i hate the sound of guitars

Alcest – Les Voyages de L’Âme
I’m not usually fond of post-anything genre labels. How can anything be post-rock? There’s still plenty of rock. But Alcest really is post-metal, in the sense that it used to be identifiably a metal act, and now it isn’t. This is shoegaze/dreampop for guitar tone freaks. If you’ve listened Pale Saint’s epic “Henry” more than once, you probably want to check out Alcest (although, to be fair, Alcest is denser and Pale Saints more spacious). (In the more minor key moments Alcest’s overlapping arpeggios also remind me a bit of Fields of the Nephilim.) There’s a tiny, tiny bit of metal left in here: drum moments that approximate the eight-on-the-floor “blast beat” and two songs (“Là Où Naissent Les Couleurs Nouvelles” and ”Faiseurs de Mondes”) have a few screaming passages. They feel out of place to me, but they’re brief (and pretty low in the mix).

Cate le Bon – Cyrk
Unsettling folky stuff. Balances a (mild) sixties vibe with the sparse-but-exploratory spirit of early post punk. The last tune, “Ploughing Out, Part 2,” is a knockout.

2011 holdovers

Aficionado – Aficionado
Tremendous lyrics (“You don’t even like the things you like” might be my single favorite line of the year) and a restless, adventures spirit. I’d basically call this punk rock (or punkish indie rock), but it’s a very unorthodox variant of the beast, with some assertively, even defiantly, non-punk arrangement details. (Is it “punk” to be “defiantly non-punk”? The question is left as an exercise for the reader.) I don’t care, I think it’s flat-out awesome. I checked this out on Spotify and made it through less than 2 songs before deciding to buy a permanent copy. And then I bought their 2010 EP “When It Comes to Creation” before I made it through the album even once. Because I knew I wanted more, more, more. (If really you need a who-does-it-sound-like? try Mixtapes crossed with Human Sexual Response.)

Bastions – Hospital Corners
Somewhere between hardcore/grindcore/metalcore. I love the thick sludgy guitar tone, and I love that the band uses space and dynamics more than most working this territory.

Blanket – Rabbits We Chase Fish We Eat
Despite a band name and album art/title that collectively screams “twee!” not to mention song titles like “Hailey Fought the Law,” this is indie rock that wants to be taken seriously. Long songs with lots of dynamic shifts, fairly wrought vocal delivery. Hasn’t really commanded my attention so far, but may have earned another chance or two.

Dead to Me – Moscow Penny Ante
Multiple lead vocalists (and, I’m guessing, songwriters) is a definite asset for this melodic punk outfit. Makes for an engaging listen throughout.

Deep Sleep – Turn Me Off
Awesome retro hardcore. Only one song cracks the 2-minute mark. Aw yeah.

Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
How did I sleep on this great record for so long? It’s for sure modern hardcore, but catchy modern hardcore that evokes the Mekons and the Clash.

Heartsounds – Drifter
On the cusp of punk and pop punk: not always hooky enough for the “pop”; not always raw enough not to need it. Was lukewarm on this through the first half or so, but the end I was queuing up their previous album too.

The Horrible Crowes – Elsie
I was skeptical about this Gaslight Anthem side project — my aversion, not to say allergy, to most most modern blues is well documented. But strong writing, performances, and production won me over. Even in the identifiably bluesy songs.

Hostage Calm – “War on a Feeling” (single)
Hostage Calm – “The ‘M’ Word” (compilation track)
“The ‘M’ Word” (from the Run for Cover label’s Mixed Signals comp, which I generally endorse) is for my money the year’s best early Beatles-inspired track. The cymbals sound a bit trashy (even when I bought a high quality download), but aside from that I think it’s almost flawless: gorgeous harmonies, a short, sharp solo break, and a killer chorus hook (and I think it’s a little more harmonic sophistication than the usual for pop-punk that reads as so very Beatlesque). The two songs on “War on Feeling” don’t hit me as hard, but definitely cut from the same cloth. I am a fan.

Howler – America GIve Up
Everytime I think I’ve hit my absolute saturation point for low-fi fuzzed-out garage, some new band gets through my defenses. Howler’s the latest. This band has dashes of surf and shoegaze in the mix, vocals that remind me a bit of Calvin Johnson, and, most importantly, hooks that don’t sound half baked.

Kayo Dot – Coyote
In the same general skronk/rock territory as sextet-era King Crimson or The Book of Knots (although the prominence of reeds makes it feel maybe a little jazzier). I would prefer slightly more understated vocals. I liked “Abyss Hinge 2: The Stinking Armature” best.

Amanda Mair – “Doubt” (single)
Amanda Mair – “House” (single)
Indie-pop (on Labrador, I guess that’s indie?) that’s almost too smooth for me. But undeniably pretty, with a few interesting arrangement details.

No Problem – And Now This
I’ve been going through the punknews.org editors’ picks for best of 2011, a commenter complaining that this record had been overlooked jumped out at me and I gave it a spin. Sure enough, this is ace stuff, in the same retro-hardcore vein as Nightbirds, Deep Sleep, Police & Thieves, and such. All endorsed, ayup.

Pete and the Pirates – One Thousand Pictures
Listened through most of the record trying to figure out the band the vocals occasionally really, really reminded me of: Kitchens of Distinctions? James? Finally decided it is probably The Chameleons U.K.. Pete’s tuneful indie rock isn’t quite as obsessively retro as that list suggests, and not quite as smooth, either. But still, if you liked that kinda stuff, you might like this. And vice versa.

Police & Thieves – Fracturing
Yet another killer retro hard-core EP. Singer dude in this one is sometimes a dead ringer for Mike Palm of Agent Orange, but this is DC through-and-through, geographically and musically. But with better production than the first flowering of harDCore. Geddit at Youngblood Records’ Bandcamp site.

Red City Radio – The Dangers of Standing Still
A fine punk rock record. Checked this out because it was on a lot of (punk-type-folks) years’-best lists . . . a wee bit too much a genre exercise for my short list, but the production is tight and the writing is sharp. I definitely like this quite a bit.

The Saddest Landscape / We Were Skeletons – Split (EP)
(Needs more time to sink in? Did not make as much of an impression as I expected.)

Title Fight – Shed
Young punks who sound like they mean it.

Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones
It may have been unfortunate that I know Turner is on some bills with Dropkick Murphys because it made me more cognizant of the aspects of this record that could appeal to DM fans (especially on the songs that feature electric guitar) — there’s an anthemic vibe to much of this that I never associated with, say, Billy Bragg.

Annneke Van Giersbergen – “Circles” (single)
Annneke Van Giersbergen – “Feel Alive” (single)
“Circles,” is a piano/strings ballad; way too smooth for me. “Feel Alive” is slick mid-tempo rock. Not terrible, but five minutes later I can’t recall it. Van Giersbergen used to sing for goth/atmospheric metallers The Gathering; you’d never guess it.

