i hate the sound of guitars » monthly

Nov 2011

guitarlover — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:30:43 +0000

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.

Oct 2011

guitarlover — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:33:58 +0000

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)

Sep 2011

guitarlover — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:53:25 +0000

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)

Aug 2011

guitarlover — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:35:04 +0000

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

Jul 2011

guitarlover — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:20:41 +0000

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

Jun 2011

guitarlover — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:15:22 +0000

Every new release I listened to in June (20)

31 Knots – Trump Harm
Not as given to loud math-rock explosions as in years ast, but not exactly toothless either. I think this might be a slow-grower.
An Horse – Walls
Army Navy – The Last Place
Smooth, pretty indie rock with unforceful vocals, in the tradition of Voxtrot or Death Cab for Cutie, if not as immediately hooky as those bands at their peak. Underwhelmed me at first blush, while simultaneously making me think that many of my friends might love it.
Best Youth – Winterlines
The Book of Knots – Garden of Fainting Stars
Boy Friend – “Lovedropper” (single)
Hazy, gauzy dream-pop.
Buffalo Daughter – The Weapons of Math Destruction
I like this, despite thinking it sounds (at least in places) like a passel of other late naughties artists (LCD Soundsystem, f’rinstance). But if it doesn’t break much new ground I think it establishes how forward-looking Buffalo Daughter were the first time around.
Centro-Matic – Candidate Waltz
The Girls – Akimbo
Grass Widow – “Milo Minute” (single)
Lemuria/Cheap Girls – (split single) song of the year? could be. 24.jun.2011
The ‘Mericans – So Late It Hurts
Marissa Nadler – “Rain Arrangement” (EP)
Nü Sensae/White Lung – “Clown Life” (single)
This here is some fierce shit.
Madeleine Peyroux – Standing on the Rooftop
It’s unavoidably true that the timbre of Peyroux’s voice is little like Billie Holiday’s, but the hip arrangements (guitar god Marc Ribot is prominently featured) and Peyroux’s sly, somewhat wordy lyrics (e.g., “Don’t Pick a Fight with a Poet”) create a mood far from classic jazz, and remind me, perhaps a bit obliquely, of classic Joni Mitchell. The word “impeccable” comes to mind when thinking about how it all fits together.
Rabbit! – “The Hopscotch EP”
Probably very subjective, but although plenty of indie-pop described as “twee” is just fine with me, I find something just a little cloying about this.
Reading Rainbow – “Cover the Sky” (single)
Brooding, slowly unfurling indie rock. Pretty, with a nice use of dynamics.
Telepathe – “Throw This Away/Destroyer” (single)
The Vaccines – What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?
This polished indie rock entry didn’t make a strong impression on me at first, possibly because I was primed for something a little more unruly and energetic. But on repeated listens the lyrics reveal sly charms (beyond the too-obvious-for-my-taste “Post-Breakup Sex”) and the hooks and the attention-to-detail production style cohere for me. Bonus points for very much not being a rework-one-song-idea-throughout-the-album type of band. Could be The Strokes of the moment: might not deserve all the hype, but won’t deserve the backlash either.
P.S. If you’re wondering what song “Blow It Up” reminds you of, it’s the moptops’ “I Should Have Known Better.” Maybe to the point that someone should get royalties.
Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You

May 2011

guitarlover — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:59:23 +0000

Every new release I listened to in May (32)

