WHALE FIGHT

The Only Reason Needed to Miss the White Stripes

2011-02-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Son House's Death Letter Blues, which The White Stripes re-tooled in their own blood-pounding, garage way for De Stijl--it's perfect. It's the White Stripes. All of what they do in one six-minuter. A friend passed it along back in the day because I was in some sort of dreadful, Dazed-and-Confused heaviness, saying it would give me the right, saucy thrashing to get awake. He was right: what a breath of fresh air the White Stripes were in the Age of The Strokes.

So yeah, they broke up today. Let's lament for a few minutes, or as long as your Tweetdeck will keep the story visible. There's really nothing else to say, but Jesus...what a band.

These 10 Albums Were Really, Really Good in 2010

2010-12-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

It's been an intense year: dark, strange albums alongside peppy ones (see Contra). Albums spewing their guts all over us. So, want to return to long lost music blog after a long 2010--with a fevered new year upcoming with 35 Conferette and SXSW (see you there?).

Consider this the first of the new year. Here ya go: top 10 albums of the year, filtered through a biased folk lens!

10. Heartland - Owen Pallet
9. Messenger - Joe Pug
8. Pope Killdragon - Strand of Oaks
7. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
6. The Monitor - Titus Andronicus
5. American Ghetto - Portgual. The Man
4. The Wild Hunt - Tallest Man on Earth
3. Tall Hours in Glowstream - Cotton Jones
2. Teen Dream - Beach House
1. High Violet - The National

Anti-Edge Fest

2010-05-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, Limp Bizkit played on Saturday at Edgefest--just when you thought they were encased in calcite in the annals of The Great Hall of Music. As a middle finger to whole Pizza Hut Park process, Hailey's hosted a multi-part celebration of the whole damn reason indie music is good for the soul. I wrote up a review for DC9 at Night, the Dallas Observer music blog (it helps I work over there). In the meantime, I shot this video with ol' point-n-shoot of the rip-roaringly good "The Wild Hunt."

Note: the reason the sound blows out is because Kristian Matsson's voice absolutely sizzles.

Hey, Pictures! Heartless Bastards at Lola's Fort Worth

2010-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Heartless Bastards smoked up Lola's in Fort Worth. A much delayed post, but who cares when it's rock 'n roll pics? More after the jump.

Wiping Your Mouth-Slate Clean

2010-04-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

Got a new idea: Watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos with volume-down, medically enhanced brownies in a pyramid, and a Color Your Life playing record style. Like wiping your mind clean, and replacing it with a jar of sloshing milk. Twin Sister's newbie, among the faded- wishy-surfy-dream-peace-pop-rock trend (help me, I love it), is free on their website. Free like one of those sea-birds. Listen to the over 7 Minute "The Other Side of Your Face"--it surges like a lost haunting track from A Ghost Is Born meets Beach Houses' loneliness.

Joe Pug @ J&J's, Roadside Graves @ Lamberts

2010-03-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

These two videos explain two things: why I've barely slept the last two weeks, and why I love these bands.

AM - Future Sons and Daughters

2010-03-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

Because I was born in 1984, I was forced to listen to AM's charismatic folk-pop album, Future Sons and Daughters, as a postmodern thing. However awful that word is, folk-pop bands are utilizing the excitement of the movement these days: upending modernity like a Dadist paints a pipe and then says it's not a pipe, and then paints a dog smoking a pipe. In a way, it's what AM is doing. There's a Christmas tree of adjectives and genres he's hanging his music on, and all of it is done with charm. So many postmodern artists today challenge listeners in their own ways, and a lot of it is raw, rough or coarse. AM approaches his music with a cosmic milkiness, a sugary groove, and a Vampire-Weekend-esque swagger.

The sweet, ukulele strummed "The Other Side," is sung as a broadcast as opposed to a romantic whisper: "Hear my words / Don't you listen?/ Because I don't know about the other side of me." And it's damn catchy. It's really catchy. Because he's confident. An attractive quality in a postmodern artist; how many bands could we list that play with an intense, horrifying perspective on a dying world?

"Take my time and take my chances / Cuz I don't know what all of this will ever mean" AM sings instead.

The album continues the upbeat groove with "It's Been So Long" and even "Darker Days" has a worldly swagger: "Liberate my love / from the futile hands of those who don't believe / in what I need." These two songs, I argue, are the more hook-less points of the album. They're pleasant tunes, but the album's strength comes from the acoustic, almost Nick Drake-ian, "Leavenworth." It breaks down what it means to locked in a loveless relationship. You can't find the light in this sort of prison, he says: "And in Leavenworth / you knew / what you wanted but couldn't do." Like many bands these days, AM is mimicking his influences by playing in their decade--but not like an rebellious outlaw, or an emotional criminal ready to sink the world. His desire is to love and be loved in return, or know that it can come if you want it.

AM is on tour right now with Air, and his album is available wherever MP3s are sold.

Dawes at the Cavern, Thursday

2010-03-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

The maximum capacity sign bolted to the front swinging doors of the Cavern say "49", but there was way more people there for Dawes on Thursday. I don't know if they were all fans (there was a couple behind me who collapsed from what I assumed was a washing machine of Jagermeister and Shiner inside their bodies), but I know the guy to my left was. He knew every lyric, every song.

Not to prove a point, but I love North Hills--it reminds me of Springsteen's Nebraska. North Hills has enormous quantities of heart, and doesn't give a shit whether you like slow songs, fast songs, or perfectly-edited radio hits. The album's about exploring the story behind the decisions you make when you're lonely, heartbroken, or just regular-old broken. It's about how all of that interacts with the city that you're living in.

So, it was hard to dance. But for the guy next to me, who made me feel like I should be holding a proud beer up to Dawes' good lyrics, it was a raucous occasion. Am I still a fan / good concert-goer if I stood there with my arms crossed? I felt the bend of the strings during "When You Call My Name"; teared up during "That Western Skyline"; swayed, head down, to "Love is All I Am." I'm not being rhetorical--I'm actually asking: is there a right way to hear music live?

Because to me, Dawes is a band you experience internally. Even their new songs, which, god help me, were so full of folk beauty I wanted to hug the lead singer Taylor Goldsmith, were rich with hurt. Obviously, there isn't a handbook. But it's important to find a band that can turn the bass down, and place you inside your head.

Bury Him Far From His Reconstruction Era Sadness

2010-02-25T12:04:00.000-08:00

Jason Killingsworth, the deputy editor at Paste Magazine, is quoted in a praising review of Joe Pug's talent to say, "Twenty years from now, lazy journalists will compare every halfway decent songwriter to Joe Pug. Mark my words." Listening to Messenger, Pug's debut LP, it's hard not to feel the resonance. One of the more stunning and original tracks from Joe Pug's debut is the harrowing and stunning Bury Me Far (From My Uniform):

"Just bury me far from my uniform / so God might remember my face / From the iron cross medal I would have worn / From the statues that sisters and widows mourn / From the newspaper clipings and microform / From Geneva to Hague and Nuremburg / From the sex of this world that I'll no longer taste"

Like the majority of the album, it's played naked and acoustic. His voice seems almost coated with the depression of the characters he sings. I'm sure other tracks will become radio popular on college indie stations around the country (as he is getting big in the ol' blog hemisphere), and Dylan-esque adjectives will be applied, as they should, but I'm stuck on the power of Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)--a single track on a great album.

Thanks Pug's digital ingénue, you can stream Messenger (out now) below.

Hey Stop By

2010-02-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

Many folk-rock bands, that have considerable "Indie" strength, skip the DFW area for reasons unknown to me. Please come by The Morning Benders. We would like to see you. This heartwarming, Phil Specter-esque video of the Benders with John Vanderslice, and some dudes from Girls is proof in the pudding that they should come.

The Benders just released a healthy tour (here), and are stopping plentifully in SXSW--but alas not Dallas.

Review: Nick Oliveri (Acoustic), Aquaholics, Pure Luck @ Doublewide

2010-02-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

Three facts from the other night--
1) A Yukon Trail bearded man sang into the microphone, while simultaneously smoked cigarette
2) Nick Oliveri fan confronted insanely loud woman, "Hey how about watching the show?" to which she replied, "No! I'm going to talk to my friend Dana!" (Or Dianne? not sure)
3) Jeff Pinkus was wasted

A hairy evening, for sure. Because it was a packed show, and there were so many moments of musical force, head splitting loudness and tech screw-ups, I'm going to break the evening down into a series of short phrases:

Talking. Bad sound. Shiner Bock in can. Pure Luck is hard as nails, cocaine country. Jagermeister shots in plastic cups, thrown down vigorously when done. Story about a cool fight John Iskander got in. Crazy women pets friend's dreadlocks. Weirded out. Aquaholics are smoking, Dick Dale rock. Fun. Another beer? More shots for band. Sweaty forehead and pits. That guys shirt says "Fuck" on it, a lot. Nick Oliveri is screaming and bald. It takes hefty courage to play acoustic metal (oxymoron?) solo. Long set. Breaks string. Takes requests. Three fans sing "Cocaine Rodeo" to close the show, one is a friend. Me excited for friend. Poster signing. Afraid to to talk to Nick Oliveri in fear of being eaten from the eyeballs down. Bartender screams, everyone out.

Somebody's Darlin' at Good Records, Willie Nelson's Ghost

2010-02-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in between brisket and brain melting Texas heat, there's the familiarity of Somebody's Darlin'. For example, the cover of their S/T debut album is a black and white candid of the band chillin' at a bar, whiskey and beer in ready reach. I have the taste of 'tabbecer' brewin' in my lip already. Oh, the thing is: they can really play. Last week, SD celebrated the national release of their S/T album at Good Records, and it couldn't have been stronger. Minus the criminality of bad volume control lessening the impact of Amber Farris's voice, the band as a whole was spot on. "Horses," the opening track to the debut, was as good as any Cardinals / Ryan Adams hybrid out there. "Chug Chuggin'" was heartwarming and showcases Darlin's softer side. "Penny of Thoughts" was through-and-through country (the good kind) that a pair of boots suddenly appeared in my hand, and the ghost of Willie Nelson gently pushed me through the saloon doors of a Austin bar, where country musicians turned and smiled in a grand ballroom like the final scene in Titanic. Oh Willie Nelson's ghost (not dead), take me into the abyssal deep. Lead me by your wrinkly hand. The lights are growing dim. It's really heaven. Look! There's Bocephus by the keg! Wait, he wrote that Monday Night Football thing get him outta' here. I welcome ya'll, Somebody's Darlin'. For your wicked country rock warms our whiskey ready hearts.

Somebody's Darlin' S/T debut is out now via Palo Duro Records.

Review: Jeff the Brotherhood & Screaming Females @ The Lounge Dallas

2010-02-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

For a one-and-a-half person band, Jeff the Brotherhood is loud. Half because the guitarist played with only three strings. I don't mean "they broke mid-way through the set"--I'm talking the strings were patiently removed beforehand so that power chords would be the only thing you would hear. Which I noticed when guitarist, Jeff Orrall, took his extra long XLR cable for a heavy metal ride down the hallway all the way to the bar. That's about the time everyone at the bar turned their heads and shut the hell up.

Jeff the Brotherhood is, yes, two brothers: Jeff and Jake Orrall in vintage tees, smokers thin jeans and long 70's haircuts. For a heavy rock-punk band, the kind with metaphors of graveyards and smoke, they were surprisingly focused. Drummer Jake seemed to be on some sort of mega rhythm drug, keeping karate-punch fast drum beats in perfect pace. Jeff's voice live, however, is not the greatest thing you've ever heard, but with songs like "I'm a Freak" and "Screaming Banshee," what's the difference? That said, you have to hear their sound. My first blush impression was "Eh, I've heard this before in another bar," but their focus and timing were so strong it held attention. It was so strong that the audience wasn't really sure when they finished songs (it didn't help they actually had music playing when Jeff tuned his guitar): the songs rang out to the vibrant sound of not-clapping. In this setting, they were a perfect opening band. Granite freaking hard, loud and just...awesome.