So, yeah, Fugazi Live Series.

Joe Gross’s write up in Spin seemed like a reasonable starting point, but I’m going to go a lot deeper, and I’ll update this post with the results of my explorations.

001 1987.09.03 Washington DC, USA, Wilson Center

I’m going to go against conventional wisdom and say that the band’s first gig is worth listening to for historic reasons if nothing else, but absolutely not where you should start — there are only glimmers of the brilliance this band would soon achieve. This version of Fugazi is positively tentative, Ian MacKaye actually apologizes for inadequacies of the performance. If you saw them anytime in the 90s or after, this is a revelation just in how far they evolved. It’s also striking how much MacKaye’s guitar vocabulary in this trio performance includes held notes and noisy bits (which I think of as mostly Guy Picciotto’s domain) as well as the jack-hammer muted eighth-notes I think of as characteristic of his playing.15 Dec 2011

186 1990.03.14 Athens GA, USA, 40 Watt

So far my favorite of the early shows — 2 1/2 years on, they’re closing in on their 200th performance, and starting to sound like what I think of as Fugazi. Good set list. I like the “last call” announcement. 15 Dec 2011

420 1992.03.06 Washington DC, US, St. Stephens Church

By this point Fugazi is playing like the band members are reading one another’s minds. Jaw-dropping improv breaks in “Shut the Door” and “Reprovisional” are among the highlights here. 15 Dec 2011

478 1992.06.28 Berlin, GER, Tempodrome

“Suggestion” is the surprise here — it’s far from my favorite Fugazi tune, too nakedly preachy — the extended call & response break between MacKaye and Picciotto is almost chilling. “Glueman” is pretty amazing, too. I love the snare sound on this show, way upfront with a healthy amount of ‘verb. 15 Dec 2011

508 1993.03.21 Washington DC, US, Freedom Plaza

This one is remarkable in how honestly it documents what it could be like to experience Fugazi at a protest rally. This homeless rally took place in spitting distance of the White House, with repeated breaks — one thirteen wearing minutes long — while the event organizers negotiate with authorities to continue the event. Also a classic song-screeching-to-a-halt for MacKaye to request that an audience member modify his behavior. When the band is playing, they’re monstrous despite the dodgy sound (honestly/correctly flagged on the Live Series site as “poor.”) Not a starting point by any means, but gawd, it brings back some memories. 15 Dec 2011

510 1993.04.04 Charlottesville, VA, Trax

Hate to just parrot Mr. Gross, but “Promises” here is sumpin’ else. Fantastic vocal from Ian, pretty good recording of some fierce improv. The whales are angry! The run of old songs Gross mentions is also indeed intense. “Smallpox Champion” is a standout, too. Actually, the problem with this band is I want to claim almost every song is a standout. Audiophiles might want to start somewhere else, though.16 Dec 2011

Every new release I listened to in November (69)

