Daily Bomb

6/6/11: Givers

2011-06-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Considerably brightening my day today is the NPR 'First Listen' selection from a few weeks ago, which is Givers' life-loving, effervescent debut album, "In Light." I first heard the impossibly cheerful single "Up Up Up" on a mix made for me by my musically attuned pal Chris Cook a few months ago. It was all the more of a stand-out because he'd cleverly nestled it amidst a mix otherwise dominated by a bunch of lo-fi drone pop, and noisy non-chorus-sporting tone poems, so when the good folks of Givers wound up with an "Ohhhhhhhh we up up up up above love. Yeah we down down here on the ground" I gave the old Scooby Doo double take at my speakers.

No secret here that I often like my music cheerful and sing-along-able, sunny, and sort of guileless, so I'm pretty happy to report that the rest of the album, in my opinion, is even better than the kettle-drum tropical shine of the single. Songs become layered with harmony and shimmering guitar riffs, and are devoid of the fuzz and reverb that is drenching and obscuring so much of their peers' music nowadays. Givers aren't afraid to sing it loud and proud.

Listen to the whole album here at NPR while you still can. "In Light" will be available for purchase tomorrow.

4/6/11 - In Anticipation of Record Store Day 2011

2011-04-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

As a vinyl nerd, suffice it to say that the annual Record Store Day spate of limited releases is much better than Christmas morning for me. Honestly, who can really compare slicing the shrinkwrap off gleaming discs of aural licorice and smelling the press of the ink on the sleeve to unwrapping yet another gift of socks and Old Navy gift cards while watching my nephew get all the good stuff? Yeah, sure, Christmas is about giving, not getting, but Record Store Day is about both - GETTING myself a bunch of records and GIVING them to my turntable. Magnifique.

This year, as always, I have compiled a list far longer than my wallet can support of things that get my heart ticking. Here are a few items that top the list:

1. Cults: Abducted/Go Outside (remix) 7" I recently saw Cults at a very sweaty outdoor day show at SXSW, and they lived up to and surpassed all I'd hoped to see from them based on the limited songs they have thus far released. "Go Outside" has been a mix CD staple for me for more than a year now, so it's nice to be able to snag it in some version on vinyl finally (because I don't feel like paying 6 of my fingers and an eyeball for the way out of print original version 7").

2. Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues 12" I'm not gonna lie to you, the harmony break in the middle of this song ("If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm sore...") gives me a lump in my throat every time. It could be, as Stereogum readers seem to assert, that Fleet Foxes isn't "cool." But, personally, I am totally that person that always seeks out that whitebread American vocal harmony in my record collection (Simon & Garfunkel, CSNY) when I've had a little too much to drink and am feeling sentimental for old road trips. So, really, I think this needs to take its place in the queue.

3.Go! Team: Rolling Remixes 12" If you have read much of this blog, you probably know that I don't really love remixes. But in this case, it seems that the Go! Team is ripe for some fun ones. If I can already convince myself to do just 10 more minutes on the elliptical at the gym so I can keep listening to Rolling Blackouts I figure the remixes might get me going for another 15.

4. Growlers: Gay Thoughts 7" Now here's a fun little band that I've recently gotten wind of. I don't know much about them, but I'm game.

5. Javelin: Canyon Candy 10" Javelin crafted this EP as a tribute to a road trip across the Western USA, and all the songs have this amazing cowboy twang meets electro beat that I'm really feeling right now. I love some old time front porch music, and Javelin's spin on it is fresh and fun.

6. Joy Formidable: Whirring/Chwyrlio 7" Whirring, from what I've heard of Joy Formidable's repertoire thus far is the most sing-along-able, poppiest offering by a long shot. It has that big soaring chorus that just makes your ribs ache. I could slay dragons to this song.

7. Shuggie Otis: Inspiration Information - World Psych Classics 2 LP I've long had the cd version of this release from Luaka Bop, and the smooth soul tracks are reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield at his most laconic. Sunday afternoon music for sure, and worth the whole price of admission just for Shuggie's definitive version of "Strawberry Letter 23" made more popular by the Brothers Johnson.

8. Wild Flag: Future Crimes b/w Glass Tambourine 7" Since I missed this quasi super group (Carrie Brownstean of Sleater Kinney collaborates with Mary Timony of Helium) at SXSW, I still have no real notion of what they sound like, and full disclosure - I sort of missed the boat on the Sleater-Kinney/Carrie Brownstein fandom, but the inclusion of one of my 90s ultra-faves Mary Timony will get my money any day. I can't imagine how the relatively straightforward power-chords of Brownstein will meld with the creatively tuned string-bending of Timony, but we'll see.

9. The return of Wake to public consciousness. Since I'm being honest, I'll admit that I'd never heard of this band prior to seeking them out based on the RSD list. Wake is a female-fronted post punk band along the lines of Josef K or Orange Juice, contemporaries of that time period in the UK. Record Store Day via Captured Tracks Records is offering up a 7" combo pack that has three records and and some buttons - featured are the singles "On Our Honeymoon" and "Crush the Flowers." But that's not all - Captured Tracks is also releasing a split 7" of Wake covers by the label's prime movers, Wild Nothing and Beach Fossils.

Here's a track by Wake to whet your appetite:

So, on April 16, I'll be in Vegas seeking out the best independent record store I can find to cull some of these treasures from the shelves. Where ever you are, don't forget to support your independent record stores every day of the year.

1/25/11 - The Go! Team

2011-01-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm choosing a band that's been around for more than a minute for today's Daily Bomb, because their recently released third album "Rolling Blackouts" continues to evolve their incredibly unique sound into better and better sonic territory.

I first saw The Go! Team play live at South By Southwest 2006, just a few months after their first album, "Thunder, Lightning, Strike!" was released. I'd heard a few tracks from the album before I caught their live show at the Spin Magazine party, and had mixed feelings. I wasn't initially sure that I quite got their music. It felt like what could best be described as high-energy hip hop chanted by a squad of cheerleaders on a sugar high. Only after I saw the translation of that music to a mind-reelingly aerobic live show did I get just what an interesting and singular fusion this music really was. There were classic soul samples (Shirley Ellis seemed to be a favorite to borrow from on this album) mixed in with horns, beats, singing, chanting, rapping...and it all came together in a way that probably inspired a lot of people to rethink their aversion to running for exercise. I'm seriously not kidding. As someone who generally asserts that she is saving all her running for when the zombies start chasing her, I dusted off my trainers, put in my earbuds and attempted (and failed) to run around the block. Probably, there were fist pumps and impromptu jumping jacks involved.

Second album "Proof of Youth" increased the thickness of production, proving that the band was anything but a one-minute-man. There was a more indie-slant, with more sing-songy numbers that nonetheless never sacrificed any of the super-soul-party edginess of the first album. There's a lot to be said for a band that understands inherently all the qualities that makes them one-of-a-kind, valid and unique, and evolves around them rather than away from them.

With the release of "Rolling Blackouts" today, they do more of the same type of evolution, and this time they invite a couple of guests along for the ride. Adding elements of 60s West Coast twang, and throwback AM gold to the mix, the first song previewed a month or so ago was an offering called "Buy Nothing Day" which featured Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast on vocal duty. "Secretary Song," a slanted little popster, features Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof. The other songs alternate between lush,pastoral instrumentals and floorshaking sing-alongs that combine the chant-worthy choruses of classic Go! Team cuts with a surprisingly rich, layered vocal harmony.

Below is the video for "Secretary Song." The band promises a new video each day this week. Most excellent!

1/14/11 - La Sera

2011-01-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

Vivian Girls sideprojects seem to be ruling the net nowadays - you can't type "w" three times without hitting one. Vivian Girls...hm...let's talk about this, shall we? The band forms in 2007 to the raves of college music fans all across Brooklyn and some of the other places where lesser humans receive transmissions in "hipster." Two albums and one drummer later, we must assume that the Vivian Girls' creative output is simply not enough for these overacheiving ladies, because that creativity springs a ship-capsizing leak into other bands last year. Original drummer, Frankie Rose, pokes her head out of the scene like an ethereal bang-coiffed groundhog, and casts a jangly springtime shadow in the form of new band Frankie Rose and the Outs. Meanwhile, replacement drummer, Ali Koehler leaves for the pacific pastures of Best Coast. Not to be outdone, however, still-active members Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman use their free time to record offerings by bands called The Babies and today's Daily Bomb, La Sera, respectively. All this while awaiting the release of Vivian Girls' third hotly anticipated album.

Honestly, Vivian Girls I can take or leave. I feel like they have a solid place at the forefront of lo-fi girl-group-loving return to simple pop that has been trucking along for the last couple of years, but I never really felt terribly connected to their musical output. On the other hand, I feel that these spin-off bands are pushing a few more buttons and expanding the style of the individual members of the band. As such, I'm curious about how this will effect the upcoming Vivian Girls release. Positively, I have to imagine.

But, the nucleus of these side projects aside, both The Babies and La Sera have released some really pleasing singles in 2010 and early 2011. Of the two, La Sera seems to have kept a little more of the bricks and mortar of the Vivian Girls structure, but somehow come off softer, cleaner, and sweeter. The fuzz of the Vivian Girls has cleared away like a fog to reveal something altogether prettier, yet more solid at the same time.

Next week, La Sera's single "Devils Hearts Grow Gold" will be released on Hardly Art in a limited 7"in advance of a full length that will ship in February. Both "Devils..." and the previous single, "Never Come Around" bode well for what's to come from Ms. Katy and crew.

10/17 - Gigi

2010-10-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Oh the fickle finger of fame...

Where bloggers were once extolling the virtues of the Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Best Coast for bringing back a distinct Brill Building, 60s girl group sound filled with happy harmonies and sweeping reverb, they are now pooh-poohing the derivative nature of the bands' follow ups and followers. So, which is it? You, bloggers who keep telling me how Weezer's new (and still terrible horrible trite) output is the best thing since Pinkerton (an album all of you loathed at the time of release). You bloggers who did backflips over the stripped down Goffin-King-like redux of 2008. Do you now hate what you used to love? Love what you used to hate? You're so confusing! Up is down, down is up...

Ah fuck it. I'm not afraid to say that I still like the stuff. As far as I'm concerned, if the world of indie music were to pattern itself eternally on a history coming out of girl groups, 60s soul and R&B, and California Sunshine Psych music, and learn to do it really WELL, I'd be just as happy as any kid who accidentally found mom's stash of GHB.

But, alas, this isn't a rant, this is a celebration. This is a celebration of me catching the fever on a rainy Sunday in Amoeba Records and spending more money than I should have, on more music than I should have gotten for that price. Yeah, so the double vinyl copy of Portishead's third album that I got had one pretty good scratch on one song. But, still, it cost $1.99, so who am I turn that kind of deal down? REO Speedwagon for a buck? Yeah, sure. There'll be a time in my living room when I'm drunk and there are people over that "Keep on Loving You" will sound like a hail of sonic gold. But, better still, I found an advance CD copy of Gigi's first and only album "Maintentant" for less than $5.

I sought it out, because my girlfriend who normally refuses to sing out loud in front of me, belted out their song "Alone at the Pier" and deemed it to be one of her favorite sing-alongs on the collection of mix CDs I've foisted upon her. Well, since we were jumping up and down on the bed in our room at the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea at the time, beery and bleary after a seemingly endless wait for a room after a punishing red-eye - her inhibitions may have been shot. But she sang for me, and I wanted more.

As for the actual album, "Maintentant" is filled with sparkling gems and a rotating cast of Canadian talent that you've probably never heard of, but might hope to hear again. 15 songs of alternating girl and boy singers guarantee you'll get your money's worth. I could pick out at least 8 of them that I love, and each makes that maligned 60s throwback sound fresh and vital as though the decade was only just taking its first breath.

Here's the one that makes my lady sing along:

10/11/10 - The Love Language

2010-10-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a long and busy absence from posting here on The Daily Bomb, making the blog title look like blatant false advertising to say the least. Writing, editing, photo acquisition, and promotion of a book I just wrote, made me want to punch the written word right in the gerunds. Were it possible, I would have only communicated via sign language for months to give myself a rest.

But, I just couldn't stay away forever. The persistence of The Love Language's song "Heart to Tell" made me return. I don't even remember where I first heard this song. It was just one of those things that kind of reached up behind me and put the chloroform over my mouth and said, "You will submit to my lilting beat...shhh...think about Summertime and dancing like a marionette in your living room..." And I was out like a sack of sweet potatoes.

Months later, this song has infiltrated my afternoons like you wouldn't believe. I suddenly realize that I've been singing it in my head for hours, and whenever it comes into rotation on a mix, I react like I've just snorted a line of Fun Dip. I love it like I love cotton candy at a baseball game. Like I love sneaking booze into a matinee. Like I love a brand new pair of socks.

Yes, it's THAT good. And you're welcome.

4/15 - Gauntlet Hair

2010-04-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm gonna do something I have never done and will never do ever ever again. I am going to hand you this band via the words of Pitchfork. Normally speaking, though I'm not one of the supreme haters of that site, I'd still prefer not to namecheck it in my own blog. But in this case, frankly, there's really nothing more apt and perfect that I could really tell you about Gauntlet Hair that they didn't already. I will only add that I really really really like the song of which they write, and that while you may not be able to snag the Cults 7" that I mentioned yesterday anymore, you can keep your eyes on the very same label for Guantlet Hair's up and coming release of this song as an A side. Preorder info not yet available, but it will likely be posted soon, and will likely follow a quick dash to buy what limited copies they make available. Will one be yours? Not if I beat you to it, jive turkey.

Take it away, Pitchfork:

And the Worst Bandname of the Week award goes to... these guys! I don't know what Gauntlet Hair is, but it sounds like something people used to get diagnosed with in the 1820s when the docs were more creative. Not a big deal-- hey, you'll remember it. What matters is that "I Was Thinking..." is a delirious, fire-spewing stomper from this Denver-based avant-pop duo affiliated with Rhinoceropolis, the Denver DIY space which local heroes Pictureplane and Hollagramz call home.

The song's central figure is a hyper-rhythmic guitar that repeatedly slides up, then snaps like a rubberband into starbursts of perfect chordness. You might also enjoy the firecracker-loud handclaps, trunk-rattling bass hits, and battle-cry shoutsinging. Whoever mixed this thing is-- to steal a phrase from my Pitchfork penpal Joe Tangari-- definitely a soldier in the loudness war. But at the song's center is an unstoppable melodic heart that beats like it just ran an Alaskan winter mile in short-shorts, and all you want to do is douse that fucker in Gatorade when it breaks through the finish line."

Use the Pitchfork link to listen to the song.

4/14 - Cults

2010-04-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well, needless to say, it's been a while since I've bothered to update this blog. There are a few reasons for that. The pertinent one is that I really haven't heard too many bands that are curling my toes, and therefore have just simply lacked the fire to put fingers to keyboard. But over the months, I've collected a few in my pockets that I'd like to share, so I'll see if I can get them up here in the next few weeks.

I'll start off with a lovely little band called Cults. Two weeks ago, the band released a 7" through Forest Family Records, a new label collaboration by the Gorilla vs. Bear guys and Weekly Tape Deck. And in a turn of events that proves beyond argument that, if you are a collector of the vinyl, you'd better be a quick motherfucker when it comes to snatching it up. The 7" sold out faster than hashish hotcakes. Luckily, you can still download all the songs for free on Bandcamp.

The A side, "Go Outside," is proof positive that we're entering another indie rock spring. This sweet, jangly, tinkling little confection that follows in the tradition of other recent retro-inspired pop acts like Best Coast, is bound to end up on a whole lotta sing-along road trip mixtapes. I've already road tested it on a trip down to San Diego and can say with confidence that it totally deserves a slot in the playlist. The song is turning up on a lot of blog lists, so I'm hoping demand will prompt a new issue of that 7".

1/7/10 - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

2010-01-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here's two things I'd like to get goddamn straight right now: I don't like hippies. And I don't like Ugly Betty. So, when you take a band that looks like a convoy straight out of Jonestown via Woodstock, and factor in the fact that I heard their most popular single when I accidentally fell asleep on the couch and woke up to the horror of Betty la Fea on my tv.

And on further research evidence, it turns out that the band was founded by Alex Ebert, late of the grating band Ima Robot, after he apparently lost his girlfriend and lost his damn mind in A.A. "Edward Sharpe" is a "messianic figure" he invented that was apparently sent to earth to save mankind, but got distracted by girls. One can only hope, considering all this grade-A hooey, that this is not his attempt at misunderstood autobiography.

