Today's Hotness: Collection Agency, Montag, Dananananaykroyd

>> Timothy Bracy's Collection Agency, the vehicle of the eponymous former Mendoza Line co-fronter, now apparently goes by the more succinct moniker Collection Agency. The outfit tends a MySpace dojo right here, where you can stream one folksy, rough demo titled "Doug Yule" along with a cross-section of various standout Mendoza Line cuts. Collection Agency purports to count among its number various of the Mendoza Line cohort including Clint Newman, John Troutman, Elizabeth Nelson and mustachioed fan-favorite Paul Deppler, as well as the heretofore unknown-to-us Beth Wawerna -- who fronts the very good Bird Of Youth, which features Mssrs. Bracy and Newman in supporting roles -- and Federico Bortoletto (sadly, no Clark Wallace). The aforementioned MySpace outpost promises a Collection Agency record will surface in 2009, which is welcome news. A Bird Of Youth record produced by Okkervil River's Will Sheff is also apparently in the offing, and about which we are now very excited. Speaking of Mendoza Line, only last summer did we finally get our hands on the excellent and out-of-print collection I Like You When You're Not Around. Pay just about any price necessary to obtain this. Here's one of several standout tracks.

Mendoza Line -- "(We'll Never Make) The Final Reel" -- I Like You When You're Not Around
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[buy in-print Mendoza Line titles from Newbury Comics here]

>> Another holdover from the late, great 2008: electronic music purveyor Montag -- also known as the newly Montreal-based Antoine Bedard -- has just released the EP Hibernation, which features six instrumental, somnolent head-nodders and one track ("La Symetrie Du Coeur") sung in French. The icy and pulsing "Labrador (Encore)" sounds like the soundtrack to a solitary walk in the snow. The physical manifestation of Hibernation is available in a limited edition of 150 handmade discs (presumably it is the packaging and label that are handmade). Carpark previously released Montag's full-length Going Places in 2007, which included the very catchy bleepers "Best Boy Electric" and the title track. Bedard hopes to release a new long-player before the year is out. Recently he has kept busy remixing tunes for indie acts Au Revoir Simone, M83, I'm From Barcelona and others.

Montag -- "Labrador (Encore)" -- Hibernation EP
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[purchase Hibernation at The Blue House right here]

>> Although its hotly tipped full-length debut Hey Everybody! won't be in U.K. stores for months (the band says the new record "makes Sissy Hits sound like really boring crap or Keane"), Glaswegian fight-pop septet Dananananaykroyd is already pondering a follow-up. According to the band's 2008 recap at its blog here, the groop claims (half-claims?) to have begun writing new material for a set tentatively titled Creep. It reads like a joke, so perhaps it is. But either way, it is bracing to see that Los Campesinos!' two-fer in 2008 might be a harbinger of more bands breaking away from a no-more-than-one-album-a-year pace. Yeah. Dananananaykroyd embark on a month-long tour of the U.K. and Europe with Kaiser Chiefs Jan. 19.

Today's Hotness: Say Hi, Wendyfix, Gang Of Four, Meneguar

>> Songwriter and hopeless romantic Eric Elbogen returns this month with his fifth record under the Say Hi To Your Mom moniker. Well, sort of... as we reported here last August, the band has truncated its name to the breezier Say Hi to correspond with the issue of the new set The Wishes And The Glitch Tuesday on the Euphobia label. Ever since the release of the sophomore set Numbers & Mumbles Say Hi could be counted on for one undeniable indie anthem. In 2004 that track was the minorly ubiquitous yearner "Let's Talk About Spaceships." In 2008, it's "Zero To Love." We admit some small concern that Elbogen might not keep his streak of undeniable tracks alive with The Wishes And The Glitch, because the first preview track floated, "Northwestern Girls," was certainly good but seemed to fall slightly shy of great. Well fear not, for the punchy, unsteady and hand-clap-arific "Zero To Love" leaves no doubt. Every time Elbogen sings "this new heart of mine" the whole room seems to bend, and we are surprised to detect for the first time a hint of Morrissey's peanut butter in Mr. Elbogen's chocolate. The Wishes And The Glitch is the first record Say Hi has released since moving from long-time home Brooklyn to Seattle, and the move seems to have facilitated the notable vocal contributions of David Bazan and The Long Winters' John Roderick on the record. Say Hi begins an extensive, six-week North American tour Feb. 16. The band plays Great Scott in Boston March 1, and we'll review the show, schedule-permitting.