Before the Screaming Females (pictured above) came on, a tiny woman in a Norman Bates floral print dress was drifting through the audience. I noticed her because she was so damn small (belly button high to the dude next to me), and her dress was something from Grandma's closet. This is lead singer Marissa Paternoster. Next, let me pause any sense of journalistic language and grammar here, they annihilated my face with rock and bone. Dude, Marissa Paternoster can wail! Jarret Dougherty and "King Mike" on drums and bass, respectively, can wail too! "Bell," from their LP Power Move, was a near perfect Dinosaur Jr. guitar homage, and some leopard scream rock howls from Paternoster; "Baby Teeth" was just as fast and completely furious, with catchy lyrics:

"i am tired of your mouth/ when you're talking about/ the injustice of speech/ on a bus to the beach"

Honestly, I liked every minute. The thrashing drums, the syrup heavy bass, and the solos...my god the solos. They were melting the corduroy off every single hipster jacket. Marissa Paternoster is a force of freaky nature on stage, with seemingly endless larynx wind speeds. Without her, the band becomes another hard punk cog in the machine, though a damn good one. Take a look at some of her lyrics (from "What if Someone is Watching Their T.V.?"):

"this a nice place that you've been living in/ all processed in cans / tricking black ponies into a crippled dance/ buried in the sand"

So, she takes it to new levels of scream vision. Luckily, The Females are on tour in the near future with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Here's a straight rule: I like any band that makes their guitars sound like harmonizing puma screams.

Rock Me Like a ______________ Austin Band

2010-02-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

In an interview from 2009, Trey Pool, guitarist of THE GARY, told Madeloud that they would be doing a record around the theme of hurricanes and hailstorms. The album turned out to be exactly that: the sound of a hurricane. Logan, which was digitally released in 2009 and set to be physically released next month, has enough thrashing guitars to blow your curtains off the pole.

I like tracks like “Ancient Music” and “Don’t Send Me There” that sound rough and powerful, as though they sweated the making of it. The opening verse from the 7th track, “Hurricane Radio” slows the rock down:
“Hurricane radio 1,2,3 / I detect my memory trying to out run me …is this a vague broadcast / do you read me?”

It's the gruff, last broadcast of a dying relationship. This is the metaphor of Logan, and the musical elements used are earthen and gruff. There’s no ease in this album. The bass is fiery and the guitar has that ragged, fevered sound that you can hear in good garage bands from Texas. I agree with Austin Sound’s analysis (here) that these guys are more than a one-noter, and like Ryan Adam's fertility- drugged-birthing of multiple country-blues records (or, really, Whiskeytown's rose metaphors), there is room to grow.

The Gary's Logan is available now in print and mp3.

The Low Anthem in a Rail Car (and then at the Granada)

2010-02-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

Low Anthem - This God Damned House - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

If you were at the Granada around Halloween of last year, you might have caught The Dallas Family Band outside, in their wicked high school band uniforms, thumping drums and piccolo-ing. If you were there around October 28th, and had eagle-keen eyes, you might have noticed that members of the Low Anthem had donned dorky band jackets and joined the fun.

The Low Anthem is an unsuspecting band. Their Steinbeckian folk rock is studded with poetic images of loneliness, empty rooms, American horizons, and of course, birds. The above is one of their best examples, "This God Damn House" (beautifully lit and filmed by La Blogetheque in a railway car outside New York City). Even better news is the glorious, undeterred by SXSW show they have at the The Granada, March 17th. Make sure you catch it, or it will flutter away. Ok that was dramatic, but you should go because they play clarinets, clavinets, and a big harpsichord.

Have You Seen the Mountain Man?

2010-02-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

One day, stacks of books (or eBooks or laser books or something) in some faded library will point to the first half of the 2000's and the following decade as a folk revolution. In the meantime, all you have to do is search Myspace. Mountain Man has the sound you're looking for (if you're into hardcore, elvish folk)--soil and trees and elemental strings. They're bringing Appalachian sounds to SXSW in March, but in the meantime check out this video, by artist Yours Truly, which perfectly compliments their harmonies. Ironically, their songs rarely are about the machinations behind concrete or man-made tunnels.

Review: Menkena @ City Tavern in Dallas (Hey, it's shoegaze!) Feb 6th

2010-02-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried to run in a pool? There's a feeling of permanent slow motion, as though you're about to die in a Hollywood action sequence. If you add a heavy dose of stargaze & shoegaze, you have Menkena. Saturday at the City Tavern was all the shoegaze you could stand in one night, which required as much Shiner Bock as I could muster. Menkena is a synaesthesia of a lot of elements. Mollasses. Syrup. Cosmic bathtub. Rooftop winter smoking. I imagine if you had mind altering substances, or an overdose of insulin, it would feel like a trip to the Milky Way, but if you're a member of a half-drunk Texas audience it can lean towards melodrama.

Menkena consists of Jimmy Menkena (guitar, vocals), Mike Simmons, Nolan Thies (of Little Black Dress local Dallas fame), and Brent Elrod. If you haven't seen Jimmy, he's an easy man to spot in a honky tonk--he has a sleeve of tattoos up both arms and a big scoop of curly black hair and thick chops which gives him the Alan Palomo look. I would love to post which Menkena songs were best, and which ones had the most exciting lyrical storytelling, but I was lost in two sensations that made me forget to get a tracklist:

1) Each song made me think I was the Silver Surfer, riding comet speed past Jupiter.
2) Wouldn't if be funny if I were running in slow motion to these songs with my hand outstretched towards the ocean?

Honestly, most Menkena songs sound the same. It doesn't mean they don't make it work--"Red in the Morning" has cool, slowburn guitar that The Edge would be proud of; "I'm One" is a good love song fix. But shoegaze is a take it or leave it genre. You either want it, or you don't. Menkena takes it on the way the Bravo Channel likes to air Real Housewives of Whatever City. It's all over the place, man. It's plastered on the walls. Each song was a cosmic wave of sound, a scintillating reverb of guitar; a acoustic wonderwall. Personally, I find Menkena the kind of band you'd want to go to alone, to nurse a beer and discover new thoughts. For your next Menkena show, bring your Moleskin. You'll be happy you did.

Menkena is in the studio now, according to their Myspace, so look out for an album at your local hang soon.

More Ray at Your Church

2010-02-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Is there anything cooler than a experimental acoustic band from Austin playing in a church? Balmorhea, pronounced Bal-more-ray, is set to release their new LP 'Constellations' at the Central Presbyterian Church in Austin on February 19th. Damien Jurado is on board to accompany, so it promises to be lush enough to shatter some stained glass.

The band is busy. Along with a fat US tour, the band has a Daytrotter session to be released Feb. 23rd, a SXSW stint for Western Vinyl in March, and then it's off to the Netherlands. If all that's boring to you, listen to the brooding song, "Bowsprit," from the new album. You can practically hear the ship's bow dipping into the silvery sea, or of a flag going up a post, or the Master and Commander crew drinking grog quietly in bed.

It's all very serious, but it's still very good. For your art kicks, check out Balmorhea's newly revamped website. It's possibly the most haunting band site ever.

Balmorhea - Bowsprit

No Electrocution this Time

2010-02-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

In 2005, Lo-Fi Chorus frontman Erik Thompson was electrocuted, in a gentle reminder that sometimes machines rule us, by faulty equipment at the Cavern in Dallas. His drummer Erik Issacmen kicked a drum and split, but Chad Walls, as Noah Bailey at the Observer reported, put a sock over the microphone and kept the show going.

This is the tenacity of a good-times alt country band. They brought their act back to The Cavern last night, with no technical issues, and it couldn't have been more honest. An adjective I would pick is Kristoffersony. Or, Billy Bragg-esque. They had a Texas flag hastily clipped to the drum, and Erik Thompson had a beat up leather jacket under his harmonica holder. True to the name, some songs were simply Thompson's deep bass notes, and Chad Walls' iPhone synthesizer. Sound fun? It was. No frills. Just bar-country-rock. This was my first experience with Lo-Fi, so my reaction after a robust set was to ask for more band members--a fiddle player? Maybe a big guy with sunglasses and a sexy bass?

Thompson and the rest of the Chorus have a local reach right now (the above, lowlight Youtube video from 2008 is about the only online presence they have)...but that's because they're a local band. They don't have an annoying Twitter feed, and their website goes to a generic domain. Who cares when the music is as honest as a toothpick?

Best Post Punxatawny Phil Concert

2010-02-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

Despite what the first verse of Yours Truly, The Commuter reports, Jason Lytle has not been left for dead. He's full of epinephrine; the same vinegar that got him through Grandaddy. His new project, Admiral Radley, is a collaboration between Jason Lytle, former Grandaddy frontman (and friend to the Big D), and Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza & Ariana Murray. It's difficult to pinpoint online -- they don't have a myspace page and the Google search goes about one page deep. So what do they sound like? To find out, you will have to attend the Best Under The Radar Show of the spring season in Dallas: The Low Anthem with Admiral Radley @ The Granada, March 17th.

If you don't know The Low Anthem, then you don't know one of the best folk albums of last year Oh My God Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch). Their particular brand of Steinbeckian Americana has been in Dallas before, but under the umbrella of Blind Pilot. This is their first headlining show. Listen to the minimalistic, soaring Charlie Darwin and the feral, sky melting "Champion Angel." It's poetry (is that too cliche? I don't care.)

There's lots of shows to attend post Punxatawny Phil in Dallas, but I assure you this will be one of the best.

Revenge on the Orange Bearded Man (Why Dallas Doesn't Suck)

2010-02-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, The Soft Pack played at The Cavern in Dallas. There were maybe ninety people there, forty-five more than the "maximum occupancy" listed on the road sign near the swinging doors. It was loud and chowder-soup warm in the bar (so was the beer) and the lights were dim enough that you couldn't see the black x on your hand. Even louder were three guys next to me, who I tried to avoid by leaning coolly on the metal pole next to me. One of the guys had a thick orange beard and a big gut, and he drunkenly debated what he should drink at such a volume that anyone in the bar could have suggested "decaf" or sleepy time tea. These three dudes spent the first half of the show overcheering, projecting some weird, undeserved guilt that was later confirmed when the orange bearded guy yelled to the band,

"Sorry Dallas sucks man! Austin is way better."

The Soft Pack continued to play, uncaring and having a California blast. They rip-roared through their electric surf rock and macabre punk. The mood was high, so it makes sense that a few songs later the orange bearded guy bought the band apology shots. I guess for having to play in such a terrible place? He put the glasses on stage with a cocky grin showing beneath his nuclear beard.

So to prove that guy wrong, I want to post four musical based reasons why Dallas Doesn't Suck (in this first half of 2010):

1) Akron / Family with Warpaint @ The Granada, Feb. 25
2) Abe Vigoda (the band, not the man) with The Vivian Girls @ The Lounge, March 16th
3) BROFEST 2010 a festival of music including Dum Dum Girls, Slang Chickens, Those Darlins and a big heaping handful of other underground bands that will melt your teeth
4) Dawes with Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons @ The Cavern, March 4th

As a special bonus piece of news to Mr. Orange Bearded Man, The Soft Pack will be back for Bro Fest, as announced today by John Iskander over at Parade of Flesh. I will be there, along with several other great shows, watching and waiting for you, Mr. Beard Man: poised with verbal brass knuckles to show you why Dallas kicks butt musically.

Dying Was Much Better (Odd Blood Album Review)

2010-02-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

Melancholy dying is a common theme in modern blues inspired rock, but few have done it so thrillingly (or so happily) as Yeasayer's first album All Hour Cymbals. With a bell toll piano and a piercing baby scream, "Sunrise" began the album with a inspired new version of an over-used Carpe diem motif:

"The sky cracked a million ways making me blind / and as the trees grew higher and higher / and the fish began to fly/ I went and stole some wings / and thought why can't I"

Then, the album closed with the remarkable (if you have surround sound) funeral dirge "Red Cave": a mystical celebration at the swirling end. A musical heaven, equivalent to the Northern Lights:

"I went out past the willow and the well / caught my breath upon the hill / at the edge of the domain"

A well executed concept in a very over-used theme: dying, real good. Now we have Yeasayer's sophomore attempt, Odd Blood, to be released February 2nd via a shiny new label (Secretly Canadian). My first impression was the same thrill that opened All Hours--"Grizelda" is like a lost Paul McCartney track fronted by Anand Wilder's well seasoned voice. Grizelda is layered with programmed beats and a delicatessen of influences and world beats. Anand's harmonies are seamless and interesting. That's about the last inspiration I had. The rest of the album takes on the derivative shape of a worn nightclub. Alternate singer Chris Keating's fronted songs are hollowed out, 90's melodrama rock like "I Remember" and "Ambling Alp":

"I remember making out on the airplane / Still afraid of flying but with you I'd die today."
(more after the jump)

As opposed to the ethereal, cosmic heaven in All Hour's "Red Cave," "I Remember"'s death sequence is a boring, movie trailer afterlife. I'm tempted to contact the band, and ask if they listened excessively to The Counting Crows before recording. Anand's tracks, "O.N.E" and "Madder Red" are the most pleasing and fun, but the album has a hard time not preferring sound over substance. I have no issue with programming and exotic, digital percussion when they add dimension to an already scintillating lyric, but Odd Blood is less a kaleidoscope--it's more one of those plastic telescopes you get when you're a kid.

