Vol. 5 Issue 54 May 2010
May means graduation time here in New York. It seems fitting to be rife with nostalgia as we take an interesting trip through the Indie Rock History books. We've got the latest Teenage Fanclub and a solo record from Everything But The Girl's Tracey Thorn. Then we've got Nada Surf, veterans themselves, with a record of covers that includes the likes of Depeche Mode and The Moody Blues. And of course, we've got your summer warm-up in Phosphorescent's Here's To Taking It Easy.
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Current Releases
- Click to see:
- Mardev
- Barsuk
- Jagjaguwar
- Dead Oceans
- Tee Pee Records
Mardev
www.nadasurf.com/
Nada Surf
"If I Had A Hi-Fi"
The band, that is currently between albums, decided to put together a collection of covers (titled If I Had A Hi-Fi) for family and friends. So consider yourself one of the lucky few getting the chance to hear this rare treat. Wanna hear Nada Surf do a Depeche Mode, Moody Blues or a Spoon cover? We have it right here for you. Regardless if this is a covers album, it is still a great addition to the Nada Surf collection. Have a taste of it here with Nada's take Depeche Mode’s "Enjoy the Silence".
Barsuk
www.barsuk.com
Pearly Gate Music
"Pearly Gate Music"
It's seldom that a band name describes exactly what an artist's music sounds like. Pearly Gate Music is one of the exceptions. The rather young Zach Tillman's brain child conjures an image of floating right up to St. Peter in the clouds. Sonically, on Pearly Gate Music (Barsuk) I hear a bit of Okkervil River's Will Sheff in Tillman's voice, coupled with both sparse and lush atmospheric orchestrations. "I Woke Up" is a bittersweet theme for a ghost's luau. Album stand out "I Was A River" sounds like the song your grandparents got married to, with it's hushed instrumentation and haunting vocals.
Jagjaguwar
www.jagjaguwar.com
Peter Wolf Crier
"Inter-Be"
Peter Wolf Crier is a Minneapolis-hailing duo that sounds like they should be the house band at Brooklyn’s famed hipster butcher/eatery Marlowe and Sons. I don’t mean that disparagingly – these two dudes make slim fit shirts, well-coifed facial hair, and even suspenders look cool. Plus, they write great songs. On the duo’s debut, Inter–Be (Jagjaguwar), Peter Wolf Crier come off like some cross breed of M. Ward dusky, retro americana folk, and The Decemberist’s playful big-band busker pop. “Crutch and Cane” is just the kind of freeweeling, uptempo folk sing-along that I want to hear right before I see fellow-Midwester/labelmate/lover of all things acoustic and hushed, Bon Iver play live – so dudes, take note, tour together. “Down Down Down,” is sparse and memorable – gritty and splits the difference between sounding like a less insane Tom Waits. In other words, we like it. I'll try not to hold the wolf-reference in their name against them. It won’t be hard with a debut this strong. Check out "Down Down Down."
Gayngs
"Relayted"
Ladies and gentleman, I have heard the future of music. Bone Thugs’n’Harmony is the future of music. Well...Gayngs at least. What is Gayngs you ask? Gayngs is the project from Ryan Olson and Solid Gold’s Zack Coulter and Adam Hurlburt. Gayngs’ Jagjaguwar debut, hilariously titled, Relayted, is like one great big love child of Bone Thugs, Prince, Bon Iver, Aerial Pink and chillwave bands like Neon Indian – which is all just to say that those folks who love falsetto-crooned vocals and spacey, druggy, keyboard music need this record like yesterday. It sort of makes sense that Gayngs come out of Bon Iver’s old North Carolina posse Megafaun. Gayngs’ echo-drenched sonics are not that far removed from Bon Iver's – it’s just these songs have...um...swagger...there’s no hurt here. Gayngs’ music aims to seduce – see: the woozy saxophones on “The Gaudy Side of Town.” I’d totally hit it.
Dead Oceans
www.deadoceans.com
Phosphorescent
"Here's To Taking It Easy"
How do you follow up a critically acclaimed record of Willie Nelson covers? By making one of the best country rock records to come along in a very long time. Kicking off with “It’s Hard to Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)” a rollicking horn fueled ode to The Heart Of Dixie that could supplant “Sweet Home Alabama” as the native sons’ favorite song, Phosphorescent's Here’s to Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans) moves quickly into Matthew Houck’s heart-wrenching songwriting. The songs are intertwined with plaintive pedal steel and feel familiar, but somehow when the electric guitars kick in and the rhythm section hits their groove, you realize you’re listening to something as special as “Sticky Fingers” era Stones, or Gram Parsons jamming with the Byrds on “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” Phosphorescent ups the ante on other recent purveyors of Americana, and weaves those familiar influences into something immediately classic. Here’s to Taking it Easy is a record you will be listening to for many years to come.