Say Hi -- "Zero To Love" -- The Wishes And The Glitch
Say Hi To Your Mom -- "Let's Talk About Spaceships" -- Numbers & Mumbles
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[buy Say Hi records directly from the band here]

>> We've been getting an unusually great number of search hits recently for underfamed, Evanston, Ill.-based '90s indie rock trio Wendyfix, and we thought such interest presented a good opportunity to post the songs from the band's sole single. "Slow" b/w "Silence" was the maiden release of the Spade Kitty label, and it streeted in 1995. The band was fronted by Haywood's Ted Pauly, who we write about here often (and who, incidentally, is also a proponent of Say Hi), and Brian McGrath, who we'd certainly like to write about more; McGrath's (presumably most recent) project Mantissa released a very nice full-length in 2003 [review here] and we've heard nothing from him since. Anyway, Mr. Pauly sings the single's A-side, an urgently sad confessional ("OK, this one's for your birthday, I was wrong...") that bristles with hooks. McGrath's monolithic "Silence" on the flip gradually builds to a cathartic climax during which mostly inaudible vocals finally break through the guitar fuzz. Both songs are posted below. A quick search of the Internets reveals that Spade Kitty continues to conduct business and even launched a new web site a couple years ago. Mr. Pauly, as regular readers know, continues to churn out high-quality music as a solo artist. We failed to mentioned Wendyfix drummer Todd Hyman, who continues to operate labels including the wonderfully eclectic Carpark (Beach House, Ecstatic Sunshine, Montag). There is a very good profile of Carpark and Mr. Hyman here at Terrorbird.

Wendyfix -- "Slow" -- "Slow" b/w "Silence" [SK-001]
Wendyfix -- "Silence" -- "Slow" b/w "Silence" [SK-001]
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[the newest iteration of the Spade Kitty site doesn't sell this. Try Ebay?]

>> There's an interesting fact buried in this Billboard story about reborn post-punk legends Gang Of Four's efforts at creating its first new music in 15 years. Four paragraphs down the piece imparts that original Gang Of Four drummer Hugo Burnham -- who we believe has taught in Boston for many years -- is not involved in tracking for the recording sessions due to an undisclosed health issue. Bassist Dave Allen tells Billboard "Hugo's still involved in some ways, but it's a very personal issue that will be discussed at a later date." Allen has been regularly releasing demo songs via his blog Pampelmoose, and we must admit not noticing any change in drumming. Despite releasing the re-envisioned hits collection of sorts Return The Gift on V2 in 2005 [buy it here for $9], Gang Of Four is currently without a label deal. The band plans to experiment with different distribution ideas, telling Billboard "[w]e might be releasing the first single or four songs for free on the Internet, or on vinyl, or both, and just see what the marketplace is like."

>> We're grateful to blog Raven Sings The Blues for sussing out here what exactly is up with the new Meneguar song "Some Other Life," and the FuckItTapes releases. We're still not clear on is whether the Tone Banks releases were the recordings the band said last year would be released as one-sided 12" on Woodsist. But either way, there's new music, it sounds great, and that excites us. We'd seen the song and visited the FuckIt site a week or two ago, but we couldn't dig up anything definitive about what is going on. We're also not sure whether the new Meneguar tune "Fields Of Gaffney," also available at the band's MySpace drive-thru, is an actual cover of a song by the eccentric two-time bassist of Sebadoh whose solo project had the same name, or if it is an homage of sorts. Either way, it is one of the most interesting Meneguar recordings ever. The biggest question is, will there be a proper vinyl or CD issue of these new tracks? Meneguar's Strangers In Our House topped our list of favorite records of 2007, which you can review here. Finally, the Brooklyn-based quartet has two live dates on the books for March, one in its hometown and the other at the fabled Terrace Club at Princeton University. Hit the MySpace link supra for more info.