Black Books – “An Introduction to” – (EP)
The Black Watch – Led Zeppelin V –
Bluebrain – “The Pull” – (single)
Chalk Circle – Reflection – Before I heard this album, If you’d asked me if there was an all-female jittery post-punk/new wave band active in DC in the early 80s that I had never heard of, I woulda said I was pretty sure there wasn’t. I woulda been wrong. In my defense, this is actually their first full-length release, collecting compilation and live tracks, and previously unreleased material.
Craft Spells – “After the Moment” – (single)
Craft Spells – Idle Labor -owes huge debt to New Order, but less glum and lower-fi (03.may.2011)
Cult of Youth – Cult of Youth – After several spins through Cult of Youth I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it, but I’m sure it’s interesting. It’s nominally mostly acoustic but there’s something post-punk about the the bass lines. Lead Cultist Sean Rogan’s energetic baritone sometimes reminds me of Jon Langford, and the latter half of the dense, swirling “The Lamb” almost sounds like Retreat from Memphis-era Mekons.
Casey Desmond – “Album Teaser” (EP) –
Casey Desmond – “Born This Way” (single) –
Glee Cast – (another mess of singles), Volume 6 –
Guards – “Resolution of One” (EP) – Last year’s covers EP certainly caught my ear — a lo-fi slow indie take on Metallica? All over it, thanks. I’m less into this I’m afraid, these three songs are pleasant enough, but don’t really give me a sense of Guards’ personality. I think cleaner production would improve things, but so would writing songs that weren’t quite so much like all the other indie darling bands’ songs.
If By Yes – Salt on Sea Glass If By Yes goes in several different directions simultaneously, and it’s generally pretty interesting. (Fave: You’re Something Else) (12.may.2011)
Lady Gaga – “The Edge of Glory” (single) –
Lady Gaga – “Judas” (single) –
Lady Gaga – Born this Way –
Liturgy- Aesthethica –
Mixtapes – “Hope is for People” (EP) – If all “pop-punk” were this good, no one would bristle at being called “pop-punk.” (25.jun.2011)
Mixtapes – “Castle Songs” (single) –
My First Earthquake – Friction –
Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler –
Papercuts – Fading Parade –
Christina Perri – “Bluebird” (single) –
The Pierces- “Love You More” (EP) –
P.S. Eliot – Sadie –
Rise Against – Endgame -
I would be hard put to tell this from a Bad Religion album, except for “A Gentlemen’s Coup” [sic] which sounds kinda like Queensryche. But, y’know, I like Bad Religion. And Queensryche from the era this reminds me of, for that matter. And I love Tim McIlrath’s tough anti-homophobia stance; this was my introduction to Rise Against, but I’ve made a point of buying four more records since.
Small Brown Bike – Fell & Found –
Soft Kill- An Open Door – Hmm. Does this sound more like Joy Division circa Closer, or like New Order circa Movement? (02.may.2011)
The Strokes – Angles –
Throwing Muses – “The Season Sessions: Spring” – (EP)
Violens – “Be Still” – (single)
Violens – “When to Let Go” – (single)
Lucinda Williams – Blessed – I like “Seeing Black” and “Awakening” best.

Apr 2011

guitarlover — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:24:24 +0000

Every new release I listened to in April (42)

