Gultskra Artikler - Galaktika

Gultskra Artikler
Galaktika
(Other Electricities)
Rating: 3.3 of 5


Wordless music albums must rely on their sonic textures to achieve imagery. Moscow-based avant-garde artist Alexey Devyanin has the grasp on this. Under the name Gultskra Artikler, Devyanin has come out with Galaktika—an ambient voyage through the nihility of hope in space.

With looped noise obscenely interrupting each mix, each drone track on Galaktika is engraved with its own signature—developing the interpretive full-length as a whole. Disturbing echoed choir vocals groan unintelligible syllables during dissolutions before synthetic and tendriled percussion tracks make shapes until the glob of sound becomes distortedly congealed.

Galaktika gets about as close to terrestrial as earth’s orbit, but not nearly as constant or calculated. The record’s course drifts along in zero gravity; hurtling aimlessly and spinning dark-colored streaks of light across the dregs of visible space. Artikler’s long-player could even soundtrack the next Ridley Scott sci-fi production; such as the unwordly “Nanorobot” would prove upon one closed-eyed listen.

Artikler’s work is very cinematic in arrangement. Similar soundscape sequences to 2001: A Space Odyssey can be heard beginning “Sputnik”; evolving into the sine wave whirr that would dissipate into thin slishes at the end of the track. The mostly melodic and introspective synth progression of “Asteroid” follows, nearing the end of the album. What kind of angel the final track is named after, I can only fear to know.

Industrial burbles sounding like heavy metal doors heaving, cringing digital squeals clucking on like megacomputers thinking, multiple semitones wavering in and out; Gultskra Artikler’s Galaktika is an intrepid, riveting affair.

Galaktika - Gultskra Artikler

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The Young Friends - Hella

The Young Friends
Hella
(Moodgadget Records)
Rating: 2.9 of 5


A little different from their usual lineup of electronic artists, Moodgadget Records took a chance on a couple of adolescents making inviting beach pop with the release of Hella by The Young Friends. Three chords and three minutes mark the limit on seven summery songs.

The subject matter may not exceed any expectations from a couple of fresh-outta-high-schoolers, but a nice pop sensibility is ever present throughout. It’s true that the songs kind of bleed into each other; making it hard to remember one over another, but the naivety and charm in the delivery is somewhat endearing.

The vocals are mostly moaned out overtop of bright chinsy guitar lines that are a little too insistent—particularly on “North End”. The drumming is a bit lackluster and static in a ‘played via keyboard’ kind of way. But, the energy is still here.

The first track, “Be My Baby”, glides along some breezy guitar passages—making the most out of its repetitious choruses. The bass parts are undermixed and seem to exist out of necessity. The handclaps on “Riverside Kids” give the album a youthful merriment. Who knows, it sounds like it could have been a really fun album to record. Perhaps, The Young Friends could have utilized a tremolo box for the guitars on a track or two.

Certainly without the bookworm lyrical depth of Vampire Weekend, The Young Friends still put out singalong bouncers in a similar approach. Potential might be a dangerous word to use, but honestly, let’s wait until they grow up a bit.

Be My Baby - The Young Friends

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True Womanhood - Basement Membranes EP

True Womanhood
Basement Membranes EP
(Environmental Aesthetics)
Rating: 4.1 out of 5


Like a dirty mass of glacial ice, True Womanhood carves deep distinguishable grooves in the haunts of avant pop song confinement. Taking strange cues from bands like Slowdive, Sonic Youth, and No Age; the trio’s sound is sonically conglomeratic. The marriage of the ethereal with the guttural on their latest EP, Basement Membranes, will keep your head swimming like too many spoonfuls of Robitussin. You’ve got to love it when D.C. sounds this good.

The sour note dirge of the colossal second track “Dignitas” shifts from discordant guitar grunge into a gaze-y hypnotic bridge and back again—all to a steady timpani shuffle. Thomas Redmond’s vocals are a perfect match for this swatch of post-punk revivalism.

Cutting back in from the dreamy feedback spills are the whipping guitar chugs on the trembling “Rubber Buoys”. Perhaps the highpoint is appropriately right at the beginning of the record with the Radiohead-conjuring “The Monk”; featuring lines like ‘we tried and failed’ and ‘we eat our young’.

Aurally darker than some ears can tolerate, True Womanhood’s recent contribution to a UK compilation ("This is Wind Fucker") was eschewed on the grounds that it sounded like a ‘chant to the devil’. If curiosity doesn’t set in for you from there, I don’t know what it takes.

The Monk - True Womanhood
This is Wind Fucker (unreleased) - True Womanhood

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Judson Claiborne - Time and Temperature

Judson Claiborne
Time and Temperature
(La Société Expéditionnaire)
Rating: 3.3 of 5


When the transitions between seasons may leave you spiritless, sometimes there is solace in solitude. Chris Salveter aka Judson Claiborne understands this better than many. With his former slowcore band Low Skies on hiatus, Chris spent a lazy nine months spanning from summer of ’08 to early ‘09 writing and recording a second solo album—this time to be released on La Société Expéditionnaire.