But, there's a sliding scale for everything, and apparently, you can't always judge a hippie by the smell of his patchouli, a kind of creepy quasi-crazy by his rhetoric, or a good band by the crappy tv show or retarded car commercial they've been inclined to sell their song to in order to make at least one or two dimes a piece in this fucked economy. And you don't always have to like the mind to like the music. Fact is, my very thoughtful girlfriend made me a sweet little "hey, I like you!" style mix CD this Christmas, and "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is one of the first songs on it. It makes me feel all fluttery like a 13 year old at her first dance. And, you know? The rest of their music is pretty terrific as well.

It brings to mind, for me, one part Antonioni's failed psychadelic political opus "Zabriskie Point" and another part Polyphonic Spree (minus the colossal repetition, and plus actual structured songs). The comparisons with the latter are a little inevitable, given that the group dresses like a cult and has seemingly about 6000 members playing various instruments and providing lush choral vocal backing. They also fit snugly in that vast multi-cultural cinematic sweep that bands such as Arcade Fire and Beirut are bringing to the musical table. However, ES&TMZs pitch in a handful of caked-on desert playa and blistering dry heat. They are able to wrap their arms around you and bring you in, but are just as easily able to strand you in endless space without an oasis in sight. And it's all beautiful to me.

12/23 - Oh No Ono

2009-12-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, the SXSW 2010 organizers released their first 200 confirmed bands out of what will eventually grow to about 7 trillion for the festival. About three seconds after finding the link, I seem to have invited a few squirrels to live in my stomach the way it started twitching with nervous excitement. Time to bust out the spreadsheet! When do I start RSVPing for free day shows?! I need to buy a plane ticket and borrow a bike! I must have a plaaaaaannnnn!! But, yeah, that's a few months off, and I'm really hoping that even I can keep my anal retentive tendencies to over-schedule (and then eventually completely chuck all semblances of said schedule after about 4 free Southern Comfort and Pepsis at the Fader Fort) in check for at least another month or two.

In the meantime, I can at least build up some excitement for some of the far-flung bands that're already queuinig up to play for my enjoyment. One of those being the buzzworthy Danish lot, Oh No Ono.

Oh No Ono's been lounging around the Denmark music scene for several years now, and by all appearances have done rather well for themselves there, but with their recently released album at the end of this year, they are starting to generate a little hype Stateside, too. With a mix of pensive, plaintive indie finesse and an undertone of theatrical glam, it's hard to see how they could go wrong on the merit of that alone. But, on top of this, they seem to have infused their latest album with a much warmer, thicker tone. And they also have a real knack for making some WOW videos. Take, for instance, the below video for their single "Swim." The song is dreamy as hell, and the video both excites me and makes me profoundly uncomfortable. What lives in the minds of Danes, anyway?

And this one for "Icicles" is awfully pretty as well:

And for the sake of a more rockin' example:

12/16 - Best Coast

2009-12-16T17:08:00.001-08:00

Hey fellas and ladies who scooped up all the copies of the Best Coast "Make You Mine" 45 before I could molest it with my grubby little Mastercard...well, thanks for nothing jerks.

My laptop, tired of just breathing through the (expensive) life support of a brand new hard drive, committed violent suicide last month and took all my music with it. So long old friends, I thought,waving goodbye, Golden Filter I will miss you most of all. I've decided to turn lemons into some wicked alcoholic limoncello and take the opportunity to spend MUCH MORE money on MUCH LESS music by almost exclusively exhausting my wallet on mail order 7" records from bands I either have written about or will one day write about right here. While I will say that waking up in the morning shuffling over to the turntable in my new onesie striped pajamas to drop the needle has been pretty nice (Baltimore's Teen Beat a Go Go album reprint, I'm totally looking at you my friend), I do miss the simplicity of my days as DJ Pressplay.

Had I a computer, for example, I might be waking up listening to Best Coast. Best Coast referring, of course, to the West Coast no matter what you Yanks may say to the contrary. Best Coast is a fairly recent product of Los Angeles - one of the many bands who've tenured in the hallowed halls of The Smell downtown (a puzzling venue for it's jankiness and all-ages utter lack of alcohol...boo!), and who will return there February 2nd as part of a tour with Brooklynites the Vivian Girls. If you like what you hear and just can't wait for that match-up, you can also catch them this Friday, December 18th at Spaceland with the excellent band Foreign Born. Best Coast is a boy girl duo - Bethany and Bob. Apparently, they met when Bob used to babysit Bethany. Being that Bob is a large Asian dude with straggly long hair, I have to smile imagining what his possible qualifications as a babysitter might have been. I give both of them an A+ as a band, though. I'm hoping that soonish we'll be seeing a full length from these up-and-comers.

Tell me this fan-made combination of "When I'm With You" and a scene from "The Young Girls of Rochefort" doesn't make you smile your cheeks off.

And here's a nice version of "The Sun Was High (So Was I)" live from a bathroom. Witness how gloriously the guitar reverberates off the bathtub filled with Budweiser!

11/26 - Wolf Gang

2009-11-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

Since I mentioned Wolf Gang's "Pieces of You" in the previous post, I have to add an entry for Wolf Gang himself. Unfortunately, the excellent Baby Monster remix has evaporated from both their and Wolf Gang's myspace players to make way for WG's new single "The King and All of His Men," which is good, but not nearly as sublime as "Pieces of You" in both original and remix forms.

Wolf Gang is most frequently compared to David Byrne in his vocal delivery, but what I really enjoy about his work is the layering of unconventional instrumental sounds under driving, catchy and memorable melodies. The almost banjo or mandolin-esque string sound that accompanies the vocal come-on to "dance to the beat now, honey, yeah!" in "Pieces of You" is exactly what makes a good pop song transcend to greatness. It's that creative instrumentation that is the cherry on top.

Here it is for your Thanksgiving pleasure:

11/25 - Baby Monster

2009-11-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

I've been holding Portland, Oregon's Baby Monster in my headphones like a precious diamond for the last month - shining and shimmering brighter in my ears every time I give it light. Here is a rare example (for me) where you have a group who not only make their own popperfection, but also lend remixes to other artists and actually significantly improve those artists' original songs. To me, in a world where all electronic artists long to put their treatment to the dials on others' tracks, I find that remixes rarely pan for the gold in the heart of the originals, polish it to a radiating glow and nestle it in a display of their own making (where the point of the display is to feature that gold rather than swallow it) in the way that Baby Monster manages to do with both Ellie Goulding's precocious "Under the Sheets" and Wolf Gang's already excellent "Pieces of You."

Additionally, though, Baby Monster shines on their own original songs - as seen in spades in their recently released first single "Ultra Violence and Beethoven." It starts off like a lost MGMT anthem, but spirals off into a moody falsetto chorus (yeah, really - moody AND falsetto)that feels like a vitamin shot. In the first days of crisp Fall, it's like the last gasp of Summer.

If I sound like I'm speaking in a lot of hyperbole, that may be the case, but I see big things ahead for this group.

Now, if only so many of these groups would kindly make their singles available in the US at non-extortion import prices... You can purchase "Ultra Violence and Beethoven" in a nifty turquoise vinyl 7" from Pure Groove in London, but it'll cost you about $14 to get it from there to your record player if you live Stateside. As of yet, none of Baby Monster's remixes or originals are available via any of the conventional download sources. The one saving grace of ordering from Pure Groove, however, is that they usually limit the production of the records to a few hundred, and often (as in the case of my recent Marina & the Diamonds "Mowgli's Road" 7") they will even come signed by the band/singer. So if you're going to spend the money, you may as well spend it with a shop that cares about good music and the people who listen to it.

11/20 - Flashback Friday: Altered Images

2009-11-20T15:37:00.001-08:00

Since I posted a Daily Bomb on the under-the-radar band Koko Von Napoo a few months ago, their vocal similarity to Altered Images' Clare Grogan (one of the best looking Brits of 80s New Wave, see below) has gotten me to blow the dust off my old Altered Images records and incorporate them regularly into living room dance parties.

It's pretty amazing how relevant some of these tracks still sound today. The band did a nice job of straddling pop and punk - with Grogan's distinctive love-it-or-hate-it voice assuring that they would never veer too far into the disposability of the former. The group disbanded in the late 80s after a modest string of successful singles, but have recently taken the occasional 80s revival tour opportunity with the likes of ABC and the Human League. And Clare's still damn foxy.

Here's a few videos to brighten your Friday.

11/19 - Class Actress

2009-11-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking the other day about that time in the 1980s when Neil Young started experimenting with the "modern sound," and went almost avant garde. Or when the Rolling Stones went disco on Some Girls. And a few days ago my friend John and I were talking about the time in the 90s when Garth Brooks was the biggest thing on the airwaves, and all the money in the world bought him a whole lot of Yes-Men who failed to tell him that the Chris Gaines experiment (and that really silly soul patch) was a terrible terrible idea.

So, I got to thinking about the state of music today, where crossovers seem almost par for the course. Where no one bats an eye when rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson gears up to let Jack White "push her limits" in a new studio recording. Or where former Aussie quasi-West Coast Cosmic Country janglers from the Sleepy Jackson, can crank out a record like "Walking on a Dream" as part of the peppy-electro-club Empire of the Sun.

Plucking a little here and a little there, transmogrifying guitar riffs with beeps and boops and drum loops, a la post OK Computer Radiohead, somehow does the very opposite of challenging a musician's credibility. One year, I was driving across country to LA listening to Johnny Greenwood crunch out "The Bends," and a few years later I was falling asleep to droning electronic caterwauling and the incessant hum of the masses proclaiming new gods of mere men.

Today, shit, go electro. Why not? If you're in Brooklyn and you happen to have the equipement, why you're practically an electro outfit already.

Sometimes, maybe you're even doing the right thing. Elizabeth Harper, former coffehouse singer-songwriter earnest chanteuse-type, figured the remixes of her songs sounded cooler than the originals, so she tapped the producer and formed Class Actress with him and another fella. Taking cues, she claims, from early Madonna, Depeche Mode's "Some Great Reward" era, and the Human League, she layers her voice over the aforementioned beeps, boops and loops rather pleasantly. Songs are simple samples from analogue recordings, bolstered by the push-up underwire of vintage keys, and driven home by clear, precise, and warm vocals.

With friends like the fellows in Grizzly Bear, it's hard to go wrong. February 9th will see the release of an EP called Journal of Ardency which will feature Pitchfork-approved track "All the Saints" and "Careful What You Say," both synth-funk, Andrea True Connection worthy stacatto jams.

Video below is for an earlier, track that chronicles a transitional period between the coffeehouse and the coke den.

http://www.myspace.com/elizabethharper

11/12 - Cold Cave

2009-11-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

What has two thumbs and the worst audio memory ever? This guy! There are downsides to this, to be sure. For instance, I could never ever ever in a million years hope to be a competitor on "Name that Tune!" - even if I found the time machine that would take me back far enough to make that even a remote possibility. And, karaoke in my world is Japanese for "Holy Shit I Totally Don't Remember How This Song Goes!" But, it has its upside as well. It means that sometimes I get to hear songs for the first time at least 10 times before they'll stick. Think about that for a second. Imagine one of your very favorite songs, and think about what it would feel like to hear it for the first time all over again. What a great feeling! In that sense, audio amnesia can be pretty sweet.

Cold Cave has been the victim of my aural void for a while now. Some time ago, I read something somewhere about them, listened to them and bought some downloads. Then I put one on a mix, and every single time it comes up I say to myself (or to someone next to me), "Who is this? I like it!" Same answer every time - Cold Cave. Song: Life Magazine. And it rules. This week I heard it on a commercial and thought, "shit." But at least it reminded me to remind myself who sang it.

Cold Cave is from Philly, which is really not a place I would normally associate with frosty stygian soundscapes. Philly always seemed a little beefier to me. But Cold Cave has crossed to the West Coast pretty strongly given that the new hipster record store down the street from me had their new 12" displayed front and center with the kind of loving care usually reserved for the likes of Grizzly Bear. And in a startling turn of events, I can say that Cold Cave is the first band I've heard since the Knife whose name is the perfect description of their music.

They've been around for a while, but the herky-jerky electro fuzz of their earlier efforts has seen a very satisfying evolution in the new work. It's turned dark, stark and lush in only the best ways.

11/4 - Pyramiddd

2009-11-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: This band used to be called Starfucker. Starfucker is a terrible name for a band, but the music was still good - in the way that it didn't sound anything like music that would be played by a band named Starfucker.

Lately, it may seem that I'm revealing a little snarky salt for these bands that I'm also declaring worth your while. For that I blame an excess of data entry and all those annoying little ghost spots that are floating in my vision lately. It makes me cranky. Or, it could be that, frankly, I'm not really finding a shit ton of terrific bands out there lately, short of older bands that I'm just coming around to, or recent bands that I've Daily Bombed, but haven't had much chance to really dive into headfirst and swim around in. So, when a band like Pyramiddd comes around, it is with a sigh of relief that something comes floating out of the Lady Gaga-tization of my beloved electro, and the Wavvves-itis of all these suddenly hot "bedroom minimalists" out there. I'm bored with that stuff. Bring me something with life, with virtuosity, that I can dance to without being so ashamed that I want to kill myself afterward, or that I can at least listen to while I read without thinking that the connection has gone all fuzzy and crappy on my stereo because my cat ate the speaker cords...again.

Pyramiddd's got a mellow electronic vibe to it, without sounding too drippy or too lo-fi. It's easy on the ears. Maybe not something you'll remember in a few years, but definitely something that'll get you through a few minutes of this bleak musical winter. But, if I sound a little hesitant to give a fully glowing review, it's really just because they made a really cruddy video that embarrasses me. There seem to be an inordinant amount of douchebags dancing around on bad quality video. Why would you do that to an otherwise decent song? Advice: Try to listen with your eyes closed, and ignore the philosophical pretentious junk at the end. Skip the end of "Medicine" and revel, instead, in the really really nice second offering of "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second."

11/3 - jj

2009-11-03T12:44:00.001-08:00

Here's a tip for all you young bands out there: Please name yourself something that is easy to search on Google. Go on, jj, try just typing "jj" in a Google search and see how fucking hard it is to find your band. Also, here's a second tip: don't be so damn mysterious. It's totally okay to tell people who is actually in your band. We probably haven't ever heard of you anyway. And given that fact, chances are that if you don't tell us WHO THE H-E-Double Hockey Sticks you are now, we never will.

That said, I suppose it merits mention that I found the musical output of said band called "jj" to be sufficiently intriguing to actually do the necessary legwork to find out, well, basically nothing about them whatsoever except for the fact that they seem to be another happy offering of the population of Gothenburg, Sweden - a place my disembodied spirit will one day go when I die, because I'm sure it must be heaven itself.

So, really, I've got nothing for you here but some non-videos of some nice songs. I kind of dig the floatiness (sure, that's a technical term right?) of the music, and the lush hint of a St. Etienne distant memory in the vocals. Like Sarah Cracknell is singing to you through some cups attached by a string. Soft as a cloud.

10/23: Music Go Music and ELO

2009-10-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

I just kind of want to call this entry OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod!!

Because it is technically flashback friday, I'll take a moment to expound upon my vast and limitless love for the Electric Light Orchestra, before I get to the glint of newly discovered love in my eye today for Music Go Music.

I've often put needle to an ELO record and had a solo dance party that involves a lot of unflattering arm flailing and skipping around, making me feel like a five year old the first time they hear the Hokey Pokey. And in those moments, I ask myself, "Why in the hell aren't there any modern bands that sound like ELO?!?" Or I should say that I scream that question to the sky, shaking my fist at the Heavens and reprimand any and all Gods that reside up there for giving us so much music that sounds like Mariah Carey and so little that sounds like it came from the gloriously convoluted brain of one Jeff Lynne.

I mean just take the simple categorization of the music on their Wiki page: Rock, Progressive Rock, Pop Rock, Symphonic Rock, Cello Rock.

I'm sorry? Cello rock? I guess it must have been big in Bulgaria.

But there you have it - ELO, music's glorious blender. And what a smoothie it created!!

Just feast your eyes on this:

Did you hear that keyboard saying "ba boo biddy be boo boo?" With all these synth acts out there, you've gotta wonder how a 100 million album-selling "mainstream" act like ELO can trump them in weirdness.