The sound isn't new if you're in touch with college rock these days: Neon Indian, Animal Collective, etc. all sound like bands from a Philip Dick novel. Songs like the effortlessly good "My Girls" (Animal Collective) are sensual, illuminating and feverously great. Odd Blood never pushes past the flash. In All Hours Cymbals, they were able to match the zoo of sounds with some new, almost Buddhist stories. It's possible to be dying and cool, but it's better to be dying, smart and cool.

Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

Mirror, Mirror

2010-01-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

More Austin news beyond SXSW: Dana Falconberry is releasing a new, redux of her debut LP Oh Skies of Grey. If you already have Skies of Grey, you know most of the songs on the album. Hallets is fuller, richer, and with a warm fidelity--as if all the songs were recorded snug next to "You Are My Sunshine."

As if Falconberry (best last name ever) scooted up to the mic and simplified the music. The Austin Sound reports: "Like her familiar thrift store dresses and worn cowboy boots, there is a timeless quality to Dana Falconberry’s songs. There’s a touch Emmylou Harris in her combination of subtle grace and uncompromising power."

The power is there in the difference between the two cuts of "Singing Lullabies" (see MP3s below). One is indie folk, the other is more moving, Gillian Welch inspired. I prefer tracks from her debut album like "Silver," which have a more interesting, fuzzy guitar bite. Hallets is out now via Falconberry's website: here.

Dana Falconberry (Hallets) - Singing Lullabies

Dana Falconberry (Oh Skies of Grey) - Singing Lullabies

In the Citay

2010-01-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in between Broken Social Scene's number of members and the grassy, mountainous guitar from Led Zeppelin 3 is Citay. Their new CD, Dream Get Together, came out Jan. 10th (via dead oceans), and since they've been on a neat little tour with The Fruit Bats. I think this is an obvious band, meaning, if you don't like them, you're pretty much missing a lobe. This is what NPR said in 2008:

"The music of San Francisco's Citay brims with a casual, unforced effervescence that belies meticulous arranging."

Dream Get Together is only eight tracks long, so no excuses. Listen to the melting, autumnal "Tugboat" and the playful "Careful with That Hat." Brooding, Highlander guitar in "Return from Silence" (55 seconds): in the droning opening seconds, I imagine Christopher Lambert brandishing a neon sword, and then being hit with a pie-to-the-face of "Dream Get Together."

One thing Citay has is consistency and some meat on their bones, the guitars always have a classic fuzz and the vocals are echoey. There's enough music to go around on this album. There's no bullshit minimalism or fantastic-space programming (though I do love that stuff). It's all guitar girth and peaceful tunes.

Citay - Return from Silence

Citay - Dream Get Together

Very Important Message to People That Play Music

2010-01-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

If you play through a lightning storm, you immediately become the coolest person in the Milky Way.

The Sword

2010-01-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

Heavy metal, like killing, is an acquired taste. In my whole life, I've listened to 2, maybe 3 heavy metal songs all the way through. Then there's the Austin band The Sword, with their song titles like "Maiden, Mother & Crone," "How Heavy this Axe," and "Iron Swan": how is a mortal human not supposed to fully enjoy that? For crying out loud, their website url is "swordofdoom.com"! My understanding of heavy metal and bands like Gwar and Motorhead is they have an undercurrent of humor to it; that you're supposed to laugh a little bit at the excess, dripping intensity. The Austin Sound illuminated The Sword beyond the normal cock rock and bad hair in a recent interview:

"JDC [J.D. Cronise] : One thing people always seem to be amused by is the fact that as a band we listen to a lot of hip-hop. They seem to assume we listen to nothing but Black Sabbath. I actually owned a Run-DMC record before I owned a Led Zeppelin record...

...I try to draw inspiration from archetypal mythological forms and look for the commonalities among various stories and traditions. One such archetypal story is the hero’s journey, which is illustrated in countless myths, legends, books, movies, etc. I’ve always been fascinated by tales of a lone hero on a quest, and that plays prominently into the themes of the songs for our next album."

The themes are nothing new in the family of bands with names like Alabama Thunderpussy, but the Sword stands out musically. For me, heavy metal is something you just have to do with a deep breath, and simply plunge your face into the ice. Not that you should stop thinking about its potency or its storyline (as The Sword said above), but if you're into Neil Young's greatest hits--it requires some acoustic sacrifice. The Sword, however, is one of those bands that hits the hammer harder then most. More like the feeling you get when you listen to Dinosaur Jr. over Gwar, The Sword makes you think: this is great.

The Sword - Mother, Maiden and Crone

The Lesser of Two Weevils

2010-01-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

Defying time and logic, Frank Fairfield has a wholly digital session of new tracks posted on Daytrotter. I imagine the staff of Daytrotter getting Fairfield around the fancy beeping lights and mics the same way Pecos Bill attempted to wrangle that tornado.

Few artists have the privilege of the live history that Frank Fairfield has: playing with a open violin case at his feet in front of Amoeba records, in gospel churches, at Sausage Grinders. When you listen to his music, you know why. Somewhere in that pre-Reconstruction banjo and ancient folk warble is a 24 year old dude who lives in SoCal. A while ago, I met Fairfield at the Sausage Grinder: he was wearing a tweed jacket, and his banjo strap was made of string. If you're wondering if his music is a novelty in the decade of the "year we make contact," it may just be--but Fairfield is so good that it doesn't matter. Listen to this stunningly old and good cut of "Bo Weevil." Also check out the piece Jeff Weiss did for the LA Weekly, it's the perfect company to the Daytrotter session.

Frank Fairfield (Daytrotter Session) - Bo Weevil

To Lothlorien! On the subject of Dork Folk (an MP3 post)

2010-01-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

You know how folk artists have that decades old, Woodstock era reputation of being "lame"? Dorkish? Sniffling with thick coke-bottle glasses? Well, I'm a dork. When I was a senior in high school, I spent $400 dollars on a bevel cut, suede hued frame for a Lord of the Rings Poster.

If we're looking at the definition of "cool music," isn't Led Zeppelin the coolest (/bad ass")? In a poll conducted by the Foundation for Songs About Sex in Bathtubs (FSSB): a staggering 98% of participants rated "Dazed and Confused" as the coolest song of all time, while putting all Hall and Oates songs in a low .05 percentile. This low of a percentage rates alongside "Wearing a Pedometer" level of coolness and "Fasting for political issues" cool. How about this little factoid--Robert Plant loved Lord of the Rings. In 1975, live at Earls Court on a Europe tour, Robert Plant can be heard screaming "STRIDER!" at the end of an electrifying performance of Bron Y Aur Stomp (5:40):

Turns out: "Strider" is the Ranger name of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Who's the dork now, huh! You can like elves and metaphors about mossy trees.

Which brings me to my point: Meg Baird's "Riverhouse in Tinicum" from her Mother-Nature-pleasing album Dear Companion. Part of me feels like it would accompany the fellowship on the way to Mordor, and the other wants to spin the record with a strong beer. It's charming, unassuming folk in a new decade that will nearly match, if not totally dwarf the folk output of the 1960's. If you feel odd or unsettled piping this mp3 through your work speakers while others are matching the ohms with Lady Gaga or Alicia Keys' song about New York something: do not feel low. Folk is way cool and so is Lord of Rings. Fly you fool and listen to flowers-in-your hair music! Don't quote me though, everyone hates me.

Meg Baird's solo Dear Companion features great collaborators like Arborea (playing at SXSW) and Fern Knight Glenn Jones. Also she's played on tour with Vetiver and Avi Buffalo. Very cool.

Meg Baird - Riverhouse in Tinicum

Cut Your Ear Off (at SXSW)

2010-01-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

If Van Gogh and Cezanne had an alt. country band, I think it would be The Deep Dark Woods. Not just because of their water colory album art. Of course, recent news suggests Van Gogh didn't cut his ear off, it was torn, Mike-Tyson-style by Cezanne. But I don't think The Deep Dark Woods are fighting (nor are they actually fighting) because they're busy: last year Hang Me, Oh Hang Me was awarded Best Roots Group by the Canadian music awards; smoking up SXSW; recording sessions at Hear Ya, which is more of the point of this post.

"Banks of the Leopold Canal," an 8 minute track from...wait...none of their records that I can find. But you have to hear it because it's got all kinds of memory to it: Dylanesque Train a Rollin' and WWII and Jay Farrar. A sky blue piano rolls in with reverb and a honeyed voice--

"Time is a tickin' my love / I can no longer stay / Government has ordered me and I must go away...to the banks of the place they call Leopold Canal"

I'm pretty ready for my ear to go bye bye. How weird is it that Van Gogh is cliche? That's sad. Winter Hours is out now, and by far one of the better Alt. Country releases of 2009.

Deep Dark Woods (Hear Ya Session)- Banks of Leopold Canal

Tim Buckley, Live at the Folklore Center, NYC - March 6, 1967

2010-01-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

If you didn't know already, Tim Buckley died in 1975. He was 28. Cut to Sweden, where legendary folk proprietor Izzy Young was sitting on a master tape of Buckley for over twenty years.

The tape was Tim Buckley, age 20, rip-roaring through a acoustic live set at the Folklore Center in New York City. Thanks to the prowess of Tompkins Records (everything they release is good), we have the CD now.

You have to hear it. When a great musician dies too young, his or her critics are left wondering, "What magic would he have created?" Live at the Folklore Center is a captured moment of Buckley's powerful musical talent. Listen to the energy, guitar and voice, of "Song for Jainie," and the stunning "Just Please Leave Me."

Like listening to Nick Drake, or Buckley's own son Jeff Buckley, you feel an undercurrent of sadness sitting with Live at the Folklore. He was too good, too young to die and the way Buckley's acoustic guitar rings in your chest--it feels like you knew him. The warmth and fidelity of this record makes his music all the more personal and moving.

Tim Buckley (live) - Song for Jainie

Owen Pallett : Heartland + MP3

2010-01-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

Owen Pallet, the violinist prodigy responsible for the most-impossible-band-to-google Final Fantasy, is a huge dork. He Poos Clouds, his last CD, was partially based around the eight schools of magic in Dungeons and Dragons (won the prestigious Polaris Prize in 2006). He's also a church organist. Forget that--look at his rap sheet. His good friends and collaborators are Beirut, Grizzly Bear, The Mountain Goats, Arcade Fire.

Heartland, his newest release, drops the moniker "Final Fantasy" for bigger, more poetic themes. But if you've seen Owen P. live, you might feel short changed on the album. In a small room / ballroom / bar, Pallet is a winged thing--he rips up the air and his voice is effortlessly perfect. Heartland is good, but often so rich with harmony and layers of strings it becomes cloying. The writing is fascinating and fun, like the verse from the best song from the album, "Lewis Takes off His Shirt":

"My senses are bedalzzled by the parallax of the road / I concentrate to keep contained the overflow"

"Tryst with Mephistopheles" has the catch needed on more songs of the album, and a more balanced mix of classical and indie-pop. Of course, fulfilling his dork destiny, the chorus is partially in Latin. It would be pretentious to say the album is bad: it's too good to sweep it under the one-word-rug. The best part is the concept (the poetry of living in American mind), and the wildness of his sound. Why he's better live--the layers are stripped down and it's just violin and voice. It allows him to let his dorkness fly with no shields, power-ups, or medicinal mushrooms.

Heartland is out now on Domino Records. Get it on big ol' vinyl, it's better that way.

Owen Pallett - Lewis Takes off His Shirt

Crazy Heart (with Vampires): A.A. Bondy @ Lola's Sixth

2010-01-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

I wrote a review for Dallas based Parade of Flesh, check it out here. If you don't feel like clicking, here's a bit of it:

First of all, I missed a huge chunk of the opening act of this show thanks to the Hellraiser labyrinth of Texas highways on the way to Fort Worth. I hate missing opening acts, (sorry Amy Cook) it’s like joining a movie five minutes in: you feel hustled, out of breath, the need to reach over and bug the person next to you with questions like, “What just happened? Who’s that guy with the rifle?”