Sauntering along in indie folk song format, Time and Temperature tosses in elements of bareboned neo-Baroque, alt-country, and Appalachian music. Through the vocal evocation of a weathered Jason Collett, Salveter spins yarns about waiting and wandering in pining romanticism.

In front of straggling guitar lines, Salveter sings ‘Baby, you can tell the songs so well to a stranger you don’t mind / where they’re from or what they’ve done or when there’s anger in their eyes’ on the simple and reflective “A Song for Dreaming”. The pronounced “Oh Cyril” comes next in sequence; following each sparse verse with a clement horn-sweeping chorus. “My How We Change!” and closer “Moonraker” are other ragged standouts.

What Judson Claiborne does with negative space is a marvelous achievement. Allowing the songs to promenade at their own intended speed lends the record a discreet maturity. ‘When the twilight spirit comes around, I’ll be somewhere nearing with my head to the ground’, he sings on the opening track. Salveter certainly understands the virtue that is patience.

As the cheerless inertia of the winter season slowly ferments into the halcyon swell of spring, Time and Temperature will accompany you in the gap.

Twilight Spirit - Judson Claiborne

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Javelin - No Más

Javelin
No Más
(Luaka Bop)
Rating: 4.1 of 5


Ears of the indie megacosm, welcome Javelin. This sonic collage duo migrated down the coast from the ‘Creative Capital’ Providence, Rhode Island to the funky streets of Brooklyn where their hunky electro-jams can be embraced with open arms. After last year’s cheeky demo, Jamz N Jemz, it was time for cousins Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford to rework their material into an accessible and concise full-length. That’s just what they did. Thanks to Luaka Bop, we have at our disposal No Más.

At our disposal; I suppose that was an interesting way to put it, seeing as this can be deemed ‘disposable’ music. These kinds of records need the charm to pull an instantaneous response from the audience the way that Beck’s Odelay or Avalanches’ Since I Left You have done in the past. Nowadays usually met with success through a catchy single or blog-hyped track, No Más has these kinds of options.

“Vibrationz” has been all over the feed since last year. It’s true; many selections come to us re-noodled from Jamz N Jemz. Yet, doing away with the corrosive etchings and tape hiss now on this Luaka Bop outing, evidence shows that Javelin cleans up well. Swapping out the boxy acoustic guitar melody in “Mossy Woodland” for a vocal one, the beginning of the album sounds well-rehearsed. Followed by the infectious “Oh! Centra”, listeners are in for a hell of a tune wedgy. Abounding with silly lines sung by dwarfed vocals, shaking this song from your head might prove painful.

“Intervales Theme” shows up here, as well; still highly effective as an intermission piece. New inclusion “Tell Me, What Will It Be?” feasts on 70s-soundtrack funk; grooving a staccato bass line with car horn organ screeches. Javelin ricochets between genres track-by-track, from Hot Chip-style indie electronic (“Off My Mind”) to block-party hip hop (“Susie Cues”). Muted hand claps get lost in the hurtling shuffle of the Farfisa-laden “Shadow Heart”—the first of three strong that close out the record.

Full tilt on the sampling, this Javelin debut is a boffo success in the cut-and-paste medium. If only it was still considered cool to walk the streets with your ghettoblaster blaring. Saccharine-sweet and party-approved, No Más deserves spin-time at your next vintage-themed hipster shindy. When you walk up to the DJ table, throw this LP at him. If nothing else, the psychedelic cover will look damn good on his stack.

Vibrationz - Javelin

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Woodpigeon - Die Stadt Muzikanten / Spirehouse

Woodpigeon
Die Stadt Muzikanten / Spirehouse
(End of the Road)
Rating: 3.7 of 5 / 2.8 of 5


First digging into the newer five-song EP, Spirehouse, we find Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon bearing heart with more diffident acoustic workings in the vain of one Sufjan Stevens. Yet, surprising and rushing is the string overtaking deeper into the title track and I want to realize this to be a submissive but fostering confection before the LP. But, three uneventful musings later, we meet with an extraneous remix of said first song and not much that sticks. Allowing the full album to set the bar, missing here are the lavish arrangements and gorgeous harmonies that I would later be in for.

Beginning to track Die Stadt Muzikanten, Woodpigeon’s third record proper, I am flitted away to yesteryear by the vinyl crackle and seesawing arrangements of the eponymous opener. Cueing into “Woodpigeon vs. Eagleowl (Strength In Numbers)”, the window into this young release begins to prop open. Soft and plush are the harmonizing vocals on kindling “Morningside”; a highlight from the album’s first half sandwiched between two pert numbers.

