CATEGORY: MP3 - Music Reviews

Beside the epic first track (Is There a Ghost), the latest Band of Horses release proves to be a bumpy second album. Fans of Everything All the Time will notice a much more subtler and reserved tone on Cease to Begin, as none of the songs travel into that stratospheric, echoed territory that touched most of their previous album. What is most disappointing about this is that, despite the shift in tone, the new songs still follow the band’s old formula, essentially making them less interesting versions of what you’ve already heard. There are even some downright misses in this bunch (Marry Song, Window Blues).

A snooty blogger might suggest they have titled the record Everything All the Time B-Sides, whereas a nicer, more compassionate one would simply consider this a mistep in what is hopefully a great musical career. Plus, that first song is just so epic!

[mp3] Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost

CATEGORY: MP3 - Music Reviews

John Vanderslice promised fans a ‘band’ record and that is exactly what he delivers with his latest record Emerald City.

Unlike 2005’s Pixel Revolt which employed heavy electronic bleeps and studio magic, the soft-spoken, slow paced songs featured on Emerald City live and die by their nakedness. The best way to decribe the record is to imagine ‘Trance Manual’ without all the bells, chimes, and studio tinkering. The peacefully moving instruments and soothing vocals have been arranged in a format that is built for the live setting rather than the record. Almost every sound you hear is able to be reproduced live by the band which unfortunately couldn’t be said for Pixel Revolt. After all is said and done, Revolt may be the better album and a bigger leap between records but the songs on Emerald City look to be a better addition to his live set.

The first single ‘White Dove’ is the most upbeat and probably the most familiar Vanderslice song on the record. His strong vocal delivery is reminscent of his Time Travel is Lonely days and the distortion on the acoustic guitars remind me a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel, who Vanderslice has openly expressed admiration for. Download the track now from Barsuk.com where you can also pre-order the record before its July 24th release date.

[mp3] John Vanderslice - White Dove

CATEGORY: MP3 - Music Reviews

Hit the Ground Running is the debut single for UK group Superkings. Made up of two songs, the title track and the upbeat jazzy ‘Wolves and Ravens’, Hit the Ground Running is an interesting demonstration of the pop band’s radio ready talent. This polished sound is more evident on the title track, which opens with a steady piano melody and builds into a mid-paced ballad with great guitar accompaniment towards the latter half. The lyrics focus on the narrator’s fascination with a particular enigma of a woman (”Just before the sweat dries, she likes to put the lights back on. The mystery of her fragrance lies far beneath a tarry nightgown”). The other track ‘Wolves and Ravens’ isn’t nearly as entertaining or romantic, but it does well enough to happily round out this ‘less-is-more’ two song debut.

[stream] Superkings - Hit the Ground Running on Myspace

CATEGORY: Editor's Pick - MP3 - Music Reviews

After weeks of indie blog hinting the general public can finally see for themselves whether The National’s fourth studio album Boxer is the record to beat in 2007. If magazine & newspaper critics have any say in the matter Boxer is, at the least, a very surprising step up from 2005’s already adored Alligator. Here is what Stylus magazine has to say about Matt Berninger and company, which I believe sums up the record & most reviews beautifully:

“Boxer is a National album through and through but blessed with a restraint and self-assuredness of a band on top of its game, resulting in a startling masterpiece on par with Turn on the Bright Lights, Bows & Arrows, or any other austere tribute to urban alienation you care to name.”

The only negative review I could find was from the UK surprisingly (which is where the National seemed to receive most of their attention prior to Alligator) and even then the publication, The Gaurdian, gives the record 3 out of 5 stars; although not until after criticizing the band’s last two records as “claustrophobic, minor-key U2-on-a-budget” and “deadened, muffled music”.

Harsh, no?

But perhaps the most interesting piece of feedback I’ve read for Boxer comes from the Earth’s largest social networking site, Myspace. For a week the record was available for full streaming on the band’s page and they were featured as a spotlight artist. Here is a screenshot of their write up on Myspace’s homepage.

Best band in America? Not sure the site’s 16 year old screamo-loving base will agree, but I sure love hearing those words.

Now the next step beyond what the critics think is to see how the public responds to the record. As Goodhodgkins so perfectly states, “If there’s one thing about Boxer that everyone and their grandma is going to use to discredit it, it’s the fact that there’s no ‘Abel’ or ‘Mr. November’”. These are the exact thoughts I had as I sat down and listened to the record for the first time.

