens Lekman, The Cardigans, and Peter Bjorn and John. The Knife may qualify as dark or mysterious but even they have a pop bent. In Little Dragons, Sweden has a new export, with a twist, an ethnic Swedish singer of Japanese descent who has an R&B vocal style. Her voice lacks range but provides a pleasant contrast to Little Dragon's fairly minimal, beat-oriented electronic music. It's the kind of music that would appear edgy in a Starbucks, where it will invariably be played.
Buy this record if getting a tattoo makes you feel counter-culture.
10 inch single from Long Island group that serves as a teaser for their first full length, In Heaven, due to be released on 9/27/11. The name seems to be a play on another Long Island band's name, Twisted Sister, but I could be mistaken. The three songs provide a dictionary definition of the band's musical styles: "Bad Street" is an enjoyable dance tune that harkens back to Talking Heads rhythms, accented by Andrea Estella's methodical vocals, sort of an American version of Laetitia Sadier's, of Stereolab, cadence. "In Heaven" is a mood piece that employs a shimmering string section and keyboard crescendo, with computer blips, over repetitive acoustic guitar notes to create a hypnotic lull. "You Remind Me Of" is a sparse acoustic ballad with a haunting vibe. Nice to know that Long Island is pumping out something other than dentists and accountants.
Buy this record if you prefer Duryea's Lobster Deck over Nick& Toni's.
You know when you kind of know a song but you don't know the lyrics so you just mutter something indecipherable along to the melody, kind of like what I do with almost any Michael McDonald song I've ever heard, "It came from somewhere back in the hodomo/ People can believe bedebedomebo/ What a fool believes"?
This record has that effect, singing is weak at best. Sounds like they just learned how to play three chords and are intent on wearing the shit out of them. People don't take astrophysics courses and just start making rocket ships so why is music any different? Ask the three ladies in this Bay Area band and maybe they'll have an answer for you.
Buy this record if you want to be disappointed again and again.
Man does this guy sound a lot like Yoni Wolf, original cLOUDDEAD member who now performs under the name Why?, and who's style has been likened to Beck Hansen's work. Appetite even delivers rapid-fire verses in a sing-song, like rifling through random thoughts of a diary entry, in the same manner as Why?. So I guess you can consider Appetite two degrees of Beck Hansen. Oh, and he was in the LA band Rooney so there ya go.
Buy this record if you know a guy who knows a guy that sells bootleg DVDs.
In-studio performance from Real Estate sideman Matthew Mondanile, who goes by the moniker Ducktails, on the legendary not-for-profit radio station WFMU, based in Jersey City, NJ. This show predates the Jersey native's critically acclaimed Arcade Dynamics III album (check out my upcoming review of it at: www.myspoonful.com) by a year or so. Ducktails live set at this point consisted of heaping spoonfuls of wah-wah guitar, delirious keyboard buffers, and improvised jams. Mondanile is now working on putting together a traditional band arrangement for Ducktails live shows.
Note: this set is, or at least was, available through Inflated Records as a vinyl release, and perhaps as a download?
Buy this record if you yearn for the Jersey Shore that isn't being defamed on that popular cable channel.
Tribal in nature, pounding floor toms, frantically strummed acoustic guitars coupled with pulsing electric guitars, oh, and lots of tambourine. The vocals stand out as the incongruent piece, faux-crooning, emotively twee-ish with soaring background choruses, which takes them out of a hippie family circle and squarely into the indie world. Not sure why Neko Case is singing backup on this record though, her distinct voice is rendered homogenous here, they could have used any female singer for those parts. The band calls the Best City in America their home, San Frantastic, so points for that.
Buy this record if you can't choose between the endive and the watercress.
Standard issue indie fare. Singing can best be described as a steroid addled Tom Waits backed by the firm for Manchester United. A big draw for this English band was their declination of interviews and a relative anonymity. Now that their first full-length is being released they have to open up and explain what they were thinking.
Buy this record if you think a hamster is an exotic bird.
Here comes another band from Southern California, this time from Santa Barbara, a quaint coastal town well-known for wineries and two-stepping Cowboy bars with sawdust covered floors. Gardens & Villa are kicking up a different kind of sawdust. The band does quiet well, they make 80's synth beats bounce, they're propulsive in a relaxed manner. It feels like they kind of blew their wad by the close of the record, but there's plenty on this debut that warrants Gardens & Villa a closer look.
Buy this record if you want to slip into something more comfortable.
Breezy pop with indie rock hooks from upbeat SoCal crew. The best tracks "Ceiling Tan" and "I Like The Way You Talk" succeed because of their obvious structural similarity to Pavement songs . Some of the record veers to close to Americana-style rock for my taste and the lyrical content is weak, but the group does a fine job mixing blues licks and a little raga into the pot. They keep reminding me of The National for some reason. The Donkeys have some mainstream potential and will probably be on a short list for the festival circuit next year.
Buy this record for the car ride with your Aunt who's just getting into yoga.
