i hate the sound of guitars

Some of them tickle my funny bone.

Lacy Gibson looks like he wants an easy woman all right, but Maria Taylor is plotting her clean getaway.

Breaking all kindsa rules: I haven’t even listened to this record all the way through once, and it’s already one of my favorites of the year. It’s got me bouncing around in my seat so much, I just have to tell someone about it right now!!! Manhattan Love Suicides (from Leeds; the name is a reference to a 1985 Richard Kern film) have only been around since 2006, and released only one LP, so this generous assemblage of singles, radio sessions, and compilation tracks (including this year’s EPs “Kick it Back” and “Clusterfuck”) is a bit of a surprise. It’s also a revelation — a huge step forward from the swell but not amazing debut record. It’s easy to to play the sounds-like game: Jesus & Mary Chain + Lush + The Primitives, with a dash of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. The facile triangulation of obvious influences doesn’t capture how good Manhattan Love Suicides have suddenly become at assembling bubblegum pop kernels in squeally, hissy, barbed wire coating. Shoegaze seems to be in the middle of a renaissance right now, and with this release Manhattan Love Suicides joins Asobi Seksu and A Place to Bury Strangers at the forefront of the sound.

I got Simulacra via eMusic, which meant I first heard this as a weird record, not as a novelty record. It was an arresting mixture for sure, blending the everything-distorted-all-the-time aesthetic of Parts & Labor/Times New Viking et al; a slow-tempoed, heavy, King Crimsonish vibe; and deep-buried, high-pitched female vocals a bit like Melt Banana, or possibly a porn tape being played over a metropolitan subway announcement system. Oh, and great drumming. I assumed that the oozing bass lines were played on keyboards, but I wasn’t sure about the treble instrument — guitar processed to sound like keyboard? or keyboard treated to sound like guitar?

So I went looking for info, and found plenty at the Simulacra CD Baby page. Turns out there are neither keyboards nor guitars on this recording — it’s all clarinet. No joke — the distorted B-flat clarinet is provided by project mastermind Aaron Novik, and the distorted bass clarinet is courtesy Cornelius Boots of “Edmund Welles, the world’s only composing ensemble for bass clarinet quartet,” which I will probably have to check out. The great drumming is from Matthias Bossi (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/Book of Knots) and the vocals are by Jesse Quattro (of heavy metal band Hammers of Misfortune and Mr. Bungle/Faith No More guitarist Trey Spruance’s Secret Chiefs 3 project).

I had just enough leftover affection for Kay Hanley’s 90’s act Letters to Cleo to check out the previews for her new record, even though the only thing I remember about her solo debut Cherry Marmalade is that I felt like I didn’t need to hear anything on it twice. I’m really glad I gave Weaponize a shot; it’s perhaps her career highlight.

Hanley’s voice sounds better than ever, by turns both tougher and sweeter than in her Letters to Cleo days. Guitarist/former-LTC-member (and husband) Michael Eisenstein fills Weaponize with the kind of fat, crunchy, tone that used to be the hallmark of Eric “Roscoe” Amble’s production jobs. Weaponized is also packed with catchy tunes, with the “The Wrong Year” probably my initial favorite. Also worth a mention is the expansive “I Guess I Get It,” a slow-burning ballad/rocker that could pass for the best Aimee Mann song since Bachelor No. 2. Even the closing jokey grunge-rap number “Drop a Bomb” is kinda growing on me.

I liked Weaponize so much, I’ve since got a copy of Hanley’s 2005 ep babydoll, and it’s really good, too. I’m left to wonder if I was just in a cruddy mood when I heard Cherry Marmalade.

A weird listening week - most of it occupied by a business trip.

1. The Fall
2. Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians
3. Ho-Ag
4. Unrest
5. Patty Griffin
6. Tie: The Deathray Davies, the Gothic Archies, the Kiss Offs, Little Champions, Metric, The Mountain Goats, Stereo Total, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, The Tourists, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start, The Upper Crust, VPN

69 artists, 131 tracks.