Age Rings – Black Honey – Expansive, richly textured rock (21 apr 2011)
Amaranthe – Amaranthe – Amaranthe integrate signifiers of extreme metal (blast beats, guttural vocals and, of course, high gain guitars) with those of classic/mainstream pop/rock (dense keyboard beds, eminently hummable melodies and layered harmonies) to a really unusual degree. The first minute of almost-title-track “Amaranthine” could almost be a Sarah McLachlan tune, mostly solo voice over piano arpeggios, then it gets really AOR (think Journey, Asia, REO Speedwagon) and another minute later there’s a brief but unarguably metallic bridge leading into a hair-metal style “purty” solo break. I may have made this sound like your worst nightmare, and perhaps it is, but I kinda dig it, partly due to the sheer WFT?! value, but also because it’s well, catchy. (If there’s Autotune, BTW, it’s pretty subtle.)
Amy Arena – Liquid Reality – Eclectic mix of styles, from synthesizer-heavy pop, to folky acoustic guitar arrangements. The latter work much better for me. (I think album closer “Crashing” is the strongest entry.)
Belphegor – Blood Magick Necromance – Blackened death metal outfit has just enough variation in the onslaught to hold my interest through the whole record.
Capsula – In the Land of Silver Souls – Extremely well executed garage/psych/indie rock hybrid (12 apr 2011)
Exene Cervanka – The Excitement of Maybe – Confounds all my expectations of an Exene Cervanka records — without the urgency of her singing in X or the wry, talky distance of her early solo work, her vocals are strangely uncompelling. Dave Alvin is tasteful as always, but this is surprisingly safe.
Crass- Penis Envy
Crass- Christ – The Album – Awesome reissue series of anarcho punk classics continues to be awesome. (15.apr.2011)
Death Set – Michel Poiccard – have yer cake and eat it too punk/pop/hip-hop mish mash; a few serious moments, fuller sound than what went before. (07.apr.2011)
Debauchery – Germany’s Next Death Metal – Whoa, this is too much for me. I gave this a listen ‘coz I thought the title showed a glimmer of a sense of humor — I was visualizing a reality show where contestants are told “You’re still in the running to be Germany’s next death metal [band].” Debauchery doesn’t sound like any other extreme metal band I’ve ever heard. Most of the vocals are bellowed in blackened style, but the songs are slow enough to have a swagger that sometimes verges on AC-DC boogie territory. But my ability to stomach metal lyrics is probably governed — maintained, even — by my inability to understand them and their general fantasy/historical context. “School Shooter” fails on both counts, and it’s hardly the only lyric that makes me squirm. The cover of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” is kinda fun, though.
Eldar Djangirov – Three Stories – Technically dizzying piano prodigy romps through both classical and jazz masterpieces in this unaccompanied showpiece. Djangirov has a “who the hell does he do that with only two hands” quality that reminds me of Oscar Peterson, albeit less rollicking.
Eleventh Dream Day – Riot Now! – Hard-rocking set from these consistent, if not terribly surprising, stalwarts.
Iceage – New Brigade – abrasive, anarchic retro punk from young Danes. (05.apr.2011)
Eternal Tapestry – Beyond the 4th Door – Long atmospheric explorations with elements of blues, post-rock, and even a smidge of jazz. Waaaaay too trippy for me.
Glee Cast – Glee: the Music, Vol. 5 – Not my favorite Glee cast recording by a long shot. C’mon Glee folks, do some Foreigner!
Grails – Deep Politics – Instrumental rock that defies easy classification — moment by moment aspects of its textures are as likely to evoke classic jazz as metal. Somehow never trips my “too proggy” meter, maybe because there’s usually a strong central melodic component to the composition.
Holden – L’essentiel – best-of/unreleased compilation from French electro-acoustic outfit. Includes two songs from the hard-to-come-by, but terrific, Fantomatisme. (13 apr 2011)
Horrid Red – Pink Flowers – severely lo-fi retro-post-punk (27 apr 2011)
Ice Age – New Brigade – intense punk oddly reminiscent of proto Joy Division outfit Warsaw (5 apr 2011)
The Idle Hands – Life is Beautiful – “Uptown Burning” is the songs that keeps me coming back to this, with its propulsive bass line, self-referential lyrics (e.g., “our friends’ bands will get famous”) avoiding preciousness thanks to a wry, tossed-off-hand quality, and sheets of attackless, e-bowish, long-sustained guitar lines.