Unlike me, A.A. Bondy was prompt and charismatic, and he calmed my hurried nerves. It’s the first thing you notice from his stage presence: he exudes confidence. Which is hard to do considering his music is dark, lonely, and bourbon washed. Like Bob Dylan, Bondy likes to mix his songs up live–”Oh the Vampyre” was deliciously slow and full of rich steel guitar; “I Can See the Pines Are Dancing” was finger-picked instead of strummed. With his dark red light on stage, I imagined A.A. Bondy’s live show to be Cormac McCarthy's favorite band.
The choice pick: Bondy’s bar-room stopper and excitingly revealing, “Killed Myself When I Was Young.” The song opens with a timbre-heavy drum kicking with a steady beat, and Bondy’s lyrics come in strong and honest: “Killed myself when I was young / with my fingers on a poison gun / because I had to come back new.”

Also like a good Dylanesque folk artist, (Bondy is somewhere in between Tallest Man on Earth and Langhorne Slim), the focus was on the music and nothing else. Don’t go to this show for hilarious banter or uncontrollable dancing. Go for the sadness, the peace from commiseration, and the whisper-perfect sound of A.A. Bondy’s favorite theme–dying. And vampires.

Dante's Inferno (The Crawdad & Weed in the Mouth Version)

2010-01-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Daytrotter is currently showing an absolutely killer session with Los Angeles boot-kickers Roadside Graves.

Occasionally their songs are about Heaven and Hell, and that's when they transcend modern fiddle country into good, Rolling-stones like blues rock (listen to "Far and Wide" at the bottom of the Daytrotter post, and then scream obscene words like I did because you can't download it).

Roadside will be playing hearty sets at SXSW this year, as you can see from their Myspace page. Their album My Son's Home is out on Autumn Tone Records.

Roadside Graves (Daytrotter Session) - Ruby

For Your Cocaine Habit

2010-01-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Fair Park in Dallas, TX is known for concocting recipes of deep fried imaginations (enough to make you lose that leg of yours) like fried coke, and fried ghosts. The last one is fake, but I'm ready for whatever.

More realistically amazing, as you can see from the visual aid, MusInk is hosting a kick ass live set: Old 97's, Lucero, Shooter Jennings (for your cocaine habit a-forming), and the great and local Telegraph Canyon. Get your arteries ready by drinking some cheddar and picking up Telegraph Canyon's freaking great album The Tide and the Current.

Telegraph Canyon - Into the Woods

Civil War Reenactment Music

2010-01-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

One of the few folk artists out there giving a little Antebellum flavor to his folk is Joe Pug (see "Bury Me Far From My Uniform"). He's one of the better songwriters out there:

"Your senses have been soaked / it must be more than smoke...She's a messenger if she knows she doesn't care"

He's part of a dirty secret: there is good country music out there amongst the nonsense.

Pug's new album debuts Feb. 16th, and you can see the tracklist here. Also, his site has a embed player available, so you can hear a few new tracks:

Your Local Burlap Sack

2010-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to your local hand-sewn burlap sack record (literally): the new LP from Los Angeles band Slang Chickens. The Chickens are full of piss and folk vinegar:

"I got blues dripping down my leg / I should go to the doctor but I really want to stay in bed"

Through some genius digital-atude, you can listen/embed/stream five songs from the S/T album (see the fancy player below). It's good for wave crushing, banjo licking and not cutting your hair for a long time in rebellion of a conservative mom. I love it.

<a href="http://slangchickens.bandcamp.com/album/slang-chickens">Tropics by Slang Chickens</a>

Animal Names are the Best of 2009

2009-12-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

There's torture here. I'm fed up. I can't take the head pressure anymore, IT'S LIST TIME. God, what was I supposed to do...not do one? Jesus of Jesus! That couldn't happen. Colors, I'm seeing colors. Help me. A rat is running on the roof making the sound of nails. Somewhere in the distance, a crow cries. Torture! Broken fingernails!

Without order or any sense of triumph at doing this right because there are really just too many great albums to create some sort of "top ten" (exactly what I did) or "top five" or "top 88" (what about Bear in Heaven? Grizzly Bear?? King Kahn & BBQ Show??? Passion Pit???? Flaming Lips?????) Hell. This is just my personal favorites of 2009 with remedial, disgustingly short descriptions.

The Antlers, Hospice
The light bulbs explode when this album plays.
Antlers - Sylvia

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
The title track is one of the best songs I've ever heard.
Neko case - Middle Cyclone

Cotton Jones, Paranoid Cocoon
Rock from the bottom of a soapy, fifties dishwasher; "Blood Red Sentimental Blues" is a perfect song.

Cotton Jones - Blood Red Sentimental Blues

Tune-Yards, Bird Brains
What is this? It's like pouring sugar on your frontal lobe.

Tune Yards - Sunlight

(read the rest by clicking link below)

J. Tillman, Year in the Kingdom
So sultry I'm going to kill myself with a raven.
J. Tillman - Though I Have Wronged You

Castanets, Texas Rose, The Thaw & the Beats
Willie Nelson's ghost and a whole bunch of roses make for a scintillating, beardy album.

Castanets - Dance, Dance

Low Anthem, Oh My God Charlie Darwin
It's just poetry. One of the songs is called "Cage the Songbird," so I'm hooked.
Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin

Cass McCombs, Catacombs
Cliche? Screw off. This album is spectacular.
Cass McCombs - You Saved My Life

Brazos, Phosphorescent Blues
Austin band that says, Eat Your Heart Out Spoon. Listen to "Avignon."
Brazos - Avignon

Neon Indian, Psychic Chasms
My first thank you to hipsters. See: "Deadbeat Summer," and be OK with that good 80's feeling.

Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer

THREE HUGE RUNNER UPS THAT I COULDN'T FIT INTO THIS LIST AND THUS CANNOT TRULY SLEEP WELL

Phosphorescent, To Willie
I was at LAX listening to this album, when Willie Nelson stood in front of me. I almost cried.

Dawes, North Hills
Three words: That Western Skyline.

Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
Yeah whistling. Words that sound like cool other words with gorgeous harmonies.

Prologue

2009-12-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

Broken and alone is the best way to experience The Antlers perfect album Hospice. This Take Away Show exemplifies that. Get ready to drink, you're going to need it. Crafting any best of 2009 list has to include Hospice and Peter Silberman's limitless, Jeff Buckley-esque voice.

Also, if you're a fan, you MUST have their live performance of Sylvia live in NYC (click here).

Inside Abraham Lincoln's Joke Book...

2009-12-21T10:13:00.001-08:00

Is a CD that you should hear. The actual sounds of the color orange. Colourmusic's last few CDs are the auditory representation of color. If you're pausing and thinking that it all sounds like avant-garde, bah-humbug nonsense--don't judge before you hear. They know what they're doing. NPR's review: "What orange sounds like is anybody's guess, but the music on F, Monday, Orange, February, Venus, Lunatic, 1 or 13 suggests that it is one incredibly vivid, exuberant color."

F, Monday, Orange, February, Venus, Lunatic, 1 or 13 (yes! this is the name of Colourmusic's album!) in the context is thought-provoking, and out of context is the great concept of a great rock band. "Put in a Little Gas" is melodic and wild with its addictive, smoking guitar and repeatable chorus (Polyphonic Spree-ish). "Rock and Roll Polar Bear" shows off what they can do with acoustic instruments and their White Albumy sense of humor (Danielson-ish).

"F, Monday, Orange..." is the band's first full length attempt at the relationship of sound and color (orange). Catch them on tour, selling their CDs inside vintage books, like "The Abraham Lincoln Joke Book." The truth is, I had no idea of their post-modern attempt to marry sound to color when I saw the band. It didn't matter: their songs speak for themselves as inspired, fun, brit-psych rock. See MP3s below!

Colourmusic - Put in a Little Gas

Colourmusic - Rock and Roll Polar Bear

Great Big Bushy Beard

2009-12-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

J Tillman - Year In The Kingdom - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

Luxury Wafers is lucky enough to host J. Tillman for some exclusive tracks from his new album, Year in the Kingdom. In fact, Luxury Wafers was so enthused at J. Tillman's liveness, that they're going to host his videos all week. If you don't know J. Tillman: his albums are studious and quiet, but live is what your blood needs--it highlights all of the subtleties of his voice. Also some kick ass crashing symbols from his backing band. Head over to the Wafer for the MP3s.

Year in the Kingdom is out now on Western Vinyl.

Rock Slide (The RAA)

2009-12-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite songs is No Expectations by the Rolling Stones. Like You Can't Always Get What You Want, No Expectations is about bereavement and acceptance. A major life loss that leaves you hollow inside:

"Take me to the station / and put me on a train / I've got no expectations / to pass through hear again"

This is the sentiment of the debut album from The RAA, Hometowns. On Saturday in Dallas, they played a great set, flush with funeral dirge organs, bone cracking drums, and a bunch of stories about how lost lead singer Nils Edenloff is. If you're interested, I wrote a review of the RAA Show on John Iskander's Parade of Flesh (the prolific booker of every good show in Dallas) site. Check it out: here. Otherwise, check out The RAA's new video (and MP3 below) for "Drain the Blood," which is harsh and catchy--like an angry Feist song or something.

The RAA - Drain the Blood

Local Natives Burn Down Barns

2009-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Ed Droste was in a dream I had the other day, after a night dedicated to Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare. In the dream the sky had that rosy, Cormac McCarthy apocalypse glow, and Droste tossed me a shotgun which I caught & loaded with one hand (CHK-CHK sound). Pretty cool right? Maybe Droste had the same dream........

Weird segue, but I was thinking about Grizzly Bear and Local Natives before I went to sleep because both are so damn good in this 2009 musical-Gorilla Manor is their great debut. Thanks to Jeff Weiss's recent reporting, I can happily sleep apocalypse-less knowing Frenchkiss Records has picked up the Los Angeles based band. Pass me a happy shotgun (That's the same label as The Antlers, Frenchkiss, not Happy Shotgun). Take good care of them, Frenchkiss.

Jeff Weiss's article on Local Natives here (also cop some MP3s); Aquarium Drunkard's LA session here (Dear God good MP3s here too): This year of music is seriously rendering me sleepless. Enjoy the above video of Local Natives playing at Daytrotter's Barnstormer sessions.

"Beautiful Star: Songs of Odetta" meets Maine

2009-12-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

About forty years ago (wow), Martin Luther King Jr. said Odetta Holmes was "the Queen of American Folk music." So, in this glorious musical year of 2009: UK zine Wears the Trousers has very recently released a tribute to Odetta's beautiful folk sound with the album, "Beautiful Star: Songs of Odetta" (out now on iTunes). I haven't heard the whole collection yet, but the myspace has some stop-you-in-your tracks folk goodness (here).

Artists include Linda Draper, Anais Mitchell, Haunted Stereo, Pepi Ginsberg, and a moving final track by Maine originals Arborea. This youtube video showcases Arborea's version of "This Little Light of Mine," which adds depth and darkness to the early folk sound. What a way to close a tribute.

PS, please listen to Odetta's version of the Rolling Stones "No Expectations" (via Coverlaydown) in the attached Mp3. It's delicate and clarinety and so very overflowing with the essence of folk.

Odetta - No Expectations (cover)

Fanfarlo, The Loft: Oh Me Oh My Oh

2009-12-04T14:39:00.000-08:00

The lead singer of Fanfarlo sort of looks like Robin Hood. I imagined him off stage riding horses and dropping canvas bags of golden nuggets to hungry hipsters. As a stage presence and musically, Fanfarlo is as red-dot accurate as it gets. The lead singer's name is Simon Balthazar, like something Keanu Reeves fights in Constantine, and he has the offshore vibrato of Zach Condon and a backing band like Arcade Fire. Live, they have richness and a professionalism. Try to see these guys on the road if you can: they have pretty lights behind them, and their music is old-fashioned good. The above posted track really shined, "Ghosts,":

And tell me all the secrets
Of a world you once lived in
That your heart could not swallow
The sky is so shallow

One great thing: when was the last time you saw a lead singer blare clarinet into the microphone?

ps - thanks to whoever posted this video on youtube so fast.