There is plenty to leaf through here; Hamilton contributing 16 tracks on the record. He knows how to pen beautifully intricate compositions and spruce them up with the trappings of ambrosial orchestration. The listener will be taken aback by the powerful dynamic shifts that some of these songs feature. Many other groups in the twee pop category will utilize thin vocals and modest acoustic guitar arrangements, but when Hamilton goes full-voice on the hearty “Duck Duck Goose”, he separates Woodpigeon from the pack.

Not as emotionally arresting as William Fitzsimmons, or even Sam Beam, Hamilton’s afflicted delivery on the abbreviated “Unmissable Grey, Mixed Paint” aches with every imagerial line; similar in construction to Paul McCartney’s “Junk”. Affecting is the dark nostalgia of the highly personal “Such A Lucky Girl”; a track that burns slowly in seven minutes length.

“Spirehouse” from the EP is slotted in the ten spot here; sounding more reserved than before amid this resonating collection. Sometimes, the sheer volume of the instrumentation supersedes over Hamilton’s non-rock voice as he is heard trying to sing above the come-in of electric guitar and turned-up bass track on the final chorus of “Redbeard”.

Frequently, Hamilton sings with his tail between his legs and it compromises the focus of the record a bit. But, listen closely because Hamilton’s lyricism on the full-length is as refined as it’s ever been; rescuing songs that are not as immediate or obviously memorable.

My Denial in Argyle - Woodpigeon

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matt pond PA - The Dark Leaves

matt pond PA
The Dark Leaves
(Altitude Records!)
Rating: 2.8 of 5


Despite recording and touring as guitarist in The Wooden Birds for 2009’s Magnolia, Matt Pond will never forsake studio time to work on what will be the next Matt Pond PA release. He has continued to serve up singles to his fans that are in anticipation for The Dark Leaves, the seventh installment from the band in a decade of existence. And, out with it he comes. Perhaps now suffering from album-by-album dittoing just as The Wooden Birds’ songwriter Andrew Kenny has been pronounced guilty of with his predecessive outfit American Analog Set, Matt Pond PA can’t seem to get over the lag.

It’s true that both artists have fingers in the same pie; the contraposition of brooding lyrics with crisp and sometimes lush chamber pop. While Kenny has done something to rejuvenate his songwriting by unplugging the guitar and enlisting harmonic female vocal support for his new project’s debut record, Pond hasn’t so much as changed a pair of socks since he left Mel’s Rock Pile to release Measure under the PA moniker in 2000.

The shades of green in Pond’s music are a little richer and a little bluer on The Dark Leaves. Sure, the plainly-titled “The Dark Leaves Theme” is stirring with its ‘love kills me’ chorus. Lovely still are the soft melodies, cello lines, and acoustic guitars of “Brooklyn Fawn” and “Winter Fawn”. The first two tracks “Starting” and “Running Wild” have Pond in vibrant display of his dexterous pop and melodic savvy. The cliffhanger “First Song” finishes out the record; its tempos akin to John Vanderslice-esque undulation.

The Dark Leaves is a pretty-sounding and rapt deliberation of love and longing twined in the dewed foliate textures of Pond’s nimble indie pop—not unlike all of the others he’s offered before. ‘You already know/what you don’t even know/read the cover, the flap/you just put it back’, he confesses on his appeal for support “Remains”. You can heed his warning if you want.

Starting - matt pond PA

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The Disco Biscuits - Planet Anthem

The Disco Biscuits

Planet Anthem

(Diamond Riggs)

Rating: 3.3 of 5

Here in their fifteenth year of activity, The Disco Biscuits continue to load up ubiquitous genres in the trunk with their fifth studio album Planet Anthem. Once holding deep roots in the soils of jammy incongruity, this collection flutters high in the sky with breezes of melody and intelligent song craft. Featuring plenty of East Coast hip hop vibe, Planet Anthem is a rambunctious busybody; the fruits of which spawned from collaborations in the recently purchased Philadelphia studio space once owned by DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Appointing big name producers and other outside hands, such as Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry and Roc-A-Fella’s co-founder Damon Dash, maintains the fatty sheen of gaudy production. How appropriate, however.

Electro hop “On Time” is on deck for the pop charts with the lead vocal track sheathed in dripping Auto-Tune and one of the most toothsome breakdowns you will hear. “You and I” sounds 3OH!3-approved with pandemic hooks and teasing drum breaks. Arabian nuances add refreshing mystique to the otherworldly trance of “Über Glue”. Tracks “The City” and opener “Loose Change” can be heard influenced by countless white-boy underground hip hop records of the past decade and a half.

Verse for verse, “Fish Out of Water” is as close to indie rock as they get; however, the chorus falls back upon something that could of come from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals canon—minus the politics, of course.

The Disco Biscuits run the gamut from synth-rock to electronica to alternative hip hop. So wildly all over the place, it’s amazing how everything gels together. While lyrically nothing to write home about, Planet Anthem is still replete with convivial, radio-friendly pop songs.