I Was Totally Destroying It – Preludes – catchy, 80s-infused, indie-rock outfit steps up their game (12 apr 2011)
Johnny Foreigner – Certain Songs Are Cursed – Two very different sides of JoFo on terrific new ep. (26 apr 2011)
La Sera – La Sera – Pretty retro pop from a Vivian Girl. (27 apr 2011)
Leaves’ Eyes – Meredead, “Melusine” (EP) – Soprano/cookie monster vocal mashup (the former dominating) from this metal band with a distinct Celtic flavor and gothy mood. I liked “Sigrlinn,” the longest, proggiest track best — go figure. But the string flourishes and dense vocal arrangements about a third of the way through are pretty cool. A cover of Mike Oldfield’s “To France” seems somewhat inexplicable.
Little Scream – The Golden Record – intriguing low-key folkish indie rock (29 apr 2011)
The Long Tangles – Silver City – easy-on-the-ears piano-driven indie pop/rock duo (29 apr 2011)
Mars Classroom – The New Theory of Everything – Bob Pollard project with Gary (Big Dipper, Volcano Suns) Waleik power. If it’s not quite as good as it sounds in, er, theory, it’s still darned good. (06.apr.2011, 18.apr.2011)
J Mascis – Several Shades of Why – I always thought I was more interested in Mascis as an electric guitarist — or even just as a soloist — than as a singer on songwriter, so I was a little surprised at how comfortable this acoustic release feels. The string arrangements are on the title track are very pretty. There are little bits of of electric guitar are scattered throughout wtih “Is It Done” offering a particularly tasty and characteristic solo.
The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
The Mountain Goats – All Survivors Pack – It’s definitely a treat to hear both the old-school Mountain Goats-style demos alongside the finished product. It makes a a pretty strong case that Darnielle is now comfortable enough working in a real studio to be making really good, satisfying choices about arrangement and production.
The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You -Polished modern new-wave flavored indie-rock (28.apr.2011)
Naked on the Vague – “Twelve Dark Noons” (EP) – Aggressively lo-fi post-punk with a dash of goth-gloom
Oh Land – Oh Land – comparisons to Bat for Lashes (and even Kate Bush) are definitely lazy, but probably useful
Ponytail – Do Whatever You Want All the Time – Tricky indie-rock oddly juxtaposed with chirpy vocals. A fun, consistent listen.
Radiohead – “Supercollider/The Butcher” (single) – Neither of the tracks on this single, initially offered at record-store day and later provided to King of Limbs purchasers as a free bonus download, have really grabbed me the way the album tracks did; they’re cut from similar cloth and fans will want to hear them, but I think the album would not have been stronger if they’d been included.
The Rationales – The Distance In Between – Solid roots-rock/power pop with swell vocal harmonies (22.apr.2011)
Sirenia – The Enigma of Life – Another metal band featuring contrasting soprano/death metal vocals, with the former dominating. Lots of generic and somewhat cheesy keyboard sweetening made this a little hard to get through. I liked the songs featuring choral arrangements best, particularly “A Seaside Serenade,” (which also offers call & response between guitar crunch and string stabs and a piano part that reminded me of Blue Öyster Cult’s Allen Lanier) and “Fading Star.”
Britney Spears – Femme Fatale – Some cool production, but a stunning lack of personality. (01.apr.2011)
Poly Styrene – Generation Indigo – It’s a terrible shame that she’s gone, a nasty irony that she didn’t live to see the release of her new album. But at least she leaves us a recording we don’t have to pretend to like just because she’s gone. It’s impassioned and angry and well-assembled.
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo – Now that I’ve finally got it through my head that Kurt Vile in no way matches my expectation of what an artist named “Kurt Vile” should sound like, I’m still not sure if I think this is an emporer-less-well-dressed-than-consensus-suggests situation, if it’s just not my cup of tea, or if I need a little more time to warm to it. I will give it a few more shots before write it off.
Anna Waronker – California Fade – Beautifully produced solo album (08.apr.2011)
Within Temptation – The Unforgiving – voice 1: “You got your metal in my mainstream pop ballad!” voice 2: “you got your mainstream pop ballad in my metal!” Big crunchy guitars are pretty much always present, but sometimes buried so low in the mix I have to strain to hear them. Not sure it’s delicious, but it’s certainly novel.