As great as it would be to have a clear, aggressive single, Boxer benefits from its uniformity. Other than the darkly energized ‘Mistaken for Strangers’, most of the songs on record are content to give up their personal will and do their part in making Boxer a great complete listen. No instrument or vocal track attempts to stand out above the rest or steal the spotlight away from the collective whole. In my opinion, this is what gives Boxer the advantage over Alligator. It’s smarter and shows more restraint/maturity.

Hopefully fans will recognize this (it shouldn’t be very hard) and the chants of “It’s no Alligator!” and “Where is Mr. November?” will last only long enough before “Hey, I think I’m starting to love this cd!” kicks in.

BONUS:

Here is the band performing ‘Mistaken for Strangers’ and ‘Apartment Story’ live during MTV’s 24 Hour Human Giant Takeover last week (the always intelligent & musically knowledgeable people at MTV mixed the video tags, so Apartment Story is actually Mistaken for Strangers and vice versa).

By the way, Los Angeles residents can catch Human Giants’ Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer perform long-form improv at their always delightful Myspace Show every Wednesday night at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on Franklin Blvd. Much recommended!

CATEGORY: Editor's Pick - Music Reviews

Before he became known as the less familiar half of the Postal Service, electronic songwriter Jimmy Tamborello was arranging his bleeps and clicks under the name Dntel.

His first album, 2001’s Life is Full of Possibilities, featured Tamborello’s electronic glitch-pop layered underneath several guest vocals from artists such as Mia Doi Todd, Strictly Ballroom guitarist Chris Gunst, and the more familiar half of the Postal Service, Ben Gibbard. This collaborative element added an interesting variety to his textured landscapes and is featured once again on his latest album, Dumb Luck.

Almost six years in the making, Dumb Luck is filled to the top with indie rock’s brightest young stars: Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, Grizzly Bear’s Edward Drost. Even Mia Doi Todd returns for another go round. Add to that appearances from Fog’s Andrew Broder, Lali Puna’s Valerie Trebeljahr and Markus Acher, Arthur & You’s Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott, and Mystic Chords of Memory’s Christopher and Jennifer Gunst, and you have a record that works simultaneously as an electronic pop album, a killer who’s who compilation, and a reminder that before ‘Such Great Heights’ Jimmy Tamborello was very much alive and making some great music.

The immediate stand out tracks are Jenny Lewis’ ‘Roll On’ and Conor Oberst’s ‘Breakfast in Bed’, however this may vary according to the listener’s familiarity with each vocalist. In the end Dumb Luck’s strong suit lies in its ability to draw all the different vocals into one cohesive whole. The bleeps and glitches float beautifully behind Jenny Lewis’ country drawl, Conor Oberst’s wavering and fragile storytelling, and Edward Drost’s airy voice.

The marraige between Tamborello and his friends works so well you may start confusing your favorite vocalist as ‘the singer for Dntel’.

MP3
Dntel - Dumb Luck

CATEGORY: Editor's Pick - Music Reviews

With their debut album Devestator, the Chicago rock band Star have written and recorded what appears to be an alternate soundtrack to the 2003 indie flick Lost in Translation.

The record’s twelve pop songs are so rich with atmosphere and mood that images of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson laying in a hotel bed staring sadly at the ceiling might invade your imagination. This emphasis on texture & mood also turns one of the band’s potential weaknesses into a strength- singer Shannon Roberts’ reverb-drenched, indecipherable vocals fit right in here, avoiding the trap of becoming distracting. Behind Roberts’ light bursts of air, her bandmates Theodore Beck (bass/beats) and Scott Cortez (guitar) let their instruments echo and fuzz until they have formed a giant, slow moving wall of sound. This simple formula is the band’s successful foundation and they stick to it faithfully throughout the album.

In the end, if a few of the songs on Devestator sound a little similar it is because they are. However, people shouldn’t criticize Star for lack of variety; the mood and textures of their great walls of sound are what make Devestator a worthwhile trip. If the album had been released in 2002 perhaps Mrs. Sophia Coppola might have been tempted to steal it for her own exercise in mood & isolation.

http://www.myspace.com/lovelyrebelrecords

MP3s
Switchblade Heart
Pure Gold Reason

CATEGORY: Music Reviews

Independent music is a jungle, my friends, and the search for good tunes is a safari. Luckily for you, I am a barely qualified tour guide with the grandest of machetes I like to call a blog. Using this dangerous instrument I cut through the brush and unecessary underhang that blocks our journey, however sometimes I will come across a patch of vines and tree trunk that is seemingly too tough to pass through. This is when I, your leader, stop posting for a month and re-focus my sights on the music that is actually speaking to me.