Let's just summarize by saying that there is not a possibility on earth that I can listen to more than one minute of an ELO song without being instantly transported to a great mood.

And speaking of good moods (and awkward segues), today's quite a pretty day here in LA. It's 75 degrees and sunny, and hell, it's Friday, so there's not much to complain about in the world. Well, not in mine at least.

And today is the day that my prayers to the musically vengeful gods have been answered. The answer to those prayers is Music Go Music. Hyperbolic much? Actually no. If you were watching my face when I first heard this band, you probably would have seen me the way I got the first time I heard Olivia Newton-John's "Have You Never Been Mellow" after 15 years of radio silence. That is to say - big smile, hidden with my hands giggling Japanese Schoolgirl style, and a little moisture in my eyes.

Oh yes. This is it. Dripping with strings, beats like a rubber ball, and vocals as earnest as ABBA and plaintive as Blondie. It would be disco if it wasn't so...undefinable. It's huge, shamelessly happy, dramatic...ELO-esque, but unique unto itself to the point that comparing it to other bands feels slothful and lazy.

For the record: Music Go Music is an LA band. An LA band I've never seen (idiot!) nor heard of (damn it!). The singer who bills herself as "Gala Bell" is actually named Meredith, and she does double duty for another quite good LA band called Bodies of Water. Bodies of Water is kind of a nouveau-chorale folk rock act with nary a rubber ball beat in sight, but plenty of ear-grabbing guitar, which makes for an truly interesting range to straddle between the two bands. Music Go Music has their first full-length CD available now from Secretly Canadian. So go buy it and come have a dance party with me.

http://www.myspace.com/musicgomusic

10/22 - Washed Out

2009-10-22T17:53:00.001-07:00

Nope, the title of the blog is not actually a description of how my brain has felt for the last month or so - and apologies to anyone who has missed me. Especially if you were trying to run me over with your car - because there were probably a few days I was totally ready for that in lieu of computer generated eyestrain and the carpal tunnels that goes along with typing somewhere in the ballpark of 50,000 words in a month. Hey, guess what? Turns out that writing a book is fucking hard! What!?!

But, this blog isn't really about me - not directly anyway - so let's get to the meat of it, shall we?

In the grand tradition of one guy with a mixer, a synth, and a drum machine calling themselves a band (what's with that anyway?), Washed Out is a fella named Ernest Greene from Georgia. He plays what that clever Pitchfork calls "bedroom synth," another term that I'm not I know the meaning of. I'll take a stab at it:

Bedroom synth: n. Music played by one guy with the name of a band that sounds like one guy with the name of a band playing into a microphone muffled with sweat socks, filtered through pixie dust and Sunday Hangovers and teeming underneath with really pretty layered melodies and soothing vocals.

Because here's the deal - Washed Out (and Memory Tapes, and Toro y Moi - two bands always mentioned with Washed Out) has really lush, gorgeous vocals that are buried under all that bedroom mess. The production is pretty low fi, but the songs are, kids listen to grandma here, a hell of a lot like what we used to call "shoegaze" or "dream pop" back when people made the same kind of sounds with guitar pedals.

In fact, if I was half asleep on a cocktail of codeine and Tylenol PM, I'd swear on my mother that "Feel It All Around" was some Slowdive song I'd never heard. Which, if you ask me, is actually a GOOD thing. England, apparently, practically ran Slowdive out of the country with ire and hatred, but down in sleepy old Austin, Texas in a dorm that looked like a prison, there were a whole lot of us ladies who thought they were pretty damn great.

And after a few listens, it starts to feel like the through-a-sweat-sock sound over all those vocals is really just a ruse to get you to bend your ear RCA-like a little closer to the speaker and go, "What are you whispering to me, you sensitive boy with the name of a band?" And your reward isn't small for doing so. It's actually pretty great.

Washed Out - you sound a little like Slowdive. And then sometimes you sound kind of like OMD covering Howard Jones (yeah, I said Howard. Jones.). You are a great soundtrack to a long bath. And I like you.

9/14 - Colorama

2009-09-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

A little sonic love by way of Wales today. I'm feeling a little melancholy, a little nostalgic, and a little chilly. I'm sick. It's gloomy outside and summer already looks like it's drifting south for the winter around here. So, I'm looking for something warm in my ears, and this is definitely it. Colorama have a few albums under their belts already, but with each they seem to be settling deeper into a soft psych/folk groove that I am entirely enjoying. Full warm horns along with some standing bass and acoustic strumming, despite the frequently Welsh lyrics, feel like sunset at El Matador Beach, which is a place I'd quite like to be right about now. Waves of cold water, warmth of the sun, baking the sand...if I close my eyes I'm right there. And I don't have this swollen, scratchy throat in my imagination,either. Summer sickness be gone!

Boy I sure do like the way those Welsh folks roll their r's.

http://www.myspace.com/coloramasound

9/9/09 - Dead Man's Bones

2009-09-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

First, a message from your humble blogger: If there's anyone here reading this regularly, I apologize for being a little remiss in posting lately. I've got some paying gig deadlines, and I haven't had my usual time to seek out new music that excites me. If I disappear here and there, I'll be back. Things get a lot better next month in the land of free time.

Now, Dead Man's Bones. Another in the list of actor/singers. This time, our entry comes by way of Ryan Gosling. Frankly, I'll admit, I'm really glad that his music is as hot as he is. In a creepy, funeral cabaret kind of way, at least.

The latest song is called "My Body's a Zombie For You" and incorporates the #1 musical flair of the millenium: the children's choir. Despite its overwhelming prevelance in indie and electronic music over the last year or two - Peter Bjorn & John, Justice, Sound of Arrows, Karen O's new song for "Where the Wild Things Are" - I still find it to be an appealing affectation. Yeah, I like ALL of those songs - either because of the kiddie warbling, or despite it depending on the day.

I guess the real surprise lies in the fact that Gosling, a former New Mickey Mouse Club cast member along with the lamentable Britney Spears, has not only managed to snare himself some credibility in the acting world, but isn't embarrassing himself on the mic either. Let's call it Elvis by way of Richard Hawley by way of Dresden Dolls or something like that...

Here's another song of his, complete with choir, live from where else? a cemetary.

9/4: Flashback Friday - Hall & Oates

2009-09-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm going there. And here's why:

Wednesday I got a pair of free tickets to see Hall & Oates live. My appreciation for Daryl and John has been growing over the years, as I realize that they're probably one of the only actual legit blue-eyed soul groups with any chops. I grew up on this stuff and never really thought of it as even vaguely r&b, but the way they sang it Wednesday night it sure was. Not kidding - they were awesome. And if I'm saying "awesome" you know I've just guzzled a whole pitcher of the Kool-aid.

I found it particularly perceptive when Daryl Hall said, "Huh, it used to be irony, now it's for real." Because they do seem to be that rare band that has crested the tide of sniggering asides to emerge on the other side in a wave of genuine appreciation. Just toss a 25 year old song into a hit, hip indie film (500 Days of Summer) and viola! Credibility returns!

But, lest we take it all too seriously, I've decided that I'm gonna post a nice little "remix" of a video with a special appearance by one of my favorite artists - keyboard cat. Hey, it's about to be a three day weekend. Let's bring it on home. Take it away kitty...

9/3 - College

2009-09-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked at a Nagel painting and wondered what the vaguely Asian line drawn ice queen subject's record collection would sound like? Because I...well, okay, I totally have never wondered that. Not even anything close to that. Although I did once wonder why a guy I went home with in about 1998 would have a Nagel print on his wall - and didn't even consider it ironic! Guess what? He was bad in bed. There's a shock. Needless to say, not my finest moment. How exactly does one reconcile oneself the fact that she was chosen as a potential mate who used that same discerning taste to choose Nagel as a worthy subject of wall art in 1998? I shudder to think of these moments in my past.

So, yeah...College. I'm pretty sure the Nagel girl would like this band. It's entirely possible that I'm being influenced by the Ray Ban tippin', voyeur on the CD cover, but all this music kind of sounds a little like a Giorgio Moroder soundtrack to Risky Business. Like something you would hear in your head if you were, say, fucking Rebecca DeMornay on the hood of a Porsche. Or if you were riding a subway to meet up with the other people in your Warriors gang to fight other people with sticks and rollerskates.

Wierder still, I really like it. I think it's just that they get this feeling flat-out dead-to-rights perfect. But, by far, to me the standout is their collaboration with Electric Youth called "She Never Came Back." This song takes all the synthy moodiness and adds some chilly vocals that are almost, dare I say it, catchy. When it comes up on my iPod, I always turn it up. Especially if I'm listening to it in one ear while riding my scooter (yeah, tres illegal, I know), because it makes me feel mysterious - like a Blade Runner android plunked in the middle of a Los Angeles consumed by flames, ashes falling like grey snow on the golf course I pass on the way to work every day.

Oh, and did I mention that College is from France? Because they are.

http://www.myspace.com/collegeoflove

9/1 - Crunchy Frog Celebrates 15 Years

2009-09-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

Danish independent label Crunchy Frog Records will be celebrating 15 years of bringing some of the strangest, best and brightest acts to the indie scene in Denmark. To many of us on the west coast, that almost sounds like something akin to bringing together the best and brightest bands of, say, Barstow or Henderson, Nevada - but the main difference is that Denmark has itself a pretty healthy little scene out there, whether it's been neglected by we selection crazed 'mericans or not. Aside from the Raveonettes, Junior Senior and Asteroids Galaxy Tour, there has been a steady stream of ear-hugging tunes wafting through the Danish air for plenty more than a decade - as evidenced by the stellar selection of songs on Crunchy Frog-a-Logue, the 15 year celebration of all things Crunchy Frog. Yes, I like to keep saying Crunchy Frog. It's preposterously awful, Monty Python reference or not. But, luckily the music isn't.

25 bands such as Figurines, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, and The Fashion cover songs from the Crunchy Frog catalog and the result is a sweeping tour through pretty much every style of music you could find on the digital dial. The double CD is released next week for what is promised to be "CD price," whatever that means nowadays.

www.myspace.com/frogalogue

8/28 - Flashback Fridays: Jobriath

2009-08-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Considered at the time one of pop music's biggest marketing blunders, Jobriath once boasted buses and billboards covered in larger than life images of his naked torso, was touted as the American Glam Rock sensation, and was also the first out gay singer in the pop world. But lest you blam Jobriath's spectacular sales failures on his outre sexuality - the truth lies somewhere closer to the fact that the music just isn't really all that great. I discovered this when I dusted off a copy of the first album and rescued it from a dollar bin - thinking I'd scored huge, but realizing I'd scored about $1. Looking back 35 years, however, to the following appearances on Midnight Special, one can't help but glean a little glee from Jobriath's alien Bowie presence. And a LOT of glee from Gladys Knight's snarky introduction to his theatrical performances. You'd think from the look on her face that she'd been asked to introduce a herd of pooping poodles!

Jobriath died of AIDs in the early 80s after experiencing a renaissance as a cabaret style singer, but happily, we still have the two below performances to ogle in order to keep a little bit of him alive.

8/26 - Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

2009-08-26T14:21:00.001-07:00

Shit, let's get real here. Who can hate a self-reflective nerd from Mississippi who plays a ukelele and sings garden party 60s pop? Not me! I totally imagine Dent May as the kind of troubadour who would follow around the main characters in a romantic dream - replete with acid-flashback cartoon animals and puffy hearts above kissing lips. He'd strum this impossibly miniscule instrument, belt out some tenored warbling, and accuse them prettily of being delusional alcoholics.

This is no Bruddah Iz here, kiddos - you won't be hearing any sweet renditions of Over the Rainbow coming from under these oversized glasses.

http://www.myspace.com/dentmay

8/25 - Little Dragon

2009-08-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

In my imagination, Sweden is this glorious place where wonderful, glowing people are all carrying instruments to their magnificent practice space where they will gather together to make pretty, life-affirming, upbeat pop music that will then travel to the headphones of the rest of the world and bring peace to mankind. In reality, Sweden may well suck, and there probably are at least a FEW unattractive people there (though I'm yet to be provided proof of this), but in my head I'd prefer to believe in this musical Valhalla.

Riding on the backs of the feathery mystical pets of Odin, direct to your stereo this month, are the kids from Gothenberg called Little Dragon. A couple of years ago, Little Dragon provided an eponymous album of bedroom jazzy electrofusion, with a couple of really sublime sad and slow golden nuggets, and quite a few total disappointments. This month, they release their second foray and emerge with a tighter, bigger, more mature sound, leaving much of their slow musings to the likes of Fever Ray, in favor of some upbeat funky outings.

Thankfully, they haven't left behind their penchant for cool videos, though.

8/14 - Flashback Friday: Singapore and Hong Kong Rocks!

2009-08-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

In the 1960s and early 70s, the budding musicians of Singapore and Hong Kong mined a good portion fo their inpiration from American pop radio. Singaporean surf bands, drenched in enough reverb to make Duane Eddy lose his head, backed chirpy voiced, heavily-accented coastal cuties in covers of nearly every US frat party track you could possibly imagine. There's something delighfully innocent in the earnest way these musicians throw themselves headfirst into these girl group and garage party covers. Lately, the record bins have been largely vacant of potentially undiscovered gems from Singapore and Hong Kong, as collectors have caught on in a big way. If you can find albums nowadays by bands such as The Quests (absolute excellence!), The Crescendos or the Thunderbirds, or by the inimitable singer Nancy Sit, good luck leaving with the shirt on your back.

For today, though, we'll enjoy some of the song stylings for free right here.

8/13 - Soko & Marina

2009-08-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

Christ, I think I'm just gonna let you listen to this song without the fanfare. Soko joins up with Marina Vello (of Bonde do Role) and the guys from Radioclit, pulls an instantly recognizable sample and turns it into...hellllllllll yessssss!

8/12 - The xx

2009-08-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

The xx sound really terrifically British. Which, I guess they should, since they are from London, but they've got this cool, languid phraseology that just sounds decidedly anglo. Their music is all about the quiet spaces, and pregnant pauses in between notes. Bass is spare, guitar is one-track, vocals are whispery and sleepy. It's hard, almost, to say exactly why this works as well as it does. But it does.

The debut album will be released by Rough Trade overseas on Monday. For now, limited copies of the single "Basic Space" are available on 7" & 12". A video for the song reveals the female vocalist to sport one of my favorite facial features - an adorable little underbite. I had a boyfriend with one of those once. He looked like a little Irish street brawler. In reality he was actually a very self-satisfied guitar player. But I still liked the underbite.

http://www.myspace.com/thexx

8/7 - Flashback Fridays: John Cale - Paris 1919

2009-08-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Generally, it isn't common to herald the most accessible work by a musician as inventive and sweeping as John Cale as also probably the best. But, such is the truth (as I see it, at least) for his 1973 solo album PARIS 1919. The songs combine a literary lyricsm, avant folk, and the intense point of view that made him always the darkest, most interesting member of the Velvet Underground during his tenure in the group.

Of late, I've been thinking of the title track often - with it's brass, strings, and otherworldly etherialism - and that sweeping, amazing swell of a chorus. It was put on a mix tape for me a decade ago by a friend, without a word of heed, and had been long since lost to the shifts of technology. But on certain days, it still sticks in my head. Today's one of 'em.

8/6 - Fan Death

2009-08-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

Disco sucks? Disco sucks? Disco sucks? Fan Death may as well be saying, "If you don't like the disco, go the fuck home!" If "Veronica's Veil" doesn't immediately make you want to put on your little micro-pleat diaphonous dresses and spin ecstatically in circles, then you might need to get your ears checked. The swelling strings of the intro alone promise all the joy of a shallow, vapid, dancefloor hit, and the duelling teutonic-sounding ladies' vocals deliver. Who wants their disco to be deep? Who ever wanted to hear a political statement when they were busy sucking up poppers and rubbing against a polyester boner under the influence of 8 gin fizzes? Not me, my friends. I like my polyester boner rubbing to be free of consciousness and guilt. Thanks Fan Death. I'm gonna play you tonight right after I play Jigsaw's "Sky High."

8/4/ - Anavan

2009-08-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

To see Anavan play live is pretty much akin to doing a full-scale aerobic workout on mushrooms. I once asked Aaron, the manic, dynamic drummer/singer how I should describe their music, and he told me he liked to consider it "experimental electronic." I'll buy that for a dollar fifty.