Mar 2011

guitarlover — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:13:07 +0000

Every new release I listened to in March (45)

Acrylics – Lives and Treasure – New-wavish indie pop. Primary Acrylics Molly Shea and Jason Klauber both have notably pleasant voices. Songs were likewise pleasant, but didn’t really command my attention.
Adele – 21 – The hype on Adele’s sophomore release wasn’t sufficient to interest me, but hearing her cover of The Cure’s “Lovesong” by chance sold me. It doesn’t sound like a novelty version, it sounds like it was always a soul song (and not a bad one, either). The rest of the album is similarly strong, and refreshingly free of trendy production quirks.
Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence – dream-pop/shoegaze; solid (09.mar.2011)
The Babies – The Babies – Vivian Girls/Woods/etc. side-project. Worth investigating if that sounds intrinsically interesting.
Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place – Barwick’s densely layered hardly-anything-but-voice (there are traces of piano and a few other instruments) recording is consistently pretty, but generally too tense to be restful. Generally inhabits the area between “song” and “ambient soundscape.” Somehow simultaneously reminds me both of classical choral pieces and ethereal/ambient goth like lovesliescrushing — a neat trick.
Frank Black – Abbabubba
Frank Black – The Golem – Two weird releases from the perennially weird Black. (29.mar.2011)
Brown Recluse – Evening Tapestry
Brown Recluse – Panoptic Mirror Maze – I wanted to not like Brown Recluse because (even though this band has a clear prior claim to the name) Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark had joked about wanting to use it for his hip-hop pseudonym, and I’m in favor of almost anything that encourages Clark to release more music. But then Slumberland Records thought they were worth releasing, so I had to give them a listen.
Turns out they’re legitimately not quite my bag, but I sure can’t hate, and I think a lot of people I know would love this. Evening Tapestry offers up sunny indie pop that draws more directly on the 60’s (I’m reminded both of lounge/exotica* and Bookends-era Simon & Garfunkel) than most of the Elephant 6 folks’ music does. It’s a bit too hazy for me to swallow the whole record, but it’s well-played, -produced, and -mixed, and I can enjoy it quite a bit in small, er, doses. “Wooden Fingers” is a clear highlight; although I favor the band’s use of female backing vocals in general, on this track they have such a ghostly presence in the mix that they’re almost subliminal. Nice guitar solo and trumpet, too.
I’m guessing that Panoptic Mirror Maze, available for an email address from Brown Recluse’s bandcamp page is basically demos of songs from sessions that spawned Evening Tapestry but didn’t make the cut for the label album; it’s less polished and I don’t think the songs are quite as strong.
* or, as they put it, bossa tropicalia ye-ye. Is there a respectful umbrella term that bossa nova/tropicalia/samba fit under? Maybe even including similar Cuban strains?
Carol Bui – Red Ship – Churning indie rock with gritty guitar, powerful vocals, and string arrangements (especially on “Halfa/joy” and “Evy Reina”) providing interesting textual variation and contrast.
Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi – Wow, it’s reverb-heavy guitar season ’round here. This time it’s sometimes rockabilly cool, sometimes downright snarly. Calvi seems equally adept at cooing and belting; the strongest songs here give her a chance to do both, and several of them also expand the palette with strings and other elements (”No More Words” even incorporates the sound of crashing surf and somehow doesn’t cheese me out, probably because the surf sound brackets a pretty whacked-out little instrumental break).
The Caribbean – Discontinued Perfume – Mostly acoustic and low-key electric indie rock cannily augmented with noisier elements, including some very sharp and un-top-40 use of pitch shifting. And I have a feeling I’ll be unraveling the lyrics for years. Pretty sure this would remind me strongly of Beauty Pill even if I didn’t know about the actual connection.
Chain and the Gang -Music’s Not for Everyone – lo-fi garage/soul par-tay with Ian Svenonious (23.mar.2011)
The Dodos – No Color – The basic formula is still fast-strummed acoustic guitars and busy, prominent percussion, but The Dodos mix it up here and there, as on the slower-pulsed, string-decorated, and quite pretty “Companions.” Over all the octane level is higher than on Time to Die. Neko Case supplies backing vocals on several tracks to great effect; her delivery here is smoother than her leads on her own records or with the New Pornographers.
Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots
“Sometimes Late at Night” (EP) – Smart, high-octane alt-country (10.mar.2011)
Dum Dum Girls – “He Gets Me High” (EP) – Four more lo-fi bubble-gum nuggets, including a slow one, and a Smiths cover (”There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”). I wish the Smiths tune took more chances — it’s a bit faster but it’s pretty faithful to the original arrangement and to Morrissey’s phrasing.
Early Winters – “Early Winters” (EP) – Normal people don’t wind up with some record in their playlist and no idea how it got there, do they? Maybe I just liked the cover. Anyway, this turns out to be one of those one-off-collaboration-turned-into-a-real-project dealies, with Carina Round the only name I knew before (and taking the lion’s share of the lead vocals over Justin Rutledge). Most of the EP has some Americana flavor (”Light of Day” in particular sounds Jayhawks-y to me); “Tough Love” is saved from being a tad too smooth by a snarly guitar figure in the chorus; a pair of ballads (one from each lead singer) are much enhanced by sweet harmony work. The production is clear and present throughout; that and consistently strong vocals help compensate for arrangements that could be a bit more imaginative. I will keep my eyes open for more.
Eisley – The Valley – I checked out Eisley a few years back (circa Room Noises) probably on account of the Star Wars connection: they used to be Moss Eisley, after “Mos Eisley spaceport [the] wretched hive of scum and villainy,” where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo first meet. Anyway, 2005-era Eisley wasn’t to my taste: production a bit toothless, lyrics didn’t hold my interest. The Valley is much improved, although still on the slick end of the spectrum for me. The DuPree clan (the band is very much a family affair) apparently went through some heartbreak while working on this one, which sucks for them, but was probably beneficial both for the lyrics and the record’s overall mood. Producer/engineers Gary Leach and Austin Deptula, best known for work with LeAnn Rimes turn in a terrific modern alt-rock production job; plenty punchy, with very present drums and rich low end. The Dupree sisters’ smooth vocals are contrasted with dark guitar tones to good effect throughout, and there are some nice string arrangements.
