Vol. 5 Issue 29 May 2008
So we are totally geeking out over Iron Man here at BRM HQ. Now Lyle grew up with the Iron guy, but essentially there was no real reason for me to be checking for this flick. I mean I grew up with like Robert Downey Jr, and Jon Favreau and all. However, I’d essentially given up on Downey since his Alley Mcbeal days (and who wouldn’t?), and Favreau practically asked to be written into H’wood obscurity with Jumanji – er, I mean – Zathura. Iron Man saves (nay, resurrects) both their careers, making for one of the best super hero movies of all time. A classic. Also, Chris Martin is a lucky man (except for his lack of musical talent that is)..... Oh, and before I forget – this month new releases from Mates of State (oh yeah!), Lyrics Born, Windsor For the Derbry, Monotonix, David Karsten Daniels and much more!!!!!
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Current Releases
- Click to see:
- Barsuk
- Secretly Canadian
- Absolutely Kosher
Barsuk
www.barsuk.com/
Mates Of State
"Re-Arrange Us"
Following on the heels of Let’s Bring It Back, Mates of State’s Barsuk debut, Re-Arrange Us, sees our favorite married indie popsters indulging in even more of their ELO by way of Brian Wilson keyboard fetishizing. It’s a good look for them. Featuring production from Chris Walla (Tegan and Sarah, Death Cab For Cutie), and Peter Katis (Spoon, The National), Mates have never sounded more like a full-on band. “Now” is an absolute pop classic.
Secretly Canadian
www.secretlycanadian.com/
Windsor For The Derby
"How We Lost"
Here’s one thing I can definitely say about Florida by way of Brooklyn experimental mope rockers Windsor For The Derby: Windsor has an excellent chicken wing recipe. It’s like not really Buffallo chicken wings, but more kinda pepper-y with a nice spicy zing thing going on. It’s a really delicious recipe. Their new record, How We Lost (Secretly Canadian), has nothing to do with chicken wings. But it is really, really, nice. Like some undiscovered Factory band, Lost is all heady dub production, synths that sound like clouds, and wobbly basslines; “Hold On” even works in some left-field Beach Boys harmonies at the end. A charming modest little record that sounds like 1968, 1988, and 2008 all at once. Check Out: “Maladies”
Music Go Music
"Light Of Love"
I have seen the future of music and it sounds like….ABBA. No, really. Exactly like ABBA. Which is incredible. Music Go Music is a side-project from one of the members of Secretly Canadian’s peripatetic folk-proggers, Bodies of Water. Also, apparently it sounds like ABBA in the same way that say The Darkness sounded like Skid Row, or Editors sound like Interpol. Music Go Music’s upcoming full-length (which will be proceeded by a series of ep’s and singles) is titled, Music Go Music’s Greatest Hits In Chronological Order (Secretly Canadian), but I still can’t tell if their allegiance to pristinely arranged music perfect for weddings in the 70s is ironic or not? Thing is, possible irony aside, MGM delivered songs that really could’ve been greatest hits. “Explorers of the Heart” has such an immediately memorable hook, and is so unafraid to guild the lily with it’s dramatic harpsichord intro and completely over-the-top Andrew Lloyd Weber sized chorus, they deserve to be taken seriously. File under: music both you and your kids will love. Check Out: "Explorers Of The Heart"
Absolutely Kosher
www.absolutelykosher.com/
Sybris
"Into The Trees"
Into The Trees (Absolutely Kosher) is Chicago buzz band, Sybris’, new sophomore album, but it’s their debut on the BRM’s most Hebraically titled record label, Absolutely Kosher. The four-piece apparently cut Trees with John Congleton at Pachyderm Studios – a studio infamously said to be haunted by the ghost of Kurt Cobain as Nirvana cut some record nobody’s ever heard there called, In Utero. Congleton and Pachyderm was the perfect place for this band to record – Sybris actually sound like one great lost grunge band with a girl on lead (!) and guitars are soaked in sludge and reverb. If you’re looking for neo-classical indie rock that “explores themes of perception, relationships, and decay,” Sybris are where it’s at. It’s only more to Sybris’ credit that I didn’t even realize this record had a “theme,” cause it was rocking my ass so hard. “This rules.” Check Out: “Oh Man!”
Merge
www.mergerecords.com/
Big Dipper
"Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology"
Jonathan Richman knew it. Sure he was from there and obsessed with the Fenway, and memorialized his Boston fetish in one (nay like 30 killer tunes), but he was right: the Boston music scene of the 80’s and early 90’s (or actually, of any decade, maybe outside of this one) was the bomb. Not only did two of my favorite bands of all time come out of Boston (The Modern Lovers and Papas Fritas), but so did everyone from Dumptruck to Mission of Burma to seminal indie cult band, Big Dipper. The fine folks at Merge Records have decided to give the Dipper a new life in the Blog-age, and are re-releasing everything the band has ever recorded in an awesome/must-have 3 cd set titled: Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology. Essentially, this set shows just how influential the 80’s indie label Homestead was – and how Big Dipper came to epitomize that sound playing exuberant, angsty, chimming boyish guitar pop for the ages. Tell everyone you had it on vinyl, we enjoy the reissues for sure! Check Out: “She’s Fetching”
Epitaph
www.epitaph.com/
Lyrics Born
"Everywhere At Once"
Everyone’s favorite Westcoast-hailing, spitfire word-delivering MC, Lyrics Born, has named his upcoming new record, Everywhere At Once (Epitaph), after a wish. In the ‘08 the BRM’s best MC wil indeed be Everywhere. Born’s latest is no doubt his best, he sounds hungry on the party-tastic first single, “I Like It I Love It.” File Under: wah-wah guitar, and horn stabs make the best house-party music ever.
Drag City
www.dragcity.com/
Monotonix
"Body Language"
BRM new boy Pete just told me a little rubric about Drag City messy metal trio, Monotonix - Pete: “My band (Houston McCoy) played a show with them one time. They’re from Israel, and the lead singer is awesomely bonkers, he duct-taped himself to someone in the audience, and then started haphazardly throwing bowling balls at random people. I know this sounds made up, but this really happened. It’s the only show I’ve ever seen, where I left completely entertained and yet not knowing what the actual music sounded like.” Ok. Only confirming Pete’s story is the actual Monotonix press sheet for their new album, Body Language, which describes the bands raucous sludge sound to “being chased around a room by a lead singer with his pants on fire.” I don’t know about you, but I’m sold. Check Out: “Summers And Autumns”
Fat Cat
fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/
David Karsten Daniels
"Fear Of Flying"
Fat Cat records is on a roll these days. Coming hot on the heels of the flat-out awesome new Frightened Rabbit album, we get this gorgeous, at times modest, at others epic, folk jam from Seattle-underdog, David Karsten Daniels. Fear of Flying (Fat Cat) is Daniels’ second record for FC, and it’s filled with lusciously arranged, slowly building, joyous folk songs that seem to have equal ground in common with Will Oldham and Bruce Springsteen. In other words, Karsten’s wobbly Emerald City yowl is pure Bonnie Prince, but there’s enough saxophones, flutes, gospel choirs (!?), Hammond organ, and gritty electric guitar solos to make you question just how this record was cut in a bedroom. And if the arrangements weren’t enough, standouts like “That Knot Unties” and “Martha Ann,” feature some genuinely sould searching lyrics, and disarmingly pretty melodies. Another winner. Check Out: "Martha Ann"