1. Big Dipper
2. Stereolab - silly reason: I was wearing my Stereolab T and it struck me that I hadn’t listened to any ‘lab in ages.
3. The Lucksmiths
4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - inspired largely by encountering a few more of Ted Leo’s phenomenal covers, not least among them an amazing take of Barry Dworkin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams’ll Come Through.”
5. We Versus The Shark - More new goodness from Hello Sir records to rescue the list from suspicious fogeyness
6. The Little Bicycles - can’t remember how I heard of The Little Bicycles, but they could well have been scientifically designed to be irresistable to me. They’re a coed indie-rock/pop trio with sweet melodies and a dash of punk sneer. My appetite for this sort of thing appears boundless. If I’d heard Broken Hearts and Tired Legs last year, I prolly woulda tried to cram something from it onto the already overcrowded best-of set list.
7. Be Your Own Pet - the “Get Damaged” e.p., mostly — 3 songs as good and maybe even better than anything on Get Awkward.
8. Television - more fogeyism, but inspired in this case by We Versus the Shark’s terrific “See No Evil.”
9. Superchunk
10. Bearsuit - I found these folks via some “Related if you like”-type chain on last.fm. Yup, this wilfully eclectic sometimes noisy, sometimes pretty indie rock also sounds like it could have been scientifically designed to appeal to me.

78 artists, 331 tracks.

1. The Capstan Shafts - Miles per Famine and the rest of my Capstan Shafts catalogue order arrived, all in beautiful hand-assembled sleeves. Also a little note from Dean thanking me for being one of the first to review him, which made me all gooshy fanboy.
2. Unwound
3. Jim Guthrie - I watched “Children of the Clone” at Craig Adams’ superbrothers site. One of the things I liked about it was Jim Guthrie’s soundtrack. In fact, I liked it so much I downloaded 3 of his albums from eMusic. Nothing sounds exactly like the “Children of the Clone” soundtrack, but the general vibe reminds me of John Vanderslice, so no loss there. Turns out Guthrie also plays in Islands and was formerly in Royal City, who I should probably check out too.
4. Ho-Ag - my Hello Sir records order also arrived this week, too, and I’m happy to report that Doctor Cowboy lives up to expectations.
5. Superchunk
6. Little Champions
7. La Salle
8. The Cure
9. Now It’s Overhead - mostly because I played their Magnetic Fields cover (”The Book of Love”) over and over
10. My Teenage Stride - mostly because I kept trying to figure out if the resemblance of “Skin Lieutenant” to Joy Division’s “Disorder” was deliberate or not.

82 artists, 395 tracks.

1. Superchunk
2. The Feelies - the recent Glen Mercer/Wild Carnation show was far closer to a Feelies reunion than I ever expected to get, although in July there are actual Feelies reunion shows.
3. Wake Ooloo (see above)
4. The Bevis Frond - I like the concise Bevis Frond songs much better than the long ones
5. Bomb the Music Industry!
6. The Cure
7. The Bags - the California Bags, not the Boston Bags
8. Dancing Hoods, Screamfeeder, VPN, Hannah Fury, The Tourists - all tied for 8th

60 artists, 350 tracks.

Great Plains is the band that ruined my life. You might know their signature “Letter to a Fanzine” as the “Why do punk rock guys go out with new wave girls?” song. But I know it as the Song of the Big Lie:

You like everything that comes out on SST
You like everything that comes out on 4AD
You like almost everything that comes out on Homestead
I LIKE EVERYTHING THAT I GET IN THE MAIL FOR FREE!
(How ’bout that)

That stanza inspired me to become a reviewer so I could get music in the mail for free. What I didn’t know is that Sturgeon’s Law most definitely applies to what you get in the mail for free; even it’s own mother couldn’t possibly like all of it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Great Plains’ set. They were a touch sloppy in that kinda good bar band-y way, or maybe that was just the muddiness of the mix. (Whiny aside: I really wish I liked The Middle East better, but all but a handful of shows I’ve seen there have sounded like crap, and downstairs is often uncomfortably like a sweatlodge.) Front man Ron House was in fine voice, and everyone on stage looked like they were having a good time.