Hallelujah the Hills – “Country Before Kings”/”Some of Them We Lost” (single) – A side has an almost funky bassline and some found-sound decorations expanding HtH’s stylistic and sonic palette; B-side does one of those crazy crescendo/accelerando things that they make sound so deceptively easy and then crashes into a gloriously ragged long, slow outro with some crazy sax. Am I projecting some cross-pollination of dynamics from Titus Andronicus coz I know they toured together? Maybe. More to the point, why listen to me flail around trying to describe this when you can just listen at Hallelujah the Hills bandcamp?
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake – Fascinating album that evokes the breadth of Harvey’s catalogue while sounding like nothing else in it. I like. (14.mar.2011)
Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 – experimental instrumental recording, decidedly uneasy listening. I like. (21.mar.2011)
Hussalonia – Deep in a Donut Dream – More clever indie pop from the inexhaustible (I hope!) Hussalonia; there are holes in the center of these songs. Free download from Hussalonia.com (16.mar.2011)
I Was Totally Destroying It – “Regulators” (single) – I’ve been into this band for a few years, and love their earlier records, but this teaser for the upcoming Preludes is something else again; it sounds stadium-ready. I think it’s partly more space in the verses makes the choruses even bigger, but this is just friggin’ huge wall-to-wall: fatter drums, tighter bass*, guitars with more bite, and world-class vocals. Can’t wait for the rest of the album. The B-side’s more of slow burner, like a B-side should be. And now it makes complete sense that they covered Big Country.
* I mean that sonically, not rhythmically — this has never been a sloppy band. But I did sometimes hear that short rattly, ‘verb-y thing in the bass that I associate with old, slightly flabby strings. Not here.
Lia Ices – Grown Unknown – Dunno if it’s a stage name, or what the causal relationship is, but Lia Ices sounds almost exactly as her name suggests to me: her voice is pretty, but often a bit remote, or, er, chilly. The instrumental portion of the arrangements mostly center around acoustic guitar and/or piano, with a few untidy elements sometimes providing contrast. It’s mostly pretty inside, but there a few off-kilter passages
Kultur Shock – Ministry of Kultur – very lazy: Uz Jsme Doma meets Voivod. Less lazy: raw throated singing, lotsa gang vocals, melody elements that owe an identifiable debt to European folk tradition, lyrics that are definitely political but more impressionistic than sloganeering, a slightly experimental bent (reflected in some weird chords and tricky tempos), strings (and some clarinet!) used structurally (not just to sweeten), and lotsa crunchy metal guitars. Mmm, tasty.
Lady Gaga – “Born This Way” (single) – lyric >> music
Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby – Sounds like a fight between artist and producer/label; listeners don’t win. The party-girl anthems are reliably hooky, but feel forced in this context; the acoustic material is introspective, pleasant, but a bit bland (and shows up the limitations of Lavigne’s voice, subtlety and nuance ain’t her strong suits). Weirder yet are the expanded edition tracks, including the sad introspective alter-ego of party-girl anthem “What the Hell”, and an inexplicable mimeograph of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.”
The Luyas – Too Beautiful to Work – Spacious indie chamber pop with genuinely odd arrangements (11.mar.2011)
Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me – Moody rock with lots of reverb-laden guitar and trace elements of folk and country; engaging, varied listen; confident vocals (17.mar.2011)
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will – Don’t-call-em-post-rock outfit still on their game (13.mar.2011)
Murder by Death – Skeletons in the Closet – strong odds-and-ends comp from band that doesn’t fit in the Americana genre box (12.mar.2011)
Amanda Palmer – Goes Down Under – Palmer’s devout fans will doubtless love the off-the-cuff jokey bits, and I will probably get hate mail for criticizing this album. But while I appreciate the you-are-there intimacy of this recording, it’s not the kind of album that wins you the devout fans to start with. I think the more serious songs are diminished a bit by being presented next to the songs about Vegemite and the tossed-off faux-national-anthem, but I also don’t think any are up to the standard of “Do You Swear to the Tell the Truth…”
Parts & Labor. – Constant Future – Pop/Noise ratio shifts slightly toward pop, their most accessible, and maybe best, effort to date (25.mar.2011).
Laura Peek – Key – Restrained, spacious chamber– um, what’s the noun? Mostly not hook-oriented enough for “pop,” not populist enough for “folk,” certainly not rock. Peek’s voice reminds me strongly of Laura Barrett, but Peek is a little less quirky lyrically, and quite a bit less quirky melodically and rhythmically. Which still leaves some room to be quirky. “If You Call,” is the most straightforwardly catchy entry point.
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now – Surprisingly solid; features my fave R.E.M. tune in, gah, twenty years (22.mar.2011)
Rival Schools – Pedals – I slept on this band first time ’round so I didn’t come to this with any post-hardcore expectations. The album title and song title “69 Guns,” (which can’t fail to make me think of The Alarm’s “Sixty Eight Guns”) had me primed to look for eighties references, and finding them — lotsa chimey guitars here, and it sounds like plenty of effects pedals were in fact stomped on throughout, e.g., “You Should Have Hung Out” (from the deluxe edition, which I’m not at all sorry I plunked for) has some of that dense/gritty/washy sound a la MBV. The band sounds tough and competent, with a great sense of dynamics and pacing; vocals are terrific. A winner. And yeah, I’m gonna get the old stuff, too.
Robotanists – Does Radiohead’s “The King of Limbs” (in 24 hours) – Covering another band’s album in a single day — especially an artist as careful as Radiohead — is undeniably impressive, but “good for something tossed off in a few hours” and “an interpretation really worth listening to” aren’t synonyms. Hearing a female voice tackle Yorke’s parts is good for some novelty value, though, and this was accomplished enough to make me want to hear their own material.
Robotanists – Plans and Progress – Even if Robotanists hadn’t come to my attention via the King of Limbs cover project, I think Radiohead would have been an obvious point of reference, mostly due to Daniel de Blanke’s guitar technique, with lots of echo and layers, but also in general mood. Not in a bad, slavish way. They compare themselves to Broadcast too, which seems apt, if a bit more than they quite live up to.
Eldridge Rodriguez – You Are Released – solid, no-frills indie rock from one of The Beatings’ singer/guitarists (31.mar.2011)
Anni Rossi – Heavy Meadow
Sick of Sarah – 2205 – alternarock act scratches my Veruca Salt itch (ymmv.) (30.mar.2011)
Britney Spears – Femme Fatale – Really more of a Max Martin/Dr. Luke/will.i.am, etc. album that Spears happens to sing on. (1.apr.2011)
Standard Fare – “Suitcase” (single) – amazing giddy pop rush on the A-side; B-side more mellow, still swell (24.mar.2011)
Stripmall Architecture – “Albino Peacock” (EP) – hard to pigeonhole (shoegaze/dreampop/indierock/trip-hop/electropop? none seems exactly right. but good.) (08.mar.2011)
Yep – Once – Impeccable alt-countrified covers of an eclectic set of tunes (28.mar.2011)