One of the Best Songs of the Decade is Death Letter

2009-12-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Earlier I was reading a great list of the decade's best music on Fresh Cherries from Yakima, and it reminded of something: I love the White Stripes album De Stijl. Now is a good time to remember it. Somewhere in between Julian Casablancas Phazes for the Young ripping open a portal to remember what garage rock sounded like in the beautiful nostalgia of a couple of years ago, and Dan Auerbach's thor hammer sound is the reminder, "Hey, Jack White knocked over some heads in 2000."

Yes, the albums he made after De Stijl were good, and damn near Zeppelin like. But the shittiest thing about Zeppelin is how they turned to gods of turds after Physical Graffiti. To hear their most raw, bitter as an onion blues sound, you have to listen to their 2 Disc BBC Recordings. It's live, messy, and COVERED in gasoline power. Plant's voice is capable of anything, and Page could blow a window out with his Highlander guitar. I don't think that The White Stripes turned to turds after De Stijl, but I do think that their most unadulterated, exemplary music comes from it.

"De Stijl" is named after a Bau-Hausian art movement, but it's dedicated to blues-gospel artist Son House. He is the author of the original song, "Death Letter," which has been often covered by toothy rock bands like Gov't Mule and John Mellencamp's face, but Jack White's version couldn't better encapsulate the White Stripes contribution to music: hardcore blues rock, faded but spit shined to sound like Zeppelin Live at the BBC (and Son House's amazing song, of course.)

Listen below, and thanks to Fresh Cherries from Yakima for reminding me of how much I love this record.

White Stripes - Death Letter

Though I Have Wronged You: J. Tillman at Hailey's

2009-11-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

A guy in front of me at Hailey's is drinking a coffee porter that leaves a chocolate mustache on his beard, and his friend asks: "This dude played with Blitzen Trapper, I liked that a lot. You like them?" The coffee porter dude shrugs and says, "I like everything."

J. Tillman is not for everyone. Take his Shakespearean story of castration in "James Blues" from the 2008 release Vacilando Territory Blues: "Most nights he has dreams all his teeth are missing / Wakes up in a sweat / Simpleton heart racing." This isn't blues; it's clinical depression. Tillman played the song alone on stage for the encore without acknowledging anything around him. There was a sense of anxiety in the room. Depression has always been a trope of folk, but it's hard to find anything that matches J. Tillman's personal torture. "Though I Have Wronged You" was the perfect highlight of Tillman's night (listen to the live track below from Sacramento, CA and you'll get the idea). A soft, almost whispered voice followed closely by a comet clash of drums and gold cymbals: "Though I have wronged you / I was sailed in a river bend / with a cast of spirits from anointed heads."

Josh Tillman is J. Tillman, the drummer for lush folk of Fleet Foxes, and standing alone he couldn't be more powerful and thoughtful. His songs are timid and the stories are thoughtful and dark. On stage he is a intimidating and pious figure, his dark brown hair falls to the length of his beard, and frighteningly taller than most mortal men. To hear his record is a quiet, depressing experience, but to see him live there is somehow a passing sense of brightness. Like he is falling in a burning trail of cymbals and electric guitars.

His new album Year in the Kingdom is out now, buy it: here.

J. Tillman - Though I Have Wronged You

Neko Case Melts Buildings in Dallas

2009-11-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

There was a giant owl behind Neko Case last night in Dallas, TX. When the lights went out, the owl's eyes were yellow and peering into the crowd. Hard not appreciate the metaphor of "soaring birds" when Neko Case sings. Seriously, does anyone sing better? Right now, Middle Cyclone is nested in several "Best of" lists already; Amazon already named it the best of the year. (it's also my personal favorite of the year).

A perfect glimpse of the show last night in the blue, humming Granada: the first song ended and a fan somewhere in the middle of the crowd belted "WOW." It was something everyone felt: "That voice..." She's a life ender voice: "You said I was your blue, blue baby and you were right" She sings with a blast of brightness during "The Pharoahs."

So what do you say about a perfect show? It was no less than everything Neko Case does well--"the boyfriends" (the band) weaving webs of guitar and Case and her backup singer truthfully illuminating everyone in the audience. There were no stuffy, bloated covers or long rock jams. Just folk-rock and Neko's soaring voice. The band finished with a song that was requested live, "Teenage Feeling," and came back for a encore that could melt a building.

"Vengeance is Sleeping" let Neko shine with the wildly capable guitar letting loose like a hundred shooting stars behind her. Middle Cyclone is almost entirely about morphing and incarnation, and listening to the tornado of the guitar, Neko's owl wings flapping over us and into the trees: we were all morphed animals.

All of 2009, pt. 3 (Music Journalism has entered the Bizarro Realm)

2009-11-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

The hardest part about this modern transition of music writing going from print --> digital MP3s is the way it gives you pieces of pie, not the whole. An album is meant to devoured in a whole setting with a bucket of coffee. OF COURSE & BUT & ALSO my favorite publications in the world right now are online: Passion of the Weiss is the best hip-hop (and all music) blog in the world, and Aquarium Drunkard has the genius monopoly on good folk. Fuel for Friends is out in the high altitudes and posting chilling music. These are all MP3 blogs that are not to be taken lightly--they are newspapers that happen to be online.

The point is--this digital age of music is a weird oxymoron. Record sales are going up, but papers are declining. It's like something from a DC comic. Where Superman's 'S' is upside down and backwards and Batman is an old man with shingles. The only thing we can do is embrace the tide that's coming to us, and keep making each other bad asses mixes.

No matter what the forum or function. So, for all those who've had a year that's left you with a good cauliflower ear, but nevertheless a Rocky Balboa fist-in-the- air of celebration: let's share the music that made you a person this year. Mine is below, in a little McNuggets version from lala (part three of that, click here for part 2 and part 1). Hope you enjoy!

2009 in Reverse, pt. 3

Final Fantasy & Mountain Goats Live: Ballad of Mario

2009-11-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

In October, Owen Pallet posted to his twitter page: "Can't contain it. I just completed 10 days on the best album I've ever had the pleasure of working on."

Speculation was that it was, gasp oh gasp, the new Arcade Fire record that is being secretly passed into master tape form like something Dan Brown will write about. Pallet (of Final Fantasy) is the virtuoso string arranger on AF's records (he frequently performs their song "No Cars Go" live). Last night at the Granada, he abandoned any straps velcroing him to the status of "contributor" to other bands. His fiddle playing was perfect and robust, and his voice hit the ceiling rafters. I don't think I've ever seen a opening band get so much applause. It was just good.

The Mountain Goats are interesting. Each song was draped in Bible verse, and a good ol' fashioned story by lead singer John Darnielle: from the occasional Marioland ballad to songs about three-way love triangles. Their music had a bright and positive spin that was less Christian rock annoyance and more just sing-and-play. If you can't stand the whole singing about God through modern progressive metaphors, a theme Sufjan Stevens enjoys, you may want to just eat a bunch of hot dogs outside. But there's was a surprising lack of "indie" to the Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy. It was more Decemberists-like in pop form, than deeply artful soul searching. The most fun was a ballad dedicated to the "other" Italian Stallion: Mario from nintendo fame. Darnielle sang about Mario's sad red hat, and losing his beloved Peach princess. The rest of the show was just plain wholesome.

Final Fantasy has a new album called Heartland, arriving early next year. The Mountain Goats are touring their new album The Life of the World to Come.

Arborea : Black Mountain Road

2009-11-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

Nick Drake's dark gibson guitar pluckings always reminded me of wood. When I hear folk virtuoso J. Tillman these days, I can't help but think of birds in mossy lakes and creeks. There's something primordial about folk these days. Take Arborea, a duo of folk musicians from Maine, and the way greenness comes through these two lush, beautiful MP3s like moss (see below).

I'm from Virginia, so I kept thinking of fireflies in a jar during "Black Mountain Road": beginning with the reverse- footage sounds of banjo, guitar and fiddle; the sound of a train unracing across the tracks: "follow me where the north wind goes / to the end of the black mountain road."

As 2009 is closing up shop, people are making lists. I think one day we will all look back on this decade as a folk revolution that began in the nineties with a host of alt. country-Neil Youngers, and be stunned at the amount of good music that sprung out of the ground. Arborea has a lot going for them this year, with a new album (House of Sticks), a slot at SXSW under the Borne!/Western Vinyl Showcase, and a blog of photography & art (see the attached photo by Arborea member Shanti Curran). Hell yeah to these modern days.

Arborea - Black Mountain Road

Arborea - Beirut

The Antlers Lyrics Or, Holding a Real Album in Your Hands

2009-11-18T09:04:00.000-08:00

One thing that sucks about the digital age is the way it lessens the blow of the concept album. Any album is meant to be listened to as a whole, not in digital, web-bite chunks. Don't get me wrong, I live off the steady IV of internet MP3s (and try to dish them out as well), but NOTHING is better than hearing a record spin. You hear the entire album with its natural breaths, like a movie or a book, it's meant to be consumed as a whole. Concept albums like The Antlers Hospice is not meant to broken in digital MP3 shards. It's a weaving story. See the above, scintillating poetry of "Sylvia" from their new album. If you bought the album online, you'd miss these liner notes and the importance of the way these lyrics are printed--formatted and fonted. See below for the download of their entire liner notes & lyrics.

The Antlers: Hospice Liner Notes (PDF)

Ghosts

2009-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

This song gives me phantom limb. Hospice is one of my favorite albums of the year for certain, but listen to this haunted, Jeff Buckley-like live version of "Sylvia" by The Antlers:

"Let me do my job / Sylvia get your head out of the oven / go back to screaming and cursing"

As if this album art doesn't challenge Paranormal Activity enough, the live version is the perfect incarnation of the word ghost. You can almost hear the stirred echos of Hallelujah.

(thanks to MusicFile for this MP3)

Sylvia - The Antlers, Live in NYC

PS, you can buy Hospice for 5 bucks in November on Amazon: here.

All of 2009, pt. 2 (Jesus! Look at all the lists!)

2009-11-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

To keep on the sunny side and because it's so much fun, I posted a big ol' mix to share what I've listened to (and been listening to) in 2009. Making lists is a soaringly addictive and futile task, no matter if it's Pitchfork, Paste or NPR--I think. Though, I have to state again my love of Aquarium Drunkard's "Decade" feature: it's the most addictive of all the lists (oh s***, I ranked the lists! I'm just as guilty).

My opinion is: new music changes at a time it desires, no matter when it came out. It shows us a new emotion in a volcanic way: at any time it will cease to be dormant, rupture and explode into our minds with an unbelievable brightness. These songs, and the songs from my part one post, are the ones that did it exactly that to me. There is some serious stuff left out; some of it was earth shatteringly new and personal. Like Avi Buffalo, Johan Joannson, or Sigur Ros's unkempt language. Too hard to post everything. Obviously, I would love to hear what you have to think, and what songs changed you. Or what songs you hated. Either one is good & inspiring. See below for the "Lala" mix (you may have to sign up, sorry about that, but too many MP3s to post).

2009 in Reverse, pt 2

Brendan Benson, Luxury Wafers: Don't Want to Talk

2009-11-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

Brendan Benson - Don't Want To Talk - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

Brendan Benson & Luxury Wafers posted a few live sessions that have good bite. To quote LW, "Deceptively simplistic, the melodic structure and meter of Benson's songs ply their way deep as the nursery rhymes we all know by heart."

For me, I grew up surrounded by the Old 97's. It was the polar magnet's other side of the P.O.S. country that flooded North Texas. Benson has the same quality Miller does: simple songs doused in good melodies with no complications. Sort of the opposite of The Antlers, or less worrisome (but just as broken) than Rhett Miller.

Concerts to Make You Bankrupt Report

2009-11-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Bank loans for concerts will be needed. MP3s are attached, listen away!

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Lola's Saloon, Fort Worth, TX

The Mountain Goats w/ Final Fantasy, Granada Theater, Dallas, TX

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Longhorn Saloon, Fort Worth, TX

Neko Case, Granada Theater, Dallas, TX

J. Tillman, Hailey's, Denton, TX

Fanfarlo, The Loft, Dallas, TX

Rural Alberta Advantage, The Cavern, Dallas, TX

Thao & Get Down Stay Down - Feet Asleep

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Final Fantasy - The Butcher

Jason Isbell & 400 Unit - Seven Mile Island

The RRA - Frank, AB

J. Tillman - Year in the Kingdom

El-oh-el-aye Lola la-la-la-la Lola

2009-11-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down Friday. Lola's Saloon in Fort Worth. Is it required that I wear Larry Mehan's?