It’s been bugging me that I can’t remember if I saw Big Dipper twice or just once back in the day. I know I saw them in Baltimore touring Slam (with a seismograph on stage, and Young’s “Rocking in the Free World” in the set), but I kinda think I also saw them in DC between Craps and Slam. At at least one Dipper show I know I was completely transported into the magical state of pure enjoyment. Maybe it happens to you and maybe it doesn’t, but when a band really connects with me, I stop being aware of things like what’s in (or out) of tune with what, whether the tempos are steady, how good or bad the mix is, and anything else from the analytical side of my brain. My consciousness shuts down and I just love what’s happening.

That’s a very high bar to reach, so it shouldn’t surprise me that the 2008 Dipper failed to reach it. It was great just to see Steve Michener, Jeff Oliphant, Gary Waleik, and Bill Goffrier on stage together again. They looked like they were having a blast revisiting the wondeful songs they crafted, and that’s important. Waleik seemed to be struggling a bit to hit some of the notes, but maybe he just couldn’t hear himself. I was certainly frustrated with the mix, my wonderful girlfriend and I weren’t feeling well, and we didn’t stay through the end of the night.

But if they pull a “Mission of Burma”-style return to active duty (and I hope they do), I would love to see/hear them again when they have another few shows under their belt, hopefully in a better-sounding room, and when I’ve had a chance to rein in my own unrealistic expectations a bit.

1. The Capstan Shafts
2. Little Champions - I loved this band’s 2001 release Transactions + Replications, and was delighted to learn late last year of a new record Fire let me in, lava let me out (available from Barsuk). I’m even happier to report that the new disc is better than the old disc — equally catchy, less willfully weird, with stronger, more assured vocals. The credits are sparse, but if it’s a home-recording job, it’s a durned good one. My one quibble is that there’s sometimes a little too much of a good thing — most of the songs are longer than four minutes, and I might like them better if they were a touch shorter.
3. Screamfeeder - another entry in the ongoing “how’d I miss this band?” list. The deal here would appear to be that Australian bands aren’t always well publicized in the USA, and the the band’s name sounded like bad grunge/metal and didn’t make me want to investigate further. My loss. Turns out they’re energetic, sometimes dischordant indie rock that reminds me of mostly greater Boston area acts like the Dirt Merchants, the Dambuilders, and Sleepyhead.
4. Superchunk
5. The Mountain Goats
6. VPN - This week’s “please put out another album!” entry. There’s no myspam page, so I fear this band (formerly “Very Pleasant Neighbor”) may be defunct. I saw ‘em at The Velvet Lounge when I still lived in DC. Their harmonies knocked me out live; their singing was so good it reminded me of Ida (which seemed to amuse them when I gushed at them after the set). I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to the CD the next day to discover that their lyrics were also excellent.
7. We Versus the Shark - It just came to my attention that the (spastic, wonderful, mathy, dance-worthy) We Versus the Shark have a project called MurMurMur. They’re releasing one cover tune per month this year via download-only, donation-based Quote Unquote Records.
8. Ho-Ag
9. Bomb the Music Industry! - Another Quote Unquote Records artist. More-or-less folk-punk, with some swerves into non-folk punk and ska. Sometimes too jokey/good-timey for me, but also sometimes both acerbic and catchy. “Side Projects are Never Successful” is my fave so far. This listening tangent also led me to the stylistically similar Defiance, Ohio, who I like even better. But due to some encoding weirdness, Defiance, Ohio tracks don’t show up correctly in my listening log.
10. Elf Power In a Cave initially didn’t make a very favorable impression. I liked Back to the Web more than most folks, it seems, and In a Cave feels like a retreat back into more familiar territory (not to mention a few near-rewrites of older tunes). But I have to admit, it’s growing on me some, and it has lots of headphone ear candy detail.

74 artists, 542 tracks.