Feb 2011

guitarlover — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:12:12 +0000

Every new release I listened to in February (35)

Andrew Jackson Jihad – Candy Cigarettes, Capguns, Issue Problems! and Such (Reissue) – prickly folk punk (17.feb.2011)
Nicole Atkins – Mondo Amore – Neko Case and Lucinda Williams are the comparisons that come to mind. Strong, soulful vocals, mix of styles. Production/arrangement a bit more lush than I strictly prefer, but pretty good. (I like “You Were the Devil” best.)
The Back Pockets – “Bulla” (EP) – More focused, even conventionally rock-bandish than last year’s tentative and often charming Blissters N Basements. I think it would ring an E6 chord even without the horns, but the horns seal the deal for sure. Free download from Double Phantom at bandcamp
The Baseball Project – Volume 2: High and Inside – More baseball tunes from McCaughey and Wynn’s project; no sophomore slump (19.feb.2011)
Bright Eyes – The People’s Key – It’s been so long since I checked in with an Oberst project that I don’t know how much of a departure this is or isn’t. I have to skip over the spoken word bits — hippiesh spiritualism, yuck — but most of what’s left is dark, moody, acoustic-rooted indie rock that I like. (I suspect close attention to the lyrics might not increase my enjoyment, though.) Oberst’s vocals are bit more restrained than in the Fevers and Mirrors days — a plus.
Candi and the Strangers – 10th of Always – Smooth, slightly trippy, female-fronted electropop; pleasant, but doesn’t really grab me. I do love the song title “The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful,” though.
Cowboy Junkies – Demons – another band I haven’t checked in with lately. Some of these songs are more muscular than I remember the Junkies being, with a few Neil Youngish moments in guitar breaks.
Cowboy Racer – Love Stationary – densely layered indie pop from ex-Swallow/Salad duo (12.feb.2011)
The Dears – Degeneration Street – Big songs, big topics. I hate to say it, but I get more than a bit of a Pink Floyd vibe from “Galactic Tides,” with all those massed oohs and ahs.
Dream Diary – You are the Beat – Latterday jangle. The main singer dude’s tenor is a bit on the wispy side and what I can make out of the subject matter seems similarly insubstantial. There’s no Autotune on the female singer’s backing vocals, which is as it should be, but they could be a little tighter without rubbing me the wrong way. If the tunes were louder, faster, or even just a smidge shorter I could totally love this, but it’s a little too languid to hit my sweet spot.
Alex Flanigan – “Believe” (EP) – This EP offers two polished pop tunes with unspecifically lovelorn lyrics, big hooky choruses and a few country signifiers (pedal steel, banjo), one country-rock story-song, and one ballad. The way the dynamic ramps up into the choruses reminds me of Kelly Clarkson (that’s praise, not a dig). But it’s a bit low on distinctive personality.
Gang of Four – Content – respectable effort from punk/funk pioneers (15.feb.2011)
Glee Cast – (a buncha singles) – The Bieber tunes are inane, sure, but hooky. Was I writing better songs when I was 16? I was not. “Tik Tok” is spookily close to Ke$ha’s original.
The Dirtbombs – Party Store – Garage punk band covers some (local, for them) club hits sans irony. I expected to dig this, but found it more interesting in concept than execution — there’s a big gulf between what I like about garage punk, and what I like in dance music, and this record doesn’t wind up with enough of either to command repeated listens.
Esben and the Witch – Violet Cries – Overwrought goth-y indie, long on atmosphere and intense delivery, short on hooks or grooves. Some cheesy arrangement touches (e.g., “spooky” sound effects) don’t help. Singer Rachel Davies reminds me a bit of Elysian Fields’ Jennifer Charles, a comparison that doesn’t do this band too many favors. Kinda bewildered by the next big thing hype. Maybe they’re great live; maybe the people who say the LP didn’t live up to the EP are right.
The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts – Go! Team don’t mess much with the (complicated) formula for the 3rd LP: cut & paste assemblage/hip-hop/indie rock/bubble gum/funk/retro kitsch, probably a few more I’m forgetting. Usually at least two genres per song. I love “Buy Nothing Day” (even though the event annoys me) and the title track, which are both toward the indie rock side of things. This might be their strongest record to date.
The Hampdens – The Last Party – An unspiky album from a self-consciously (but not obnoxiously so) literary band that would be a perfect soundtrack to a film of Tanya Egan Gibson’s How to Buy a Love of Reading.
Darren Hayman – January Songs – Ex-Hefner frontman’s song-a-day project. A winner. (28.jan.2011)