On Time - The Disco Biscuits

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Plants and Animals - La La Land

Plants and Animals
La La Land
(Secret City Records)
Rating: 2.9 of 5


Albums recorded using all analog tape equipment serve up as tasty nuggets in the indie rock phylum. Sometimes, it adds to the efficacy when the artist(s) ‘date’ the sound of the record with the sonances of decades past. Montreal-based Plants and Animals’ sophomore effort, La La Land, further explores these leanings. Throw in a bluesy sax solo in front of tolling horns, and the jangling beat of third track “American Idol” pumps with the Memphis sound of a particular well-respected Alex Chilton-fronted band. Sure, Big Star still has its signature on many releases from sprouting indie bands; but the influence is contagious and the songwriters pull upon each other. Only two years removed from the last record, Plants and Animals may have been listening to their share of Grizzly Bear since then.

Wanting to follow up big to their brilliantly-subdued, under-the-radar debut, Parc Avenue, Plants and Animals decidedly go more-electric and find fascination with the city of Los Angeles. These constructs are built for big hooks and West Coast-derivative classic rock reworkings. But, the smoked-up laze, obtuse lyrics, and lack of chunky humbug choruses leaves La La Land flatulent.

Comparatively to Parc Avenue, the album is lank in instrumentation. It lends to more of that ‘out on the canyon’ vibe, but the appeal is gluttonously lost somewhere in the bustle of Sunset Boulevard. Ample filler throughout the record substantiates that fat needs a-trimming.

“The Mama Papa” is a fun, bouncy affair and “Jeans Jeans Jeans” measures out the record quite well in the final slot. The few coveted musings here tend to be the shorter ones with the sun-bleached “Undone Melody” being a patient and delivering exception.

With a name like Plants and Animals, the trio personifies the kind of harmony and in-unison work of that this band is capable. But, lustrous production and up-tempo rock selections for the tracklisting don’t treat them as kindly as they might have hoped. La La Land evinces them way ahead of themselves already—a lesson learned one too many times in the past by bands with acclaimed debuts.

Tom Cruz - Plants and Animals

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Untied States - Instant Everything, Constant Nothing

Untied States
Instant Everything, Constant Nothing
(Distile)
Rating: 3.5 of 5


The dank, sweltering, seedy city streets of Fulton County, Georgia; a byzantine conduit delineating parking garages, subway stations, and vacant warehouses, this is Atlanta—a hub mostly credited to a burgeoning hip-hop scene. But, with some of those empty buildings serving as practice spaces, indie rock has spread its wings and flown 70 miles west from Athens to the big city. First Deerhunter, now we have the difform sounds of the Untied States.

The first big-time studio recording from this quintet, released by the French label Distile, is a jagged salmagundi of post-punk, alternative, post-hardcore, nugaze, prog, and experimental art-rock genres. It’s a mindfucker of an album with Hail to the Thief-era Radiohead nuances, contorted vocal stranglings, loads of Fender guitar chinks, and an extreme lack of song choruses.

Sometimes misanthropic, seldom too frightening, and many times bizarre; Instant Everything, Constant Nothing flashes like hot light refracting. Taking sharp turns in trajectory; songs flip and fold back upon themselves in acute angles.

“Not Fences, Mere Masks” is a neverending tunnel ride through the dark trenches of the underground; making use of descending chords and trodded heavily upon by the bass track. “Unsilvered Mirrors” squirms about in sudden and extreme changeableness. A small stolen melody line from Cream’s “I Feel Free” twice surfaces, briefly.

“These Dead Birds” is very Thurston Moore; a foot-stumbling and staggering waltz that comes back to bitingly sneer. Industrial shapes backdrop “Delusions Are Grander” and “Wrestling With Entropy in the Rehabbed Factory”. It’s all so busy and frenetic, at times, that skipping about on the record will satisfy you none.

It’s important to let Instant Everything, Constant Nothing get its chance with a full spin on your player, and probably several more. The fascination in hearing these tracks deconstruct before your ears will compel you to do so. As if dully mesmerized, you just will.

Unsilvered Mirrors - Untied States

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***see them play tonight... Tuesday, April 20th at Garfield Artworks in Pittsburgh
9pm start w/ Grasso Electtrica

Brasstronaut - Mt. Chimaera

Brasstronaut
Mt. Chimaera
(Unlimited Sounds)
Rating: 3.6 of 5


When one says jazz-pop, a few artists might come to mind. Herb Alpert. Steely Dan. Surely, those are some throwback names. What might the future hold for the genre? We may have the answer to that question in Vancouver band Brasstronaut. Between the breezy rhythmus, the synthesizers, and the colorful horns—all in song format; I’d say that their latest release classifies.
Mt. Chimaera postdates two EPs from Edo Van Breeman’s unclassifiable four-piece outfit. And, comparatively, encounters on something more brisk and poppier.