That Which Is Good: Stand-Out Stuff Found In Our Inbox

>> Super Collider's Cristian Vogel has formed a new band called Night Of The Brain, and the quartet will release its 10-song debut Wear This World Out, written and recorded in Barcelona, Tuesday. The teaser MP3 "The Theme" is very strong, a dreamy tune driven by a thumping bass line and draped with various computer-crafted textures. "The Theme" succeeds by remaining true to a hard-to-name but unsettled mood for four-and-a-half minutes, even as bassist Mike Hermann takes a bit of an odd solo or as drummer Cristobal Massis begins more urgently beating his crash cymbal at the song's close. Check it out.

Night Of The Brain -- "The Theme" -- Wear This World Out
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[buy Wear This World Out from Kompakt-MP3 here, eventually]

>> We dug very much Foundry Field Recordings 2006 set Prompts/Miscues, particularly the wistful strummer "Buried Beneath The Winter Frames," so we were excited to see news of the band's next record. The Columbia, MO-based quartet's new EP Fallout Stations is termed a "companion piece" to Prompts/Miscues and includes both new tracks and rarities all relative to the concept of the 2006 collection (which we recall as being a Cold War/robots are going to get us kind of thing, although honestly it's been months since we've listened to it). Anyway, "Transistor Kids" is the preview track from Fallout Stations. It commences slowly with a long piano introduction, then snaps to attention with a beat, guitars and vocals that indeed make the track sound part and parcel of the earlier record. Fallout Stations streets Tuesday on Emergency Umbrella and the band plans to tour widely in July and August.

Foundry Field Recordings -- "Transistor Kids" -- Fallout Stations
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[buy Fallout Stations for Newbury Comics here]

>> This album stream of the self-titled debut from Austin-based quintet Peel may be the nicest surprise of our spelunking trip into our virtual mail bin. It's dense and melodic and distorted and loud and has buried vocals and it sounds like 100 different hungry indie bands from 1994, cut with a healthy dose of millennial digital trickery. Wow, glancing at their press, that's pretty much what The Onion said about them, too. Anyway, people seem to want to call these guys post-Pavement, which we suppose is passable, but we'd argue that Peel offers more of a garagey Monkees-ish melodicism and Flaming Lips-esque thrash. And then later in the record they toss in a little AM Gold stuff as well. Peel isn't actually too far removed from excellent Oklahoma-based trio Evangelicals, now that we think about it. You would do well to check out the Peel below. The band goes on tour for a couple weeks beginning June 8, and given how solid their album is we think it's worth heading out to see them, so we're posting the dates, too. Alas, there's no Boston date, but this isn't all about us, is it? Peel's Peel was released on Peek-A-Boo April 2, and shouldn't be confused with the also excellent Coctails record Peel.

Peel -- "Oxford" -- Peel
Peel -- "In The City" -- Peel
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[buy Peel from Newbury Comics here]

06/08 -- Denton, TX -- Hailey’s
06/09 -- Shreveport, LA -- Jackrabbit Lounge
06/10 -- Mobile, AL -- Cell Block
06/11 -- Birmingham, AL -- The Nick
06/12 -- Atlanta, GA -- Smith's Olde Bar
06/13 -- Wilmington, NC -- Bella Festa
06/14 -- Washington, DC -- The Black and the Red
06/15 -- Brooklyn, NY -- The Battering Room
06/16 -- New York, NY -- Piano's
06/17 -- New York, NY -- Piano's
06/20 -- Fort Wayne, IN -- The Firehouse
06/21 -- Chicago, IL -- The Darkroom

>> We liked very much this video preview of the forthcoming Montag set Going Places, which Carpark releases Tuesday. The video was apparently created in conjunction with Secret Mommy mastermind Andrew Dixon; longtime readers may recall we greatly enjoyed sampletronica project Secret Mommy's collection Very Rec and wrote about it here for Junkmedia a couple years ago. Going Places is Montrealer (or Vancouverite, depending on which sentence of his bio you believe) Antoine Bédard's third Montag record, and the collection contains input from notable indie luminaries including M83 and Amy Millan, among others. Bédard's blend of pastich and electropop is very enjoyable. The title track from the his new set is a romantic yearner that reminds us of a contemporary take on Yaz. "Best Boy Electric" is more upbeat, even jubilant, as if the narrator from "Going Places" has finally secured the reassurances he longs for so badly from the object of his affection. Again, the track sounds like Yaz or early, more innocent Depeche Mode.

Montag -- "Going Places" -- Going Places
Montag -- "Best Boy Electric" -- Going Places
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[buy Going Places from Newbury Comics here]