The first time I saw Anavan was about three years ago at SXSW. They were playing a pretty depressing day show. Molly, the keyboardist/singer, happens to be my close friend's sister. Otherwise, the way I was feeling that day (read: HAGGARD), I never would have crawled my carcass into any kind of establishment that would possibly make me have to smell alcohol. But, that being said, despite the sparsity of the crowd at that particular show, Anavan kicked me in the ass like a snootful of cocaine. Generally speaking, when a friend says, "Oh my sister's band is really good. No, really." You bide your time until you go to your one obligatory show and rehearse deception in front of the mirror, "sure, yeah, they were great," and practice your excuses for never having to see them again.

Not this time, my friends. Anavan is the peak of what you want to see in a live show. Explosive drums, bass that makes you dance like someone's shooting pistols at your feet, and above all...showmanship. Something that, in my book, is sorely lacking in plenty of bands in the LA scene. Anavan plays often with the likes of Abe Vigoda and HEALTH, who have both managed to escalate to a little more national recognition than Anavan. I certainly won't say that's undeserved, but a little Anavan love is far overdue. Not only is this three-piece fun, fresh, and electric, but they're also damn smart, and that's another thing we need a little more of.

http://www.myspace.com/anavan

8/3 - My Tiger My Timing

2009-08-04T16:03:00.001-07:00

I'm beginning to suspect that the world is running out of band names. I can only in my wildest imagination guess what the hell My Tiger My Timing was inspired by when naming themselves. Unless one of them is a one armed drummer who owns a tiger and was a little slow at feeding time, I remain baffled.

It reminds me of this one time when I was hanging out with my much-much-cooler-than-me friends Cathy and Tyler at someone's fancy loft apartment in Dallas. As, I'm not kidding you, a parade of models visiting from NY traipsed in and out, the owner of the loft was attempting to pirate Adult Swim episodes and talking about his record collection. As I'm watching this conversation with all the slightly disturbed wonder a naturist displays watching birds screw mid-flight, the loft owner asks Tyler, "Have you heard the Bald Mermaid album?" At this point, I prod Cathy and stage whisper, "You've got to be fucking kidding me, right?" She nonchalantly exhales a stream of smoke in the direction of, no kidding, a Bald Mermaid album. So, I adopt this nonchalance and respond to the group, "It's not nearly as innovative as the Constipated Yak album that came out the same year." Needless to say, they weren't amused, so I went back to sulking and surreptitiously ogling the models.

Unwieldy name aside, My Tiger My Timing is nice experimental pop 4 piece band out of South London. Though they've been accused of twiddling with afrobeat rhythms, I find that a lot more obvious in their remixes. In the first single, released late in '08 called "This is Not the Fire," the real ear-catching part of the sound comes from the melding of an almost Tina Weymouth/Tom Tom Club sensibility with a 4-part free for all on the vocals. I'm not sure that they're breaking any new ground here, but they've definitely got catchy in their back pockets, so I look forward to the release of their first EP, "I Am Sound" coming out in September.

http://www.myspace.com/mytigermytiming

7/30 - Eagle & Talon

2009-07-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

Eagle and Talon are a girlie duo from Los Angeles that seem to have picked up the mid 90s mantle from the likes of Slant 6, Sleater-Kinney, and Helium. They've got a melodic yet angular (christ I'm tired of that word - any new suggestions would be much appreciated), atonal cacophanous, sweet garagey thing going that doesn't sound much like all the other stuff coming out of El-Lay right about now.

In June, the duo released a full length album called Thracian, which they are actually offering on a "pay what you want" basis here. Be sure if you buy it not to be a total cheap douche and toss them some decent money. A couple of ladies playing occasional shows at the Echo, no matter how much indie cred they have, would probably appreciate a nice meal at the taco truck around the corner. Get some good music that makes you feel like a sexually confused, thrift store shopping, angsty college girl all over again. Okay, maybe that's just me, but still...that's wierdly a good thing.

http://www.myspace.com/eagleandtalon

7/29 - Appaloosa

2009-07-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what Nico might sound like if she had been introduced to Zoloft? Cuz I have. No, seriously, I totally have. A co-worker of mine once intimated that Nico's voice sounded kind of like a cross between a foghorn and someone with Down's Syndrome having trouble enunciating. Look, I didn't say it, I'm just repeating it. But I violently disagreed, folded my arms, and cold-shouldered him through 6 more hours of brain-killing data entry and his shitty Keane CD collection.

I may not know shit about the band Appaloosa, but one thing I do know is that I'm fairly certain that said co-worker would totally hate them, because Zoloft, meet Nico. Nico, meet Zoloft. Now you two go in a room with a young German guy and make some moody electro. Thank you. You're welcome.

Seiously, this is destined to be a post completely absent of any pertinent information, but I hope you'll appreciate that the crappy reportage is directly inverse to the excellent music of Appaloosa. Oddly enough, there's a pretty similarly useless interview with the band on the (500)Days of Summer film blog.

Currently, you can only buy their fine single "The Day We (Fell In Love)" from Kitsune and iTunes, but the demos on their myspace page are more than just a little fucking promising.

7/28 - Gram Rabbit

2009-07-28T10:41:00.001-07:00

It's true that Gram Rabbit has been knocking around the high desert of Joshua Tree for a long time now, so are hardly a brand spanking new revelation to anyone who has ever been fortunate enough to spend a weekend night under the starry skies of Pioneer Town enjoying a beer and the desert's finest music at Pappy & Harriet's. Pappy's could well be SoCal's best unintentionally kept secret - a honky tonk set in the amber dirt hills above J.Tree, and nestled in a literal old west town, albeit a honky tonk that routinely boasts sets by the likes of Peaches, Eagles of Death Metal, Josh Homme, and today's Bomb, Gram Rabbit. It's not hard to imagine why these folks love the desert. It's quiet, beautiful, and filled with a heady mix of artists, musicians and desert rat burnouts alike.

I've had several occasions, myself, to spend some time up there thanks to the fact that my friend Kate moved there several years ago. As unhappy as I may be to see her less frequently, I am a big fan of any instance of a friend moving someplace I love to visit. I am an even bigger fan of visiting her when she invites over all her friends and makes some killer pork chili verde. On one nice occasion, I got to play duelling DJ with Kate's former roommate, Killer, an indeed killer chick who tours as Peaches' sound crew. On another, the party included more tacos than I could load into a hollow leg, a bounce house, and the nice folks of Gram Rabbit - Todd & Jessika.

Gram Rabbit's music is a kind of symphony of disorder - almost impossible to categorize easily in any real genre. It is in turns party electro, desert funk, and guitar madness. "Bloody Bunnies" somehow made it onto the soundtrack to the now-defunct show "Life," although I can't imagine what bloody bunnies in the road could have had to do with any kind of cop show.

They play in LA at the Troubadour on Thursday. Their live shows are as whacked as their music, so if you like what you hear, go give it a look.

7/24 - Flashback Friday: Lee Hazelwood

2009-07-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Lee Hazelwood is probably most famous for writing Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," and beyond that for his long time collaboration with her as both a songwriter and a duet partner. And as much as "Boots" is a pop music giant, what Hazelwood molded Nancy's wispy vocals into in their other tracks was often much stranger and esoteric. Back in the early '90s I used to fall asleep listening to Slowdive's Souvlaki album pretty often. As far as nap records go, that one is seriously the king - which is no insult, I assure you, because it's also beautiful and perfect. But, as a bonus track on that CD they do a straightforward cover of Hazelwood/Sinatra's "Some Velvet Morning." When I learned that this eerie tempo shifting, fairy tale of a song was originally on a Nancy Sinatra album, I think I probably coughed out all the pot smoke I'd just inhaled, grabbed my high interest Best Buy credit card and went in search of Sinatra. Even today when I listen to "Some Velvet Morning" on my coveted Nancy & Lee LP, I can't believe that this song is 40 years old. It's like a cross between a Spaghetti Western and an acid trip!

But not to dwell so much on one single song, because Lee's other output is equally impressive. He was in a film called "Cowboy in Sweden" and cut a terrific soundtrack, and did an album with Ann Margaret (who does actually seem like a suitable follow up to Nancy), and if you can find any of those around your local record store, you should buy them immediately. Hazelwood's basement-deep vocals recall a more elusive and less serious Johnny Cash - as you can hear pretty clearly in his and Nancy's pleasing cover of "Jackson." It's a voice that rattles the seat of your pants, and spreads from your chest to your fingers. It's sad, but comforting. Masculine, but sensitive.

Enjoy.

7/23 - Mayer Hawthorne

2009-07-24T10:53:00.001-07:00

No lie, Detroit is the birthplace of smooth soul. Being a Southerner, myself, I've always much preferred the dirty sex-you-down thump of the Stax sound over Motown, but as long as there are Sunday afternoons on Earth, the liquid language of Holland-Dozier-Holland has a home. In the outer reaches of the Detroit area, a little white kid named Mayer Hawthorne must have had a whole lot of Sunday afternoons filled with scratchy Hitsville vinyl, because crap, the guy's got the stuff down pat.

Reputedly, when he brought his music to Peanut Butter Wolf (head of his label Stone's Throw), the Wolf thought he was peddling remixes or joshing him with some deep cuts of old Motwon stuff. And it can be kind of a lot to wrap your head around the fact that this bespectacled suburban nerd is crooning out this kind of Smokey Robinson vibe. But, damned if he isn't.

And don't miss your chance to buy a sweet heart-shaped 7" for the single "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" on the Stone's Throw site, as featured in the below video for the song.

http://www.myspace.com/mayerhawthorne

7/21 - The Dodos

2009-07-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

It's actually my hope that I'm not pointing out anything new with this post. In a perfect world, anyone who might read this would already own at least the Dodos' easily obtainable last album, Visiter that came out a couple of years ago around the same time the Fleet Foxes released their first full length album. Frankly, it's been an unending source of confusion to me as to why Fleet Foxes are bigger than Jesus, but The Dodos have remained somewhat below the radar. On the surface, they both have the sonic quality of a sunlit Smoky Mountain stream - all soft acoustic jangling, pastoral harmonies, rim-clicking insect drums - but the Dodos bear the distinction of being equally compared to Animal Collective, i.e. another band whose sound has sent many a bearded boy's tighty witeys straight to the laundry pile, yet are not nearly as obtuse and inscrutable in the melody department as those indie giants.

So will the upcoming third album, Time to Die be the one that sets The Dodos afire? Will this trio from San Francisco rise above the status of JV team little brother to these Varsity superstars? Shit, I don't know. So far, the preview single "Fables" that has appeared on their myspace recently isn't grabbing me and yanking my eyes back into the back of my head like "Fools," "The Ball," and "Trades and Tarriffs" with their finger-picking tent-revivial goodness. But it's nice enough to make me look forward to mid-September when I can hear the rest.

I do have to note that I saw them play in front of the American Mammal Diorama in the Natural History Museum near USC, and that is hard to top. But, a close second may be arriving. The Dodos will be playing at The Getty on August 8th.

7/20 - My Gold Mask

2009-07-21T12:26:00.001-07:00

This boy/girl duo out of Chicago is cranking out some kitchen-sink blues/rhythmic/pop stuff that is gaining some attention in the almighty blogosphere lately. And while I'd say that their freshman effort available on Bandcamp is still pretty rough around the edges, it sounds like a band slowly settling into their skins and crouching down to run an otherworldly race. If this is the stretching period, in other words, then I'd imagine that what's to come should be worth watching out for. The female vocals vary between slightly creepy to boldly aggressive, and the nylon-stringed electric guitar that roils along the background reminds us of a time when college rock didn't require a degree in advanced electronic engineering.

You can download the album here. The songs Bitches, Your Coo Ka Choo, and Monomania (below)* are even eff-ar-ee-ee. Yep, won't ding your cherry Paypal veneer one bit.

And for those of you reading this on your Commodore 64s, you can even order this album on cassette. Technophobes unite!

<a href="http://mygoldmask.bandcamp.com/track/monomania">Monomania by My Gold Mask</a>

*Hot yam, I actually figured out how to put a real song on this thing!

7/17 - Introducing Flashback Fridays

2009-07-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

I've decided starting this week that rather than intermittently filtering in some of my classic favorites, I'm going to do it each Friday, focusing especially on some classic clips culled from Youtube and elsewhere.

Today's flashback I'll dedicate to a couple of underrated 1960s girl groups - The Flirtations and The Exciters (a girl group with one boy), and a couple of terrific videos made for a couple of truly thumping songs.

The Exciters come to us by way of Jamaica, NY circa early '60s when their first hit "Tell Him" topped the Billboard chart. Lead vocalist Brenda Reid was backed by Lillian Walker, Sylvia Wilbur and Herb Rooney (later to be Reid's husband). "Tell Him" was not only a monster hit at the time, but it was also an important (if overlooked at the time) milestone for female vocals. Where women in music tended to sing demure, romantic odes to love, Reid's powerhouse voice urged a more active, forceful feminine role. The pattern set forth in "Tell Him" was taken on ten-fold with their second, sadly less successful, single "He's Got the Power." Even though Reid sings of being under her man's sexy love spell, she does so in a marked bellow of defiance that lets you know she might just be enjoying the fight. Doubtlessly, The Exciters' muscular female vocals and subject matter were precursors for the tough sounds of The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes later.

The Flirtations were a trio (and occasional quartet) from the UK that found some success in the later 60s both in England and in the US with their hit "Nothing But a Heartache." If there is such a thing as girl-soul-metal, this song is it. If you listen to the levels in this urgent floor burner, you can't help but imagine that every dial was fiery red in the recording booth. The song was released on the Deram label in 1968, and featured the vocals of sisters Shirley & Ernestine Pearce and Viola Billups. The video for the song is a real head-scratcher, and though I don't believe that it was a Scopitone video it does resemble one in its esoteric location and theme.

Both of these songs can be found in the absolutely kickass box set - One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found by Rhino, which is easily the greatest Christmas presents I ever received in my life (thanks mom). And if you are interested in more strange and wonderful videos such as these, and you are in Los Angeles, there is an event at the Egyptian Theater this Sunday discussing the history and technical development of Scopitones (which were "video jukeboxes" that predated MTV by a couple of decades), and showing some choice clips. Read more about that here.

7/15 - Goldielocks

2009-07-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

Since yesterday's selection was a little on the sad side, let's make today opposite day. Nothin' sad about female British MC, Goldielocks. Sassy, adorable, and a little edgy, she fuses good time street party with social sarcasm and lays it down over a catchy hands-in-the-air kind of beat (provided, while performing live, on the tables by her very handsome husband). Continuing to get mileage out of the three days I spent sweating out SXSW, Goldielocks was yet another act that played on 3/20 at the Beauty Bar (sharing the bill with prior Daily Bombs Solid Gold and Juliette and the New Romantiques - what can I say? It was a fucking awesome showcase). In fact, here's a picture.

If you could drag that lens about two audience spots to the left, you'd see me holding a half-empty can of Sparks and halfdancing like people are ought to do when standing in a crowd of, oh, about 20 people - all who seem really happy to be there, but none of whom are drunk enough at 3pm to bust any kind of devilmaycare moves. Head bob/foot tap combo it is, then.

In a nice PR move, Ms. Locks was free with the handouts of her Bear Safe EP after the set. I snagged one, smiled, nodded, mumbled my thanks and then proceeded to allow three of my friends to upload it to their computers. In thanks for my mild crime spree, today, I give you Goldielocks. Buy some of her music. It's great stuff to listen to while putting on your Saturday night lipgloss.

Also, read her blog. It's a good time.

http://www.myspace.com/goldielocksmusic

7/14 - Yonlu

2009-07-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

This month, David Byrne's brilliant label Luaka Bop, realesed Yonlu's first - and sadly destined to be only - album, called A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre. The music on the album is a collection of bedroom recordings by a talented and deeply introspective teenager, whose ability to fuse Western modern folk soundscapes (with many, maybe too many, hints of the late Elliot Smith), with variations on Bossa Nova rhythms and Caetano Veloso-style guitar picking, seems remarkably beyond the depth of his 16 short years.

Sadly, before Yonlu (aka Vinicius Gageiro Marques of Porto Alegre) was to turn 17, he took his own life. His music was discovered on his computer posthumously by his parents, who had no idea that he had been recording anything.

Perhaps surprisingly, the collection of songs that Luaka Bop has put out, also include a lot of joy and whimsy. The playlist is uneven and wavering, as you would imagine the mind of a teenager may be, but it also breathes and sparkles. The naked quality of the tunes is destined to make the disc one of the more important recordings of the year, even if it is equally destined to be one of those discs you'll only want to hear alone with your headphones.