• Absu – Azbu
• Merrie Amtserburg – “Q Dee Rock and Soul #6″ (single)
  An early Christmas present from Merrie Amsterburg and Q Division! Well, except you have to pay for it, so not exactly a present. But these mildly rocked-up versions of “We Three Kings” and “Silent Night” are well worthy of your stocking.
• Blouse – Blouse
• Blut Aus Nord – 777 – Sect(s)
• Blut Aus Nord – 777 – The Desantification
  Jaw dropping.
• Botanist – The Suicide Tree
• Botanist – A Rose from the Dead
  Not a joke: eco-terrorist, hammered dulcimer black metal (at least on the first disc; the second abandons most signifiers of metal entirely, other than a few vestigial drum arrangements. Bracing, compelling, really unusual. Drawback: vocalist sounds a bit like a dalek.
• Brutal Truth – End Times
  When I was cranking Nuclear Assault in the late 80s, I sure never imagined that NA’s Dan Lilker would be playing on one of the most uncompromising records of the year decades later. But here we are, and End Times is a frickin’, face-melting, monster.
• Cameras – In Your Room
• Candy Hearts – Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy
• Coasting – You’re Never Going Back
• Jonathan Coulton – Artificial Heart
• Julee Cruise/DJ Dmitry – My Secret Life
• Cynic – “Carbon-Based Anatomy”
  If the umbrella of heavy metal is broad enough to include Cynic for reasons other than the purely historical (these folks used to incorporate significant quantities of death metal signifiers amidst their jazz-fusion/prog) then the umbrella of heavy metal is broad indeed. Which can’t help but be good for the genre. “Carbon-Based Anatomy” skirts the edge of territory that’s too proggy for me (too in love with its own chopsiness, maybe), but it’s also awfully well put together, and has just enough bite, and superficial similarity to the proggy side of post-hardcore, to hold my interest.
• Delay Trees – “Before I Go” (EP)
• Delay Trees – Delay Trees
• Ebsen and the Witch – “Hexagons” (EP)
• Eïs – Kainsmal
  Melodic black metal outfit Eïs first released Kainsmal when they were known as Geist; they’ve re-recorded it, and released it with the original version as a bonus. The new version has more low end oomph and the acoustic guitars are more carefully recorded. But I kind of prefer the older take, with its slightly thinner sound and a handful of noticeable timing gaffes it feels more human and less monolithic.
• The Evens – “2-song” (single)
• Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials
• Goreaphobia – Apocalyptic Necromancy
  Weird chord changes and sci-fi lyrics remind me a bit of Voivod; relentless rhythmic pummeling on the faster tracks reminds me of Motorhead. A keeper. “Darkstar Dementia” is my fave.
• Colleen Green – “Cujo” (EP)
• Colleen Green – “Green One” (EP)
  Songs like “Rabid Love,” and “Y Do U Call Me?” are a bit faster and shorter than the norm, and pleasantly evoke the bubblegum-in-noise-candy-coating vibe of the first Jesus and Mary Chain record. When the tempo flags and the track length swells (”End of Time”) my interest wanes. The newer EP, “Cujo” is stronger overall than the first one, which seems like a positive trend .
• Gridlink – Orphan
• Hallelujah the Hills – “Amateurs” (single)
• Jazzamor – Lucent Touch
  Low key lounge/bossa nova/jazz hybrid with breathy sex-kitten vocals. Some nice sonic details scattered throughout, but a little of this goes a long way for me.
• The Jezabels – Prisoner
• Johnny Foreigner – Johnny Foreigner vs Everything
  I am on Johnny Foreigner’s side.
• The Joy Formidable – “The Big More” (EP)
• Korallreven – An Album by Korallreven
• Lahannya – Dystopia
• Matt LeMay – “A Portrait of the Man/What Would Change?” (single)
  ex-Get Him Eat Him dude; in no way a radical departure
• Leviathan – Beyond the Gates of Imagination – Part I
  As grandiose as the title sounds, but I kinda liked it.
• Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
• The Luyas/Twin Sister – split single
• David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time
  At its best (Karen O’s showcase “Pinky’s Dream,” the title track) Crazy Clown Time is musically a bit like Lynch’s films: unsettling and a little dirty. My recommendation: check those out first, and proceed farther with caution. Side two is more guitar-y and side one is more electronic; I thought side two was more effective overall.
• Machine Head – Unto the Locust
• Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
• Miskatonic – Life of the Party
  Despite the Lovecraft-y name, not a metal band. Female-fronted indie rock with hefty retro new-wave dollop. A bit like the Epoxies, but less grim.
• Mitochondrion – Parasignosis
• John Moremen – John Moremen’s Flotation Device
• Moonsorrow – Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa
  Apparently the title means “As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead.”
• Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings
  How do you learn how to play a half-hour long metal song? I have no idea. Do they play from scores, like classical musicians? Or do they memorize the whole thing? My mind boggles.
• Mr. Gnome – Madness in Miniature
  The band apparently thinks they make a “singular amalgam of gritty, space-psychedelia” which sounds ghastly to me. I call it indie rock, and I like it a lot.
• Necros Christos – Doom of the Occult
• Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations
• Obscura – Omnivium
  Probably the most color-inside-the-lines of the recent metal binge that held my attention through the entire release. The severely processed coffin rasps of “Ocean Gateways” are actually kinda spooky. Obscura have a neat trick of setting two very different clean single-note guitar lines against each other; “Euclidean Elements” and “Aveum,” especially, set up some arresting moment-by-moment shifts from harmony to dissonance — like the guitar parts are trying to summon demons, or possibly the spirit of King Crimson.
• Jennifer O’Connor – I Want What You Want
• Office of Future Plans – Office of Future Plans
• Pop Will Eat Itself – New Noise Designed by a Sadist
  This is apparently one of those one guy + a whole new band deals, but the one guy is lead singer Graham Crabb, and it pretty much sounds like the Poppies always did. There are a couple more nods to their early days as disciples of the Buzzcocks than I would have expected; not a problem for me. The Cure guitar lick quote in “Oldskool Cool” makes me grin like a fool.
• Pujol – “Nasty, Brutish, And Short” (EP)
  Needlessly self-deprecating. How about “Catchy, Snarly, And Concise”?
  P.S. Serial Comma! Yesss!!
• Ravencult – Morbid Blood
  Well executed black metal.
• The Robot Ate Me – On Vacation
• Rwake – Rest
• Servile Sect – Trvth
  Metal with almost but not quite all the metal removed.
• Shores – To Volstead
• Soccer Team – “Three Song 7″ (EP)
• The Soft Moon – “Total Decay” (EP)
• Solstafir – Svartir Sandar
• Spraynard – Funtitled
• Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler/The Dream
• Thy Catafalque – Rengeteg
• Timeshares – Bearable
• Trash Talk – “Awake” (EP)
• Twerps – “She Didn’t Know” (single)
• Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
  I want this band to spawn a legion of imitators, and then I want some of them to abandon “death growl”/”cookie monster” vocals, or even eschew vocals completely. It might be cool if some of them didn’t use blast beats. And ultimately some of these hypothetical bands might produce music that is no longer identifiable as death metal, or even metal of any description. What I hope this non-metal retains is Ulcerate’s potent (if skewed) melodic sense, exploratory relationship with time, bold use of open sonic space, and masterful command of dynamics. Maybe it’s suspect that I like extreme metal bands in proportion to how much they disregard the conventions of their genre niches, but there it is. I like this a lot.
• Uniform Motion – One Frame Per Second>
• Weekend Nachos – Worthless
• Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage
  I almost love this record. Wolves in the Throne Room are nominally atmospheric black metal or some such, but to me it this sounds like the unlikely intersection of Explosions in the Sky-style epic post-rock and Fields of the Nephilim-style heavy goth, with a dash of post-hardcore, and also the slightly silly and apparently obligatory presence of blast beats. Unfortunately I’m less into it when the lead vocalist is vocalizing, which happens in a screechy and grating mode. (The choral backing vocals, on the other had, I quite like.) On the plus side, It’s mostly instrumental, and anyway your mileage may vary.

I bought tickets to this show assuming it would feature Tanya Donelly singing and playing guitar, which it did, and which would have been more than sufficient for me, but not necessarily assuming there would be anyone else involved. The actual cast of characters included, in alphabetical order:

• Carrie Bradley, of Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, 100 Watt Smile, and um, some other band, on violin
• Sam Davol, of The Magnetic Fields, on bass viol (I think?) and percussion
• Claudia Gonson, of The Magnetic Fields, on keys, drums, and vocals
• Michael Hearst of One Ring Zero on guitar and theremin
• Hannah Marcus on keys and vocals
• Rick Moody, of literary fame, on guitar and vocals

Bill Janovitz also joined Donelly for a pair of encore tunes.
The set list spanned the range of Donelly’s career with the Throwing Muses, Belly, and as a solo artist, and featured several selections from an upcoming (o frubjous day!) album of collaborations with several of the participants. Among the many highlights for me:

• Rick Moody (who, it must be said, sounded throughout more like a guitarist and singer who happens to write books than the other way ’round) taking his hat off to sing along on “Feed the Tree”
• Getting to hear “Untogether,” maybe my favorite Donelly song so far and in my opinion one of the most devastating addiction songs I’ve heard, albeit in a slightly jokey rendition. Moody’s joy at geting to sing on this one was palpable
• A mildly anarchic romp through “Not Too Soon” (this was not a assemblage you’d accuse of being over-rehearsed; there were a lot of music stands on stage and a few rough moments. But for me, hearing good and attentive musicians stumble a tiny bit is an all-too-rare thrill: they compensate and cohere where lesser players would veer of the rails entirely.)
• A version of “Red” reclaimed from the unsatisfying production of Belly’s King
• Donelly’s duo performance with Janovitz of her heartbreaking, almost Patsy Cline-like, “After Your Party”

Every new release I listened to in October (64)