This record picks up steam early as the first song “Slow Knots” culminates around gated piano and shouted whoops. Drummer Brennan Saul utilizes the brushes behind “Hand Behind” as singular trumpet laments from Bryan Davies complement the electric guitar swells nearly to perfection. John Walsh’s wooly electric bass line on “Lo Hi Hopes” propels from the intro to the 6/4-metered chorus. However, the lot of these recordings tends to define Walsh as primarily a stand-up player.

The final track “Insects” is an engaging eight-minute medley teeming with dynamite transitions before reverting back to the opening motif in chilling Dixieland threnody.

Many of the vocals resound cavernously; looming just barely above the turbulent frenzy of the multi-instrumented backing band during pinnacle moments. The crescendos are majestic and anticipated, yet the guitar solos are nonexistent. Instead, Brasstronaut relies on Van Breeman’s chiming piano parts and Davies’ linear horn lines—all to great effect.

Pleasingly unconventional in its approach as a pop record, Mt. Chimaera is crisp, yet soothing—an ideal nighttime listening enjoyment

Slow Knots - Brasstronaut

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The Hold Steady at Diesel (Wed. Apr. 14th, 2010); live review

photo by Brian Osberg

City of Pittsburgh, Hold Steady!

Craig Finn and Co. rolled into town Wednesday night brandishing their triple guitar-fueled drunk rock. The band's set was legion with fist-pumping rockers from all four of their previous records and showcased new material from the highly-anticipated Heaven Is Whenever.

Hearing live for the first time "Hurricane J" and "Rock Problems" from the new record, a packed house got behind The Hold Steady with more crushing singalongs despite Finn's earlier bit about Heaven Is Whenever being 'less anthemic'. Sandwich these tracks between the likes of "You Can Make Him Like You" and "Navy Sheets" and you get quite the positive result.

No Franz Nicolay, of course, as he amicably left the band earlier this January to pursue a solo career as a 'vaudeville troubadour', so absent or subdued were fill-in Dan Neustadt's keyboard parts that interlace the leads on "Navy Sheets" or the piano breakdown in the encore "Stuck Between Stations". Nonetheless, the guitar trio of Finn, Tad Kubler, and tour addition Lucero's Steve Selvidge powered through "Massive Nights" and "Same Kooks" from 2006's Boys and Girls in America. I can't even believe it was that long ago; sounded so good to me hearing six picks from this record.

The capstone of the hour-plus may have been the reckless spit of "Cattle and the Creeping Things". Other inclusions from the first two records included "The Swish" and "Your Little Hoodrat Friend". No "Positive Jam", nor "Citrus", which they did first encore with the previous night at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern in Cleveland. Looking at that setlist, it's proof that they've really been mixing things up city to city on this tour.

It was an unfortunate miss on our part not to find the crew out at the bars in South Side post-performance (a misleading tip from the owner took us to an almost-empty Bar 11). But, we can still imagine that hypothetical conversation with a half-fuddled Finn about how the singer, guitarist, and bassist of openers The Oranges Band looked like Ben Folds, Steve Carell, and Elliott Smith, respectively.

Hurricane J - The Hold Steady

Sin Ropas - Holy Broken

Sin Ropas
Holy Broken
(Shrug Records)
Rating: 3 of 5


Holy Broken? Holy reminder! From the get-go, I’m instantly hearing the resemblances to that Number Seven Uptown record from Swearing at Motorists. From the use of distorted guitars and slag tempos to the Hayden-tinged sound of the vocals (Swearing at Motorists covered Hayden’s “Bullet” on the aforementioned LP); the album from this duo, known as Sin Ropas, is a spitting image of the Midwestern lo-fi ramble rock I knew so well.

Well, it pays that Tim Hurley and his wife Danni Iosello (Hurley of Califone and Red Red Meat fame) make the city of Chicago their hub for production. However, Holy Broken was actually recorded in a cabin located in the mountains of North Carolina.

If you’re hankering for a bluesy swank, “Nailed In Air” features the slow sway of a bar band whose lead singer is drugged up on Valium. And, we also get a taste of Joseph Arthur-style cooing two-thirds the way through.

‘What good is stealing light from another star?’ Hurley slurs overtop pedestrian acoustic guitar strums on the dusky “Stolen Stars and Light”. The smooth husk of his singing is so reminiscent of Paul Hayden Desser that this could’ve been plucked from 1998’s The Closer I Get. “The Fever You Fake”, at the head of the record, achieves an energy that is never surpassed from the rest that plays out. But, it sweetly owes to 90s alternative rock, sounding like a product of Lou Barlow and Mark Everett from Eels.

You’ll continue to hear strange clattering and electronic drones throughout Holy Broken, as Hurley used instruments that he tailored himself out of who-knows-what; certainly retaining a bit of uniqueness on the album. Yet still, the bumbling chord changes and nightmarish lyrics are all but exact copies from other lesser-known songbooks. Hurley does steal light after all, but only from the dimmest of the stars in the indie rock universe.