Luaka Bop has generously made the whole album available for listen on Yonlu's web page.

7/13 - Django Django

2009-07-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

What is it about the name of this band that makes me think of a hipster Hamburgler? I really can't help but saying the name Django Django like RubbleRubble, and then I get oddly hungry for a Quarter Pounder w/Cheese. And while one has to assume that the name at least obliquely refers to guitar legend Django Reinhardt, the music gives us no indication of any kind of sonic connection.

What we have here is a folk/electronic, rhythmic, acoustic/electric mish mash created by a group that has to be really sick and tired of being compared to, say, early outings of The Beta Band. But, hey, I like the Beta Band, so it's no insult from my end. And I like Django Django. I find the swelling, layered vocals to be somehow both soothing and tense at the same time, and overall just plain pleasing.

As yet, the band remains unsigned. However, you can order a nice copy of the Storm/Love's Dart 7" on Pure Groove. As a bonus, you can order it with a poster of some kind of esoteric album art that will send a big ole Fuck You message to your kid's Jonas Brothers posters.

http://www.myspace.com/djangotime

7/9 - Shirley Ellis

2009-07-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

You know that Name Game you used to play as a kid - "Phil Phil bo Bill Banana Fanna Fo Fill...etc."? Well, maybe you don't know that you can pretty much thank or blame Shirley Ellis for that song (though the youthful glee of putting the names Mitch and Chuck through the treatment is all your own).

Ellis had a relatively brief career spanning from about 1963 - 1968, wherein she had three pop singles blaze into the top 10, and one other modestly successful soul side presented as a coda to her years as a singer. She was born in the Bronx in 1941, and began singing in the '50s with a now-forgotten group called the Metronomes. Toward the end of that decade, she hooked up with manager/songwriter Lincoln Chase (who had already penned the hit "Jim Dandy" for LaVern Baker), and together they released the semi-novelty floor-burner "The Nitty Gritty" in 1963. Ellis' version of the song, sadly and strangely, was released only as a live cut. Though the stereo quality is uncommonly good for this treatment, nonetheless, no known version seems to exist without the distracting swell of the audience in the background. This, in my opinion, is the one thing that makes Gladys Knight & the Pips' later cover of the song the superior of the two.

The offhanded, playful nursery-rhyme like lyrics of "The Name Game," which became her next release, proved so popular for the singer, that she duplicated the formula in the far-superior single "The Clapping Song" a year later. For my money, "The Clapping Song," with its chanting, rhythmic sing- and clap-along melody, may be over 40 years old at this point, but has scarcely been trumped as one of the best danceparty songs of all time. For her last hit, Ellis released the excellent, more traditional soul, "Soultime," which has been sampled to excellent effect recently by the group The Go! Team (in their song "Bottle Rocket".

It's astounding how well Ellis' so-called novelty pop songs have held up over the years. It's no secret that the "disposable" pop music of the '60s turned out to be quite recyclable in sound, style and tone, but it says a lot that the original versions still play so well next to the music of today.

7/8 - Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

2009-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

Despite the unwieldy name, these local Seattle contemporaries of last week's Daily Bomb Champagne Champagne, are determined to make you remember it. Rather than taking the pervasively popular electro-twiddling route, MSHVB brings some guitar rock back to the College Rock table. And despite loose and virtuosic twin guitar showdowns, they also manage to make some music that is as easy to sing along with as your ABCs. Songs like "Who's Asking" and "Anchors Dropped" bring exciting, blazing radio anthems to your speakers that both soothe the ears and pound the pulse.

According to the band's press, the band formed in 2008, when lead axman Benji Verdoes was impelled to keep a promise to his 13 year old brother Marshall. Reportedly, in a move of sibling solidarity, Benji promised then 11 year old Marshall that when he got good enough at his new drumming endeavor, they could form a band. Apparently the incentive worked, because two years later, MSHVB surfaced. Luckily for the rest of us, not only did Marshall get quite good at his instrument, but together with Benji and another two equally talented friends, they formed a GOOD band. Had I made the same promise to my little brother, we'd have likely made music only our mother could pretend to love. So, good on you, Verdoes Bros.

An EP is now available on Secretly Canadian's sister label, Dead Oceans.

http://www.myspace.com/mtsthelensvietnamband

7/2 - Champagne Champagne

2009-07-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about this band. So, no cheeky asides, no non sequitur biographical ramblings, no in depth explorations of musical context. Basically, Champagne Champagne is a group of guys out of Seattle that play some hip hop infused with jaunty acoustic strumming. They're sometimes offhanded and languid like the Gorillaz and more often a whole thing of their own. They say that they got together to play "feel good music," and I'd say that's about as good a description as any. Shout outs to Molly Ringwald and Appalonia should give you the idea that this isn't posturing street-based rap - nary a bitch, a ho, or a nigga in sight - but something a little more East Coast, liquid, cerebral stuff.

You can download their full album here. And preview some tracks on their myspace.

7/1 - Koko Von Napoo

2009-07-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

What better way to start the month celebrating American independence, than with the presentation of a new band from France. Oh, sure, as gifts celebrating our questionable freedom go, Koko Von Napoo's music might not be quite as weighty and impressive as that tall lady of liberty standing in the harbor up in New York, but it's French at least. A stretch? Yeah, okay, I'll admit I just thought this band sounded pretty nice. They DO make me feel thankful for my freedom to wear headphones at work, at least.

Enough of that nonsense, though. What we have here is yet another band that has slinked onto the scene with a savvy, continental and sophisticated 7", available to physically own through the Rough Trade website, or to download on iTunes. If you happen to be a fan of Altered Images, I think you'll love this one. Even if you aren't, but like your songs jerky and swirly, with hand claps and slightly accented chripy female vocals, this is totally your flavor, man.

The A-side is "Polly," and the B-side is called "JonBon." Their myspace page also features remixes of "Polly" by Chateau Marmont and Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya, the former of which is actually as good as the original song, the latter of which is complete feces.

http://www.myspace.com/kokovonnapoo

6/29 - Timebox

2009-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough, 2009 has been interesting for Mike Patto. His 1970s prog rock band called (easily enough) Patto saw their track "The Man" used in trailers for the creepy and uncomfortable film OBSERVE AND REPORT. And one of his earlier band, Timbox's popular singles has been repurposed into a surprising, and unneccessary radio hit by the European rappers Madcon. Granted, that song is "Beggin'" which Timebox themselves repurposed from the original outing by the Four Seasons - but the big difference here is that Timebox, as far as I'm concerned, vastly improved the original, whereas Madcon kind of rubbed stink all over it.

For a pretty solid part of 2007 and 2008 I couldn't stop playing Timebox's version of the song. I played it when I was getting ready to go out at night, I put it on mix CDs, iPod playlists, and I DJ'ed it relentlessly every time I'd fill in working behind the bar. The song itself is great - nearly a perfect slice of frenetic melody, with a beat that no doubt could have incited the Northern Soul followers to
knock the roof of the Wigan Casino back in the day (which was probably a Saturday). However, what Timebox really brings to the table here is the addition of a really amazing, pulsing vibraphone solo. Band member Ollie Halsall, who was also an incredibly skilled guitar player, rolled out the vibes in several Timebox originals as well as in this memorable cover, and it became a really unique signature in the band's sound.

Unfortunately, as is all too often the tale of woe in the music world, Decca Deram looked upon Timebox as a pop band, rather than the pre-prog/ heavy-psych/jazz-rock band that they were trying to evolve into. As a result, many of their harder and more experimental songs were left unreleased in favor of novelties like "Baked Jam Roll in Your Eye" (recorded as a lark when the boys were three sheets to the wind) and instrumentals like (the still pretty good) "Soul Sauce." Some critics, looking back, have made mention that Timebox might have been one of the first bands to present Jazz in a Rock context. This fact is supported by the band's initial discovery by Decca, playing the Windsor Jazz Festival in August of 1967.

It's hard to say what Timebox would have become if left to their own devices, but all but one member eventually made their way over to Patto, so perhaps that's our best answer. As it is, the guys of Timbox still left behind a handful of great tunes, and a bucketful of songs with great potential.

6/26 - The Magic Wands

2009-06-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Magic Wands have been making their rounds on the internet for the last several months. Their current single "Black Magic" has already been given a couple of remix treatments, most notably by Crystal Fighters (a group for whom my jury is still out). But my jury was kick-in-the-ass unanimous on The Magic Wands since I first heard "Teenage Love" a couple of months ago. And while that song is both a romantic and a horny ode to boy/girl pop, with female lead vocals pinching your arm like a disaffected Debbie Harry, and some whitey-rap style agreement from the boy half of our duo. "Black Magic"...I just can't stop listening to it. It's the kind of perfectly catchy, crunchy guitar, electronic-hand-clapping, straightforward pop song that I keep finding myself singing loudly when I'm at stoplights on my scooter. Funny enough, no member of my unwitting traffic audience has even once said, "Hey, what's that wonderful song you are singing so horribly?" Fucking Los Angeles...so unfriendly! So what if my voice sounds like my cat doing Radiohead covers?

You know, another thing I love about Magic Wands is that they are just so adorable. Apparently the story goes like this: Chris and Dexy Valentine met after Chris found one of Dexy's songs on Myspace. That song, incidentally, was "Teenage Love." They started talking on the phone like the song's titular teenagers, and took a liking to exchanging gifts through the mail, and writing each other songs (Chris wrote Dexy "Kiss Me Dead," which would be their first recording as a band). Some time last year, Dexy left her home in LA, and moved closer to Chris in Nashville. They named their band The Magic Wands after Dexy's favorite present she received from Chris.

Now doesn't that melt your little black hearts enough to make you want to punch small woodland creatures? Because it sure does mine. And the best thing is that their music totally sounds like it comes from just this kind of sweet little pairing. And, man! I love it.

http://www.myspace.com/themagicwands

6/25 - Everything Everything

2009-06-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

NME describes Manchester's Everything Everything as a band that has "spaghetti guitars." I can't say that I've heard this description before, but it does have a certain ring to it - bringing to mind a loose, tickling, noodly guitar line, much indeed like the guitars that back Everything Everything's two singles "Photoshop Handsome" and "Suffragette Suffragette." The band overlays this with brainy pop in the manner of, perhaps, XTC or Pinback. They don't shy away from either lightly plinking their instruments, or leaning into them and ripping them a new asshole. Time signatures are odd, the vocals shift rapidly from sing-along-ability to inscrutable falsetto pleas, but yet it all comes together in pleasing, arty mish mash that improves over several listens.

Plus, "Suffragette Suffragette" and "DNA Dump" could well be about messy, fluid-filled fucking, or I could possibly just have hopeful pervy ears that are determined to make anything dirty. The former sounds like it either asks, "Who's gonna sit on your face when I'm gone?" or "Who's gonna sit on your fence when I'm gone?" Whatever it is, it still makes me giggle like a boy who just found porn in the bushes by the local creek. The latter, well I can't understand what the heck they're saying in this song, but it sounds like it could be about something gross. And though I'm not saying that I need need any pasty Mancunians sitting on my face - not today, at least - I'll compromise with the boys and let their tunes sit on my ears for a while.

http://www.myspace.com/everythingeverythinguk

6/24 - Dolly Mixture

2009-06-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

I hope you don't like this band too much. Because I love Dolly Mixture, and I don't need all of you adding value to their WAAAAAYYYY out of print records (or out of print re-release CD). So, please hate this band, and tell all your friends that they are terrible. Then maybe, just maybe, one day I can score a copy of one of their records without having to sell both kidneys and my extra special Gidget Fortune Telling board game, and then consequently have to live my life pretending like it's not depressing that bodily organs and board games are the most valuable things I currently own.

Dolly Mixture began its short tenure as a band in 1978. The three UK lassies got their first taste of the music biz singing occasional backup for Captain Sensible. Though they are often mentioned in the same breath as the C86 bands I'd call their sound part punk, part new-wave, and part Shangri-La's - perhaps even a more accessible Raincoats with a pop spin. Any of that is kind of a cheap comparison, though, because when I first heard the strains of "Been Teen" on a date's scratchy cassette deck, I liked it so much that despite my general lack of interest in him, I kept him around for more than a month hoping he'd make good on producing a copy of that mix tape for me. No such luck, though, and eventually the desire to receive the tape was far outweighed by his general undesirability. (Note to readers: no matter how much you like music, meeting someone with great music taste can only take you so far, even with the stereo up loud and the lights off) And here I am, a good six years later, still suffering the sad lack of Dolly Mixture in my collection.

One has to wonder how a band that once opened for the Fall, and had U2 open for them...who had a champion in Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley (who released 1983's DEMONSTRATION TAPES on CD in 1995), and whose name gets whispered in many a girl-rock fan's blog confessional would drift into such unavailability. However, it surely has. So, if anyone out there happens to have one of the 1000 original DEMONSTRATION TAPES (aka WHITE ALBUM) pressings and feels like making a humble blogger a mix CD, she (observe me pointing my thumbs in my own general direction here) sure would appreciate it.

For the time being, I'll just keep visiting myspace and listening here.

(not the best quality on this first clip, but hell, it's Dolly Mixture performing live...I'm just happy it's out there in any form)

6/18 - Peggy Honeywell

2009-06-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Let's shift gears a little bit, today, after yesterday's descent into psychosexual cults and manic, throbbing pleas for sanity. Today, we'll visit the very polar opposite in the form of burnished-silver-voiced Peggy Honeywell (aka Clare Rojas, as known in the San Francisco art circles).

Honeywell crafts songs stripped down twinkling acoustic guitar, or the occsional banjo and her wonderfully warm voice. I'd call it "alt-country" but I can't bring myself to call something that sounds like a direct descendent of Harry Smith's American Folk Music set "alt" anything. If this isn't roots, or real country, I don't know what is. Honeywell lays down the blanket of her songs like Loretta Lynn tucking you in at night - albeit a Loretta Lynn who didn't marry at 14 and might have been a hardware store owner's daughter instead of a coal miner's. There's innocence, playfulness, and dangit - it's just plain pretty. Just listen to the simplicity of "Sing Sang Sung" on the 2005 album FAINT HUMMS and tell me that it doesn't remind you of dusty roads and an America you've never seen outside of Steinbeck novels and local Opry broadcasts.

All three of her albums can be heard in their entirety here.

6/17 - Duchess Says

2009-06-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

I think the moral of my day is "sometimes it's okay to just stop trying to understand something and accept that it is just nonsense." That moral applies to many things today - like the rule that I'll always start my period right before I'm about to go on vacation, or the fact that Quizno's is way more fattening than McDonalds,or for example, the band Duchess Says. I tried to read what Duchess Says has to say for themselves, and what I gathered was the following:

"Duchess Says was created to insure a faithful representation of the message of the Duchess (or spiritual budgie)...Duchess Says has the mandate to decontextualize the rock and to promote simultaneously their Church on the way."

What the hell are they going on about? Seriously, Duchess Says, don't fuck with me today. I've been listening to your song "Black Flag" and I think it's pretty damned amazing, but it's one thing to sound like a meth-thrash version of Karen O with her hand in a blender every now and then, but another thing entirely to walk around talking like one. Is this because you're Canadian? French Canadian? Or what?

So, I'm going to ignore all that spiritual budgie (yeah, budgie, like the bird) stuff, and I'm going to just channel my rage into your music, which, as it turns out, is kind of an easy thing to do. Especially when you are singing a drum track.

Speaking of being bananas, the video for "Black Flag" is made up of some pretty creepy footage of a cult from a documentary called FEAR IS THE MASTER about the cult of guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh up in Oregon a few decades ago. Yeah, those people aren't dancing to that song, they're just brainwashed, like Tegan & Sara fans only worse.

http://www.myspace.com/duchesssays

6/16 - We Have Band

2009-06-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Lord love technology! Just when I think that I've been impressed with how far a shoestring budget can take a determined fellow with a talent for electronics, something else comes up that makes me go, "What!?" We Have Band is a three piece out of London, until recently unsigned, who are the creators of a mere smattering of singles appearing on record labels like Kill Em All and 50 Bones Records (who? exactly)and a couple of Kitsune compilation exclusive. Yet, with essentially word of mouth, these former record industry employees have made a name for themselves with their salty savvy and delicious stew of disco drone and guileless 80s-esque boy/girl pop taunts.