• BDRM Eyes – (demo tracks)
  BDRM Eyes blend the pedal happiness of shoegaze with a more energetic delivery and experimental/dissonant aspects that recall indie rockers of a Sonic Youthish bent. I can’t unreservedly endorse the recording quality; the drums are distant and murky. But definitely leaves me wanting to hear what these folks could do in a studio/with a little more recording chops. And it’s free to check out at BDRM Eyes’ bandcamp site.
• Big Troubles – Romantic Comedy
  Jangly, more “pop” than “power.” At its best, reminds me of The Connells; at its less than best, The Ocean Blue comes to mind.
• Bjork – Biophilia
• Bleached – “Carter” (single)
• Blondie – Panic of Girls
  W-a-a-a-a-y better than I expected. I forgive Blondie for releasing No Exit.
• Bonjour – “Motivational Suicide” (EP)
  Yeah, so if Clicky Clicky Music Blog strongly recommends something, I’m pretty much going to check it out, but if Clicky Clicky’s Jay Breitling is basically acting as a rebroadcaster for Johnny Foreigner’s opinion, I’m just there. Bonjour definitely deal in the same clamorous but catchy style of indie rock as FJ, and the emphasis on fluid hammer-on/pull-off moves is even specifically reminiscent of JF’s Alexei’s guitar attack. And they reference both Modern English and The Replacements to boot. Geddit.
• Boomgates – “Layman’s Terms” (single)>
• Brave Irene – “Brave Irene” (EP)>
  Rose Melberg! ’nuff said.
• Bring the Knife – “Bring the Knife” (EP)
  These folks named their label “Thrashachusetts.” They kick it old school like Reagan was still in the Whitehouse. “Werewolf Fuckdown” pretty much rules, despite clattery bass tone and a few too many vocal adlib moments.
• Brown Shoe – The Gift Horse
• Kathryn Calder – Bright and Vivid
• Calm Paradox – How to Mind
• Chains of Love – “You Got It/ Black Hearts” (single)>
  Unusually dead-on lo-fi 60’s girl group pastiche (with a good dose of Motown in the mix) with a few sonic signifiers that, yes it’s actually 2011 (guitar tone and arrangement, mostly). Definitely want to hear more.
• Chapter 24 – “Chapter 24″ (EP)
• Civil Civic – Rules
• Class Actress – Rapprocher
• The Copyrights – North Sentinel Island
• Covergirl – “Paris Burns” (EP)>
  Trio of post-punk numbers. Didn’t strike me as too derivative of any one act in particular. Promising, if a bit unsurprising.
• The Dead Milkmen – The King in Yellow
  Holy crap! There’s a new Dead Milkmen album! Rodney Anonymous, Joe Jack Talcum, and Dean Clean sound pretty much the same as ever, new bassist Dan Stevens acquits himself well in the bass role originally filled by the late Dave Blood. The album is a logical progression from their underrated, ill-fated Hollywood Records days; freely mixing their trademark snotty sophomoric humor with more serious material, better-played and -produced than early classics like Eat Your Paisley, genre-hopping with willfully eclectic aplomb. I was in a cruddy mood when I started listening to this album the first time, and it fixed me right up.
• The Deportees “I Lost Her to the Sea” (single)
• Diamond Rings – Special Affections
• The Duchesses – “By Morning” (EP)
  Sweeping, slow-unfolding post-rock with an emphasis on dynamics and subtly shifting textures, and a singer with a passing similarity to The Chameleons’ Mark Burgess.
• End of a Year Self Defense Family – “I Heard Crime Gets You Off” (single)
• Evans the Death – “Threads/I’m So Unclean” (single)
• Feist – Metals
• Generationals – Actor-Caster
• Luke Haines – 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970’s and Early 1980’s
  Generally minimal arrangements (”Big Daddy Got a Casio VL-Tone” presumably uses the referenced instrument, but the part sounds almost like a metronome beat) tend to heighten Haines’ resemblance to Serge Gainsbourg.
• Half Man Half Biscuit – Actor-Caster
• Hammock – “Longest Year” (EP)
• High Places – Original Colors
• Hurricane Bells – Tides and Tales
• Sarah Jaffe – The Way Sound Leaves a Room
• Zola Jesus – “Vessel” (single)
• The Jolts – 8%
  Straight-ahead unabashed punk with ballsy production and some sharp songwriting/production choices (on “The Dabbler” and “Deadline,” especially).
• Landlord – Beneath the Wheel
• The Library Is on Fire – “Exposé” (EP)
  “Exposé”’s half-dozen songs are predominantly multi-layered voice and acoustic guitar affairs with deliberately (I assume) trashy and trebly recording. I prefer TLIOF’s full-band mode; some of this has a hushed intensity not completely unlike Elliott Smith; mostly it makes me want to hear the fully realized versions for which these takes sound like sketches. Lead-off track “The Uncanny Mark of the Wounded Healer,” is my fave, thanks both to its screechy, discordant electric guitar and its jarring tempo shifts.
• The Library Is on Fire – Missed Connections
  This collection of “EPs, singles, b-sides, live tracks and demos” may not have been the best place for me to start investigating “The Library Is on Fire” — tracks like the 7-minute “Speedmetal Hangover” and the 9-minute “Space Lemonade” tried my patience, and several of the demos have an off-the-cuff immediacy that borders on slapdash. But after some meandering and not-baked-all-the-way-through efforts, this compilation finishes strong with some more fully realized and forceful recordings. (One of the live tracks is fierce enough that it reminded me of Jawbox, although that may be partly because I spent large chunks of this week listening to Jawbox.) Anyway, by the end I was eager to hear last year’s Magic Windows, Magic Nights, which proved to be more focused and satisfying.
• The Long Tangles – Finer Things
• Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
  Let’s just deal with it: Loveless’s voice is not entirely dissimilar to Neko Case’s. Loveless is signed to Case’s former label, Bloodshot, and like Case’s early solo material, Loveless fits in the general Americana/unslicked-up-country genres. Song titles like “Jesus Was a WIno,” clearly indicate that Loveless is also not afraid to ruffle a few feathers. OK, done with the comparison. The record has a stripped down, scrappy sound. The song structures, mood, and subject matter is “country,” but some of the gritty guitar sounds are “rock.” The song about being stalked by Steve Earle is my favorite.
• Amanda Mair – “Doubt” (single)
• Mixtapes – “How to Throw a Successful Party” (EP)
  Bonus! 9 song ep showed up when I ordered Maps and Companions. I played it a bunch of times in a row and it made me very happy.
• OK Sweetheart – Home
• Philco – “Finally” (single)
  Kinda like a marriage of Hello Saferide and Prefab Sprout. Which means I want to hear more.
• Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride
  I dunno what’s wrong with me, loving the pop-punk lately. PBC bring to the table a leather-lunged, almost hardcore vocal delivery with lots of dynamics, some big hooks and power-chords, a few whoa-oh’s, and a little bit of post-hardcore/indie rock guitar edginess. Like Strike Anywhere cross-bred with Foo Fighters, maybe. Gonna dig into these guys’ back catalog for sure.
• Polar Bear Club – “The View. The Life” (EP)
• Pre – The Third Album
  Delirious delicious spastic miniatures. Could play on a bill with Deerhoof, Parts & Labor, Mika MIko, Melt Banana, Ponytail, and other mind-melters. After playing this, I was moved to listen to the rest of their discography, and their front-woman’s side project Comanechi, too.
• Real Estate – Days
  Cleaning up/turning up the drums makes for a big improvement on the sophomore full-length. 2011-model Real Estate reminds me more than a smidge of The Church, mostly because it sounds like they’re distilling the same influences (Television, the side of the VU that the Feelies took after) with a hazy, dreamy vibe.
• Salem Bitch Trials – “Salem Bitch Trials” (EP)
• Screamfeeder – Cargo Embargo (B Sides & More)
  Screamfeeder got the rights back to their own catalog! The band’s first move: a digital-only comprehensive collection of b-sides and rarities. 40 tracks! Read all about it and buy it.
• Shojo Skip – “Soramame” (single)>
  Somehow I stumbled on this mostly Asian/shoegaze/female-fronted compilation calledTotal Feedback, which left me in a Want!More!Songs!From!All!These!Bands! frame of mind. Shojo Skip weren’t even on Total Feedback, but they shared an EP with a band on the comp that I liked enough to order stuff from, despite both their awful name and the logistical difficulties of getting discs from Japan, My Dead Girlfriend. And I was elated to discover a new single, completely easy to get via the Amazon MP3 store. Shojo Skip’s take on the genre involves deliberate pacing, pretty melodies, and lots of textural shifts, usually building up to some pretty harsh guitar sounds which might sound almost metallic if not for aforesaid fundamental prettiness. Kinda like Mogwai crossed with Pale Saints, perhaps. I think it’s pretty awesome.
• Sick of Sarah – “Wasting Time” (single)
  Two pretty good acoustic tunes and a deeply weird, if partially successful, attempt to turn 2205’s best tune (”Cigarettes”) into some sort of goth/chillwave/trip-hop hybird.
• Sleeping Bag – Sleeping Bag
• Something Fierce – Don’t Be So Cruel
  Somehow reminds me equally of the The Clash and (recent) Spoon. Neat trick, that.
• Standard Fare – “Darth Vader” (single)
• States – Room to Run
• The Stepkids – The Stepkids
• Laura Stevenson and the Cans – Sit Resist
• Surfer Blood – “Tarot Classics” (EP)
  Man, I already kinda confused these guys and Real Estate, and now both of them release, tighter, more focussed,and just-plain better follow-ups? Sheesh.
• Team Me – “Team Me” (EP)
  Halfway between MGMT and The Polyphonic Spree. “We’re not as boring as you think we are, no,” is a challenge I expect some mean-tempered critics to take up — but not me.
• Anna Vogelzang – Canary in a Coalmine
• Vermis Antecessor – The Subliminal Way of Flesh
  Whose metal recommendations do I trust? John Darnielle, for one. This is fast, and lean (only one tune breaks the 4-minute mark) and weird. Some of it would qualify as proggy, or even jazzy, if it weren’t so, y’know, brutal. Vocalist Chebe defies convention a bit, he resembles a possessed toilet as much as Cookie Monster. I like.
• We Were Promised Jetpacks – Medicine/Building Buildings
• The Whats – “A Bit of Everything with The Whats”
• The Wiggly Tendrils – Practical Songs for Everyday Use (Volume 1)