Here is all I’ve been listening to the past few weeks. Here are the records I think are truly deserving of your hard earned money. Here is music you can enjoy without being friends with the band who wrote it. Here is the stuff that legends are made from. Here is what happens when you forget to lock your car door.

Here is now!

Low - Breaker (from their up coming SubPop album Drums & Guns due out March 20th)

Their last full length, The Great Destroyer, was the perfect balance of slow-core and accessible melodies. Their newest Drums & Guns slips back into a more glacier like pace but it still contains enough of Low’s smart songwriting to be worth listening to again and again. Purchase the record when it drops March 20th.

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (from the Merge album Neon Bible, out now)

Neon Bible is the best record I’ve heard so far this year and ‘Neon Bible’ is my favorite song from that record. Beautifully understated & whispered, it draws me in with its delicate guitar work and quiet layers of strings and drums. The Arcade Fire have proved themselves to be the real deal.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Love Song No. 7  (from the self released album Some Loud Thunder, out now)

Life has a funny way of working.  When Clap Your Hands Say Yeah released their debut album to critical acclaim, I found the record to be a bit…undeserving.  For the quirky, raw style they were going for the production seemed pretty flat and conventional.  To me the songs were boring.  Fast forward to a year and a half later and now things are pretty much the opposite.  Their new album Some Loud Thunder is being panned by critics and I am somehow loving the shits out of it.  People say the bad production is pretentious, but I think it adds a great deal of personality to this already eclectic and experimental batch of songs.  Along with Neon Bible, this is the only thing I’ve been able to listen to the past few weeks.  Whenever I put another cd in I am immediately presented with the need to remove it and replace it with Some Loud Thunder.

CATEGORY: Editor's Pick - Music Reviews

Aqueduct
Or Give Me Death
Barsuk Records

David Terry and his musical alias Aqueduct may not be household names but they have been in your living room. Quickly after the release of his debut full length, I Sold Gold, Terry took his keyboard and hit the late night talk show circuit, performing on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly. The single performed was Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights, a stand out track made popular by its simple, repetitive melody and some juxtaposed white gangster posturing (”Don’t ever ask me where I’m from…because if you start asking/I’ll pull this heat I’m packing”). The track was also selected for mixtape #4 of the O.C., appearing alongside hits from big players like Imogen Heap, Beck, Sufjan Stevens, and Modest Mouse. For a new band on an independent label, the exposure was momentous. Now, two years later, Terry is back with a new record, Or Give Me Death, and trying to capitalize on this early success.

The most noticeable difference between Or Give Me Death and I Sold Gold is the expanded use of electric guitar and grand piano. On I Sold Gold Terry was the definition of the bedroom pop artist, relying on heavy drum loops, synth-blips, and a strict electronic pallette of instruments to convey his song ideas. Here, however, the songwriter shifts his arsenal to include more organic instruments (piano, horns, strings) with a much heavier focus on vocal melody. The result is a solid album that avoids the claustrophobic qualities of its predecessor while exploring it’s newfound freedom with both excitement and passion.

Even so, on the much grander scale, Or Give Me Death might not be the right vehicle to propel its songwriter to mainstream stardom. It is devoid of any radio ready singles, which is surprising considering the momentum coming into its release. The most upbeat track and the closest to matching the mainstream appeal of Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights is Broken Records. With the opening line “You are so over the top, I’m so over it now, like a backwards hat you better turn it around” and its light, bouncy rhythm, I can see it being performed live on a Conan or Letterman. There are other tracks such as As You Wish and Keep It Together that show FM friendly promise with their distinct keyboard and vocal hooks but their slow bridges and break downs might leave them better off as bright spots on an evenly solid album than isolated singles.

The final verdict is that while Or Give Me Death is a very rewarding and entertaining independent release, it would have been interesting to see what Terry could have done with more accessible sound. Judging by the material and growth present, it’s not a stretch to imagine he could create something both successful and worthwhile with the mainstream format. Maybe next time?