But, the joyously jerky "Oh!" and the latest single "You Came Out" (with its hilarious employment of the phrase "turkey-basted" as a verb, aren't exactly what I was talking about up there. What I was really referring to was the fact that We Have Band has taken whatever resources were at their disposal and basically made me believe in the music video again.

The recent release of the "You Came Out" video shows us a ridiculously time-consuming and meticulous stop-motion version of the band and creeping face paint that apparently is composed of no less than 4,816 still photos edited together (all available on the bands flickr page, incidentally). In between each photo, the band members had to have the face pain cleaned off, and repainted. FOUR THOUSAND TIMES!! I mean, Jesus H. Christ, who can sit still for that long!? Let's appreciate their patience by watching this thing, shall we?

http://www.myspace.com/wehaveband

6/15 - The Hundred in the Hands

2009-06-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

We'll entitle today's pick "One to Watch," because I can't rightly make any sweeping swaths of praise for a band that only has one 7" containing two versions of the same song to offer us. However, I will stick a brightly colored pin in The Hundred in the Hands (THITH to those in the inner circle) as a band I'll be keeping my eye on. The debut single, "Dressed in Dresden" is a thumping little jewel by Jason Friedman and Eleanore Everdell formerly of the band The Boggs. If the mention of The Boggs doesn't exactly prick up your ears (as it certainly didn't mine), it seems as though they were a "critically acclaimed" band that at one time or another also featured members of Holy Fuck, Enon, and Au Revoir Simone - all of whom I've not only heard of but even like to various degrees (a scale from quite a bit on the former, to "nice nap music" on the latter). A little research on The Boggs brings to light an interestingly avant-pop-rock band of the kind that you find pleasing, but probably won't make you faint with joy like a Japanese Michael Jackson fan.

THITH, however, seems to have a little more muscle, added by some very pleasing rhythmic, echoing vocals by Eleanor, and a great B-side called "Undressed in Dresden" that replaces the staccato guitars with some ear-hugging horns.

Additionally, the THITH pair have a pretty nice music blog/eZine on their site wherein they point you in the direction of some good sonic snacks, and offer up some tshirts that may one day give you that "chuh, I've had this shirt since, like, the "Dressed in Dresden" 7" " kind of cache. To boot, the shirt design is actually appealing, so there's that as well in case you also happen to be a fashion forward sort.

And for the thrifty music conoisseurs, THITH gets huge points for making both the A and B side of this single available on their website for 0 dollars and 0 cents per download. So, visit them at http://thehundredinthehands.com/thith-downloads/ today.

6/12- McCarthy

2009-06-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Twee pop music about Marxism named with ironic purpose after Communist-hunting politician Joe McCarthy. Sounds like a picnic on the beach, doesn't it? Ah, but strangely, it is. In the mid-80s Martin Eden and Tim Gane met in school in the UK. Martin was a staunch political leftist, and Tim was a drummer who shared his views. Martin taught Tim to play guitar, and the two started layering 12-string, Byrds-like sundrenched, happy melodies under scathing songs of political protest, sung with a complete lack of macho rasp.

When they released their first album, I AM A WALLET in 1987, the British music press was having a tug of war between the upstart hard hip hop exemplified by Public Enemy and the like, and a little (and some say non-existant) group of guitar strumming college kids introduced on NME's infamous C86 cassette compilation. Many would say that C86 was the beginning of "indie" music as we know it - introducing us to early genre luminaries such as The Shop Assistants, The Wedding Present, Primal Scream and The Pastels, who were providing the much needed counterpoint to hip hop, and a return to guitar music, fey as it may have been. Others would say that C86 didn't represent a movement at all, but was a manufactured group of poorly-representative bands of music that no one listened to, and no one liked.

Several months ago, "Mojo Magazine" from the UK ran a cover feature on this era of music, and included a CD titled "BELOVED," filled with songs from C86 bands, and their contemporaries. The thing that comes to mind listening to the disc is how radical some of the bands still sound today. It seemed to be a time when the aesthetics of punk were driven into closets and bedrooms, and existed in isolation from the outwardly visible trends of music.

And while punk music itself channeled anger and aggression through loud, screaming passion and underachievement of their instrumental mastery, the feel of this remained with the British indie bands of the late 80s. The underachievement was still there, but now it was coupled with a quiet protest against new pop, politics, and the rigid masculinity of rock music. Indeed, this era was one of the first to break the gender line by featurning women as essential members of the bands, bowing to them as creatrixes of influential 'zines, and relying on them as managers, label heads, and bookers.

McCarthy came of age during this heady time. Sales figures were inverse to the music's glowing praise, but nonetheless, there was a following. McCarthy was joined on their third album by Gane's girlfriend, Laetitia Sadier, and soon after, called it quits. Malcolm Eden felt that they'd hit their creative apex on the last release, and drifted to other projects lost in obscurity by time. Gane and Sadier carried the political torch over to their next project, the much better-known indie giant Stereolab. It's not hard to hear the seeds of Stereolab sprouting in the music of McCarthy. Both the pop and the politics sound younger, more idealistic and untrained than the droned, spacefunk loops of latter-day Stereolab. And as such, McCarthy is an important part of our modern indie pedigree - presaging the gleeful intellectual tweeness of the likes of Belle and Sebastian, and more recently The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Videos of the band are a great time capsule of washed-out super8 splendor. It was another time, for sure.

6/11 - Solid Gold

2009-06-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

When I went to SXSW last March, you have to understand - I did my homework. I must have listened to 700 new bands trying to find the ones I liked the very best (that also happened to be playing daytime shows that required no passes or wristbands and preferably had free drinks, food, or merchandise of some sort). There were a ton of bands that I stumbled across in the course of this OCD insanity, and Solid Gold was one of my very favorites. These boys from Minneapolis are creating some of the nicest, warmest guitar/electronic hybrid pop music around today. Their songs are catchy, ear-pleasing, and clever. They make you want to dance and sigh off into space with equal delight. Their rhythm section is sharp, clean and pulsating, while the vocals are husky, reedy and melodic. Sounds like a tonic to my ears.

Solid Gold played a day show at SXSW, following up Goldilocks (who will certainly make a later apperance on this blog) and preceding/overlapping Juliette and the New Romantiques playing in the outer tent. I was one of a crowd of maybe 20 people milling around the stage, and undoubtedly the most excited of the bunch - partially because I managed to get my hands on an original formula Sparks (who the hell is drinking that shit without the crack-like energy infusion!?), and also because I had just received a text message saying "You still have a job" informing me that I'd dodged a massive layoff at work. So, quite possibly, my Sparks-infused and layoff-dodging enthusism that spawned me to yell boisterously at the band from a nearly empty room, scared them a little bit. Or I'd guess so judging by their nervous smiles in my direction, and a kind of half-wave-look-away move executed by the guitarist.

But it certainly didn't stop them from playing a great little set, and making an even bigger fan out of me.

Note: the video for Bible Thumper makes pretty funny use of an old Fabulous Thunderbirds video, so you can put the phone down and let the fashion police investigate another case.

http://www.myspace.com/solidgoldband

6/10 - Discovery

2009-06-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

There's not a lot of indie-blogger love for Vampire Weekend nowadays, it seems. The hype, stratospheric popularity, increased douchebag-fan contingent, and all the... people-like-it-so-I-hate-it-even-though-I-loved-it-yesterday attitude has taken a toll on everything, it seems, but album sales. One might guess that the guys in Vampire Weekend might not be as concerned at this point about their dayjobs, or at least not so concerned that it would keep some of them from participating in this nifty little collaborative effort with one of the guys from Ra Ra Riot.

The same blogs that promoted then mocked Vampire Weekend are going apeshit over Discovery. When the songs "Osaka Loop Line" and "Orange Shirt" showed up online, there was a trail of drool connecting many a lip to the nearest QWERTY. I wouldn't go so far as to say that my spit glands were that out of control, but they are a pretty tasty little treat, those songs. "Orange Shirt" has almost a blue-eyed soul quality to it, with some slow, deep, echoing booty beats thumping underneath to add a little lowrider-sexuality. "Osaka Loop Line" take a little more of a shimmery, zippy looped approach to back a vocal that wouldn't sound out of place on a Vampire Weekend album, until it slows down and breaks down into a jerky, pulsating bridge.

These two tracks, plus two other equally fun tracks are available for listening on the band's website, and for embedding on, it seems, any blog not hosted by this site. Instead, here's a view from our trusty pal YouTube.

http://www.dscvry.net/

6/9 - The Golden Filter

2009-06-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Oblique lyrics, shimmering vocals, and glittery remixes. The Golden Filter is kind of a mystery at this point - a collective of New York artists and musicians that reach into other peoples' songs and make them ominously gorgeous, and shapeshift them into somthing brand new. There're no stuttery vocal scratches, and tired old loops in these reformed gems, either. Their remix of Little Boots' "New In Town," sounds like two songs battling for dancefloor dominance. It starts with a deep and dark disco tsunami, and ends with a joyous layered chant of the chorus.

With their remix dance card overflowing, The Golden Filter has generated considerable anticiapation for an album of originals. The first single, "Solid Gold," halts all that embarrassment you feel over kinda-sorta starting love disco again dead in it's Fiorucci tracks. If this collection of blissed-out dreamy vocals (harking in a manner, the sensous first third of Blondie's "Atomic") and hedonistic symphonic beats is disco, then screw it, I'll take it. It's music from a different decade of New York - half a soundtrack to key parties and dark corner feel-ups, and equally a soundtrack to an anti-gravity outerspace cocktail reception. From the sound of the demos on their Myspace page, it seems as though the rest of the album will bring much of the same.

Sure, why not?

http://www.myspace.com/thegoldenfilter

6/5 - Billy Nicholls

2009-06-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's raining here on the West Coast today, so I thought I'd feature something lush, warm and occasionally melancholy to match the weather. Billy Nicholls is a woefully overlooked and under-appreciated songsmith from the UK whose late '60s debut LP "Would You Believe" tragically coincided with the collapse of his label, Immediate Records. As a result, the album - a true gem of occasionally folkish psychadelia - wasn't available for consumption until the 1990s.

When I first read about Billy Nicholls in Ugly Things Magazine around about 1998 or so, I embarked on quite a little quest to obtain a CD copy of this album, and after a mere 3 years of looking, ended up instead with a disc of Would You Believe demos called Snapshot before I was finally able, another 2 years down the line to procure a copy of the actual album. Funnily enough, I think I like the sparsity and candor of the demos even better than the slicked-up psych operas of the finished product. But either way, this stuff is good. As well it should be given its pedigree. Billy's studio pals for the album include label mates Small Faces and Steve Mariott.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, it's a hell of a lot easier to find Billy's work nowadays, and in fact, you can get it directly from his own website: www.billynicholls.com. Sadly, I can't locate my favorite Nicholls song, "Kew," to share with you, but I did dig up these fun YouTube contributions, including my second favorite, "Cut and Come Again," which is exactly the sound I wanted to hear instead of my screeching alarm this wet morning.

6/4 - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

2009-06-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

New soul, thankfully, has finally veered away from the silky smooth bedroom ass-tapping come-ons of the 90s. There's a good number of young soul bands out there that dialed the clock right back to Memphis' hot-as-fire Stax sides, and the emergent funk of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul himself. With Sharon Jones out there strutting the stage for the ladies, Joe Lewis seems poised to pick up the mantle for the men. Lewis fronts Austin's Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears like a mushmouthed preacher of garage soul, generating enough energy on stage to light the White House christmas tree. And he does it with a heavy dose of humor and no shyness for occasinal profanity (as evidenced by the stellar track "Bitch, I Love You"). The Honeybears, for the most part, are a group of young white guys. But, don't hold that against them, because a little band called the MGs back in the day could boast the same, and much like the Honeybears, they could really make those horns sing.

While the 90s might have been about Vandross style sex-you-down lovemakers, the best kind of soul, for my money, is the kind that comes in hot and sweaty, like an urgent quickie, then flips you over and gives it to you again. Black Joe Lewis'll give it to you that way any day of the week.

The embedding for the video of "Sugarfoot," the first single off their album Tell 'Em What Your Name Is is disabled, but can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOJUbiWC5M
Check it out, and see them live if you can. They'll be opening for the New York Dolls all Summer in the South, the East Coast, and Canada.

http://www.myspace.com/blackjoelewis

6/3 - The Lady Tigra

2009-06-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

"We're Tigra and Bunny and we like the Boom!" Ah, 1988. I'm sure there were other things going on in the world, but I was only 13 that year, and I didn't give a crap about anything but making mix tapes by holding a tape recorder up to the radio. Due to the pitfalls of this recording method, Lady Tigra and Bunny D, the Miami teens that made up L'Trimm didn't like the "Cars that Go Boom," on my mix they liked the "Cars that go SHHH! Gahh mom! I'm like recording!?" This may or may not have been worse than the unfortunate unintentional Lionel Richie karaoke I had on another masterpiece mixtape, but since these gems are long gone, I guess we'll never know.

The girls of L'Trimm were hot stuff back in the late 80's to my crowd of teens and tweens, because not only did they pump out some catchy rhymes and wear some dope clothes, but they were also under the age of 18. This doled out a lot of hope to metal-mouthed youths such as myself that superstardom could, good lord, be right around the corner! Although theoretically descendants of the Miami Bass style of rap, L'Trimm (possibly because of their youth) were considered to be better representations of radio-friendly pop music. They knocked out a couple of albums, never finding anything with the hook to follow the success of "Cars With the Boom," and drifted into the mysterious purgatory that houses all one-hit-wonders and the socks you lose in the dryer. Bunny D got married and had four children, and Lady Tigra stayed active in music by managing clubs in Miami. Until recently...

Lady Tigra, sans Bunny, older and wiser, is back on the scene. The odd and perhaps wonderful thing is that her music and style has scarcely changed one iota from the original L'Trimm sound, save for the barest evidence of vocal maturity. Despite this, it sounds shockingly modern. I guess that everything eventually comes around again with fashion and music, and our Lady Tigra happened to be savvy enough last year to recognize that her time is back around. Welcome back, I say, though a little belatedly.

http://www.myspace.com/theladytigra

6/2 - Chew Lips

2009-06-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Kitsune. Boy is that a word I've been reading a lot lately. The fact that this France-based electronic music label is an offshoot of a hipster clothing line, would probably be really annoying if the music they were putting out just wasn't so damn good. I'll admit, I'm drinking the Kitsune Kool-aid, because more often than not, I find myself pretty excited about the bands they choose to support. Anything from French booty electro punk hotshots Yelle to radio-ready La Roux, Cut Copy, Digitalism, A Trak, etc. etc. is fair game. If it thumps, jumps or humps, and it's brand spanking new, Kitsune might snag it first.

No doubt I'll pick some other Kitsune-approved artists for my Daily Bomb at some point down the road. It's as inevitable as Kenny Rogers' beard staying grey, I dare say. But, first up, I choose Chew Lips. Patterns speak for themselves, so if you've read any other entries here, you may have guessed that I favor a girl singer. No exception here. Honeydripping vocalist Tigs croons over Will & James' warm electronic soundtrack. They describe their own music as "drone disco/space synth pop," and I suppose my ears can back that claim. However, what makes them stand out is that Tigs' vocals take a front seat to the spacedronediscopop, and carry a strength that outstrips a lot of her wispy-voice-as-subtle-instrument contemporaries. Although their tunes are worthy of some sing-alongs, they also don't try too hard to slap you in the face with any kind of sloganeering. It's pop music alright, but is happily lacking in pop's disposability.

http://www.myspace.com/chewlips

6/1 - Emil & Friends

2009-06-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another episode of Musical Mysteries and Rumors No One Actually Cares About. In this episode, I present to you the upcoming group Emil & Friends. Buzz around the internet, and by buzz I mean nearly inaudible hum, suggests that this group is either A) a musical project of "internationally famous" actor Emile Hirsch, B) actually just one guy with no friends in sight, or C) maybe a band who "plays music inspired by what we believe is God's message to everyone." Well, folks, it's okay to come in off the ledge now, because I think I can shed some light on this worldwide conundrum.

First, I can't imagine that anyone believes that if Emile Hirsch was actually making music, it would sound anything like this at all. Because, probably, it wouldn't. And what Emile Hirsch's (I like to keep repeating that name, because I'm betting that most people reading this are going, "who?") music might sound like, the world may never know, because this isn't it. Secondly, for the time being, according to an interview on asianmandan.com, Emil is friendless. He's just a guy, namely Bostonite Emil Hewitt, playing on his own. But a man likes to keep his options open for a good jam session, right? Thirdly, one only has to guess that these guys: www.emilandfriends.com, who are playing churches and coffeehouses for Jesus are not the same Emil, and probably not his friends either. Though I almost wish that they were. Could you imagine hearing something great on a blog only to later find out that it was played by three guys that look like your dad's old cop buddies from 1987? I think I'd love that, actually.