Every new release I listened to in September (58)

• Bangles – Sweetheart of the Sun
• Bridge and Tunnel – “Bridge and Tunnel” (EP)
• Bridge and Tunnel – Rebuilding Year
• Brief Candles – Fractured Days
  Apparently they prefer “dream-pop” and “blissrock” to “shoegaze.” Poh-TAY-toe, Poh-TAH-toe . . .
• Glen Campbell – Ghost on the Canvas
  I admit it. It was knowing Campbell tackled a Bob Pollard tune (”Hold on Hope”) that made me want to hear this, and — despite my enduring love for several of Campbell’s classics — I expected to hear it as a bit of a joke. It’s true that producer/arranger/co-writer Julian Raymond is a bit, um, florid for my taste (I guess “countrypolitan” might be the polite version?), but Campbell’s presence and the undeniable talents of a dizzying array of unlikely collaborators (Billy Corgan and Dick Dale on the same album? Strange but true.) carry the day. Liked it much more, and much less ironically, than I expected to.
• Caves – Homeward Bound
• Civit – Love & War
• Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All” (single)
• Cloud Seeding (featuring Marissa Nadler) – “Ink Jar/Unquestioning” (single)
  Two atmospheric, echo-laden tracks that may me curious about Cloud Seeding without the guest vocalist. The A-side is more propulsive, with a chorus that rises from hazy languor to be kinda catchy (it’s a Mazzy Star-ish, maybe). The wordless “Unquestioning” is more diaphanous. And Nadler’s chilly, multi-layered harmonies on both tracks are gorgeous.
• Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
  Ballsy wide-screen stuff. Makes me want to revisit their first, which didn’t live up to the hype for me. Needs (and will get) more listening time.
• Deathspell Omega – “Diabolus Absconditus” (EP)
  I’m decidedly not down with the lyrical content of this French black metal outfit, and I’m not likely to cue up the single album-side long composition that constitutes this EP often … but about 11 minutes in there’s a 4 and a half minute quiet section that’s kind of amazing. Low volume, pretty, even pastoral . . . but still disquieting, not to say creepy. Bits like this are one of the reasons I still have an interest in modern metal.
• Kris Delmhorst – Cars
  Americana-type Delmhorst records a set of tracks from the Cars’ career. I think early Cars > middle Cars (starting with Panorama) >> late Cars (starting with Heartbeat City). My opinion of the originals carries over to Delmhorst’s reworkings. She doesn’t joke her readings up too much and hearing a cello carry the chorus riff of “Just What I Needed” (perhaps the strongest track overall) is surprisingly fun.
• Dobla Platina – “Marzo” (single)
• The Drums – Portamento
  The Drums’ plundering of 80s sounds and textures seems pretty blatant (and, I have to think, knowing). But what makes it work for me is the juxtaposition of sources: “What You Were” is a bit like a Cocteau Twins tunes sung by Morrissey; “Money” evokes late Talking Heads, early Depeche Mode, adds a screechy falsetto that’s horrible in a good way, and for good measure throws in a dash of harmonica that’s pure genius. If Girl Talk was a band with instruments instead of a sampling/editing entity, it might be not totally unlike The Drums.
• Andrea Echeverri – Dos
• EMA – “The Grey Ship” (single)
• EMA – Past Live Martyred Saints
• Evangelista – In Animal Life
  Not only does Carla Bozulich, formerly of the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, etc., have a new band, it’s not really that new anymore and there’s a backlog to explore! The Internets have failed me yet again. In Animal Tongue is clattery, spooky and generally awesome. RIYL late Swans, late Tom Waits, or Book of Knots.
• Family Lumber – “Look to the Sidelines” (EP)
• Fjorden Baby! – Se Deg Rundt i Rommet
• Fungi Girls – Some Easy Magic
  I was surprised to learn that this lo-fi/garage/surf effort is from a trio of young guys, coz they sound like they could have been doing this for a while. Sometimes trashy drum sounds make me very happy, and they do here.
• Jason Grier & Nite Jewel – “Heart Shaped” (EP)
  Cohesive this ain’t. Couple disco-ish numbers, well-enough-executed I guess, but without the irony or unusual arrangement details crucial to my enjoyment of such things, three songs that are much more to my taste (less groove oriented, moodier, more experimental), and one fairly challenging piece with a chopped-up tape aesthetic and most instruments processed to (or beyond) the brink of recognizability. I liked the whole thing better the second time through than the first.
• High Castle – Spirit of the West
  If you’re gonna put a saw blade on the cover of your LP, I say you better live up to it. High Castle do. Nasty, nasty guitar tone — think early Mission of Burma, or Blind Idiot God — with in-your-face up-front drums and willfully pitch indifferent vocals. Neat trick: the songs are mostly two-minutes and some-odd, but they feel even shorter. I bet this band clears a lotta rooms. That’s okay, leaves more space for the rest of us to windmill around in suitably deranged fashion. (If you need a RIYL, try Parts & Labor).
• Hong Kong in the 60s – My Fantoms
• HTRK – “Eat Yr Heart/Sweetheart” (single)
• Johnny Foreigner – “(Don’t) Show Us Your Fangs/The Hand That Slaps You Back” (single)
  It’s like this band crawls into my head when I’m asleep and digs around until they figure out combinations of sounds that are going to completely delight me. And then they make records of them.
• Tommy Keene – Behind the Parade
  By now you probably know what to expect: tasteful, melancholy jangle pop with some finely observed lyrics and worthy hooks. Yup, that’s what you get. There’s also a longish layered synth instrumental.
• Key Losers – California Lite
• The Kills – Blood Pressures
• Kittie – I’ve Failed You