All this is what I listened to in 2009, pt. 1

2009-11-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

What's going on right now? "Best of" lists surging on the internet like pyroclastic flow from St. Helens...I'm not fighting it. It's just overwhelming. "Best-of" lists are annoying, sometimes exciting, often arbitrary to the point of madness, and truly addicting as hell. Some days I find myself neck deep in them online, trying to pin-point the method to these lists. It really is exhausting. All of these bands & musicians that have released good, bad, and very disgusting music across the decade (and for this post's purposes, 2009) are different. Their music is original--in that they made it over a period of time, and than a record company put it out. So, really, the date it came out is completely arbitrary. How many writers wrote some of this decade's best music BEFORE this decade? Or on a napkin four years before it actually came out?

For sanity's sake in lists, I am enjoying the hell out of Aquarium Drunkard's "Decade" feature: contributors post albums that meant a lot to them over the past decade. Bands like My Morning Jacket, New Pornographers and the Microphones have come up. It's about sharing and the excitement to discuss music that changed their lives. It's not for ranking, numbers or social marketing.

So my hope is that I can come close to that notion with a mix of music that really changed me, helped me, made me weak, made me strong, angry, and more upset than ever. I'm sure for many people 2009 was a holy-fucking-shit year, new Presidents and falling economy's all abound, but below is a "Lala" mix of what made me a person this year, part one. These are the songs I listened to this year that will stay with me, probably forever, and embed themselves into my daily consciousness from now on. I'm not saying anything my choices are important or worthy of some anthology: I just want to share what means a lot to me. This is the first mix of three (arbitrarily), and, as best as I can do--they're in 19 tracks, no rank or order other than what I thought sounded good.

2009 in Reverse, pt. 1

Dear Death: Hey What's Going On

2009-11-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Death,

Hey! The worst feeling in the world you gave us is to dream during a high fever. I fell asleep once with one a 103 and one of those waterfall-rock tumblers running- the sensation still leaves the taste of copper in my mouth of dread, fear and night terrors as sharp as teeth. The Antlers know what the hell I'm talking about. This is from their song "Shiva" (see attached).

"My femur was breaking was breaking in half / the sensation was scissors and too much to scream"

Yikes! A wise man once said, there is nothing darker and lonelier than a fever. You feel nails on dry wall, cotton in the mouth. If that's true, tonight's Antlers show in Fort Worth, Texas will induce an increase in body temperature. Can't wait.

PS, listen to The Antlers Daytrotter session and feel yourself wriggle.

The Antlers - Shiva (Daytrotter Session)

Stevie Wonder -Live on Sesame Street

2009-11-05T13:14:00.001-08:00

Stevie Wonder - “Superstition” (Live on Sesame Street)

Posted using ShareThis

Goodbye Big Bird, Happy Anniversary Sesame Street and God Bless Funk in early 70's Stevie Wonder.

Lambert's BBQ'd Molina & Johnson

2009-11-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

Want to get a bourbon with your BBQ? I prefer Texas BBQ for that reason, you can get bourbon, thick brisket, fried pickles and a serious dose of live music. Big Texas Sky music. Also in the nothing-could-be-more-Texan category: Molina & Johnson of Secretly Canadian are on a wicked tour of the US, ending at Lambert's BBQ in Austin Texas. Their new album is solid with guitars and rattlesnake egg-shakers. It's a fun album to sit back and let play with friends & beer, or at least that's what I thought I should do. Really it was me with glasses on, a green iced tea, and iPod headphones, quietly whispering along.

"Granted that I ever, ever stop playing to win / could you find it in the cards to bring me to the light / and then Texas said to West Virginia wind / come get in" (from Almost Let You In)

Here's a new track from their album Molina & Johnson, out Nov. 2nd.

Molina & Johnson - Almost Let You In

Ballad of A Well Known Gun

2009-11-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

One of the most underrated albums from the 1970's is Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, themed with golden American West. It had no charted singles because it wasn't that kind of album. The six minute masterpiece, "My Fathers Gun" is one of the better examples of Bernie Taupin's storytelling and Elton John's ability to find melodies. I come back to this album a few times a year, when it's spring-feeling outside. It's cathartic and heartwarming. I found this amazing live performance on youtube (see above), which forces my mind to wish I was alive in 1970, when Elton made an amazing spirited album run that included Tumbleweed Connection, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Don't Shoot the Piano Player and Captain Fantastic. Damn.

Yeasayer: Ambling Alp

2009-10-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

Yeasayer's myspace describes their music as "Enya with Bounce." If you've seen Yeasayer live in the past few years, after the release of their excellent 2008 album All Hour Cymbals, then I'm betting you've bounced. You would have also heard the track they just released recently online, "Ambling Alp," a bit of late 80's meets East Asia pop song. It's got the reverb, watery snare drums, TV on the Radio harmonies, and the precise production of a pop song that's been traveling on the road for a few years. As MOKB reports, Memory Tapes are attached to the single release for a remix, coming out Nov. 3rd.

"Stick up for your sister / nevermind what anybody else does"

Download the track below by putting in your email:

The Family Band, Dallas TX

2009-10-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

In the rainy street outside the Granada theater in Dallas, the Family Band wears high-chested band uniform shirts and thunders on drums. A mostly drunk man is handed a large egg shaker, thrusting his wrist up & down like he's lifting a dumbbell.

Inside the theater, Blind Pilot lead singer Israel Nebeker is talking about how his song "Three Rounds and a Sound," is a breakup song. He stops, whispers nervously into the mic,

"If you can listen to the Dallas Family Band outside, they're really special." (I'm paraphrasing: I was too busy clapping and wondering who the hell the Dallas Family Band was.)

So the show ends and we walk outside - and there's the Family Band, four bearded dudes in tiny band uniform shirts with big brass button snaps, along members of the Low Anthem, playing street folk. According to the Dallas Family Band's Myspace:

"we are convinced that everyone has something good to offer. dallas family band is composed of the city's finest and lowest. in the streets, in ever-growing numbers, crowded into tiny corners, and cropping up in unusual places– we'll see each other soon."

So that's it. They play street music, and hand instruments to whoever's willing to play. Worth stopping and listening to, and definitely picking up an egg shaker. I would post an MP3, but I'm guessing that's not how they want to be heard. Also, how the hell do find an Mp3 of a band that plays on the street?

Throw Your Pennies

2009-10-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Port O'Brien tambourined up The Cavern in Dallas last night, under some golden lamps. Before O'Brien though, was the perfect and bandless Sara Lov (pic from LA Weekly). She was lacking her fellow bandmates, so Sea Wolf stepped up, and it sounded nothing less than beautiful. From fountain:

"Fountain, fountain we are the same / you with the water / me with the pain"

A Christmas-light-lit record player suitcase, like the one the Flight of the Conchords play with, was her backing band for the rest of the evening.

The most striking was her closing cover of "My Body is a Cage" by Arcade Fire. Honestly, I have a hard time listening to Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. Funeral has some knock-back tracks, like "Haiti" and "Rebellion (Lies)" is illuminating live. But Sara Lov's cover of "My Body is a Cage" is better than the Neon Bible version without question. Wonderful, take a listen below.

Sara Lov - My Body is a Cage

Sara Lov - Fountain

Home I'll Never Be

2009-10-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight at the Granada Theater in Dallas with Blind Pilot. Hell yes.

Thank You Good Records

2009-10-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Not so much music news as it is shameless self promotion, but I'm very excited: Good Records in Dallas, TX is now selling my magazine, John Asparagus. People that don't live in Dallas should know that Good Records is one of the best music stores in the US of A, if there was a poll it should be voted as so: they have absolutely killer in-stores, a brand-spanking-new Vinyl focused second story that will make you drool, and a record label. Also it's owned by Tim Delaughter, creator of the Polyphonic Spree. What's better than that?

Thanks to Neal Pickle and Mark Church at Good Records for the support. Location: Good Records is located at 1808 Lower Greenville Ave. in Dallas, TX.

Tallest Man on Earth: I Want You (Daytrotter Session)

2009-10-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

My honest admittance is I ignored Bob Dylan for the hype until college. I heard things, like Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 during New Years Eve parties at my parents house (drunken, nostalgic 40 year olds?)

So my freshman year, after listening to Nada Surf's song "Blonde on Blonde" from their album Let Go extensively, seeing the movie High Fidelity, and watching all of Cameron Crowe's music-documentary-movies, I finally bought Blonde on Blonde.

"I Want You" is easily one of the most beautiful & simple love songs ever written. So I couldn't refuse to repost this Daytrotter Session of the Tallest Man on Earth covering Dylan. By the way, if you haven't seen Tallest Man on Earth / Kristian Matsson live, in a small bar, you haven't really seen him. Absolutely silencing. Stunning.

Tallest Man on Earth (Daytrotter) - I Want You

American Roots

2009-10-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Low Anthem - "This God Damn House" - HearYa Live Session 8/9/09 from HearYa.com on Vimeo.

One of my favorite albums of the year is Oh My God Charlie Darwin by the Low Anthem. Recently, I was reading The Road, and OMGCD became a cathartic release after the dismal tide of Cormac McCarthy. Also, the entire album sounds like gravel, sunshine, and wheat fields. My point is - this Hear Ya live session is wonderful. It's all in the lyrics for "Ticket Taker."

"Now they say the sky's the limit, but the sky's about to fall / down come all them record books cradle and all / they say before he bit it that the boxer felt no pain / somewhere there's a gamblin' man with a ticket in the rain"

I feel like the best way to put the feeling of this album is it reminds you of the roots of America. Thanks to Hear Ya for posting this beautiful session.

Low Anthem - Ticket Taker

Are you Shy or What?

2009-10-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last night at the Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas, I got yelled at by the former singer of Mazzy Starr. Not me personally, but we all did. Notoriously shy lead singer and band leader Hope Sandoval, of Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, had a problem with the talking. Behind a projection of milky stars and whipping colors - occasionally, an abstract image like lava spewing from fingernails - she whispered,

"Is it unreasonable to ask for you all to be quiet? It's amplified on stage, I can hear everything."

So the rest of the show, every time there was a break, the audience HUSHED and SHUSHED. They clapped her back for an encore. It was deserved. Her blend of ethereal pop and caramelized guitar (like a less surfy Beach House), sounded great at Sons of Hermann. Whenever she broke out her harmonica, I got tall neck hairs. She can make a harmonica sound like it was not meant to be sawed. Her backing band of stocky, long stringy haired, chin-bearded white men, played well to Hope's tinking bells.

As this was my first real experience of Hope's music, all the songs blended together like molasses, and I found myself not paying attention to the lyrics specifically, but to the abstract images projected behind her and the lullabying music. It's a solid show worth seeing, if you can stifle the talking. You don't want to get lambasted by the lead singer of the band you paid to see.

The Road

2009-10-17T08:26:00.001-07:00

Maybe it's because I'm reading the book now and can't get gray ash out of my head, but this theme Nick Cave & Warren Ellis wrote for The Road...is stunning. It's the sound of bleakness. If you close your eyes for a minute, you can actually SEE bombs falling on everything. You can hear "the end." Saw the post on GVB, and haven't been able to stop listening.

Neon Indian: Everyone's Loving if They Don't Already and They Should Because It's Got That Kind of Album Quality and It's Got Electric Noise Album

2009-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

Chances are you've heard a lot of bands like NEON INDIAN's new PYSCHIC CHASMS recently (somewhere in between Ratatat and Animal Collective's Sung Tongs). As Pitchfork put in their pleased review,"Like a low-rent Daft Punk, Palomo takes what 1990s rock fans probably would've considered cheesy-- LinnDrum and Oberheim rhythms, Chromeo-plated electro-funk Korg riffs, processed party-vocal samples-- and not only makes them part of a distinct artistic vision, but also keeps them fun." So, it's hipster album. Yet, the presentation is unpretentious. I think the worst thing to do in this age of music, when there is truly a truckload of talent out there, to dismiss something that's cool or popular, just because it is so. I bring it up because when listening to the album, it's hard to not to imagine it as that album.