Stolen Stars and Light - Sin Ropas

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Black Francis - Nonstoperotik

Black Francis
Nonstoperotik
(Cooking Vinyl)
Rating: 3.2 out of 5


Only the second album of his solo career to carry the name of his old Pixies tag, Black Francis; Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV picked up a new band, an old guitar, and reemployed producer of several Frank Black and the Catholics’ albums, Eric Drew Feldman, to put to tape ten thematic new originals and one rousing cover. The package deal is called Nonstoperotik; a rousing astrological interpretation of love and sex. Yes, sex. Black Francis is back to brass tacks.

The record takes bends a little less sharply, and that is what distinguishes it from Pixies’ work. This is not at all different from other irons Thompson has pulled out of the fire during his solo songsmith-ing. It is gratifying, however, to hear him write about the sensual side of love again, now with twenty years of age added.

“Lake of Sin” kicks things off with a stomach-churning chord structure and guitar-chugging buildups. Almost too soon, Nonstop slips in energy with a couple of soft crooners. “O My Tidy Sum” does reap the benefit from some seesawing keyboard string synths. The comeback is in the form of the mildly rocking rendition of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Wheels”.

The next few sound a bit flimsy in production for being so intendedly rock-driven. Thompson yowls on “Dead Man’s Curve” with that same quality throatiness. “Six Legged Man” sets forth from the introductory dedication and has Black Francis spitting short lines on the mic in a wild party of double-time hi-hat, kick, and bass line thump.

The lines of “Wild Son” pay homage to typical Pixies-like marriage of sexuality and creed. And, then we have Thompson’s ode to oral sex, “When I Go Down On You”. There is a strange McCartney moment late in the second verse when one can hear a sung melody that could be resolved by the chorus of “Band on the Run”.
The title track, the acme of Nonstop’s power, courses with desperation—an intensely passionate plea for carnal knowledge. With its ‘verse, then a solo’ arrangement, the piano ballad segues into the descending flat-fifth arpeggios of the excellent tribute to the underground, “Cinema Star”.

These songs are more mature and reflective. Lacking the same kinky explicitness of Pixies’ classics like “Is She Weird” or “I’ve Been Tired”, the new material on Nonstoperotik breathes somewhat languidly on the fleshy topics. Not to knock—after all, Thompson did just turn 45.

Cinema Star - Black Francis

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...and in support of Black Francis' 45th birthday yesterday, Happy Belated Birthday!!

Levitate Me - Pixies

Midlake at Diesel (Mon. Apr. 5th, 2010); live review

It was an outstanding eventful day. After watching the Pirates put the Dodgers away at gorgeous PNC Park on 2010 Opening Day (and grabbing a quick bite at Pizza Sola), I made my way down to Diesel in the South Side for the Midlake show.

The upstairs sections were roped off due to construction, so the intimacy of the sets to follow was ever present. Unfortunately, for the bands, only a handful of us came out to see Midlake and opening act John Grant (from his former band, The Czars).

Grant came out, hushing the whispers, on the keys with a song he announced as named "Firefly". The band came down the stairs behind him from the second selection onward; a feverous and seasoned five-piece in all, including Midlake's newly-acquired keyboardist/flautist Jesse Chandler. Grant's voice is charismatic and affecting and his humor is slightly unnerving --see "Jesus Hates Faggots".

The set featured twisting metaphoric romps "Sigourney Weaver" and "Chicken Bones", the sweetly idle "Marz", and the stripping fuck-off token "Queen of Denmark" (aka title track)--all songs off of Grant's new Bella Union release. The record was produced and instrumentally backed by Midlake.

I chit-chatted a bit with Grant's drummer outside during a smoke. He told me this was only their fifth show. But the rehearsals paid off, nothing sounded 'just put together'.

Marz - John Grant

* * * * *

After John Grant filed off the stage and bounced from corner to corner in the club, Midlake set up.

All for a love of flannel, beards, archtops, and Jethro Tull; this expanded Denton, TX septet graced the audience with their re-formatted 70s folk-rock. Sometimes one, sometimes two flutes, sometimes two, sometimes four guitars; only Midlake sounds like this--at least, these days.

Picking from a cornucopia of fruit on The Courage of Others, Tim Smith tenderly carried tunes like "Small Mountain", "Bring Down", and "Winter Dies" accompanied by the woody tones of fingerpicked Martin acoustics and melancholic flute solos. The achieving harmonies of Eric Nichelson and Eric Pulido assent to Smith's tenor live, as they do so wonderfully on record.

Pulido did all the talking as Smith assigned himself unspoken balladeer through the evening. A few false lead-ins drew curiosity out of the crowd until they were resolved to be introductory notes to works from The Trials of Van Occupanther, such as "Roscoe" or "Head Home". Many of these rehashed offerings bled into frenzied jams with jazz-rock leads from the ever-many electric guitarists and clamoring drum fills from McKenzie Smith. In total, the first six entries from Van Occupanther were performed, with the plaintive "Branches" serving as the savory encore.