  Cookie monster vocals aside, this was more grunge-y, less metallic than I expected. I kept thinking of Alice in Chains.
• Love Boat – Love is Gone
• Night Birds – Fresh Kills Vol 1.
  Fresh Kills collects the Night Birds discography from the 2009 demo through the 2011 single “Midnight Movies.” Like another post-The Ergs! project, Psyched to Die, Night Birds does such dead-on early-eights West Coast hardcore that they could only exist on the East Coast, now. There are even some surf-y moments, like early Agent Orange (although the perfect bill for them woulda probably featured Fear and the Circle Jerks).
• Night Birds – The Other Side of Darkness
• Nurses – Dracula
• Bill Orcutt – How the Thing Sings
  Man, this guy sounds like he hates his guitar. And maybe like he hates songs, too. The album cover is an array of plectra, but if someone told me he used coins to assault his strings, I’d believe it. That’s because I’m dumb enough to have tried it — it sounds nasty, clanky, and buzzy, and so does this record. There’s ample evidence that Orcutt has serious, for-real technical chops, but his fragmented lines and elastic timing also evoke the joyful primitivism of someone attacking the instrument for the first time. It’s an acoustic guitar record that’s more deserving of the adjective “brutal” than most of the metal I’ve heard this year. If this description whets your appetite, you really need to hear this.
• Razika – “Vondt i hjertet” (single)
• Razika and Real Ones – “Ingen kommer unna politikken” (single)
• Razika – Program 91
• Ringo Deathstarr – Colour Trip
  I don’t care for shamelessly derivative bands that come off like a pale imitation of the original, but I’m OK with shamelessly derivative bands that manage some tracks worthy of their templates. So, yeah, Ringo Deathstarr should probably be paying royalties to MBV and JAMC, and maybe The Primitives to boot, but “Do It Every Time,” with its Calvin Johnson creak offset by wispy female backing echos on the chorus and the word “cardigan,” is such a buzzsaw bubblegum delight that I can’t bring myself to care.
• St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
• Sleep ∞ Over – Forever
• Something Fierce – Don’t Be So Cruel
• Sons and Daughters – Mirror Mirror
• Tommy Stinson – One Man Mutiny
• Street Eaters – Rusty Eyes and Hydrocarbons
• Matthew Sweet – Modern Art
• Swimming Elephants – “Swimming Elephants” (single)
• Torpedo Rodeo – “Nightmare” (EP)
• Various Artists – Take It Or Leave It – A Tribute To the Queens of Noise: The Runaways
• Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls
  I liked the singles “Beachy Head” and “Found Love in a Graveyard” quite well, but the long-awaited LP is even better than I was hoping. Veronica Falls meld lo-fi scrappy ‘tude, C86/twee and 80’s college-rock jangle (there are a handful of overtly Marr-ish moments; Beat Happening also comes to mind know and then). Some really lovely work here, pretty without being dull. Ample variation in mood and sonic color makes for a thoroughly enjoyable end-to-end listen.
• Twin Sister – In Heaven
• Wartgore Hellsnicker – “Moderate Rock” (EP)
• The Wax Museums – Eye Times
  Jittery lo-fi punk with awesome lyrics about oddball topics like a bad sunburn and the Tunguska event. Grating-on-purpose (I assume) vocals softened by some ace harmony work. “Breakfast for Dinner” has got to be the funniest dirty song of the year. It’s prolly just coz I’m old, but this reminds me weirdly of XTC when they were almost kinda punk (Go 2 and earlier).
• The Wiggly Tendrils – Sad Songs for Cell Phones (Volume 1)
• Wilco – The Whole Love
• Wild Flag – Wild Flag
• Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis
• Xray Eyeballs – “Crystal” (single)

I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Frankly, the circumstances sounded a bit suspicious: reclusive artist schedules a mid-size tour after a long artistic silence and immediately prior to a career-spanning archive release. But from the first few seconds of “Oh, Comely,” it was impossible for me to see anything disingenuous in Mangum’s performance; further, it was impossible for me to hear it as anything other than completely genuine. His voice is — still — an amazing instrument. His timbre is aggressive, sometimes almost harsh, but it’s both amazingly expressive and surprisingly powerful. He had a tiny bit of trouble hitting the highest notes, but then, he always had trouble hitting the highest notes. He seemed completely at the top of his game. And good gravy, but does he get a lot of mileage out of remarkably simple chord structures.

I listened to the Neutral Milk Hotel albums a lot, but not so much in recent years. I felt like one of the few chumps there who couldn’t sing along with all the lyrics, even the really loopy ones. The audience mostly opted to double Mangum an octave lower; Jordan Hall has a very warm natural reverb, and it sounded pretty good. Mangum did some Q&A between songs, kinda like David Bazan does, which contributed to the intimate atmosphere. Spellbinding.

String quartet opener ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble) treated us to a more-than-competent run through Satie’s Les Gymnopédies and an often stunning arrangement of Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, which I had somehow never encountered before. (In retrospect this seems odd; I can almost imagine one of my former band leaders sitting us all down and making us listen to it at tortilla point, or some such.) It’s odd-but-somehow-logical cadence has a clear structural kinship with Mangum’s cover choice for the evening, Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End,” (although Johnston’s tune is set in a more conventional time structure) and it’s certainly not hard to hear its influence in Mangum’s own work.