"Deadbeat Summer" opens the album like the credits of a teenage John Cusack film (where you see him with big glasses on, drinking at a high school party) and is so charmingly low-fi as it repeats "Deadbeat summer / It's just a deadbeat summer" that it's hard to find anything to dislike. It really feels like summer. "Mind, drips" opens with a rip of electronic noise and beats on like a child of the Terminator Soundtrack and an 8 bit game; "Pyschic Chasms" has those echoey drum-kit beats; "Local Joke" opens with a constellation of noise. It reminds me of fireworks.

The straightforward, if not dismissive, review is that Pyschic Chasms is a great album, with memories of the 80's. You'd have to be deaf not to hear and feel it. But, I do feel this is more than a party album, more than something you put on in the background. It's full of feel-goodedness, a lightning bolt into a world of malaise-filled, cynical rock. In the grandaddy's of electronic, nostalgic noise, I feel sometimes heavy with apocalyptic Radiohead and the blues. It's welcome to hear Neon Indian's break from the world, from the politics, and to just eat a hot-dog in celebration of summer and watch Real Genius.

Neon Indian - 6669

Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer

Pyschic Chasms is out now on Lefse records.

BUY - emusic : insound

J. Tillman, Music for the Elves

2009-10-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Remember that scene in Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and Sam stumble upon the Elves leaving Middle Earth, moving fluidly in blue light? I imagine them listening to J. Tillman. His woody, dark, Gibson guitar that has Nick Drake's blood in it, his earthy voice and lyrics of heavenly love are unblinkingly pretty. I feel blue light on my face listening to it, like watching elves.

His newest album, Year in the Kingdom, opens with the track of the same name:

"What comfort used to pass my days / before you shook the cold from me"

It's the best song on the album, and proves he is a vastly humble and underappreciated folk artist. Folk artist has a new meaning these days, but J. Tillman's music is natural and deep, almost primordial. His influences often seem less Nick Drake or Neil Young, more the woods, the birds and the moss.

As nerdy as it sounds, there is something in this album that makes you feel like you're leaving [Middle]Earth. Like a slow ascension into heaven:

"Though the spirit and the truth abide / when you stir throughout the wakeless night / stir and sigh"

This from "Earthly Bodies": a song invoking the torrid metaphor of the scape of the Earth being like the human form. It's shockingly old-school and beautiful. All this is to say: don't underestimate the drummer from Fleet Foxes, he's got some serious chops. He's seasoned and dark. In my imagination, I imagine him playing in a park by himself, but hopefully his shows are just as quiet and scintillating.

Year in the Kingdom is out now on Bella Union.

J. Tillman - Though I have Wronged You

J. Tillman - Year in the Kingdom

Review: The Soft Pack, The Cavern Dallas (A Note to Concert Apologizers)

2009-10-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Distractions at a concert are common. Hopefully the band is good enough to reign in your attention away from the drunk people in the back speaking so loud they cut through the cymbals, or the really drunk people who are dancing sloppily in the front. In this case, for me, it was the obnoxious, orange bearded dude next to me who couldn't stop apologizing to the band:

"Sorry Dallas sucks man, Austin is way better," repeated this dude, perhaps so drunk on the hipster notion that the current city he was standing in sucks that he missed some of the show. To keep things kosher and pleasant, this dude bought the entirety of The Soft Pack a round of whiskey shots. The band was so full of mirth and excitement from the prospect of shots, they continued to play their instruments!

So, The Soft Pack played uncaring, having a California blast. Their mix of surfer garage rock and macabre punk sounded good in the Cavern. It was hard and crisp and loud, like biting into a big damn apple: Matt Lamkin tossed his microphone about, a cocktail in one hand, Matty McLoughlin's guitar was sharp. I normally try to get lost in the lyrics, but I was transfixed by the bassist and drummer - David Lantzman and Brian Hill had some serious fun game.

It was a good rock show. At times, I found myself lost in the distractions, as can be a drawback with post-punk that some of The Soft Pack songs drone on in the same dark riff. They really stood out when the mood changed - A high pitched electric guitar riff indicated they were going to play "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," but then blended it with The Doors "Mojo Rising." The mood shifted to songs about love :"Beside Myself" showed their more-fun, Strokes side, and had some killer drums. They got into it, danced, and the bassist unleashed some John-Paul- Jones stuff. The annoying dude who wouldn't shut up, the one who got massive friend approval from buying the band a round of shots, kept apologizing for some reason, and The Soft Pack played on.

After the show, I asked the guitarist, Matt McLoughlin about playing live in Texas: "It's really fun man, we had a great time." Note to that dude & crowd apologizers - if you're going to apologize to the band for the crowd, don't have you, your friends, and your beard in it. It just kills the fun man.

The Soft Pack, previously known as The Muslims, are on to Austin, TX to play with Wavves.

The Soft Pack - Beside Myself

The Stunning Dawn

2009-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

The first cut of Let It Be was live from a chilly roof top, and for the longest time it was my favorite Beatles album. I think it was that killer, head-rearing guitar Harrison played on Let It Be (the song). Somehow it wasn't as electric as Let It Be "Naked," weirdly titled because - what's more naked than a live show? (Well, Phil Spector was there...)

My point is - it's exciting to hear a band perform their music live-to-tape. That's what Dawes does, and it couldn't sound better. God, I can't stop listening to this song - That Western Skyline - it's so wounded, so full of sun-setting soul that I'm dying of beautiful pain listening to it:

"So I followed her here to Birmingham / Where the soil is so much richer"

Watch this youtube video (be easier if people WEREN'T TALKING), and try to tell the difference between that and the attached track - there is no difference. Because they do it live and raw and hurting. Love it.

North Hills, Dawes newest album, is out now on ATO Records.

That Western Skyline

Rain Songs

2009-10-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

If you're living in a city that actually has seasons, then fall is here. There's gloomy skies, good smelling pumpkins, and rain songs. I remember where I was when I heard Houses of the Holy, and the way Rain Song sounded actually like...rain.

Since Texas this week is all gray and static sky, I think it's a good time for some rain songs. Would love to hear what people think on this - Do rain songs have to be sad? Do rain songs MAKE you sad? What came first (in the chicken or the egg sense): the rain give you the blues, or did the song? Does "Buckets of Rain" make you want to patch up the holes in your roof? (It's more of a summer song, really).

I think good blues songs look for environmental reasons to be sad, so rain is perfect. What do you think of my selection?

Jeff Buckley - Lover You Should Have Come Over

Kettering - The Antlers

Yr Rt - No One & the Nobodies

Led Zeppelin - Rain Song

Cotton Jones - Gone the Bells

My Morning Jacket - I Will Sing You Songs

A.A. Bondy - Of the Sea

J. Tillman - Though I Have Wronged You

Low Anthem - OMGCD

Megafaun with Bon Iver, Steel Guitar, Fog

2009-10-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

So I guess Megafaun showed up...

"Come on ease your mind / oh come on ease your worried mind."

Now I can.

You're Not at Austin City Limits, Day 3

2009-10-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

First of all - did anyone see Bon Iver's disturbingly, hipstery-good set yesterday? It was raining, like when Bush went hardcore and almost died playing Glycerine except Bon Iver laid down soft, whispery & blessed Winsconsin folk, and there were some beautiful steel guitars. Nice work, rain.

Streaming: here.

THE DODOS - 12:45 PM CT

Grizzly Bear openers HERE WE GO MAGIC - 1:15 PM CT

THE HEARTLESS BASTARDS - 3:00 PM CT

Yes, the Toadies - 4:oo PM CT

The Dead Weather - 9:00 PM CT

*In case you missed it, here's the ACL digital sampler: link.

Something out of Steinbeck

2009-10-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

LA Weekly & Times writer Jeff Weiss posted Fairfield's sizzling banjo-ed video and the story of Tompkins Square's new compilation over at Passion of the Weiss. This video...It was the first time I clicked through to youtube hoping for millions of views. I'm massively looking forward to Jeff's forthcoming piece on Fairfield (read his recent post and take those glorious MP3s: here).

Tompkins Square describes their new 3 disc compilation, Fire in My Bones, as "raw," "distorted," and "might sound a bit strange": "This is gospel - which we must always remember translates as "the good news" - as it has been sung and performed in tiny churches and large programs, from rural Georgia to urban Los Angeles. It is clearly among the most vibrant, playful, beautiful and emotionally charged music in the world."

It's no question Fairfield will live well on this label. Or, you can also find him playing in front of Amoeba Records like it's 1911, at Sausage Grinders in vintage bars, Gospel Churches, tin can at the grove...like he's some sort of invention of Steinbeck.

Fairfield's debut is out now via Tompkins, and look for Fire in My Bones and Jeff's article on Fairfield soon.

You're Not There for Austin City Limits, Day 2

2009-10-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

In dedication to "Chicken Shit Bingo," Amy's ice cream, fajitas at Gueros, and all of those brilliant damn vintage record stores - Austin's humid music festival continues to stream live, here.

Morning Schedule - Saturday 10/3!

11:45 AM CT- Los Angeles Rolling Stoners - The Henry Clay People (w/ fellow Los Angeles Spacelander Marvelous Toy)

Henry Clay People - End of an Empire from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

12:30 PM CT - Alberta Cross

1:15 PM CT - Felice Brothers folkin' it, A.A. Bondy style.

Bon Iver tonight!

Forget the Alamo Streaming

2009-10-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Honest-to-goodness streaming of Austin City Limits is going on here, here, and here.

Right now 2:37 PM CST - The Avett Brothers roaring banjos and shame, shame, shame. (here)

Right now 4:00PM CST - Dr. Dog's nostalgic, bright rock.

Andrew Bird tonight!

3 Insanely Good Live Videos, No Amps (Thanks NPR)

2009-10-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Just Live Videos, No Target

2009-10-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else feel weird about Pearl Jam having a Target commercial? Exclusive content at Target? Weirder that the ad ran before The Antlers video on Pitchfork: TV. So I stopped it, and listened to this NPR gem instead. Far better than the studio cut, I think, "Two" is sweeter than the rest of darkness of "Hospice" (listen to "Kettering" below). Plus, their crystalline, opening guitar comes out nice and pretty in this video. Buy "Hospice," and think about your death.

The Antlers - Kettering

Gustav Klimt This

2009-09-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

My art history teacher had a beautiful description for Gustav Klimt's, The Kiss: it's an overwhelming fusion of two bodies, a meeting so strong the bodies combine into one mosaic of sadness, subversion and disfigurement. It's a wonderful piece of artwork, and evokes MUCH more when you listen to beautiful folk.

It's a fleeting glimpse of The Middle East, but these guys play starry, firecracking stuff. Of course, this is from the lonely two songs and accompanying animated video on their Myspace. They're somewhere in there with Nick Drake & Stuart Murdoch's latest stuff, but have strong individuality. News and MP3s are leaking from Melbourne, but watch out for their new EP, Recordings of the Middle East, to hit on October 27th. Right in time for the golden pumpkins, same color as their Klimt-like album cover. (download the MP3s below)

The Middle East - Blood

The Middle East - The Darkest Side

Best Argument for Wish You Were Here

2009-09-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

The award for best article saying "Wish You Were Here" without actually saying it goes to Pop & Hiss (click for the article), for the aching jealousy I got reading about Bon Iver's sunrise set at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Sunday. Here's to me hoping someone posts the youtube video of "Re: Stacks" in the peach haze of the LA morning...

Randall Roberts at the LA Weekly said this:

"Bon Iver walked out into the darkness after a collection of Buddhist monks chanted a blessing, and the music began. "Sold my cold knot/A heavy stone,"* sang Vernon," and the thousands whispered silently along with words they'd long ago memorized. The sky seemed way too close. The palm trees looked Vaselined. Bon Iver appeared to be a dream."

Damn. Wish I was there.

Big Sur Don't Burn Down

2009-09-26T17:16:00.001-07:00

Hosted in the piny woods, people with beards play good music. J. Tillman specifically, who's wintery album 2009 album, Vacilando Territory Blues, still aches to listen to (in a damn good way). This video, however, is from his newer album, Year in the Kingdom, that just hit stores with that fresh mint smell on Tuesday. From a first listen (thanks to Aquarium Drunkard), it sounds like another cut of stunning, Keatsian (O Romanticism!) lyrics and harmonies...dear GOD, the harmonies. Don't know about you, but my knees are all buttery.