So, the real Emil & Friends...well, I'm not sure what to call this music. Sometimes, like in "Short Order Cooks," it sounds like something that you'd hear played before an Ashford & Simpson concert. Sometimes, like in "Downed Economy" it sounds like grimy guitar disco with spacepop vocals. Let's just call it a collage and call it a day, shall we?

http://www.myspace.com/emilandfriends

5/31 - Peggy Sue

2009-06-01T12:17:00.001-07:00

Formerly known as Peggy Sue & the Pirates, this band has been around for just shy of four years releasing singles and EPs and touring with some UK indie folks like Kate Nash. A few weeks ago they released a new EP called "Lover Gone, " which you can buy from iTunes, or get in a nifty special edition CD that comes complete with a DIY shadow puppet show, whatever that means. Reportedly, they spent some time here in LA working on putting together their first full length album, release date still unreported as of this writing.

Peggy Sue is mostly two honey-voiced lassies named Katy Klaw and Rosa Rex, now joined permanently by a cute skinny boy drummer they refer to as Olly Olly Olly, most likely named such on a drinking binge, which is something the two ladies reportedly enjoy. Their songs, for the most are sweet confections of half-plucked warm guitars, the occasional uke and accordian, upbeat rim-clicking drums, and are dominated by earnestly duetted ruminative and sometimes funny vocal stokes. For whatever reason, it all comes together in a way that makes me want to use the phrase "quite nice" and mean it. Besides the fact, their sparse endeavors into blogging (http://www.peggywho.blogspot.com/) hint that they might be the kind of ladies that might get you soused then break out guitars and make you cry wino tears, then make you dance stupidly until you fall down. Everybody needs more friends like that, really.

http://www.myspace.com/peggysueandthepirates

5/28 - Bachelorette

2009-05-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not one of those people that can't stand to be around smarter people. I actually love being the dumbest one in the room. It means that I can spend my time focusing on stuffing my face with day-glo CheezeBalls, and nodding along to the scintillating conversation pretending not to be getting secretly very drunk, with no expectation that I will ever have any valuable contribution anyway. Especially if that discussion is about politics, religion, automobiles, or science of any kind. Bachelorette's songs kind of give me that same feeling, only wrapped in really pretty music. I can just sit back while Annabel and her IBM (the two studio members of Bachelorette...and yes, that's IBM as in the computer) tell me all kinds of stuff about astronomy, robotics, and computer interfacing, and enjoy the fact that she can make appealing music about these kinds of things while I ponder the rice in my burrito, or watch my cat lick his butt.

In all seriousness, though, Bachelorette does make gorgeous music. The cerebral lyrics and warm and wispy vocals lay over a humming drone and popping plastic beats, with layered ah-ha-ah, ah-ha-ha backing vocals that would make the late Mary Hansen of Stereolab (RIP) smile down upon it happily. Who knew that a girl could have a love affair with a computer and then convince that computer to make dinner party music? I'm pretty impressed by this, because I can't even seem to get my computer to send a convincing email.

This post is timely, because Bachelorette will be making a rare trip over from New Zealand to do a sweeping tour of the US over the next couple of months. In LA, she'll be at The Smell on June 1st, then back again to play the Troubadour July 1st supporting Bill Callahan.

http://www.myspace.com/bachelorettepop

5/27 - Ghostcat

2009-05-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

"Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your motherfuckin' hands up!" So Ghostcat commands us in the chorus of their upcoming single "This is a Bust," and it's as catchy as poison ivy, and bouncy as a Mexican jumping bean, with nothing but the profanity keeping it from likely iPod commercial candidacy. Ghostcat's another one of those bands in the long line of cute, charismatic females backed by dudes no one will ever approach with sentences starting with "Hey aren't you...?" unless the end of the sentence is "...Jim's cousin?" or "...the guy from my video store?" But don't let it sway you, because of course there are a lot of great bands that follow that pattern - Blondie (apologies to Chris Stein, et al). Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Culture Club... Whatever.

To my ears, I'd say that Ghostcat seems most likely poised to be the next in line for the hopping-up-and-down dance floor quality hit of, let's say, "That's Not My Name" by the Ting Tings. "This is a Bust" has a lot in common with that tune - a chant worthy chorus, chunky and stiffly halting guitar accompaniment, and a thumping drum track. It's not cerebral dance music, or art-anything, but it's exactly the kind of music that gets a Summer fiesta off the lawnchairs and dancing around the pool, so I approve heartily.

Follow-up songs "Everybody on the Dancefloor" and "Just a Little Bit" are equally commanding. The former orders you all to get your asses, well, on the dancefloor. The latter demands that after you're done dancing you need to meet singer Ali Cat (not her Christian name, I'm willing to bet) in the bathroom for a little sexy action. So demanding, yet so free spirited! Sounds like my kind of girl...as long as I don't have to call her Ali Cat.

Looks like "This is a Bust" will be available as a single sometime next month.

http://www.myspace.com/ghostcatmusic

5/26 - Rainbow Arabia

2009-05-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Oh hell, why not? Let's start the week out with an "Arabia" double feature. This band of bedoins are a male/female duo named Danny and Tiffany Preston out of Echo Park (finally, a score here for the West Coast...take that Brooklyn!), and actually seem to take the Arabia moniker somewhat more literally than our friend Lawrence below. Last year, the duo released an EP called The Basta that introduced the world (or at least the LA Eastside hipsters and electronic music bloggers) to their convincingly unique combination of Middle Eastern beats, stuttering drums, prickly guitars and hypnotically unintelligible chanted lyrics. All of which combines in a way that makes you want to break out the bidi cigarettes, and wonder how a girl named Tiffany ever became qualified to emit such an ethnic-sounding caterwaul. Ah, but it all sounds pretty sublime, actually. Turns out, as well, that the duo has something of a sense of levity as evidenced by their extremely indiosyndratic video for that EP's single, "Omar K." It's a little mindblowing, actually, and certainly something that defies description.

Rainbow Arabia have a new EP on the horizon this summer. If you are in Los Angeles, and the music is to your liking, they will be returning from a tour of Europe in time to play the Echoplex on June 28th.

http://www.myspace.com/rainbowarabia

5/25 - Lawrence Arabia

2009-05-26T11:54:00.001-07:00

If you know me, you know I love a good Brian Wilson-style harmony in my music as often as possible. Something about that male falsetto harmonization makes my skin feel all warm and sexy. Luckily for me, the trail blazed by Mr. Wilson is still being trod upon with regularity today, and my latest discovery along that path is a singer from New Zealand who goes by the moniker Lawrence Arabia.

"Lawrence" is actually James Milne, who was also frontman for the under-the-radar group The Reduction Agents, was involved with The Brunettes before they made any kind of splash as one of NZ's sweeter sounding exports of the past few years (no disrespect to the Flight of the Conchords boys, who are pretty sweet themselves), and played with the delightful Ruby Suns for a stint. I guess saying that you are a member of several of New Zealand's most well-received bands isn't too terribly difficult, as I'd suppose that the musician pool in this lightly populated land must be fairly limited until they can teach the sheep how to slap a bass. But nonetheless, Milne has also managed to expand his horizons from Kiwi country to tour with both Okkervil River and Feist. I'd say that it's fair to say that he's got a pretty solid musical pedigree, as well as some great taste in collaborators.

As Lawrence Arabia, Milne's sound focuses on a spare but lush arrangement of tongue-in-cheek vocals and those pretty Wilson harmonies. The music doesn't so much as drive itself home, as it meanders the scenic route to end up at the same sonic destination. Actually purchasing this music in the US is somewhat difficult and mostwhat pricey, but as usual, Myspace and YouTube provide. In the latter's case, Lawrence Arabia's sense of humor is prevalant in the latest video, which is fashioned to look like a political campaign for the "Lawrence Party" where Milne shakes hands to the lyrics, "We love each other, but we hate each other. We're afraid of each other, because we want to screw each other." Brilliant.

http://www.myspace.com/lawrencearabia

5/22 - Little Boots

2009-05-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not really hot on the heels of this one. I'd say Little Boots has already been out there generating a considerable amount of buzz in the world. She was a super hot ticket item at SXSW, and is currently blazing her way across Europe. All accounts state that her live show tops the recorded music - which I actually find really rare with singers of this kind of dance/electro, who more often tend to be standing in front of a couple of guys pressing a button every few minutes and singing what amounts to glorified karaoke. Thankfully, a Little Boots show is purported to be quite the party. Her debut EP, Aricebo is exclusive to iTunes and has two standout tracks "Stuck on Repeat" and "Meddle" that come off as a bit of a rougher-edged Goldfrapp, with swagger to spare. "Stuck on Repeat" starts with quite a lot of house loop noodling, but shapes up to be quite a disco symphony.

Though I find both of those songs appealing, I'm most excited about her forthcoming full length album, at least judging by the newly debuted single, "New in Town." "New in Town" improves on the formula laid down by "Meddle," has a rip-roaring sing-along-able chorus, and will probably be a big Summer hit. It comes complete, also, with a terrific video that sports what I've decided to refer to as "sexy homeless choreography" and dancing gangs straight out of West Side Story by way of Michael Jackson's "Bad."

Doesn't hurt that Little Boots herself is quite easy on the eyes as well.

http://www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic

5/21 - Mickey Lee Lane

2009-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

I suppose I owe my debt to the Detroit Cobras circa 2001 for introducing me obliquely to Mickey Lee Lane, though I didn't know it at the time. On their Life, Love and Leaving album (their best, if you ask me), they open with a floorshaker called "Hey Sailor" on the track list, which was a fast favorite of mine. I listened and actually still listen the shit out of that CD, and marvel at whoever in the band has the taste to pick such gems out of the vaults of rock and roll, girl groups, and '60s soul to cover. When I found that "Hey Sailor" is a cover of Mickey Lee Lane's "Hey Sah Lo Ney," I looked the fella up and found a picture of a hepcat looking dude that resembled a bit of a blonde Phil Spector blended with a space alien version of Roy Orbison, sunglasses and all.

Lane worked in the Brill Building as a teenager as an engineer and sometime songwriter, and floated around the late '50s, early '60s New York music scene always somewhat on the fringe of success and recognition. Many of the songs he cut for himself were shelved and only appeared somewhat recently remastered by Mickey and his brother on a compilation CD, but the few sides he cut for Swan records are almost all frantic, danceable soul-a-billy gems. I've noticed a glut of copies of "Shaggy Dog" on eBay lately, and managed to pick up a couple for only a buck or two each. Anytime I put the needle to that song, whoever is in the room wants to know "what the hell is this?" I'm going to assume that they are asking that in a good way, but you can decide for yourself...

5/19 - The Soundcarriers

2009-05-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

With all the electronic music making a thumping comeback, it's nice occasionally to sit back and listen to something with it's feet firmly planted in chunky, shimmering analog bliss. The Soundcarriers are happy to provide. The quartet, from Nottingham, seem to draw equal influences from the spooky psych-sounding minor and major7 chord orchestrations of the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, the jazz-like improv of Krautrock giants CAN, and late '60's European baroque pop acts like the Free Design or the Incredible String Band. Taken together in their debut single, "I Had a Girl," all these influences class them in a modern context with some of Stereolab's earlier more ruminitive efforts, and even moreso with the likes of the sublime Broadcast.

It's almost easier imagining this music in the long lost soundtrack to a 1960s British coming-of-age film, than it is conceiving of it being released this month. But there's no dust on this one, it does in fact become available for the first time on May 25th.

http://www.myspace.com/thesoundcarriers

5/18 - Fever Ray

2009-05-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to waste much time rhapsodizing about all the ways in which I think that Fever Ray is amazing, or how I think that it's some of the most original music I've heard in a long while. Suffice with these facts:

1. Fever Ray is a solo project by Karen Dreijer-Andersson who is one half of the strange, experimental and wonderful Swedish band, The Knife.

2. Fever Ray is spare, dark, moody, scary and beautiful.

3. Fever Ray makes some really kick ass videos.

http://www.myspace.com/feverray

5/14 - Juliette and the New Romantiques

2009-05-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

For a while, those slides that you see before you see a movie in the theater included these bits about entertainers who had two jobs. Something like Queen Latifah who was a rapper! AND an actress! Or Rebecca Romijn who is a model! AND an actress! I always thought, "big fucking deal. I wanna see someone who is an actress AND a physicist, or an actor AND a garbageman." Or something equal to that. Because more often than not, even when someone acts and models, or acts and sings, it's pretty groan-worthy anyway. But, whatever, this isn't news. Actors want to sing, and singers want to act, and for the most part, it would be really great if they'd just stick to their day job and not torture us (I'm looking at you Lindsay Lohan). So, when Juliette Lewis formed The Licks all those years ago, I pretty much thought what most people might - Oh, Jesus, why?

Surprisingly, they actually rocked. I wouldn't say that I loved everything they did, but at the same time, it was MUCH better than it should have been. She seemed to fall into a narrow category of actors who were also legitimately singers. She wasn't so much acting like a rock singer, but she really believed and thus she was. And, reluctantly, I felt myself beginning a conversion.

Last summer, I fell into working on a movie with her and teaching her how to rollerskate. After getting to know her fairly well, I realized that whatever she's doing on stage really is very much who she is, so when she scrapped The Licks this year (which may or may not have occurred amidst some rumored drama), and formed Juliette and the New Romantiques, I was interested.

I saw a couple of shows that they did, and while the music itself is definitely good, and probably a cut above what The Licks were doing, the live show was absolutely off the charts. Her voice has honed itself to an almost Janis Joplin-like bluesy rasp, and she works the crowd like Tina Turner. At one show, she thanked the audience for coming out: "especially you - boy in the bra, and you - my lesbians in the front, and you - tall guy, and you - guy with the crooked teeth, never fix those, they are sexy!" I completed my conversion. I thought they were great.

An album is forthcoming, but until then, you can hear some songs here:

http://www.myspace.com/juliettelewis

5/13 - Bell Gardens

2009-05-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Kenneth James Gibson loves the sound of sunshine and Southern California. If I had to write one sentence about him that didn't contain the word "genius" at least once, that's the one. If I had to go way back on this one, I'd have to talk about being 19 years old, coming back to Austin after a dreadful and stoned summer away in Dallas, and finding that in the amount of time I'd been gone, my best friend Cathy had met this guy Ken, and suddenly Cathy, lo and behold, was playing bass in a band. Well this was all pretty dubious sounding to me until she played me this demo they'd made called "Still California." It was noisy, loopy, spacey, and dirty, but it was also a pretty good dreamy approximation of what was going through my head at that time - which was a burning desire to leave Texas and move to Los Angeles as soon as humanly possible. And I loved it.

Ken liked Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. He liked My Bloody Valentine. He loved the Beach Boys. And believe it or not, it wasn't too cool to love the Beach Boys back then. He also could make the most incredible racket with a guitar that I'd ever heard. And I'm sure he still likes all those things.

That demo made it to a 7" by their band, The Little Furry Things (later to become simply Furry Things), and later was a key track on their first album, "The Big Saturday Illusion." They were a great young band - a bunch of kids learning how to be great at what they did in front of really receptive audiences. Killing us with monstrously intentional feedback, loops of earsplitting sonic fire, and tightening it up as they went along until they found a thumping, blissful, spacey dub infused funk that blew their fellow Texan spacerockers out of the water by the time their next EP was released. It was a great band, getting better all the time, until about 1998ish. Everyone moved to Los Angeles. Ironically, California killed the band that California inspired.

Chris Michaels - 2nd guitarist, harmonies, organs/keyboard - peeled off the scene to return to the South where he found a home playing with Sparklehorse. Cathy Shive went back to school and became, incongruously, a computer programming superstar in New York. Only drummer Charlie Woodburn and Ken stayed behind to tackle LA.

Just prior to Furry Things' inception in Austin, another band was making music there that might as well have been the yin to Furry Things' yang. While Furry Things kicked up a heartswelling, moody racket, Stars of the Lid were creeping in your ears with minimalist pocket symphanies of warm chords and sad refrains. Stars of the Lid's Brian McBride and Ken are both perfectionists in their own way, and friends as well. Hearing the chorale-quality swell of Brian's music, mixed with Ken's ear for harmony and sundrenched melody only seems like a strange fit until you describe it like that. And definitely never seems a strange fit again after you hear how nice it comes together.