Every new release I listened to in August (56)

• Army Coach – “Daydream” (EP)
  Something about (my favorite tune) “I Am a Failure” reminds me, probably obliquely, of the Wrens, but Army Coach’s punk lineage is clearer than the Wrens’. Thermals might be a better RIYL, or ‘Chunk or even Dü (some very Greg Norton basslines, and that’s no slur). Datapoint: been on a tear since hearing this, trying to hear everything by pop-punk progenitor band Team Stray.
• Autre Ne Veut – “Body” (EP)
• Zee Avi – Ghostbird
• Bad Sports – Kings of the Weekend
  I wish I could sit down with the master tapes for this garage punk record and make it sound sharper and less murky. (Kinda rare that I feel like a record is crying for more treble, but here’s one.) I like “Someday in the Future,” a whole lot, but mostly this is likable in a of-course-I-love-the-Ramones-y way, and a little too familiar for my taste. (Note: Bad Sports has personnel overlap with High Tension Wires).
• Banquets – Top Button, Bottom Shelf
• Bearsuit – The Phantom Forest
• Big Eyes – Hard Life
  With a family tree including Modern Machines, Used Kids, and Cheeky you might well expect stomping, catchy, not pristinely recorded, punk-leaning songs in which a love for the Replacements is easily detected. Yep. And there’s not one thing wrong with that, neither.
• Black Wine – Summer of Indifference
  Can someone please make an Ergs! family tree/discography website that doesn’t involve logging into F—Book? Thank you.
  p.s. This record is awesome.
• Blouse – “Intro Black/Firestarter” (single)
• Blouse – “Shadow” (single)
  Blouse wavers between post-punk stark (if mp3s wore out, I bet they would’ve worn out copies of The Cure’s Pornography) and guazy/pretty/shoegaze (à la Lush). Really hoping for an LP that lives up to the promise of these singles. In the meantime, playing these singles a lot.
• Bon Iver – Bon Iver
• Boston Spaceships – Let It Beard
• John Brodeur – Tiger Pop Ten
  In which Mr. Brodeur revisits and re-records his decade old album Tiger Pop, which I’m now curious to hear. This version occupies folky singer-songwriter/chamber-pop territory, mostly. Reminded me a bit of Michael Penn.
• Richard Buckner – Our Blood
• Burning Itch – Burning Itch
• Caves – Collection
  Energetic pop-punk trio. Sometimes quite Superchunk-y, but with more woah-oh’s and a dash of chugga-chugga metal crunch. Louise Hanman’s vocals are distinctive. Have you ever known someone whose voice was unusually resonant, so something said quietly carried more than you’d expect? I suspect Hanman might be one of those people, her voice really cuts through the mix.
• Chairlift – “Amanaemonesia” (single)
• Copy Haho – Copy Haho
  Tuneful, unspiky indie. Pleasant, if perhaps a bit unassuming. Singer’s voice often reminds me of Lloyd Cole.
• CSS – La Liberacion
• Nick Diamonds – “I am an EP” (EP)
• Dom – “Family of Love” (EP)
• Ana Egge – Bad BIood
• Elizium – Relief by the Sun
• Epic45 – Weathering
• The Ettes – Wicked Will
• The Features – Wilderness
• Frantic Amber – “Wrath of Judgement” (EP)
• Giant Peach – “People Don’t Believe Me” (EP)
• Givers – In Light
• The Features – Wilderness
• High Tension Wires – Welcome New Machine
  Garage+punk+indie-rock+a teeny dash of 60’s psychedelia. (Teeny, but noticeable.) Pretty spiffy formula. As with related band Bad Sports, I do wish I could sit down with the master tapes for this and make it sound sharper and less murky, but the songwriting is interesting enough for this to get a big thumbs-up anyway.
• Horrid Red – “Silent Party” (EP)
• Kids on a Crime Spree – We Love You So Bad
• Lily of the Valley – Aquatree
• The Lovely Eggs – Cob Dominoes
  Indie-pop duo that veers wildly between cutesy and abrasive and never take themselves too seriously. Some of the most fully-formed tunes are buzzsaw pop with short, sharp noisy solos (like Boyracer). If a 20-second obscene joke of a song that’s like Poly Styrene fronting the Pistols sounds like your cuppa, definitely check this out. If not, maybe proceed with caution.
• Luther – “Siblings & Sevens” (EP)
• Stepein Malkmus & the Jicks – Mirror Traffic
• Stephin Merritt – Obscurities
• Maria Minerva – Cabaret Cixous
• Maria Minerva – Tallinn at Dawn
• Mind Spiders – Mind Spiders
  Another garage/punk release! This one masterminded by Mark Ryan of the Marked Men. Sharp writing transcends formula; some mood changes add welcome sonic variety. “One Step Ahead” is frankly gorgeous.
• Rewards – “Equal Dreams” (single)
• Seapony – Go With Me
• Slutever – “Pretend to be Nice” (EP)
• Speed the Plough – Shine
• Thomas Tantrum – Mad By Moonlight
• UME – Phantoms
  The high-energy, latter-day indie-shoegaze of Phantoms is a smidge less noisy than Ume’s previous album, but cranks the songwriting smarts and production chops way up. There’s still unruly guitar aplenty, but now it’s set in songs with solid hooks; more dynamics and more breathing room makes for more listening impact. Frontwoman Lauren Larson is pushing her voice a little less hard than she did on Urgent Sea, which means she sounds a bit more like Metric’s Emily Haines than like Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. I dug Urgent Sea (and the transitional “Sunshower” EP) quite a bit, actually, but this is a huge step forward, an instant year’s-best shortlist contender. Highly recommended, especially if you like The Joy Formidable, Victory at Sea, or Blonde Redhead.
• Various Artists – Muppets: The Green Album
• Various Artists – We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie
• The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – Bag of Meat
  Shouty-quirky indie rock. Bio sez they love Wire, which makes sense. The Fall and Human Sexual Response also seem like potential, if somewhat distant, influences. In more current terms, strikes me as a bit simpatico with The Chap, without sounding much like them.
• Widowspeak – Widowspeak
• Widowspeak – “Gun Shy” (single)
• Widowspeak – “Harsh Realm/Burnout” (single)
• Witches – Forever
• Worriers – “Past Lives” (EP)
  I remember when the first Sleater-Kinney record came out I saw a review that implied if I thought an Excuse 17/Heavens to Betsy project sounded like a supergroup, it meant I needed to broaden my horizons some. Well, maybe so, but S-K did kinda turn out to be a super group. Worriers is a project with Lauren from the dear departed Measure (SA) (or perhaps The Measure [sa]; I can never quite figure that out) and Mike from The Ergs! and the I-hope-not-departed Night Birds. And I wouldn’t say the result sounds like a supergroup coz I think of supergroups as generally bloated, soggy affairs with substandard material*. Worriers, on the other hand, on the limited evidence of these 4 tunes, sound like a super group. It’s pop punk with plenty of pop; much closer to the the Measure than the Night Birds, with none of the latter’s garage/thrash leanings. If anything, it’s even hookier (and a bit less lo-fi) than the Measure. I’m not calling “sell-out” here, you understand; I’m calling “awesome!”
  * yeah, there are exceptions. they just prove the rule.
• Young & Old – Takes

The Lizard Lounge was crammed to the gills for the very welcome work-night friendly early set. Joe Pernice opened with a handful of solo songs, including the title track from Goodbye Killer and “Telescope,” a sneak peek at the in-progress Pernice Brothers album (he said it was mostly too rockin’ to translate well to an acoustic setting). He was, if you’ll forgive the baseball reference, Joe being Joe: surly, beautiful, self-effacing, tender, self-aggrandizing, sly, heartfelt — all at pretty much the same time.