Lifeguards – Waving at the Astronauts – Pollard plus Gillard. This is the “prog” project, which worried me a bit, but not, you’ll note, enough to stop me buying it. Every now and then again this pushes my “whoah, too proggy!” button for a few bars, but mostly Gillard’s unruly and tasteful guitar silences my objections before they’re raised. And Pollard unleashes some characteristically indelible power-pop hooks. Most importantly, it sounds like they had big fun making this record.
Over the Rhine – The Long Surrender – The core husband/wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist have been crafting carefully arranged melodic rock (with some folk, country, and blues elements) for about twenty years now. They’ve gotten pretty good at it. “Infamous Love Songs” sounded enough like a classic Tom Waits tune to me that I had to look it up to make sure it wasn’t.
Radiohead – The King of Limbs – The first thing that strikes me is subtlety and attention to detail. This is built, from the ground up, to be a record you listen to over and over, and that reveals new things to you with successive listens. The next two thoughts: kind of amazing how thoroughly this sounds like something that fits within the Radiohead catalog without sounding much like anything else in it; and what other bands at this point in their career do you expect to produce work this challenging and creative? Strong early album-of-year contender.
The Reaganomics – Lower the Bar – Snotty pop punk (08.feb.2011)
Rick Rizzo & Tara Key – Double Star – The guitarists from Eleventh Dream Day and Anteitam sound absolutely nothing like their main bands on this second instrumental collaboration. Stylistic variety and the sophisticated interplay one hopes for from seasoned musicians are both in ample evidence.
Shipbuilding Co. – Radios and Flying Birds – I wanted to like this indie/chamber pop homebrew effort more: it’s smart, assembled with evident care, and has a killer backstory. But for me it’s too wispy, too eager to demonstrate its braininess (e.g., song title “You Tunguskaed My Heart”) and not hooky enough to compensate.
Sister Crayon – Bellow – spooky, mostly laid-back electro-pop with lots of layered vocals, substantially enlivened by Nicholas Suhr’s real drums.
Snowblink – Long Live – Folky indie/chamber-pop prettily, but breathily, sung by the memorably named Daniela Gesundheit.
Sonic Youth – Simon Werner a Disparu – although this is billed as a soundtrack and some of the tracks titles indicate that they are character “themes,” this mostly sounds to me like SY in loose, improvisational mode. Not that I think that’s a problem.
Standard Fare/One Happy Island – “Standard Fare on One Happy Island” EP – from each band, one new song, one cover of the other band. Standard Fare speeds- and muscles-up OHI’s “Kudzu Girlfriend,” adds some snarly guitar, and it sounds like one of theirs. One Happy Island unspools and downshifts “Nuit Avec Une Amie” into a ukulele and brushed-drums affair, adds a trumpet/kazoo bridge, and suddenly it could be their own composition. Each band’s own song plays to their strengths, and somehow the whole makes me like both acts even more.
Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines – Hard to put a finger on what makes this rocking little album work so well — when I focus in on individual elements, they don’t seem amazing (except maybe the backward drums on “Please Ask for Help”) but the gestalt kinda is.
Wicked Little Things – Porn for Romantics – brash guitars and some nice rough/sweet co-ed vocal interplay brighten this straight ahead rock effort
The Wiggly Tendrils – “Tendrils in Space” (EP) – Eight typically eclectic astro-themed indie pop nuggets from assorted configurations of the Wiggly Tendrils collective. Free download at the Wiggly Tendrils bandcamp page.
Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting – The song topics are still grandiose (”The Angels Are Surely Weeping”) and sometimes this album reminds me obscurely, of Prefab Sprout at their most ambitious (Jordan: The Comeback, say). But there’s much more disco and less rock in the mix than on prior albums.
Young Prisms – Friends for Now – Frustrating. I feel like there are both some good pop moments and shoegazey guitar explorations buried in here. I kind of dig the gauzy backing vocals as they are, and sometimes the monochromatic sound of this record is cool — the instrumental break “In Your Room” is like the sonic equivalent staring at the line where you can’t tell sky from sea. but mostly this fetishizes lo-fi unproductively. Why do so many hip youngsters want the drums to sound like they were played in a neighbor’s backyard shed?
Yuck – Yuck – The 90’s in a blender. More “yum,” than “yuck,” actually.
Zoey Van Goey – Propeller Versus Wings – Indie-pop with co-ed vocals that flirts with, but doesn’t peg, my “too cute” meter with tracks like “Robot Tyrannosaur.” I’m not the first to observe that “You Told the Drunks I Knew Karate” sounds almost like John Darnielle could’ve written it.