[mp3] As You Wish
[mp3] Living a Lie
[full album stream] Aqueduct -Or Give Me Death stream

CATEGORY: Music Reviews

Alasdair Roberts
The Amber Gatherers
Drag City

You know when you are living in a brave new world when one of the biggest young bands in America, the Decemberists, handpick an unassuming Scotsman who plays plaintive folk music as the opening act for their victory lap tour of the States. It stands to reason considering Colin Meloy’s unabashed love of the folk idiom, but considering the number of “folk” artists twisting the genre to their own ends (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom), it is a lovely gesture to have Meloy embrace a traditionalist like Roberts.

As he showcased on his last album, No Earthly Man, Roberts is a scholar of traditional folk ballads. On that disc, he took eight of his favorites and, with the help of friends like Will Oldham and Isobel Campbell, made them his own, adding a psychedelic tint to the songs’ pastoral visions. On his latest endeavor, all the songs are originals of Roberts’ but both the mood and lyrics hearken back to folk ballads of years long gone, rich with imagery and language that Meloy only scratches the surface of in Decemberists songs.

This isn’t to say that this album isn’t rooted in the here and now. There is Roberts’ backing group (featuring longtime cohort Gareth Eggie on guitar and erstwhile Teenage Fanclub member Gerard Love playing bass) who give even the most ancient-sounding rime a modern edge as well as those songs that appear to be touching on current affairs. One can’t help but think that Roberts is singing of either our head of state or England’s prime minister when, on “I Have A Charm,” he sings of “the very sire of Hell himself/rallying his bloody commonwealth.”

There will most likely not be a revival of the folk music explosion of the ’60s in our cynical modern era, but if there were, Roberts would surely stand at the head of the pack. As evidenced on this amazing and spotless album, he is a master musical craftsman whose lovely voice and guitar playing could very easily break down the hardest of spirits.

CATEGORY: Music Reviews

The Shins
Wincing The Night Away
SubPop Records

Expectations are a funny thing. The critical notices that have greeted the Shins’ third album are almost dripping with a feeling of being let down. Robert Christgau’s lucid assessment of the album in a recent issue of Rolling Stone is especially filled with an air of regret at a band that was supposed to be the American saviour of the three minute pop song (the Canadians have cornered the market on that in their neck of the woods thanks, in no small part, to Carl Newman, thank you very much).

I have never been one of those to buy into the notion of this group being one to shout about. Each of the two albums that have preceded this one left me with no impression whatsoever. Each song felt like a flat, vertical surface covered with a thin sheen of oil, leaving me with nothing to grasp on to for some kind of purchase. Needless to say, I had no preconceived life changing notions when I was asked to review the Shins’ latest release, Wincing the Night Away.

I’m not saying that this affords me any better of an idea about how to approach this record. In fact, now that the record hit #2 on the Billboard charts in the first week of its release, I’m wondering if I’m not missing something. Yet, try as I might, I’m still left wanting by what the group is trying to accomplish on this album. And what are they trying to accomplish? From the unassuming and tentative sound of the 11 songs on this new disc, nothing more than to give a young hipster couple something to half-talk about while trying to not look each other in the eyes.

That nervous tension emanates from almost every moment on Wincing. None of the songs move faster than a gentle gallop and each is imbued with an air of melancholy that weighs even the sunniest sounding melodies down.

What the band showcases throughout this album is their almost reflexive use of restraint when it comes to their playing and songcraft. No instrument dares to take a lead role, but settles in to a quiet lockgroove, especially in the case of drummer Jesse Sandoval whose has become a master at bare minimum beats. When someone attempts something resembling a solo (usually keyboardist Marty Crandall), it appears in an unsure fashion and disappears as quickly as it arrived.

It is then up to front man James Mercer to use his voice and his lyrics to mold the songs into divisions of verse, chorus, and bridge. Even there, the group runs into trouble. Mercer’s vocals have a quiet distinction, but their wavering quality turns even their best melodies into a warm mush. The saving grace could have been some bold lyrical content to open the songs up even a crack, but Mercer tosses imagery around in a haphazard fashion, leaving the listener picking up the pieces and wondering just what he’s getting at.

Maybe the world wasn’t anticipating an insular pop record from the Shins but it feels like Mercer wasn’t capable of anything more grandiose than this. It hasn’t felt like that from the start of this band’s career. If nothing else, Wincing is a showcase for a band settling comfortably into their self-appointed niche. And it sounds as if it would take a wrecking ball to break them out of it. Until someone does just that, the Shins will forever remain an enigma to me, buzzing in the background of the music world, giving off nothing to make me break my stride or change my life.

[mp3] The Shins - Phantom Limb