Then he brought up his brother Bob on electric guitar, and his two of his former bandmates in Scud Mountain Boys, Tom Shea on mandolin, and Stephen Desaulniers on electric bass (since Bob played some guitar in Scud Mountain Boys, it was very nearly a full reunion, but Pernice mentioned there’d been some recent discussion with original guitarist Bruce Tull about playing together again, too). Last night’s set was special in a way you don’t get to hear very often: both a little rough, and also spot-on. I don’t think the quick pre-song conversations about key and tempo were staged for the audience’s benefit, and there were a few audible blown cues — but the guys recovered from them really fast, and without a trace of tentativeness. Only band members who are really listening to each other can pull that off. Pernice was visibly laughing in the first chorus of Olivia Newton John’s “Please Mister Please” — which didn’t stop him from singing it like a heart wound was being reopened. And Desaulnier’s harmonies were just there in a way I wouldn’t expect after a 14-year hiatus. Magic.

In addition to being a fantastic writer, Pernice is also — back to baseball again! — a five-tool singer. He’s solid at the technical things rockers are not necessarily known for: intonation, breath control, mic technique — and he’s got compelling phrasing and often gut-wrenching (but critically understated, not oversold) emotional delivery, to boot. To my mind, Pernice and Ted Leo are at the top of the male indie-rock singing heap. So when I saw some singer-songwriter dude I never heard of getting set to open for Pernice, my first instinct was pity: “poor guy, he’s about to get schooled.” Only it turns out Paul Melançon is also a pretty great singer — killer pure tenor, an effortless upper register, gorgeous delivery and solid technique. He knocked Neil Finn’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” — by no means an easy song to sing — outta the flippin’ park. Basically after about 4 or 5 bars of his first number I’d decided to buy his latest disc, and after I stopped being too distracted by his voice to pay attention to the songs (and his wry patter), I was committed to picking up everything I could lay hands on.

Dept. of egregious naval gazing: The Lizard Lounge was one of the venues for my first date with she who is now my wife (my wife! I feel like that always needs an exclamation point) and the Scud Mountain Boys, in a weird but awesome bill with Jenny Toomey and Jale, were in the first handful of live shows I ever wrote about on the Internets. Danger Will Robinson! Creeping nostalgia!

Every new release I listened to in July (29)

• Apollo Ghosts – “Money Has No Heart” – (EP)
• Apollo Ghosts – “For What They Do, They Do” – (EP)
• Army Girls – (3 singles)
• Blood Stain Child – Epsilon
• Bomb the Music Industry! – Vacation
• Broadcaster – “Joyride” – (EP)
• Delicate Cutters – Some Creatures
  I like this. But it’s far milder than the Throwing Muses song I assume they took their name from.
• Early & Often – Present No Future, Fear No Tense
  Melodic, slow rock with wide dynamic range (call it “post rock” if you must) that adds a hefty dose of glitch/tape-loop weirdness to the usual Children of Mogwai vibe. The anomalous “No Fiction” sounds kinda Radioheadish.
• Foreign Objects – “No Sensation” (EP)
  Something kinda retro 90s riot grrl about this, like something on Chainsaw Records that I somehow missed. It’s scratchy and trebly, the vocals are a sneery, with ‘tude to spare. These are not complaints!
• Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer
  I can’t articulate what it is that I don’t like about The Fiery Furnaces, but this record is not free of it.
• The Gifted Children – “The Portable Sun” – (EP)
• The History of Apple Pie – “You’re So Cool” – (single)
  Snarly/sweet, like Velocity Girl or Henry’s Dress. Leaves me really impatient for more.
• Hoop Dreams – “XCPR” (single)
  Maybe this needs more time to sink in, but this single made little impression on the first spin. Garage-y, hazy (if not smoky, ahem) rock. More generic
• The Joy Formidable – “Roarities” – (EP)
• Letting Up Despite Great Faults – Movement
  Low key indie with electronic touches. I like the last two songs on this short record a lot; some canny arrangement choices/production details.
• Low – C’Mon
• Heather Nova – “Higher Ground” – (EP)
  Nova released a few records I liked a lot a while back, but at some point I stopped paying close attention. I took a flyer on this new single. Glad I did. The lead track is pleasant enough, but “I’m Here” really made me sit up and take notice. Lots of cool production/arrangement details. Reminds me a bit of Bettie Serveert; not too smooth (which is a problem for me with Nova sometimes).
• Pink Flag – “King of Scene” (EP)
• Portugal. The Man – In the Mountain, in the Cloud
• Roadside Graves – We Can Take Care of Ourselves
  Fundamentally Americana, but a lot going on.
• The Rosebuds – Loud F
• Skates and Rays – “Higher Ground” – (EP)
  The band fronted by the guy behind thirtyninefortycovers.blogspot.com (in which he posted a cover song every day of his 39th year) does an EP of songs by The Church. The Church is a band I’m pretty ambivalent about; I like some of their songs a lot, but sometimes they’re too druggy and or taking-self-to-seriously for me. This EP doesn’t include any of my favorites, but includes some songs I didn’t even know. I like “The Night is Very Soft” best, on account of the spooky feedback guitar lurking in is background.
• Soft Science – Highs and Lows
  Buzzy dream-pop bliss. Sometimes a bit too self-consciously retro for me, but mostly not.
• Tin Armor – Life of Abundance
• The Two Funerals – “Boy’s Club” (EP)
  Besides the obvious riot grrl references, slightly off-kilter guitar lines with a lot of fluid hammered notes reminds me of Beauty Pill, and the clattery bass reminds me of New Model Army. And the proggiest bits recall Rush a l’il bit, in a good way, if you can imagine that.
• Various Artists – Newermind
• The Wild – A Collections
  Sturdy folk-punk that’s sometimes a touch too earnest/self-consciously PC for me.
• The Wooden Birds – Two Matchsticks
  (The Wooden Birds = Andrew Kenny of The American Analog Set)
• Wye Oak – Civilian