Once you wade through the campfire smoke, the silver lining is still burningly evident in their music. Midlake may not have played "We Gathered In Spring", but the other favorites were represented well. "Bandits" and Courage's single "Head Home" make for radiant examples of superb live exposition.

To think, here I was prepping up for some wondrous harmonizing, but these guys can really play.

Rulers, Ruling All Things - Midlake

Tunng - ...And Then We Saw Land

Tunng
…And Then We Saw Land
(Thrill Jockey)
Rating: 4 of 5


The subtle art of reinvention is one that Tunng dabbles in so well. Countless other audile flavors have bled through on their three previous releases; all of which, featuring lead vocals from founding member Sam Genders. This time around, on …And Then We Saw Land, Genders’ remains dormant. Decidedly, the other bandmates collaborated in majestic display; working earnestly with what available resources they had to fruit this ambitious and panoramic record.

After the first piano and acoustic guitar strands of “Hustle”, the stated single here, Mike Lindsay and Becky Jacobs chant over a trotting drum track in charmful carefreeness. The quaint tale “It Breaks” follows; ambling along to a churning rhythm and accented by a trickling piano line played with soft attack.

‘A trick of the light, a turn of the tide’, Jacobs and Lindsay sing mellifluously on “October”—a beautifully simple pondering bookmarked for perfect addition into anyone’s autumn mixtape this year. “Sashimi” is another standout; equipped with a burbling synth part and constantly back-falling progression. The instrumentation is rich throughout—marked with banjos, melodica, exotic percussion, and electronic fiddlings. Not to mention how rewarded we are in hearing Jacobs joining the forefront on vocal duties here and there; notably on the short “These Winds” and on the ‘goodbye wave’ refrain of closer “Weekend Away”.

Each and every selection complements the next. Even the instrumental “By Dusk They Were In The City” is well-crafted; a glitchy two-chord study heightening to a guitar-solo crescendo.

Tunng succeeds in holding true to their chief ingredients of rustic folkiness and fragilely-sung storytelling, and at such a leisurely pace. This result, however, is more calculated and easy-to-digest; less characteristic of the hushed inwardness of their earlier recordings. Recalling imagery of berry pastures and lush landscapes viewed from the window seat, …And Then We Saw Land is a slideshow cyclorama of sonic multicolor—a frontrunner as this year’s Cannibal Sea.

Don't Look Down or Back - Tunng

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Nice Nice - Extra Wow

Nice Nice
Extra Wow
(Warp)
Rating: 3.5 of 5


You want a big record? Prop the door wide open to acid post-rock band, Nice Nice. Their latest off of Warp Records is uncurbed, gutty, and loud. Donning aggregate amounts of garage-y guitars, piquant chimes, swirling synths, and agitating rhythms; Extra Wow jumps right in your face from its genesis.

The Portland duo is high on compression. The first two table-setters establish the bar for the prerequesite tolerance needed to combat the turgid bombast to ensue. “One Hit” is one hell of a throbbing migraine from which to recover, and you might not get the chance with the sweltering clutter the next two clips to follow.

From the wilding whorl of “Everything Falling Apart” to the feel-good hobble of “Big Bounce” to the nu-gaze bumper “A Vibration”, there is so much ground to cover. The disturbing beginning of “A Little Love” recalls the contorted terror of the costume ball scenes in Eyes Wide Shut before reinventing into a churchy disco. “See Waves” makes good of a quirky melody, fitting neatly like a peg in a hole for an Animal Collective tribute. As if to the pulse of a sonic strobe light show, you have to dizzily feel your way through the maze that is this record.

Possibly the most pop-accessible song on Extra Wow, “Make It Gold” is a blinding stare into the sun, with hot-white glints pinching at each strained nerve. When they’re not clamoring about in flailing fits, the drums hold steadfast. You’ve got the tribal boil of “Double Head” for getting in your rain dance. It’s almost time to uncap that bottle of acetaminophen—all the way up until the last two tracks. “New Cascade” shimmers like a groggy ‘morning song’; a slow reawakening from the bender of the previous forty minutes. Lastly, “It’s Here” builds to a crescendo for the first 2:15 and then lazily trickles away.

Extra Wow will surely sit in the pit of your stomach after a once-over. Maybe a little too freak-out busy for you MGMT fans out there, but Nice Nice can keep it cheeky and muster out some heady grooves.

See Waves - Nice Nice

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Ken Camden - Lethargy & Repercussion

Ken Camden
Lethargy & Repercussion
(Kranky)
Rating: 3.7 of 5


Chicago experimentalist Ken Camden has been assigned roles with the Implodes Sound Quartet and Pittsburgh’s Mike Tamburo; the latter, acting as guitar contributor to the supertemporal Universal Orchestra of Pituitary Knowledge album Ghosts of Marumbey. Now acting as bellwether to his own flagship for modern classical and experimental ambient music, he recorded and re-recorded several one-take pieces and carefully selected the top qualifiers for the new Kranky release Lethargy & Repercussion.