Tee Pee Records
www.teepeerecords.com
Sweet Apple
"Love & Desperation"
Sweet Apple is the prom night love child of Dinosaur Jr., Witch, and Cobra Verde. Their debut, Love and Desperation (Tee Pee), is exactly what you'd expect from this supergroup - equal parts fuzzed out pop punk, Sabbath bong ripper riffs, and guitar god noodling. Throwing this on is a bit like leafing through your dad's record collection. The production on "Can't See You" makes the mid-tempo romper sound like a Houses Of The Holy outtake. "Do You Remember?" is a barnburner a la Cheap Trick. Hell the whole record sounds like either a soundtrack to a desert showdown, or to an Almost Famous-esque acid induced pool dive. Pick up your Hammer Of The Gods and dig on "Do You Remember?".
- Click to see:
- Merge
- Secretly Canadian
Merge
www.mergerecords.com
Teenage Fanclub
"Shadows"
I remember in 10th grade I played my highschool’s “Battle of The Bands” with my ill-advised group, Sweater. Yes, we all wore sweaters. Yes, most of them were argyle. Yes, it got hot up there. Everyone thought we wanted to be Weezer. Obviously. But everyone was wrong. We wanted to be Teenage Fanclub. Here was a band who consistently put out albums packed with unbelievably classic songs with hooks, and lush gorgeous-Byrdsian harmonies. Apparently they had three-different singers who traded songwriting duties too. Perhaps this fact is why mainstream success alluded these bros. Perhaps it’s because they’re Scottish. However, even Spin magazine infamously picking Fanclub’s seminal album, Bandwagonesque, over Nirvana’s Nevermind for album of the year didn’t boost the TF out of the cultural “critic’s favorites/musician’s musician” ghetto. Well...screw it. Here we are all the way in 2010 and Teenage Fanclub are still doing what they do and it’s still freaking incredible. “Baby Lee” off the band’s second record, Shadows, for their awesome new home at Merge Records is yet another one of these impeccable Fanclub pop gems. Four minutes of shimmering Richenbacher guitar tones, gleefully-strummed acoustics, 10 part harmonies, and a verse that’s as catchy as the chorus is. Naturally, the rest of the album is every bit as infectious. I don’t know how they do it, but Teenage Fanclub is one of the few bands that has been with me my whole life. They’ve never let me down. And somehow on album number god-knows-what (7? 8?..20?), they still know how to put a big ass grin on my face. Check out "Baby Lee."
Tracey Thorn
"Love And It's Opposite"
Another sentimental oldie comes hurtling out of my highschool diary and land’s on my desk at the BRM. I feel like 15 year old me is working at Merge Records now signing all my back in the day obsessions. Guilty as charged. I did love Everything But The Girl back in the day. “Missing” was “totes” my make-out jam. With Portishead. And then my CD carousel would wander into Brighten The Corners. Total mood killer. Nonetheless, EBTG’s Tracey Thorn had a buttery croon that somehow managed at sounding incredibly accessible without being, for lack of a better word, cheesy. It’s no wonder EBTG were chart toppers. It’s also no wonder that Thorn’s stark debut solo record for Merge, Love and It’s Opposite, is as gorgeous an album as you are likely to hear in 2010. I like to think of it as the lady version of an album Smog’s Bill Callahan might make. Broody, close-mic’d vocals, lyrics oblique and direct at the same time, sparse baroque cello-drawn arrangements – one of the standout’s is title, “Oh, The Divorces.” You get the idea. There are no synths and house beats on this one – but there are contributions from Jens Lekman and a member of Hot Chip. I suppose listening to Love And It’s Opposite might leave you never wanting to get married...on the other hand, if a piece of art this moving comes out of it maybe it’s worth all the happiness and heartache? Dig on "Oh, The Divorces!".
Wye Oak
"My Neighbor/My Creator"
The new EP from Baltimore-based Wye Oak, My Neighbor/My Creator (Merge), is an intriguing expansion on the band's sound. While the band's previous efforts were lush psych-folk experiments, MN/MC turns up the low end a bit and introduces a dark soundscape that sounds somewhere between Portishead, Sonic Youth, and Sparklehorse. "I Hope You Die" is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've heard in a long time. The downtempo, fuzzy keyboards entwined with clave (clave!) remind me a bit of The Jesus And Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey", both in tone and spirit. This EP even includes a remix of "That I Do" that includes fellow Baltimorean Mickey Free rapping over it. Plug in your headphones and check out "I Hope You Die."
Secretly Canadian
www.secretlycanadian.com
Damien Jurado
"Saint Bartlett"
Here’s a Secretly Canadian bomb for you lovers of fine indie rock out there: A new record from perenially awesome below-the-radar songwriter Damien Jurado produced by the equally awesome SC-signed songwriter/producer/trickster/all around enigmatic and interesting fellow, Richard Swift. Somehow after countless permutations over the years, on Saint Bartlett dude sounds fresher than ever. Chalk it up to the fact that this may be Jurado’s most consistent set of tunes in years, or that Swift’s earthy, Phil Spector producing The Band in ‘71-style production fits Jurado incredibly well. Whatever it is, I know what I’ll be pumping this summer after the parties have all but ended and the day is winding to a close and I’ve got my memories, and a beer, and perhaps some sun too, even. On the freewheelingly rustic, bluesy number “Arkansas,” Jurado sings “We both know this was a mistake / I’d love to come home but I need an escape.” Sad sentiments for sure, but the bummer has never sounded better brother. Listen to "Arkansas".