J Tillman - Though I Have Wronged You

Virtue and Wine

2009-09-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sondre Lerche is humble and good at his job. Passion of the Weiss posted a cool article today on the subject of his wild, electric guitar playing and his new record - Heartbeat Radio. Check out the article, here, for a couple of new tracks. Lerche, to me, is one of those underrated pop stars who always finds a catchy beat, a good couplet and a can wail a guitar. I saw him play live a few years ago with Nada Surf, and the boy could play.

Halloween Kick-Off, Scary Realism

2009-09-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

SALEM Legend from SALEM on Vimeo.

GVB posted this freaky realism video from Salem, in conjunction with their new, limited 7": Frost. You might want to watch it in bursts because it's kind of Hellraiser-esque.

Hey It's a Andrew Bird Discussion! (That's hopefully about bigger things)

2009-09-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

What do you think of Andrew Bird? Want to have a discussion? I've heard interesting arguments on both sides. He's a virtuoso; he's pretentious. He's intellectual; he's convoluted. His newest album, Noble Beast, gathered reviews from both sides:

Pitchfork said this: "The sound of the album is as important as the notes Bird plays, and this extends to the lyrics, where he's gradually gone from word-play to syllable-play, often choosing lines for their sounds and tonal quality more than for their meaning."

Paste said this: "Bird’s cutback in musical drama inadvertently begs for a sharper focus on individual parts, including the lyrics, their grandiosity making up for the music’s lack thereof—and then some. But listen too hard, and his words turn into flashing lights."

So there's two conflicting opinions on the subject of Andrew Bird's writing. I think Andrew Bird is a good musician to spur a few questions: Do people care about writing in music? Or more specifically, are people comfortable with only ONE type of writing?

There's poetry in some songwriters, and some are more straight forward. Brendan Benson's new song "Garbage Day" has strong, fun, straight-as-nails lyrics:

"Alone in my apartment / lights out / I'm in the dark again.../If she throws her heart away / I'll be there on garbage day / to sift through what's left I guess"

Then there's Neko Case, weaving webs of poetry:

"...retching pennies in a boiling well / in a dream that it once becomes
a foundry of mute and heavy bells / They shake me deaf and dumb"

Boiling water and hurling pennies...it's surrealism and Dream Psychology in one minimalistic song (Middle Cyclone). Beautiful. Two songwriters, two different kinds of music in the same spectrum - but each is good. Is one more "approachable" than the other? Is one "better" than the other? Maybe; I don't think there is a "better."

Andrew Bird likes to experiment with words and syllables. If he didn't, his lyrics would be vexing and exciting at the same time. I think it's weird to narrow, whittle the spectrum of songwriting down so sharply that every line has to be the next Top Ten Indie Hit. Sometimes music can just be music to our ears, and that's one thing Andrew Bird does well:

"flailing fetal fleas / feeding from the arms of the master /burrow into me /and this is sure to misspell disaster / Oh and the young in the larval stage / orchestrating plays / in vestments of translucent alabaster"

"Vestments of translucent alabaster" fits like a puzzle piece into the song, but what does it mean? It's beautiful, that's a definite. Isn't that all it needs to be - part of a "song" - a lyrical work? Not every song has to tell a story. Not every song has to have a beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes it can just be playful and be the higher aspects of improvisational music. Isn't that "jazz"?

My Blood Was a Rushing Tide

2009-09-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

To put it simply, this video is the reason I love Neil Young inspired folk rock. From Everest's album Ghost Notes. I don't know what else to say besides: I love this (with that sound of rain and running and horses) and I need the record to spinning and crackling at all times. Lucky Los Angeles can see them at the Troubadour tonight with the Parson Red Heads.

1 From Austin, 1 From Brooklyn, Neon Indian Research

2009-09-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

A timeline, as best as I can construct it, like some sort of movie P.I.:

4.2.2009 - Two acid washed tracks appears anonymously to Gorilla Vs Bear. Gorilla VS. Bear Posts. They are good.
4.16.2009 - GVB posts another song. Reports their EP coming soon. They're from Brooklyn and Austin. Not sure which is which. Details coming.
8.14.2009 - Pitchfork posts Rising Star review. Gives description including adjectives "gauzy" and "glossy."
9.16.2009 - "thefader" in Dallas posts a mini concert-cover on youtube. Neon Indian is featured. See above.

So that's where we're at now. Their new EP, Pyschic Chasms, is out Tuesday, Sept. 28th. Sounds like we should all buy it (check out their song below via Gorilla VS. Bear).

Neon Indian - 6669

Great Night Swimmers

2009-09-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Recently signed Sub Poppers Death Vessel are touring the saloons. Death Vessel is baroque-ier and more ethereal though than, say, Great Lake Swimmers existential lushes. The lead singer, Joel Thibodeau, has a shockingly high voice, enough so that a Dallas Observer reporter had this to say of a recent concert, "a soaring soprano that sounds a hell of a lot like a female Appalachian folk singer; if you didn't look at the stage, you'd swear that sweet singing didn't belong to a person possessing family jewels." (Check out his article, here)

Have to be honest, I also was searching for the female singer pulling the Singing-In-the-Rain act in this video. Death Vessel's newest record, Stay Close, is out now on Sub Pop's shiny indie label. (MP3s are from DV's site.)

Death Vessel- Horchata

Division Day Head Wound

2009-09-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Like something from Hostel III: Los Angeles, Division Day is upside down and bleeding, you know, literally. In their new video. I'm new to these guys, first heard them from Passion of the Weiss's cool interview in Pop & Hiss. Their new album, Visitation, is out now on Dangerbird Records.

Sunday Song Replaying Right Now

2009-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Recently re-released in glorious new digital audio, Rodriguez's found treasure, Cold Fact, has fallen out of time. My first blind listen, I was rocket-shipped to my kid obsession with Buffalo Springfield's For What it's Worth. Go get Cold Fact (on record if possible), and pretend you were on the brilliant cusp of the 1970's.

Hard to Find

2009-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Why is it so hard to find Roman Candle? Is it google's fault? A quick search in Youtube comes up with a variety of moronic entertainment (I found a video of a guy lighting a bottle rocket in his butt), and Google's search results reveal the band's website and a deconstructed pizza place.

This band is good. They have the glean of Whiskeytown and their new Elizabethan-titled album, Oh Tall Tree in the Ear is seriously fun rock. Tonight, Roman Candle is playing in Pennsylvania with Iron and Wine. So why are they not lighting up the indie music scene (besides Paste Magazine's dedication)? Where is that Pitchfork review with the modest .6 decimal placement indicating it's over half-way to the next good number?

Come Back Unchanged

2009-09-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

The best Low Anthem song. Time to fight through heated crowds to Austin City Limits for a show with roots as deep as Barton Springs. Off Oh My God Charlie Darwin, which is so out now it hurts your teeth. I think it's the clarinet...

"To them ghosts in the train yard / All them ghosts in my drink / your money's no good here"

"Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged"

Nice.

Album Review: Time to Die - The Dodos

2009-09-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Mayans believed the the sun visited the underworld when it set. If that's true, The Dodos are playing until the sun sets. It's beautiful and orange and ready for death (or at least a visit). Bring a thermos.

"Small Death" opens with a foot-stepper of a rhythm, ditching the kali sticks for some serious drums. Something about the Andrew Birdian guitar and the honeyed harmony made me think of fall. I half expected the sounds of papery leaves:

"Tell me glacier where you been / I hear the heat's been coming in / the sun is at your door"

The simplicity of The Beatles has been on my mind lately (maybe because of that ridiculous Guitar Hero commercial). What the Beatles did well they did simply. It's why Eleanor Rigby is brilliant - the harmony is good. When songs return to their rock and stone roots, and ditch the digital auxiliary processes, it's fascinating to hear when it's good. So kudos to The Dodos who use creative applications of a basic set of sounds: an electric guitar, a few snare drums and some liquor ready harmonies.

Longform, the Dodos second track, begs to heard live with its fast drum strokes and heavy beat. "Fables" is an elaboration on 2007's "Fools"; a song poached by the unmagnificent Miller Lite Lime commercial. "I don't want to go in the fires / I just want to stay home."The energy stays high throughout the album: "This is a Business" is a Buddy Holly-esque rock-n-roll piece with that little touch of rockabilly. "Two Medicines" begins like dark Queen riff (who can match Queen's brightness?) and the consensus theme is: The Dodos are ready for death. But it's a celebration, like an old faithful ritual. The sadness of our modern generation is fed into the album: the numbness of a Two Medicine world and the quiet death that follows malaise. I'm happy with the musical exploration on this album. Visiter became tedious and repetitive at times, occasionally exciting but never breaking the ceiling from song-to-song. Time to Die embraces their talents and needle-accuracy at finding a hot as hell rhythm; it's strong on the edges and more original then their previous album.

I Just Saw a Shooting Star

2009-09-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

"Last night I dreamt the whole night long / Woke with a head full of songs / I spent the whole day, I wrote them down but it's a shame / Tonight I'll burn the lyrics / Because every chorus was your name"

The Avett Brothers are GOOD country.

Blood - The Middle East

2009-09-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

'Blood' The Middle East

While GI Joe is touting it's Eiffel Tower meltings in Hostess wrapped CG, Indie music has been utilizing the old world of animation to make an impact. Recent animation users include Neko Case, Fleet Foxes, and this new beautiful video from The Middle East. They have a self-titled EP out now, and they're touring across Australia right now. Thanks to I Guess I'm Floating for posting the story.

The Middle East- Blood

Division Day in the LA Times

2009-09-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight: Division Day brings 'Visitation' to Spaceland

Posted using ShareThis

Good news! (For Los Angeles first) Division Day is kicking off their new tour, and doing so with a nice, meaty cross-section of their talents in the LA Times courtesy of the always good music journalist, Jeff Weiss.

I've just been introduced to Division Day, as I missed most of 2006's blog hype due to head trauma (just kidding, school). Prescription: Check out their interview, here, (or in that big ol' above link) and then go to Spaceland tonight, if you're in Los Angeles, and then buy their new LP - Visitation. Which you can buy now, as soon as you speed down to your local record store. The one that carries the good stuff.

Album Review: The Antlers Hospice & Brendan Benson

2009-09-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Two polar opposites. Brendan Benson has grace. It's alive and bright. The album opens with "A Whole Lot Better," a illuminated-blue Strokes-esque love song that introduces you (if you're unfamiliar with his waxings) to his Bowie sides, with that acid IV-drip guitar of the Who, and you know, The Killers or something (God, don't you hate Killers comparison's?).

According to Aquarium Drunkard's well-drawn interview, Brendan is keen on writing compulsively, and has no problems referring to his music as retro, power pop. Coming from the Raconteurs, "My Old Familiar Friend" is refreshing. "Garbage Day," one of the better tracks on the album, is succinct, sweet, and humble:

"If she throws her heart away / I'll be there on Garbage Day"

So maybe this is power pop. It definitely has a Jamie Lidell, I-became-a-twenty-something-in the-90's-vibe, but Benson explores more and is more adventurous than say, Filter (God, I hate Filter references). I wasn't a big fan of "Gonowhere"'s unsoaring melodies and the synth heavy "Feel like Take You Home." "You Make A Fool Out of Me" varies between minimalistic ballad and a interlude cut track from Moulin Rouge--which works well. It's pretty. As a whole the album has the confidence of an experienced songwriter and a good musician, but is weighted by tropes of the power pop or retro or rock genre. Benson, however, seems to know this and embraces it. Ten years from now, I envision cars on a southern highway, like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, slamming their steering wheel in pure song elation to "Poised and Ready," or anything Benson graces us with.

I'm biased - I have a proclivity for bizarre, dark-romance indie rock like The Antlers. It opens with a sound I imagined made to imitate the burst of light when you die (so it is read). "Prologue" is beautiful and scratchy, unlike it's poppy doppelganger: "Two" (which definitely is about death). Since Dark Side of the Moon, it's been easy and lovable to open an album with the sounds of quietly leaving your body. The Antlers love this. "Kettering" dances in ascension; a smoky and quiet tribute to the the thunderstorm -

"When they called you a hurricane thundercloud / When I was checking vitals / I suggested a smile / You didn't talk for a while"

The phrase "slow burn" comes to mind. And images of smoke. Unlike its smoke elements, Hospice has density and heart. "Two" has scintillating imagery and electricity even in it's uncharacteristic (from the rest of the album) emo-ness romanticism. Greatness is abound, Shelley or that curly haired freak Byron might say, and "Hospice" is pretty and dark.

The Antlers - Kettering

Brendan Benson- Garbage Day