This is not music for study. This is an engaging exploration, yet you will want to remain recumbent to digest it. The six tracks unfurl as follows.

In naïve jubilation, the fluttering arpeggios spray about on the opening tessellation “Birthday”. Every trill permeating deep within the eardrums, Lethargy is a headphone enjoyment through and through. The second exercise, “Raagani Robot”, begins down a passageway to the otherworldly featuring swells in modulation from left to right in static delay. As the track culminates, the hypnotic dance shifts the playfulness of the intro to something more convoluted before petering out. Think DOPO without vocals. The trend goes: everything is to play out before seven or eight minutes expire.

The metallic cicada-song of “In Your Ears” bounces channels with just enough basal communication to resonate an uncannily warm feeling of microcosmic isolation before invoking the Eastern spirits of “Raga”. The adaptive bourdon of the tanpura (used in several of these compositions) bolsters the midrange of the equalization in these mixes. More pedal-work through guitar mutterings persist as “New Space” opens up and ultimately sublimates.

Final vision “Jupiter” (the only inclusion to benefit from overdubbing) drones and wavers in illuminating epiphany. The sound of blinding light, God, paranoia, space travel, the afterlife; whatever the intent—Camden’s expressions are limitless. The melodic modes are still seventy-five hundred miles east, but the intended destination is extraterrestrial.

In Your Ears - Ken Camden

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Strand of Oaks - Leave Ruin

Strand of Oaks
Leave Ruin
(La Société Expéditionnaire)
Rating: 4.4 of 5


La Société Expéditionnaire just continues to take great chances, and as a result, we’ve all been rewarded with some beautiful, contemplative avant folk records. The label, established in 2006 by Lewis & Clarke’s Lou Rogai, offers a few more titles each and every year—including this bonny debut from Timothy Showalter aka Strand of Oaks.

Salvaging what he could from a fire that took his house and all his possessions; Showalter borrowed a guitar and traipsed the city streets of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, writing plaintive songs of self-vindication and mourning from hotel rooms and park benches. A failed relationship behind him, along with everything else, Showalter composed himself and released the Pyrrhic victory Leave Ruin. What we have here are the doleful expressions and candid retellings of a man who enduringly suffered; having lost so many things in his world, both tangible and intangible.

Heart-stricken and carnal confessions, such as “New Paris” or “Sister Evangeline”, capture the sense of torment Showalter has undergone, punctuated by vulnerable guitars and subtle piano touches. “Two Kids” is a short revealing tale of humble petition—performed on a lone guitar apposed by banjo. A gentle Hammond organ keeps “Mourning Worker” nice and calm amid twangy electric guitar phrasings. “End In Flames” and the record-titled last selection, two of the tenderer ballads volunteered for the album, stand tall as bookends on both sides.

Intimately effusive at times, but all the while serving to convey the palpable emotion, Leave Ruin remains irrefutably genuine—a stirring exorcism from the deepest chambers of the heart.

End In Flames - Strand of Oaks

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Luther Russell - Motorbike EP

Luther Russell
Motorbike
(Wool Recordings/Ungawa)
Rating: 2.4 of 5


Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Luther Russell has been running it up the flagpole for over a decade; coughing up convincing renditions of funk-rock, Americana, and acoustic folk-blues on an array of sporadic releases. You may have heard him shifting between the vocal stylings of Elvis Costello on last year’s single “Good Music” and Chris Bell, at times, heard on 2007’s Repair. Russell’s genre-twitching woolgathering continues on this precursor to the forthcoming LP, released by Wool Recordings.

You can’t help but notice the overwhelming kinship in sound to Either/Or-era Elliott Smith on the title track, “Motorbike”. Owing thanks to the wonderful quality of analog tape, it is from the hook-laden affect of this opener that the record is layed out.

The collage continues to unfold with an endearing ode to John Fahey (even in name) on the excerpt, “Dead Sun Blues”. “Et Al”, the other ditty here, is a tad more intriguing. It starts off with a haunting piano line, but then strums sweetly with some added on-melody murmuring.

The secondmost-realized composition on Motorbike is the poppy “Tomorrow’s Papers” with its chiming Teenage Fanclub drive. The shakedown blues of “A World Unknown” features a simple marriage of drums and slide guitar. While it is a fun little get-up, the song slouches and drags in its continuance. Actually, many of the tracks here reach a plateau in design. Album closer “Somehow or Another”, for example, has Russell exercising a completely different vocalization. His ruminations, however, pan out annoyingly—suffering from the usual lack of anything going on, lyrically.

In short, Russell could have done more to fortify the eponymic first selection on this EP. He has surely hoisted another colorful banner, but the salutes may not come his way.

Motorbike - Luther Russell

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