California is still being very good to Ken Gibson, and very good to those who love his music. Brian and Ken's new collaboration is called Bell Gardens, and they're wonderful. Unfortunately, they are also taking their sweet time to come out with a proper album of songs. But, snippets at least can be heard currently on their myspace. And of all the things these guys have done so far, I like this one the best.

http://www.myspace.com/bellgardensmusic

Also check out Furry Things, Stars of the Lid, and some of Ken Gibson's electronic and dub projects:

http://www.myspace.com/kennethjamesgibson

http://www.myspace.com/furrythings4

http://www.myspace.com/starsofthelid

5/8 - Gino Washington

2009-05-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

I suppose this week is a lot less about brand new music for me, because I've been revisiting some of my 60s soul collection and enjoying the hell out of it. Not too long ago, I bought this Gino Washington CD off of my friend Mr. Tim Murphy (prounounced like Timurphy - one word, like Prince, and other super important people who don't need two names), who is pretty much my guru for all things Soul and R&B, and frankly, Garage Rock as well. He assured me I would love Gino Washington, and indeed I do.

Gino served his musical time in the burgeoning R&B scene in Detroit in the early '60s - around the same time Motown was making its indelible mark in the world of popular music. Unlike the Motown acts, however, Gino represented a little bit more of a raw, untamed brand of dance music - with the stage moves of James Brown and a rough-hewn Jackie Wilson delivery. He was just 13 when he wrote his hit "Out of this World" and I'd go so far as to say that it's one of the finest teen-written songs I've ever heard. It holds up mightily alongside bigger hits of the day. Gino was purportedly inspired by Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis, and each of those inspirations shows in the music. He's frantic, yet smooth - alternately brash, and subtle. Equally adept at floorshakers and clutch-and-hug crooners.

Just for the record - this is not the same as Geno Washington who recorded some light weight soul sides in England in the later 6os as Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. As a result of Geno-with-an-E, Gino-with-an-I never made it over to England to play due to the confusion of the monikers. When he finally heard Geno Washington's stuff, his response was a very indignant, "I NEVER RECORDED NONE OF THIS CRAP!" He said, "I herd this guy's records and got physically sick! he better hope he never meets me. I told a promoter in England to book a duel." You gotta love the man's fire, and I'll guarantee that every spark of it burns in his music.

5/7 - The Rockafire Explosion

2009-05-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl, all of the best birthday parties were always held at Showbiz Pizza. There were games, there was pizza, there was beer for your parents, and there was the Rockafire Explosion. The Rockafire Explosion, to me, was pretty much the most rock and roll, totally awesome thing I'd ever seen. It was a band of animal robots. Some people might say that the Rockafore Explosion isn't a real band, but when I was 8 joining that band was one of my dreams in life. There was something completely awesome about watching a big fat gorilla rocking the piano, and a bipedal wolf ventriloquist trading barbs with a hayseed bear in striped pants. When other kids were pretending to be Cyndi Lauper, I shit you not, I was putting a collander on my head and sitting behind a mini piano with a home made Rockafire logo, and lipsyncing to one of the Rockafire 45s I won from skeeball tickets. It sounds crazy, and it's a little embarrassing, but it's true.

In the late 90's Showbiz was no more, and the Rockafire became a thing of the past to everyone but for a few lucky diehards who bought whole band set-ups and put them in their garages. But thanks to those guys, we get some really unbelievable YouTube brilliance.

I can describe it as much as I want, but it's nothing like seeing it, so here's a few clips. The first is a trailer for a great documentary I just saw tonight, actually. The second is a video of the band singing "Pop Lock and Drop It" which is pretty much one of the most mindblowing things I've ever seen. I only wish I could still go to my local pizza place, order a pie and a pitcher and see this stuff live again. It makes me smile.

5/6/09 - The Do

2009-05-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

From Finland via Paris, The Do (pronounced "doe" as in do-re-mi-fa-so-etc.), this duo has recently sprang onto the scene with a very infectuous single called "On My Shoulders," which has already be treated to a few obligatory remix efforts. In this case, the remixes never quite add to what is so wonderful and simple about the original. Singer Olivia Merilahti sounds like a pixie hitting puberty - one of the first raspy sopranos I've heard in a long time - with inflections a bit like Bjork, purposely tripping over her words.

The other available songs run the gamut. "Playground hustle" sounds like a gaggle of children rapping to synthetic sitars, toms, and pennywhistles. Then "Queen Dot Kong" sounds like Eminem by way of Nellie McKay. Honestly, nothing quite lives up to the stuttering brilliance of "On My Shoulders," but boring they are not.

Their myspace page reads like it was written by someone on a three day meth binge, so there's not really anything coherent to learn there, but I doubt they'll remain mysterious for long.

Find The Do on myspace here: www.myspace.com/thedoband

5/5 - Miike Snow

2009-05-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Instead of keeping up with my Bombs of the Day, I decided to take advantage of the great weather and my friend's birthday and go drink a lot of wine up in Solvang and Los Olivos. I'd be lying through my grape-stained teeth if I said I knew a damn thing about wine going into it, other than the fact that I like it, and that if it comes in a box, a jug, or costs $2 you'd better hold on to you fucking head, because it's gonna want to run screaming from your body the next morning. After sampling no less than 100 different wines this weekend (miraculously sans screaming head and roiling stomach), I think it's safe to say that I've gone from knowing nothing to knowing exactly as much as I could absorb faster than the wine. That is to say, if I was told about anything past the 8th sample or so each day, you can bet that I wasn't really listening.

As per usual, I made a mix tape for the drive up the coast and through the mountains. I tried to pick some happy, upbeat, sunny songs that would complement an early day drive on a much-needed vacation, and I think that succeeded. My traveling companion, however, is more the turn-the-radio-down-to-inaudible-levels-while-we-talk than the oh-shit-I-love-this-song-let's-tunr-it-up-and-just-talk-louder type. So, given that there really isn't much time when one of us isn't talking, I didn't get to much of it until this morning while sitting in my much less conducive cubicle.

But I do remember one recent download that I put on there that caught my ear Saturday night on our way back from 40 sampled wines, an Italian feast, two beers, and a honkytonk bar, and that was Miike Snow's "Animal."

Miike Snow is a group, not a dude. It's made up of three guys - Pontus Winnberg and Christian Karlsson (also known as Bloodshy and Avant, who are responsible, oddly enough for Britney Spears' "Toxic") and Andrew Wyatt (the frontguy for Fires of Rome). I've found myself singing "Animal" to myself on my scooter off and on since I downloaded it last week, and as far semi-sparse, textured, and earnest electro-pop songs go, it's pretty epic. And if it's not quite epic enough for you, you can check out some pretty sweet remixes by Crookers and Treasure Fingers. It says a lot about the state of pop music today that something created by the creators of wildfire FM mainstream hits such as "Toxic" can also make music that fits right in with the Coachella/All Tomorrow's Parties set...without significantly changing the overall feel of the music! As alternative music goes more toward house, dance, and disco, oddly enough it starts to converge with the light oblivion of mainstream music, then vice versa, until there's not as much difference between the two as there used to be.

I used to listen to Saint Etienne back when I was in college in the 90s, and I remember wondering what it is that makes them destined to fail for general crossover appeal for American audiences. Eventually I landed on the notion that they just weren't ironic or deep (or pseudo-deep) enough for the U.S. At that time there was just no room for a band that just wanted to play unapologetically happy-sounding music that you could dance and sing along to. At that point, even Madonna was trying to take herself seriously for fuck's sake! But, it seems like what goes around comes around. Lord knows, you can't throw your neighbor's baby without hitting a bar or a party or a club still playing the same old tired 80s hits to get the drunks dancing. There's a good reason for this - there just hasn't been as big a collection of accessible, singable, danceable music since then. Maybe now is the time. Or maybe this music will prove to be as disposable as the early 90s rave output. But I do know this - it feels good. And if it feels good, do it.

Miike Snow has just recently (within the last week, I think) built a myspace page, and it's proved that "Animal" isn't just a one-off by any means. "Song for No One," "Silvia," and "Burial" all start out sounding like they could well be Saint Etienne covers themselves, but all built texture and momentum as they go along until you find yourself suddenly listening to quite a symphony of sound. As a bonus there's a remix they did of Vampire Weekend's "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" on there, which - if there are any yous out there to ask me - is a nice improvement on the original.

The full album hits iTunes and stores on June 9th. For now, check them out here:

http://www.myspace.com/miikesnow

Here's a video a YouTuber made for "Animal." All the other posts are the Crookers remix, which isn't as nice at the original, so this is the best I've got. And following is an audio track of Miike Snow's stellar Vampire Weekend Remix.

4/29/09 - Here We Go Magic

2009-04-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today is my girlfriend's birthday, so today's band is going to be one that reminds me of her. One morning at SXSW we started out the day lounging on the lawn of the French Legation Museum, eating breakfast tacos (delicious!) and drinking Cokes. The night before, Camera Obscura had headlined a free show under the same tent, and they were a pretty good barometer for what kind of bands were best suited to a small gently sloping lawn hidden from the highway by trees on one side and the "oldest French structure in Austin" on the other (what? something older than the La Madelaine chain restaurant locations?). It was a sunny day, we were on bikes, and it seemed a no-brainer to spend at least an hour or so outside enjoying the day before we delved into the sticky-floored, stale-beer smelling dank bars and clubs where we'd be seeing bands for the rest of the day (including, happily, Those Darlins mentioned below).

We went to see Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele, who I might just make one of my Daily Bombs somewhere on down the line, but I ended up really enjoying this band called Here We Go Magic. Having one of the gayest names of all time (possibly ranking number two after Death Cab for Cutie), and being from Brooklyn (damn that place!), and being compared (unfairly, I say) to Wavves (who is overrated and borrrrring), this band seems to have a lot going against it. However, the low-fi aspect of this music transcends most bands of that Pitchfork-hyped genre, and manages to take the best of analog home recording, acoustic strumming, and layered vocals and turn it into a warm and oddly catchy, looping, swirling collection of phrases that wash over you nicely. Besides the fact that it reminds me how much I'd rather be sitting in the sun, eating breakfast tacos and smiling at my girlfriend than sitting in a cubicle typing this...

If you didn't know better, you might mistake the vocals in the opening of "Tunnelvision" for a lady, but Here We Go Magic is essentially Luke Temple, a pleasant folky popster under his own moniker, working alone in his bedroom studio to record music that doesn't sound exactly like the Luke Temple we might know and love. Albeit still a bit ladylike. Granted, some of the offerings on Here We Go Magic's myspace player devolve into self-loving noodling, but besides the enjoyable "Tunnelvision," I've really taken to playing "Fangala" as often as possible, and have an affinity for "Only Pieces" as well.

Enjoy. Preferably in the sunshine with a breakfast taco and a nice girl.

http://www.myspace.com/herewegomagic

4/28/09 - Telepathe

2009-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I hate Brooklyn. Yep, I said it. Between the ecstatic embrace of journalists and music nerds, Brooklyn is probably the most jizz-covered burg in the world. I think it annoys me when there is music coming out of Brooklyn that I really like. I feel like I've sold out my own version of West Coast snobbery to acknowledge that there might, in fact, just be some kind of validity to the claims of Brooklynites that East is best.

There is something out there right now that they are calling avant-garde. It doesn't sound a goddamn thing like Philip Glass, but more like Erase Errata meets melodic electronic noodling. Somewhere in this scene (which apparently includes Gang Gang Dance and Effi Briest), Telepathe hovers. Telepathe (pronounced tel-EP-ath-ee), however, seem to be going alarmingly toward the hook-driven landscape of, dare I say, pop music. Say it isn't so!? Well, bless those kids for doing it, because somewhere between avant garde and pop isn't a bad place to be if it means that you've caught the ear of TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, who then agrees to produce your first full length album. Not half bad, really.

Back when Telepathe started out a few years ago, there wasn't much to distinguish them from any other revolving group of knob-twiddling, droning Brooklyn hipsters. But, with their album
Dance Mother (released 4/14/09), they bring the bass, the hooks, and incongruously, even a little hip hop delivery. With childlike female vocals half-chanting, half lulling over some potential dance floor beats, DJs can see fit to pack this comfortably in their crates for events of any occasion. I especially love the moaning intro, cavernous arrangement, and clean bass of the first single, "So Fine."

Telepathe's Dance Mother is available on iTunes, and 8 songs (including a stellar Atticus Ross remix of "Michael") can be heard on their myspace page:

www.myspace.com/telepathe

Here's an extremely random video for "So Fine" as well:

4/27/09 - Those Darlins

2009-04-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

I've always been a sucker for a good hootenanny. I even just love that word: hootenanny. Go ahead - repeat it a few dozen times and tell me you ain't a-grinnin'. Well, if there's one to be had out there nowadays, Those Darlins from Murfeesboro, TN might just be the gals to hoot it. Hands down one of my favorite finds from this year's SXSW, the three girls formed a unified front at the edge of the staged, be-frilled with multi-chromatic bloomers, boots, strumming acoustic instruments, and cheeky vocals. In a town overflowing with big-ticket major label bands that have busted the indie mold of SXSWs of yore, Those Darlins reminded that bigger isn't always better. Their songs are like front-porch backwoods jams filtered through a tough-talkin' Southern female aesthetic that goes all the way back to Prohibition. They sing about "Snaggle-toothed Mamas" and wild drunken women, put to a driving jamboree beat that makes you wanna lift your knees and slap along.*

My favorite song is called "The Whole Damn Thing" which is about eating the leftovers of a chicken of questionable vintage. "I got drunk and I ate a chicken," they sing, "I ate a chicken I found in my kitchen. Not just a thigh and not just a wing. I'd like to let you know I ate the whole damn thing." Reminds me a lot of the handful of times I've fallen asleep in the middle of a drunken Hot Pocket feast, only to find it laying limp on my chest when I wake up in the morning. They sound like my kinds of ladies.

They can be found on myspace at :
www.myspace.com/darlins

And their debut EP, "Wild One" is available on iTunes, with a debut full length album to appear in July.

*Knee-slapping was aided in part by the free Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka available at the SXSW day show they played. Fittingly paired, and simultaneously delicious.

4/24/09 - Marina & the Diamonds

2009-04-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

I've had my eye on Marina & the Diamonds for a few months now. Her (and despite the "& the Diamonds" moniker, I'm fairly sure we're just eyeballing one singular lady here) first single, "Obsessions," begins like a simple girl-and-piano ballad with plenty of ballad-y theatricality. After a few measures, though, it settles into a sonic spectrum of heavy acoustic chords, light electro pulsations, a driving beat and open-throated vocals and becomes sublime. Despite the strength of the single, I prefer the presumed B-side, "Mowgli's Road" for its Goldfrapp meets Yeah Yeah Yeah's caterwauling, and a downright witchy, creeped out bridge that'll probably guarantee it'll never be recruited by any Disney soundtracks - thank god.

Unfortunately, though the myspace page promises that she can be found on iTunes, I've had no such luck actually locating anything downloadable. In the meantime, you can find several remixes of "Obsessions" on BigStereo.net, which is a great site for any lovers of dance, electro, and nu-disco, btw. And below is the link to Marina & the Diamonds' myspace page, which features 4 songs:

http://www.myspace.com/marinaandthediamonds

Hello, My Name Is...

2009-04-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start this little thingy to keep a running life-sized mix tape of whatever bands I'm listening to on any particular day. They don't have to be new, they don't have to be old, they don't have to be buzz bands, indie bands, rock bands, rap singers...they're just, simply, people making music that vibrates my antennae. And by antennae, I mean...well, hopefully you know what I mean.

Who the hell am I to think that anyone is going to care what kind of music I like? I'm nobody. I'm just a girl who listens to a lot of music, always looking for the next thing that sounds like love. I read magazines, blogs, websites, listen to web radio, Pandora, myspace band pages, download free MP3s, buy stuff on iTunes, and just generally keep my ear to the ground.

I like music I can dance to, music I can stomp my feet to, and music that I can curl up in a ball and cry to. Sometimes I even DJ for more than just that poor friend I've trapped in my apartment with my record collection and a 12 pack of Tecate.

So, we'll see how this goes...If you happen to be reading, hello, and thank you.